Hidden surprises in Windows XP

Hidden surprises in Windows XP
Yatish Suvarna TNN
Regular office drudgery can get killing without office pranks. Here are three cheats that will help you brag about your extraordinary prowess with XP games to your colleagues, thanks to the Easter eggs hidden within them. Easter eggs simply refer to a hidden feature or tid bits of information within a software. They consist of tiny games, messages, sounds or even images and can be unlocked with simple key combinations or commands. Want to win a game of Solitaire with tapping on just three keys on your keyboard? While no one’s looking, simply jab the magic combination ‘Alt + Shift + 2’ and whoosh! All your cards will obediently go in their appropriate places. Chanting a little mumbo-jumbo as mantra will create the right effect. If it’s FreeCell that you plan to work on, then switch to using ‘Ctrl + Shift + F10’ immediately after you start the game. You’ll get a box that gives you three options: Abort, Retry or Ignore. Simply click on ‘Abort’ and move any card to win. Pinball in another fun game in Windows XP. To get extra balls type 1max at the start of a new game. Better still, to increase your ranking without even playing the game, simply type ‘rmax’ at the beginning of a new game to go up in ranks. Windows XP has a secret application that lets you create and edit fonts. To access it, go to ‘Start > Run’ and type ‘eudcedit’. This will open an application called ‘Private Character Editor’. The beta version of Microsoft Office 2007 has this interesting egg; Open Word and create a blank document. Now type =rand(200,99) anywhere and watch as 556 pages get filled with text on help about inserting tabs and lots more.

Times of India 08 Dec 2006 Bangalore

How to extend your cellphone’s battery life?

How to extend your cellphone’s battery life?

Your phone is running out of juice and you are not in a position to charge it? Here’s what to do The new feature-rich cellphones of today consume a lot of battery. One way to conserve your phone’s battery life is by disabling any animated background wallpaper or screensaver. Reducing the ring tone volume and disabling vibration mode also helps to a great extent.

Getting around chatting restrictions

Are Yahoo! Messenger and MSN not allowed on your work computer? Here’s a workaround
Don’t fret, there are ways to quickly get around this. In fact, you don't even need programs to be installed on the machine.

Simply log on to www.ebuddy.com.

eBuddy will let you sign into MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ and a few other chat clients that will load in your browser itself. You can chat away from here.

Reset your PDA if it goes dead!

If your PDA device does not start or if it goes blank for no reasons, then try this:

On the back of your PDA there will be a button – tiny one – provided to hard reset (hot boot) your device. Gently press it with a pointed tool or stylus and watch your PDA come back to life.

This work for most of the cases.

Bluetooth enabled Cars

From an automotive perspective, Bluetooth offers the ability to utilize your personal cell phone through an in-car system. Cars like the Chrysler 300C, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Saab 9-3, Toyota Prius and others offer Bluetooth as a factory-installed feature. Other automakers that currently offer Bluetooth capabilities include Acura, Audi, BMW, Bentley, Cadillac, Dodge, Ferrari, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus Maybach, Mitsubishi, and Nissan. What makes Bluetooth so appealing (in addition to ease of use) is its relatively low cost. For example, Chrysler's system is called UConnect; the option costs about $290 and consists of a Bluetooth receiver (mounted out of sight), a microphone and a small control pad mounted to the dash.

Aftermarket kits are also available if you're not in the market for a new car. A company called Parrot makes several adapter kits as does Motorola and others. The kits are very affordable with prices starting well below $200.


Bluetooth Worldwide

Motorola and Italian helmet maker Momo have developed a Bluetooth helmet that has an integrated speaker and microphone. It has the ability to make and receive phone calls.

This BMW motorcycle helmet uses Bluetooth technology to allow a rider to make and receive phone calls without having to hold a phone. (Photo courtesy of BMW North America, Inc.)

Wristwatch maker Fossil’s Bluetooth watch ($250) has a caller ID.

France Telecom’s Bluetooth-compatible LED screen fits into clothing and displays text, drawings and animations sent by multimedia messaging service (MMS).

With Motorola and Oakley’s RAZRWIRE Bluetooth eyewear ($300), you can listen to a Bluetooth MP3 player or carry on phone conversations while up to 30 feet away from your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone.

OTM Technologies’ VPen is a Bluetooth pen with which you can write anywhere.

You can even control your Roomba vacuum cleaners ($129.99) with this technology.

Delete stored e-mail addresses

Outlook now remembers and stores the e-mail addresses you type in the From, To, Cc, and Bcc boxes. When you begin entering an e-mail address that you typed previously, Outlook automatically recognizes it and completes the address for you. To accept a suggestion, all you have to do is press the ENTER key.

Sometimes you may not want an e-mail address to appear repeatedly. In that case, it's easy to delete it from the suggestions list.

To delete stored e-mail addresses from the drop-down box

Use the arrow keys to select the e-mail address you want to delete, and then press
DELETE.


Applies to
Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003

Microsoft Outlook® 2002

Digital Secretary

Get a smart Digital Secretary

Did you know the average busy professional has 3 different places where they list their own to-dos and goals, plus one more – email – to coordinate it with others? This includes things like sticky notes, Excel sheets, text editors, to-do utilities, paper, emails to ourselves, calendars, whiteboards, etc. It’s a broken, complicated mess for most people because no single system does the job right. From lists and PostIt Notes to Sidekick and other personal information managers, nothing has proved effective enough to become habit. That's about to change

It is time to get your Smart Digital Secretary.

Accomplice, PlanPlus and www.accomplice.com) is a software application that helps busy professionals like you manage your to-dos, goals, and notes, then sync them with your team. Accomplice is a simple, yet very effective, application to help you — and those you work and live with — get and stay organized.




This isn’t some trivial to-do list, and it isn’t an overweight project management suite. Accomplice has just the ingredients you really need to stay on top of your busy life, integrated into an intuitive and flexible system.

It works online and offline, integrates with Outlook and other software you already use, and syncs with your PDA. Oh, by the way, it’s free.

Websites:

• Accomplice:www.accomplice.com
• BaseCamp: www.basecamphq.com
• PlanPlus: www.franklincovey.com

Registry Defrag

Free Registry Defrag/Compact (Freeware) - Version 2.21

During the normal operation of a Windows system, registry data is constantly being written to and removed from the registry. Over time this data becomes scattered within the registry file and when information is deleted from the registry holes are left which fragment the data within the registry. Registry compacting optimizes your registry by removing gaps and wasted space, thus improves the whole system performance.

It's a freeware and completely free to use. Just enjoy it.

System Requirement: Windows XP, Vista, 2000, ME, 98, Windows 2003, Windows XP Pro x64 edition, Windows 2003 Server x64 Edition, Windows Vista x64 edition.

To Download click --> Free Registry Defrag/Compact (Freeware) - Version 2.21
Pro (Paid) version also available please visit their website at:
http://www.registry-clean.net/

Horse Sense for all of us!

Some useful tips, hints, solutions for your work, home and/or technology.