Nowadays at most schools, colleges and workplaces, computer administrators restrict the web traffic flowing through the network, ie. they block certain websites, particularly social networking sites like Facebook and Google+. This means that whenever you try to access a certain blocked website, you’ll be shown a screen like the one below. Not being able to access Facebook for the whole day might be a torture for some people or there’s another possibility that a certain work related website also gets blocked in the process. If you’re frustrated at your IT guy, don’t be! Coz today I have something for you’ll that’ll let you access any website you want to. (But please, avoid accessing porn at work :P)

One of the most widely adopted Internet blocking systems is WatchGuard HTTP Proxy. Using this software, IT personnel block all the websites which they think might harm the computers or distract the users. If you’re being shown the following phrase “Request denied by WatchGuard Firewall” when you open some website, then it means that your IT administrator has blocked it. In order to bypass the WatchGuard Firewall, we’ll be using a wonderful utility called UltraSurf. This tiny application can bypass almost all of the major firewalls. And the best part – it’s absolutely free. (:

Follow the simple steps below to access the blocked websites at your college or office:

1. Download UltraSurf. It’s a portable software, so it doesn’t require any installation. Simply run it.

2. Upon opening it, you’ll notice a screen like the one above. You’ll see 3 check boxes and their corresponding speeds. These are the different proxy servers through which UltraSurf routes the data. You don’t need to change the settings as such, but in case it isn’t working, you can always select a different proxy server, ie. tick a different check box.

3. Once it shows the status as “Successfully connected to server!“, you’ll be able to access any website you want to. Try opening the web page in Internet Explorer (IE) first.

The data routed through UltraSurf is encrypted, so no one can view what’s going to and fro your PC. Once enabled, UltraSurf will give you access to Facebook, Google+, MySpace, Orkut and much more in your college or office. So now you have a genuine reason to smile at your IT guy now. (;

How about keeping the boring data and spreadsheet combination aside and doing something fun? I say let’s make a dice, cool? Don’t believe me? Check out this file. Keep pressing the F9 key once you’ve opened it. Magic!

Well it’s no magic, it’s fairly simple and is pure logic. I’m assuming you have some basic knowledge about Microsoft Excel and even if you don’t, no worries, I’ll teach you everything you need to know.

MS Excel cool trick: Make a dice

1. A die is a 3X3 square. Let’s begin by selecting cells C1 to I3. Cells C1 to E3 are for die 1, in between we leave a column and again cells G1 to I3 are for the second die. Next click on Format under the Home tab and select Row Height and enter 40. Again go to the Format option and click on Column Width and enter 8.

2. Now whilst the cells are still selected, choose ‘Wingdings’ as the font and set the font size to 28 and set the alignment to ‘Center’.

3. Once you’re done with the above steps, select cells D1 to E3 and choose any Fill Colour you desire. Do the same for cells G1 to I3.

4. To randomize the numbers of the dice, we’ll be using a function called RANDBETWEEN. The RANDBETWEEN function enables you to present random integers in a cell by pressing the F9 key. Select cell D5 and go to Formulas tab > Math & Trig and click on RANDBETWEEN. A box will pop up asking you to feed the values. Put ’1′ as the Bottom value and ’6″ as the Top value.

Select cell H5 and again use the RANDBETWEEN function and enter the same values as above.

5. Now comes the main part – using the IF function. Basically the IF function allows you to specify a condition. If the condition is true, a certain thing will happen and if false then something else will happen. For example, IF the random value in cell D5 is 3, then 3 dots will be shown on the die and if it’s 4, then 4 dots will be shown. Simple!

In cell C1 enter the following:

=IF(AND(D5>=2, D5<=6), “l”, ” “)

Now let me explain it to you how it works. The above IF condition states that if the value of the cell D5 (the random value cell) is greater than 2 but less than 6, then the outcome will be “l”, and if false, then it should be blank.

You must be wondering why the “l”? Well in the ‘Wingdings’ font the letter ‘l’ (lower case) is a dot. OMG that’s what we need, right?

In cells C2 and E2 enter the following:

=IF(D5=6,”l”, ” “)

Let’s fill up the last cell now, ie. D2:

=IF(OR(D5=1, D5=3, D5=5), “l”, ” “)

That’s it! Keep pressing the F9 key and you’ll get to know what a wonderful thing you’ve made.

As for the other die, you have to put the same formulae in the corresponding cells, the only change being ‘D5‘ replaced by ‘H5‘ in each formula.

I hope you like this stuff. It’s cool, isn’t it?

Tagged as:
Excel,
How-To,
MS Office

Note: This is for Vodafone India users only.

If you are someone who texts frequently then I’m sure even you find the balance pop ups or Post Call Notifications (PCN) really irritating. Post Call Notifications are the pop ups you receive after you send an SMS or disconnect a call. I wonder why a user with a messaging plan needs balance updates after each text! Plus, if you are an iPhone user then God help you. Coz if an iPhone user sends a text to a large group then he receives that many notifications and has to tap each one of them to access the main screen. Agonizing, isn’t it?

Well I was looking for a cure for this thing and after a lot of digging I finally found it. It’s really easy and you’ve to just send one simple text and wow, you’re done!

These are the magic words:

Type ‘NPCN‘ and send it to ‘111‘.

You’ll get something like this in reply – “Hello! Your request for deactivation of PCN has been registered and will be deactivated in 48 hours.”

Mine was deactivated within 24 hours. Happy PCN free texting!

If you’ve been using an internet connection for a long period of time there’s the probability that you would have used more than one internet service provider. In most cases people go from using a dial-up internet connection to a broadband internet connection to a faster broadband internet connection.

I also went through the same predicament but I just can’t get my broadband internet connection to be faster. After a lot of trial and error I still couldn’t fix my internet connection and make it faster. I then decided to embark on a thorough research and these are the things that I did that helped make my internet connection faster.

Inspect Your Computer

It was very difficult at first knowing what was causing my internet connection to be very slow so I had to have to do a very thorough inspection of my computer. This meant I started going through my computer to see which part of it is outdated and which part is active. I also analyzed my computer to see if I’m using any outdated software. At the end I was able to discover a lot of problems with my computer and fixing these problems contributed significantly to the speed of my internet connection.

Remove the Clutters

Even though the speed of my internet connection improved after doing the above I still wasn’t able to achieve my desired speed promised by my ISP so I needed to take my game to the next level. I then decided to troubleshoot my computer to see what was wrong. In this process I noticed that my computer used to be very slow when it is booting up and after researching online to see what was wrong I discovered the problem was with all those addons and applications cluttering my desktop. I started uninstalling the useless applications on my computer and I also began to delete the icons I no longer need from my desktop. I also created 5 major folders, and then classified all my useful desktop icons and I moved them all to those folders. That alone brought about a significant increase in the speed of my computer, and it ended up affecting my internet connection too.

Removing the clutters on your computer alone can result in you having a better high speed internet experience.

Tweak Your Browser

After doing the above I took everything further to the next level by doing one more thing – and that one thing is the most important thing a lot of people need to do. That thing was tweaking my browser.

I first uninstalled the cluttered and old browser I had installed and I installed a fresh new browser. I also ensured I only have a few very important addons installed and that I’m always shutting down my browser properly. That alone increased my browsing speed significantly.

One thing I have also observed is that changing your browser can increase your internet speed. Instead of using Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer you might want to give Google Chrome a try. At the end you will notice a great difference in the speed provided by both browsers.

This guest post is written by Paul T who writes about choosing the right high speed internet provider.

The PlayStation Eye is a nifty little addition to your PS3. Though there are only a few titles that support the PS Eye functionality, it’s still fun. But apart from PS3, how else can you use the PS Eye? How about using your Sony PlayStation 3 Eye Camera with your PC as a desktop webcam? Well certainly not a bad idea considering the amazing 640X480 resolution, plus the ability to run at 60 FPS or even at 120 FPS.

Here’s a short guide on how to attach PS Eye with your PC.

PS Eye Camera on PC:

I recently wrote a post regarding the possibility of installing Android Gingerbread on the Nokia N900. I’m pretty sure a lot of N900 users would want to have their devices running on Android. Well it’s time we make our wish come true.

I’ve written a fairly simple guide on the process. Just follow the steps and you’ll be soon booting Android on your N900.

Note: Make sure you copy all the codes correctly coz even a little mistake in a code can render it useless.

Guide to install Android on the Nokia N900

MicroSD Card

Firstly you will need a MicroSD card.

Enable all repositories

You will need to enable all the repositories from the App Manager (Extras-Testing, Extras-Devel, Extras)

Rootsh and Leafpad

Input the commands in x-terminal

root

apt-get update

apt-get install nitdroid-installer

y

y again if it asks again.

Download Nitdroid

Open x-terminal

root

cd /home/user/MyDocs

bzip2 -d gingerbread.tar.bz2

cd /home

mkdir /and

cd /

mount /home /and

cd /and

tar xvf /home/user/MyDocs/gingerbread.tar

dpkg -i /home/user/MyDocs/nitdroid-kernel-2.6.28-06_final1_armel.deb

Edit in Leafpad

Download N900 Gingerbread updates

Install Gingerbread updates

root

mount /home /and

cd /home/user/MyDocs

bzip2 -d gingerbread_update(x).tar.bz2

cd /and

tar xvf /home/user/MyDocs/gingerbread_update(x).tar

That’s it. You’re done install Android Gingerbread on your N900. Slide open your keyboard and reboot your device. You’ll get two OS options at the startup screen. Select Nitdroid and enjoy the Gingerbread delight!

Tired of burning discs just to install a Linux distro? Well actually you don’t need to burn your head in burning those discs. You can simply use a USB drive to install Ubuntu or any of your favourite Linux distributions.

Before you proceed just make sure your PC supports USB boot. Most PC’s do have this feature. If you’re not sure then you can check this through your BIOS settings. Also change the boot order so that USB boots first.

Once you’re done with those basics let’s move on to the main stuff. While you may be thinking that running Linux from a USB would be tough, the truth is it’s really very simple, all thanks to a tool called UNetbootin.

UNetbootin lets you create bootable USB drives for Ubuntu, Fedora and the dozens of other available distros without burning a CD.

You can download the tool for both Windows and Linux.

It’s pretty easy once you download it. Here’s what you do:

1. Select your Linux distribution and the version from the drop down menu.

2. Provide the path to the ISO file. If you haven’t yet downloaded it UNetbootin will do the work for you by automatically downloading the distribution.

3. Choose the drive letter of your USB drive.

4. Once you’re set up, hit OK!

After this your part is over and it’s time for UNetbootin to get to work. Once it’s done copying all the files just restart your PC and see the magic!

You were looking at the Facebook profile of that sweet girl in your class and you by mistake sent her a request, whereas you didn’t want to do something like this and wanted to show as if you had no interest in her! Worried, how to cancel the request?? Oh, Poor you!

There’s another point to it. If you send someone a request, they can access your profile for an indefinite period without confirming it. So it can be a privacy issue too.

If you are some unlucky chap facing such a situation, then no need to worry. There’s a solution for you to cancel the friend request you’ve just sent.

Well actually Facebook does not allow you to cancel a friend request. If you go by the rules, the other person

first has to accept your request and then only can you delete him/her from your profile.

But there’s a way out and all you have to do is play with your privacy settings.

How to cancel a Facebook friend request

FaceBook Privacy Settings

• After you’ve sent the friend request, go to Setting > Privacy Settings.

Add to Block List

• Add that person to you ‘Block List‘. This will break the friend request.

Unblock Again

• Then again unblock him/her.

Now visit that person’s profile. Magic! It shows that good old ‘Add as Friend’.

USB drives (also known as pen drive, flash drive etc.) are wildly popular today. Nowadays there’s a trend to use a USB device to move, transfer or store data. Well it’s not that USB’s were very fashionable that people started using them but it was due to the fact that these devices offer great speed, mobility and most importantly, you can rewrite them whenever you want without any hassles as in the case of a CD/DVD. A USB port also supports hot plugging and plug & play.

Since USB drives are easy to use and can copy data quickly, a person can easily use it to transfer any confidential information from your computer to another computer. Further, if you copy some data from one PC to another, you suffer the risk of getting your PC infected by a virus if you do not have proper antivirus protection. Thus some users may want to disable the usage of USB storage devices on their systems. Disabling a USB storage device will not affect your USB mouse or keyboard and they will run properly. The only thing that will be restricted is the USB storage devices.

To block USB storage devices, follow these steps:

Note: You need to be logged on to your PC as an administrative user.

1. To begin with, click Start > Run and type ‘regedit’ and click on ok. This will open the registry editor.

2. Locate the following path in the registry editor:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesUSBSTOR

3. Select the “USBSTOR” folder and in the right pane of the registry editor find the value ‘Start’.

4. Double click on ‘Start’ and set it’s value as ‘4’ under the ‘Value data’ section.

5. Close the registry editor and restart your PC for the changes to take effect.

This will block all the USB storage devices being plugged into your PC. If you want to again enable this thing and set it back to it’s default value, open the registry editor again and set the string’s value back to ‘3’.

If you have edited a Windows system file for some mod or customisation, you may have come across a Windows File Protection (WFP) dialog box. Windows XP has this feature as a part of the System File Checker, which is intended to prevent some common DLL file issues. The WFP notifies you whenever there’s an attemp to change a system file. This feature may also block valid attempts to change system files. You can therefore disable it using this tweak if you are tired of seeing that box.

Note: To perform this tweak, you need to have your Windows XP CD-Rom and a hex editor. If you do not have a hex editor, you can use BinEdit, which is freeware. Also make sure that you backup the DLL file being used in this tweak to a safe location.

Follow the steps below:

Part one:

1. Open the ‘Run’ dialog box.

2. Type in ‘regedit’ and click OK.

3. Locate this string:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsNTCurrentVersionWinlogon

4. In the right pane, right-click on the ‘SFCDisable’ string.

5. Select Modify and type in ‘ffffff9d‘ in the Value Data box.

6. Click OK and close regedit.

Part two:

1. Go to C:WindowsSystem32.

2. Search for the file ‘SFC_OS.dll‘.

3. Copy the file and paste it on the desktop.

4. Rename the copied file as ‘SFC_OS1.dll’.

5. Now move this ‘SFC_OS1.dll’ file to the C:WindowsSystem32 folder.

6. Start your hex editor and open the file ‘SFC_OS1.dll’.

7. Click on ‘Edit’ and select ‘Write Mode Enabled’.

8. On the left side look for ‘0000e2b0’.

9. This line contains the 8B and C6 bytes.

10. Change these bytes to 90 and 90.

11. Save the file and exit the program.

Part 3:

1. Insert your Windows XP CD-Rom.

2. Restart your PC.

3. Make sure that your PC is set to boot from the CD-Rom first.

4. Boot from the Windows XP CD.

5. Wait for the CD to load the files.

6. After it’s over, press the ‘R’ button on your keyboard to start the Windows XP Recovery Console.

7. Follow the prompts on the screen.

8. Once you are through, type in the following line exactly as it appears:

copy C:WindowsSystem32sfc_os1.dll C:WindowsSystem32sfc_os.dll

9. Hit Enter. Type in Yes (Y) if asked to overwrite the file.

10. Eject the Windows XP CD.

11. Type ‘Exit’ and press Enter to reboot.

Now you won’t see the Windows File Protection (WFP) dialog box again. This trick is really useful if you modify files very often and want to get rid of the WFP.