Web Talk

Hp has recently made official the forthcoming launch of its new thin TouchSmart 2 desktop computer which will be distinguished by its touch screen and, as its name suggests, its thin design which promises you to get rid of all those annoying cables and wires giving you a lot of room on your desktop. But let’s see together its most interesting features:

• 22-inch diagonal, high-definition.
• 500GB hard disk.
• 256MB of NVIDIA GeForce 9300 M HS HD graphics.
• 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo T5850 processor.
• 802.11n WiFi.
• Prices for the base model HP TouchSmart IQ504 PC and the TV-tuner equipped IQ506 PC start at $1,299 and $1499, respectively.
• The launch will be next month in 17 countries next month including the UK, Japan, and the US.

If you want more info, read the press release directly from HP website.

Source: Engadget.com

If you own a trial Windows Vista or a Windows Vista RTM, or if you just downloaded and installed Windows Vista SP1 RTM, after a couple of reboots you will notice the dreaded watermark on the bottom right corner of your screen saying that your Vista is an “evaluation copy”. If you want to get rid of it, here you can find a little hack which lets you say goodbye to the hunting mark. This hack is quite useful above all if you have a laptop used to show your works during a conference of if you just don’t want to let other people know that “your Vista is not really yours but still belong to Microsoft somewhat”.

1. Download this free patched file from one of these two locations, here and here.
2. Go to: C:\Windows\System32\xy-XY and look for user32.dll.mui (this file makes the hated watermark appears on the screen). By the way, xy-XY is the folder which corresponds to your language such as: en-US for English, fr-FR for French etc.
3. Right-click user32.dll.mui and select Properties. Click Advanced button. Go to Owner and click the Edit button. Select Administrator and click Apply. You should now have ownership of the file.
4. Rename user32.dll.mui into user32.dll.mui.bakup so that you will have a backup just in case something goes wrong.
5. Copy the patched user32.dll.mui file (point 1) to the same directory as the original file.
6. Reboot and at this point you should have got rid of the watermark.

Source: keznews.com

If you want to take the new Firefox 3 everywhere you go, here is an interesting application which can be useful to you. As a matter of fact the guys at Portableapps.com, right after a few days from the release of the new Firefox 3, have managed to release their own portable version of this famous browser. I want to point out that this version is the same as the original one. The only difference is that it doesn’t require to be installed. This makes it a good companion of those people who like having everything in their USB pens. The technology behind it is very sophisticated and assures that no data will be left on the computer you will stick your USB dongle into. As a matter of fact all the data concerned your surfing, passwords, sensitive information and such will be written in the pen drive itself leaving the host computer completely clean. The size of Fireofx 3 portable Edition is 8.0MB (download), 27-77Mb (installed, depending on features like anti-phishing). To Run, it requires 2000/XP/Vista, Wine on Linux/UNIX. The software is completely freeware and open-source. Download it now.

If you are one of those guys who are very inattentive like me, then this article is for you. In fact, If you had the bad idea to set a password in your Windows Vista in order to keep nosy people away from your computer, sooner or later you could be in deep mud. Why? Because you could forget it. It is just a matter of time, but it will happen. So, what solution do you have in order to get all of your files back? Here is a little trick which could save your life and prevent you from going nuts!

1. Click Start.
2. On the search bar type this command: control.exe /name Microsoft.UserAccounts
3. Click on Password Reset Disk on the right pane of the window.
4. In order to perform the password reset disk you need a USB dongle, by the way.
5. Click next and choose the USB dongle as the place where you want to save the password key disk.
6. Enter your current user account password.
7. Click Next.
8. Once the password has been created all previous passwords will be deleted becuase you are supposed to use the one you just created.

So, when next time you  log in and  type a wrong password, you will be prompted for a new passoword. At this point you will see a link saying “Reset Password”. Click on it and follow the whole procedure.

If you use Internet Explorer 7, after a while or right away if you are particularly paranoid, you may want to delete all the junk which the browser has gathered while surfing and that, most of the time, may reveal other people what you visited and what  did while you were at the computer. The classic solution is to delete all the temporary Internet files in IE7. If you want to make this procedure automatic you can use these nice pieces of codes, called batch files, which clean everything in one click. Here are the most important codes:

• Delete temporary Internet Files (all of them): RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 8
• Delete Cookies: RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 2
• Delete History: RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 1
• Delete Passwords: RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 32
• Delete everything. Don’t leave any footprint in my computer: RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 4351

To run these batch files it is sufficient to:

1. Click Start.
2. Copy and past the code in the Search Bar (right under All Programs), press Enter.

The codes provided work on Vista and XP

Apple has just released the latest update (version 10.5.3) for Mac X Leopard. This update is supposed to fix and improve stability, performance, compatibility and security of the Apple operating system. Here is a short list of  the issues the update is going to fix: font issue that could result in Helvetica Narrow being used in applications instead of Helvetica, stuttering video and audio playback in USB devices, Word of the Day, iTunes Artwork and Slideshow screen savers’ instabilities, some HDD are not listed in the Finder, additional RAW image support for several cameras, Software Update progress bar indicator inaccuracy, Finder not available if the computer name is blank in Sharing preferences, delay when logging in as an Active Directory user in a .local domain etc. The update also include fixes for : Address Book, AirPort, Automator, iCal, iChat, Mail, Parental Controls, Spaces, Time Machine, and VoiceOver. If you want to know more, visit the release note section here.  A lot of steps have also been taken to improve the overall security of the system. As a matter of fact the following holes related to different problems were patched : AFP Server, Apache, AppKit, Apple Pixlet Video, ATS, CFNetwork, CoreFoundation, CoreGraphics, CoreTypes, CUPS, Flash Player Plug-in, Help Viewer, iCal, International Components for Unicode, Image Capture, ImageIO, Kernel, LoginWindow, Mail, ruby, Single Sign-On and Wiki Server. If you want to know more, visit the release note section as far as security is concerned. If you want to download the Mac OS X 10.5.3 update as a Standalone click here or visit Apple’s Web site.

If you know the Internet a little bit, you should also know that it is not a secure place for children at all. That’s why Windows Vista, among its features, has the Parental Control which lets you filter those websites your children are going to view while surfing. Here is how to activate it. By the way, before setting it up you have to be sure that Windows Vista is password protected so that nobody, apart you, will have full access to the Parental Control features. To set up a password for an account follow this procedure:

1. Click Start.
2. Click Control Panel.
3. Click Add or Remove User Account under User Accounts and Family Safety.
4. Create a new Account and create a password for it (this account is for you).
5. At this point create a new account for your children by following the same procedure. If you want you can create a password for it but it is not mandatory.

At this point you can create a filter in the Parental Control and be sure that nobody will manage to delete it.

1. Click Start.
2. Click Control Panel.
3. Click Set up Parental Controls for any users.
4. Click on your children’s account.
5. Under Parental Controls, click the radio button On to turn on the parental controls.
6. Click Windows Vista Web Filter under Windows Settings.
7. Now click the radio button Block some websites or content.
8. Check the box Only allow websites which are on the allow list.
9. Click Edit the Allow and block list.
10. At this point you should enter the addresses of those website you want to block.

If you work on dual monitors, at a certain point you may need to set two different wallpapers for each of the screens, just to diversify and make them nicer. The solution here is to use a very easy and simple freeware software which makes the hard work for you. Its name is DislpayFusion and, as you can guess, allows you to use different wallpapers while working in dual monitor. Other features include:

• Change your desktop wallpaper on a timer.
• Integrated Flickr image search & download.
• Easily manage application windows with fully customizable hotkeys.
• Move windows to the next monitor.
• Move windows to centre of the screen and size it to 75% of the work area.
• Maximize windows so that they span all monitors.

This free application is quite easy to install and doesn’t take a lot of resources from your computer. The only thing it does is to add a little icon on the right-bottom part of your screen, thanks to which you can gain access to the software’s options. It is Windows Xp and Vista compatible. If you want to download it or if you want to know more, click here. If you wish to watch a video and know how it works, click here.