MonitorOff – Software to Switch Off Your Monitor & Save Energy

What if somebody gave you a little 420KB free Windows software and said that it could not only lengthen the life of your monitor but also shorten your electricity bill? Would you consider it a must-have?

I can’t give you the figures right here that will show the power saving effects when you switch off your monitor when you aren’t using it. But it must be something when you consider that a LCD monitor consumes 20 -30 Watts and a CRT glows with 70 – 80 Watts.

When computers sleep or are on standby, there is some minimal energy consumption but it is far lower than when they running in all their glory. Putting our computers on standby is a wonderful habit to develop. Shutting off the monitor is a first step towards lesser power consumption.

The benefit is not related to eco-consciousness alone but also to our wallets. Energy savings means lower bills. Lesser monitor usage means better battery life of laptops. That again lowers the running cost of a computer.

If I have managed to wake up your interest then let’s look at that 420Kb sized freeware we were speaking about. Rather aptly, it’s called Monitor Off.

Monitor Off just asks you for a few settings and makes you and your monitor an energy saver. Computers have their own power saving schemes and you set it to turn off the monitors after a predetermined interval or start a screensaver (please note that screensavers usually do not save power). Monitor Off gives the user more hands on control over the power options of a monitor.

Monitor Off can be downloaded and installed or can be run as a standalone program (i.e. without an installation). Either way, it runs minimized in the background. Here are the three things you can make it do :

Setup Monitor Off To Switch Off Display Or Start The Screensaver

For energy saving with a keystroke you can enable hot keys.

Also, activate the screensaver with another set of hot keys.

Alternatively, you can use the right click on the system tray icon as a toggle switch to turn off the display or start the screensaver. Another option is to set the tray icon to take a double click as a switch off command.

Setup Monitor Switch Off Delay

You can set the number of seconds the program delays switching off the monitors after monitor power off action. The default is 10 seconds. During this delay interval, the operation can be aborted.

Setup Monitor Off To Lock The Computer Before Switching Off

This combines a power saving with a bit of security, especially in an office environment. Thinking of going to the water cooler? Set this option and the computer display will power down and lock the display. The program supports multiple displays. Though, I couldn’t test this aspect – going by the words on the website, it should be able to handle double display workstations.

The energy saving freeware is a no hassle piece of software and the best thing about it is that it’s portable too. Monitor Off (v1.0) is supported on Windows 98/2000/ME/XP/Vista and requires NET Framework 2.0 or later.

Do you use a specific energy management app? Or do you leave the energy saving to Windows default settings? But before you comment, do read our posts on how computers can be used to save the world.

Download: Monitor Off

Find A Song Title Just by Humming The Lyrics

Have you ever found yourself having one of those mind-numbing moments when you’ve fallen in love with a new song that played on the radio a few times, but you can’t remember the title or the lyrics?

Here at MakeUseOf, we’ve focused on a number of websites and tools that you can use to find a song by its lyrics, such as Brad’s article on the top 5 sites to find song lyrics online or David’s article on how to find song titles with just a few lyrics you do know. Today, I’d like to cover a very new solution that’s available for the most common scenerio – when you don’t know the title of the song or any of the lyrics, but you can hum or whistle the song just fine!

Voice Recognition Technology Saves The Day

There are a number of cutting edge computer technologies that have always fascinated me, mostly because they represent areas where computers are finally entering into the realm ofartificial intelligence. Two of those include image recognition and voice recognition.

While I’ve not followed the state of the art of each field, I’ve always been under the impression that both areas of computer intelligence have a very long way to go. However, what would you say if I told you that I’ve discovered a computer program, an online application to be exact, that you could sing, hum or whistle a tune to and it could accurately guess the title of the song. Images of science fiction movies, where starship crew members seek the help of the ship’s AI computer system come to mind. Well, it’s no longer science fiction – this technology is now a reality at Modomi.

Midomi itself isn’t exactly a very special or unique website. Just like every other website where you can search for and purchase music online, Midomi lets you research music, bands and more. You can watch music videos, listen to music clips or even join the Midomi fan club for any particular music group. However, the true heart of Midomi becomes apparent (and the site absolutely comes alive) when you start becoming “fans” of particular groups. As you enter fan pages, you’ll become aware of a Facebook-like social network of music lovers. As I was browsing through this site, I noticed something rather unique compared to most other music websites. Midomi once again takes advantage of interactive audio by allowing fans to make and upload their own recordings of the music that they’re fans of.

As a fan, you can listen to any of these uploaded recordings. I joined the Green Day fan club and immediately saw user dude34bja’s recording of When I Come Around at the top as the most listened to recording. I clicked on it and was blown away by her fantastic acoustic rendition of the song. You too can record your own version of any of your favorite songs if you click on the “Studio” menu option at the top of the Midomi page.

Record your songs, and if your good enough you’ll very likely develop your own fan base right within the Midomi online community. Get enough votes and you actually appear as a “Midomi star.” In addition to recording music, the Midomi site is just completely integrated with audio at every turn. You can even upload audio comments at the site instead of typing them.

Now, all of this is very cool – but what about the whole reason we came to the site? That little box at the top of the first page that reads, “Click and Sing or Hum.”  Does it really work?  I decided to test the accuracy of this online application by humming Losing My Religion, by R.E.M.  After clicking the text box, the recording began.

I hummed the first 16 seconds or so of part of the song – no words whatsoever – just straight humming. I was absolutely convinced there was no way that this application would be able to recognize the song without a single line of lyrics. When I was done I clicked on “Click to Stop” and waited for the results. This is what came up.

The top “guess” was a perfect match. Unbelievable. I figured it was a fluke – a completely lucky guess, so decided to try it again with a more difficult tune that wasn’t so modern – I went back and hummed the first 15 seconds of “Over the Rainbow,” sung by Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz. I chose this song because there is absolutely no way I can hum it perfectly in tune. After 15 seconds of forcing the recorder to suffer through my cracking and screeching as I attempted to hum some of the tune, I clicked stop and grinned. No way it’s going to know what that horrid noise was. The following were the results.

I have to say, if anything convinced me – this did. As far as I can tell, you only need to know the general tune of a song – no title and no lyrics required. This amazing little Midomi web app will remind you of the title after just a few seconds of humming. Even better – you can download the app to your iPhone and carry around this little song-title-reminder app with you everywhere. Hard to believe? Visit the site and give it a shot – and let us know in the comments section below whether it blew you away. I know it did for me. Have fun!

How to send Your Gmail to Your cell phone[via SMS]

The TUT covers how to forward Gmail to your phone. Mail forwarding
is a common function of Gmail service.


STEP 1.For Starting This YOu Need an ID(ex. 91XXXXXXXXXX@m3m.in).If u already have such ID then move on to step 2 else read my last article to get your free ID.


STEP 2.LOGIN to your GMAIL account.


STEP 3. Navigate your way through. SETTINGS then FORWARDING and POP/IMAP

STEP 4.TICK forward a copy incoming email to.option.
Enter the ID obtained in STEP 1. and click save changes.


STEP 5.NOW U will recive your emails directly on your cell phone

Shutdown Computer with a Cell Phone

Using this method, a user can shutdown, restart, hibernate, etc. his or her computer, just by sending an email from his or her phone.

To do this, all you will need is Microsoft Outlook which should come with Microsoft Office, which most people have. This will need to be on the computer wish you wish to shutdown.

So, this is how you do this:

1. First, you need the batch files to perform the Shutdown, Hibernate etc. You can write them down yourselves

2. open your note pad

and write lik this...

c:\windows\system32\shutdown -s -f -t 00

and save it as shutdown.bat

3. Open up Microsoft Outlook. Make sure that you have already configured it for your email.Now we will need to make it so that Outlook checks your inbox about every minute (1 minute for testing time can be increased if a delayed shutdown is desired). You can do this by going to Tools: Options.

4. Then click the Mail Setup tab, and afterwards, the Send/Receive button.

5. Make sure that the Schedule an automatic send/receive every... box is checked, and set the number of minutes to 1. Now you may close all of these dialog boxes.

6. Now go to Tools: Rules and Alerts... Next click the options button in the upper right hand corner and press the Import Rules button.

7. Now select the shutdown.bat file ...whi u hv created ...

8. Now, when you send a message from your phone to your e-mail address with the subject shutdown or smsshutdown%%, your computer will shutdown.

Why Google Chrome OS and MS Office are "Most Wanted" in 2010

If there are two releases planned for 2010 that all users should look more closely, are the Microsoft Office 2010 and Google Chrome OS. No resemblance, but both will keep you busy looking over pictures and demos. But because there are many good news about these two projects, some video and image material enough to share why these are the most wanted in 2010.

# MICROSOFT OFFICE 2010

After the changes the company made the jump from the 2003 version to the new Office 2007 suite experienced many improvements compared to the older Word and Excel we all knew when we were kids and learned computers using them.

See : Office 2010 Trailer Movie… Will Rock…

Screen Post Installation of Office 2010

One of the things that most liked in this beta of Office 2010 is the speed that has the booting and simplicity of its structure, beyond that Office 2003 was extremely minimal.

The fact of using toolboxes for each of the options and alternatives with different tabs that are above, makes the new Office takes up less space to use more options and greater maneuverability for the common user.

Following the same point in the top right corner is an option to use these panels in a more minimalist yet. What makes the little arrow beside the question mark is getting all the panels at a time, so we only choose what to redeploy from the tabs.

If the date is hard to find, two clicks also will. That is, each of the options within the tabs (Insert, Reference, Mail, among others) are able to fold or unfold once we double click over them.

File menu in Microsoft Office 2010

In addition, the File menu is much more graphic than in older versions of the suite. Inside we find several options, among which the Recent submenu to see the latest opened files, the permissions section to protect the document when you save and the information screen provided to us before saving a Word file.

Microsoft Office 2010, Word in particular, we will also make a bridge between various blog editors. Among the list includes some known as Wordpress, Blogger and Windows Live Spaces.

# GOOGLE CHROME OS

Google’s operating system had been developed earlier this year, information that flooded the Internet for several days and fulfilled the expectations of many of us who use services from Google every day, such as GTalk, Gmail and GMaps. I guess everyone almost…

Chrome boot OS (7 seconds)

A few days back news of the launch scheduled for next year and also the novelty of the event organized by Google to give some details about gOS, demos and let us show some new images.

It was found that Chrome OS starts in about 7 seconds because the PC does not need to start with processes, one behind the other, as with Windows machines that must endure.

Furthermore, gOS will be completely free, with updates throughout the system and the opportunity to unlock the system by ensuring that all the data stored will be stored online. In addition, we have a range of applications gDocs style, Youtube or gTalk integrated with our browser, Chrome.

GOS Applications Menu

Another positive point is that Chrome OS is a system that does not rely on any application that we have pre-installed, so for safety not to trust anyone and thus maintain our stability as possible.

The bad news is that gOS is an operating system that is downloaded like any other and installed. Quite contrary, at the time of its release, gOS will run on laptops that are manufactured exclusively for it. Most people will get discouraged, but I am sure that the Laptops or netbooks will cost much less than with Windows 7.

Beware of these 14 cyber threats!

   

Cyber threats continue to haunt Internet users across the world. The bad news is that this will continue to wreak havoc taking new forms and approaches.

As long as humans are programming computer code, flaws will be introduced, no matter how thorough pre-release testing is. Microsoft's new operating system is no exception, and as Windows 7 hits the pavement and gains traction in 2010, attackers will undoubtedly find ways to exploit its users, says a Symantec report.

Security software scammers can take their efforts to the next level, by even hijacking users' computers and rendering them useless. "Cyber terrorism is the next big threat for India. Pakistani cyber criminals are able to deface 50 to 60 Indian websites a day. Though, India leads in IT services, it is lags behind as far as cyber security is concerned," ethical hacker Ankit Fadia said in an interview to Business Standard.

The most popular instant messaging will largely be comprised of unsolicited spam messages containing malicious links, especially attacks aimed at compromising legitimate IM accounts. By the end of 2010, Symantec predicts that one in 300 IM messages will contain a URL.

Symantec Corp has released its 2010 Security Predictions report. The reports states that malicious programs are actually being created at a higher rate than good programs.

Here are 14 threats that you must be aware of. . .

 

1. Anti-virus is not enough

With the rise of polymorphic threats and the explosion of unique malware variants in 2009, the industry is quickly realizing that traditional approaches to antivirus, both file signatures and heuristic/behavioural capabilities, are not enough to protect against today's threats.

We have reached an inflection point where new malicious programs are actually being created at a higher rate than good programs. As such, we have also reached a point where it no longer makes sense to focus solely on analyzing malware. Instead, approaches to security that look to ways to include all software files, such as reputation-based security, will become key in 2010.

2. Social engineering as the primary attack vector

More attackers are going directly after the end user and attempting to trick them into downloading malware or divulging sensitive information under the auspice that they are doing something perfectly innocent.

Social engineering's popularity is at least in part spurred by the fact that what operating system and Web browser rests on a user's computer is largely irrelevant, as it is the actual user being targeted, not necessarily vulnerabilities on the machine.

Social engineering is already one of the primary attack vectors being used today, and Symantec estimates that the number of attempted attacks using social engineering techniques will increase in 2010.

3. Rogue security software vendors escalate their efforts

In 2010, expect to see the propagators of rogue security software scams take their efforts to the next level, even by hijacking users' computers, rendering them useless and holding them for ransom. A less drastic next step, however, would be software that is not explicitly malicious, but dubious at best.

For example, Symantec has already observed some rogue antivirus vendors selling rebranded copies of free third-party antivirus software as their own offerings. In these cases, users are technically getting the antivirus software that they pay for, but the reality is that this same software can actually be downloaded for free elsewhere.

4. Social networking third-party applications will be the target of fraud

With the popularity of social networking sites poised for another year of unprecedented growth, there will be more frauds being leveraged against site users to grow. In the same vein, expect owners of these sites to create more proactive measures to address these threats.

As this occurs, and as these sites more readily provide third-party developer access to their APIs, attackers will likely turn to vulnerabilities in third-party applications for users' social networking accounts, just as we have seen attackers leverage browser plug-ins more as Web browsers themselves become more secure.

5. Windows 7 will come into the cross-hairs of attackers

Microsoft has already released the first security patches for the new operating system. As long as humans are programming computer code, flaws will be introduced, no matter how thorough pre-release testing is, and the more complex the code, the more likely that undiscovered vulnerabilities exist.

Microsoft's new operating system is no exception, and as Windows 7 hits the pavement and gains traction in 2010, attackers will undoubtedly find ways to exploit its users.

6. Fast Flux Botnets increase

Fast flux is a technique used by some botnets, such as the Storm botnet, to hide phishing and malicious web sites behind an ever-changing network of compromised hosts acting as proxies.

Using a combination of peer-to-peer networking, distributed command and control, web-based load balancing and proxy redirection, it makes it difficult to trace the botnets' original geo-location. As industry counter measures continue to reduce the effectiveness of traditional botnets, expect to see more using this technique being used to carry out attacks.

7.URL shortening services become the phisher's best friend

Phishers are able to disguise links that the average security conscious user might think twice about clicking on, because users often have no idea where a shortened URL is actually sending them, .

Symantec is already seeing a trend toward using this tactic to distribute misleading applications and we expect much more to come. Also, in an attempt to evade antispam filters through obfuscation, expect spammers to leverage shortened URLs shorteners to carry out their own evil deeds.

8. Mac and mobile malware will increase

The number of attacks designed to exploit a certain operating system or platform is directly related to that platform's market share, as malware authors are out to make money and always want the biggest bang for their buck.

In 2009, Macs and smartphones targeted more by malware authors, for example the Sexy Space botnet aimed at the Symbian mobile device operating system and the OSX. Iservice Trojan targeting Mac users.

As Mac and smartphones continue to increase in popularity in 2010, more attackers will devote time to creating malware to exploit these devices.

9. Spammers breaking the rules

As the economy continues to suffer and more people seek to take advantage of the loose restrictions of the Can Spam Act, we'll see more organisations selling unauthorised e-mail address lists and more less-than-legitimate marketers spamming those lists.

10. Spam volumes will fluctuate

Since 2007, spam has increased on average by 15 percent. While this significant growth in spam e-mail may not be sustainable in the long term, it is clear that spammers are not yet willing to give up as long an economic motive is present.

Spam volumes will continue to fluctuate in 2010 as spammers continue to adapt to the sophistication of security software, the intervention of responsible ISPs and government agencies across the globe.

11. Specialised malware 

Highly specialised malware was uncovered in 2009 that was aimed at exploiting certain ATMs, indicating a degree of insider knowledge about their operation and how they could be exploited.

Expect this trend to continue in 2010, including the possibility of malware targeting electronic voting systems, both those used in political elections and public telephone voting, such as that connected with reality television shows and competitions.

12. CAPTCHA Technology will improve

As this happens and spammers have a more difficult time breaking CAPTCHA codes through automated processes, spammers in emerging economies will devise a means to use real people to manually generate new accounts for spamming, thereby attempting to bypass the improved technology.

Symantec estimates that the individuals employed to manually create these accounts will be paid less than 10 percent of the cost to the spammers, with the account-farmers charging $30-40 per 1,000 accounts.

13. Instant messaging spam

As cyber criminals exploit new ways to bypass CAPTCHA technologies, instant messenger (IM) attacks will grow in popularity. IM threats will largely be comprised of unsolicited spam messages containing malicious links, especially attacks aimed at compromising legitimate IM accounts.

By the end of 2010, Symantec predicts that one in 300 IM messages will contain a URL. Also, in 2010, Symantec predicts that overall, one in 12 hyperlinks will be linked to a domain known to be used for hosting malware.

Thus, one in 12 hyperlinks appearing in IM messages will contain a domain that has been considered suspicious or malicious. In mid 2009, that level was 1 in 78 hyperlinks.

14. Non-English spam will increase

As broadband connection penetration continues to grow across the globe, particularly in developing economies, spam in non-English speaking countries will increase. In some parts of Europe, Symantec estimates the levels of localised spam will exceed 50 percent of all spam.

The Fake 32 GBs

This blog has been created to help people who bought the Fake 32 GB Kingston pendrive at throwaway prices.

Especially in and around Mumbai. Their main target is call centres employees and IT companies. Their packing and modus operandii is very professional and real.

Its time we learn a lesson and pay sales tax and buy genuine goods. The government will only help us if we follow the white route.

We bought this pendrive to conduct test as to who is responsible,, and we may have found out but we donot want to implicate any one.

The circuitory looks original and even the ICs and LEDs are of good make.

The pendrives are actually 1 gb or 2gb pendrives from a third party manufacturer. The storage chip is from Samsung and the controller is from another microchip giant Alcor Micro.

What they have done is assembled the controller and memory chip and have created a firmware which shows non-existent sectors .

Every time you paste something larger than the actual capacity the data is written into these virtual sectors and is lost.

Now that you have already paid the money for it and there is no way you can get that back because we assume you have not taken a bill for that and neither is Kingston gonna take moral responsibility.

The only way to redeem some of the value is to actually use it as a 1gbfunctional pendrive.

That is where we step in.

We have devised a method to erase those virtual sectors and give you actually what they sold you.So that the data that you copy does not get corrupted.

WARNING::

Following these steps will make you Fake 32 GB Pendrive to a 1 GB-2 GBPendrive.These steps are specifically for the current 32GB Kingston Pendrive scam only. As each controller chip has a different make and firmware.

DISCLAIMER.

We are not responsible for any damages that might occur to the pendrive. This is a FREE Public service. We will also not accept any other liability either. We do not work for either Transcend Kingston,Alcor Micro,Samsungwho use similar parts. We are freelance computer technicians.

THE STEPS

****For Information about any USB Drive Use this softwarehttp://host.hackerbox.org/download.php?file=b90b1e80d3868f8c70a1ef6d394482ec ***

1) Go to this website and download this filehttp://host.hackerbox.org/download.php?file=2e46c99b2b179e9bed1ea8687e87529a

2) Then unzip the RAR file using WINRAR (for newbies who do not havewinrar go here http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm)

3) Open the extracted folder and open the file alcorMP.exe (you need administrator rights of the computer that you are using).

and Insert the FAKE 32 GB Pendrive.

The console shows at no 1 the pendrive that you have inserted (make sure there are no other flash drives.)

4) Click on SETUP--

a password dialog box will appear,, you can click on OK. Do not enter any password.

5)The setup window opens

Donot mess with anything here...just go to 'other' tab.

Now this is the only difficult thing in the process, Select Spec FlashID and type in the flash ID from the main screen make sure the two are same.

If there is nothing in the last octet then you can enter 00 on the Spec Flash ID in the corresponding octet.

And Click OK.

Now you are redirected to the main screen.

Click on the Start option on the Left side. And Pray.

It will first Erase the Data and then it will delete the virtual sectors and then it will format the drive.

And Viola!!!!!! you'll have a expensive 1gb pendrive at least, in our case it was a 1 GB pendrive hope you people get something more.

JustDial: Call in your search query

Most people who use search engines often use it for looking up local information. Google Search is quite handy to look up phone numbers for restaurants, hospitals and other important details you might require.

But what if I did not have access to the internet. Well I can always call up a friend and request him to search for an address or phone number. A few days ago I needed to find some phone numbers to all the hospitals in the locality I live in. I called this service JustDialand got all the information I needed. They sent me the address via email and also sent me the address and contact numbers through SMS. This was quite handy to look up locally listed businesses or services on the go.

Just Dial on Internet

• Using Just Dial website I could look up all the hospitals in my locality. It apparently covers over 250 cities in India and is probably the best way to search for local information in India.
• You can order flowers to someone, check out places of interest like restaurants andhotels by specifying the locality in which you are searching within the city, so that narrows down your search results. For instance I looked up hospitals only in my locality and not the whole city.
• There are many other specialized local listings, like a section on movies which allows you to select a movie and location you are in. It shows up a list of theaters the movie might be playing in.

Just Dial on Phone

• As I wrote before you do not need to be online to use JustDial. All you have to do is call Just Dial which is a local call from any city in India where the service is available.
• Their number is 6999 9999 and someone on the other end of the call does the searching for you. Then you can give your mobile number and ask for the relevant details to be sent through a text message.

I have used this service a few times, it is a great help during emergencies. Not everyone has internet access over a cell phone. People who are not really into using internet website can also use this service with a simple call from any land-line. 

So what do you think? Is it the best local search engine for India as they claim. I definitely think their boast is accurate.