तिम्रो लागि सारा संसार भुलाई दिन्छु म ................................

बीबीसी विश्व सेवाले आफ्नो ७५औं वर्षगांठको अवसरमा नवप्रतिभाहरुका लागि गरेको विश्व संगीत प्रतियोगिताकै अवसर पारेर बीबीसी नेपाली सेवाले पनि नेपाली नवसांगीतिक प्रतिभाहरुको खोजी गरेको छ। त्यस क्रममा बीबीसीले पाँच वटा उत्कृष्ट गीतहरू प्रशारण गरेको थियो । उक्त पाँचवटा गीतहरू मध्ये मलाई सबै भन्दा मन परेको गीत चाँही दोश्रो हुन सफल भएको अभय एण्ड द स्टीम इन्जन्सको गीत हो । यो गीतमा अरेबिक, पाश्चात्य र नेपाली संगीतको एक गजबको फ्युजन पाउन सकिन्छ । यस प्रकारको गीतहरू नेपाली सांगीतिक क्षेत्रमा अझ आउनुपर्ने मेरो धारणा छ । तपाँई पनि यस गीतलाई सुन्न चाहनुहुन्छ भने यहाँ क्लिक गर्नुहोस् ।

http://cid-def3d3dce749030c.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/timro%20lagi.wma

A Technical Disaster

Everyone has heard about natural calamities & disaster and most of them may have also faced it. But, most of the people don't know about technical disaster. Recently, I have faced a technical disaster. This incident happened on 20 December, 2007 Thursday. There is a Web Development Team in our office. I am the coordinator of that team & have the main responsibility toward total progress of the team. We have developed an Intranet Magazine & redesigned the official website of Ministry of Home Affairs (my office) www.moha.gov.np . We had to make a real time presentation of websites to e-Governance Unit on that day. The presentation was going to held about 1 PM. 15 minutes before the presentation I noticed that there is no network connection anymore. I was shocked because it was an unexpected and sudden technical problem. I thought that what the hell happened to the network. I restarted all the switches & Servers. But, it did not work. I didn't see any clue of that problem. I failed to make the networking up at working state. I was very much worried about the presentation. Finally, the clock hit 1 PM. It was the time for real time presentation. We apologized for the technical problem & decided to make the presentation from the cached memory of the browser. Eventually, the presentation started at 1:15 PM. The presentation was over. But, the network was still not working. We phoned World Link Communication Pvt. Ltd. for technical support. By 4 PM, the network started to work automatically. It was another unexpected event. We had already given up hope. But, it finally worked. The support team of Wlink also failed to find out the actual problem. It was working fine & smoothly. We are unable to determine the actual problem of that day till to date. I named the incident "A Technical Disaster".

way2philosophy (A new way of thinking)

This very blogsite represents the philosophical ideas to those who are really keen about philosophies of the great philosopher.......

http://way2philosophy.blogspot.com

Photoshop Toolbar Explained!

I was just organising my bookmark when I noticed this little link. Its to a page where all the tools from the Photoshop Toolbar are explained! It has a detailed explanation for each tool along with a light video demonstration to the tools capabilities. Its great for Photoshop newbies! Here it is: simplephotoshop.com

Top 10 web-design mistakes!!

Yes, UseIt has it out, the Top 10 Web-Design mistakes for Blogs & Top 10 Web-Design mistakes of 2005.

Looks like we’ve avoided quite a bit of blog design mistakes & will try to comply by them fully. Those are excellent usability references for web-designers, a must read I should say!!

spoolsv.exe at 99% CPU usage

My friend called me few days back and he told that his PC is acting very slowly. To me, first it looked like a case of my newbie friend not regularly cleaning his PC with spy or virus removal tools.I checked his PC with Spybot S&D with latest spy definitions , and also check for any virus’s with Norton Anti virus. But still the Pc was lagging. Then I ran the Windows Task Manager and checked which program was using up all the Cpu resource. Fascinatingly a executable named spoolsv.exe was using up 99% of all the resources and wasn’t eager to go down. I even tried to kill the spoolsv.exe process manually, but after a few seconds it again automatically ran in the background and started hogging the CPU.

First look at the exe name, says it has something to do with the printer spool. I looked up at the internet about spoolsv.exe and it’s not a virus anyways, spoolsv.exe is the spooler service responsible for managing spooled print/fax jobs. After a while, I manage to find a way to solve the spoolsv.exe from shooting up to 99% cpu usage problem.

It is advised to turn on the Print Spooler service first. You can do it from Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services. Look for Print Spooler and stop it.

If it is already stopped, just follow the next step.
Delete ALL files in C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS. It should have files something like 00020.SHD, 00020.SPL and etc...

Now spoolsv.exe should run but it's at 0% CPU usage. Nice fix discovered.

Installing XP from DOS the easy way!

Have you ever tried installing windows Xp from Dos, but couldn't figure out. Then the guide below will surely help.
1, download the win98SE boot floppy from here if you don't already have one
2, format a floppy with a normal format
3, run the program you just downloaded to create the floppy
4, start your computer with the win98 startup floppy without cd support.
5, type "fdisk /mbr" (without the inverted commas)
6, type "fdisk" (without the inverted commas) and use the screen that comes up to delete all partitions (unless you have a partition you want to keep).
7, reboot if and when requested. Next step is to create a partition
8, format the partition in FAT32
9, Use the 98 boot floppy to boot the computer with CD support.
10, Insert the win XP cd, and copy the I386 folder from it to your hard drive. Do this by typing each command in order (below) and pressing enter after each one...
------------------------------------------------------------
PLAIN TEXT
CODE:

md c:\i386 cd e:\i386 (or whatever your cd drive letter is to replace "e") copy *.* c:\i386
------------------------------------------------------------
11, Change directory to the I386 folder on your harddrive, and run winnt.exe. Do this by entering the following commands, as you just did above...
------------------------------------------------------------
PLAIN TEXT
CODE:

c: cd i386 winnt.exe
------------------------------------------------------------
WinXP should start installing.

 

Reset Or Change Administrator Password On Windows XP

Here's a quick and easy way to change your administrator password on Windows XP.

Place your Windows XP CD in your cd-rom and start your computer (it's assumed here that your XP CD is bootable - as it should be - and that you have your bios set to boot from CD).

Keep your eye on the screen messages for booting to your CD typically, it will be "Press any key to boot from CD".

Once you get in, the first screen will indicate that Setup is inspecting your system and loading files. When you get to the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to Setup Windows now.
The Licensing Agreement comes next - Press F8 to accept it.
The next screen is the Setup screen which gives you the option to do a Repair. It should read something like "If one of the following Windows XP installations is damaged, Setup can try to repair it". Use the up and down arrow keys to select your XP installation (if you only have one, it should already be selected) and press R to begin the Repair process.
Let the Repair run. Setup will now check your disks and then start copying files which can take several minutes.
Shortly after the Copying Files stage, you will be required to reboot (this will happen automatically - you will see a progress bar stating "Your computer will reboot in XX seconds").
During the reboot, do not make the mistake of "pressing any key" to boot from the CD again! Setup will resume automatically with the standard billboard screens and you will notice Installing Windows is highlighted.
Keep your eye on the lower left hand side of the screen and when you see the Installing Devices progress bar, press SHIFT + F10. A command console will now open up giving you the potential for wide access to your system.
At the prompt, type NUSRMGR.CPL and press Enter. Voila! You have just gained graphical access to your User Accounts in the Control Panel.
Now simply pick the account you need to change and remove or change your password as you prefer. If you want to log on without having to enter your new password, you can type control userpasswords2 at the prompt and choose to log on without being asked for password. After you've made your changes close the windows, exit the command box and continue on with the Repair (have your Product key handy).
Once the Repair is done, you will be able to log on with your new password (or without a password if you chose not to use one or if you chose not to be asked for a password). Your programs and personalized settings should remain intact.

 

मनकामनाको यात्रा !!!

म, प्रकाश, उपेन्द्र र रमेशजी सबै जना २०६३ कार्तिक २५ गते शनिबारका दिन मनकामना माईको दर्शन गर्न जाने योजना बनायौं । Himgiri Travel Agency Pvt. Ltd. ले मनकामना दर्शन गर्न जानेहरुको लागि विशेष प्याकेजको व्यवस्था गरेको रहेछ । हामीले पनि सोही प्याकेज अर्न्तगत जाने निधो गर्यौं र शनिबार बिहान ६:०० बजे तिर हामी सबै अनामनगरमा भेला भयौं । करिब ६:३० बजे तिर उक्त ट्राभल एजेन्सीको बस आयो र हामी त्यस बसमा चढ्यौं । काठमाण्डौंको विभिन्न ठाउँबाट मानिसहरु उक्त बसमा चढ्न थाले । यस्तै क्रममा करिब ८:०० बजे तिर बस थानकोटमा पुग्यो र आफ्नो गन्तव्य स्थल तर्फ हानियो । केबुल कार र मनकामना माई दर्शनको यो मेरो लागि पहिलो अवसर थियो । त्यसैले म आफैमा केही हषिर्त थिए । बस आफ्नै गतिले अगाडी बढि रहेको थियो । हामी पनि कहिले गित गाउँदै त कहिले रमाईला रमाईला गफ गर्दै मनकामना यात्राको मजा लिदैं थियौं । करिब ११:०० बजे तिर बस कुरिन्टारमा रोकियो । हामी पनि केबुलकार चढि मनकामना जान अगाडी बढ्यौं । तर सायद शनिबार भएर होला त्यहाँ मानिसको भीड निकै नै थियो । हामी लाइनमा बस्यौं । करिब १:०० बजे तिर मात्र हाम्रो पालो आयो । करिब १:२० तिर हामी मनकामना माईको मन्दिरमा पुग्यौं । त्यहाँ पनि निकै भीड थियो । करिब आधा किलोमिटर जति लाईनमा हामी पनि लामबद्ध भयौं । ३:०० बजि सक्दा पनि हाम्रो पालो आउने कुनै काट छाँट नै थिएन । फेरी ६:०० बजे कुरिनटारमा हामीलाई पुग्नु पनि थियो । तर्सथ हामीले त्यहाँ लाईनमा बसेका एक जना मानिसलाई हाम्रो पूजा सामाग्री चर्ढाईदिन आग्रह गर्यौं र बाहिरबाट नै पूजा गरी फर्कियौं। बिहान देखि पानी पनि नखाई बसेका कारणले हामीलाई धेरै नै भोक लागि रहेको थियो । त्यँही नजिकको एक होटलमा खाना खाई हामी कुरिनटार फर्कियौं । फर्किने क्रममा पनि हामीलाई निकै बेर लाइनमा बस्नु पर्‍यौं । ३:४५ बजे देखि लाइनमा बस्दा पनि हाम्रो पालो करिब ५:३० बजे तिर मात्र आयो । ६:०० बजे तिर बस काठमाण्डौं फर्किने भनेता पनि धेरै जना मानिसहरु मनकामनाबाट फर्किन बाँकी नै रहेका कारणले करिब ७:३० बजे तिर मात्र बस काठमाण्डौं तर्फ हानियो । राती ११:३० बजे तिर मात्र हामी आफ्नो कोठामा पुग्यौं र हाम्रो त्यो रमाइलो दिनको अन्त्य भयो ।

Yahoo! Mail, it rocks!!

No, I’m not talking about the existing Yahoo! Mail, which is not bad in itself, but I’m talking about the Yahoo! Mail that’s not yet available to the masses. Yes yes, I’m of course talking about the new look & interface of Yahoo! Mail, which is currently in beta and accessible only to a very small percentage of Yahoo! users. I got the invitation yesterday when I logged in to mail, & asked me whether I want to try the beta, I of course wanted to & clicked the button, but I hit a snag there, as on the next screen I was informed that my browser(Opera v8.51) is not supported & that either I get a browser which is supported(IE6 or FireFox or Mozilla) or I continue on with old UI of Yahoo! Mail. Not one to let go of the opportunity, I immediately changed browsers & logged in again & there, the new interface loaded, & after the first look, my first reaction was ….. “wow”!!

Even if you are one of the kind which rarely or never appreciate good things in life, you certainly will appreciate the work those guys at Yahoo! have put into this new interface, this is certainly what I would expect to see when someone says that the interface resembles Outlook, not that clunky unholy UI that Windows Live Mail pushes forward!! I think that they themselves have forgotten how Outlook UI looks like, or else they wouldn’t label their mail interface as that resembling Outlook!!

So, moving ahead from Microsoft bashing, after my initial shock over Yahoo! Mail’s interface subsided, I got into really admiring the smoothness and usability of the UI that Yahoo! has conjured up!! Having used Merak Webmail software from Icewarp & some other similar ones, pretty Webmail interfaces or an Outlook like interface is not new to me, but Yahoo! certainly scores better, their interface is much more flexible & smooth. Its pure eye candy!!

And if you move forward from the eye candy, you’ll notice(in the image above) that apparently Yahoo! interface doesn’t lack the basic usability stuff that Windows Live Mail does, the first one being, when you click a folder to navigate messages in it, no message is opened by itself. You’ve to select a message to view it in the preview pane & a double click on the message will open it in its entirety, hiding the preview & message panes. Secondly, unlike in Windows Live Mail, you can read emails in separate windows in Yahoo! Mail, something that pleased me a lot, the fact that they’ve taken care to maintain usability of their interface. The “Bulk Mail” folder is gone, replaced by a “spam” folder, which serves the same purpose. The functions of old interface, like flagging a message or moving it to another folder or marking it as read/unread are all there & usable.

But the thing that impressed me was that you can compose your emails & yet can switch back to the messages without having to wait for them to reload. Because when you click on “compose” button, it opens a new tab in the interface(so the whole window is being emulated as an application window that has its own tabs etc.) with the rich text editor etc., so anytime you want to go back to message you were reading, just change the tab & you are there, without loosing your message or having to save it as a draft. You can switch back to composing the email anytime you want!!

Another feature that I noticed is that I can also have all the RSS feeds that I want in this same interface, no need for a separate feed aggregator!! This is quite handy & useful, I might start keeping up with all my feeds again, which I stopped doing since starting out Sharpreader again & again was too cumbersome & keeping it open meant letting eat into the memory, and using an online feed aggregator like Bloglines didn’t sound exciting to me since that meant yet another service which I’ve to checkin with!! Not anymore though, this new UI from Yahoo! might change everything!!

The whole UI is indeed soaked in the sweet fragrance of AJAX, but its not something that’s been put together as a quick hack & thrown at users, this one seems to have been nurtured with love, the interface despite its eye candy, loaded up quite fast, but then I’ve a 128kbps line, so I don’t think dial-up users would agree with me on the speed!!

So this interface of Yahoo!, its pretty, its usable & it works, though there might be a few snags here & there which I encountered while using it(like refresh requests dying out in middle) its nothing that can’t or won’t be fixed!! This UI gives the correct impression as to how a next generation web application should look, & I very much think that the Windows Live team can improve a lot by taking a leaf or two out of Yahoo!’s book. The only plus that I found in Windows Live Mail over Yahoo!’s interface is that the former seemed to be a bit fast in loading new messages than the latter, though that might not be true as some more usage of both will prove, nevertheless, I’d rate Yahoo! interface 8/10 on looks, usability & features, while I won’t give Windows Live Mail interface more than 3.5/10 on same measures!!

The ‘Real’ Video iPod on the way!

Apple is all set to announce their full fledged video iPod by the end of March, in tandem with full-feature movies on the iTunes Music Store, and there is plenty of evidence to support this.

Apple has acquired an impressively equipped but never-used data center in Newark for an estimated $45 million to $50 million. The 107,000-square-foot facility, originally conceived for communications company MCI WorldCom before getting mothballed after its 2001 completion, is along Eureka Drive on Newark’s western fringe. Data centers generally house computing, data-storage and networking equipment assisting in Web-based services and transactions. This could only be for an infrastructure upgrade for the iTunes Music Store or .Mac. Also, ThinkSecret reports that negotiations with major studios have entered the 11th hour.

The time for the move seems reasonable because of Steve Jobs’ excellent placement in Disney will give him access to their entire catalog, while he can negotiate with other studios too.

According to a highly placed industry executive, talks between potential partners from movie distributors and Apple have been in “the fast mode” for the past three months on how to sell full-length feature films through Apple’s iTunes service. Major obstacles remain to a finished deal, however.

“[A deal with Apple] is much closer than it ever has been, but is not a done deal by any means,” the executive told Think Secret. “There’s been a lot of progress, but big issues remain unresolved. It could happen fast or it could happen slow. It’s all up to Steve Jobs.”

Source : ThinkSecret

We also know that Apple has filed patents for a virtual clickwheel which I do not see being of use in anything but a portable media player. So, the only question that remains is - When? My guess is that the new iPod will be part of Apple’s 30th birthday celebrations on 1st April, so watch out, and if you’re going to buy a new iPod, I suggest you wait.

Restroing my pain !!!

I was in the inner part of the Xanthine
Only the rays from the Sun were kissing me
No one could know and glance me at that time
Because I was restoring my pain in the Xanthine

Now One red ghost is flying over the Xanthine
All the secret is going to be broken by here
The competition is very dangerous
Because I was restoring my pain in the Xanthine

At the same time a bold idea comes into my mind
Collides with the heart & drops from the eyes
But nothing happens at that time
Because I was restoring my pain in the Xanthine

But my mother used to say me that
You must wait the sound I Love You
Until she knows the value of your tears
Because still you are restoring your pain in the Xanthine

Search Differently!!

The search engine market is hot, both the old giants Yahoo! and MSN have woken up from their slumber to thwart the search king Google and to get their share of the multi billion dollar pie. Yahoo! have already revamped their search, MSN did it as well, but perhaps it didn’t cut the cake for the latter, so Microsoft went to the drawing board again, and they’ve come up with a new solution. Like email, it seems that this new search solution will be the end of MSN probably, as they move the search as well to their services portal, Live.com.

So, the Live Search, as its being called, is sunk to its teeth in Javascript, a very much of a Web 2.0 application, what with AJAX powered search and a wierd looking interface.

When you enter your keywords and hit the search button, a sort of content window opens in the lower part of the page with a menubar on top and the search results in the left pane. If there are ads available for the searched keywords, then they are displayed in the right pane. So far all predictable, so what’s the difference some may ask. The difference lies here itself. Only 2 results are displayed by default. There’s a kind of scrollbar on the right side of the results pane, just where one would expect, its just that its not your regular scrollbar, but a Javascript powered one. You drag it to the bottom & the search results start scrolling, being queried from the server real-time using AJAX ofcourse. And if you want to view previous results, then they are available as well, just drag the scrollbar above and the results scroll back up. Well, you gotta feel and experience it to know what I’m talking about.

Its every bit cool that a Web 2.0 application is expected to be. But that’s just all. Right now it seriously lacks some accessibility and useability. For instance, it doesn’t work in any browser except Internet Explorer. It does seem to work in Opera but that’s just it, it doesn’t actually work!! And secondly, when I click the down arrow key of my keyboard, the search results should scroll down, which they don’t, however if I want to get the first result in a jiffy, all I need to press is the “Home” button of my keyboard & there I’m, at the first result of the search. Though the application like other Web 2.0 apps, is in beta, so we can only hope that these quirks etc. will be smoothed before its rolled out.

Meanwhile, you can try your search at http://search.live.com/ and enjoy its Javascript goodness!! Its a neat application, no denying the fact!!

Free Call to USA & CANADA

So you’ve heard of VoIP and Skype, the company that eBay bought for $2.6 billion, which lets you make free PC-to-PC calls worldwide via VoIP for free? Big deal?? That still requires you and the person you are talking to, to have a PC and internet connection. But what if one wants to call a regular phone from Skype? That service is ofcourse available but isn’t one supposed to pay a few cents per minute to avail that facility?

Not anymore. Yes, you no longer have to pay for calling traditional landlines and mobile phones from Skype, you can call them for free now, but only the numbers of United States and Canada. Though it might not be a happy news for all, but it certainly is a good news for a lot of Skype users and will definitely be a good news for people who regularly call phones in United States and Canada and who might now switch to Skype. Broadband penetration is increasing nowadays and Skype with its super cool audio compression, can serve pretty decent quality even on slow connections!!

Though, Skype will continue to charge its current fees for calls made to phones in other countries & for the traditional phone numbers it provides to allow its users to receive calls on Skype made from any phone, it certainly is a start. The eBay subsidiary said that this free bonanza will remain in effect till the end of this year but you never know, they just might extend the free ride!!

www.Skype.com

Source: Yahoo! News

If 2GB isn't enough!!

The more storage space, the more rocking service it is. Or is it? Well, some do believe it to be the case, one of them being AOL.

Since Gmail made its rocking debut two years back, Gmail has spelled trouble for others & itself in different ways, the most notable being that it offered just many hundred times the amount of free storage that was being normally offered by email giants Yahoo! and Hotmail. Both Hotmail and Yahoo were forced to increase their free offering to keep up as millions tried to get their hands on Gmail invites which was the only way to get a Gmail account & in fact its still the only way even after two years, not that it matters since millions are now using Gmail, having obtained an invite or two by crook or hook!!

Yahoo now offers 1GB, Windows Live Mail now offers 2GB, Gmail offers about 2.5GB, Lycos offer 3GB, but in its last desperate attempt to attract users, AOL is all set to offer 5GB of free storage space to its users from this september.

So will that matter much? Yeah it might considering what AOL has got next to offer. AOL will offer 50GB of storage space to its loyal customers who stick with its $26 per month dial-up connection!! Now that certainly is some space!!

So will that fly now?? Many others have failed to stir up attention by offering more space after the initial bubble floated by Gmail burst, but still, AOL has hope, or so they think. We will just wait & watch!!

2 million Firefox2.0 downloads in 24 hrs

Firefox again in the news with its official released of its brand new web browser Firefox 2.0. And why shouldn’t it be, Mozzila’s new browser has clocked 2million downloads in its first 24 hours of its public availability .

Mozilla provided the following figures for its browser releases:

* Firefox 1.0: 1 million downloads in the first 24 hours.
* Firefox 1.5: 1.5 million downloads in the first 24 hours
* Firefox 2: 2 million (actually slightly more) people using Firefox 2 in the first 24 hours.

There is definitely increasing support for the browser and lot are anxious about how will Mozzila’s best will cope with Microsoft’s recently released Internet Explorer 7.The IE still has security issues in its browsers, Microsoft just can’t seem to make it bullet-proof. Now its just upto the extension/add-on community to quickly get up all extensions 2.x compatible.