Multiple Instances of Skype

I have tried the following steps, and it works smoothly to open multiple instances of Skype in Windows, hope this little contribution can help every one. Following are the steps:

Step 1 : Download updated Skype executable file from http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/get-skype/on-your-computer/windows/ and install.

Step 2 : Goto Skype root file and create Shortcut on desktop( if it is not there ) (ex: "C:\Program Files\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe")

Step 3 : Right click on Skype and open properties.

Step 4 : At the end of the "target" field put "/secondary" (ex: ""C:\Program Files\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe" /secondary)

Step 5 : Click on Apply and Ok

Step 6 : Now Click on Skype shortcut on desktop, login and Minimize it.

Step 7 : Now once again click on Skype shortcut on desktop and it will open new instance of Skype and you can login with another userId.

Operating Multiple Instances of GTalk

Hi All,

I have tried the following steps, and it works smoothly to open multiple instances of GTalk in Windows, hope this little contribution can help every one. Following are the steps:

Step 1 : Download GTalk from http://www.google.com/talk/intl/en-GB/ and install.

Step 2 : Create a shortcut file on desktop( if it is not there )

Step 3 : Right click on GTalk and open properties.

Step 4 : At the end of the "target" field put "/nomutex" (ex: "C:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe" /nomutex)

Step 5 : Click on Apply and Ok

Step 6 : Now Click on GTalk shortcut on desktop, login and Minimize it.

Step 7 : Now once again click on GTalk shortcut on desktop and it will open new instance of GTalk and you can login with another userId.

All The Best

Narasimha Raju. Naidu
INDIA

WinToFlash

What is WinToFlash

There may come a day that optical drives are as hard to find as 5.25 floppy drives are today.

WinToFlash starts a wizard that will help pull over the contents of a windows installation CD or DVD and prep the USB drive to become a bootable replacement for the optical drive. It can also do this with your LiveCD.

You don't have to worry about scratches on the disc or misplacing your original media discs once you transfer their contents to the flash drive. The optical drive is quickly becoming a thing of the past, especially in office environments, as media is shifted to the cloud.

Download Link:
http://www.esnips.com/web/narasimharajuUsefull



Regards,

Narasimha Raju. Naidu
India

4 Cool Firefox Extensions To Capture Screens

If you are a blogger or a web content writer then I’m sure a screen capture tool is in the list of your must have tools for daily usage. With the help of a good screen capture tool you can generate screenshots relevant to your article and then put them in the post and publish it. And if you are a tech blogger like me then it becomes an almost indispensable tool.

Apart from being in-built into most of the operating systems available, there are various screen capture tools available, ranging from desktop softwares to web apps, from free ones to their more sophisticated paid counterparts. And if you are one of those who love to work entirely from the browser then there are some cool firefox add ons which let you capture screens in the snap of a finger (the click of a mouse button actually )

1. Screengrab

Screengrab is a nice firefox extension to capture screens. You can save an entire webpage, a particular selection or a frame in the JPEG or PNG format. You could drag and select a particular portion of the page or save the entire scrolling window. You can even save flash screens with this extension. When you install this extension, you get a small screengrab icon on the right side of your firefox status bar. When you click on it, it gives you the various options to save or copy the screen. Yes, you can even copy the screen to clipboard. Quick and simple.

2. FireShot

FireShot goes one step ahead of Screengrab and apart from allowing you to capture screens partially or completely, it also allows you to modify the captured images. It lets you edit and annotate the screenshot and add graphics and text messages. Screenshots can be saved in 4 formats – PNG, JPEG, GIF and BMP. Like Screengrab, FireShot also allows you to save or copy the screenshot to the clipboard. You could also directly email the captured screen. When you install FireShot, a small icon is added to the toolbar and options to capture the entire page or just the visible portion are added to the context menu.

3. Kwout

The Kwout Firefox add on is another cool app to easily capture and save webpages or online images. It also gives you the code for the screenshot which can be immediately embedded in your website. In fact Kwout has many more options and Kyle did a good job describing it elaborately in this post.

4. Page Saver

Page Saver is a simple browser extension for capturing screenshots and has limited features in it’s free version. It lets you capture the entire page or just the visible portion of it and save it in JPEG or PNG format. You can also configure keyboard shortcuts for doing the same by going to Add on options after installing it in Firefox.

All the above mentioned add ons are compatible with the latest version of Firefox. So if you were to use a firefox add on to capture screen, which of these add ons will you use ? Do you know of any other Firefox add on which does this task efficiently ? Let us know in comments.

Regards,

Narasimha Raju. Naidu
India

Monitor your website for FREE with Montastic

If you have a website, you know the importance of having it up all the time.In the end, the last thing you want is that your readers turn up and the website is down. Montastic is a free, quick, and easy-to-use tool for keeping constant knowledge of your websites’ availability. Montastic lets you monitor up to 100 sites per account, supports monitoring for HTTP and HTTP Secure connections, and a simple and elegant end-user interface.

In order to get started with tracking your website’s uptime with Montastic, signup for the service and add your websites. Montastic monitors your website every 10 minutes at a minimum, though this can vary depending on the system load. Whenever your website server goes down, the icon changes to red indicating a broken server. In cases when all is good, you see a green and glowing icon.

Features provided by Montastic

1.) Get an email when your site goes down.
2.) Get an email when it goes back up.
3.) Read statuses via RSS or Mac & PC widgets.
4.) Fun, easy and elegant user interface.
5.) Up to 100 websites monitored.
6.) Support for https and port number.

Image: Monitor your website uptime with Montastic.

Montastic also allows you to turn off the monitoring status at your will.

Narasimha Raju. Naidu

India

Hide PHP Version Info On Your WebServer

Security is not only about keeping your Operating System, softwares, firmwares etc updated and firewalled. Its also about keeping some essential information secret from the outer world. If you are wondering why would you ever want to hide the PHP version number or lets say the server you are running your application on from the guys outside, read on further.

As a web application performance and optimization consultant, i have seen that most of the webservers and application softwares like the CMS software are usually not updated to the latest version. The older versions running on these systems can cause potential risk to the whole system. Hackers and script kiddies are often looking for this information in order to either exploit or fully compromise the system. Therefore, its always in your best interest to protect the version information of your software from getting revealed outside ( just in case there is a existing flaw and script kiddies who recently learnt a new trick are looking for fresh meat)

Though PHP is generally regarded as a reliable and secure platform, older versions of PHP are known to have contain security holes. So if you are running an older version of PHP, this article will help you get some degree of safety from reconnaissance attacks.

By default, webserver outputs the version of the PHP platform in a special HTTP Response Header called X-Powered-By. (e.g. X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.9).This value is outputted in the response header because of a setting called expose_php in php.ini configuration file.

Image:Sample HTTP Response header containing X-Powered-By header with PHP Version Information.

In order to set the value of expose_php to off, navigate to your php.ini file and set the value to “off” for expose_php

expose_php=off

Setting expose_php to off doesn’t ensure you a completely secure system but it does give you some level of protection from script kiddies and bots looking out for information of their choice.

Narasimha Raju. Naidu
India

Convert Text to Voice With Panopreter

Text to Voice conversion can at times be very useful when you have loads to read but you are way too lazy to read something.

Panopreter reads text file, rtf file, word document and web page in .htm format, it can read in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese and more, provided such Text-To-Speech voice engines have been installed on your computer.

Panopreter converts the files into audio files with the format of wave and MP3. So you can hear your files with your audio media player, you don’t need to sit at the desk, with your eyes fixed on the computer’s screen any longer.

Panopreter is also a good aid to any language learning program. You install the Text-To-Speech voices for the specific language, then you can hear the files being read for you.

Because Panopreter reads with Microsoft voice installed on your computer by default, when you like to listen to other voices, you need to install the corresponding Text-To-Speech voice engine on the computer.

Windows XP users are recommended to install a third party voice to get a better reading, for the default voice engine on the Windows XP isn’t as clear as that on the Windows Vista.

Panopreter supports 2 types of reading, the first type is “Read file” which is the default, the other is “Instant Speak”, which speaks the text you have typed or pasted into the edit window.

Image: Convert Text to Audio using Panopreter for Free

Once you have downloaded and installed Pranopreter, select the text file you wish to be spoken and press Speak. You can even save the file to Audio.

Narasimha Raju. Naidu
India

Encrypt Your Skype Conversations With CryptoChat 4 Skype

CryptoChat 4 Skype is a free to use tool which allows users to have secure conversation over Skype by encrypting the messages passing over the network

CyptoChat 4 Skype makes use of an encryption mechanism based on the generation and distribution of 1024 bit assymetric RSA keys.

In order to start having secure and ecrypted chat with your buddies over Skype ( using CryptoChat 4 Skype), follow the steps below

1.) Download and Install CryptoChat 4 Skype.

2.) Next, select the contact with whom you wish to have secure chat.

3.) You will now have to generate a unique key.

4.) Send the key to your Crypto/Skype buddy using Cryto’s webserver stream mechanism. Keys can even be sent using Email, Snail mail method. ( I would recommend using the webserver stream mechanism)

5.) Once both the parties have exchanged their keys, they can start the secure chat.

So if you are working on a confidential project and would like to have a secure chat with your buddies over Skype, i strongly recommend using CryptoChat 4 Skype.

Narasimha Raju. Naidu
India

Net 2 FTP

If you ever land up in a situation where you need to access your FTP server and do not have a FTP client installed on your computer ( and if you are not too versed with the command prompt), you might be interested in using net2ftp. net2ftp is a web-based FTP client written in PHP. Web-based means that net2ftp runs on a web server, and that you use a browser (for example Internet Explorer or Mozilla) to access it.

FTP in general, is the communication method to access files on a remote computer. You need it to access your files on the account given by your provider to host your homepage. FTP is different from HTTP in that it was made specially to transfer (big) files. If a transfer is interrupted, with FTP you can resume it where it broke off, whereas with HTTP it doesnt come by default ( you need to support range requests and the client should also have the same capability).

With net2ftp, once you are logged into the FTP server, you can navigate the directory structure and files just like any other FTP client.You can as usual download and upload files, copy, move and delete folders. You also have the ability to zip and unzip files.

Visit http://www.net2ftp.com/ for more details.

Narasimha Raju. Naidu
India