tech tipz 4 u

Photosynth makes virtual 3-D world with photos you upload

2008-09-20T13:58:00.004+05:30

After inclusion of 3-D view of desktop in Windows Vista, it seems that microsoft is set all the way to make things look right with another venture- Photosynth. Its the newest product of Microsoft live lab. Photosynth is a sophisticated technology that does a simple yet fascinating job. A bunch of overlapping photos can be converted into a 3-D panorama using photosynth, which results in formation of a so-called virtual world. You can move in all directions, peeping into adjacent photos while doing so. Moreover, you can zoom into or out of the photo as far as you need.

Using photosynth gives you the same feeling you get while viewing the popular 3-D maze screensaver of Windows os, but its not as irritating to the eyes like the latter as it moves according to user controls. Creation of photosynth is easy, free and automatic. All you have to do is to visit www.photosynth.com and install the necessary web browser plug-in. After installation, you can start uploading the photos. The photos retain all of their multi-megapixel resolutions which makes usage of this particular software flexible and appealing.

Bluetooth Vs. Wi-Fi

2008-08-31T20:16:00.003+05:30

Bluetooth in simple words means a method for connecting devices to a system without using cables. Wi-Fi on the other hand, is a technology which enables internet connectivity without wires. Wi-Fi is a short for m for Wireless Fidility, a term taken from the High-Fidility concept of audio simulation.

It is interesting to note that though initially designed for different purposes, both these technologies have some things in common. Some of them are:

*Both use same type of signals for transmission
*Use of cables are completely avoided

But the differences between the two seem to be more pronounced while going deeper into the subject, yet these differences are not easily understandable for a novice user. Following are some of the differences:

* While bluetooth is a methodology for connecting mainly computer peripherals or some other devices to a system, Wi-Fi proves itself to be a substitute for ethernet DSL modems connecting to the web through cables.

* Wi-Fi has comparitively wider field of operation than bluetooth.

* Due to increased no: of incidences of bluejacking (unauthorised sending of data from a person's system or mobile to an unsuspected person's device) modern bluetooth devices enable a security code for the sender's and reciever's device. But such a measure is not,so far, taken in case of Wi-Fi technology.

* Wi-Fi field of operation can be extended to several miles by overlapping of hotspots. But it's not possible in case of bluetooth technology.

Hope this piece of information is valuble to all those who were wondering about the differences between Wi-Fi and bluetooth.

what are the differences between a laptop and a notebook?

2008-06-03T10:42:00.004+05:30

Laptops and notebooks bear more resemblences than differences. The following are the main differences between the two:
* A notebook usually has 12"-14"TFT screen whereas a laptop has 14"-17" TFT screen
* A notebook possess no internal floppydrive, CD or DVD system but will allow u to attach a CD ROM drive via cable. A laptop can have an internal CD or DVD system
* Notebook has less weight and is thinner than a laptop
* Notebook is designed with minimal graphical settings but a laptop can have NVidia or ATI graphics subsystem
* Notebook has the smallest possible keyboard but a laptop has a much larger one
* Normally battery life of a notebook is 4-5 hrs but that of a laptop is 3+
* A laptop has a high quality integrated audio system which a notebook lacks.
* In addition to the integrated modem and network connections tha t a notebook possess, laptops offer Bluetooth and Wi-Fi utilities and peripherals

What are device drivers?

2008-05-28T22:13:00.003+05:30

Computer device drivers are softwares that are designed for enabling easy access of hardware by operating system. Some drivers like chipset driver, audio and video drivers/adapters, disk drivers etc are installed while the os is installed, for the smooth functioning of the same. Other drivers like those for a printer or a scanner have to be installed separately.
Drivers may vary with the operating system or its version that you are using. Most of the driver softwares are obtained alongwith the hardware. In case you possess an old version, you may probably be able to download a newer one from the manufacturer's web site.

What is Web conferencing?

2008-05-24T21:57:00.003+05:30

Web conferencing is used to conduct meetings over the net. In a web conference, each of the members sitting before his/her system is connected to others in the group through internet.Some years back, the same term was often used to describe a group discussion and was not a "live" program.Web conferences make use of ppt presentations, live video, VoIP ( that is, live communication via headphones and speakers), text chat etc, etc. Web conferencing can be either a downloaded application or a web based application where users simply type the web address ie, the url to enter the conference.
The first 100% successful computer base web conference product was StarLive by Starlight Networks in 1997. It used MPEG on intranets along with RealVideo on the internet. By 2006, web conferencing became much widely accepted concept than voice only confernces and face-to-face meetings.

Virtual keyboard

2008-05-06T20:58:00.003+05:30

A projection keyboard is a virtual keyboard that can be projected to any length and touched on any surface. The keyboard makes clicking sounds as you run your fingers over the surface they are projected, and translates them into keystrokes in the device. They can also function as a virtual mouse.
You may be wondering how that works. Well, the whole setup comprises of a laser or a beamer and a sensor( usually a camera). The laser or beamer projects the visible virtual keyboard onto a level surface. The sensor detects the finger movements.
In addition to that usually a second radiation is used ( infrared radiation) and is projected over the virtual keyboard. When the fingers pass above the so created virtual keys, the infrared radiation is reflected back onto the projector and they pass into the camera through infrared filter. The camera determines angle of incoming radiation. A sensor chip included in the system detects time when the radiation was broken. The information thus collected is used for determining the characters produced by the keystrokes.

what is registry?

2008-05-04T23:10:00.002+05:30

The registry is an important component of windows operating system. It is stored in several files depending upon the version of OS you use. These files are used to log all the changes you make to your system. The registry is altered everytime you install or uninstall a program from your system. All the changes made are stored as keys in the registry. When you start the OS, it will read and add registry settings about your hardware and software.In short, it records the relationship between hardware, memory and addressing.
Due to some problems sometimes the registry entries may not be correctly entered or there may be the so called "leftovers" of the programs you have uninstalled long ago. As a result, your computer may become slow and it may lead to decreased performance also. This problem can be solved by deleting the unwanted entries from registry through regedit. But manually removing the registry entries from regedit is a job to be done with utmost cautiousness and it is not suitable for u to do that. Instead you may make use of utility softwares like regClean, CClean, registry mechanic or so which poses no harm to your system and is of course less risky.

The tiny wonder..........

2008-04-25T21:10:00.003+05:30

Have you ever thought how ironical it would be to possess a personal computer with all the essential peripherals right from an LCD screen to a webcam to a bluray rw drive, "except a mouse"??? Sounds wierd eh? Now, please dont think of all the modern stuff like lightpen, touch screen etc.. etc... My sole purpose of asking a question like that was just to shift your attention to that tiny device which you have been using daily for working on computers. Well, speaking about the first computers ( which may seem to be my habit these days, but... never mind) they dint have a mouse and everything had to be done by inputs through keyboards.
It was the idea of Douglas Engelbart, yes of course, the same person who gave a new definition to modern computers with his brilliant and valuable contributions computer video, teleconferencing, hypermedia, groupware, email and the internet and the more. He recieved a patent for the wooden shell with two metal wheels which was nicknamed 'mouse' because of the wire coming out from one end. It was described at first as an " x-y position indicator for a display system.
Douglas Engelbart is, presently the director of his company, Bootstrap Institute in Fremont, California, which promotes the concept of Collective IQ. The best part of it is that Bootstrap is housed rent free courtesy of the Logitech Corp., a famous manufacturer of computer mice.

Pioneers in laptops

2008-04-17T21:46:00.004+05:30

The first portable computers were not like the book sized notebooks or flat laptops that we are familiar today.Grid compass, designed in 1979 by William Moggridge, for Grid Systems Corporation, is claimed to be the first light weight computers which comprised of a 340 byte bubble memory with die-cast magnesium case and folding electroluminescent graphics display screen. But the pioneer in laptop was Adam Osborne who found Osborne 1. It weighed 24 pounds and costed $1795, had a 5"screen, modem port, two 5 1/2" floppy disk drives, a battery pack and many software programs.But the product did not last for long in the market.

The brains behind the manufacturing of laptops with LCD screens were Microsoft corp.'s Kazuhiko Nishi and Bill Gates who showed their prototype to Radio Shack, and the latter manufactured TRS-80 Model 100, and a much smaller TRS Model 200 in 1986.

It was in 1988 that Compaq computers introduced their first laptops with VGA graphics.

In March 1991, Microsoft released the Microsoft BallPoint Mouse that used both mouse and trackball technology in a pointing device designed for laptop computers.

Intel and Microsoft released APM or the Advanced Power Management specification for laptop computers in 1992.

The first PDAs or Personal Digital Assistants were released in 1993. PDAs are pen-based hand-held computers.

And thus goes on the history of laptops. Nowadays, laptops contain very sophisicated facilities like face identification, fingerprint password protection, in built speakers in LCD , etc, all built in a lightweighted body. Isnt that great?

The costly laptop

2008-04-12T23:20:00.005+05:30

On March 23, 2007 Luvagilo, a US based luxury goods creator made the first million dollar laptop. Te laptop features a 17" LCD screen with anti glare coating for clear and better image, a 128 GB hard disk and a slot for loading bluray drive Moreover, there is an integrated screen cleaning device and a rare coloured detachable diamond that will act both as a power button and a security key when placed on teh laptop. The first laptop may cost about one million dollars.

Evolution of QWERTY keyboard

2008-04-08T00:06:00.005+05:30

Most of us today uses the qwerty keyboard for our pcs. Have you ever wondered why the keys are placed so? Well, the qwerty format is the direct adoption of the way letters were arranged in the typewriter by its inventor C. L. Sholes in the 1860's. In fact, many loathed his typewriter at first, even saying that the keys were misplaced purposefully by him to slow down fast typists. But there was a scientific reason behind it.

Sholes found out that arranging keys alphabetically lead to jamming and clash of the typewriter at times when they were used at a fair speed. The early typewriters had the letters on rods called typerods connected to the keys. The typebars hung in a circle and the roller onto which the paper was mounted sat over this circle. When a key was pressed, the typebar would swing and hit the paper from beneath. If two typebars used successively were near each other, then they would clash.

Sholes found out that rearranging letters, like T and H for example, in such a way that the corresponding typebars are kept at sufficient distances from each other would help solving the problem and thus came the QWERTY typewriter.

The first typewriter could type only capital letters. The problem was solved in the Remington no 2. typewriter, in which a shift key was introduced. The shift key mechanically shifted the carriages in such a way that only one letter( small letter or capital letter) would be
chosen to print from the impressions of the two made on the particular typerod. The modern keyboards do not make use of mechanical shifting, but still, shift keys are incorporated in them.

Automatic reboot in XP

2008-04-04T06:28:00.004+05:30

Sometimes, due to some reasons, your system will suddenly crash down. This often happens due to great amount of CPU usage by some programs. The following registry edit will cause your system to reboot itself automatically upon crashing. This can be useful if you have a reason for keeping your system on 24/7:
Open REGEDIT
Navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl'
Edit the 'AutoReboot' value to '1'

XP tricks

2008-04-04T06:26:00.002+05:30

Renaming The Recycle Bin icon:To change the name of the Recycle Bin desktop icon, click Start then goto Run, write Regedit and press Enter. It opens Registry Editor. Now in Registry Editor go to:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}and change the name "Recycle Bin" to whatever you want (don't type any quotes).

What is Aspect oriented programming?

2008-03-30T11:50:00.001+05:30

Aspect oriented programming is a type of programming paradigm where the software developers attempt to do separation of concerns particularly, cross cutting concerns. All programming methodologies support some type of separation and encapsulation of data into single entities. But some others dont support these forms of encapsulation,and for the same reason, they are called crosscutting concerns.
Some code may be scattered in the run making it harder to understand the program and maintain. Modules end up tangled with multiple concerns. So changing one module requires understanding the motive of each of the module used in the particular program, which is often time consuming as well as too difficult.
AOP solves this problems by allowing the programmer to express such crosscutting concerns to be expressed as aspects, which can contain advice as well as inter-type declarations.AOP combines the goodness of objec oriented programming and computational reflection.But widespread adoption of Aspect oriented programming paradigm is restricted by lack of tools and widespread education on the topic.

What are ActiveX controls?

2008-03-23T23:15:00.001+05:30

An activeX control is a reusable component which provide a building block that can be used by different softwares. They can be compared to java Applets in the sense that both of them act as an abstraction layer between the developer and the operating system. But the differences lie in the facts that while java applets can run in any platform, ActiveX components are compatible only with microsoft OS and browser. Due to the higher command of ActiveX over windows, they are sometimes very dangerous. As a result, malwares and other computer viruses finds it an easy way to attack a system, distributing themselves through the net as ActiveX applets.

What Are Active Server Pages?

2008-03-20T15:05:00.002+05:30

Active Server Pages (ASPs) are Web pages that contain server-side scripts in addition to the mixture of text and HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) tags. Server-side scripts arespecial commands you put in Web pages that are processed before the pages are sent fromyour Personal Web Server to the Web browser of someone who's visiting your Web site. .When you type a URL in the Address box or click a link on a Web page, you're asking a Webserver on a computer somewhere to send a file to the Web browser on your computer. If that file is a normal HTML file, it looks exactly the same whenyour Web browser receives it as it did before the Web server sent it. After receiving the file,your Web browser displays its contents as a combination of text, images, and sounds.In the case of an Active Server Page, the process is similar, except there's an extra processingstep that takes place just before the Web server sends the file. Before the Web server sendsthe Active Server Page to the Web browser, it runs all server-side scripts contained in thepage.The difference comes in the extension given to the pages. The Active server pages are given the extension .asp. Active server pages provide additional features for example, displaying time, date and other information in different ways that makes your site more attractive.