Recover a lost password in Linux.

Set a strong password for Linux and forget it is my hobby. So what to do if you lost your password. First,boot from Linux and press e. This will bring you an option to edit the boot line.Append a “single” to the boot line.Now to boot with the modified boot line press b.Now you have the root file system mounted to you as read only. Just remount it using the command “-o remount,rw” .Change your root password using the command passwd.

If you cannot be able to do this then follow the first step by booting into Linux and press e to edit the boot line and append it to “init=/bin/bash”. Now boot again with the new boot line.Then you have the root file system to your disposal and then remount it using the “-o remount,rw”.

The best thing you have to do is if any of the steps don’t work is to simply reinstall Linux,that is what I do usually.

Apple Leopard.

Apple Leopard is the nest generation Operating system from Apple. We will just look at some of the great features of this OS.
Time Machine: It is the greatest feature of Leopard. It will automatically backup your Mac. To use this you can plug in an additional hard drive and then it is automatically detected and configured and Time machine will start backing up your system. Time Machine takes the snap shots of your system and then displays it on a browser window. If you want to restore any file that you deleted accidently then just browse through your system snap shots of your system and then restore the file you want to restore. It allows backing up your system and you now need not have to worry about system crashes and time machine allows backing up your system to a hard drive or a server.
Spaces: It is a new feature in Leopard. This allows you to run multiple applications at the same time. When you are running these applications, each application can be adjusted on a “space” and you can easily switch between them.  This is a nice feature which allows managing several virtual desktops.
SpotLight: The Spotlight is the search feature in Leopard. It allows not only to search in your own computer but also to search in computers connected to your network. There are many advanced search features added in Spotlight which allows you to search and find files using queries involving Boolean Operators and you can launch applications right from Spotlight.
Core Animation: It is yet another feature of Leopard which is intended to boost the multimedia capabilities of Mac. It has advanced features including a great animation engine and you can create stunning effects using core Animation.
Mail: Apple has improved Mail, the email application for Leopard. “Stationary” is a nice feature added to the Mail. It has so many nice templates which allow you to create nice emails. Another feature allows you to create a to-do list called the “TO-DO”. Another major feature is the “Notes” which allows you to create special messages.
I-Chat: It is the famous chat application of Apple. Some of the new features like the I-Chat theatre. This allows you to create a slide show during a chat session and then show it to them as a keynote presentation. Another noted feature is the addition of video backdrops. To do this just drag a video that you want to set as backdrop into I-Chat.
Dashboard: The newest feature added to the dashboard is the “Dash Code”. This allows creating dashboard widgets. It has so many templates to start creating the widgets and we can modify these templates to create our own widgets. It also includes a nice Quartz library to help creating your widget. Another feature is the web clip which allows you to convert any part of a website into a widget.

Download Youtube Videos on a Mac.

Here is how to download and view Youtube videos on a Mac. In order to download Youtube videos to a Mac you need a software called “Tooble“.It allows you to search, find play and download Youtube videos to a Mac.Tooble can automatically download Youtube videos and then Convert into Mp4 format. It has a nice browser Interface and you can simply start the application and enjoy downloading and viewing Youtube videos.It allows batch download so that you can select and download number of videos at a time.So just select the video you need to download and press the download button.You need install Periam, a collection of QuickTime components and several other libraries in order to install Tooble.

Windows Vista Tips.

Flip3D: It is one of the nice features of vista. Here I will show you how to get used with Flip3D. To use flip3D you just have to press the option key+Tab. Then you got a “3D view” of all the open windows. We can use the arrow keys to navigate through the open windows. Then press the Enter key to switch to a particular window. You can also use your mouse to navigate and select a particular window.
Using the Quick Calendar:
It is yet another cool feature of vista. You can view the quick calendar by left-clicking on the clock in the System Tray.
Disabling User Accout Control: Here I will show you how to disable the UAC: First, go to the Control Panel -> User Accounts and Family Safety -> User Accounts -> Turn User Account Control On or Off.Then restart your system for the change to take place.
Opening a Command Prompt:
First, right-click on a folder while holding down the Shift key. Now you can see “Open Command Window Here “option. Select this option to open a command prompt.
Taking a snap shot:
To create a snap shot in vista press the mouse button trice. For this first type “snip” in the search box which will start the snipping tool. Now from snipping tool select either Full screen or Portion of the screen. You can use “Option” tab to customize the settings.
Adjusting Fonts:
First, go to control Panel and then type “adjust font size” in the search box. Now you can see the “DPI scaling Utility” .Here you can click on the “custom DPI” button to customize the font settings. Just adjust the slider to create a custom DPI setting and then press the OK button.
Adjusting the Sound output settings:
First, go to control panel and select “Speakers”. Now click on the “properties” button located on the right side of the speaker window. Here you can see four tabs. Select the “Enhancement” tab to adjust the various sound effects.
Slow Down Aero Animations:
The Aero Animation in vista is normally fast. We can slow down the speed of these animations. For this,
Click on the Start button and type regedit in the Search field and press Enter.
Click Continue if you see a User Account Control Prompt.
Then go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
In the right hand pane, right click on an empty space and from the context menu  choose New > DWORD  Value.
Give the new DWORD  Value as AnimationsShiftKey
Double click on the AnimationsShiftKey value and give it a value of 1.

XP TIPS.

Speed up NERO in XP

Go to “administrative tools” in the control panel, and in the “services” list, disable the IMAPI CD-Burning COM service.
Now, Nero will start up much quicker.

Change the Registered Owner and Organization.

In XP in the Run dialogue box type “regedit” and then navigate to the following Key:”[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion]

Modify the strings values of ‘RegisteredOwner’ and ‘RegisteredOrganization’ to equal the required owner and company names.
REG_SZ    (value not set)
RegisteredOwner    REG_SZ    “Yourname”
RegisteredOrganization    REG_SZ    “your                 Organisation, Inc.”

Create an exe to delete files in the temp directory.

You could create a batch file that has the following commands in it:
@echo off

cd %temp%

del *.* /Q

Note: Type this code in a notepad file and just save it with the extension of .bat .Now double click on it and you are done.

BEST IMAGE EDITORS.

When it comes to image editing or graphic design then Photoshop is the ultimate choice.But there are many image editors and graphic designing tools that can be used instead of photoshop and are also free.
GIMP: GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is the software that is a good alternative to Photoshop with almost every feature of Photoshop. It is a freeware but I think is a program that has the potential to become yet another standard program in Image Editing. It is not simply a image Editor, you can use it to create text effects and stunning graphics. You will need to download and install GTK+Runtime Environment before installing GIMP.GIMP also has a version called GIMP shop which has the look and feel of Adobe Photoshop for those who are Photoshop crazy.
Paint.Net: Another software making waves in Image Editing is Paint.Net.It is also a freeware. It is a powerful application with a nice Interface. The important feature of this program is its extensibility.It has plugins for different effects and so if you have the plug-in and the image then can easily creates the desired effect. If you want to create a Orb then if have a plug-in called “Orb Generator” you just have to enter the various parameters and the plug-in will automatically create a beautiful Orb for you. You will need to install .Net Framework before installing this program.

Inkscape: Inkscape is a vector graphics and it is free.It is a good alternative to Illustrator. It can be used to create professional vector graphics. It has so many nice features and it is a nice software to create Illustrations. It has so many advanced features like the blend mode and various transforms which you can see in some commercial software like Coreldraw.You can create shapes , paths ,clones,grouping,Bitmaptracing and so many other features that you expect from a professional Graphics Editor.
InsightPoint: It is yet another notable graphics creating and illustrating software that will never disappoint you. It is a very simple application and is easy to learn. You can create stunning layouts and Illustrations with InsightPoint.It is nice software which has so many powerful features which will help you find the designer in you.
Serif DrawPlus: Serif DrawPlus is another powerful graphics editing and animating software. It can be used as a graphics editor as well as a animating tool. It has a wizard interface that will help you create your masterpieces in a matter of minutes. There are so many templates that you can start editing to ultimately create your own artwork. You have to register at the serif website in order to start using it. It has a commercial version available with some additional functionality. But the old versions are free to download.
SMN PARTICLEDraw: it is a simple yet powerful application that you can use to create stunning particle effects. I have created so many stunning graphics using its dynamic particle brushes. It is a fun to use this program. You slowly notice yourself transforming into an amazing “artist”.
ArtWeaver: ArtWeaver a powerful application that you can use instead of to say ArtRage or Corel Painter! It is a nice innovative drawing program. It is so simple to use and learn but defenitely need some effort and imagination to use it to its full potential. Everyday I use this program I find new possibilities. I think it also will never disappoint you.
Picasa: Picasa is the Photo management and Image Editing tool from Google. It is a nice application with a great interface and some amazing functionality. It has many advanced and noval features. Google is always one step forward than others. You can see this attitude in Picasa too. It is simply the best image management software that you can get. There are so many great features like Hello a photo sharing feature of PICASA, an option to create a webalbums, slideshows “picture movies” and so on.
Teragen: Tarragon is not a Image Editor but a “Image Generator:. It can be used to create terrains. You can generate stunning sceneries with just a few clicks. You just need to adjust the various parameters to create nice Sceneries.

Creating a Linux Distro.

Here I will show you how to create a Linux Distro.
First, we need a ISO image of the Linux distribution. Ubuntu is one of the popular Linux distributions. So we can create a Ubuntu distro now. First you need to install Ubuntu in your PC to create an Ubuntu distro..Then we need a Linux distro creator like “Reconstructor” which is used to create a Linux distro. Now type”sudo python reconsructor” in the terminal. Make sure that you are connected to the internet. Then from the system menu select Administration>synaptic package manager>settings>repositories and in the terminal type”sudo apt-get install squashfs-tools gcc rsync libblgl-dev libus-plash-dev gpg dpkgp-dev fakeroot apt-utils“.This will download the dependencies needed to create the distro.Now click on the next button .In this screen select the working directory and select the three checkboxes named “Create Remaster” , “create  Root” and “Create intial…..” .Then select the location of the ISO file or the live CD for the last option named “Live CD ISO Filename” and press Next. In the next screen you are can see  five tabs . The first one is for boot screen and to add a image click the “generate” button. Using the “Gnome tab” you can change the look and feel of Ubuntu. The “Apt” tab allows selecting various repostories.In the “Live CD” you can set a username and password for your computer. The final tab “Modules” is used to add the applications you need to add to your distro. You can select and add many modules  and then add the apps to the modules using the “Add” button. Now after adding the applications to different modules click on the “Apply” button and you are almost done.

Image Hosting made simple.

There are many free image hosting services and here I will tell you about some of them. Don’t waste your disk space for storing images! Just upload them to any of your favorite Image hosting site. This give you the opportunity to share your images with the world and you can also link these images to your blog or website.
Flickr: It is the biggest and the first Image hosting site. It is now owned by Yahoo. It has both free and paid image hosting services. You just need to login or register using your Yahoo ID.
Photobucket: It is the image hosting service preferred by social networking site users like myspace,orkut,facebook etc.You can directly link to these photos. It allows uploading 20 photos at a time. It provides 50mb storage space.
Hello: It is the image hosting provided by google.It allows uploading photos using Picasa the photo management tool from google.You can also link these images to your blogger blog.
Imageshack.us: It is one of the most popular image hosting services. It allows you to upload images of  .jpg, .png, .gif  file types. In order to use this service you did not have to signup. It also offers image editing functionality to edit the images.
23HQ: It is a “social image networking and hosting” site. It allows you to upload images and also allows creating a community where you can add friends and chat and share your images with them.
Image Venue: It is yet another image hosting site which allows you to upload unlimited number of images. You did not need to create an account to upload images and upload images of upto the size of 1.5mb.
The list is incomplete and I will add more of them shortly.

How to Remove orkut and YouTube is banned virus.

Right-click on the taskbar and then select task manager. Now go to the processes tab. Look for the process named “svchost.exe”.There may be many instances of the program running. Just select and end the processes running under your username. Don’t delete the processes running under the username of “system” or
“Network service” or “Local Service” etc. Keep repeating the process for similar processes. Now in the windows address bar type “C:\heap41a” .Then delete this file.
Now in the Run dialogue box type “regedit”.Go to Edit and then in Find type “heap41a” and press enter. Now you got some keys which is the registry values similar to heap41a and delete those values.

Free Rapidshare Premium Accounts.

Everybody knows Rapidshare.It allows us to share our files with others. But it is annoying that we have to become a premium user by paying a few dollars each month to get unlimited acess to their service. So how to get a Rapidshare Account? One thing that we can do is to pay Rapidshare to use their service. But if you want to be a premium user for free then you have to watch for the free premium accounts that they give away periodically. Once you got a premium account then you can prevent this accountfrom being expired by uploading and downloading files. Here I will show you how to get a free Rapidshare Account.
First, you can visit Rapidshare to check for free premium accounts. Otherwise you can use “RapidCheck” which automatically checks for free Rapidshare premium accounts and notify you by playing a sound when free accounts are found.