dx-xel

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Windows XP - Close or stop unwanted services

If you are a single user of a non-networked machine, this tips might be useful for you. By disabling the unneeded services, your Windows XP should be running faster than before. Yea..it will increase your system performance. What I'm talking about is everything on your Windows XP Services.

To open up your Windows Services, simply go to Windows Run (Windows + R) type services.msc and press ENTER. You should have something like below:-

Ok, now for the interesting part. No worries, there are no ill effects or something that will crash your system when you disabling the following items. To stop the service, right click on the selected item > Stop.

Check out these lists:-

Alerter
Clipbook
Computer Browser
Fast User Switching
Human Interface Access Devices
Indexing Service (Slows the hard drive down)
Messenger
Net Logon (unnecessary unless networked on a Domain)
Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
Server
SSDP Discovery Service (this is for the utterly pointless "Universal P'n'P", & leaves TCP Port 5000 wide open)
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Telnet (disabled for extra security)
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Upload Manager
Windows Time
Wireless Zero Configuration (for wireless networks)
Workstation

Yeahh..what do you think about that? I really hope this information was useful for you guys (for me too). If you have encountered any problem, feel free to reset your Windows Service to default setting. Well then, that's all for today!!

Further reading: Turn Off Unnecessary Windows XP Services by Jasonn

Credits: FreePCTech

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Blogger - Add favicon image

Ok..a quick blogger tips for today. It was really easy to apply a favicon image to your blog. Don't ask me what the heck is favicon. It was a small .ico image that displayed on your browser address bar and also on your tab bar. The standard size(dimension) for favicon image are 16 x 16 and 32 x 32.

Ok, follow these simple steps:-

Step 1

Create or design your own favicon image using Adobe Photoshop or any other photo editing software. You can use your own photo instead. Save that file as .gif, .jpg or .bmp.

Note: I was designed my own favicon image (image above) in 100 x 100 resolution.

Step 2

Convert your image into .ico extension. Simply go to either these 2 websites:-

Step 3

Ok, by now you should have your own favicon image with .ico extension. Name it as myfavico.ico or anything.ico. Upload your favicon file into a free image hosting service such as ImageShack.us. Or you can just simply upload your favicon image into Google Pages. Get the URL of your favicon image. (e.g: http://mygpages.googlepages.com/myfavico.ico)

Step 4

Go to your Blogger Template > Edit HTML. Copy these code and paste it between the <head> </head> tag

<link href='http://mygpages.googlepages.com/myfavico.ico' rel='shortcut icon'/>

Note: Please change the http://mygpages.googlepages.com/myfavico.ico based on your own URL in Step 3.

Step 5

Save your template and done. Refresh your browser (F5). By now, your favicon should be appear at the address bar.

Ok, that's all for today. Yeahhh!!!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Gspace - Turns your Gmail account into free online storage

Yeahh...the title says it all. Gspace is another great Firefox extension. This extension allows you to use your Gmail space for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system.

I have installed this extension and try to upload some image and it was really cool. It has a simple user friendly interface, make it easy to use. I highly recommend you to create a new Gmail account if you really want to use this extension. Yea..you can mix the uploaded files with other email messages, but it is much more better if you have a specific account for it.

The best thing about this extension is, you can manage a multiple Gmail account in the same interface and its more looks like..hmm..lets see..a "multiple mini online hard disk". Maybe you'd like to create a new account and just use it for your college/assignment stuff and other is for your personal stuff. And of course, you can download that file anytime, anywhere.

Other than that, I also recommend you to use the portable Firefox. It will store any installed extensions in Firefox with you wherever you go. Pretty handy.

I still never know the maximum file size that can be uploaded. As far as I know, Gmail can handle an upload file up to 20MB per message. Please tell me if you have any experience of using this extension.

Usage:

Do not upload/download many files in a single day. You may get your account blocked for 24 houres. It seems this happens if more that 1GB of data is transferred in a single day.
The best thing is to upload files and folders that are NOT critical. Anyway, since file is available as an attachment on an e-mail, they will always be available through the Gmail interface, and they should be as safe as your e-mails.

Feel free to install the Gspace.

That's all for today!!!

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Download dX-2XP (Wallpaper)

[ Download | 1024x768 ]

It's just a simple Win XP wallpaper anyway. I've applied the 3D and the gradient effect to create this wallpaper. Feel free to download if you like it.

Everything was designed and created using Adobe Illustrator.

Check out the details:-

Name: dX-2XP
Type: Wallpaper
Dimensions: 1024 x 768
Theme: Windows XP
File size: 134 KB
Date created: Sept 08, 07
Software: Adobe Illustrator
Color: Black, White
Background Color:

HEX: #000000
RGB: 0, 0, 0

Extract the file using WinRAR.

That's all for today!!

Friday, September 7, 2007

Illustrator Tutorial - Pen tool tips (video & links)

Hmm..a lot of you guys has come to my blog when you are searching on Illustrator Pen Tool tips via Google. Yea..of course you'll landing on my Illustrator pen tool's tutorial page, but somehow, I think that the guideline on that tutorial was not enough.

I have googling somewhere and have found 2 links for you to practice the Pen Tool. It is a very basic tutorial and very useful for a beginner (like me..hehe). Ok, check out these tutorials:-

1. Basic Drawing with Adobe Illustrator's Paths & Pen tool by Kevin Hulsey

In this tutorial, he will teach you a basic lesson in the use of the Illustrator Pen tool and it's ability to create shapes and curves. Other than that, he will tell you a basic usage of every elements in Pen Tool including the "Plus" pen tool, "Minus" pen tool, stroke, fill and so on. At the end of this tutorial, you should know on how to draw a Bézier curve.

2. Illustrator: The Pen Tool by Toni Toland (video)

This tutorial is the most recommended Illustrator pen tool tutorial from me. You will learn every single function on a Pen Tool on just a few minutes. Yea..just a minutes. He will teach you on how to draw a curve, corner, corner + curve and reverse curve.

Beside that, you will know on how to add, delete and convert the anchor points in the image that you have just created. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to understand each function in the Pen Tool and draw a perfect curve.

However, you need a high speed internet connection to view this page. All the videos was totally embedded into that page and really take a lot times to load.

Updates:

[01/19/08]
I just found this great Illustrator pen tool tutorial video from Youtube. Let's practice!

I think that's all for now. Remember, practice make perfect. The Illustrator Pen Tool knowledge and skills will become very important when you want to trace some photo. Maybe next time I will discuss about it.

Yeahh!!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Spybot Search & Destroy - Free antispyware tool

Spybot Search & Destroy (S&D) is a great antispyware program. Why? Of course, it's totally free but it's not only about that. Spybot S&D is a wonderful tool to find and get rid of the spyware, adware and other dangerous stuffs in your system. This software was developed by PepiMK Software.

Let's see its technical details:-

Title: Spybot Search and Destroy
Latest Version: 1.5.1
Filename: spybotsd15.exe
File size: 7.12MB (7,467,056 bytes)
Requirements: Windows (All Versions)
License: Freeware
Latest Updated: September 4, 2007
Author: PepiMK Software

As you can see, it's just updated a few days ago. The other great thing about this software is, it can run a system scans effectively and faster. Besides, Spybot S&D implements powerful real-time protection that blocks malicious ActiveX scripts and keeps unsolicited software off the system. With a simple and user-friendly interface, I think, it was really handy and easy to use this software.

Hmm..I think that's all I wanna say this time. Just download, install and use it. It's really a recommended software from me. Feel free to download Spybot S&D.

If you are still new or not very familiar with this software, just follow the tutorial on how to install and use the Spybot S&D on 2-Spyware.com website.

Other than that, maybe you'd like to see a comparison between the Spybot S&D and other antispyware programs.

See also a review at Download.com website.

That's all for today!

Credits: FileHippo

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

ExtremeTech Case Mod Contest 2007

Alright..this is great. The ExtremeTech Case Mode Contest 2007. By the way, the contest has already ended and the winner was already decided. The contest was started from July 16 and has been end on August 12, 2007.

I don't want to talk too much about this contest. I just want to share some of the coolest pictures from that website.

Check out these links:-

Don Soules's Atlas Mech Mod (Winner for this year & week 4)
Alex Wiley's Digg PC
John Mangus's Optimus Prime PC Mod (Winner for week 3)
Brian Carter's Mystique Mod
Kevin Core's Batmobile PC Mod

It was really cool, isn't it? Maybe someday I'd like to mod my own cpu case. Hehe.. It's was a great things to do. Ok, that's all for today!

See also the winner for week one, week two and the other contestants.

Updates: I've removed all images in this post. ExtremeTech does not allow to reproduce and display their copyrighted content.

Credits: Digg, ExtremeTech

Monday, September 3, 2007

Google Hacks - Hacks or cracks?

Maybe some of you already know about this software. Ok, I copy/paste it directly from their website. Take a look of this release note:-

"Google Hacks is a compilation of carefully crafted Google searches that expose novel functionality from Google's search and map services. For example, you can use it to view a timeline of your search results, view a map, search for music, search for books, and perform many other specific kinds of searches. You can also use this program to use google as a proxy."

Hmm..in my opinion, the purpose of developing this software is to protect your web server from the attackers that use search engines as a hacking tool against your resources or data.

Well, I have nothing to worry right now because I don't have my own website/server. I don't know about you guys out there. I've installed this software (image above) and try to search some file, and the results was awesome. Awesome? Yeahh..because a lot of webmasters out there didn't protect their files on their server. I can easily access the root folder (index of / "parent directory") and download some "interesting stuffs". Hehe.. Besides, some of them was just shared their folder on purpose.

By the way, I've a few tips to share in order to protect you root file or folder. It's just a common way to protect your server. The .htaccess file.

I've googling somewhere and found this tutorials. It might be useful for you to protect your web directories.

Check out these websites:-

Another alternative that you can use is by using The "Google Hack" Honeypot.

I think that's all for today. Feel free to download the Google Hacks.

Note: Please do not use this program for illegal uses.

Update: Other similar services are Google to person and Googaal.

Credits: Raymond.CC

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Blogger - Adding Google sitemap

Hmm..actually, this post will only redirect you to a great blogger tips by Peter Chen. He will guide you step-by-step on how to add Google sitemap to your blog.

Feel free to read this tips.

The important point I've got through that tutorial was for the new blogger, you have to insert http://BLOGNAME.blogspot.com/atom.xml if they ask for Sitemap URL.

Note: Change the BLOGNAME to your own blog name.

Besides, maybe you'd like to see the Google Sitemap page.

Further reading: What is a sitemap file?