VMA IT Observer

Improving I/O performance in Windows XP virtual machines

2009-03-28T15:28:00.002-04:00

This article applies to Windows XP running on VMware Workstation 6.5.1 but the information can be applied to other guest operating system such as Windows 2000 and other the other products in VMware family.

About VMware Workstation

VMware Workstation provides an ideal solution for testing new applications or operating systems at work or even home.

When a software company releases a new application, it tests it against all supported operating systems. In the past they used to have at least one physical computer for each operating system or combination of operating system and other software (Windows 2000, Windows XP Home with IE6, Windows XP Home with IE7, Windows XP Professional, etc). Resetting all these computers to the original configuration for a new set of tests was difficult and required many IT resources. Nowadays, in almost all software fields, the testing computers where replaced with virtual machines. Virtual machines are easier to deploy and maintain.

Home users usually take advantage of virtualization technology in various ways. Geeks use it for testing or running different OS simultaneous (eg. running Linux on top of Windows) without doing any change or interfering in any way with the host operating system. Other users use virtualization for setting up a secure environment in which they can browse unsafe sites or test new software without trashing the host OS. Since VMware Workstation virtualizes the hardware itself, the guest OS is completely isolated of the host OS without any interaction whatsoever.

Windows XP in VMware Workstation

VMware Workstation provides 2 major disk types that can be used by guest virtual machines: IDE and SCSI. If you choose SCSI, you’ll have to decide between LSI Logic and BusLogic. A detailed comparation of these 2 SCSI devices is found on VMware website. Please note that this is independent of your host hardware. You don’t need to have SCSI on your host to select SCSI for virtual machines.

VMware implementation for SCSI offers better I/O performance with less CPU resources utilized. In regard to SCSI, usually people prefer LSI Logic over BusLogic.
Anyway, if you try to create a new machine for hosting Windows XP, you’ll notice that VMware workstation wizard recommends you to use an IDE virtual harddrive for installing the guest operating system. The recommendation is not the same if you try to install Windows 2003 server as a guest. The reason is that, even if LSI Logic SCSI virtual harddrive offers better performance, Windows XP doesn’t has drivers for this type of device.

Updating an existing Windows XP virtual machine to use LSI Logic

Usually people that read this article, they already have existing Windows XP virtual machines. They just want to improve the I/O performance without spending too much time required by a full guest OS reinstallation.

First check using VMware VM configuration tool if you virtual machine uses IDE harddrives. If this is the case then follow the next instructions. If you already have SCSI devices, but Bus Logic, then you can still use these instructions but you can skip the step with cloning the harddrive.

Add a new hardware to the virtual machine: a SCSI drive of size at least equal to the IDE drive you want to replace. Do not remove the older drive.

Using notepad, edit the .vmx file and look for a line that looks like: scsi0.virtualDev = "vmxlsilogic" (you may have a different number instead of 0). If you don’t find that line, then add it (eg. after scsi0.present = "TRUE").

Power the virtual machine and log into guest Windows OS. Windows will tell you that a new device was detected and prompts you to install drivers for it.

Go to http://www.lsilogic.com and look for the LSI20320 SCSI adapter driver for Windows XP. Make sure you download the drivers for Windows, and not the drivers that you use during Windows installation (eg the WHQL 1.20.18.00 package should be fine).

Extract the drivers somewhere in the guest OS and install them.
If everything was correctly done, the guest Windows XP OS should be able to see the SCSI disk in Disk Manager tool.

Power off the machine.

Download Clonezilla live CD image. If you prefer you can use other cloning tools (eg. Ghost).

Edit virtual machine properties and make the virtual CDROM use the the Clonezilla CD image.

Boot the virtual machine and quickly press Esc or F2 in order to access the boot menu of the virtual system. Select from here the CD as the first boot device.

Once Clonezilla is loaded, go and issue a disk – to – disk clone operation: from the older IDE drive to the newly attached SCSI. Wait until cloning is finished.

Power off the machine and edit the configuration. Remove the IDE drive, leaving only the SCSI one and also dissociate the Clonezilla ISO from the virtual CDROM.

Boot the virtual machine.

Installing Windows XP with LSI Logic SCSI drives

Create a new virtual machine with LSI Logic controller and SCSI drives. Make sure you attach also a virtual floppy drive.

Download LSI Logic drivers from http://www.lsilogic.com (look for the LSI20320 SCSI adapter driver for Windows XP). Make sure you download the drivers that are used during Windows XP installation.

If the physical computer has a floppy drive or you have an USB one, just extract the drivers on a blank floppy, otherwise use a program such as WinImage to create a floppy image (.flp) where you’ll inject the unzipped downloaded drivers. If you don’t have WinImage, you can put the drivers on a .flp image from other virtual machine.

Associate the virtual floppy drive with either physical drive or the .flp image.

Power on the virtual machine and proceed to install Windows XP from the CD. Make sure the virtual machine boots from the CD and not from the attached floppy.

On the initial blue setup screens, when prompted, press F6 to select additional SCSI drivers.

Select the LSI Logic driver and continue installation normally.

10 useful Windows command-line commands

2007-09-13T10:32:00.000-04:00

This list includes some of the most useful and less known commands that you can run at Windows command prompt.

1. Quickly create an empty file of an arbitrary size

This command is useful if you quickly need a file of a certain size. The command execution is instantaneous (no matter what you put for length), but the file contains only zeros.

fsutil file createnew filename length

2. Create a hardlink

A hardlink is useful when you want to make the same file appear in different folders. Even if you can see it in many places on your drive, the hard drive space is allocated for only one instance.

The file is physically deleted when the last hardlink is removed.

fsutil hardlink create new_filename existing_filename

3. Associate a path with a drive letter

The command is very useful for testing installation kits or running a CD from a folder. It basically creates a new drive letter that points to the indicated folder.

subst [drive1: [drive2:]path]

4. Compares two binary files

This command is useful to check if two files are identical. Checking only the file sizes is not enough since the content may be different.

The fc command, with /b switch, compares the files in binary mode and tells if they are identical or not.

fc /B [drive1:][path1]filename1 [drive2:][path2]filename2

5. Create a list with all files in a given folder

dir *.doc /b > documents.txt

If you want to search also in the subfolders, add the /s switch in the above command line.

dir /s *.doc /b > documents.txt

6. Concatenate two files

This command can be used to concatenate both text and binary files.

copy /b a.txt + b.txt c.txt

7. Check if a server is up

When a machine (internal server, web site, etc) doesn’t respond from the regular application, try to open a command prompt and ping that machine.

Ping can be also used to find the IP behind a web address.

ping itobserver.blogspot.com

8. Display network configuration and IP addresses

If you are using a DHCP server in your network, then you can use this command to check the IP address leased to your computer.

ipconfig /all

9. Lock workstation

You can lock your workstation by running this command.

rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

10. Shutdown local computer

You can use this command to automate the process of computer shutdown. Some prefer to put it as a link on the desktop.

shutdown -s -f -t 00

Cell phones for kids

2007-09-10T14:15:00.001-04:00

Kids and elderly people are two categories of cell phones users that are not getting too much support from cell phone manufacturers or service providers. Fortunately, for those living in US there are two promising services for kids.

FireFly cellphone

FireFly is a cell phone specially designed for kids. It is supposed to offer kids a way to make emergency calls to 911, their parents or other few persons.
The phone lacks the regular keypad, so the calls are limited only to those people in the predefined list. More than that, parents may setup it is such way that only the calls from the people in the address book will ring the phone.

Kajeet

Kajeet targets bigger kids. Kajeet offer kids modern cell phones with wallpapers, ring tones, games, etc., while the parents enjoy prepaid like benefits.
Parents can define the time schedule when the phone can or can’t be used or decide who can call and who cannot call the kid.

While the above are nice, the most interesting feature is the wallets concept: a wallet for parents and a wallet for the kid. Parents decide whose wallet pays for what calls. For instance parent’s wallet pays when the kid calls them, while kid’s wallet pays when the kid calls his friends. In this way there is no risk that you’ll not be able to contact your kid because he consumed all the credit on text messages with his buddies.

Advertise for free on VMA IT Observer

2007-09-08T12:24:00.000-04:00

For a limited time only you have the chance to advertise your products and services for free on VMA IT Observer. Only IT/Communication (software, hardware, VoIP/Skype, IT services, etc.) related advertisements allowed.

Review your product or service

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VMA IT Observer will check each review/presentation before publish and reserves the right to accept or deny posting. From case to case, VMA IT Observer may include a small note in each advertisement post to inform the readers that the post is an advertisement.

Place a free advertisement

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Get Dr. Dobbs Journal and MSDN Magazine for Free

2007-09-07T23:03:00.001-04:00

This is good news for software developers. You can not get both Dr. Dobbs Journal and MSDN Magazine (digital editions) for free.

Just follow this link to complete your subscription.

How to make a free 10 minutes call

2007-09-07T22:28:00.001-04:00

Let’s suppose that you don’t have a long distance phone plan and you want to call a friend out of state…. This is as simple as visiting viatalkfree.com website and initiate the phone call.

Since the website requires entering two US numbers, both you and your fried have to be in US. Anyway, with a little effort you can call your friends in US even if you are living in Europe. All you have to do is to obtain a free US DID number ahead of time.

For alternatives ways of calling for free US numbers, check also this post.

Non-intrusive ways to send messages to T-Mobile users

2007-09-05T16:08:00.000-04:00

Send an SMS

You can send short text messages (SMS) to any T-Mobile subscribers using:

your cell phone. You may be charged by your provider.
by using email to SMS. Read this post for more information.
by using T-Mobile’s online tool available at this address.

Send a voice mail

Most people don’t know that you can deliver a voice mail directly to the inbox of the other party, without making the phone ring. The recipient will usually be notified on the screen or through a short beep of any new received voice mail.

To send a voice mail you can use any landline/cell phone:

Step 1. Dial 1-805-MESSAGE. This is the same phone number that you can use to check your voice messages – as explained in this post.

Step 2. Dial the recipient 10 digits T-Mobile cell number

Step 3. At the prompt speak your message and then hang-up.

Check your T-Mobile voice mail from a landline

2007-09-05T11:25:00.000-04:00

To check your T-Mobile voice mail from a landline (without consuming your airtime minutes) follow these steps:

Step 1. Dial 1-805-MESSAGE (1-805-637-7243) from any landline.

Step 2. Press * (Star) key

Step 3. Enter your 10-digit T-Mobile phone number

Step 4. When prompted, enter your password.

For a visual representation of T-Mobile VoiceMail shortcuts please refer to the following PDF diagram.

This tip works with both postpaid and prepaid accounts.

Get visual voicemail for you cell phone

2007-09-04T23:20:00.001-04:00

Most probably your cell phone provider offers you a pretty basic (dump) voicemail feature. To listen to your voicemails you have to dial a number and check all messages one by one.

Using this simple trick you can take your voicemail to the next level:

online access to your voicemails
download important messages to your computer
receive voicemails as by emails as mp3 attachments
SMS notifications
etc.

The trick consists in conditional forwarding (if you don’t answer, you’re busy or unreachable) your calls to a free GrandCentral number.

Step 1. Create a free GrandCentral account (GrandCentral was briefly presented in this post) and do basic settings. Do not define any phone numbers since you want the voicemail to handle all incoming calls.

Don’t worry! You don’t have to change your phone number! Your GrandCentral number will remain hidden behind the scene, while you’ll continue using your regular cell phone number. People will not even know about this little trick of yours.

Step 2. This step is optional but important if you wish to go back to your old voicemail system. Check with your cell phone provider the current status of conditional forwarding and voice mailbox number.

If you have a GSM phone the following codes, typed on your phone keypad, should give you this information:

*#61# [SEND] (forward on no answer)
*#62# [SEND] (forward on unreachable)
*#67# [SEND] (forward on busy)

Normally all three should be forwarded to the same number.

Step 3. Activate/Change conditional call forwarding feature for your cell phone.

Depending on the wireless carrier or network, the activation procedure may differ:

For GSM networks (T-Mobile, AT&T/Cingular), dial the following number sequence, as if you’re dialing someone: *004*YOUR_GC_NUMBER*11#

It’s also possible to specify the interval after which your calls are forwarded (on no answer). In this case the sequence is: *004*YOUR_GC_NUMBER*11*x#, where x is the amount of time from 5-30 seconds in increments of 5,

For CDMA networks (Verizon), dial any of these codes followed by your GC number: *71, *90, *92

For all other wireless carriers, is recommended to contact them to check this information.

Note: Using the same technique, you can even skip your company PBX voicemail system altogether and forward your business phone number to GrandCentral.

For an alternative solution, check callwave.com

Comments welcomed!

Turn whiteboard content to PDF using your cell phone

2007-08-31T21:43:00.000-04:00

Two new services (scanR and qipit) are helping you to take advantage of your cell phone camera, by giving you the convenience of converting a captured image to a PDF document while on the go.

The process is pretty simple. Take a picture of a whiteboard or notebook with you cell phone camera and send it via email to one of the previous mentioned services. In couple of seconds you’ll get back a PDF version of your picture.

Both service clean up the picture and adjust the contrast before converting to PDF. The first one even does OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on the picture.

While the same thing can be achieved by downloading the pictures to a computer and turning them to PDFs using inexpensive software, these services may appeal to mobile users who don’t find the time to do this manually.

Embed documents in picture files

2007-08-28T15:05:00.000-04:00

You may be interested in embedding documents and information in picture files from lots of reasons, and only your imagination may find all applications.

Step 1. Start with an image, like the one in the following picture

Step 2. Put the picture and documents (archived as a .RAR file) in the same folder

Step 3. Start a command prompt and type the following command

Step 4. Send the new picture file by email, or post it on a web site. It’s very important to NOT process this image further using other software.

Step 5. The recipient should use WinRar software to extract the documents from inside the picture. Any other software will probably see just the image information.

It’s all about minimized applications…

2007-08-27T00:18:00.001-04:00

Taskbar Organizer is allowing you to rearrange the items on your taskbar (eg. some prefer to keep their email client or file manager next to the Start button).

Trayconizer allows you to make almost any application minimize to systray. All you have to do is to start this software in command line with the desired application as parameter. You may want to check this post that explains how to minimize Windows Media Player to systray using this tool.

Specialty email services

2007-08-26T21:23:00.000-04:00

E-mail is still one of the most important services that the Internet is offering. No matter what other messaging and collaboration tools are out-there, email is still the number one collaboration instrument for both corporate and home users alike.

This post presents two types of specialty email services, not well known by typical internet consumer.

Disposable email services

If you are receiving tons of spam because you give you email address to all sorts of websites, then is the time to look at one of these services that offer disposable email addresses.

You don’t have to register, or to visit the disposable email service websites ahead of time. Just think at an email address in your head and you instantly have that address.

Let’s pretend that you are filling a web form to download an interesting piece of software, when they suddenly ask your email address. Just put there testsoftware47@mailinator.com and submit the form. Next go to http://www.mailinator.com and type in the provided textbox the address you just invented. There is no need to put a password or to create an account.

Other disposable email services:

Mailinator
http://www.mailinator.com

MyTrashMail
http://www.mytrashmail.com

TemporaryInbox
http://www.temporaryinbox.com

DodgeIt
http://www.dodgeit.com

Self destructing email services

This is other specialty email service. It helps you in those situations when you want to keep an email private once it's been read. To achieve this, just open an account with one of the following services. In majority of situations the recipients will get an email containing a web address. The link will open a web page containing the actual message. Once opened the remote page destroys itself putting you in complete control (you’ll know who opened the messages and even you’ll be able to remove a message before is opened by the recipient).

Self destructing email
http://www.self-destructing-email.com

Will self destruct
http://www.willselfdestruct.com

Self destruct message
http://www.sdmessage.com

Kick notes
http://www.kicknotes.com

Free desktop toys

2007-08-26T20:32:00.001-04:00

Sizer

Sizer is a free tool that allows resizing any window to an exact size. According to its website, this is useful to web designers (eg. to resize the browser to different sizes) and documentation writers (to capture windows at the same size).

Another usage of Sizer may be window management. Advanced users (especially those with wide screens) may find the regular Tile windows horizontally/vertically commands not power enough. With Sizer you may easily put two web browsers side by side.

You don’t have to install Sizer. Just run the executable and then right click on the systray icon to configure it.

Use the configuration options to create predefined resizing templates that you’ll apply at a later time on any given window.

Depending on the configuration, a system menu option is inserted to facilitate the window resizing and positioning.

While running the software guide you also, with a small tooltip, when you manually adjust a window.

JR Screen Ruler

JR Screen Ruler is other free desktop tool that allows you to measure anything on your screen (eg. graphics on web pages)

Screen ruler can display pixels, inches, centimeters or picas and can be used to measure objects on both horizontal and vertical.

Cheap watch batteries

2007-08-22T12:11:00.000-04:00

Lern how to get uber-cheap watch batteries from this Instructables movie.

* Email subscribers: The movie appears only in the online version.

Best free image viewers

2007-08-16T22:37:00.001-04:00

Image viewers are essential tools for all digital camera owners. They help you browse, view, categorize and print your digital photos in an easy way. Keep in mind that their functionality is oriented on photo management/viewing not photo editing.

XnView (Recommended)

Supports an impressive number of file formats and is highly customizable.
Has lossless JPEG operations (rotate, flip).
Can do batch conversions.
Can send photos by email (with automatic resizing).

FastStone (Recommended)

While doesn’t support as many format as XnView, FastStone is more polished.
Has lossless JPEG operations (rotate, flip).
Can do batch conversions.
Red-Eye removal and other photo editing tools
Photo comparison tool

FreshView

Has a very simple but effective UI.
HTML album generator

ForceVision

The interface has the file browser separated from the image viewer.
Red-Eye removal and other photo editing tools
Can do batch conversions.

If none of the above is on your taste, then check also IrfanView and Picasa.

Save the Trees - Print to PDF using free tools

2007-08-16T10:35:00.001-04:00

If you are using the computer to do online shopping or banking then you probably know those confirmation pages that you are invited to print for further reference.

Most people don’t print them at all, while others are just creating piles of paper by sending those printers directly to the printer.

If you are in one of above categories, take a few minutes break now and install a virtual PDF printer. Whatever you’ll send to that printer it will be saved in a PDF file on your local disk. Turning digital, not only you save the trees but you add convenience to your work.

Most people associate producing PDFs with commercial software. While those applications have certain advantages, you cannot ignore freeware and open source PDF creators. A very good virtual PDF printer is PDFCreator.

Since PDFCreator installs like a virtual printer, you can create PDFs from any program that is able to print (your web browser, email client, word processing application, etc).

You can even use the PDFCreator printer as part of your copy machine, as explained in the previous post.

Turn your computer into a copy machine

2007-08-16T10:34:00.001-04:00

iCopy is a free and open source software that lets you combine your scanner and printer into an easy to use photocopier by only pressing a button.

Owners of all-in-one printing/scanning devices may already have this feature, but for the rest this software may look like a nice idea, especially if you have to copy frequently.

Clean up your system with CCleaner

2007-08-15T11:04:00.000-04:00

CCleaner is a freeware system clean up tool. It removes browser history (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Opera, Safari), cookies, temporary files, MRU lists, log files and other unused files from your system in one single step.

Downloading Yahoo emails into Outlook Express

2007-08-14T22:40:00.001-04:00

Yahoo doesn’t offer anymore free POP3 access to your Yahoo mailbox. Hundreds or even thousands of your important emails remained trapped on their servers. Fortunately, there is a quick and easy solution to download all those emails into Outlook Express (or any other local mail client).

Step 1. Download YPOPs!. This is an application which emulates a POP3/SMTP mail server and provides free POP3 and SMTP access to Yahoo! Mail. It does not depend on Yahoo's POP3/SMTP mail server.

Step 2. Install downloaded application and take a look at its settings. Normally you don’t have too much to configure here.

Step 3. Start Outlook Express and go to Accounts menu

Step 4. In the window that opens, click the Add button to add a new mail account. Depending on your configuration you may already have some predefined accounts.

Step 5. A wizard will guide you through the account setup procedure

Step 6. Specify your Yahoo email address

Step 7. Specify 127.0.0.1 as your POP3 and SMTP server. This is your local address where YPOPS application is installed.

Step 8. Specify your Yahoo username and password

Step 9. Press Send/Receive button and see how messages are downloaded

Step 10. This step is optional. If you don’t want to delete the messages from the online Yahoo mailbox, go into account properties and check “Leave a copy of messages on server.”

That’s all! Comments welcomed!

Call Romania (and other destinations) for free using Web Activated Telephony

2007-08-14T11:45:00.001-04:00

The new nonoh service has a deal to call Romania, and other destinations, for FREE. The service wants to compete with Jajah, by offering much lower prices.

nonoh is a service of Betamax. For more offers of FREE calls to Romania, check also this post.

Get rid of drive letters clutter

2007-08-13T23:22:00.001-04:00

Since digital cameras proliferation, all PC manufacturers started to include media card readers in their new PCs. If this looks like a useful addition to you, you’ll actually discover pretty soon that you don’t use those readers at all. Like this wasn’t enough, even monitors come now with media readers built in.

All these media readers contribute to the drive letters clutter in your computer. The below image was captured from a modern Dell computer.

How to Declutter

To solve this issue, will use the ability of modern Windows OSs to mount drives in folders (instead of assigning letters).

Step 1. Create a folder for each media read you have in your computer / monitor.

Step 2. Right-click on My Computer icon (located on the desktop) and select Manage.

Step 3. Computer Management opens. Locate here Disk Management.

Step 4. Right click on a drive and select Change Drive Letter and Paths...

Step 5. Remove default letter and select one of the folders you created at step 1.

From now on, when you’ll want to access a media-reader you’ll just navigate to the corresponding folder. No more drive letters and/or clutter.

How to minimize Windows Media Player to Systray

2007-08-13T22:22:00.000-04:00

Systray, or System tray, is a special Windows region, located generally at the bottom right-hand-side of the screen. Time and Volume control icon are usually displayed there.

Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player (WMP) comes preinstalled with each Windows system. Some love it, others hate it. Anyway WMP doesn’t have the ability to minimize itself to systray.

To minimize WMP to systray just follow these steps.

Step 1. Download the free Trayconizer.exe application from this site. After downloading install the application.

Step 2. Copy (in clipboard or a notepad) the full path to previously installed application. It should look like:
"C:\Program Files\Trayconizer\Trayconizer.exe"

Step 3. Locate WMP icon and select properties.

... and then paste at the beginning of Target textbox the text copied at step 2.

Your new target may look something like this:

"C:\Program Files\Trayconizer\Trayconizer.exe" "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe"

That’s all! Next time start Windows Media Player from that shortcut and you’ll see that it minimize to systray. This post presented how to minimize WMP to systray, but actually you can minimize almost any application using the same technique.

Create a custom button bar in Internet Explorer

2007-08-12T00:29:00.001-04:00

If you are accessing certain sites frequently, then it’s a good idea to create a custom button bar and assign a button to each site you visit. Those sites on the toolbar are now one click away!

Step 1. Enable Links Toolbar in View menu

Step 2. Next time, when you visit an interesting site, just drag and drop the icon in the browser address bar to your custom button bar.

Step 3. Create menus. If you don’t have space anymore on the toolbar, then you can group several buttons using a menu. Menus are actually subfolders of Links folder. You can create them easily using Organize Favorites command.

Step 4. Customize icons. This step is optional but contributes to the aesthetics of your button bar. Not to mention that some people recognize faster a shape than a text.

Note that some websites, such as del.icio.us, make use of this toolbar to implement custom tools.

Web based tools for downloading and converting YouTube Videos

2007-08-11T23:53:00.000-04:00

There are dozens of online and offline tools for downloading and converting YouTube videos. If you are in a hurry, just use any of the following three web based tools:

http://keepvid.com/
http://www.videodl.org/
http://www.zamzar.com/

Zamzar has the ability to download and convert, in the same time, a YouTube video to a common format, such as .avi.

Enhance Google search with Snap Shots

2007-08-11T00:00:00.000-04:00

The snap shots add-on tool from snap.com is quite known by web developers and bloggers, who used it to offer quick preview of external links.

They recently extended their offer with a new version of their tool dedicated to end-users. After downloading the Snap Shots Add-On onto your browser, all major sites and portals will be enhanced with snap shots capabilities (Google is just one of them).

Here is an image of a Google search, enhanced by Snap Shots Add-On. Now you can have in Google what Ask.com (binocular preview) had already for quite of time.

If you like what you see in the above image, just go and download the free add-on.

Convert your Word documents to PDF using free online tools

2007-08-10T16:31:00.001-04:00

There are situations when you want to convert a Word document (or other common document formats) to PDF without installing software on the local machine. You can do this very easily with the excelent free tool from pdfonline.com

To give a quick try to this service, pick a document from your local drive and enter an email address where you want to receive the converted PDF:
* Email subscribers – the form is available only in online version.

Scan your computer for free with an online antivirus

2007-08-10T14:53:00.001-04:00

Don’t waste your system resources and money by purchasing and installing a local antivirus. It’s a known fact that the realtime protection of a local antivirus it’s a considerable overhead even for modern processors. Due to this fact powerusers prefer to use their antivirus only for occasional scans of downloaded files.

If you are one of those users who can live without a realtime protection then you should consider an online antivirus. By installing latest security packs and using common sense and extra care when navigating on the web almost everybody will find an online antivirus sufficient.

A very good online antivirus is BitDefender Online Scanner

Protect your network connection

2007-08-10T12:31:00.000-04:00

Windows XP comes with a firewall built in. Check your machine now and see if this is enabled and if not take a 5 minutes brake and read the rest of this article.

Windows Firewall

The Windows Firewall protects your network/internet connection for unwanted inbound connections such as ill intended people or automatic scanners that tries to connect/use your services.

Most home users have also firewall (or some sort of NAT protection) at the router level so they decide to turn off the built in Windows firewall. This is now a good idea because if one of the other home computers gets infected, the not-protected computers may also get infected – (the threat comes from inside your network and thus is not filtered by your internet router). Not to mention that you’re totally exposed when you travel with a not-protected laptop.

3rd party Firewalls

While Windows Firewall proves to be efficient in protecting against unwanted inbound connections, it has very limited capabilities in protecting against unwanted outbound connections. There are cases when you want to prevent a program to connect to internet. To monitor outbound connections you have to install a more powerful 3rd party firewall.

A firewall with such capabilities will let you decide which connections should be allowed. For instance you want to block an auto updating software for reaching the internet or you want to know when an unknown executable tries to establish a connection with a remote site.

Since these 3rd party firewalls protect both inbound and outbound connections they usually require to disable the built-in Windows firewall.

There are plenty of 3rd party firewalls available. While the most known ones are commercial software, it is surprising to see that the best ones are free. Recent reviews, made by professional publications such as PC Magazine, PC World and others, recommend the free Comodo Firewall Pro software before other commercial solutions.

Feel free to use the comments form to ask any question you may have regarding this subject.

Tame startup programs using free tools

2007-08-09T00:12:00.000-04:00

Any of these three tools can be used for determining what programs automatically launch at startup. All of them are available for free.

Why control startup programs:

to decrepify a new computer
to make your computer run much more faster
to disable spyware and other monitoring application.

Windows’ own Msconfig

This is the most used application due to the fact that comes with Windows. Just type into run dialog msconfig and the application will be started:

Startup Control Panel

Startup Control Panel is a nice tool, simple to use and very small, that can be run standalone or as a control panel applet. It allows you to easily configure which programs run when your computer starts.

AutoRuns

AutoRuns has the most comprehensive knowledge of all auto-starting locations of any application or Windows component. Besides the regular Run, RunOnce and other common registry keys, this tools shows also other locations such as browser-helper-objects, Explorer extensions, toolbards, etc.

How to send big files by email

2007-08-06T15:08:00.000-04:00

The email attachment is simply not good enough when comes to send big files by email. The most common solutions to this issue are:

use a private P2P application to transfer the files;
upload the files ahead of time on a private FTP or HTTP server and put just the link in the email. Owning an FTP server is a big hassle for home users due to the IP infrastructure and firewall configuration issues.
use a specialized service to send big email attachments.

Specialized services for sending big files

All of the following services can be used without registration. Just select the files you want to send and specify sender's address.

http://beta.localhostr.com/
http://www.yousendit.com/
http://www.mailbigfile.com/
http://www.transferbigfiles.com/

The bad part is that the recipient has to go to a page full of advertisements in order to retrieve his files. Only localhostr gives you the direct download link but the service is limited to 50MB / file.

How to send photos by email

2007-08-05T22:57:00.001-04:00

Even with today’s online photo hosting services most people still prefer to send photos by email. If you owning a recent digital camera most probably each of your JPEG photos will take between 2 to 5 MB. It’s easy to see that only a couple of these hi-resolution photos may be big enough to flood and block recipient’s mailbox.

This post will assume that you are using Windows XP with a local email client (Outlook Express).

How to not send photos

Actually the above method is OK only if you want to send your friends the original hi-resolution version of the photos, or if you are sending already resized photos.

How to easily email hi-resolution photos

Highlight the photos you want to send in Windows Explorer

Select Send To -> Mail Recipient and choose to resize photos

Your friends will not get the original version of the photos, but a scaled down version. This is OK in most situations. If one wants to print photos then you can always send the hi-resolution version at a later time.

How to crop pictures before print

2007-08-05T13:34:00.001-04:00

Most people don’t realize that their digital camera takes picture at 4:3 aspect ratio, while the regular 4x6 photo print has a 3:2 aspect ratio. The aspect ratio of an image/photo is its width divided by its height.

Take a look at the properties of one of your digital pictures find out the width and height in pixels for that image.

In the above example, the image is in 2560 x 1920 resolution, which means 2560 / 1920 = 4 / 3. So the photo has a 4:3 aspect ratio.

A regular 4x6 print is a photo with width 6 in and height 4 in, which means 6 / 4 = 3 / 2. So the print has a 3:2 aspect ratio.

If you’ll gone print an image with 4:3 aspect ratio on a piece of paper with 3:2 aspect ratio, and you don’t want to distort the image, you’ll either end up cropping some regions out of the image or adding extra blank space on each side of the image.

Most online photo printing services does the cropping job automatically for you. But since that’s an automated process they usually cut equal amount of data from both sides. In most cases this is fine, and goes unnoticed in the end product, but in some situations this automatic crop is not acceptable. Imagine cutting a person head when actually it’s better to cut from the other end of the picture.

Cropping lots of pictures, one by one in a classic photo editor is a tedious job. JPEGCrops is a nice free tool that helps to lossless crop large number of photos in a visual and quick way. The tool does lossless cropping by manipulating the image data stream directly, rather than render it first and then recode it back to JPEG.

Lossless cropping may seem insignificant at first, but if you’ll gone pass the same image through different processors then it actually makes very sense. After you finished cropping take a look at this post that shows you how to put date/time on each picture just before sending them to print.

How to print the date and time on your digital pictures

2007-08-04T23:48:00.001-04:00

Most digital cameras can be configured to print the date/time the photo was taken directly on the image. While this was a nice feature on a film camera, it’s actually a bad feature with modern digital cameras. The reason: digital cameras put anyway the date and time plus other information in each digital image metadata (EXIF).

In this way you don’t have ruin precious captures with inappropriate text – you can put the date on the photo just before print using the EXIF information.

Putting the date on big number of photos may be a tedious job if you are using a classic photo editor. Read forward to see how you can automate this job using a small tool.

Step 1. Download EyeBatch software.

Step 2. Select your pictures

Step 3. From available commands list select Text Watermark and adjust various parameters according to your taste

Step 4. Select also Save to File command and make sure you specify where to place the output files

Step 5. Click Process button and wait.

Create a digital bookshelf

2007-08-03T14:42:00.000-04:00

If you have lots of books in your bookshelf, you’ll certainly like the idea of cataloging them. A digital catalog has several advantages such as quick search and easy sharing with friends.

You can create a nice catalog out of your books using the following free tool. Just feed the tool with a list of ISBNs and the software does the rest by downloading books metadata, cover images and reviews from Amazon.com.

The output of this software is nice HTML catalog (not in a proprietary format like other software do) which can easily be converted to a single PDF file.

Click here to learn how to download this software.

Low-budget tech support

2007-08-03T13:43:00.001-04:00

If you want to offer tech support to your friends or even a customer you can use the free CrossLoop tool. The tool offers a very convenient way to view the screen of a remote computer. You don’t have to do any changes to your network configuration or firewall prior to running this tool. Just follow the following easy steps:

Common scenario:

1. Your friend has a problem with his computer and decides to call you.

2. You instruct him to download and install CrossLoop

3. After installation, tell him to start CrossLoop and switch to Host tab

4. Ask for the displayed access code and then tell him to press Connect button.

5. You type the received code in the textbox on the first tab and click also Connect.

6. In a few seconds you should be able to see and control his screen.

Remarks:

CrossLoop is based on VNC. For more information about CrossLoop and other derivatives check out this post.
You can further push CrossLoop functionality by combining it with Skype or other VoIP software.

Cross-platform multitasking

2007-08-01T11:26:00.000-04:00

... or how to use a single keyboard and mouse between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware.

* Synergy demo (viewable only in online post)

Synergy
http://synergy2.sourceforge.net
Notes: Free

Win2VNC
http://win2vnc.sourceforge.net
Notes: Free

KaVoom! KM
http://www.kavoom.biz/km/km_overview.html

Stardock Multiplicity
http://www.stardock.com/products/multiplicity/

VMWare 6 (multiple monitor support)
http://www.vmware.com/products/ws/
Notes: Use a single physical machine with 2 monitors. Maximize a VM on the second monitor to achieve the same effect.

Top 10 home automation projects

2007-08-01T00:03:00.000-04:00

1. Garage lights

It is very convenient to switch the garage lights on and off from both your home and the garage itself. You’ll have to run a 3 wire cable between the two buildings and put some two-way switches at both ends. You can use an X10 lamp module in your garage and 2 X10 switches: one in the garage and one inside the house.

2. Outdoor Christmas lights

Most people prefer to put all outdoor lights in one single outlet for convenient switching. While this is fine with modest installation and small homes, it may become a problem with bigger homes due to cord management issues. You can ease your life by using a couple of X10 appliance modules set on the same house and unit code. With a single button click on any X10 controller you can turn the lights on and off very easily.

3. Christmas tree lights

Year after year I had to crawl under Christmas tree at least twice a day to plug or unplug the lights. This will change this year because I’m planning to plug the lights in an X10 lamp module. With this module in place I can very easily program my X10 mini-timer to switch on the Christmas tree lights at dusk and turn them off at down. Since the tree will be in the living room I’m also planning to play with the dimmer during movie time.

4. All lights on

X10 offers the ability (out of the box) to turn on all lights in a home. A more interesting application is to turn on all lights in a single room. My living and dining room are actually one big room. I always wanted to switch on and off the lights in the living room and dinging room simultaneous without rewiring. Using couple of X10 modules set on the same house and unit code I was able to switch, at the same time, the lights from both rooms.

5. Convenience switching

I don’t know exactly for what reason (maybe to save money) some constructors choose to use pull-chain type switches with the lights from attics or basements. To get light in any of these rooms you have to go in the middle of the room, in complete darkness looking for the switch. With X10 lamp modules or screw-in modules you can control these lights from basically anywhere.

6. Security lights

Using a wireless motion sensor detector, an X10 transceiver and a couple of floodlights you can build a classic security system. Each time the sensor detects motion the lights will turn on.

7. Watering the lawn

If you don’t like spending time adjusting your sprinkler’s timer, then let X10 control the watering for you. As a controller you can use an X10 mini-timer or even your PC computer with an adequate interface.

8. Opening and closing the window shades

Using X10 you can implement a basic system that will gradually open your bedroom shades in the morning according to your schedule (eg. each day at 8:00AM, Saturdays and Sundays at 10:00AM).

9. Have fresh toast in the morning

In the past they used to use X10 to automate the coffee machine. With modern coffee machines, X10 is not longer needed. It was replaced by the machine internal timer. Since the common toaster was not that affected by the technology progress, why not enhance it’s capabilities by plug-in it in an X10 appliance, and have fresh toast at 8:20AM?

10. Automate your home from the Internet

Geeks may find interesting to control the entire house from the web. Turning on and off lights and appliances from everywhere in the world is very easy with X10. Just purchase a computer interface and a software (or build your own home automation software) and you are ready to go. Please note that since X10 commands are not acknowledged is very unsafely to control a house remotely. You should look to more modern home automation technologies (I’ll write more about them in a future post) if you plan to do this.

See my previous post for an introduction to X10. If you plan to start any of these projects, drop me a comment and I’ll give you more information.

Fun science

2007-07-28T00:05:00.000-04:00

Without further ado:

Lemon battery

The movie shows how to turn a lemon into a battery, used to power a LED or pocket calculator.

Electric motor

evilmadscientist.com shows you how to build a very simple electric motor using only a battery, a magnet and a drywall screw. The movie shows the screw spinning.

Email subscribers: Visit online version to view the movies.

Publish your own article on ITObserver

2007-07-24T23:09:00.000-04:00

VMA ITObserver is introducing a new gift for all email subscribers: the chance to publish your own article on VMA ITObserver website.

To benefit of this special offer you need to follow three easy steps:

STEP 1. subscribe for free to VMA ITObserver.
STEP 2. express your intention to write technical content/ articles by adding a comment to this post (visit ITObserver website for more information). Your request/comment will remain private (not visible on website).
STEP 3. ITObserver will create for you a username and password that you can use in order to manage your published content.

Feel free to write on any topic you want. You can cover news, write tutorials, DIY articles, product reviews, programming, hardware and electronics or anything else you feel comfortable about.

Besides this, all email subscribers have full access to the unique ITObserver software library for free.

Home Automation

2007-07-08T00:41:00.001-04:00

After we moved to our new apartment, I quickly discovered the limitations of the existing hard-wired circuit. First of all I didn’t have any possibility to control the overhead lights in any of the two bedrooms from the installed wall switches. Turning on the Christmas lights was a real pain also – I had to crawl under the tree braches almost 4 feet in order to plug the lights.

Home automation is an old passion of mine which I rediscovered recently after a routine visit to a local RadioShack store. For only $20 I purchased a Plug ‘n Power – Home Automation Kit which on sale. I bought the kit on impulse without actually knowing that under the hood is using a very popular technology X10.

The kit offered me only the chance to play with this automation technology, without solving much of my problems. Luckily, http://www.x10.com/ had an end-of-the-month sale (their entire strategy consists in sales) at which I purchased a couple of other X10 modules: the screw-in lamp modules, the wall-switches and transceiver module (the motion sensor and remote chime were just included in the price).

The setup

I screwed in the screw-in lamp modules in the overhead light fixtures from the two bedrooms and configured the wall-switches to control the corresponding lights. I also plan to use the RadioShack lamp/ appliance module during this Christmas season. For the moment I’m using the remote chime module as a wake-up device (controlled by RadioShack’s mini controller). As for the motion sensor I’ll probably integrate it in the security system.

Other scenarios

When they are talking about automation, almost everybody try to look futuristic. They talk about the advantages of turning on and off appliances according to a predefined schedule or about executing an entire sequence of macros at a touch of a button. While nice, these scenarios don’t actually apply today. The site at http://www.kevinboone.com/x10.html describes three down-to-earth X10 scenarios such as: outbuilding lights, coupling room lights and convenience switching.

X10 or not-X10

X10 is a nice technology which helps you connect controllers and modules in a flexible network without changing the hard-wired circuit:

- X10 is cheap comparative with other home automation technologies
- X10 is standard: as you can see I’ve seamlessly integrated modules coming from two producers
- X10 is a 25 years old technology. This brings several disadvantages:
- slow (it takes ¾ seconds from the moment you press the switch until the lights turns on)
- commands may collapse
- no command acknowledge (if you send an ON command the only way to see if the command was executed is to inspect the appliance. This may be easy with a light bulb but more complicated with a slow device like your water boiler.)
- not secure (your neighbor may be able to control your devices)
If you are willing to pay 4 – 5 times more, other technologies, some backwards compatible with X10 are there for you.

Sleek devices

2007-06-28T00:40:00.001-04:00

In this post I’ll present you a few cool gadgets that are not yet available on the market. If you are interested in any of them please drop a comment and I’ll post detailed information about the producer and if possible availability date and planed price. Any other question is welcomed.

Sleek devices – Media Center PDA

In the last two years, PDAs started to loose terrain in front of smart-phones and portable media players. Big players on PDA’s market announced their intention to discontinue some of the most popular PDA lines (see Sony Clio and Dell Axim stories)

While everybody sees the PDA as a dead device, a newcomer company is planning to launch in the near future a sleek PDA on the market. It will not be marketed as a PDA but as a portable media player. Look for it in media players section at your local store and not in PDAs section.

When I first saw a prototype of this new gadget, I thought that it’s a clone of an Apple iPone or Apple iPod – or something between them. The device has a sleek look and feel, a big touch screen and a navigation wheel.

The only difference is the user interface. While very polished and fully accessible from the navigation wheel it is still different than the iPhone interface. Clearly, the company doesn’t try to create an iPone/iPod clone but a very sleek portable media player. From the main interface you have access to device main features: music player, video player, photo browser, voice recorder and FM radio.

Media can be transferred from your PC or Mac very easily using a piece of software similar to Apple iTunes. Besides the basic media management functions, this software has also the ability to transcode on the fly the media that you have on your computer or even standard DVDs. Other functions include the ability to download on the device videos from popular sites such as youtube and sleek integration with online music stores. All this content will be stored on the internal 16GB memory flash.

Now take a deep breath are read further! Until now you thought that this is the presentation of just other cool PMP. At a closer look at one side of the device I noted a stylus – just like in my Axim. I pulled the stylus and touched a very tiny symbol in the upper right corner. The flashy interface disappeared and I was in front a regular PocketPC! I was able to play with the usual Pocket PC applications (tasks, contacts, etc) and even read emails and browse the internet via the integrated wireless card.

It is amazing how a bit of hardware redesign and a sleek full screen media interface changed completely the look of an otherwise boring PocketPC. Media lovers will get the advantages of a full featured PDA for free, while the PDA lovers will not have to carry 2 devices (a PDA and a PMP) with them.

Sleek devices – PDA Notebook

The same company that is working on the Media Center PDA is planning to launch also a device that will sit between a traditional PDA and a notebook computer.
Basically it will look like a small 7’’ notebook with a screen resolution of 1024x768 and a notebook like keyboard. Other than that, it will have integrated WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G.

At this moment all similarities with a notebook stops here, because under cover the device is actually a PocketPC – priced like a PocketPC (some may comment that this will not be PocketPC but Windows CE).

With a price tag of a PDA but capabilities of a notebook, the device will certainly look appealing to customers looking for a lightweight, rugged notebook that will be used mainly for text entry, emails and web browsing (eg. students and managers).

Sleek devices – Enhanced portable DVD player

If you ever visited a local electronics store you certainly noticed all those models of portable DVD players. People are using them on the plain or in the car to entertain themselves of their kids.

This new device, that will hopefully make it to the market, is actually an enhanced portable DVD player with the following cool features:

- DivX/XVid player
- MP3 player
- TV and FM tuner
- Embedded games

Imagine yourself in transit at airport X, waiting for the next flight and in the same time watch news on a local TV station. People from Florida may also use it like an emergency TV/Radio during hurricane season ;-). And if you still don’t find anything to watch then switch to game mode and play one of the 10 embedded games.

Sleek devices – Sleek Media Center PC

The offer of Media Center PCs (a special PC that can sit in the living room, next to the rest of your AV equipment) is for sure very big.

Still all available offers have two things in common: bulky and pricey. And all this because the producers are trying to put inside only the latest processors and huge amounts of RAM and HDDs.

A newcomer company found out that the average person doesn’t want to pay more for a media center PC than his paying for a regular DVD player. Basically, the average person wants a sleek, cheap and lightweight media center PC.

After this research this company decided to lunch a niche media center product. With a VIA mini-ITX motherboard, 500MHz processor and 256MB RAM this PC has just enough power to run Windows Media Center OS. The media decoding (eg. your DivX or DVD movies) is done via a secondary hardware processor.

With this architecture the company is trying to offer the best from both worlds: a sleek and cheap (~$100) media center PC with a regular DVD player profile but in the same time an opened platform powered by a Microsoft OS. Regular users will use it like a media player, while advanced users will be able to customize the interface via additional plug-ins or run special server type software (web servers, FTP servers, etc.). The possibilities are endless.

Sleek devices – Networked Kill-A-Watt devices

Let me clarify from the beginning – the device presented in this post is not related with Kill-A-Watt or produced or endorsed by P3 international. It even doesn’t have yet a name! I used Kill-A-Watt in the beginning of this post to make myself better understood.

As compared to Kill-A-Watt, this device one great feature: the ability to network several devices and then download their measured data in a PC. Just buy one of these devices for each electrical/electronic device you have in your house and a USB module for your computer.

From the moment you connect an appliance to one of this devices, it will start log, with 1 minute resolution, in its internal flash memory the instantaneous power consumption and the frequency. The internal memory is big enough to collect data for more than 3 months, time after will start removing older entries.

Next install the supplied software on your computer and connect the USB module to an available USB port. This will start poling all devices in the home and download their internal flash memory content into your PC. All this information will be used by the software to draw graphs and make statistics on different devices in your home. Since all devices have their own internal memory you don’t have to keep the PC opened at all times. Just remember to poll the devices at least ones at every 3 month to avoid losing older data.

Sleek devices – Networked battery operated lights

Make a visit at your local hardware store and go to illumination section. You’ll find there several solutions for adding battery operated lights under kitchen counters or in attics or closets.

Most solutions consists in simple battery powered LED light fixtures that you can install yourself using double sided adhesive tape. The only problem with all these solutions is that you have to touch several points if you want to turn on or off all the lights in a closet.

A newcomer company is proposing to launch a wireless networked battery operated light kit that you can install yourself in a closet or under a cabinet. The kit consists in 5 lights and 2 switches: a magnetic switch and a wall applicable switch. All pieces can be putted in place using adhesive tape.

Just put all these lights in a closet and place the magnetic switch at the door. In the moment you open the closet door all lights will turn on. When you close it they’ll turn off. A very simple wireless protocol is implemented in each switch and light fixture. By selecting a channel number on the back of each device, you can create up to 10 light networks in your home.

Make FREE international calls to Romania

2007-06-23T21:08:00.000-04:00

Calling Romania for FREE is a novelty even in VoIP world. Fortunately 3 Finarea/ Betamax companies started to offer free calls to landlines in Romania:

http://www.12voip.com
http://www.justvoip.com
http://www.lowratevoip.com

Enjoy!

Why personal assistant but not PDA works

2007-06-20T00:50:00.001-04:00

PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) were introduced as a way to offer a personal assistant to everybody. Managers had this privilege for years. Only they used real persons as assistants and not a fancy gadget.

Although promising at the beginning, PDAs failed in both aspects:

- as a gadget they were replaced by smart phones (phone + PDA capabilities in one device) and PMP (Portable Media Player – see iPod) devices. Big companies that used to produced PDAs starts now to discontinue them and refocus on other areas.

- as a personal assistant they never did the job right. Far from being personal assistants, PDAs were no more than plain pen and paper notebooks. People like personal assistants because they like to give commands, and they like to pass responsibility and then forget. You cannot do this with a PDA?! A PDA will start buzzing on an unfinished job, like they are your boss and not viceversa!

Let me tell you a story: A few weeks ago I had a pile of unpaid bills and medical claims on my desk.. I though that dealing with them it’s a very easy task: you have to open them, pay them and eventually do a few phone calls. I would’ve finished them in a couple of hours probably. Instead of doing them I delayed them till today despite my PDA that constantly reminded me of this task. A simple press on snooze button solved the problem for the day. If I’d have a real personal assistant I wouldn’t have this problem. A simple “do that” command would’ve probably solved everything.

As a matter of fact people like to have assistants. All famous success stories from IT (see Microsoft and Apple birth) are built on manager-assistant model. Small succeeding companies are usually built by 2 persons. At the first sight they seem to have same responsibilities but at a closer look they start to differentiate in master and assistant – one person that sees the big picture but doesn’t go into details and one person who deals only with details. They complement each other.

Let’s now take your (you – the reader) example. You certainly have in every minute a big idea in your head that would probably make you rich and famous. It’s also a big probability that you have also a PDA! So you have both parts of equation: manager=you, assistant=PDA and still the ideas are only in your head. Why that? Don’t try to answer this. Instead go find a real personal assistant that would happily work with you/for you to implement your dream ideas.

Microsoft Popfly

2007-06-19T23:58:00.000-04:00

Remember Microsoft Silverlight? It’s now the time to see Popfly, a complete Silverlight application coming straight from Microsoft.

It’s very interesting seeing how Microsoft is using/twisting its technologies and move forward into other people’s territory. Only time will tell if their effort and new presentation campaign (check out the presentation of Popfly and Silverlight where they talk open about other platforms and products: Flicker, Warcraft, Mac, etc) will help them gain a piece of this new Web 2.0 world.
Until then, I’m still waiting for them to send me an invitation (where did I see this method until now?) to Popfly. They’ve promised they’ll send it with the first invitations batch.

Portable battery extenders

2007-06-14T14:29:00.000-04:00

Whether you taking a 10 hour transatlantic flight or you live in Florida, the following universal battery extenders may look appealing to you.

iGo powerXtender provides emergency power for your mobile gadgets anywhere you go. Get up to 10 hours of talking, 20 hours of playing or 28 hours of listening. Uses 2 AA batteries (included) and iGo power tip technology (tips sold separately) to power/ charge your mobile gadget.

Solio™, the Universal "Hybrid" Charger is powerful enough to charge all of your handheld electronic products at home or on the move, anywhere under the sun.
Solio is a Hybrid because it can accept power from either the wall socket or Sun storing this energy within Solio's internal rechargeable battery. Solio then uses this energy to power your gadgets at the same rate as if they were plugged into the wall. Solio will also hold its charge for up to a year.

Energizer Energi To Go – Put the supplied lithium AA batteries into the holder and insert the cord into the holder then plug the adapter into the phone. This portable power supply comes in various flavors, each supporting different cell types. Not recommended if you are looking for an universal power supply.

Black&Decker Power To Go - Supplies portable 110 Volts AC (yes – it has an DC-AC inverter) & USB power to mobile electronics. Provides hours (up to 1, 4 or 9 hours - depending on the model: 10W, 20W or 100W) of extended runtime. You can buy these power sources online or at a local Wal-Mart or Home Depot store.

APC Universal Notebook Battery - Universal external batteries for notebook computers. While very good if you indent to power your laptop, these batteries are kind of bulky for smaller devices.

118Wh Portable Power Station - The BMW of battery packs which powers any device from 3V~28V. Features built in variable voltage selection from 3V,5V,6V,9V,12V,16V,19V,21V,24V,28V. Packed with power at 118WH Capacity.

USBCell – A simple rechargeable battery. Just stick it into a USB port to charge it and then use it on the go like a regular AA battery.

Tekkeon myPower GO uses 4 AA batteries and provides power via an USB connector. Should work with all cellphones, PDAs and music players that are recharging from an USB port.

Tekkeon myPower ALL provides up to 14V/19V and powers virtually any portable device—anywhere, anytime. With myPower ALL, you carry a single lightweight rechargeable battery to extend the play time on your portable DVD player, notebook computer, digital camera, camcorder, MP3 player and more.

APC Universal Mobile Device Battery - These external battery packs supply power via a USB port to any mobile device that can be powered using a USB charging cable (sold separately), like mobile phones, iPods, PDAs and more. They are also small and light enough to carry in your pocket.

Semsons' Pocket Power Bank with USB port has 2-in-1 design. You can use it as battery charger or as battery extender. It has build-in 100-240VAC charger with retractable AC plug. Add 4 X AA NiMh/NiCd rechargable batteries up to 2400mAh and use the USB output with Palm PDAs, cellular phones and other electronics via USB charging cable.

The Proporta Mobile Survival Kit includes the USB Mobile Device Charger (USB Rechargeable Battery). This handy product charges from any standard USB port and stores an impressive 3400 mAH of power for when you need it.

The XPower PowerSource Mobile 100 is a power solution with both AC and USB outlets. If your laptop battery runs low or you need more play time with your portable game console or portable DVD, simply connect your device into the AC outlet and keep going. Two USB charge ports will keep your Blackberry, iPaq, Palm, or iPod charged when you need it most. You no longer have to carry extra cords, chargers and device-specific batteries.

The Mobile Mini features a mini USB pivot arm so you can connect it directly to your BlackBerry and new Motorola phones such as the Razr and more. A second USB port is also featured so you can power two devices at once. The Mobile Mini’s internal lithium-ion battery can be recharged at home through a lightweight AC charger, through a vehicle’s DC socket, or at your computer from its USB port.

To DIY guys I recommend the Minty Boost article for technical details on building a portable USB power using 2 AA batteries hosted in an Altoids gum tin.

Recharge alkaline batteries

2007-06-13T22:27:00.000-04:00

If you want to save money and environment try to not throw away those used alkaline batteries. Purchase a special battery charger from batteryxtender.com and revive dead alkaline batteries between 25 and 100 times. Under any circumstance do not try to use a regular NiMh charger with alkaline batteries!

Single click sign-on to Intranets company portal

2007-06-06T18:12:00.000-04:00

Please read this article ONLY if your company is using Intranets as a company portal. You can figure out if that’s the case by looking at one of the following addresses (replace acmecorp with your company name):

http://acmecorp.intranets.com
http://acmecorp.webexone.com

If you recognize any of them then keep reading.

My major complain with my company portal on intranets is that I have to type each time the username and password in order to access the site.

Wouldn’t be nice to place a button on Links toolbar (in IE) and automatically be logged on Intranets?
More than that: wouldn’t be nice that by a single click on a button to be logged in Intranets and a certain page inside to be displayed?

This is possible by implementing the following trick:

Copy and paste the following HTML content on a text file on your harddrive.
Put a button on Links toolbar to point to this file
Edit the HTML file and replace username and password with your intranets credentials and acmecorp with your actual company name.
The form action querystring link parameter is the link to an internal intranets application. If you just want to go to home page remove the link parameter.

Contact me if you want the text of this example sent to you by email.

The coolest Web 2.0 services

2007-06-05T23:11:00.001-04:00

Do you want to know what the coolest Web 2.0 services are at this moment? Check out Webware 100 - 2007. If you visit the site by June 11 you get the chance to vote for the candidates.

Manage cell phone voicemail messages on your computer

2007-06-05T22:54:00.001-04:00

Just like gotvoice.com, the service from callwave.com allows you also to manage cell phone messages on your PC. If you like the first service then you should also check this one since it has several advantages (I’ll let you discover them alone).

Remote access to an USB drive

2007-05-22T21:53:00.001-04:00

I purchased recently a MV-4000 Mvix Media Center from newegg.com. This is Mvix’s lowest end product and the cheapest you can find. It lacks Ethernet connection in favor of USB connection. At the beginning it looked like a good deal, but the hassle of moving the device back and forth between the living room (where the TV) is and computer room became annoying.

So I start looking for ways to access this device remotely, without disconnecting it from my entertainment center. Until now I found the following solutions:

Regular USB Cable – available for a few dollars from various stores
Advantage: hi-speed connection
Disadvantage: maximum 16ft

USB 2.0 Active Extension Cable – available for $16.95 from sewelldirect.com
Advantage: hi-speed connection. 5 such cables can be linked together for a maximum of 80ft
Disadvantage: new wiring

Belkin Wireless USB Hub - available from newegg for $185.99
Advantage: Wireless
Disadvantage: bad performance (about 30% of the wired connection)

Silex SX-5000U2 10/100Mbps USB 2.0 Device Server - $199.95 from sewelldirect.com
Advantage: extend USB cable via CAT5
Disadvantage: price and slower than USB2.0

Black Box USB 2.0 to CAT5 Extender - $649.95 from sewelldirect.com
Advantage: extend USB cable via CAT5 without affecting USB2.0 speed.
Disadvantage: price

LINKSYS NSLU2 Network Storage Link for USB2.0 Disk Drives - $79.99 from newegg
Advantage: Turn an USB drive into a NAS available on local network
Disadvantage: Slower than USB 2.0

Any NAS with USB Host Port
Advantage: seamlessly integrate the USB drive with a NAS. Good performance if Gigabit available.
Disadvantage: should keep NAS near USB drive.

Online media protection

2007-05-18T11:04:00.000-04:00

I recently came upon an online radio website with an impressive library of old rock. After the visitor selects the artist, the album and the song a popup opens with an embedded Windows Media Player and the song begins.

Since the website is the online presence of a well known public radio station, they took their time to protect all their hosted music, so only site visitors listen and comment the music and not allow illegal downloads.

I will now give here the web site address but instead I’ll present their protection mechanism, which I consider may be useful to other online radio webmasters to protect their hosted music. It may be also useful to online video hosting services to protect their video clips.

To ease the understanding let’s invent a virtual site called radio4.net, with a song archive located at: http://library.radio4.net/ (please remember that the address is not real and was invented for exemplification only). The key to this implementation is to have a server side technology that supports the concept of Session (see PHP or ASP.NET).

Let’s now examine step by step browser-server communication:

Step 1. The visitor browses the archive and selects a song. The browser makes an Http request like the following:

GET http://library.radio4.net/playme.php?songid=63 HTTP/1.1
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30)
...

Step 2. To the above request the server will send a response like this:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sat, 19 May 2007 01:08:20 GMT
Server: Apache/2.0.59 (Win32) PHP/4.4.4
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.4.4
Set-Cookie: SID=ff1a17742e953d21571baea03bfaab87; path=/
Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Length: 2213
Content-Type: text/html

...

[object classid="CLSID:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95"
codebase="http:// activex.microsoft.com/nsmp2inf.cab"
type="application/x-oleobject" align="middle"]
[param name="FileName"
value="http:// library.radio4.net/song-ff1a17742e953d21571baea03bfaab87-63.wma"]
[embed type="application/x-mplayer2"
src="http:// library.radio4.net/song-ff1a17742e953d21571baea03bfaab87-63.wma"]
[/embed]
[/object]

...

Step 3. The embedded Windows Media Player will make the request to specified Url:

http:// library.radio4.net/song-ff1a17742e953d21571baea03bfaab87-63.wma

If you examine carefully the above steps you’ll notice that the song Url contains embedded 2 pieces of information: the actual song id and the session id. The session id information coded inside the url should match the web session id of the server otherwise the request will be denied.

If an attacker will copy the song url and try to download it using a download manager, or even try open it with an external Media Player the server will detect this and will not provide the song content.

The method can be further improved by checking on the server side the UserAgent string of the application that requests the song. In case of Windows Media Player this will be “NSPlayer”. Requests coming from other clients will again be denied.

Although not hacker proof, this method contains enough protections to discourage the majority of users to download the content. Almost all standard download tools will fail on such protection.

For other methods of protecting web pages and web content, see also Prevent content stealing by protecting web pages article. And don’t forget that your feedback is very important. If you feel the need to comment anything please go ahead and do it.

Use Skype to call anywhere in the world for free on Mother’s Day

2007-05-03T09:57:00.000-04:00

Skype will offer free calls on Mother’s Day (May 13th 2007, 5:00 am EST to May 14th 2007 4:59 am EST) to US and Canada residents.

During this interval calls originating from specified locations placed to both mobile and landline phones will be free. Skype advice to limit your phone calls to 200 minutes / computer during the offer period.

Virtual Appliances

2007-05-02T23:01:00.000-04:00

Virtual Appliances are nothing more than preinstalled virtual machines. Due to obvious licensing limitations the majority of public virtual appliances are Linux based. While the concept is very nice and very useful for software demonstrations, due to the considerable overhead of guest OS until now it didn’t catch with home users.

At this moment all 3 major players in desktop virtualization are either offering virtual appliances or maintain an appliance marketplace.

VMware Virtual Appliances

Microsoft Virtual Appliances

Parallels Virtual Appliances

Build VMware player compatible virtual machines for free

2007-05-02T22:40:00.001-04:00

If you have VMware Workstation then this post is not for you since the Workstation has all the bells and whistles to create and maintain virtual machines using visual tools.

So if you don’t have the above mention (and highly recommended) tool you can use alternative methods to create virtual machines for VMware Player:

Use VMware Server

This is also available for free from VMware. If you happen to use the VMware Server for server virtualization in your organization then you should have no problems at all to open a VMware Server virtual machine with VMware Player.

Use easyvmx.com

Using the online tools from easyvmx.com you can generate virtual machines startup files. Although pretty complex the tool doesn’t have the visual advantages of previous solution.

Use VMX Builder

This is a deskop application available from this web site. On the same page you’ll also find a couple of somehow useful utilities.

Edit .vmx files using notepad

Even .vmx files are text files do this only as a last resort or for minor and easy to do changes. You can even generate disk images using only Windows command line tools.

For an virtualization overview and available technologies check first this article.

Microsoft Silverlight – A Flash Killer?

2007-05-02T22:23:00.000-04:00

Microsoft announced Silverlight, a XAML based platform with mini .NET CLR platform included. With this product it appears that Microsoft is targeting both web animations and rich experience web applications.

Microsoft affirmed that Silverlight will be cross platform framework available for IE, Firefox, Safari on both Windows and MAC OSX. Anyway, only the time will tell if this was only a marketing trick to help competing with Adobe Flash/Flex platform or Microsoft is indeed honoring its statements.

To find out more visit Silverlight site at http://www.silverlight.net/ and in case you are a developer don’t miss the getting started video.

Free software for VMA ITObserver readers

2007-04-20T11:48:00.000-04:00

VMA ITObserver is running a campaign of expanding its email subscriber user base. As compensation each subscriber will have access to a unique library of free software, not available anywhere else on Internet.

Subscription is FREE and besides access to this collection of software the readers will also enjoy the convenience of receiving ITObserver posts by email, in nicely formatted emails with NO advertisements. You will receive just an email a day and only in those days when a post is published on VMA ITObserver. No posting – no emails.

Email delivery is powered by FeedBurner, a well known leader of blogging tools industry. If for any reason, you are not completely satisfied by this subscription, you can cancel it at any time by a simple click on the link that is automatically inserted at the bottom of each email.

Click here for your free subscription to VMA ITObserver (alternatively you can enter your email address in the appropriate box on the right column), then proceed to download any of the below software.

FREE Microsoft Access Replacement

DBUtils is a freeware application designed both as a replacement of Microsoft Access (for very basic scenarios) and as a complementary tool for software developers and Microsoft Access DB designers. More…

Customizable HDD Search Engine

While searching the web is very common and easy these days... you cannot say the same about searching on local drives. The article proposes an efficient and alternative searching method based on Microsoft Index Server and a custom ASP page. More…

Publish CHM files online

Publish CHM documentation ( Microsoft Compressed HTML Help ) on web using a FREE Http Handler. Once the FREE Http Handler is installed on IIS the CHM documentation will be available to remote clients like a regular web site. More…

Archive your article collection in CHM format

With this software you can make a CHM (Compressed HTML Manual) file out of an entire folder of saved web pages. While a CHM has roughly the same size of a zip file it retains the ability to open the entire archive without requiring prior file extraction or other preparation. More…

Catalog your books collection using Amazon.com

Using this tool you can generate an HTML catalog for your books using information provided by Amazon WS. In general the information for each book will contain a picture of its cover, editor review and Amazon.com customer reviews. More...

ExpressTalk for PocketPC

2007-03-26T10:42:00.000-04:00

The light and easy to use VoIP softphone ExpressTalk is now available for PocketPC as well. You can download the software using this direct link.

Open source VoIP development in Romania

2007-03-21T23:57:00.000-04:00

No doubt that Romanians love open source. It was proven before with Linux and PHP and now it will be demonstrated again with VoIP/SIP. At least 2 open source VoIP projects were started and heavily developed in Romania:

OpenSER. An open source PBX derived from SIP Express Router. In June 2005, two SER core developers Bogdan-Andrei Iancu, Daniel-Constantin Mierla and one main contributor Elena-Ramona Modroiu (all Romanians) started OpenSER project. Many others joined later.

Yate. An open source IP-PBX developed in C++. For quite some time it was solely developed by Paul Chitescu and Diana Cionoiu, Romanian programmers.

Besides these projects, Asterisk has a solid user base in Romania.

Record phone calls without requiring any hardware or software

2007-03-21T10:05:00.001-04:00

A new service launched recently by 2ReCall lets you record any US outgoing call on any phone, wireless or landline, without requiring any hardware or software. All you have to do is dial a toll free 800 number and then enter the number you wish to dial. Have your conversation and when you’ve finished log on the website and access the recorded file.

The rates are either 20 cents / minute or 15 cents / minute, depending which plan you purchase: $4.95 / month for 500GB space or $9.95 / month for 1GB space and lower per minute rates.

Place a Call for Free widget on your website

2007-03-21T10:03:00.000-04:00

Jaxtr lets you place a call for free widget on your website. A site visitor will type a phone number and the system will call automatically both your registered phone and visitor specified phone and then link the calls.

At this moment Jaxtr is a free service. Users will receive a limited amount of minutes for free after which their calls will be redirected to voicemail.

Manage cell phone voicemail messages on your computer

2007-03-19T09:39:00.000-04:00

GotVoice is a nice service that allows you to enjoy the convenience of having your home, cell & work voicemails emailed to you, or access them online from anywhere, at anytime. Although the feature is common now with almost any VoIP plan, is still something to wish for if you have a more classical provider such as Bellsouth, AT&T, SBC, T-Mobile, Cingular, Sprint, Verizon.

GotVoice manages to deliver you by email the voicemails from the above providers. They handle this by dialing in your provider’s voice system, entering the PIN you specify and then retrieve the messages.

Forward your mobile and landline to a number overseas via Skype

2007-03-15T16:18:00.000-04:00

What you are doing with your home and cell phones while you are traveling overseas? Most probably you’ll leave both at home, since landline is not quite portable and mobile roaming charges are not low.

Using SkyQube device you can now forward both your landline/cell to an overseas number. Just take out the SIM from your mobile phone and put it into the device or plug the PSTN landline, install the software on a computer and automatically transfer the calls to another phone number. Your friends that are calling you home or on the cell will not even notice that they are forwarded overseas.

Top 10 Skype Hacks

2007-03-15T10:48:00.000-04:00

People like tops! Articles such as “Top 10 gadgets of all time”, “The most useful software” etc. will always make to the first page of social websites such as Digg.

In this article I’ll show you the top 10 Skype hacks:

1. Running multiple instances of Skype on the same computer

This is one of the most requested features not only by Skype users, but also by other voice and IM applications users. For instance you may have a Skype Work account and a Personal account and normally you want to communicate with peoples from both lists in the same time. Until this feature will be supported by Skype you may use one of the following workaround.

2. Run a small customer support center using only Skype

One of the least used features of Skype is its ability to register simultaneous from multiple locations. Although this feature may say nothing to a home user, a small call-center business can make use of it by implementing the call-center business using Skype.

3. Disguising your Voice

By using Voice Changer software you tweak your speaking voice in real time by adding echos and other sound effects. Find out more from this article.

4. Integrating Skype in a SIP PBX

PBXes should not scary anymore. As showed by this article even Windows users can setup in less than 20 minutes a full feature PBX with unlimited extensions, voice mail and call attendant. Skype can be integrated very easily in such setup by using free software from NCH Swift Sound as described by this article.

5. Call Skype contacts from mobile phone

You can do this by integrating Skype in your own PBX as described by previous hack, or by using an online service such as this one, or even by doing your own setup using a free piece of software called Vox for Skype.

6. Skype without a PC

Do you like Skype but you don’t like to be near the computer when making phone calls? There is good news for you: at least a few companies have launched Skype devices that don’t require a PC. The following article presents 2 of them.

7. Home Security System

You need 2 separate Skype account for this one. Put a webcam on an always on computer and setup Skype to automatically answer calls and fire up the webcam. To check in use the other Skype account to call in.

8. Skype wake-up call

Using Windows Task Scheduler create a new task that runs Skype executable according to your needs. In the Run box specify after the path to Skype.exe (usually "C:\Program Files\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe") the following parameter: /callto:phonenumber where phonenumber is the number you wish to dial in international format. Also make sure that Skype is associated with callto: links in Sykpe options.

9. Offer abroad relative the chance to call you for free on your mobile phone

For only $29, your abroad relatives and friends can call you for free on your mobile phone. All you have to do is forward ("Tools" -> "Options" -> "Call Forwarding & Voicemail") your Skype account to your cell phone number. Your friends will only use their Skype instances.

10. Make money developing Skype voice services

If you are a developer you can develop Skype Tellme applications and charge the users according to your plan. Check this article for a starting point.

A VoIP device you cannot get in US

2007-03-14T21:11:00.000-04:00

In Germany there is a popular product from AVM called Fritz!Box Fon Wlan. It is an all-in-one device for all your communication needs. Its specifications are absolutely remarkable:

Networking features

ADSL modem

LAN Router

Wireless Access Point (IEEE 802.11g - 54 Mbit/s and 802.11g++ - 125 Mbit/s )

Bandwidth Management (ADSL traffic shaping)

Firewall

Telephony features

Fixed-line PBX

IP PBX. Register up to 10 different SIP providers for both incoming and outgoing calls. Each extension is configured individually. Create dial plans. etc.

Personal storage

USB host for sharing on the network USB printers or USB mass storage devices

Too bad this product is not (yet) available outside Europe.

Call Romania for 1 cent / minute

2007-03-12T00:47:00.001-04:00

After InternetCalls, another Finarea/Betamax company has announced its low cost 1 cent / minute rate with Romania. For more information visit Low-Rate VoIP website.

Make low cost international calls from your mobile phone using ANY VoIP provider and NO extra hardware

2007-03-09T12:33:00.000-05:00

To make cheap international calls from a mobile phone using VoIP is not a novelty. There are a couple of possible solutions out there:

use your data plan and a softphone. Disadvantages: Available only with expensive devices and plans and limited to internet connectivity and available bandwidth;

use your data plan to activate the phone call. Disadvantages: Requires a data plan and a provider to support web activated telephony (although some tricks are possible using VoXaLot). You cannot obtain always the best rates.

use a PSTN access number. Disadvantages: The provider must offer this service.

use a hardware ATA device at home that offer a gateway between your PSTN line and a VoIP account. Disadvantages: Requires extra hardware.

use a dedicated Linux box with Asterisk and DISA (Direct Inward System Access). Disadvantages: requires an extra machine and Linux which is still scary enough for the majority of users.

The solution described in this article has the following advantages:

use any VoIP provider. Select the provider that has the best rates with your destination.

use more that one VoIP provider. The provider will be dynamically selected at the moment your make the phone call. Besides hi-availability through redundancy, more providers allow you to call different destinations at best rates;

requires no extra hardware. Nothing to buy.

doesn’t require Linux.

you don’t need a data plan. Just call a real US phone number (that you select) from your mobile phone or any other phone.

Easy to implement. In only 20 minutes after reading this article you’ll have your system up and running.

Step 1. Required software

For implementing this solution you need to download and install the following Windows applications.

NCH Axon. This is free software period.
NCH IVM. Although not free, you can use the trial version and if you like it you can buy it at a later time.

Step 2. Configure Axon

Axon configuration will be done using a web browser. Click on Web Control button in main Axon window to launch your default browser and log into Axon configuration site.

First you need to define an extension for the call attendant. Go to extensions tab and click on Add New Extension button. Ignore for now the other extensions that come with the system. You can clean them later when you’ll have a better understanding of this software.

Just complete the minimum information for the new extension:

Extension ID: 200
Display Name: DISA (which stands for Direct Inward System Access)
Password: disa

Second you need to define external lines. For this switch to corresponding tab and eventually remove any existing data on this tab before adding any new line.

Since the system will be used to make cheap international calls from USA we need at least one VoIP provider that provide a real US phone number and one or more VoIP providers that offer good rates with the destination.

FreeDigits is the perfect candidate for the US provider due to their offer: Free Read US Phone Number and Free Unlimited Incoming Calls. As international providers we’ll select SmartCall and TelefonIP due to their good rates with Europe (especially Romania).

The following images show how to configure these providers in Axon.

After you finish adding the providers, the External Lines tab should look like in the following image.

The last thing that we need to configure in Axon is the dial plan. This specifies what provider should handle a particular destination number. To keep things simple we’ll edit the default dial plan, adding the information as in the following images:

Step 3. Configure IVM

IVM is a SIP client that will answer automatically and present caller an interactive voice menu. IVM will be used to implement our call attendant.

From the main IVM window, click on Settings then go on Telephony tab, clear existing items there and then add a new VoIP provider settings. Since IVM will connect to our Axon server, and both are installed on the same machine, we’ll specify localhost in server field, 200 as SIP number and disa (or the password you set when you defined the 200 extension in Axon) as password.

Next, press the OGM button on the main toolbar to open the OGM manager. Here create 2 new items: Enter access code and Enter destination number.

The complete instructions for creating these items are displayed in the following 2 images, the important areas being highlighted. Please note that you need to change the out going audio messages for both items by recording new voice prompts. Also put a secret 4 digits code in the corresponding textbox and a valid phone number in the CID textbox. The CID setting allows you to avoid entering access code if you initiate the call from the specified phone number.

That's all! Now take a break and after that call your FreeDigits phone number from a cell phone (or any other phone). If you did the settings carefully you should hear the first voice prompt asking you to enter an access code. Using phone keyboard enter the 4 digits access code you setup. If the code was correct, you should now enter the destination number after the second voice prompt. Please keep in mind that the destination numbers should be prefixed with 01, 02 or 03 according to the dial plan you defined in Axon at step 1. The prefix automatically selects the desired VoIP provider.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed spending the last night hacking Axon/IVM and writing this tutorial. Come back soon for the second part of the article which will show you how to integrate Skype in this solution.

Comments welcomed!

Speed dialing long sequences of numbers from mobile phones

2007-03-06T11:53:00.001-05:00

One of the least used features that almost any cell phone has nowadays is the ability to store in one single entry a phone number and a sequence of digits that will be sent as touch tones after the number is dialed.

Look in your phone manual how to enter characters p and w when you dial a phone number. Both characters introduce different types of pauses in a dialing sequence.

Let’s say you want to reach a GizmoProject user from your cell phone using a SipBroker PSTN access number and a simple dialing method. For illustrating this example will take a simple example:

PSTN Access Number: 214-261-9940
SIPBroker SIP Code: *747
SIPPhone Number: 1-747-474-3246 (SIPPhone Echo Test)

All you have to do is to add a new entry in your cell phone agenda with the following number:

2142619940p*74717474743246

The method can be used in the same way to ease dialing of sequences described by this article and this article.

Web Activated Telephony for mobile phones

2007-03-05T23:34:00.001-05:00

In one of the previous posts I presented a powerful solution of Web Activated Telephony with cost control using a service from VoXaLot (a Jajah for advanced users).

Looking recently on VoXaLot site I note that they enhanced the Web activated telephony service to allow VoIP calls to be initiated from a mobile phone. To do this you must set-up the Web Callback Phone Book and then using your mobile phone go to:

http://mobile.voxalot.com/

A data plan is required for this. Since the connection is used only for activating the call, a GPRS connection is more than enough. The service is perfect for using those SIP providers that offer grate rates with certain destinations but don’t provide PSTN access numbers.

Get a local phone number for GizmoProject from GrandCentral

2007-03-02T22:39:00.000-05:00

GizmoProject 3.0 was just released a few days ago. Besides the other bells and whistles, the voice features of this release are quite impressive:

Free call's to any GizmoProject, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, or Windows Live user.

Free voicemail with customizable outgoing message.

Free mobile and landline phone calls between you and your friends on your contact list.

Free conference calls between mobile phones, landlines, and Gizmo Project users.

Call recording.

Second login to a 3rd party SIP PBX. You can now log into a 3rd party PBX (like Asterisk) and the Gizmo Project network at the same time.

SIP number doubling your GizmoProject user id. With this number you can receive calls from other VoIP networks, you can use your GizmoProject account with a regular SIP phone adapter or you can receive calls with free PSTN Access Numbers.

If the above features alone still don’t convince you to try GizmoProject and SIPPhone then this will surely change your mind:

GrandCentral added recently a feature to ring your GizmoProject SIP number, together with the other PSTN numbers you specify. This is like getting a free local phone number for your GizmoProject or SIPPhone ATA.

Call Romania using Web Activated Telephony and SmartCall or TelefonIP

2007-03-01T13:30:00.001-05:00

Advanced users have probably figured out immediately how to do this after reading the previous post. For the rest of readers the current post should provide the missing information. Also is very important to mention that SmartCall and TelefonIP are 2 VoIP providers that offer good rates with Romania.

Step 1. Create an account with either one of these 2 providers.

Step 2. Create an account with a provider has offers free phone calls to US (or your living country).

Step 3. Register your selected providers with VoXaLot and eventually add entries to your VoXaLot Web Callback Phonebook.

That’s all. Each time you want to call family/friends or business partners in Romania, just log in to VoXaLot account and click on the appropriate phonebook entry. Your landline/mobile phone will start ringing and in a few seconds you’ll be connected with your destination.

Web Activated Telephony with cost control

2007-03-01T12:54:00.000-05:00

The concept of Web Activated Telephony is not new anymore. Since Jajah popularized this concept a lot of VoIP companies embraced it. Even Finarea/Betamax launched a similar service at http://www.webcalldirect.com/

In case of all these companies the principle is the same. The caller enters his phone number and destination phone number in a form on a web page. Then the system is calling simultaneously both numbers and connects the calls.

Because the VoIP calls don’t use parties’ bandwidth, this solution is preferred by dialup or mobile users and beginners (because you don’t need anything to install or configure).

Since not one, but two calls are terminated to PSTN you’d expect that the cost of web activated telephony to be higher than the standard method of calling a PSTN number from a SIP device. Interesting enough the price is affordable in most situations.

For advanced users, the guys at VoXaLot offer even a more powerful web activated telephony solution in which the caller has a better control over phone call cost.

Let’s take a simple example. Let’s suppose that you are living in US and you want to call a friend in Romania using Web Activated Telephony and also you want to have a good control over your costs.

First you need to signup with 2 VoIP providers. Prepaid providers are the best choice for beginners. Try to find a provider that has best rates for calling US and one that has best rates for calling Romania. Next, open an account with VoXaLot and register these providers with them:

To make a phone call, go to VoXaLot Web Callback page and enter your phone number and destination phone number. For each number specify the VoIP provider that should handle the connection. If you are connected via dialup you can specify a delay after which calls begins (in this time you’ll have to disconnect from Internet and release the phone line).

When you talk using this method you’ll consume call-out minutes of both providers. Anyway, carefully choosing the 2 providers can translate to really cheap phone calls. You can even do cheap internationally phone calls from your mobile phone if you have a data plan.

An alternative method (and better in my opinion) of doing cheap PSTN to PSTN phone calls via VoIP was described in the article: Mobile to VoIP bridge.

Call Romania for 1 cent / minute

2007-02-27T21:48:00.001-05:00

If you are after calling deals to Romania then InternetCalls may bring you good news. For a limited time they have a rate of 1 cent / minute with Romania’s landline phones. This method of promoting services is common along all Finarea/Betamax companies.

Attract visitors by offering free content

2007-02-27T16:10:00.001-05:00

One of the best marketing tips to attract visitor to your site/blog is to give away free content. Internet visitors like free content!

You can offer as free content: articles, books or software. Also remember that general interest content will attract more visitors than niche content. Don’t try to steal content from other sites but instead create unique e-books or small freeware applications that will be available only through your website/blog.

If you are a good writer try also to publish a few articles on specialized websites. For instance, if you have a programming blog, an article posted on codeproject.com, for sure will raise the traffic to your site. The article should offer valuable information and not look like an advertisement. A discrete short biography and web address at the end of the article is enough to divert interested visitors to your site.

You can offer free content like a bonus to site visitors or to stimulate them to subscribe to certain site features. For instance, ITObserver blog offers for free valuable software applications to all site visitors that choose to subscribe to the free blog newsletter. By subscribing to the free newsletter not only that you get recent blog posts delivered to your email box (without advertisements) but you also get free software.

Call Romania from a PSTN phone using SmartCall

2007-02-27T15:12:00.001-05:00

This article shows how to call your family and friends from Romania using SmartCall VoIP provider and a PSTN phone (eg. your landline phone). This method was not yet fully validated and may not work in all situations. Of course the usage of hardware IP Phone or ATA is still the recommended method.

Step 1: Call one of the SIPBroker PSTN access numbers, eg: (630) 405-0745.

Step 2: At voice prompt dial *466 followed immediately by one of these numbers: 5693570 or 5695000

Step 3: Enter your phone card 10 digit number.

If the above dialing sequence seems complicated, you may simplify it by either using a SIP Broker alias or an IPKall personal number as showed in previous article.

See also the other article about how to call Romania from a PSTN phone using TelefonIP.

Comments welcomed!

Call Romania from a PSTN phone using TelefonIP

2007-02-27T15:11:00.001-05:00

This article shows how to call your family and friends from Romania using TelefonIP VoIP provider and a PSTN phone (eg. your landline phone). Of course the usage of hardware IP Phone or ATA is still the recommended method.

Method 1

Use one of the official listed PSTN access numbers.
While very easy to use, sometime these numbers may not work properly.

Method 2

Use a SIPBroker PSTN access number. For instance, US callers may pick (630) 405-0745. Next use any of the following 2 solutions:

2a) Dial: (630) 405-0745, and after voice prompt type: *011401#
2b) Dial: (630) 405-0745, and after voice prompt type: *7576 0215897373

If you dialed the numbers correctly you should here now the TelefonIP voice prompt asking you for a destination number.

Method 3

Allocate your own US PSTN number using IPKall. If not used this number will expire in one month, but the advantage is that the dialing is simplified.

First open a free account with IPKall, then put the following information:

SIP Proxy: sip.telefonip.org
SIP Phone Number: 0215897373

Please remember to put exactly the above SIP phone number, no matter what’s your telefonip number. In about 1 hour you should receive an email from IPKall with your personal US phone number.

See also the other article about how to call Romania from a PSTN phone using SmartCall.

Comments welcomed!

Call any SmartCall number from a PSTN phone

2007-02-27T15:10:00.001-05:00

This article shows how to call any SmartCall number from a PSTN phone (eg. your landline phone).

1) Call one of the following PSTN access numbers:

USA
(630) 405-0745

Canada
418-948-3307

Spain
+34-91-771-17-20

2) At voice prompt enter: *466 xxx-xxx-xxxx, where xxx-xxx-xxxx is SmartCall phone number you wish to call.

Prevent content stealing by protecting web pages

2007-02-21T22:28:00.000-05:00

This article shows you how to implement different protections for a web page to prevent content stealing. For sake of understanding all examples were implemented in VBScript.

1. Display a message on right mouse click

You need to handle onmousedown event and check which mouse button was pressed. This method doesn’t offer any protection is users press Win-ContextMenu system key.

Sub document_onmousedown
If window.event.button = 2 Then MsgBox "This page is protected."
End Sub

2. Disable context menu

This protection method works only on IE but is nicer than the previous method. You need to handle the event that is fired on context menu popup.

Sub document_oncontextmenu
window.event.returnValue = False
End Sub

3. Disable F5 and Backspace keys

This method is especially useful if you indent the user to navigate your site only through navigation controls you implement. Of course, the user can press the Back button on the toolbar, but this inconvenient can also be solved by opening the site in a window without toolbars.

Sub document_onkeydown
Dim key

key = window.event.keyCode

If key = 116 or key = 8 Then
window.event.keyCode = 0
window.event.returnValue = False
End If
End Sub

The above code snippet is just for demo purpose only. In a real world scenario you should check the context where the user presses a key. For instance you should allow Backspace if the user is in an INPUT type field.

4. Protect scripts

This method works only in IE5+. First you need to download script scrambling tool, srcenc.exe from Microsoft.

Let’s say we have the following script in a web page:

<script language=vbscript>
Sub ShowMsg
MsgBox "This is a message"
End Sub
</script>

The result of running the presented tool on this script is the following:

<script language=VBScript.Encode>#@~^MBcAAA==@#@&P~1WswV6sGN'Wl
... dgGAA==^#~@</script>

IE5+ browsers will know how to run scripts written in “VBScript.Encode”. Older browsers will just ignore these encoded scripts. You should know that this method is good only to scare beginners because experienced hackers can easily revert the encryption.

5. Protect entire web page content

For this you need to use one of the many protection tools available on Internet. Usually these tools are removing all white spaces from HTML pages, the result being an unintelligible block of tags.

6. Protect discrete page elements

The following paragraphs will show you how to protect different page elements against incorrect user actions. These are not security protections but more protections against incorrect usage that would otherwise trigger a non-planned behavior.

6.1. Create unelectable paragraphs

<body UNSELECTABLE="on">
...

<div UNSELECTABLE="on" style="cursor:default;">This text cannot be selected using mouse</div>
...
</body>

6.2. Disable automatic field’s fill up

This method is useful for fields used for typing username or address. Normally after a few letters types, IE will suggest you a previously entered text. This is not a very good idea especially if a web application will be used on public computers.

7. A complex protection for IE browsers

In IE5+ you can combine the above described protection methods in one single “behavior”. The following example shows such method (write the first code in application.htc file and the second in test.htm file).

application.htc

<PUBLIC:ATTACH EVENT="onkeydown" ONEVENT="HandleKeyDown"/>
<PUBLIC:ATTACH EVENT="oncontextmenu" ONEVENT="HandleContextMenu"/>

<script language=vbscript>
Sub HandleKeyDown
Dim key

key = window.event.keyCode

if key = 116 then ‘ F5 does nothing
CancelKeyEvent
elseif key = 8 then ' For Backspace check where is pressed
If CancelInElement(window.event.srcElement) then CancelKeyEvent
end if
End Sub

Sub HandleContextMenu
If CancelInElement(window.event.srcElement) then _
window.event.returnValue = false
End Sub

Sub CancelKeyEvent
window.event.keyCode = 0
window.event.returnValue = false
End Sub

Function CancelInElement(elem)
Dim re

re = true

select case elem.tagName
case "INPUT" if LCase(elem.type) = "text" then re = false
case "TEXTAREA" re = false
case "DIV", "SPAN" if elem.contenteditable = "true" then re = false
end select

CancelInElement = re
End Function

</script>

test.htm

<HTML>
<head>
<style>
BODY
{
BACKGROUND-COLOR: steelblue;
FONT-FAMILY: Verdana;
FONT-SIZE: 10px;
behavior:url('application.htc');
cursor: default;
}
</style>
</head>

<BODY UNSELECTABLE="on">

Time: <span id=clock UNSELECTABLE="on"></span><br>
<input type="text"><br><textarea></textarea>

<div UNSELECTABLE="on" style="background-color:red;width:200px;height:100px;">
This is a regular DIV...
</div>

<div contenteditable=true style="cursor:text;border:inset thin;background-color:white;width:200px;height:100px;">
This is an <b>EDITABLE</b> DIV...
</div>

<script language=vbscript>
sub window_onload
clock.innerHTML = Now()
end sub
</script>

</BODY>
</HTML>

I hope this was useful. I’m waiting for comments and suggestions, especially regarding how to implement similar protections on Firefox.

FREE Microsoft Access Replacement

2007-02-21T00:38:00.000-05:00

DBUtils is a freeware application designed both as a replacement of Microsoft Access (for very basic scenarios) and as a complementary tool for software developers and Microsoft Access DB designers.

Features

View database properties

View tables, views and queries

View structure of tables

View, using a colored syntax editor, the SQL behind views and stored procedures

View the data from tables and view

View the source code of application associated with the database

Perform searches in database structures and source code files

View dependencies between objects: parents and child of tables, views, stored procedures

Easy to use - GUI is similar to Microsoft Access applications

Commented screenshots

After staring up the application you have to create a connection to your DB. For convenience this connection can be saved for a quick access at a later time:

An interesting feature for JET/Access software developers can be seen on the second tab. Besides the DB connection you can also specify a folder that contains the source code of a project that uses that particular database. If you specify this information, you’ll be able to perform complex searches through all your project files:

The most representative features of this application are two options from context menu: What use the object and Who use the object. Both are showing dependencies from 2 perspectives:

Viewing a query or stored procedure is also not a problem with this tool. In case of tables the date content is displayed:

If you specified a project folder at the first step, then you can quickly see, using the Files tab, what DB objects are used by each source code file in your project:

For complex searches one may invoke the Search tool (from main menu or from context menu). This tool is searching all table structures, stored procs, views and source code files for the particular piece of text that is specified:

Note: DBUtils is an original application available only through ITObserver (you’ll not find it anywhere else on the NET). At this moment, it is available FREE OF CHARGE to all ITObserver Email Subscribers. If you are already an email subscriber of ITObserver you may request the application by dropping a text or audio comment or by sending an email to vmasoft at yahoo dot com. If you are not yet a subscriber, you may subscribe now and then request the application.

Don’t forget: DBUtils is just one of the benefits of being an ITObserver subscriber. The most important thing is that you’ll get fresh tech news and articles delivered directly to your email box.

Customizable HDD Search Engine

2007-02-19T23:56:00.000-05:00

Anyone who’s navigating on Web knows the importance of a good search engine. Finding information on Web it is almost impossible nowadays without search engines. While searching the web is very common and easy these days… you cannot say the same about searching on local drives. How many times did you download again a document or application (that you knew you had it on your local drive) just because it was easier to find it on the web than on your own computer?

While some users are already using local indexing services, such as those from Google or Yahoo, the majority are not yet familiar with local search technologies. Even those that are already using out-of-the-box searching tools feel sometime the need for a little customization (eg. Web masters).

This article proposes an efficient and alternative searching method based on Microsoft Index Server and a custom ASP page. Using this method, one may index all its documents and saved web pages for easy information retrieval. Microsoft Index Server is able to search and index a wide variety of common file types: HTML documents, Office documents and PDF documents (using the free PDF IFilter plug-in from Adobe).

Start Indexing Service.

Define a catalog for your documents and saved pages (see Docs in the next image).

Define directories for this catalog. Make sure each directory has indexing enabled.

That’s all for configuration. Now come programming part. For the ease of understanding this was done in ASP (classical ASP… not ASP.NET). Any IIS server should be able to run ASP pages.

The entire implementation is done is one single ASP page and the most important piece of code that you have to write is listed below:

...

' Builds an SQL statement for Indexing Service
Function BuildSQLQuery(q,nq)
SQL = "SELECT Rank, Filename, Size, DocTitle, Path, Write, Characterization FROM Docs..Scope() " &_
"WHERE CONTAINS(" & "'" & q & "'" & ")"
If nq<>"" Then SQL = SQL & " AND NOT CONTAINS(" & "'" & nq & "'" & ")"
SQL = SQL & " ORDER BY Rank DESC"
BuildSQLQuery = SQL
End Function

Sub DoSearch(q,nq)
Set objConn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
objConn.ConnectionString = "provider=msidxs"
objConn.Open
Set objRS = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.RecordSet")
objRS.CursorLocation = adUseClient

On Error Resume Next
objRS.Open BuildSQLQuery(q,nq), objConn, adOpenKeyset,adLockReadOnly
If Err.number <> 0 or (objRS.EOF and objRS.BOF) Then Err.Clear
Response.Write "No records found!"
Set objRS = Nothing
objConn.Close
Set objConn = Nothing
Response.End
Exit Sub
End If

objRS.PageSize = RecordsPerPage
pag = Request.QueryString("pag")
If pag <> "" Then
pag = CInt(pag)
If pag < pag =" 1" pag =" 1" absolutepage =" pag" rowcount =" objRS.PageSize" rowonpage =" RecordsPerPage">"" then Response.Write " And Not Contains "&nq&""

Do While Not objRS.EOF And RowCount > 0
Response.Write RowOnPage & "."
RowOnPage = RowOnPage + 1
With Response
.Write "Title: " & Server.HTMLEncode(objRS.Fields("DocTitle").Value)
.Write "Filename: " & objRS.Fields("Filename").Value
.Write "Description: " & Server.HTMLEncode(objRS.Fields("characterization").Value)
.Write "URL: "
.Write objRS.Fields("path").Value
End With
RowCount = RowCount - 1
objRS.MoveNext
Loop
...

For the sake of readability the above snippets show only the most important part of the implementation. If you are not a programmer or you just don’t feel comfortable hacking ASP pages, you may request the entire implementation for FREE.

Supposing that you are saving your code as searchdocs.asp in your web server root folder then you can your search engine by navigating to:

http://localhost/searchdocs.asp

The following page shows a screen capture of how this custom search engine looks like. You can see that looks pretty basic… but the big advantage is that having the source code of ASP page you can customize it to feet your corporate/personal needs.

Note: HDD Search Engine is an original implementation available only through ITObserver. At this moment, it is available FREE OF CHARGE to all ITObserver Email Subscribers. If you are already an email subscriber of ITObserver you may request the web application by dropping a text or audio comment or by sending an email to vmasoft at yahoo dot com. If you are not yet a subscriber, you may subscribe now and then request the application.

Don’t forget: HDD Search Engine is just one of the benefits of being an ITObserver subscriber. The most important thing is that you’ll get fresh tech news and articles delivered directly to your email box.

Publish CHM files online

2007-02-19T12:35:00.000-05:00

Publish CHM documentation ( Microsoft Compressed HTML Help ) on web using a FREE Http Handler. Once the FREE Http Handler is installed on IIS the CHM documentation will be available to remote clients like a regular web site.

The best part of this tool is that there is no need to preprocess the CHM files! Just drop them on your web server and automatically the remote clients will see them like regular web pages. Since the output of this tool is platform-independent, users can use whatever browser they like to read the documentation.

CHM Browser Key Features

- publish CHM documentation on web without preprocessing;
- on the fly publish of CHM documents on web (just drop the CHM files on a web server and see the results);
- help documentation outputted by the component is platform-independent and browser-independent;
- CHM Browser helps search engines ( internet or intranets ones ) to index the content of CHM files;
- Published CHM documents maintain original CHM tree structure;
- FREE for ITObserver email subscribers;
- Source code available on request.

Why publish CHM files online?

- to make available products documentation to corporate users on company intranet portal;
- to better control documentation versioning;
- creating documentation in CHM format helps you target offline customers, while publishing CHM documents on web helps online customers;
- using CHM browser component users don’t have to download big CHM files. They’ll just browse/search the section they are interested in.

CHM Browser configuration

CHM Browser Http Handler is a .NET component (requires Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1+). Configuration of this component is achieved via editing a simple XML format file: Web.config

One of the most important features that you’ll want to configure here is a YES/NO parameter that specifies if download of original CHM file is allowed. If download is not allowed, remote clients will be able to only browse the content of CHM files without downloading the entire file.

Example

Let’s suppose we have a CHM file (tutorial.chm ) hosted on a web server with this component.

To download the CHM (supposing you are allowed to) you’ll have to point your browser to:

http://server/yourpath/tutorial.chm

To browse the CHM file directly on the server, point the browser to:

http://server/yourpath/tutorial.chm/

Note that the second URL has only a slash (/) appended to the address. Imagine this like CHM file is a folder.

Screen shots

A web folder in browse mode.

Reading a CHM document.

Reading a CHM document.

Downloading CHM Browser

Note: CHM Browser is an original application available only through ITObserver (you’ll not find it anywhere else on the NET). At this moment, it is available FREE OF CHARGE to all ITObserver Email Subscribers. If you are already an email subscriber of ITObserver you may request the application by dropping a text or audio comment or by sending an email to vmasoft at yahoo dot com. If you are not yet a subscriber, you may subscribe now and then request the application.

Don’t forget: CHM Browser is just one of the benefits of being an ITObserver subscriber. The most important thing is that you’ll get fresh tech news and articles delivered directly to your email box.

Archive your article collection in CHM format

2007-02-15T00:42:00.000-05:00

A few years ago the Internet access was so slow that people often saved interesting web pages to local drive for easy and quick reference. Some pages were sent to the printer but most of them remained stored on computer hard drive. Even with today’s high speed internet people still saves web pages to their computer for different reasons. Collecting and availability (in case the online page is removed) are some of them.

For archiving purpose most users are making a zip file out of their folders and burn the file to a CD or DVD. To view an archived article you have to unzip the entire collection first. Due to this inconvenience most articles are never reopened and become lost forever inside that zip file.

A better approach is to make a CHM (Compressed HTML Manual) file out of an entire folder of saved web pages. While a CHM has roughly the same size of a zip file it retains the ability to open the entire archive without requiring prior file extraction or other preparation. The CHM format was invented by Microsoft to keep Windows manuals in a modern and compact format.

Step 1. Save your favorite pages.

Because I like compact things I’m usually using the MHT format when I’m saving a web page from Internet Explorer. If you didn’t know about this, next time when you’ll save a page, it will be a good opportunity to test it.

If your saved pages are not in MHT format there is no reason to worry - the solution presented here works with almost any web document: MHT, HTML, etc.

Step 2. Start the FREE HTMLIndexer application

HTMLIndexer can be used mainly for 2 purposes: to generate an Index page for all articles in a folder, or to help generating a CHM file out of all articles in a folder. Since the scope of this post is to show you how to archive an entire folder of articles in a single CHM file make sure you check “Generate CHM project file” checkbox. A good idea is to check also the “Rename files” checkbox to increase compatibility with CHM specification.

To find out how to obtain HTMLIndexer please scroll to the end of this post.

After HTMLIndexer finishes its job take a look in your folder and note that several files appeared there: index.htm, index.hhp, index.hhc. If you checked “Rename files” then the filenames are also renamed using shorter names.

Step 3. Compile the CHM file

For this step you’ll need a second free application: Microsoft HTML Help Workshop. If you are a developer the chances are that you already have this application. If you don’ have it you can download it for free from Microsoft site.

Don’t worry about how to use it. Just install it and then double click on index.hhp file generated at previous step. Next press compile button and wait for application to finish its job.

Step 4. Cleaning up

That’s all. Now you can delete all the other files in the folder and keep only the generated CHM file.

You may now burn the CHM file on a CD, send it by email to a friend or just store it to your local hard drive. In any case you’ll be amazed how that huge folder of HTML files turned out in a nicely formatted CHM file in less than 2 minutes.

Note: HTMLIndexer is an original application available only through ITObserver (you’ll not find it anywhere else on the NET). At this moment, it is available FREE OF CHARGE to all ITObserver Email Subscribers.

If you are already an email subscriber of ITObserver you may request the application by dropping a text or audio comment or by sending an email to vmasoft at yahoo dot com. If you are not yet a subscriber, you may subscribe now and then request the application.

Don’t forget: HTMLIndexer is just one of the benefits of being an ITObserver subscriber. The most important thing is that you’ll get fresh tech news and articles delivered directly to your email box.

Blog upgrade shuffles articles

2007-02-14T10:53:00.000-05:00

I upgraded yesterday ITObserver to the new version of Blogger. It was not something that I wanted but I was actually forced to upgrade when I logged into my account. Unfortunately this upgrade broke RSS and Atom feeds. Certain articles published during 2006 appear as published this year. Email subscribers also noticed the unwanted behavior by receiving older articles bundled between the recent ones.

Sorry for this inconvenience and thank you for reading ITObserver.

From ancient HTML to Web 2.0

2007-02-13T20:12:00.001-05:00

Cool video presenting the differencing between Web 10 years ago and Web 2.0 of today.

Earn money selling what you say

2007-02-05T22:01:00.000-05:00

This is the motto of ether, a company backed by the same investors as Ebay and Skype. All you have to do is setup a free Ether Phone Number, set a rate and when people call, you get paid. The rate you set is up to you. You can charge per minute or per call.

There are also other web sites out there that help trainers/advisors monetize their experience. Two of them are BitWine and TWL. Although not voice oriented like ether, these sites offer good tools to their subscribers.

Catalog your books collection using Amazon.com

2007-01-31T10:59:00.000-05:00

If you have lots of books on your bookshelf that you’d like to catalog, then the following tool may come handy. It is a free tool with C# source code available on request (actually, the source code may make the subject of an article or another post in the near future).

The catalog is generated in HTML format using information provided by Amazon WS. In general the information for each book will contain a picture of its cover, editor review and Amazon.com customer reviews.

For a limited time (1 week) you can download it from here. If happened to land on this page at a later time, and found the link expired, drop me a comment and I’ll send you the tool.

GizmoCall

2007-01-30T10:37:00.000-05:00

The guys at GizmoProject launched recently a new service. Named GizmoCall, the new service allows you to make phone calls directly from your web browser. It is not a web activate phone service like Jajah – but a pure SIP softphone implementation with a Flash interface.

Free calls to US

2007-01-29T17:21:00.000-05:00

After Skype terminated last year its promotion of free calls to US, a lot of small companies started to offer free calls to US and other popular destinations. While reliability cannot yet be verified with all of these companies, is still worth using them for occasional or test purpose calls.

Free calls to US:

Build your own appliance using PC technology

2007-01-29T15:23:00.000-05:00

The big advantages of designing embedded products around PC technology is the simple development and quick time to market mostly due to reusing existing components such as: operating systems (Linux or Windows), drivers, development toolchains (GCC, .NET Framework, Java, etc) or even complete applications.

Encouraged by the success of Mini-ITX and Nano-ITX series, VIA announce recently pico-ITX. The new pico-ITX form-factor will reportedly measure 3.9 x 2.8 inches (10 x 7.2 cm) -- exactly half the surface area of Via's already small 4.7 x 4.7-inch (12 x 12cm) Nano-ITX standard, and considerably smaller than the original 6.7-inch square (17 x 17cm) mini-ITX standard.

If you are already using your PC only for a few dedicated tasks (VoIP, Media Center, etc) consider turning it into an appliance using one of the above motherboards. The tremendous benefits will include: low power consumption, no moving parts (most of these motherboards/processors can be used with a passive heat-sink and the HDD can be replaced with a flash memory), cool appearance … not to mention the personal satisfaction. A good place to start with such project is mini-itx.com

Linux for gadgets

2007-01-25T17:40:00.000-05:00

If happens to be a Linux and/or embedded development supporter, then you probably know already LinuxDevices.com. If now, then stop reading now this post and make that site a visit. Besides news and forums you’ll also find nice articles, like the following:

Although embedding Windows may not be for you as fun as embedding Linux, the site WindowsForDevices.com is still a good web destination.

Skype without a PC

2007-01-25T12:12:00.000-05:00

Do you like Skype (better than SIP?!) but you don’t like to be near the computer when making phone calls? There is good news for you: at least a few companies have launched Skype devices that don’t require a PC. All you need is a broadband connection and one of these devices: DUALPhone 3088, Webtalker 5000, SMC WSKP100 or Netgear SPH101.

Note: Alternatively you can use Skype for Mobile and a compatible PocketPC PDA.

SlingBox vs Hava

2007-01-24T15:05:00.000-05:00

Remember SlingBox and Hava? Since last post, both producers extended their streaming boxes family with new models with integrated tuners and HD support. If you intend to buy one of these products, the recommendation is to check yourself the specifications and then read tons of reviews. Anyway, for a quick compare you may take a look at the following table:

* This table was published by snappymultimedia, and so may contain subjective information.

Note: According to user reviews it appears that (at least with current firmwares) Slingbox is better suited for remote connections while Hava for local connections. On remote connections Hava seems to drop frames while on the LAN has exceptional quality, much greater than Slingbox.

Get a free incoming phone number

2007-01-07T22:18:00.000-05:00

For your SIP account

IPKall
http://www.ipkall.com

SIPnumber
http://sipnumber.com a service of FreeDigits

For your preferred IM

GizmoProject
http://www.gizmoproject.com/area775.html

AIM Phoneline
http://www.aimphoneline.com

Free and disposable phone number

2007-01-07T22:03:00.000-05:00

A new service for getting an auto-expiring, free and anonymous phone number was launched recently at craigsnumber.com. Make sure to check also this post for more similar services.

Mobile to VoIP bridge

2007-01-02T12:31:00.000-05:00

Finally a flexible and affordable mobile to VoIP (Skype and SIP) bridge service was launched at the beginning of this year. As opposed to other similar services, this is the first one focused on simplicity and customization.

Although it is marketed as a mobile to VoIP bridge service, you can use it with almost any classical phone. All you have to do is dial a local access number (or a toll-free number), and after the system recognize your CallerId, type your abroad number.

The interesting part is that you choose the rates by registering your preferred VoIP providers with this service. All your calls will be routed through one of your registered providers according to a dial plan you define.

This is the registration page for you providers. For maximum convenience, you can register more than one account with the same provider. Note that the service doesn’t actually register with SIP proxies because most people have also ATAs at home that use the same service.

The following screen is the one where you define you dialing plan. You basically need to specify just a prefix for each account that you want to use. While on the road, call a local PSTN access number, then your destination number beginning with the prefix for the appropriate account.

For even a simpler way to call abroad family and friends, the service offer the ability to define personal local numbers for those contacts. Just add these numbers to your phone’s address book and you are ready to call. For the other contacts (that you don’t call that often) just dial a generic local PSTN access number.

At this moment the service offers local PSTN access numbers in 40 countries including United States (numbers in 48 states), most western and eastern European countries, Israel and a few others from Asia and Africa.

While in beta the service will be FREE for all users. After that, the service owner announced that will introduce several plans: a free one targeting individuals (ad-supported) and some commercial plans targeting mobile corporate users. The free accounts will not have the possibility to define personal local access numbers. The users of free accounts will have to dial a generic local PSTN access number or the toll free number.

For more information about this service please drop me a comment.

Finarea/Betamax VoIP

2006-12-30T19:49:00.000-05:00

Finarea S.A. is a Swiss company that operates discount phone services under different brands. Even if you are in VoIP, you probably never heard Finarea until now, but brands such as voipbuster, voipstunt are probably very well known especially if you are after deals to international calls.

Betamax GmbH & Co KG is a German company that according to their press release, in December 2005, they took over all of the VoIP services previously run by Finarea SA. A few more VoIP services were added after that to the group.

Group companies:

http://www.freecall.com/
http://www.internetcalls.com/
http://www.lowratevoip.com/
http://www.netappel.fr/
http://www.poivy.com/
http://www.sipdiscount.com/
http://www.sparvoip.de/
http://www.voipbuster.com/
http://www.voipcheap.co.uk/
http://www.voipcheap.com/
http://www.voipdiscount.com/
http://www.voipstunt.com/
http://www.webcalldirect.com/
http://www.voicetrading.com/

The rates and promotions are always different between these providers. The following table lists the rates with Romania as extracted by the guy at http://backsla.sh/betamax.

Other source of non-official but good information about these companies can be found at Wolf’s pages.

Call Skype contacts from mobile/any phone

2006-12-26T00:30:00.000-05:00

If you ever wanted to use your mobile phone to call Skype contacts or make cheap SkypeOut phone calls, then you should look no further than VOXLIB.

Its usage is plain and simple:
- install Vox for Skype on your home computer;
- leave the computer and Skype on;
- while on the road, from your mobile or any phone, dial your SkypeIn number;
- the system recognize your CallerId and let’s you call any Skype contact you have in the list or make a SkypeOut phone call.

The ones without SkypeIn can use SMS. See VOXLIB website for more information.

Cheap calling plan from Skype

2006-12-13T22:22:00.000-05:00

Pay until the end of the year $55 and you can have:

1 year of unlimited nation-wide phone calls
A new phone number
Voice Mail

All this is possible due to a new disruptive calling plan announced recently by Skype. For only $14.95 (or $29.95 after January 31st 2007), Skype gives you a full year of unlimited calls to anyone, on any phone, within the US and Canada.

Add a regular phone number and Voice Mail via SkypeIn service and for $55 you’ll have a very cheap calling plan for the next year.

To complete the experience you need to purchase a hardware Skype device, preferable one that doesn’t require a computer (see DUALphone 3088).

And if you decide to visit Skype to check this great offer directly at the source, take a few minutes to download also the latest Skype 3.0.

IE7 annoyances and how to fix them

2006-12-13T15:26:00.000-05:00

All fixes involve registry changes. If IE is opened, close it before doing anything. Then start your registry editor (Start -> Run, type regedit in the run field and press OK).

Put menu bar at the top

Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\
Toolbar\WebBrowser

Create a new DWORD Value, and name it "ITBar7Position". Double click that new value, and assign it with a decimal value of 1

Restart IE7

Remove search bar

Create the following key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Infodelivery\Restrictions]

Create a new DWORD Value, and name it " NoSearchBox". Double click that new value, and assign it with a decimal value of 1

Restart IE7

Cell phone providers in US and Romania

2006-12-02T11:51:00.000-05:00

* Only the most popular providers are listed.

Use the following links to reach listed companies websites:

US: Cingular, T-Mobile, TracFone, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, Alltel, Virgin Mobile
Romania: Vodafone, Orange, Cosmote, Zapp Mobile

Although GSM is standard and well established in lots of countries, you may have surprises when you travel abroad with a phone that is not multi band. Read more about international phones in CNET’s Quick guide to World roaming.

If you need a quick introduction to 3G, it worth checking: CNET’s Quick guide to 3G.

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