I got Gmail

Finally got invite for gmail. I am very happy. I will write more about it. Google's business sense is making be astonished.

Topcoder Competition

I been taking part in topcoder's competitions since last few weeks. I think I should start posting my solutions here. I am still in DIV 2. :(

Western Hemisphere in Real Time.

B - 52s are scattered as toys of a 2 year old.

Party is Over!!!

Before Defragmentation - Some Tips to Speed Up

Defragmentation is a necessary evil. You can't escape from it. How much you dislike the fact that you need to getaway from your computer while some other program has completely overtaken its activities. Upto the point you can't even play music.

You can play music if your music files are on some other partition other than which you are currently defragmenting. But it will certainly degrade performance.

Execute the following steps before starting disk defragmentation. It will save lots of time.

1) Empty Recycle Bin
2) Empty Recent Files Folder
3) Empty Temp Folder
4) Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder
5) Move all big files to some other partition which you don't use frequently. For example I move my Downloads folder because all it contains is setup programs. Which do not required access once the program is installed.

On Windows 9X folders 2-4 can be found in C:\Windows and on 2000 and XP they are in C:\Document and Settings\%LOGIN_NAME%

Where %LOGIN_NAME% is your login.

If you had never done the above you will be surprised by the speed gain.

Port 445 mystery

Since last few days I was wondering why port 445 is open on my computer. This fact is scary that not only it was open all the time it is also a TCP port. Due to load of other concerns I ignored this behavior after conducting a Trojan scan and updating my firewall. Today I searched on Google for reference and awestruck by the fact that this is a NetBIOS port. I quickly checked my logs. Got some relief after finding no misadventure there.

Reason being, few days before service engineer came and he ridiculously changed settings to enable TCP/IP over NetBIOS. So heres a link from which I obtained information to disable the above.

http://ntsecurity.nu/papers/port445/

I know a shortcut though. Simply double click the blinking two-computer icon in your system tray. Yeah which shows the network traffic :). Select properties -> Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) -> Click Properties -> Click Advanced Button in new pop-up -> Select the WINS tab -> Select radio-button disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP.

One more thing uncheck Client for Microsoft Networks and File and Printer Sharing. As these two were also enabled.

To check above procedure worked or not. Go to command prompt and type netstat -an. I am relieved by seeing 445 is not in front of my IP.

What would be the material used for making balls at that time?

For most of the Internet end users biggest concern is their computer's security. Find out how secure your computer is by executing various automated scans from Sygate Online Service. All tests failed agained my system. My firewall is good :)

So flexible body. Can be molded into anything. Like Google :)

Ad-Sense

Google got lots of business sense. Ad-sense is just a very small part of it. They have extented this service for free and inviting bloggers for sign-up with revenue sharing offer.

No doubt Google is great. But at the time of sign-up with Ad-sense I didn't liked the fact that Google can share my personal information with third parties. Also no information is provided about the extent of information shared.

I always backed Google in all debates. Google is very trustworthy. Despite the fact that they are collecting every information about my searches (by placing a cookie) to the website I am visiting (by Google bar). Above information is for statistics generation which in turn gives me better search results.

Also Google Labs came up with real great tools. I am using Google compute and not to mention Blogspot is part of Google.

But still if Google can remove personal data sharing to third parties. It will be bestest rather than best.

MSN Search

It seems I mispelled Olympics as Olyumpics and MSN is giving this blog second place for above keyword :). Do it yourself. http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=OLYUMPICS&FORM=DNSERR. Kool.

Atleast someone got potential to hit Google.

Searching is no hurdle with Google

I want to see more ;)

Greeks never played this game!!!

How can anyone express one word in so many different ways

Wow, this one is the best I came across. So far...

Women in sports

Tuche. Another kool logo.

Google folks really got creativity :)

New Google logo for Athens Olyumpics 2004.

Google logo for Athens Olympics 2004. Greeks are looking great after couple of milleniums :) 

Added Counter

After seeing a beautiful no hassle, no hidden cost and full of great statistics hit counter at Amit's Game Programming Pages. I decided to put one on this blog also. Here it is, on bottom left of left sidebar.

Google Strategy

Google folks really are great businessmen rather than technocrat nerds. I guess if Gmail was launched without inviting the choosen few for beta testing, even tough its free and offers 1 GB, it would just had become a secondary dump of attachments for most. But superb strategy, having gmail has become a matter of pride. You are among the choosen few. And capability of inviing others :). I think before starting the service publicly Google would make millions of ACTIVE users. GREAT BUSINESS PLANNING.

Just Learned

I just learned how easy it is to edit your blog template. See the Links section on left side. Its kool and easy :).

Gmail Account

GmailSwap is offering a nice service for swapping gmail account in lieu of something cute, funny and good. Earlier beggers got onto ebay and started selling gmail account for money. That was sick. I also posted offers. If I got account I will post the full log of messages to my thread here.

Long Time No Post

I was busy like bee from last so many days. I also started writing a personal dairy. Lets see for how long this obbsession last. I do not know why do I start things but leave them before finishing. Its the habit of loosers and I dont want to be called one.