The long awaited Firefox 3 is finally here.After so many and frequent RC releases its finally here.

So what all are you expecting form this version ? And are all your needs satisfied ? Lets have a look

Looks And Features

Firefox 3 features a new redesigned download manager with built-in search and the ability to resume downloads,More advance than what they were having on Firefox 2. Also, they are intoducting a new plug-in manager in the add-ons section and extensions can be installed with a package manager.

The password manager in Firefox 3 includes a new and advanced password manager.It now ask the user if they would like it to remember the password after the log on attempt rather than before.Using this feature users are able to avoid storing an incorrect password in the password manager after a bad log on attempt.I loved this feature

It also have a new feature known as “auto-complete”.At the backend Firefox stores bookmarks and history in an SQLite.This new feaure stores more information about user’s browsing history and bookmarks, and letting the user tag the pages.this same system is used to implement an improved algorithm for the new location bar auto-complete function.

There is noticabe chages in the icons.You will also notice a new bookmark button near the URL bar ,As on Internet Explorer 7

There are many other things to explore .Download now and enjoy the new browsing experience.

Lets Create A World Record

As Firefox 3 is released today,they have named this day as “Download Day 2008.” Firefox is aiming to set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours. People can make pledges that say that they will download Firefox 3 at spreadfirefox.com. You can also give your contribution towards this world recod by download firefox 3 from here ( Official Link : http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord )

Kevin Stapp writes in to let us know about the latest such proposed treaty that has been leaked to Wikileaks. The document is (not surprisingly) a wishlist for the entertainment industry and, as Wikileaks notes, it was distributed only to pro-stronger-copyright lobbyists for comment, and not to any consumer rights groups or those who recognize that stronger copyright can be quite damaging. Slashdot talks about what Wikileaks calls the “Pirate Bay Killer” clause that would force countries to criminalize significant facilitation of infringement, even if it’s not for profit. Why countries should be criminalizing what is, in actuality, a business model question is never explained.

However, there are many more problems with the paper, including the fact that many of its most basic assumptions are either untrue or unproven. When you base an entire international trade treaty on questionable (or outright incorrect) assumptions, bad things will result. It starts out by noting:

The proliferation of infringements of intellectual property rights (”IPR”) particularly in the context of counterfeiting and piracy poises an ever-increasing threat to the sustainable development of the world economy

Except that two recent government studies have shown no such thing. Both the GAO and the OECD have noted that both the magnitude and the impact of counterfeiting is greatly exaggerated by lobbyists. The paper goes on:

The consequences of such IPR infringements includes (1) depriving legitimate businesses and their workers of income; (2) discouraging innovation and creativity; (3) threatens consumer health and safety; (4) providing an easy source of revenue for organized crime; and (5) loss of tax revenue.

Let’s go through those one by one. On point (1), this is simply untrue. As we’ve pointed out in the past, there’s no such thing as “depriving” someone else of income — otherwise convincing someone to go to a pizza shop instead of a deli would be considered a crime (you’ve “deprived” the deli of income). Where money goes is a marketing issue, not a legal one. If companies are having trouble convincing people to pay them for their products, that’s their business model problem. Nothing is being taken from them.

On point (2), this is also simply untrue. Study after study have shown no corresponding decrease in innovation or creativity when intellectual property laws are weakened (or even removed entirely). In this day and age when so much creativity takes place outside of traditional intellectual property realms, it seems ridiculous to even suggest that creativity is somehow impacted.

The closest the paper comes to having a reasonable point is on point (3), but that really only applies in very narrowly defined cases (specifically involving dangerous counterfeit products that may not be safe). Yet, that’s an extremely narrow area, and can be dealt with via other means, including anti-fraud law. And, when dealing with international trade issue, it seems like the sort of thing that ought to be handled by customs, rather than with some big intellectual property treaty.

Point (4) is a favorite claim by the industry, but it’s never been backed up with any significant evidence. I’m sure there are some organized crime groups that traffic in counterfeit products — but again, that can and should be dealt with by other laws. Strengthening intellectual property laws to combat organized crime is a misuse of intellectual property laws.

The question of tax revenue (5) is also a favorite of the industry that relies on only counting the ripple effects in one direction. That is, it assumes that the lost tax dollars come from things like the sales tax on software products that would be bought, but fails to count the economic growth and additional tax from businesses who are able to more rapidly grow the economy through the use of cheaper software.

So the entire underpinning for the argument in favor of these “trade agreements” is a house of cards (if that much). But for those who aren’t all that familiar with the space (or whose political campaigns are funded by the entertainment industry), these claims are all taken as a given. That should be seen as a serious problem.

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Source:Debunking The Faulty Premises Of The Pirate Bay-Criminalization Treaty

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Source:Finnish Appeals Court Overturns Decision That Said It Was Okay To Circumvent Ineffective DRM

Source: feeds.gawker.com

Dolphin & Whale: The D&W is inspired by the Dolphin & Whale Eco-Research Network, a group working on environmental protection initiatives. It is translucent with blue highlights to represent the ocean, and it is engraved with the slogan “All Is One” on the back to represent the Network’s feelings on life and nature. It features the solar battery, Multi-Band 5, rust resistance and standard G-Shock features.

GWM5625E-7: This one updates the classic G-Shock design for the 25th anniversary, adding a long-lasting solar battery and Multi-Band 5, which automatically syncs the watch to five time stations around the world using radio waves. It also has five alarms and displays the time for 48 different cities around the world. The GWM5625E-7 goes for $150.

Eric Haze Edition: Graffiti artist Eric Haze is the inspiration behind this model, his third signature watch for G-Shock. Haze logos are on the band and backlight of the watch, which is a pretty basic model. It has shock and water resistance, but no solar battery or Multi-Band atomic time sync. At $100, it’s the cheapest of the new line.

Good stuff, G-Shock, and happy 25th birthday to you.

Official Download Links on Microsoft Website

Windows XP SP3 ISO File (CD Image)

Windows XP SP3 Network Installation Package

Windows XP SP3 Overview and list of changes

Use this setting to enable the machine to beep every few seconds when a print error occurs. For local printers, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print and create or modify the DWORD entry called ‘BeepEnabled’. A value of ‘1′ enables beeps and ‘0′ disables them.For network printers, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Print\Providers\LanManPrintSer-vices\Servers and create or modify the DWORD entry called ‘BeepEnabled’. A value of ‘1′ enables beeps and ‘0′ disables them.

Include Copy to and Move to in the context menu

When you right-click a file, you get a menu called context menu. This tweak shows you how you can add two useful entries to it, namely, ‘Copy To’ and ‘Move To’. Therefore, copying and moving files can be ………done in 2 steps. To add the ‘Copy To’ option, go to HKEY_CLASS-ES_ROOT\ Directory\shellex\ ContextMenuHandlers and ere ate a sub-key called ‘CopyTo’. Select the key you created and in the right pane, modify the value of the ‘Default’ entry to ‘{C2FBB630-29711 IdIA 18C00C04FD75D13} ‘. Similarly, navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers and create a sub-key named ‘Copy To’ and give the same default value as above. For the ‘Move To’ option, duplicate the above mentioned steps, but rename the sub-keys as ‘Move To’ and the Default values as ‘{C2FBB631-2971-lldl-A18C-00C04FD75D13}’. Now when you right click on any file or folder—except on the Desktop—you will get these two options.

Start button context menu

Using this tweak, you can open applications from the context menu of the Start button, i.e. by right-clicking on the Start button. Open the registry and select the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ Directory\Shell key. Create a new sub-key named after the program you want to associate it with, say, Notepad. Now select this key and create another sub-key named ‘Command’ and set its’ Default’ entry value as the path to the executable for example, ‘C:Windows\ notepad.exe’.

Make Google default search page

Google-holies ahoy! You can set IE to search using Google as default. Enter the search terms in the address and select the option that appears below: Search for ‘<search terms>’. This will take you directly to the results page in Google. Open the registry and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\lnternetExplorer\Main; change the value of ‘Use Search Asst’ to ‘no’; change the value of ‘Search Page’ to ‘http://www. google.com’, change the value of ‘Search Bar’ to ‘http:// www.google. com/ie’. Next, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\lnternetExplorer\ Search URL and change the values of ‘Default’ to ‘http:// www.google.com/keyword/%s’ and ‘provider’ to ‘gogl’. Then go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft \lnternet ExplorerXSearch key and modify the ‘Search Assistant’ entry’s value to ‘http://www.google.com/ie’.

Selectively remove cached Run commands

Commands entered in the Run dialog box are automatically cached to be used again later as Auto Complete. You can selectively remove entries from the cached list of instructions. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows \ Current Version\Explorer\RunMRU, and on the right pane, you will find entries, each one representing a cached instruction. Delete the unwanted entries, or delete all if you want to clear the cache.

Remove Logoff from Start Menu

In Windows 98, the start menu will have a Log Off button, but many users don’t use it, especially in standalone systems. To remove this button from the Start menu, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\Microsoft\ Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer, create a binary entry and enter its value as 01 00 00 00.

Removing typed URLs from IE address bar

Internet Explorer stores 25 URLs that were previously entered into the address bar. Click on the drop down button at the end of the address bar to view the cached URLs. To selectively remove URLs from this list go to HKEY_ CURRENT_USER\Software\Micros oftMnternet Explorer\TypedURLs.

In the right pane, you will find the list of URLs ordered with names url, url2, .. .url25. Delete the entries you wish to remove. Rename the remaining entries so that the order is maintained. For example, if you delete two entries, rename the others so that they list as urll to url23.

Remove Start menu items

Most users don’t use all the items in the Start menu. Entries such as Help and Log off are sometimes never used at all. Using this tweak, you can selectively remove items from the Start menu. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer, and add a DWORD entry for each item you want to remove

here’s a list of items:

· ‘NoRecentDocsMenu’ removes the Documents menu

· ‘NoFavoritesMenu’re-moves the Favourites menu.

· ‘NoFind’ removes the Find command from the Start menu.

· ‘NoRun’ removes the Run command.

· ‘NoClose’ removes the Shutdown command (be careful as it prevents you from shutting down Windows).

· ‘NoSetTaskbar’ removes the Taskbar command in the Settings sub-folder on the Start menu.

Adding this entry will also prevent a user from making changes to the taskbar by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting Properties.In Windows 2000 and XP, adding ‘NoSMHelp’ will remove the help item and ‘ NoCom -monGroups’ will remove all the entries located in C:\Documents and Settings\AII Users\Start Menu and its sub folders. After adding any entry, assign it a value of ‘1′ to remove the item from the Start Menu, or ‘0′ to bring it back.

Remove the Recycle bin

If you’re tired of having to delete things twice and the Recycle Bin seems redundant, you can remove it. Using this tweak, you can force Windows to delete files directly—be sure that you don’t want files to be stored in the Recycle bin. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\BitBucket and create a DWORD entry named ‘NukeOnDelete’. Give this a value of ‘1′ to disable the Recycle bin and ‘0′ to enable it.

Disable recent files list in Media Player 8

Windows Media Player 8 maintains a list of files accessed recently in the File menu. Use this registry tweak to do away with that list. Open the registry and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software \ Microsoft \ Media Player\Preferences. Here, double click the ‘AddToMRU’ entry. Give this a value of’00′ if you intend to disable the recent files list. You can enable it by changing the value to ‘01′.

Clear Add/Remove Programs list

Certain program entries do remain in the Add/Remove programs list owing to an uninstallations that go haywire. This tweak enables you to do away with those. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall. Under this key, you will find sub-keys for each program installed. Right-click and delete all the entries you want removed from the Add\ Remove programs list.

Other Guides of this series

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 1 : Customize your Operating System

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 2 : MS Office Register Tweaks

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 3: Enhance the Performance

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 4 : Remove The Annoying Parts

]]> http://techbulb.com/techbulb%e2%80%99s-registry-guide-5-make-your-life-easy/feed/ http://techbulb.com/techbulb%e2%80%99s-registry-guide-4-remove-the-annoying-parts/ http://techbulb.com/techbulb%e2%80%99s-registry-guide-4-remove-the-annoying-parts/#comments Sun, 16 Mar 2008 07:44:56 +0000 Admin http://techbulb.com/techbulb%e2%80%99s-registry-guide-4-remove-the-annoying-parts/ Menu display delay

When a menu is opened, Windows opens the menu after a small delay. For example, after clicking on Start, the Programs menu takes ages to expand. This is because the ‘Menushowdelay’ entry has been given a large value. Open the key HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Control Panel\Desktop and modify or create a string value named ‘MenuShow Delay’. In this entry, give the required delay in milliseconds; the accepted limit is 0 to 999.

Disable low disk space warning

Windows XP will show a warning message whenever the drive is low on * disk space. For some I reason, whether we have an 8 GB ……or 80 GB hard drive, it’s never enough, and this message just gets irritating after a while. To suppress it, go to HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and create or modify the DWORD value called ‘NoLowDiskSpaceChecks’. A value of ‘1’ will disable the warning message ‘0’ will enable it.

Disable CD burning

Windows XP comes with inbuilt support for CD writing. Since this offers limited functionality, power users might not need it. To disable support for CD writing, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Create or modify the DWORD entry called ‘NoCDBurning’. A value of ‘1’ disables CD burning and ‘0’ enables it.

Hide the links folder

Internet Explorer incessantly creates the ‘Links’ folder under the Favorites section, even if the user deletes it. You can get rid of it permanently by going to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\Toolbar. Set the value of the ‘LinksFolderName’ entry as a blank string. Now, open IE and delete the Links folder. It will no longer be displayed under Favourites.

Other Guides of this series

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 1 : Customize your Operating System

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 2 : MS Office Register Tweaks

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 3: Enhance the Performance

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 5: Make your life easy

]]> http://techbulb.com/techbulb%e2%80%99s-registry-guide-4-remove-the-annoying-parts/feed/ http://techbulb.com/techbulb%e2%80%99s-registry-guide-3-enhance-the-performance/ http://techbulb.com/techbulb%e2%80%99s-registry-guide-3-enhance-the-performance/#comments Sun, 16 Mar 2008 07:43:53 +0000 Admin http://techbulb.com/techbulb%e2%80%99s-registry-guide-3-enhance-the-performance/ Disable Windows XP support for Zip files

Windows XP comes with in-built support for Zip files, but this can be a curse in disguise. While searching for files, XP automatically searches through Zip files, resulting in a slow search. To disable support for Zip files, go to Start > Run, type ‘regsvr32/u%windir%\system32\zipfldr.dll’ and click OK. If you want to enable it later, go to Start > Run and type ‘regsvr32 %windir%\ system32\zipfldr.dll’. Disabling support for Zip files in XP does not in any way affect the functionality of third-party tools such as WinZip, WinRAR, etc.

Speed up access to folders with AVI files

Windows XP sometimes takes a really long time to open folders with AVI files. This is because XP tries to get information about the files. To disable this feature, open the registry and go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}. Append a [-] (a minus sign) in front of the ‘{87D…’ key, so that it becomes something like ‘-{87D…’.

Prevent OS being paged to disk

At times, when there’s a dearth of RAM, the system will move some portion of the main memory to the hard disk. Obviously, this slows down the system, but there’s nothing much that can be ……done about it. In case your system is blessed with loads of RAM (256 MB or more) and runs Windows NT, 2000 or XP, you can use this tweak to prevent the kernel mode code from being moved to the hard disk. While this will improve system performance, it may affect programs that rely on Windows swap space. So if you notice any eccentric behavior after applying this setting, revert to the previous setting. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYS-TEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management. Look for a DWORD entry called ‘Dis-ablePagingExecutive’; set it to ‘1’ to disable the kernel being paged. if you face problems, set it back to ‘0’.

Increase USB polling interval

By default, Windows checks for connected USB devices once every millisecond. This might prevent the processor from going into power saving mode, which is vital for laptops to conserve battery life. This tweak allows you to increase the USB polling interval. For Windows 98 and Me, go to HKEY_ LOCAL_MACHINE\Sys-tem\CurrentControlSet\Services\ Class\Usb\0000; for Windows 2000 or XP, go to HKEY_ LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ CurrentControlSet\Control\Class \{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056444553540000}\0000. Create a DWORD entry called ‘IdleEnable’ and give it a value of ‘1’. To revert to the previous refresh rate, give the entry a value of ‘0’.

Quicker access to network folders

When you open a remote location by entering the computer name in the Run dialog box or through Network Neighborhood, Windows takes a long time to open the location. Instead, when the complete address of the location is given such as ‘\\computername\folder- | name’, it opens immediately. ‘Microsoft has confirmed that this occurs when a Windows 2000 system tries to access a Windows 98 system. The system tries to read the scheduled tasks of the remote system—a fairly useless step. To solve the problem, open the registry and delete the HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\RemoteComputer\ NameSpace\{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D8700AA0060F5BF} key.

U Turn off support for UnPnP

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices can be connected to any system over the network instantly—like a PnP device being connected to a local system. Windows XP supports this feature, but Microsoft has acknowledged a security flaw. Though there is a patch, it is recommended to turn off this feature—there are so few UPnP devices available anyway. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System\CurrentControlSet\ Services\upnphost and double click the DWORD entry named ‘Start’. To disable support for this service, give it a value of ‘4’; to enable it again, give it a value of ‘3’. If you use any UnPnP devices over your network, leave it enabled.

Window refresh rate

All open windows are refreshed at a predefined interval; but when there’re too many windows open, and a paucity of memory, they often appear blank—a file copied to a folder may not appear immediately on the window. This tweak allows you to set a faster refresh rate for open windows. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYS-TEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Update. Create or modify the DWORD key called ‘UpdateMode’. Assign it a value of ‘0’ for a faster refresh rate, and ‘1’ for default.

Other Guides of this series

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 1 : Customize your Operating System

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 2 : MS Office Register Tweaks

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 4 : Remove The Annoying Parts

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 5: Make your life easy

]]> http://techbulb.com/techbulb%e2%80%99s-registry-guide-3-enhance-the-performance/feed/ http://techbulb.com/techbulb%e2%80%99s-registry-guide-2-ms-office-register-tweaks/ http://techbulb.com/techbulb%e2%80%99s-registry-guide-2-ms-office-register-tweaks/#comments Sun, 16 Mar 2008 07:42:58 +0000 Admin http://techbulb.com/techbulb%e2%80%99s-registry-guide-2-ms-office-register-tweaks/ Minimise Outlook to the system tray

Outlook 2003 can be minimised to the system tray, but it’s possible with earlier versions of Outlook as well. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\ Outlook\Preferences and create a DWORD entry named ‘MinToTray’. Give it a value of ‘1’. Restart Outlook for the change to take effect.

Give four digits for year in Excel

Whenever a date is entered in an Excel cell, the year field is automatically truncated to two digits. For example, when the user enters the date 9-11-2000 in a cell, it is automatically replaced with 9/11/00. This is bad when spanning across a century, such as records from 1999 to 2003. This tweak makes Excel display dates with four digits for the year field. Locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\Microsoft\Office\ [Version]\Excel\Options, where [Version] indicates your Office version (Office XP is‘10.0’, 2000 is ‘9.0’, etc.). Create or modify the DWORD entry ‘EnableFour-DigitYearDisplay’ and enter a value of ‘1’.

Change the number of undo levels in Excel

By default, Excel can perform 16 undo operations. You can customise the number of undo levels, but remember that increasing the number of levels results in more RAM being allocated to Excel. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\Microsoft\Office \[Version]\Excel\Options. Under this key, create a DWORD value with the name ‘UndoHistory’. You can turn off the undo feature by giving a value of ‘0’, use the maximum allowed …….level ‘100’, or provide an intermediate level of your choice. Remember to select the decimal radio button when entering a value between 0 and 100.

Remove attachments restrictions

When an incoming e-mail has attachments such as EXE, SCR, etc., Outlook XP doesn’t download the attachments, for security reasons. The complete list of file extensions which aren’t downloaded in Outlook XP and 2003 is: ADE, ADP, ASX, BAS, BAT, CHM, CMD, COM, CPL, CRT, EXE, HLP, HTA, INF, INS, ISP, JS, JSE, LNK, MDA, MDB, MDE, MDZ, MSC, MSI, MSP, MST, PCD, PIF, PRF, REG, SCF, SCR, SCT, SHB, SHS, URL, VB, VBE, VBS, WSC, WSF and WSH.If you want Outlook to download any of the above mentioned file extensions, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0 \Outlook\Security (11.0 for Outlook 2003), and create or modify the string entry named ‘Level1Remove’. The value of this entry is the file extension that it will download; so, add the file extensions that you wish Outlook to download, separated by a semicolon—for example, to force Outlook to download EXE and BAT files, assign the value ‘exe;bat’.

Add custom places to the open/save dialog box

In the MS Office Open and Save dialog box, there’s a bar on the right that contains links to common locations such as My Computer, My Documents, etc. Using this tweak, you can add custom locations to this bar. For example, if you often save your work on a network drive, you can add it to the places bar. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\Microsoft\Office\ [Version]\Common\Open-Find\Places\UserDefinedPlaces, where ‘[Version]’ indicates the current office version. Create a sub-key with the name ‘PlaceX’, where X is a unique number. In other words, name the first custom location ‘Place1’, the second ‘Place2’, and so on. Now select the newly created sub-key and create two string entries in it: ‘Name’ and ‘Path’. The value for ‘Name’ is whatever you want to call that location and that for ‘Path’ is the exact path to that folder

Other Guides of this series

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 1 : Customize your Operating System

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 3: Enhance the Performance

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 4 : Remove The Annoying Parts

Techbulb’s Registry Guide 5: Make your life easy

]]> http://techbulb.com/techbulb%e2%80%99s-registry-guide-2-ms-office-register-tweaks/feed/