Technology At Its Best

Small and swift, Find and Run Robot makes searching files and launching programs go faster than a Black Friday deal. Also known as FARR, the program is great for those who love options. If you’re the indecisive type, though, you may want to stay clear.

Running in your system tray, FARR is innocuous and uses little RAM. Hit the Pause/Break key to bring up the launching window; as you type, FARR narrows down your choices. In that sense, FARR functions like many other launchers. Search results are numbered and automatically sorted using built-in scoring systems unique to the program. If you want returned-result number nine, for example, simply type ALT+9 and hit enter–there’s no need to touch the mouse or continue typing a longer string. A Launch History tab keeps track of what you’ve launched.

While the launching and searching functions are fairly basic, the options are almost overwhelming. Users can do nearly anything with the app, from adjusting the font size, style, and color to monitoring your clipboard, taking basic screen captures, Web searches, customizing hot keys, and calculation functions. FARR is also fully portable, making this a must-have whether you’re on a desktop or a laptop.

The much-anticipated Firefox 3.1 beta 2 is out and about for Windows and Mac users, incorporating the faster JavaScript engine TraceMonkey as the default setting and introducing Private Browsing, which has been in development for years. There are other improvements, of course, but the big one is the ability to turn off the cache and other private data settings with a single click.

Firefox 3.1 beta 2 is the first chance the public has had to use Mozilla’s long-awaited privacy feature.
(Credit: CNET Networks)

Private Browsing works similarly to Google Chrome’s Incognito, or Safari’s setting of the same name. Go into Tools on the Menubar and click Private Browsing, and all your movements on the Internet will not be recorded. Firefox’s version of the feature saves all your tabs and closes the browsing session, re-opening a new and empty browser window. Unlike Chrome, Firefox doesn’t sport a clever little icon indicating that you’re browsing on the sly. The program title bar does state that you’re using Private Browsing, but there’s no blatant icon.

Firefox has also posted the about:config setting needed to set Private Browsing as your default browsing configuration. Once you’re in the about:config, type in browser.privatebrowsing.autostart and double-click on the False setting. This will change it to True, and when you restart your browser you will automatically be in Private Browsing mode.

What’s interesting about this is that it removes the indicator from the Title Bar and grays out the Private setting in the Tools menu. The only way to resume normal browsing is to change the about:config back to its original False setting. Doing this restores your last previous non-Private browsing session, tabs and all.

There is more in Firefox 3.1 beta 2 than just the ability to surf surreptitiously. TraceMonkey, the new JavaScript engine that Mozilla introduced in the previous Firefox beta, is now on by default. It feels even faster than it did in the first beta. The SunSpider JavaScript test showed 2449.2 for FF3.1 beta 2, about an 8 percent improvement over FF3.1 beta 1, with a margin of error at around 5 percent. Part of the change could be due to changes in the Gecko layout engine such as “speculative parsing” that Mozilla claims resulted in faster content rendering.

Mozilla has killed the new visual tab switching feature, introduced in the previous beta.
(Credit: CNET Networks)

One of the big disappointments is that the new tab-switching behavior has been removed. As a serial tab abuser, I thought it was extremely useful that FF3.1 would have a visual representation of the tabs I was jumping between. Hopefully, this feature will be at least rolled out as an add-on, but I’ve been known to abuse those, too.

For developers, this beta includes support for Web worker threads, which I was also somewhat disappointed to learn was not a Mozilla-sponsored fashion plan for style-deficient techies. Instead, they’re about the JavaScript implementation and what kind of requests can be made in the code.

Firefox 3.1 beta 2 will not be the final tester update. According to Mozilla, it will be followed by at least one more beta release.

Truphone’s app turns the iPod Touch into a mobile phone.
(Credit: Truphone)
Apple may have a new mobile phone to compete with–one that runs on its iPod Touch.
The MP3 player can be transformed into a mobile phone with the help of a free app from Internet telephone company Truphone. The new app allows users with a Wi-Fi connection to make and receive phone calls via voice over IP with other iPod Touch owners, users of the Google Talk’s messaging service, and customers of Truphone’s Internet telephone service. The company said it expects to add the ability to handle landline calls.

The app creates a virtual keyboard on second-generation iPod Touchs to dial calls and requires the addition of a headset and microphone.

However, Apple doesn’t appear to be too threatened by Truphone; the application is available for free download at Apple’s App Store.

While the app could work with any device with Wi-Fi access, the company said it has decided to focus on devices with connections to an apps store.

“We’ve decided to focus on devices that are Wi-Fi-enabled and have an apps store,” Truphone CEO Geraldine Wilson told the BBC. “For the consumer, there has to be an easy way of downloading an application.”

Other planned features include the ability to phone and IM Skype and MSN VoIP users, and to check and set Twitter and Facebook.

Fring offers a similar service, allowing access to Skype users. But Truphone plans to add access to Skype, as well as landlines, which should make Truphone more appealing to many users.

Download Accelerator Plus (DAP)–the popular download manager with over 160 million users worldwide. DAP leverages patented technology, easy management of downloads and rich features and includes an upgraded download window for faster downloads with ease and simplicity, improved management window, ability to upload and send large files, the SpeedBit Video Accelerator expansions.
Available in 10 languages.
Version 8.7.0.5 adds support for Google Chrome, upgrades the download window, and improves the management window.
Click here to go to the download page

GOOGLE WEB ACCELERATOR IS A FREE UTILITY FOR SPEEDING UP SURFING/BROWSING SPEED [NOT DOWNLOADING SPEED] . GOOGLE WEB ACCELERATOR WORKS ON A SIMPLE PROCESS NAMED CATCHING. WHEN YOU SURF , IT CATCHES WEBSITE INFORMATION, FILES etc. NEXT TIME YOU VISIT THE WEBSITE , IT CHECKS & ANALYZES IT CONTENTS FOR UPDATE . AS THE RESULT PAGE OPENS UP FAST . GOOGLE WEB ACCELERATOR USES DATA STORED ON YOUR COMPUTER SO THERE IS NO STRESS ON YOUR BANDWIDTH USAGE .
THIS UTILITY IS VERY USEFUL FOR DIAL-UP , BROADBAND USERS . THE UTILITY COMES IN .msi FORMAT & 1.7 MB IN FILE SIZE.
GO TO GOOGLE WEB ACCELERATOR WEBSITE****
DOWNLOAD GOOGLE WEB ACCELERATOR [.msi]****

Tagscanner is a great tool to manage all your music files. Tagscanner can rename files with haywire names like track01.mp3 or 01 AirhEad PrOCeed.mp3 automatically filtering out numbers,fixing capitals,and getting datafrom the tags. It can batch edit tags based on file names or from online databases like FreeDB. It supports many tag formats like ID3,Ape,WMA and MP4 metadata. It supports many file types,including MP3,MP4 and WMA.
Tagscanner also has an inbuilt player for your audio files. It’s a free software ,and can be downloaded from download.com. Tagscanner has four tags to work with your music files:Music renamer,Tag editor,Tag processor and List maker.

DEP(Data Execution Error) when we click on any file. For disabling it do the following:
If you have XP SP2,then it may be “Data Execution Prevention”(DEP)error. Turn off DEP in the XP control panel.

1.Click the start button at the bottom left of your screen.
2.Click the Control Panel menu item.
3.Then,double-click the System icon.
4.Click the Advanced tab.
5.Find the item marked performance right under there is a button that says settings.
6.Click the Data Execution Prevention tab.
7.You will see two options in that window.Click the second option that says “Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select
8.When you are finished with that then click the’Add…’ button it should be visible at the bottom of the box. Then,you have to find where the file ‘explorer.exe’resides on your computer most of the time it’s something like this C:\windows\explorer.exe anywayadd explorer to that list. it’ll give you a warning just ignore it and click ok. Then you reboot and if you try it everything should work just fine.

Burn4Free CD and DVD is a burning solution that’s compatible with more than 3,000 DVD and CD burners. Burn data and audio from different file types(WAV,WMA,MP3,OGG,FLAC,Wavpack,andCDA).

Burn and save ISO files,open and save your project to disk,verify content,print compilations,copy DVDs, and import your audio compilation from M3U and ASX playlists. The drives supported include dual-layer DVD,CD-R,CD-RW,DVD-R,DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW,and DVD-RAM.

The EICAR test file (official name: EICAR Standard Anti-Virus Test File) is a file, developed by the European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research, to test the response of computer antivirus (AV) programs. The rationale behind it is to allow people, companies, and AV programmers to test their software without having to use a real computer virus that could cause actual damage should the AV not respond correctly. EICAR likens the use of a live virus to test AV software to setting a fire in a trashcan to test a fire alarm, and promotes the EICAR test file as a safe alternative.

A compliant virus scanner, when detecting the file, will respond in exactly the same manner as if it found genuinely harmful code. Its use can be more versatile than straightforward detection – for example, a file containing the EICAR test string can be compressed or archived, and then the antivirus software can be run to see whether it can detect the test string in the compressed file.The Eicar test string reads:

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

It can be created by using notepad and save as .com extension. Or download via Website of EICAR.

Notes:

* The third character in the string is the capital letter O, not a zero.
* Although the string itself is 68 bytes in length, some text editors add an extra blank line (CR+LF) to the end of the file, increasing the size to 70 bytes. This does not affect its functionality.

It is a powerful hard drive defragmentation. Used for Optimum start-up, Internet, and Windows acceleration.
Also helpful for Quick and extensive clean-up for hard drives.

Other chief features include:

• Effective elimination of junk data

• Fully-automatic clean-up and improvement of your PC

• Extensive clean-up of the registry

• Effective help in solving standard Windows problems

• Secure data recovery and data elimination

• Simple custom Windows configuration

• Individual Windows styling