Direct Link To Any Page

I will take example of HOTMAIL..
If you are on a private computer, and don't mind auto-logging in, you will be able to access your folders much faster than going straight to hotmail.com

You will need a bit of information. Log into the hotmail main page. You will see a web address similar to the following:

http://by211.bay211.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/hmhome?fti=yes&curmbox=00000000%2d0000...


It won't be exactly the same but it will be similar.

It's time to shorten this up. The only bit of information you really need is the direct web address to the server that contains your particular account. In the above example, you would just need:

CODE
http://by211.bay211.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/


Just copy this section from your particular server addy in your browser's address bar.

Now that the explanation is over, these are the commands you can append to the above example to reach specific pages.

'hmhome' - MSN Hotmail - Today
'HoTMaiL' - Inbox
'HoTMaiL?&curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000005' - Junk E-Mail
'HoTMaiL?&curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000004' - Drafts
'HoTMaiL?&curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000003' - Sent Messages
'HoTMaiL?&curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000002' - Trash Can
'compose' - Compose Message
'addresses' - Address Book
'options' - Options, Duh
'options?section=mail' - Mail Options
'options?section=personal' - Personal Details
'protect?screen=filter' - Junkmail Filter
'options?section=contacts' - Contact Options

Remember, you just need to place these commands directly after 'http://.../cgi-bin/' without spaces.

If you have never tried this before, it works on many websites. So, if you don't like navigating websites, and would rather do that through your web-browser, go ahead and do it.

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Device Driver Basics

Most people understand that the "hardware" part of their computer is the real physical parts, like the keyboard, mouse, modem, hard drive and so on. They understand that the "software" is computer bits stored on the hard drive, CD-ROM, or other storage media. But most people are a little hazy about exactly what a "driver" is.
In this article, I'm going to reveal in plain English what a driver is, why we need drivers, and exactly where the drivers are hiding.




A hardware device is constructed with various electronic components using various control signals, but the software interface to the operating system is standardized. A device's interface to the operating system must follow the interface specification. A driver is a piece of software that translates the hardware's control signals to signals that the operating system expects, and translates signals from the operating system to the hardware's control signals.


When the computer is started up, it would look in the "system" directory for files with the extension ".drv" and load them into memory. Specific files like autoexec.bat, config.sys, and win.ini were used to inform the operating system about drivers. Hardware would be configured through these files, or through jumpers located on the device itself.

Driver Signing

Microsoft has been the brunt of much criticism because of the poor reliability of the Windows Operating System. The PC was designed by IBM as an "open" system. Anyone can sell a hardware device (or software) for the PC.

The operating system doesn't interface directly to a hardware device. There is a piece of software called a "driver" that translates the hardware's control signals to signals that the operating system expects, and translates signals from operating system to the hardware's control signals. Obviously, the hardware manufacturer provides the driver.

Because the driver works between the operating system and the hardware, a bug in the driver can cause a serious problem. Many of the problems with Windows have come from bugs in third-party drivers that Microsoft had nothing to do with. For this reason, Microsoft created a Hardware Quality Lab to test drivers. A hardware manufacturer can submit their driver for testing, and if it is passes rigorous compatibility testing, it receives Microsoft's digital signature.


You may have received a message during the installation of a hardware device warning that the driver was not signed. Why would a hardware manufacturer fail to have their driver certified by Microsoft? The computer hardware market is very competitive and the manufacturer might want to bring a new product to market before thorough testing can be completed. Or maybe they don't want to or can't afford to pay Microsoft for certification. The question is, should you click on the "Continue" button to install the unsigned driver?
In my experience, I have never been able to trace a problem to an unsigned driver. If it's your home computer and you performed a back-up recently, go ahead and install the unsigned driver. If it's a computer on a corporate network, you may want to back-out of the installation and see if you can locate a signed driver first.

To update a driver, select Start | Settings | Control Panel and double-click on the "System Properties" Utility. In the "System Properties" Utility, select the "Hardware" tab and click on the "Device Manager" button. In the "Device Manager" window, right-click on the device in the list and select "Properties" in the popup menu. In the "Properties" dialog box, select the driver tab and click on the "Update Driver..." button.

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Desktop Tools

Here are four Desktop Tools To Drastically Increase Your Productivity


Sticky Notes

With StickyNote 9.0, you can create beautiful 3D notes on your desktop or send them instantly over the Internet.
StickyNote also enables you to adhere notes to documents or windows AND to attach documents to your note.
StickyNote eliminates the clutter and confusion of keeping up with the reminders and phone numbers that never seem to be where you left them. Forget jotting down messages and let StickyNote deliver them for you. You can even customize a note's texture, color and priority with a few simple clicks, and you can set an alarm to have notes appear at a certain time or at regular intervals.




Cute Reminder

With the help of Cute Reminder software you can easily create desktop sticky notes and make reminders for an appointment, birthday, phone call, bill payment, meeting, oil change, TV show and other events or tasks. Take a pill reminder, break reminder, gift reminder, etc., and you will never miss anything important. The program automatically tracks the history of related events and stores the information into archive. Individually colored skins, support for audio files in various formats, schedule, linking files and Web pages to reminders and printing. The user-friendly interface provides comfort at your workplace whether at the office or at home.


Ideal Calendar

The IDEAL Calendar allows the user to insert an unlimited amount of occasions. The program displays a dialog and plays a sound on the selected occasions. The program runs in the system tray and contains enough options to satisfy any user. The excellent options and user-interface make this program truly ideal.
Features:
* Print calendar exactly as you see it (WYSIWYG)
* Select any image for your background (JPG/GIF/BMP)
* Share occasions over the network (Private and Public entries)
* Create multiple calendars
* Backup/Restore capabilities
* Various types of recurring events
* Plug-ins to add more features. (PDA Export/Import, HTML Calendar, etc...)

SpeedUpMyPC

SpeedUpMyPC makes it easier than ever before to optimize your settings, free up resources, and remove resource hogs. With simple explanations and real-time graphs for all vital system resources, SpeedUpMyPC identifies performance bottlenecks in minutes. With a heavy-duty arsenal of optimization tools, such as RAM recovery, CPU optimization, startup management, and automatic crash recovery, SpeedUpMyPC is THE must-have utility for both beginner and power users.

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Desktop settings for Airtel internet through Mobile Phone

Few days back I had written a post on Airtel Internet through Mobile Phone as Modem . Now I am explaining step by step procedure to setup a connection to dial-up your Mobile as modem. Let’s get into steps:

1. Goto “Start–>Control Panel”
2. Click on “Network & Internet Connections”
3. Under header “Pick a task” click on “Create a connection to the network at your workspace”.
4. Now you will get “New Connection Wizard dialog box, select “Dial-up connection” & click next.
5. Dialog will ask for “Connection Name”, give whatever you would like to. I had given “airtelgprs”.
6. It asks for “Phone Number”, enter number as “*99***1#”
7. If you want select to put a shortcut on desktop (Preferred) & finish setup.

Now you will see a shortcut saying “airtelgprs” (In my case) on desktop. Make sure you installed your phone drivers & connect your phone. Double click the icon on desktop, leave blank “User name” & “Password” fields & click “Dial”. One message will pop-up to confirm its connected. Following are few points to check if not connected:

1. Check whether modem drivers for your phone are installed. Normally this will come with your phone’s PC Suite. Installing PC Suite will install all required drivers.
2. Check whether your phone could be used as modem or not.
3. You need to activate “Mobile Office” service of Airtel to connect. Other services like “Airtel Live” & “NOP/Airtel Online” will not work for this connection.
4. If you are getting message “Modem not responded”, try restart your mobile & reconnect it.

Satisfying all above points you will sure be able to connect to internet. To know about Tariff & Usage charges read post Airtel Internet through Mobile Phone as Modem

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Design A Web Album Using Adobe Photoshop

So let's begin crunching down these 300 images using Adobe Photoshop from start to finish. When I say 'crunching', to some 300 images may seem like allot, but it's not. I have done jobs for clients that have 100,000 plus images. When you have that many images to produce there are other programs I use that are designed for this. We'll cover that another day.
To this point we have ensured that our images are web ready, cropping, retouching, watermarking, etc. So let's get at it. I will assume that we are all using Adobe Photoshop version 6 or greater.

Creating the theme

First we will go to the 'file' menu and select 'Automate" Now you are ready to create the theme of your photo album by filling in the required text fields. Remember to be as brief and descriptive as possible, as this information gets published on all html pages generated by Photoshop. This is where Photoshop is seems to offer more that Dream weaver. You will notice the first pull down menu 'styles'. There are many different horizontal and vertical styles available. The second menu allows you to enter an email address that you may want to be available to your visitors. However, I advise against it. Remember that thing called SPAM. Then next pull down menu allows you to specify .htm or .html extensions. Now we'll click the 'browse' button and locate your image source folder. Click the 'destination' folder. This folder should be located somewhere in you website folder. If you don't have one, make one. 'Options' is, again an area that Adobe seems far more thorough that Dreamweaver. The 'options' menu let's you specify every aspect of your photo album?size of small thumbnails, size of large thumbnails, add custom colors to better tie into your corporate scheme. Remember to complete the 'site name', 'photographer', textfields tactfully; this is what tells the search engine what your subject matter deals with.


Are you ready now?

Go ahead click OK. Like magic your photo album manufacturing itself. This is a great tool that can be used commercially or just for fun. Create commercial product pages for your clients or create an online photo album for family and friends in minutes.

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Dashboard Widgets For Windows

For a windows user like me, just can watch with envy the new eye candy features in Mac OS X and wondering how I can have the same feature on my beloved windows.


Before Apple introduce dashboard in their latest Mac OS X, most of mac users already can have widget on their desktop using Konfabulator by Pixoria Inc. "Konfabulator is a JavaScript runtime engine for Windows and Mac OS X that lets you run little files called Widgets that can do pretty much whatever you want them to. Widgets can be alarm clocks, calculators, can tell you your WiFi signal strength, will fetch the latest stock quotes for your preferred symbols, and even give your current local weather."

And on November 2004, Pixoria has released Konfabulator 1.8 for both Mac and Windows platform and its instantly bringing its renowned OS X-based functions (and widgets!) to the ubiquitous Windows platform. There is a small community in windows user that love to change their default Windows look to Mac OS X and with the availability of Konfabulator to run widgets, some of the talented developers has started porting Tiger Dashboard to run on windows using Konfabulator engine and the results is tremendous.


And until today, quite a number of Dashboard Widgets has being ported to run on windows using Konfabulator and other widget engine like Avedesk, Kapsules, and Stardock DesktopX.


1. Dashboard Weather
Here is my first Konfabulator Widget. After seeing a preview of Tiger (particularly Dashboard), reading about a alternative for Windows (Konfabulator) and seeing the great work of Saladin and Ghostwalker, I decided to make my own contribution. So here it is, the konfab clone of the weather widget.


2. World Clock World Clock Dashboard for Konfabulator. Based on the Konfabulator WorldClock Pro by Ricky.


3. Sticky Notes Konfabulator clone of the Dashboard stickies with extras

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Create your own run command

Win+R to open the Run dialogEnter %windir% to open the Windows directoryAlt+F W S to open the File menu, choose the New menu item, then the Shortcut menu itemGo through the wizard to create a shortcut to the desired programThe name you give the shortcut is what you type in the Run dialog to start the program

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