Sending an Executable File in Gmail

As a matter of security from malicious code or so, G-mail beta does not allow users to send Executable files in Gmail. This helps to keep Gmail virus free. But this can be irritating at-times, like when you are trying to send something which is definitely virus free. Like if you did like to send a program that you made for evaluation to your friend or so. Here are 2 ways to send such files. Thanks to my friend Sam.

Method 1 :
Add the executable file to a zip archive. Its not over yet. Add this zip archive to another zip archive. So that your executable file will be inside two zip archives simultaneously. Then attach it and then you can send it comfortably.
eg:. If your file name is asd.exe , first add it to a zip archive named abc.zip or so. Then add this abc.zip to another zip named xyz.zip or so. Then attach it.

Method 2 :
Rename your executable file to something which is not an executable. That is change the extension .exe to somthing like .jkl or so. then attach it and inform the reciver at the other end to rename it to .exe before he can use it. That's it.
You can rename the file using command prompt.
For eg: if you wish to rename asd.exe to asd.jkl take command prompt and then go to the directory where your file is. then type ' rename asd.exe asd.jkl' without the quotes.

Good Luck!

What U Do Not See in Formula 1

What we see on the circuit is the end-product of hardwork of countlss number of enginers, technicians and researchers. There are some intresting things which we do no usually think of when we see Shumi or Alonso zooming ahead. Here are some intresting facts.

A Formula One car is an aeroplane in a modified form, built to run on land alone. A formula one car can go from 0 to 160 kmph in 4 seconds. The most amazing thing is that it can do the reverse too in 4 seconds, i.e 160kmph to 0kmph in 4 seconds!!!

Formula one cars use special tyres built to last only 90 to 120 kilometres while a normal tyre can last up to 100000 kilometres. So if your car uses a formula one tyre you will be spending money which would cost 2 times your whole car per year.

At a pitstop a well trained team can replace tyres in just 3 seconds! That's just the time which a normal technician takes to start loosening a nut of your normal tyre.

At top speeds a formula one tyres rotate at 50 rotations per second. An average ordinary car revs up to 6000 rpm at a maximum. An F1 car revs up to 18000rpm which means the pistons are moving up and down at 300 times per second.

Formula one car tyres are filled with nitrogen instead of air, because nitrogen has more consistant pressure. The pressure musn't vary a lot with temperature..right..?

In a race each tyre will loose around 500 grams and a race driver will loose 4 kilograms due to exposure to high G forces ( the same forces as u feel while standing in a bus taking a curve ), stress, adrenaline rush and the extreme temperature.

Formula one cars are refuelled at 12 litres per second. So you can get your car refuelled in just 4 seconds if you take your normal car to a pitstop. The refuelling gun which they insert consists of 2 passages. First the hot gases inside the fuel tank is sucked out and then only the fuel is pumped. There is a lot of risk in that procedure and a simple error can cause an explosion.

Formula 1 engines do not have a very long life. They need part replacements in every few hours. An engine is something which a car usually change when it comes to Formula 1 and something which  is never changed when it comes to a normal car.

The cogs of the gearbox of a F1 car is replaced after every race as it wears out due to shifting gears often and subjeaction to stress.

In aeroplanes the buoyant force created lifts it up. A F1 car is so aerodynamically designed so as to keep it fixed on to the ground. The speeds of a F1 car is so high that an aircraft can take off at slower speeds than a F1 car travels on the track. Remember Shumi once raced with an aircraft and won it !!
The aeordynamic downforce created by an F1 car is so high that in theory it can go upside down at 160kmph, holding itself to the ceiling of a tunnel or so.

Brake disks are made of Carbon Fibre in F1 cars and not of steel for the reason that while braking the disk reaches temperatures of 1000 degree celcious, high enough to melt steel.
When a F1 driver hits the brakes he experiences moments of deceleration comparable to a regular car driving through a solid wall at 300kmph.!!

F1 cars have around 100 sensors and the car has got over a kilometre of cable connecting them, to monitor the activities of various parts.

The 'cockpit' for a F1 car is so fit that a F1 driver has to first remove the steering by removing a latch before he can enter the car. The padddles for changing the gears are at the back of this wheel.

A F1 car has to go to race with 100% perfection. A 99.9% perfection means that the car has got 80 components wrong as an average F1 car has got 80000 components.!!

That's it. Send me more and get them all posted here. You will get all your credits.

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Don 2 - SRK moves higher

Don two is on the cinema halls. It is to be a block buster hit. This is something which SRK can proudly add in to his career and his caliber. I heard that the tickets for this mega film is reserved for over a month.

With only the title track- ' Mein hoo don' being an origional number the film features remixes of the songs the songs from the origional Don, of the one and only uncomparable Big B. Music done by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

We all hope it do do fine in the halls. All the best 'Don'

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BSNL LandLine vs Fixed Wireless

BSNL - bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has done a fine job in providing every indian with a b-fone by which he can avail a lot of servies including dial up internet connection. Being the first service and that too from the public sector, it is a cheap way the Indians can connect. BSNL Landlines were the only means of communication for the common man about 5 years back.

But now the scenario has changed dramatically. When the mobiles came in to exiatance or when fixed wireless landlines were introduced in India by reliance every one who had a mobile or a wireless landline would also have a BSNL landline for sure. But now its not so. People have started trusting Reliance and Tata indicom completely. Let me tell you what the reasons are, most of them are my observations alone.

We will get a wireless landline connection instatly. No waiting and no waiting lists. But that's not the thing with BSNL. You have to wait long. Your name will be added at the end of a long waiting list and you would be given a date which will be after 3 months for sure.
What we get with a BSNL connection is a b-fone which is only good enough to make calls. But with Tata or Reliance you get a much advanced phone in which you can send and recive SMS, and has got speakerphone, modem, polyphonice tunes and lot more features as in a mobile phone.
Fixed Wireless service providers give its users a dial up connection with speeds at alomost 3 times the speed of BSNL's dial-up and the modem is included in the phone itself. The access rates are competitive too. Also BSNL dial-up is getting so messed up with lots of users. Logging on at busy hours and during the day is increasingly becoming a nightmare.
Wireless Landline means you dont have to mess up with all those long wires and remain mobile in your home and even in your city. You can take your phone along with you when you go shopping.
No wires means no broken wires and no damaged connections. Also there is no risk of damage to phone from lightning or other power realted errors provided you do not keep the phone connected to the power ( to charge the batteries or so) when something wrong might happen. And no such errors means there is no extra payment of repair fees or so to the local service persons.
Also most of the fixed Wireless providers have got a prepaid plan. So you can have total control over your billings.
Fixed Wireless providers also have got lots of flexible plans suitable for people at every spheres. If we consider any of these factors the only good thing that a BSNL Landline can have with them is comparitively cheaper ratings and also the reliability of being a public sector industry.

But with rates getting better day-by-day I am  prety sure the Fixed Wireless prividers are gonna make the whole thing look much better. It would be good to choose a Fixed Wireless connection if you are looking for a telephone connection and you dont have one yet. I dont think you would like to wait 6 months or so before you can make your first call from your own telephone.

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When Your Mobile Gets Wet

A mobile is a gadget which is often put to rough use. Owing to its cheap prices and wide range of functions, the users never care about its existance unless an emergencey occurs i.e when the time come to take your phone to the service station. But a little care at the right time can save a lot of bucks of your pocket.
Getting a mobile wet, be either when you go out in the rain or most commmonly dropping it to water, is something which we come across daily. Most of the mobile phones do not have any problem even if it get wet, provided there is no short circuiting. So here is what to do when your mobile get wet.

Immediately remove it from water.
Then switch it off.
Open the case and remove the battery. Also remove your sim.
Dis-assemble the removeable parts like the case and let it open seomwhere under the fan, so that it can dry.
Do not switch it on. First take it to a service station. If you can take it there with in an hour or two, its really good. Then nothing is gonna be wrong. The earlist the more better.

Dont's :
Do not keep the phone in a microwave or near a heater thinking that it would get dry soon.
Do not make a phone call or try to work with a wet mobile.
Do not try to open the internal parts of the phone, unless you are trained to do so.
Do not immerse the mobile in water, purposefully.

And take care not to drop your mobile phone in to water. Always prevention is better than cure.

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Legendary 'Shumi' Bids GoodBye

The all time grand prix legend Michael Schumacher says good bye to the official Formula 1 races but only after adding 7 world championships into his dashboard. His 30 year long career ended yesterday when he completed 4th in the 2006 Formula 1 championship in which Fernando Alonso was the champion ( second one in his career. First championship last year.) . His retire was taken to the hearts of millions of his fans with tears in their eyes yet with a sweet smile in their faces.

In his 30 year long career 'Shumi', as he is called by his fans, have added 7 world chamionships with 91 race wins and innumerable and unbeatable world records. His career brought Team Ferari back as the world leader. Ferari had fallen deep down and its only with the arrival of Schumacher in 1996 they started winning titles, that too after long 21 years.

The legend never dies. He still lives as the best racer of his time in the hearts of millions and millions of his fans. Never will such a legend come again in Formula 1. Shumi is simply the best.

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Browse Faster.. Do More...

'The page cannot be displayed'. Is this a very 'funny' message that frustrates you?. Every time you see this you feel deishearted..right..? Most of the people who depend on dial-up internet connections have to suffer a lot of problems ranging from a problem as simple as a page not found and which extends up to a timed out connection. Me too experienced a lot of problems as this about an year ago. Here is how I got along with that problem. I did not switch to a broadband connection but I did a little changes on the way I browsed. A little self-adjustment.

First to enjoy a good browsing you need a good PC. Clean up your PC. If needed format the hard-disk and remove all unnecessary programs. This will give you the basics for good browsing.

Second one is to plan your browsing. Remember that, as a dial-up user you are paying for every second you are online. So the faster you finish the jobs, the more money you have in your pocket. Write down on a piece of paper all the things that you have to do in that log-in session. If needed number the tasks in order. That is, plan the sequence in logical order so that you wont have to visit some pages again and agian or log-in to your e-mail id twice.

McAfee Says that every computer connected to the internet has at-least a single malicious code a virus. Do monitor your PC with a good anti-virus which is capable of finding and removing spy-ware and add-ware. Norton is fine. McAfee is good too. If spy-ware is present it will be acitve when you are online and sends unwanted data. So you will have sacrifice a lot of your connection speed. Also disable all automatic updates of various programs that you might have.

In my opinion Internet Explorer is a really good browser. Its simple and looks good. But we have got a lots of other bowsers which are much faster than the Internet Explorer. for Instance ' Opera' which is the fastest web-browser, is available free of cost and takes you to the page lightning fast. It caches all the pages you visit ( check out its preferences if you have one ) and brings it to you right from your hard-disk next time you access the pages. Let me giive you an example. If you get a forward of some pictures in Internet Explorer you have to right-click and select 'Save picture as..' for every picture. Opera caches all the images it display in to its cache ( which is in the profile folder of the installed folder of opera ). so you need not save each one of them separately. You can get it from its cache.
Also in opera you need not wait for the page to load when you choose the 'back' button. It will come instantly. But in IE the page loads from the server every time. Using opera an definitely save your time. Firefox is also a really good one.
Opera has got a feature which lets you block images in a page. So you can let only the text load in a purticular page. This is somethig which can make browsing more enjoyable as text takes only seconds to load and you will get every page really fast.

Most of the internet users depend on the download applet of Internet Explorer to download files. Why dont you try using something like 'Free Download Manager' or ' Download Acceleraor'..? They can make many simultaneaous connections to a server and can bring the files to your PC faster than the IE does. Also you can pause your downloads and continue with them the next time you are connected to the internet. So you can always save time. Free Download Manager is a free software.  Click this for the latst version : http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/download.htm

Some people think that they can browse faster if they use only one window for browsing. i.e they use only one Internet Explorer window and does the second task only after completing the first one. In my opinion this is wrong. Having two or three ( More that that can make it really slow.. ) internet Exlorer or Opera windows is good. For example if you have to visit your friend's web-site as well as check mail you can check mail in one window while the other page loads in the other. Or you can do a download while you read your mails. Thus you can save a lot of time.

Then something  you need to do is to find the best time in which you get the maximum connection speed. For example in my region ( or probably in India ) the best connection time is from 1.00 am to 8.00 am. At that hours I used to get the best connection speeds.  By logging on to net at different times you can find the best time. At some times like the times when the server is busy, you get more ' cannot find page' messages and more 'connection timed out' error messages. So choosing the best time will help.

Also look to the modem properties and make sure that the maximum connection speed is set to the value above the maximum the modem supports. ( I dont know why such an option is set by microsoft when every one is looking for more speeds. Can someone tell me why..? ).

I think with these things you can get more out of your dial-up connection. These days broadband internet is getting more and more cheaper. It would be good if every one switch to broadband internet to find the endless oppertunities over the internet. Wish you all a happy browsing. Move on.

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Chat Right Inside G-mail

I have already mentioned that G-mail is the best web-based free e-mail service. As you might know we can chat right inside G-mail. The chat applet loads while the inbox is loading and connects itself to the chat server so that you can know when your contacts are online. When they come online you can chat with them right from there.

In Gmail the chat applet is present at the left bar below the labels ( or just above it if you have configured to do so in the settings ). That applet shows some of the contacts of you. ( In the settings you can choose the number of contacts to display ). Those ones whom you have chosen to display always will always be there. The remaining gaps will be filled by your frequent contacts.

To always display a purticular contact in the applet hover over the contact and you will get a popup. In that at about the right bottom corner you have display options where you can choose form : Auto , Always and Never. If the required contact is not there in the chat applet go to the contacts and just after their name there is an option to change the settings of display. Choose 'always' to see that contact always.

When a contact comes online ( and If he/she has signed in to chat ) his status will be displayed as online by a green bulb near his name. He can choose to diplay it as red if he chooses his status as busy. When the green bulb is lit you can chat with him by just moving your mouse to that contact and clicking 'chat' on the popup which then appears. It does not take time to load a chat applet. Its already there. A small window insantly appears where you can start chatting.

This chat facility is available only if you have choosen the G-mail view as 'Standard with chat'. This can be seen at the bottom of the inbox and just above the program policies link.

Choosing the 'Standard with chat' loads the chat applet every time you log in to your inbox. So this takes more time. Also the connection to server might get lost frequently if you are using a dial up connection. So dial up users will have to sacrifice the speed and it takes long to lead even a mail.

So if you are not intrested in chatting and is a dialup user its better to use the 'Standard without chat' or 'basic html' view. This will make checking mails more enjoyable.

G-mail have also provided users with a facility to record the chat's This is something which is not available with all chat programs. To record your chats you have to say it to do so in the settings. If you have choosen to record the chats the chats will be stored in the chat link which is found below the inbox link in the left part of the page. Every chat is recorded step wise along with time.

Its good to check your settings atleast once in 3 months. Remember that G-mail is still in the beta state. So they are adding more and more features to it. If you keep checking your settings you wont miss any of their new features.

Actually this was intended for non G-mail users. If you are not using G-mail yet, let me welcome you to G-mail. I had already put an article on G-mail. Read that too.
But to sign up to g-mail you need and invitation. If you are intrested and is looking for an invitaion send me a mail at : arunbasillal@gmail.com. I will send you one ( Remeber, I got limited invitations remaining.. about 94 only ).

Again welcome to G-mail, the best web-based free email service.

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Choosing a Camera

Just like choosing a CamCorder finding the right still picture recording camera from the vast market is also a devil's job. In photography unlike videography you need more talent, more hard work and more experience to make your photos look good. You have to choose from the millions of frames around you. If the choose of frames is not exact you will loose the valuable moments. But making videos is easy. You can be really sure of not missing the moment. Ofcource to make good videos you need talent, but atleast you can be sure of capturing the valuable moments.

Like wise to make good pics choosing the right cam is important. As in the case of CamCorder, first choose from digital and film based cams. If you go for film based cams you will get professional cams for around $200. But as a beginner you will have to take lots of pictures. So while you are learning you will have to spent a lot in films and other procedures. Also you cannot see the picture at the time when its caught. So I think its better to look for a digital camera. You need a computer, ofcource. You must be having one..right..?

Once you have made the choice to be digital a big world of digital cameras comes before you. Remember we are looking for a amateur-to-professional camera.

Let me tell you what you must have in minimum in such a camera.

First you need atleast 4.0 Mega Pixels. But something at 5.0 Mega Pixels or 8.0 Mega Pixels is prefered. But never let it go below 4.0.

Then something important is the Zoom. Minimum 3X optical Zoom. Digital zoom is not at all useful in still picture recording. If you use it you will get pixelized picture. 3x optical zoom must be fine.

After that you need a 2.0" LCD display. Below that you will need a microscope to see what's taken. 2.5" is prefered. But remember LCD screens take a major part of the battery. So more battery will be used if the screen gets very big. There are cams with 3.5" LCD display.

Then you will need to have a pretty good battery. Do not prefer cameras which have a standard size battery ( like a AAA size battery ). Instead look for cams which have a specific battery made only for that camera. Like the casio exilim camera which have a 12V battery made only for the camera. Such batteries last longer than the standard sized batteries. Some might say that if you have a standard sized battery you can always purchase it from a near-by store when you are out of power. But wouldn't it be better to have a battery which can take upto 360 pictures rather than replacing the battery after every 50 pictures..? ( According to CIPA standards Casio Exilim's battery last for 360 picures and from my experience it lasts for 270 to 300 pictures in real life!!! ). You can always purchase an additional battery from the manufacturer in case.

These days most cameras have slots for expanding memmory like SD card slots or Multi Media Card slot. So you wont have to ask for that at the manufacturer. Its a standard. Also do not bother if the internal memmory is as less as zero. You can always expand it.

Something which you will have to look for is the view finder. This is not always available. If you use the viewfinder you can conserve the battery power and take more pictures. Also the use of viewfinder gives the photographer more control over hand shakes.

Make sure that the one you choose has a pan-focus facility so that you can shoot the exact frame you thought of, without waiting for the auto-focus to complete. This is very important.

Then something which you can ask for is continuous movie recording and sound recording capabilites. These days cams come with in built Mp3 players and can even work as webcams. For a still picture camera the image stabilization feature is not something mandatiory but can came handy if available. Also an all-weather cam must be a good choice as with such cams you can even shoot your friends skating in the snow.

Your cam must have some basic functions like : auto focus, night mode, trimming, cropping, some basic filters ( like majenta filter to shoot the sunset )... Along with auto focus you will need a manual focus function to give the pictures your personal touch. This can come handy once you have started turning a pro.

As a beginner you will have to look for a cam which is small in size and hence must be able to be carried every where you go. Also you need to spent a lot of time trying with different camera angles and different frames. So look for the right cam with these options in mind. Always make a "must-have" list and a " nice-to-have" list. Wish you a nice time finding one.

Suggested Model : I have a Casio Exilim Z30 with me. Its great ! Its has only 3.2 MegaPixels but everything else is fine. Its was a bit expensive but its really cute. Now newer models are available with more features at half the price. A $300 to $ 500 budget must be fine. Remember you are making a choice only once..right..? And its better to chill out more bucks in the beginning than to spent it in instalments at the repair stations frequently. Sony and Canon have got really nice models too. You got a lot of them. Try it for yourself before purchasing. First find a cam and then find some of its existing users and get their feedback. That will make your choice perfect.

Good Luck.

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Choosing a Video CamCorder

My dad used to say that when he was a kid shopping was much more easier. The only thing you had to look when you go to shop was to make sure that you had the money with you. But world has canged drastically over the past 10 years. People have more money in their hands, they have more needs, more producers and more choices to make. Even if you go to purchase a pinapple candy you will have to choose from rich pinapple candy, pineappple with honey and lots more... If choosing something that simple has become this tough I dont think that I should mention how hard its to purchase a CamCorder when you have tons of them availabe in the market. ( Canon itself have over 30 models in the consumer range ).

But to shop these days you have to be really stong minded. You have to have a " must have " list and a " nice to have" list. This will make shopping easier.

Having a CamCorder at had is a really good thing. Its nice to live life again and again. 'Cuz life is only once. But choosing one is not a kids job. Let me tell you something.

When you approach the market as a consumer fix your budget. And let me tell you its better to buy something realy good than purchasing something which is cheap and having to repair it over and over. You are doing it only once ..right..?
You can get good CamCorder's at around $700. A $600 to $1000 would be a good budget. But cheaper ones are available even from world leaders like Sony at $300. Those ones will work for sure but will not have good TV quality or DVD quality for their videos. So keep the following as a minimum for your CamCorder.

Analog Cams are costlier so you have to choose for a Digital one.

You must have atleast a 1/3 inch CCD.

Cams with 3 CCD instead of Single CCD have separate units to convert the light falling on the lens to electronic image. The have separate converters for Red Blue and Green. Which means more the clarity of the video and ofcource more the cost.

The cam should preferably have atleast 2 Megapixel Still picture recording quality and atleast 1.2 Megapixels of video recording quality.

You must have an image stabiliser function. Prefer Optical Image Stabilisation ( O.I.S) to correct all your hand shakes.

You must have atleast 10X optical zoom. This is a must as digital Zooms do get you mush closer but they destroy the image quality.

Along with auto focus you must have manual focus ( with focus ring prefered ). As someday when you will become a pro, you will miss this feature badly.

Prefer models in which you can change the lens and add some other. Like remove a wide angle lens and add a telephoto lens or so. You will need that all once you are a pro.

A LCD screen of 2.5" or a mximum 3" is prefered. More the window size more battery is used so a bigger LCD is not always good. But 2.5" is essential.

Along with the LCD the viewfinder is a must. When at times to conserve battery you will have to depend on this viewfinder.

Regarding battery life ... a minimum of 1 hour backup is needed..right..?

HardDisk based drives are available these days. These comes in capacities of 30 GB and above. HardDisks keep you away from those DV tapes and DVD's. They are convinient as you wont have to carry any tapes or you wont have to convert the captured video before editing but its said that they make a rumming sound ( of rotating disks ) while in operation. Recording on DVD's is not a good option. A DVD can include only about 30 mins of high quality video. Even though many CamCorder's support re-writable DVD's I dont thnik its a good choice. Also DVD's are not cost effective. But with DVD's you can play your videos direcly on a DVD-player right after you captured the video without anymore editing.You need no more conversion to edit your videos. The quality of DV-Tapes is unmatched. Its a better option only you will have to do a conversion before you can edit. Also its cost effective. Flash based CamCorder's are available but owing to smaller flash memmories of a maximim of 2 GB inbuilt, they can record only minutes of video.
So I think you can choose from a Hard-Disk based or a DV-Tape based CamCorder at your convinience.

When you are going to record a long DVD quality video of about 20GB or 30 GB in size you need a fast method to transfer it to your PC. So you cam must have a firewire port ( its the fastest ) or at least a USB port. Some good cams from Canon have a mic input, a TV out and a Video-in ( To convert tapes to digital video's right from your cam ! ) along with both Firewire and USB port.

These days CamCorder's come with much more features like in-built Mp3 playes, webcams and much more. Look for a good one keeping these tips in mind. First write down what all features do u need and make the right choice. Also remember to choose from Sony , Canon , Panasonic , JVC or Samsung. Above all your satisfaction is important. Have a nice time finding one.

Good Luck!

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