Thursday, January 15, 2009

Don't Fix Your Cholesterol By Breaking Something Else

If you suffer from high cholesterol, your doctor has probably prescribed a statin medication to keep things in check. But did you know that you can take a natural alternative with no side effects?

It safely reduces cholesterol absorption by 40% or more, clinical tests show.

Drugs like Lipitor®, Zocor®, Crestor® and the other statins can cause a whole new set of problems.

That's why the most common question on our Customer Care Hotline is, "Will I be able to discontinue taking statins?"

Yes, many people have their prescriptions cut back or even discontinued after just a few months. So, ask your doctor if you can try the safe, natural alternative. It really works. But follow your doctor's advice, and don't stop taking any prescription until you get your physician's okay.

GOOD MORNING 16-1-2009

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

How to avoid email threats

Checking your email has become a dangerous business. The number and types of email borne threats that can cause harm to your computer or your privacy are
growing. Sometimes the actual danger imposed by these threats can be over hyped, but you still need to know what could constitute a dangerous email message
and how to respond to the threat.

Virus attacks

When emails are sent as plain text, it becomes impossible to contract a computer virus just by reading email. That's because something -- a programme, worm,
or other active threat -- actually has to run on your computer in order to infect it. Increasingly today, we all send and receive emails in HTML format,
this makes users more vulnerable to contracting a potentially destructive computer virus that plain text emails. As when an email is sent in an HTML format
(the same format used to create Web pages, on which various types of programmes can be run automatically) the possibility of receiving a virus on reading
an email message does exist.

There are, however, ways to safeguard against this. The first is to keep your email security programme updated, downloading and applying the latest security
patches and fixes. Second is to set up your email programme to allow messages to be read only in plain text format. Most email programmes provide this
option. In Microsoft's Outlook programme, for instance, you would open the Tools menu, and select Options.

Then, from the Options dialog box, click E-mail Options, and select the check box labelled "Read all standard mail in plain text."

Dangerous links

Remember, though, that most email viruses are contracted when you perform some action, such as opening an infected attachment or clicking a link that takes
you to a site that downloads a virus on to your computer.

So the golden rule of reading email is this: if it looks suspicious, don't open anything attached to it or click any links in it. These days, in fact, it
makes sense not to click links in email messages at all. Instead, if you think a legitimate source has sent you a message, open a web browser separately
and visit the website.

Email 'bomb' at work

An email "bomb" refers to the large number of email messages sent to an account with the primary aim of bringing the account down. When an email server
is flooded with email messages, it is unable to receive other email messages and effectively becomes useless. An account that receives an email bomb will
also experience an interruption in the transfer and processing of legitimate mail, as well. Email bombs are particularly dangerous as even if an email
server is brought down to stave off the problem, the email bombardment will continue where it left off when the server is restarted. Another type of "bombing"
occurs when a user signs someone for multiple newsletter services and other automatic email generation services that can bring a person's inbox to its
knees.

The only way to recover from an email bomb is probably to contact your Internet service provider for help. It may be necessary for you to disable or change
your email address, at least temporarily.

Spammers on the move

You think those spam mails only clutter your inbox, there's more they can do. This includes installing spytools or other malware on your comp. Sender of
spam and potentially harmful emails use a number of tactics to get your email address. If you have posted your email address anywhere on the Internet,
it can be "harvested" by programmes designed to scour the Internet and retrieve freely available email addresses.

To prevent this from happening, never post your email address anywhere on the Internet -- including message boards and personal websites -- in an unaltered
form.

If you must post your address somewhere online, write it in a form that is understandable by humans but not by a machine, such as "yourname -- at-- hotmail.com."
Also, take advantage of the multiple email accounts you can have.

Email Spyware

Another significant email threat is email spyware. Most often transmitted as part of another related software programme, email spyware compromises personal
information, distributing it to unauthorised parties. While some spyware programmes are distributed through email by association with Trojan horses, others
are sent directly as a worm or virus.

An example of an email spyware is 'Ssppyy programme' which gathers sensitive information from infected computers and transmits it to an e-mail address.
Ssppppy arrives as an electronic greeting card, and, once opened, the e-mail spyware installs itself surreptitiously on the user's computer.

Can kill privacy

Emails can also threaten your privacy. Remember, they can be forwarded to any number of people and can be used against you. If you do not want to risk the
whole world knowing something, it is best to convey it verbally. Use the 'Reply All' button sparingly and thoughtfully. Someone ended up forwarding his
PAN number to the entire office!

Restarting Windows Without Restarting Your PC

A modern PC with Vista Home Edition takes about one and a half minutes to boot. An older machine with XP is about the same. That's 30 seconds for the PC itself (the BIOS) to boot up, plus a minute for the Windows operating system to boot.

Sometimes, you need to reboot Windows (e.g. when installing new software), but there is no need to restart BIOS, too. However, the default is to reboot both. (That's called doing a "cold boot," rather than a "warm boot.") There's a trick that works on both XP and Vista to get it to do a warm boot instead, thus saving you 30 seconds per cycle.

The trick is to hold down the SHIFT key when invoking the restart.

Windows Vista: Select Start, then hover over the right arrow that is to the right of the padlock icon until the pop-up menu appears that contains "restart" as one of it's choices. Hold down the SHIFT key while clicking on the "restart" choice.

Windows XP: Select Start. Select "Shut Down…". Change the drop-down combo box under "What do you want the computer to do?" to "Restart". Hold down the SHIFT key while clicking on the "OK" button.

GOOD MORNING 15-1-2009


Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Free M4A to MP3 Converter - Convert music from iTunes

Do you need to convert AAC to MP3? M4a to MP3? MP4 audio to MP3? Your favorite player doesn't support M4a audio? Then take a look at the new tool from ManiacTools, Free M4a to MP3 Converter.

The program supports a number of input formats, like the above mentioned AAC, M4a, MP4 audio, M4b (audiobooks), and some other MPEG-4 based audio formats. You can convert those types of audio files to MP3 or uncompressed WAV. The latter can be used as an intermediate format for further converting (with tools like AudioConverter Studio).

Free M4a to MP3 Converter combines professional quality with high speed and user-friendly interface. You can simply drag and drop your M4a or AAC files from Windows Explorer and then hit "Convert" (or F5 on your keyboard). On the other hand, it is also possible to fine tune quality parameters for output files. The program supports full range of MP3 settings: bit rates up to 320 Kbit/s and sample rates up to 48 KHz. This way, you can get high quality audio files along with the portability of MP3 format (which is supported now by virtually every player, hardware or software).

The program has also a built-in audio player, which allows you to listen to your AAC and M4a files even without converting them.

And last, but not least: our converter is distributed as freeware. No need to register and to enter codes. Just download and start converting your AAC and M4a files to MP3.

Main features of Free M4a to MP3 Converter:

* AAC to MP3 converter.
* Convert M4a to MP3.
* Audio books M4b to MP3 converter.
* MP4 audio converter.
* 3GP audio converter.
* AAC, M4a, M4b player.
* MP3 quality settings up to 320 Kbit/s, 48 KHz.
* Drag&Drop.
* Batch processing of multiple M4a, AAC, M4b, MP4 etc. files.
* User-friendly multilingual interface.
* Meta information (ID3 tags) is copied from source files. Converted files contain all necessary data: title, artist, album (if the data was present in the source files).
* AAC to WAV converter.
* M4a to WAV converter.

Download
http://www.maniactools.com/cgi-bin/download/m4a-to-mp3-converter.exe

Dell Studio XPS 1340 & Dell Studio XPS 1640 Laptops Released



Without anything by way of a fanfare (or a heads-up) Dell have now released their new 13” Dell Studio XPS 1340 and 16” Dell Studio XPS 1640 laptops via their own online store, both of which come with Intel Core 2 Duo processors (namely the 8400 CPU), Nvidia and ATI GPUs (the XPS 1340 and XPS 1640 repsecitively) and come in Obsidian Black finishes with leather accents.

Dell Studio XPS 1340 Specifications:

* Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 (3MB cache/2.26GHz/1066Mhz FSB)
* Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-bit
* Obsidian Black with Leather Accent
* Microsoft Works 9.0 - English: Spreadsheet, Word Processor and Calendar
* 1Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor,24×7 Phone Support
* Edge-to-Edge 13.3″ HD WXGA LCD with 2.0 Megapixel Camera
* 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz (2 Dimms)
* 320GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
* Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write)
* NVIDIA GeForce 9400M G
* Dell Wireless 1515 802.11n Half Mini-Card
* 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
* High Definition Audio 2.0

Dell Studio XPS 1640 Specifications:

* Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 (3MB cache/2.26GHz/1066Mhz FSB)
* Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-bit
* Obsidian Black with Leather Accent
* Microsoft Works
* 1Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor,24×7 Phone Support
* Edge-to-Edge HD Widescreen 16.0 inch WLED LCD (1366×768) W/2.0 MP
* 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz (2 Dimms)
* 320GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
* 8X DVD+/- RW(DVD/CD read/write) Slot Load Drive
* ATI Mobility RADEON M86XT - 512MB
* Dell Wireless 1515 802.11n Half Mini-Card
* 6-cell Battery
* High Definition Audio 2.0

The Dell Studio XPS 1340 and Studio XPS 1640 retail for $1,199 each wich, considering the specifications and what’s currently on offer for that price bracket, seems somewhat overpriced.

Monday, January 12, 2009

20 Useful tips to speed up your personal computer

Follow these tips and you will definitely have a much faster and more reliable PC! The icon means the tip will probably work best under Win98.

1. Wallpapers: They slow your whole system down, so if you're willing to compromise, have a basic plain one instead!

2. Drivers: Update your hardware drivers as frequently as possible. New drivers tend to increase system speed especially in the case of graphics cards, their drivers are updated by the manufacturer very frequently!

3. Minimizing: If you want to use several programs at the same time then minimize those you are not using. This helps reduce the overload on RAM.

4. Boot Faster: The 'starting Windows 95/98' message on startup can delay your booting for a couple of seconds. To get rid of this message go to c:\ and find the file MSDOS.sys. Remove the ReadOnly option. Next, open it in Notepad or any other text editor. Finally, go to the text 'Options' within the file and make the following changes: Add Boot Delay=0. To make your booting even faster, set add Logo=0 to remove the Windows logo at startup.

5. Restart only Windows: When restarting your PC, hold down Shift to only restart Windows rather than the whole system which will only take a fraction of the time.

6. Turn Off Animations: Go to Display Settings from the Control Panel and switch to the Effects Tab. Now turn off Show Windows Content While Dragging and Smooth Edges on Screen Fonts.

7. Faster StartMenu Access: Go to the Start menu and select Run. Now type Regedit and hit Enter. The Registry Editor will appear on the screen. Now, open the folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. You should see a Menu Show Delay value. If you don't then do the following: right click on a blank space in the right pane and select New\String. Change the name in the new value to MenuShowDelay. Now that we have the MenuShowDelay value, double click on it and enter 0 in the value data field. This sets the start menu delay to 0 milliseconds.

8. Resolutions: If you are willing to do anything for faster performance from your PC, then try lowering your display resolution. The lower it is, the faster your PC.

9. Turn off Active Desktop: Go to your Display Properties and switch to the Web tab. Uncheck View My Active Desktop As a Web Page. Since the Active Desktop option under Windows 98 uses a lot of system resources, this option can have a dramatic effect on the speed of the whole system.

10. Defragment Often: Windows 98's Defrag tool uses Application Acceleration from Intel which means that when you defragment your drive, data is physically arranged on the drive so that applications will load faster.

11. Take your PC to Bed: Using the Advanced Power Management feature under Windows 98 gives you the option to use the sleep command. That way, you can send your PC to sleep instead of shutting it down and then restarting it. It's as simple as pressing a button and then pressing the same button to wake it up. You can tell Windows after how many minutes/hours of inactivity to automatically sleep the machine in the Advanced Power Management section of the Control Panel.

12. Faster Internet Access: If you use the internet for reference and the sites you visit are rarely updated then try the following. In IE (the same can be done in Netscape) go to Tools, Internet Options. Next, click on Settings... in the Temporary Internet Files section. Finally, select Never for the first option and double the amount of storage space to use, click OK!

13. Benchmarking: Benchmarking can be very useful when run frequently. It can tell you how your PC's components are performing and then compare them to other machines like yours. For example, when you overclock your PC, you want to know how much more speed you have and whether it is stable. All this and more can be discovered using benchmarking. An
excellent piece of software for doing this job is SiSoft Sandra which can be found in the Downloads File Archive!

14. Refresh the Taskbar without restarting: If you in some way change the taskbar, either in Regedit or elsewhere, you can refresh the task bar without restarting. Hold down Ctrl Alt Del, and double click on Explorer. Say Yes to close Explorer, but no to closing Windows. This will refresh the Taskbar and system tray.

15. Quick CD Eject: Instead of pushing the button on your drive, rightclick your CD drive letter in My Computer and click on Eject. This will also remove any icons that have become associated with the CD drive.

16. Start Up Programs: Windows can be slowed down when programs run on start up. To eliminate this, check your Start up folder. You can access it from the start menu: Start, Programs, Start Up. Another way to eliminate programs from loading even before Windows actually starts is by doing the following: Click on Start, then Run. Type msconfig. It will take quite a
long time for this program to load, but when you finally see it on your screen, explore the different tabs. They all have to do with how quickly your PC boots, so select what you want, and uncheck what you don't want!

17. Fonts: When Windows starts, it loads every single font in the Fonts folder. Therefore, the more fonts you have, the slower the booting process. To get rid of unwanted fonts, simply go to the Fonts folder under c:\windows and remove whatever you don't want. Fonts that have a red letter 'A' as their icon are system fonts, so don't delete them.

18. Stretching Wallpapers: Don't "stretch" your wallpaper in Windows 98 since it actually slows Windows down when you drag icons around on the desktop.

19. RAM Matters: If you have less than 32MB then you should seriously think of upgrading it to at least 64MB. Windows runs much more smoothly with 64MB or higher and tends to use less hard disk space for virtual memory.

20. Partitioning: A very nice little thing you can doto boost system performance. By partitioning your hard drive, splitting one physical drive into several logical ones, you can gain several advantages.

1. If you get a virus or you accidentally format a drive, not all will be lost.

2. By placing the swap file (Win386.swp) on a separate drive, The swap file will be less fragmented and thus, faster.

3. Place Windows on a separate drive and whenever you need to reinstall it, you rest assured that your data is safe on a
separate drive. Partitioning can be done using a few programs such as FDisk which comes with DOS. However,
FDisk formats everything on the hard disk before partitioning. Alternatively, you can use Partition Magic from Power Quest to partition your hard disk without losing your data.

Some Words can not be used as a folder name

Till today you might received a mail that says "We can't create a mail with the name con or CON."

Here, i show you few more words we can't use as a folder name.

CON, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3,COM1 to COM9 and LPT1 to LPT9....

in any of the windows operating system.

There is a way too to make it, but we can't open files inside them anyway.

You can try to see if it is true

How to Creat an Invisible FOLDER

1. Right click where ever you want the invisible folder to be and select create a new folder.

2 Right Click on the folder and hit rename. Erase the name of the folder so there is nothing there.

3. If you try to stop here windows will tell you that you need to provide a name. So to get around this รข€¦ with the name field still active hold down ALT and press 0160 on the number pad (make sure Num Lock is on), release alt

You should now have a blank name with nothing but a folder next to it

4. Now click on the nameless folder and right click. Select Properties.

5. Go to the Customize tab.

6. Find and press the Change Icon button. Scroll through the icons until you find one that has no image.

7. Hit OK and you have an invisible folder!

With the invisible folder you can hide what ever undesirables you have.
Be it video games at work, pictures of your family or anything else you can think of "wink".

The folder will show up for a brief second if you put it on your desktop.
For that reason it might be smart to place it inside a folder or amongst a group of folders.