Category: Tips + Tricks

Cracking Windows “Genuine Advantage” Check

Within 24 hours of Microsoft launching its mandatory piracy check during Windows update procedure, the process was cracked.

Before pressing ‘Custom’ or ‘Express’ buttons paste this text to the address bar and press enter:

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javascript:void(window.g_sDisableWGACheck='all')

It turns off the trigger for the key check.

What else is new? Bring it on, sucka.

UPDATE: Here is another way to do it.

[Via boingboing]

Two Maps on One Screen

A developer put together a site that compares Virtual Earth and Google Maps, side-by-side. Finally now I can “use” Virtual Earth, or at least part of its features made available on this site.

Google Maps and MSN Virtual Earth side by side

What’s cool about this site is, as you drag one map and move about, the other map will refresh itself and move after your mouse is released. So this makes it easy to see the differences in the maps. And of course this entry wouldn’t be complete without a screenshot of the missing Apple Campus in Cupertino.

This reminds me of an earlier entry of someone making a Yahoo and Google search engines side by side. It won’t be long until someone comes up with a site that compares all four major mapping services on one page.

Cell Phone Reception and Tower Search

“Cell Phone Reception and Tower Search” uses enhanced Google Maps to map out towers nearby a given location. Yet another smart use of the technology. For you American users, plug in a location near you to see how many towers are nearby. Maybe it’ll explain why your reception isn’t so hot.

Dang it I like Google.

WordPress Plugins — Related Posts, WP-Touched and Others

Installed “Related Posts” plugin. But the process wasn’t as easy as advertised.

I had to:

1. Edited

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/wp-content/themes/_theme_of_choice_/single.php

2. Manually added

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< ? php related_posts(); ? >

parameters in

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single.php

I also added the cute little Link out image image after all the links in the content. It looks okay now. But I have a feeling they’ll get old soon.

To get the effect, I did the following:

1. Edited

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/wp-content/themes/_theme_of_choice_/style.css

2. Added

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.entry a[href*="http"], .commentlist a[href*="http"] {
     padding-right: 7px;
     background: url('images/kubricklink-out.gif') right top no-repeat;
     }

But I noticed the above code did not apply the image to the links in the

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single.php

pages. So I added

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.entrytext a[target="_blank"]

to the code, making it look like this:

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.entry a[href*="http"], .commentlist a[href*="http"], .entrytext a[target="_blank"] {
     padding-right: 7px;
     background: url('images/kubricklink-out.gif') right top no-repeat;
     }

In addition, I also implemented WP-Touched plugin for inline post editing without having to go to the Admin panel. Works great!

Edited

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/wp-content/themes/_theme_of_choice_/index.php

by adding

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<?php twTouch(); ?>

Update:“WP-Touched” crashes browsers sometimes. I haven’t been able to consistently replicate the problem yet. But it’s been crashing Firefox 1.0.5 and Safari 2.0 (412.2).

How Google Maps Got Me Out Of A Traffic Ticket

Months after Google saved the life of a hostage in Iraq, people continue to find new ways to make the most out of it.

Google Map helps fight traffic tickets

Lifehacker reported:

A New York City driver arguing a traffic ticket in court used Google Maps to get out of paying the ticket.

Thanks to a weak Wifi signal in the courtroom, he was able to prove the street in question was a two way street (not what the officer claimed) and the Judge dismissed the ticket.

The original article can be found here.

Exposé for the Non-Macs

Apple’s Exposé (more info here) was probably one of the most important windows management breakthroughs since “Alt + Tab”. Not too long after Apple released it along with Panther, developers soon found ways to simulate the effects in Windows.

Case in point:

On the Opensource side, developers haven’t been standing idle. They also have come up with remarkable apps with similar tricks.

Before we jump the gun and accuse everyone else for stealing introducing Apple’s innovations in other platforms, I must confess that I first saw an Expos%uFFFD-like functionality on a Linux system even before the introduction of Panther. And according to this document at Microsoft’s very own UI Research lab, a similar functionality had been in existence long before Mac OSX. Unfortunately the project just never made it to various releases of Windows.

Fold n' Drop windows

Now let’s take it a step further and examine some up and coming technologies. First up is Fold n’ Drop project from a French lab. The idea is to treat windows as pieces of paper. A user can fold, flip and leaf through them. There’s demo video and a Java demo app you can test it out. Very neat. And someone’s already made it work on a Windows Machine.

Project Looking Glass

Another pretty cool application is from Sun Microsystems. Porject Looking Glass manipulates the Desktop and its windows each as 3D objects. It has features even a Mac user will envy. I was hoping to see some of them to be implemented in Tiger.

A demo is available for playback.

Other emerging implementations:

I am sure there are plenty more advanced UI projects in the labs. If anyone knows any that’s not here, please do share them with me.

Speaking of emerging technologies, IBM’s “alphaWorks: Emerging technologies” website has been in my bookmarks for the longest time. It’s a site that features the latest technologies at IBM labs that are available for licensing.

Xmail Hard Drive.com

Xmail Hard Drive logoWhen Gmail first came out, there were a couple of hacks that allowed users to make their Gmail accounts as remote drives. But of course they didn’t really catch on. Found this today: Xmail Hard Drive.com. It effectively makes your Gmail account a remote storage. But it requires that you provide your login name/passowrd to a third party… I am not so sure about that…

via [LifeHacker]

Editing CSS with Ease

Found this nice little app — Xyle Scope.

It’s a WYSIWYG application that makes editing CSS style sheets way easier than “edit-save-refresh browser” method. And because it’s got a built-in browser, you can see the changes as you go. This is also a good way for beginners to learn how other people utilize their CSS files on their sites.

Xyle Scope Screen Shot

Xyle Scope Icon

Styled Checkboxes

There hasn’t been a lot of changes on styling check boxes and radio buttons on HTML forms. But this article Styled Checkboxes took CSS to the next level.

With XHTML, some Javascript and a bit of creativity, form fields can look really nice with this example. Check it out!

And as usual, Slashdot has a flood of comments about this.