Category: Tips

Categories
Tips

Get Twitter Updates of Specific User by SMS!

twitter logo There are a lot many ways by which you can send tweet messages via your phone using short messaging service. To list out some such service – Twitter officially has one such feature, except that, Vakow has such support for Indian users. But what if you want to receive updates by a specific twitter user via SMS?

Many a times, you might have missed out update by a specific person you always wanted to check. For example I always love to follow our Admin – Rahul’s tweets and have subscribed to his twitter tweets via SMS. There’s no big deal in this, its a simple trick and may help you in a great way. For this, you just need to know the RSS feed URL of the twitter user and then subscribe to get RSS feeds via SMS which we have discussed earlier.

For getting the feed URL of the twitter user, you just need to visit the Twitter page of the person you want to receive SMS alerts for (in my case its Rahul) wherein you can find a tab named ‘RSS’ on the footer of the twitter page.

twitter sms

Copy the link location by right clicking on the ‘RSS’ button and using the RSS feed URL that you generate in the above step just create RSS to SMS alerts which we have discussed in detail in our earlier post – Get SMS alerts for your favorite RSS Feeds.

Link: Get SMS alerts for your favorite RSS Feeds.

Categories
Tips

Check whether someone is Offline, Invisible or Blocked you on Gtalk!

gtalk logo Gtalk is one among the most loved instant messaging service provided by Google which was recently being integrated with Orkut. Every day, the number of Gtalk users multiply. With Gtalk getting popular day by day, there is a need for some tricks and tweaks to get the most out of the service you are making use of, and to continue being called a ‘geek’ in your friends circle. 😉

In this article, I am going to write about two unique stuffs about Gtalk that you may not be aware about.

  1. Finding out friends who are online, but in invisible mode:
    As I remember, Google launched a feature of chatting in invisible mode a year ago. Invisible feature can be used from latest versions of almost all browsers or from Gtalk labs. Couple of months ago Rahul posted an article on figuring out who is online in invisible mode. The other trick I am going to write today is really too simple and silly and will help you only if you have a GPRS activated mobile. To use this trick, simply download and install gotalkmobile into your GPRS activated mobile, login with your Gtalk ID & pass and it will show up all the person online, doesn’t matter whether they are visible or invisible. 😉
  2. Finding out whether someone has blocked you or is offline:
    Many a times anxiety engulfs our mind when we don’t find some of our friends (specially girl friends 😉 ) online for a long period of time. If it is so, the friend might be remaining invisible or offline all the times or he/she must have blocked you. In the above point, we have mentioned about two cool tricks to find whether a friend is really offline or is avoiding you remaining invisible. But what if they would have blocked you? You’ll presume that they are offline but in realty they may not be. In this case, Rakshit will help you on “how to check whether someone has blocked you on gtalk”.

So, using the above two cool tricks, you can easily figure out whether the girl next door is really offline or avoiding you. 😉

Links: GoTalkMobile | Bug in Gtalk (Find who is offline and who is invisible) | Find who has blocked you on Gtalk

Related: Remain always ideal on Gtalk

Categories
Tips

Can you spot “Phishing” attack? Simple test to check your safety!

Phishing Phishing is a type of fraud where bad person try to acquire your sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity such as your bank, your social network, etc. You can find more formal definition and technical information regarding phishing on wikipedia.

Test how safe you are from phishing attack…

More about phishing is posted below, but first take “fighting phishing” test by paypal. Its free and you don’t need any paypal account to take the that test.

It just asks you 5 simple question and if you can answer all of them right then you don’t need to read further! Although most questions uses paypal in its name, they are equally true with all major social networks, banks and other portals. So go for test without any hesitation!

ADVERTISEMENT

Phishing Examples…

Now hopefully you are done with test, let me give you 2 simple examples of phishing via email…

  • You get an email from your favorite social network with from email id like admin@facebook.com, saying we are deleting inactive users as part of our annual maintenance program. In case you want to retain you account, please verify your account by visiting http://www.facebook.com/verify
  • You get an email from your bank with from email id admin@icicibank.com, alerting you about an attempt to hack your account. As money is involved, you get panic! On next line, they say something like verify your account, blah blah! Again they give a link like http://www.icicibank.com/verify.

In both cases, from email address and target of links are forged! You can click on above facebook or icici links and see where it takes you! 😉

ADVERTISEMENT

I posted 5 tips sometime ago where you can save yourself from such fake email ids as well as misleading links. Also read tips posted by Deepak while covering a recent phishing scam on Orkut.

By the way, do let us know your score and any doubts you have against this rapidly growing scam on internet! Just for info, I scored 5/5! 😛

Links: Phishing Test | What is Phishing?

Related: 5 Simple Rules To Fight Against Phishing

(image credit: hoax-slayer)

Categories
Tips

Ever wondered about “autorun.inf” file in CDs/Pen Drives!

While opening some optical drives (CDs) or pen drives you might have noticed that they contain autorun.inf file in it. Some people assume that it is some Virus/Malware which might infect their computer. But actually autorun.inf is just a script for invoking any event when some CD or Pen Drive is Inserted in PC. This feature is actually a part of shell32.dll.

You can set your own custom icon and your own custom file to start when media is inserted in computer. If you are a geek, then you can accomplish much more and impress your friends with some smart autorun scripts while burning CDs for them!

A sample of autorun.inf file looks like as shown below:
[autorun]
open=autorun.exe
icon=autorun.ico
label= My Thumb Drive(98XXXXXXXX)

Taking above examples I’ll explain functions of commands here-

  • Open – Specifies which file to start when media is Inserted.
  • Icon – Specifies the Icon to appear in Windows explorer
  • Label – The Volume of Drive to Appear in Window Explorer

If you are lazy at writing this codes you can try a free tool, Autorun.inf Maker.

Autorun Maker

You can bypass events written in autorun.inf by pressing shift key while inserting Pen Drive or CD. This is useful when you are unsure about what Pen Drive or CD might contain. However, I recommend you to use some good antivirus like AVG or Avast which takes less load on system and detects any unwanted threats. There is also an antivirus Program which is made for this purpose only which is mentioned here.

Link : Download Autorun Maker
Also Read : Special Virus Scanner for USB

Categories
Tips

Show Current Music Track in GTalk while Playing Songs in Winamp

gtalk While using Gtalk, under the status drop down menu, you must have observed an option to set your current music track as your status message. It means, if your song track changes, automatically your status message too gets changed.

But as of now, this feature worked only with Windows’ inbuilt media player – Windows Media Player. So what about those who don’t like Windows Media Player and also people like me who rather prefer using ‘Winamp’? As of now I thought, this is not possible, but Manoj advised a tweak using which this feature could be used even while using Winamp.

Just follow these simple steps before you could start using it:

  1. Go to Winamp root directory, mostly it is C:Program FilesWinamp
  2. Select Tools-> Folder Options –> View (Tab) and uncheck the “Hide extensions for known file types” option and click OK.
  3. Create an empty text file (Notepad file) on Winamp folder and rename it as “winamp.m3u” and save it.
  4. Now restart your Gtalk and Winamp and start using “Show current music track” option. 🙂

By following the above 4 simple steps, you can tweak Gtalk to show current music track while playing songs in Winamp media player.

<

p align=”justify”>Thank you Manoj for the helpful tip. 🙂

Categories
Tips

How To Trace Mobile Numbers in India

Mobile User Annoyed by Unknown CallerUpdate: How to trace any number in the world, including India!

With rapid growth in mobile phone subscribers in India and low call rates, most calls we receive on our mobile are from other mobiles. At the same time, to cater increasing user-base most operators come up with new series everyday which makes remembering a cell number increasingly hard. Also sometime we just want to trace a mobile number for reasons like unknown number in miss call list, to get hint of callers permanent location (sounds unlikely, I know…), etc.

But if you have a look at this wiki page, you can certainly trace any mobile number up-to the level of its mobile operator and state (or zone) that’s too using first 4-digit only. It (wiki page) lists all mobile number series in nice tabular manner categorizing them according to mobile operator and state (or zone).

Like other wiki pages, this wiki is also updated regularly and provides you with latest information. I have never been disappointed by it and I am using it for over a year.

If you prefer simpler interface where you can just enter your cell number and get the desired information, you can try Numbering Plans (read full review here)

Link: Mobile telephone numbering in India

Related: How to trace any number in the world, including India!

(image credit: zimbio)

Categories
Tips

Change Folders Background in Windows XP

I am going to post a trick, which many of you may be interested to know that how to change background of a Folder in Windows XP. After much Googling on this topic I’ve found two ways one is related to coding, so it is recommended to advanced users and the other way is by using a simple software which anyone can easily use.

I am posting the most convenient way over here. For this you need to get a software named SodaBush Windowpaper XP. It is a freeware and you can get from its official website. It requires .NET Framework 2. After getting this Software you can select the folder and change its background whatever you would like to have.

Preview
Preview

You can now be able to change from your old boring white background to your own custom Background. The background image can be bmp , gif or jpg.

I’ve posted a short video which explains how the changes are done. Enjoy!!

Link: SodaBush Windowpaper XP

[Editors Note: This is the first post by our new co-blogger Prateek from Go Hi-Tech where he writes about Technology.

You can also write for DW and earn some bucks.  Deatils about revenue sharing program are here.]

Categories
Tips

Test Effectiveness of Your Antivirus using EICAR String

We have seen many posts on the anti virus and people always give their opinion about there choice of the best anti virus. Though I have not seen anyone talking about method to check the effectiveness of your anti virus.

The best way to check the effectiveness is by getting some file from some infected PC into your system but the question is are you willing to take that risk? of course I will never take that risk.

Here is the simple code ( TEST string) copy and paste it on a notepad file and save it. If your anti virus detect it as a virus or threat that will confirm you about the effectiveness of the anti virus.

X5O!P%@AP[4PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

This is how my antivirus detected the notepad file as virus.

Antivirus test
Antivirus test

This is one of the best way to check the effectiveness of your anti virus as you don’t have to risk the security of your system. This is EICAR TEST string.

Do let us know how effective your anti virus is? In case if it fails I recommend get any of these anti virus from Top 10 Anti-virus of 2008.

[Editors Note: This is the first post by our new co-blogger  P@r@noid from Shoutmeloud.com where he writes about Technology, Blogging, Social media and various computer hack.

You can also write for DW and earn some bucks.  Deatils about revenue sharing program are here.]

Categories
Tips

Google Quick Search Box for Mac

Google released a new open source app for Mac Leopard users – Quick Search Box, based on interface and functionality of one of most famous app for Mac, Quicksilver.

Google Quick Search Box makes Google searching easier. By default, you have to press cmd key twice to bring search box on top. Apart from searching it provides many features of Quicksilver like launching apps, gadgets, address book contacts, opening files and folders in finder, etc.

Google Quick Search Box-2

Reason for similarity between Quicksilver and Google’s Quick Search Box is Nicholas Jitkoff, Quicksilver’s creator and now one of the developers of Quick Search Box.

Unique feature for Quick Search Box which I liked is integration with Google Docs and Picasa web. You can add any number of Google accounts whose docs and pics will be fetched into search results.

ADVERTISEMENT

Two advanced features I like are:

  1. Type (TAB) to restrict your search to the selected results:
      "wikipedia.com (TAB) toy" will return matches from wikipedia
  2. Type (TAB) to see actions for the selected results:
      "CONTACTNAME (TAB) email" will show the "Email" action

You can control search places and other settings by visiting preferences.

Preferences - Google Quick Search Box

Those Mac users who finds Quicksilver more advanced, can enjoy this less simplified and enough powerful tool form Google. More information about this cool offering form Google can be found here.

Link: Google Quick Search Box for the Mac

Categories
Tips

Getting the most out of Google Reader with Better Greader

google_reader_logo About a month ago I used to read all my feeds using desktop based reader – feedreader, that is too simple and easy to use. Many of my friends advised me to migrate to Google based online reader – Google Reader but I don’t know what made me stick up with Feedreader for long. But later I realized that a web savvy specially a blogger’s life is really unbelievable to exist without anything as good as Google Reader. 😉 Sometime later I will explain you on what features and advantages of Google reader attracted me. For the time being, I would like to let you know about a good (actually very good 😉 ) firefox extension meant only to improve the way you use Google reader.

favicons_greader This firefox extension named Better Greader, will help you customize the skins, looks, feel, and more more thing in Google Reader. Actually the add-on has been compiled by Gina Tapani of Lifehacker using the various user scripts developed by individual authors. Some of the advantage of using this add-on are: as seen in the image, you can view the favicons of the feeds added into Google reader, customize the are of reading pane, bypass the feed reader homepage while adding new feeds, etc.

If you want to know more about this add-on, all I would say is, just install this firefox add-on or visit Lifehacker page where detailed instruction on its usage and features has been mentioned.

Links: Better Greader Download | Detailed usage and features