WINDOWS 7 : MY FIRST HANDSHAKE-2

1. Continuing further exploring Windows 7 was a good expereince and has started looking promising to me.

2. Windows explorer : Windows Explorer has also been modified. New commandbar, new left-side pane containing Libraries, Favorites, etc, new Details Pane, a few new options in "View" menu like Content and at last re-sizable Searchbar.

3. Installation did not ask many questions nor did it take much time...may 30-35 minutes...i was on the desktop.

4. Desktop context menu is similar to earlier OS but addends 2 new choioces which are :

a Share with

b. Gadgets

5. Control Panel window has also been redesigned. The left sidebar takes lesser space and resizes itself whenever any control panel item is opened in the window which provides more space.

6. Calculator is a thing that I have left for now for it needs to be worked on with few examples with new features.For now I would just add that PROGRAMMER and STATISTICS are two new menu options that have been added.

7. Outlook Express is not seen till now and has been done away with!!!!

8. More will be added as I explore more!!!!!!!

WINDOWS 7 : MY FIRST HANDSHAKE-1

1. In further exploring Windows 7,few more facts that have come to my knowledge include the following:

2. Minimum configuration :

• GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)

• 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)

• 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of available disk space (64-bit)

• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

3. Task bar Classic style is out.

4. Sticky notes is a new permanent feature which was earlier an optional gadget in Vista.Once clicked,it gets a little yellow notepad and one can type short note for own reference and mailing.Pic of sticky note yellow window from my laptop is shown inset.

5. A lot has been put in renovation and refurbhishment of taskbar.The taskbar at the bottom of the screen is what one used to launch and switch programs between them. In Windows 7 one can pin any program to the taskbar so it’s always just a click away, icons can be rearranged just by clicking and dragging. Hovering over the icons will make thumbnails appear of every file or window that is open in that program.But the over all effect is not looking so appealing till now 2 me.

6. Speed for reaching desktop while start and reaching in off mode while shut down is relatively much much faster.

WINDOWS 7 : MY FIRST HANDSHAKE

1. After a long time about 4 months in which I didn't get much time to work on this and after 3 unsucessful attempts...i mean 3 infected downloads....I am finally writing this from the new Beta OS Windows 7......yes the successor to Windows VISTA!!!!!!!

2. Till now I have been able to load the chipset dvr, graphics card driver,office 2007 and one F Secure Antivirus Internet edition for windows 7.No compatability issues and first impression is generally OK till now......one bad thing is shayaad that wondows classic style has been done away with!!!!

3. In a few days more...i will be writing more about whats new and different in Windows 7 when compared to Vista!!!!!!!!

E WASTE

1.         I earlier attempted to discuss on this subject when I wrote on Guiyu few weeks back.But I had not written anything on what India has been doing on the subject matter except for some one liner remark at the end.But that was because I did not find anything of weight anywhere. Recently I found some useful content at http://india.ewasteguide.info/. 

2.         This site mentions about  K.G.NANDINI ENTERPRISES (KGN) based in Bangalore which is India's first full integrated electronic waste recycling plant. The Plant is located in Bidadi, next to Wonderla and has a capacity of 1.0 ton per hour. KGN has taken the license (CFE & CFO) from KSPCB for a capacity of 7200 MT/annum and does accept all kind of ewaste (printed circuit boards, computers, electrical cables, electrical transformers, small house hold appliances etc.).

 

3.         In a first step hazardous wastes or elements are removed manually. Loading point of the plant is the shredder. The reduced material is then passing a magnet, FE parts are removed. Afterwards the material enters the delamination mill, the heart of the process. Very high forces affect the composite materials and are thereby reduced and delaminated. The material is pneumatically transported from the mill to a cyclone, is discharged and conveyed to a screening machine. The classified material is transferred to a battery of separators; non ferrous metals are separated from plastics. All process steps are connected by conveyors, are automated and controlled by visualization. A central filter system, which is equipped with explosion and fire safety measures, de-dust the entire process. The equipment reflects the state-of-the-art technology had has been developed and provided by swissRTec AG from Switzerland.

4.         This is one acchi baat I thought is good to share!!!!

Chinese Mobile - Death or Life :The answer is finally LIFE

1. While doing a course in Sec'bad many of my colleagues purchased cheap but high in functions chinese brand mobile phones.There were few reactions in form of a anticipatory ban in few months from date of purchase since they do not have IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) numbers and posed a serious security risk. ......but those who chose to buy it were ready  for the risk.....then finally the news came out in media that with effect from Apr 15 09 this year about 16 million handsets would go  out of service , as GSM service providers, including Airtel and Vodafone pull the plug on them. 

2. The verdict is finally out.The government has given a go-ahead to GSM operators to provide a new unique identification number to over 16 million China-made mobile phones in the country. Users of these handsets, which don’t have the 15-digit International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, will have to shell out about Rs 180 to obtain the number. This has been made possible with the help of a new software, developed by GSM operators’ body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Mobile Standards Alliance of India.The association has obtained the IMEI numbers from GSMA, the global body that allocates these numbers.

3. Thanks TOI InfoTech Tab.

USB Bootable Vista

1. For long I have been trying to find out and try ....infact have already tried many options on how to make a pendrive bootable till one day I got in touch with the link http://kmwoley.com/blog/?p=345#more-345

2. I could not find out 50% of the meaning of the commands that I blindly typed and followed as per the screen shots available....but finally I could make one.

3. Simple steps ,no need to worry about screwing up your system......no probs at all...it all goes smoothly.Extract is produced below for dispersion.

4. Required hardware :

• USB Flash Drive (4GB+)
• Microsoft OS Disk (Vista / Windows 7)
• A computer running Vista / Windows 7

Step 1: Format the Drive
The steps here are to use the command line to format the disk properly using the diskpart utility. [Be warned: this will erase everything on your drive. Be careful.]

1. Plug in your USB Flash Drive
2. Open a command prompt as administrator (Right click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator”
3. Find the drive number of your USB Drive by typing the following into the Command Prompt window:
   diskpart
   list disk
   The number of your USB drive will listed. You’ll need this for the next step.  I’ll assume that the USB flash drive is disk 1.
4. Format the drive by typing the next instructions into the same window. Replace the number “1” with the number of your disk below.
   select disk 1
   clean
   create partition primary
   select partition 1
   active
   format fs=NTFS
   assign
   exit
   When that is done you’ll have a formatted USB flash drive ready to be made bootable.

Step 2: Make the Drive Bootable 
Next we’ll use the bootsect utility that comes on the Vista or Windows 7 disk to make the flash drive bootable.  In the same command window that you were using in Step 1:

1. Insert your Windows Vista / 7 DVD into your drive.
2. Change directory to the DVD’s boot directory where bootsect lives:
   d:
   cd d:\boot
3. Use bootsect to set the USB as a bootable NTFS drive prepared for a Vista/7 image. I’m assuming that your USB flash drive has been labeled disk G:\ by the computer:
   bootsect /nt60 g:
4. You can now close the command prompt window, we’re done here.

Step 3: Copy the installation DVD to the USB drive
The easiest way is to use Windows explorer to copy all of the files on your DVD on to the formatted flash drive.  After you’ve copied all of the files the disk you are ready to go.

Step 4: Set your BIOS to boot from USB
This is where you’re on your own since every computer is different. Most BIOS’s allow you to hit a key at boot and select a boot option.

HP and VLC at logger heads?

1. One fine evening last week,suddenly my speakers of laptop dozed of permanently...I mean no sound output.I took it as a regular audio driver conflict since I keep installing and uninstalling softwares on my laptop.So in next few days...i tried fiddling with the drivers....did fresh installations...but kuch kaam na aaaya!!!

2. Since I am addicted to keep the speakers ON for music everytime I am working,I thought the layman's idea of formatting would come as the best and easiest solution...so I went ahead and formatted the system and installed a fresh Vista premium OS.But.......sameproblem stood again.....I thought may be my speakers have conked off............which is unlikely otherwise........

3. Today came another close friend of mine Sunil with a similar problem....in his notebook Compaq.He gave me an astoundingly unbelievable news......that after he called up his HP auth dealer with the problem he got this answer ........"The laptop will not cover under warranty if its identified that the diagonse report finds the user used the VLC player.".............

4. Shocking indeed for me..............I have been using VLC Player of and on with media player classic at times regularly.When I googled on this i got few threads which said the same thing.......these threads include the following links :

a. http://www.infoinfi.com/2009/01/29/hp-and-vlc-player-on-conflict/

b. http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=57589

5. So did i screw my speakers because of VLC ? Pl answer...............any one....?????

6. The extract of one of the threads is reproduced below :

" The Biggest Computer system vendor HP (Hewlett Packard) reporting their laptop customers to not to use VLC Player.VLC Player is the popular open source video player software among a lot of computer users. Recently HP laptop users facing a inbuilt speaker problem, which is often getting malfunction across the users. The official HP service center executives advicing the laptop users to stop using the VLC player to watch, play media files. They reporting that playing a media files using VLC Player causing the damage to the built in speakers.As an additional information the official HP service center executives informing the customers bring the laptop to service for the build in speaker problem that , “the laptop will not cover under warranty if its identical that the diagonse report finds the user used the VLC player.” "

WORK : New Definition

1. The Center for Disease Control has issued a medical alert about a highly contagious, potentially dangerous virus that is transmitted orally, by hand, and even electronically.  This virus is called Weekly Overload  Recreational Killer (WORK).  If you receive WORK from your boss, any of your colleagues or anyone else via any means whatsoever -DO NOT TOUCH IT!!!This virus will wipe out your private life entirely.  If you should come into contact with WORK you should immediately leave the premises and do the following : 

a. Take two good friends to the nearest liquor store and purchase one or both of the antidotes

 i. Work Isolating Neutralizer Extract (WINE) 

 ii. Bothersome Employer Elimination Re-booter (BEER).

b. Take the antidote repeatedly until WORK has been completely eliminated from your system.

3. You should immediately forward this link to friends and save their lives before they get infected with WORK....thanks manish for fwd!!!

Briefcase PC

1. Now this is likely going to be the longest one till date in terms of what I write since a lot of work and effort has gone into it. The idea had been obsessing me for months now about fitting a PC into a brief case. I got the mite of this possibility from one of my senior colleagues Baiju last year. Some how I thought with a year down the lane, with a much better form factor available now a days I would be able to squeeze “More in Less”. So when I got the official permission from my honcho in the office, I was quick in exercising the same.

2. Where to start from ? So the first question came to my mind about where to start from. Whether I start from selecting the mother board or first I select the most lilliputian brief case available in the market or the smallest monitor or what? So I googled a good deal on if any one can give me lead on this ,but what I generally got from the web was assembled lot of pc essentials with a cobweb of wires. So I came back round round to where I was primitively of the search.

3. By now I had started having a feeling of thriftlessness as I had invested or should I appositely say wasted about 5-6 days on the issue of where to start from? So eventually cogitated to start from the smallest mother board. So the recent Digit magazine and Amod Sir(big boss of IT related issues in my circle) suggested that go for the recently launched atom processor based essential series mother board.

So when I finally got one on my table it looked like in set. A real treat to start with. Ideate a mother board with processor that encroaches only 7 inch by 7 inch area. So I was happy to start with this and finally made it final for selection.

4. Some thing about the mother board. Now this one is designed to support Internet-centric computing for the new flexible Mini-ITX form factor. Following features are inbuilt :

(a) Integrated 45nm Intel® Atom™ processor

(b) Energy-efficient solution for home users as well as for unique vertical market needs.

(c) Designed with Intel's leading edge 45nm Hi-k metal gate processor,

(d) Provides incredible opportunities to communicate, listen, watch, play via Internet connectivity.

(e) 4 USB Drives

(f) Lan port

(g) COM1/LPT1

(h) Regular interfaces for Mouse and Keyboard ie PS/2 etc

5. Bootable pendrive or Hard Disk ? Next in row was the hard disk.I was quiet aye that I would be able to make a bootable pendrive or a bootable lap top harddisk. So I tangled with various web pages that claimed to make a bootable pen drive.But…but….but……….I could never bring home the bacon. I mean could not make that. I tried all stunts incl formatting with FAT32,assayed many 3^rd party software’s but could not. Eventually I turned discomfited and decided to go with an internal SATA drive. But I am still working on this. I will make it in days to come if any one has been able to make it after googling. That’s slightly ahead anyway. So for the time being I selected a SATA 160 GB. No hue and cry about the simple connections with the mother board.

6. Choice of the SMPS : The SMPS was a choice to be made from a sea full of resources. Right from Chotu and Tambi of Zebronics make who do not have fans but are able to make it thru fins only to the MICRO ATX cabinet of i-ball ,I called all of them one by one in my office and then finally settled with the iball one with the fan on lower side.I was some how keen on keeping the fan facing down in the briefcase. So went ahead with it.Although Tambi and Chotu were quiet keen on making it inside my briefcase owing to the beautiful and very bewitching form factor.

7. Key board : Now was the choice of the keyboard. I had no time wasting in this. I was sure about the flexible keyboard of Icom worth Rs 350/- only .Now this one is a thing to watch out for those who have not seen and heard of .I first saw it in the hands of Patil Sir.So first impression of it carried for about a year or so. Although I had another option of trying the laser keyboard,but some how the cost kept me on the back foot.The grey market cost of the same ex secunderabad is Rs 4500/-.So to be economical for the first time,I played safe with the cheap and trust worthy flexible icom Keyboard.

8. DVD Drive : Now what is left? The DVD drive, mouse and the briefcase. So when I embarked on surveying about the DVD drive.I had a choice between the small 3.5” dvd drive of LG/Samsung and the normal DVD drive. So instead of trammeling and constricting to use of the smaller DVDs I went ahead with the normal drive size. To be precise I plowed ahead with LG Combo drive DVD-R/RW.

9. Briefcase : So for now I had the masala in form of all the actors and actresses to star in the movie, I mean the hardware. So now I had to choose a brief case which can take it all. First I surveyed the local make briefcases available in jalandhar.I got many choices, but some how people around me actuated me to go for the trademarked ones to obviate any breakage and ensure a strong casing for protection. So the cheapest I could home on was of make Safari 21”.Why Safari and why not a VIP? Simply because Safari is a trusted cheaper brand. Although I could have attempted to fit all in a 17” one,but for sake of safety I thought…..21” is better.I was correct in deciding this as I agnized later.

10. So all at the table now. How to earmark the land to the hardware in the available land space inside the briefcase ? Tried few combinations and then more combinations and then was finally able to home on the layout as shown in the pic inset.

11. Sealing : After the regular slots were made for the motherboard interface, SMPS power supply plug, SMPS fan, DVD drive, another problem that was standing upright was the case of sealing. How do I seal the brief case from outside detritus?Should I use the cheap looking tape or should I use the cut pieces of the briefcase or wax it? I fortunately got in contact with one civil carpenter who prefaced me to a type of sealing which is actually a gel and when you fill it in the empty space to be sealed, it gradually takes into the form of rubber overnight. Jet black in color. How does it look like? Shown in set. So I decided to try this. And I got what I wanted but some how I was dysphoric with the final finish.

12. Monitor : Oh!How can I forget the monitor. No fights and confusions on that. Actually wanted to go for a 14” TFT since it would encroach lesser area,but some how I found that 14” TFT is not available easily and at the place it is available, it is even costlier then the 15” one. Seems like manufacturers have kiboshed making this size. Since I had ample of space for this one too,I went ahead with a 15” TFT LG make.

13. Fitment : How to make the DVD drive, Hard disk, SMPS and the mother board stick to the base of the briefcase? The first thought that came to my mind was to stick all with good quality thick Velcro. But some how was hesitant in going ahead with this.The second option was screw and nut, a stronger alternative!!So I opened up the bottom screws from DVD Drive and screwed them again from bottom with the briefcase base in between, it came out nicely intact and neat. Similarly for the SMPS and the motherboard. For the mother board one small forethought was to place cut to size small rubber pads to maintain a distinct air gap between the motherboard bottom and the briefcase. For the hard disk I went for a thick Velcro since it would be the most prone for changing at times and I have to experiment it replacing with a pendrive!!!!!!!Monitor was difficult to decide upon w.r.t fitment. Velcro would not have been able to take on the load, bolting is not possible, fiddling with back cover is not advisable……now what? So came a solution from the house hold queen of my life, my wife. She recommended trying it with a sliding drawer rail fitted on both sides of the monitor. And……….it worked like the rails were made for the monitor to fit in. Problem solved. See the fitment in set.

14. Extra’s : Just to take care of the additional risk of placing motherboard in open I covered the inside briefcase with a cut to size transparent acrylic fiber sheet screwed on aluminum channels if u can notice in the pic below with keyboard on top.

15. Ratiocination : All items fitted, fitment done, repair tool kit inside, sealing done, connections made, the thing of assembling the pc inside a briefcase is over. But that felicitousness from within has not come since I am still failing at making a bootable pen drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!