Technology Facts

On torrents sites cd images are available in many different format. The .mdf/.mds is one of those formats. To extract the .iso image from .mdf/.mds formatted files you need to have a specialized utility. Daemon Tools is one such freeware utility.

Basically Daemon Tools is a virtual cd drive program. You can use Daemon Tools virtual cd program to mount .mdf/.mds formatted file and directly run cd from this virtual cd drive.

You may download Daemon Tools utility clicking on this link.

Many times downloaded files are in the form collection of small RAR files. These are usually named as part1.rar, part2.rar, part3.rar etc. Yesterday I downloaded one cd image which came as part RAR achieve files. To extract the .iso image of the CD, I put all the the part files of RAR archive in same directory. I then opened the first part file named part1.rar with WINRAR program. WINRAR program combined all the part RAR files and produced a .iso image file. I then extracted this .iso image to the hard drive and burned a CD.

Last week I wanted a program which could directly send email from my computer. Initially I tried the SMTP server that comes with windows XP but I was unable to configure it properly. Hence I googled to search for alternative SMTP server programs. While searching I found SMTP server program which is easy to install, it's called Free SMTP server. It's a small and sweet program. It is a smtp program that lets you send email messages directly from your computer.  It is a very convenient for the people traveling around the world and connecting their computers to different ISPs all the time. Instead of using your ISP's SMTP server you can use free SMTP program to increase security and privacy. Free SMTP servers supports all the email client programs  like Outlook Express, Thunderbird and Eudora. To configure your email client program to send email through Free SMTP server is very easy. Just type "localhost" instead of your ISP is SMTP server address and you are done.

Free SMTP server works on Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista.

To download Free SMTP server click on this link.

After testing YACG successfully on Ubuntu Linux, I decided to test YACG on windows platform. But to test YACG on windows platform you need apache web server and PHP. I thought that I would download Apache and PHP separately but as I googled on the Internet I came across two distribution packages packages which consisted of Apache,MySQL and PHP. First one is called WAMP and the other one XAMPP. As the WAMP is much smaller than XAMPP I downloaded WAMP first. It worked without any problem. Then I installed YACG in apache server's root directory. But YACG failed. I enabled curl extension of PHP without avail. Therefore I decided to download XAMPP.

XAMPP is much larger distribution. It also comes with FileZilla FTP server. So XAMPP is ideal for simulating actual working conditions. After installing XAMPP, I enabled curl extension for PHP and I uploaded YACG to APACHE web server's root directory using FTP client and Filezilla FTP server. I was surprised to find that YACG worked on XAMPP without any problem. I didn't even had to change the file permissions through FTP client. So if you are interested in testing YACG on windows platform I recommend XAMPP distribution.

To go to XAMPP download page click on this link.

You can obtain more information about YACG by joining YACG forum at http://forums.getyacg.com. Here at the forum you will also find the links to download YACG. Good luck.

For last few days I have been busy with my new blogs. I am using WordPress platform on a rented domain. With couple of WordPress plugins I turned these blogs into autoblogs. The installed autoblog plugins post content to my blogs automatically. While preparing these autoblogs for operation I came across an interesting utility for Mozilla Firefox.

This utility is called FireFTP and it is a Mozilla Firefox addon. You just install this addon and after customization of  toolbar you get a nice small button for a FireFTP on the toolbar in Firefox. When you click on this button FireFTP client opens into a new tab. You can create new FTP account in this FireFTP client and get connected to FTP server at just a click of a button. Another good thing about this addon is that it works on all different platforms be it Windows or Linux.I found this addon very useful and hope that you'll find it too!

To go to the download page of FireFTP just click on this link.

If you are trying to get as much exposure as possible to your blog, then it is essential that you notify the Ping servers as soon as you update the blog. The ping server is basically ongoing log of blogs that have been updated recently. Therefore by pinging the ping servers you let the ping servers know that your blog has been updated. If you are using Windows Live Writer to edit and publish your blogs then the Windows Live Writer can Ping the Ping Servers for you every time you post to your blog. For this you can provide a list of Ping servers to Windows Live Writer.

To provide the list of ping servers to Windows Live Writer just click on Tools->Options and select Ping Servers. Then check the box, Send ping to URLs below. Following is the list of Ping servers you can cut and paste in the list box provided at Tools-> Options->Ping Servers,

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080
http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx
http://api.feedster.com/ping.php
http://rpc.pingomatic.com

Recently my computer was hit by a virus attack. The infection was caused by Antivirus 360. Antivirus 360 is a Rogue anti-spyware program that shows false scan results and uses aggressive advertising to promote itself. Vundo Trojan advertises this rogue. Vundo Trojan shows large number of false Pop Ups, notification and alerts about your computer being infected asking you to install Antivirus 360. Once you download and install Antivirus 360 it will scan your computer for infection and show false results. It even shows windows regular files C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe, C:\Windows\System32\alg.exe as spyware or virus. So if you manually remove these files your computer may cease to function properly. Antivirus 360 cannot be uninstalled as it doesn't list any uninstall utility to remove it. Windows Add/Remove program cannot uninstall it. So you have basically stuck with this program till you register it online for $50.

To get rid of this Antivirus you can use Malwarebytes Anti-Malware program. This Anti-Malware can remove the most advanced malware. I downloaded this Anti-Malware program and installed it on my computer. The first time when I ran it, It scanned computer, found Vundo Trojan. I then removed Vundo Trojan with it. Next I updated Malwarebytes Anti-Malware using built in update function. After updating when I ran the Anti-Malware utility again it found Rogue Antivirus 360 infection. I then removed the Antivirus 360 by just pressing Remove button.

Click here to download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

Shane O'Neill writes:

Phasing out an old operating system is nothing new for Microsoft, but Windows XP is unique in that it may be too good to die.

This week, Dell announced it will offer systems with the aging Windows XP for a surcharge of US$150 over the newer Windows Vista--this only five months after it stopped offering XP on its Inspiron consumer desktop and laptop PCs.

The deadline for Windows XP downgrades has been pushed back twice now, remaining in effect until July 31, 2009-a strong indication that enough users want to stay with the aging XP rather than give Vista a chance.

Though market share for Windows XP dropped nearly 10 percent in 2008 as Vista slowly made gains, XP still has a market share of 66 percent, according to Web metrics company Net Applications.

Read more here........