Femtocell- ur personal network tower!

Recently, a news article i came across somewhere caught my attention, and boy oh boy, it sure looks exciting. Imagine having your own network tower with you so that you wont have to search for network coverage. Ever heard of femtocell? I bet you didn't!

A femtocell is the world's worst name for a very exciting technology. It's a box (about the size of a router) that you connect to your broadband router; it essentially gives you your very own cell phone tower, right in your home.
Who wants a cell phone tower at home? Anyone who's ever had to stand immobile to keep their connection, or hang their head out the window to get another bar on their phone, or--heaven forbid--to walk up a hill.
Femtocell-outfitted homes will have crystal-clear phone coverage. And just imagine driving up to your house and having your phone know that it's time to switch over to your femtocell to keep up your coverage without missing a beat. Heck, you can even make a call from the basement.

The talk is that femtocells will be low cost, low power, and compact. They work on the same frequency as a cell site and share some similar technology. Instead of searching for a cell tower to connect to, the femtocell base station picks up the mobile phone signal and sends it out via the Internet via your broadband connection. Initially, femtocells will predominantly be used to get clear reception, but ultimately they could also be used for accessing data and Internet connectivity (similar to how EV-DO is used by the cellular carriers today). Down the road, this could mean some competition for 802.11 Wi-Fi as the home wireless standard.

There should be a number of femtocell announcements at CES and products should begin to appear on the market by late 2008. Now, about that word? According to a recent BusinessWeek article, "femto" means "one-quadrillionth the size of a given unit." What can we deduce from the name? Cell phone towers are gargantuan, and engineers, not marketers, named this breakthrough technology.

Thanks to Reuters for the image. I really hope this wonderful technology is made available in countries, esp India where network coverage is deteriorating day by day!

Man gets $85000 Bill for Modem use

Now this is really shocking news!

We've seen $3,000 cell phone bills. We've seen $10,000 cell phone bills. But now we've got a bill that's approaching six figures, as a Canadian man has been hit with an $85,000 invoice.
And no, it's not a computer error.

Piotr Staniaszek had been using his cell phone as a modem for his computer, thinking he was covered under his $10-a-month unlimited mobile browser plan from Canadian telco Bell Mobility. He actually caught the bill at $65,000. When he called to complain, he was told that it had hit $85,000 for the use since the bill was mailed.

The likely problem is that Staniaszek got understandably confused about what his recently signed $10 data plan covered. Such plans often cover data use on the phone itself (such as texting or using the built-in browser on the phone), but not when it's used as a modem with a PC. (Without going into extreme detail, the connection types are different, and the phone company can tell the difference between the two types of traffic.) Bell Mobility has dropped the bill to just $3,243, but Staniaszek is still fighting it. (Of course.)
Staniaszek also notes that the phone company should have notified him when charges started to spiral out of control; previously he'd gotten a call when he racked up a mere $100 in charges on his old data plan. Now his bill climbs into the thousands and no one bats an eye. I'd be peeved, too.

Remember that all cell phone plans are not created equally, and "data" has numerous definitions. Before you connect your phone to your computer, make sure you understand the charges you're setting yourself up for, and check your usage on your phone company's website periodically (especially if you're using your phone for something new) so that you don't get slapped with any financial surprises!!

Source: Yahoo Tech

Essential post Format Freewares

Everytime you format your pc, u think- now what all do i have to install??
Worry not coz i will list the bare necessary softwares you will require after you format your pc!

Multimedia
Irfanview www.irfanview.com
VLC Media Player www.videolan.org
K-lite Mega codec Pack www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Codec_Pack.htm
Shockwave Player www.shockwave.com

Internet
Firefox www.mozilla.com/firefox
or Opera www.opera.com
Limewire www.limewire.com
Internet Explorer Latest www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/default.mspx
Pidgin (supports multiple chat networks) www.pidgin.im
Mozzila Thunderbird www.mozilla.com/thunderbird

Security
AVG Antivirus www.grisoft.com/doc/products-avg-anti-virus-free-edition
Spybot Search & Destroy www.safer-networking.org
Ad-Aware www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
Outpost Firewall free www.agnitum.com/products/outpost

System
Pc inspector File Recovery www.snapfiles.com/get/pcinspector.html
IZArc (free alternative to winzip n winrar) www.izarc.org
CCleaner www.ccleaner.com
Process Explorer www.technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
Tweak UI www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
CDBurnerXP www.download.com/CDBurnerXP/3000-2646_4-10409086.html
Foxit Pdf reader www.foxitsoftware.com/
Objectdock www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/
Autoruns www.technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

All of 'em are Freewares. Try them coz they will make ur pc experience memorable!

Orkut Vs Facebook

Omg!..i do see a lot of my friends joinin atleast one of the popular social networkin sites.
Can't blame em, after all it is the "IN" thing to be a part of a popular networkin site.
I myself, have many accounts on the various sites..I 've finally decided to pass my vote as to the best social networkin site among Orkut and Facebook.

Orkut-
One of the most popular websites in India and Brazil, it is a rage among the teenagers.
It has many loyal fans who have even coined terms like "orkutting", i myself admire the website
for it has a really simple interface and is very easy to use. Also , the fact that most of my friends are available on orkut, it gives me all the more reasons to join Orkut.

1.Speed - Orkut is a really light website which is a boon for users in India as bandwidth is as scarce as tigers in India. Loads really fast.!

2.Layout- Orkut has a really smart and easy to use design, thereby scores high on layout.

3.Customisability-Well, in this case it doesn't rock. You can't really customise ur profile or anythin.

4.Interactability- Members can communicate with each other via Scraps and communities. Nothing new in terms of concept.

5.Why it Rocks-The reason people get addicted to Orkut is that every1 wants to increase their scraps and every1 tends to regularly change their profile pics. The captions are also really fun and they reflect ur attitude n ur state of mind.

Facebook-
It is now gaining momentum interms of both fans n members and is now a leading player in the market. Users are slowly shifting their base to Facebook.The number of extensions that you can add to your home page of ur account is endless.

1.Speed- This site is both fast and slow depending on the applications you install. Often users fill their profile with oodles of applications that slow down the site like hell and users often curse the site for its heavy footprint.

2.Layout- The site is fairly easy to use and one doesnt require too much experience to use it. However, the procedure for doing basic stuff is fairly irritating!

3.Customisability- This is one area where the site really shines! literally! :) . Users can add as many applications as they want and can move the positions of various applications. However the basic layout cannot be changed.

4.Interactability- Members can interact with each other in countless number of ways, they can do literally anyhting n everything from giving hugs,kisses,kicks,punches to feeding each others fishes,pets etc.! The wall is also a medium much like the scrapbook in orkutm but it hasnt been imlied well.

5.Why it Rocks- Well, the main reason as to why facebook rocks is already mentioned, i.e the applications and their sheer number which the users can use to communicate in innovative manners!...


I suggest every1 to alteast try both these fantastic sites and yourselves decide which one is better~!
Peace

Symbian's reaction to Google Android

Symbian dismisses Google Android

Symbian powers more than 165 million phonesGoogle's dominance of the web will not translate to the mobile phone market, a senior executive at Symbian has said.
John Forsyth, vice president of strategy at Symbian, the platform that powers many of the world's phones, said Google lacked experience.
Google has formed an alliance with 33 firms to develop an open platform for mobile phones, called Android.
Meanwhile, the head of Nokia in the UK said the firm was in discussions with Google about using the platform.
Simon Ainslie, Nokia UK's managing director, said: "We are always open to discussion and debate on that. We were not ready to make any commitment to it or discuss it at the time."
"We are having ongoing discussions with Google."
'Very happy'
Mr Ainslie said the time was not right to make any announcement as to "how we can work with them".
He also said that Nokia was very happy with its partnership with Symbian.
He said: "It's the world's most used platform. It's not a simple solution to make a platform work on a mobile."
It's a bit like the common cold. It keeps coming round and then we go back to business
John Forsyth, Symbian, on the Open Handset Alliance
Mr Forsyth said Google had to be aware that making a "mobile OS is a very specialised form of rocket science.
"It's not search rocket science."
He said the alliance was yet another attempt to launch a Linux-based operating system to drive mobile phones.
"About every three months this year there has been a mobile Linux initiative of some sort launched.
"It's a bit like the common cold. It keeps coming round and then we go back to business. We don't participate in these full stop. We make our own platform and we are focused on driving that into the mobile phone market at large ever more aggressively."
Symbian's recent financial results show it sold 20.4m smartphone software licenses in the last quarter of 2007 and since the company was launched nine years ago more than 165 million phones have been shipped using its platform.
'Deeply unsexy'
Mr Forsyth said there was nothing to indicate that Google's dominance of the web would make it successful as a mobile phone platform provider.
"Search and a mobile phone platform are completely different things.
"It's costly, arduous and at times a deeply unsexy job of supporting customers day by day in launching phones. That's something there's very little experience of in Google's environment.
"if you are a serious phone maker and you are asked to bet your handsets on somebody, you would want to bet on someone with a track record of delivery and support."
Mr Forsyth also questioned whether developers would flock to the system.
"It's very clear what developers want - volume and a stable platform that doesn't keep breaking. You have to have a lot of zeroes in your sales figures before a developer gets out of bed.
"They are talking about having a phone by the end of next year. It's not one that is going to ignite developers."
SOURCE: BBC News

'$100 laptop' begins production

The first machines have started rolling off the production lineMass production of the so-called $100 laptop has begun, five years after the concept was first proposed.
Computer manufacturer Quanta has started building the low-cost laptops at a factory in Changshu, China.
One Laptop per Child (OLPC), the group behind the project, said that children in developing countries would begin receiving machines this month
Last month, OLPC received its first official order for 100,000 machines from the government of Uruguay.
"Today represents an important milestone in the evolution of the One Laptop per Child project," said Nicholas Negroponte, founder of OLPC.
The organisation had reached the critical stage despite "all the naysayers," he said.
Price hike
Since Professor Negroponte first put forward the idea of distributing low-cost laptop to children in developing countries in 2002, the plan has been both praised and mocked.

Intel chairman Craig Barret described the XO laptop, as the machine is known, as a "$100 gadget" whilst Microsoft founder Bill Gates questioned its lack of hard drive and "tiny screen".
Other critics have questioned the need for the laptops in countries which, they said, had more pressing needs such as sanitation and health care.
But Professor Negroponte has always maintained that the project is about education not technology.
However, the green and white XO machines pack a number of innovations which make them suitable for use in remote and environmentally hostile areas.
The machine has no moving parts and can be easily maintained. It has a sunlight-readable display that allows children to use it outside and, importantly for areas with little access to electricity, it is ultra low power and can be charged by a variety of devices including solar panels.
Although OLPC eventually plan to sell the machines for $100 or less, the current price is $188 (£93).
Christmas gift
Initially OLPC has said that it required three million orders of the XO to make production viable.

Uruguay is the first country to order the machines
Governments were originally offered the machines in lots of 250,000.
So far, however, the organisation's only confirmed order is from Uruguay. The South American country has ordered 100,00 of the machines with an option to purchase a further 300,000.
Other governments have expressed interest in the machines.
For example, the government of Mongolia has announced that it plans to launch a pilot project providing 20,000 laptops, to children aged six to 12.
OLPC has also allowed a limited number of the machines to be bought by people in North America through its Give 1 Get 1 programme (G1G1), which will allow members of the public to buy a machine for themselves as well as one for a child in a developing country.
The programme will offer laptops between the 12 and 26 November. OLPC said that the start of production means that people participating in the scheme will receive their XO by December this year.

Google Android

As Google quotes,

"Despite all of the very interesting speculation over the last few months, we're not announcing a Gphone. However, we think what we are announcing -- the Open Handset Alliance and Android -- is more significant and ambitious than a single phone. In fact, through the joint efforts of the members of the Open Handset Alliance, we hope Android will be the foundation for many new phones and will create an entirely new mobile experience for users, with new applications and new capabilities we can’t imagine today.

Android is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications -- all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation. We have developed Android in cooperation with the Open Handset Alliance, which consists of more than 30 technology and mobile leaders including Motorola, Qualcomm, HTC and T-Mobile. Through deep partnerships with carriers, device manufacturers, developers, and others, we hope to enable an open ecosystem for the mobile world by creating a standard, open mobile software platform. We think the result will ultimately be a better and faster pace for innovation that will give mobile customers unforeseen applications and capabilities.

We see Android as an important part of our strategy of furthering Google's goal of providing access to information to users wherever they are. We recognize that many among the multitude of mobile users around the world do not and may never have an Android-based phone. Our goals must be independent of device or even platform. For this reason, Android will complement, but not replace, our longstanding mobile strategy of developing useful and compelling mobile services and driving adoption of these products through partnerships with handset manufacturers and mobile operators around the world.

It's important to recognize that the Open Handset Alliance and Android have the potential to be major changes from the status quo -- one which will take patience and much investment by the various players before you'll see the first benefits. But we feel the potential gains for mobile customers around the world are worth the effort. If you’re a developer and this approach sounds exciting, give us a week or so and we’ll have an SDK available. If you’re a mobile user, you’ll have to wait a little longer, but some of our partners are targeting the second half of 2008 to ship phones based on the Android platform. And if you already have a phone you know and love, check out mobile.google.com and make sure you have Google Maps for mobile, Gmail and our other great applications on your phone. We'll continue to make these services better and add plenty of exciting new features, applications and services, too."

This very prospect of having a google mobile platform amazes me and no doubt it will be creating a storm the day it is released.

In Layman's terms

Android is a series of software tools built by Google designed to power a next generation of mobile phone handsets.

The tools are based on Linux - and so are open source and free to use. It means any one can develop software for the platform and that Android itself can be tailored for individual phones, networks and potentially users.

The open nature of the platform sets it apart from its competition. Operating systems on current phones - such as Windows Mobile, RIM, Symbian and Palm - are proprietorial and have to be licensed for use. Google believes it will be easier and quicker to develop new applications for Android than the other systems.

Why is Google doing this?

There are more people with mobile phones with access to the net right now than there are PCs with online connections.

This is a massive potential market for Google - and every other online firm - that is yet to be tapped and developed.

Improving the mobile web for all is a rising tide that will float all boats, including the Google battleship.

More people online means more people using Google's services, which means more advertising revenue for the firm.

Del those Moblie games!

Many of us who own respectable enough mobiles have atleast 2-3 games installed on our cell. Btw have you ever removed them from your mobile?..
I was a mobile phone gamer till now nd still am..but as i found out what harm it was doing to me..i quickly removed them all.
I had around 30 good games installed which i used to play all the time...durin free time..study time..and coaching.!
Some games like Real Soccer,Tomb Raider,Asphalt 3,tennis are really addictive and keep you glued till you either finish the game or die of hunger!
On a more serious note, these games have the ability to do things which even girls cant do--bring down nerds!..
I seriously went down in studies and was so engrossed in games that i even skipped my meals trying to finish a level!..Then one day, fortunately i had the feeling that sumthin was not goin good and as my exams were approaching, i realized that what was really my enemy were those games!..n bein a sensible guy, i immediately deleted all those games except soccer and chess..[which i still play...;)]
So hope you all play well, play safe, and enjoy life in a better way!

Please shut those reality shows!

Well, I am pretty much fed up of the so called reality shows that pretty much gets all the TRPS.Its been only a few days that after the end of Indian idol3 and Zee SAREGAMAPA...that another new show started-Little champs.!
Dont the people know that all that these shows do is create temporary hype and the after the show, all contestants are never heard of again!..atleast most of them with exceptions being only Abhijeet sawant.
The reality is that..aha..cool oh how sweet!...hez just too cute...!..lemme vote fer him, or oh look folks!..hez from our place..i m gonna vote for him!...
Its always like this!..No contestant almost all contestants get votes on other factors..No one cares for how they sing...atleast not the majority.
All they do is disturb students like me who get addicted to such programmes and waste our time!.
PLease people, someone go tell the Tv people that we have had enough!..

$500,000 Bail for hacker

A nineteen year old hacker is on a massive $500,000 bail after he hacked into the Orange County police department in California and sent a heavily armed SWAT team to an address of a family who were completely aware of what was about to happen!

As the SWAT team began to make their move, the house holder believed that he was about to be robbed and so ran out brandishing a kitchen knife, luckily for him officers from the SWAT team were able to disarmed him before any serious consequences occurred.

The Hacker, Randall Ellis of Mulkiteo, Washington, has been brought down to Orange County where he was charged.

Apparently the 911 services are notorious for being hacked, but it would seem that there is going to an example set here.

source [ABC News]

International CAPS LOCK day!

Did you know that yesterday was THE INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY! This little-known day is a tradition risen from the alleged overuse of capital letters in online conversation. The Caps Lock key has generated much passion, with caps fans defending their right to freedom of sentence construction, and some caps haters going so far as to call for the death of the Caps Lock key. "The Caps key is an abomination, Pieter Hintjens, a software developer and head of CAPSoff.org, wrote on his blog last year. "It's a huge key, stuck right there where the Ctrl used to be, and as far as I know, it's only used by 419 scammers and Fortran programmers."
As ENGADGET puts it: "Caps Lock Day is the one occasion when lovers of capitalization can come together with the haters from CAPSoff and hack-a-day and pay homage to the little key that habitually blows up your spot when trying to type a lower-case 'a.'"

Linux

ok now this may have been a little overboard, but i now think that linux will displace microsoft from its current position in the OS market.Now i had to post sumtin for the image i posted so i wrote.!...hehe..lollz

Anyways, according to me, some reasons why linux is better than Windows !
1. Forget about Viruses-
OK now be4 you start sayin "what the hell is dis guy sayin!", i just wanna say that linux, though not fully virus free, {nothin is perfect, u c...:)} yet it has really few viruses as compared to Windows.....and as you know...windows..is a really large though not open {pun intended}, window to loads of malware.... .. if you really love gettin infected every now and then ,,, congrats,,,u deserve nothin less than an original copy of windows...rest of you deserve other better alternatives.....

2.FREEDOM!
Linux and "Open Source" software are "free". This means their license is a "free license", and the most common is the GPL (General Public License). This license states that anyone is allowed to copy the software, see the source code (the "recipe"), modify it, and redistribute it as long as it remains licensed with the GPL.
So what do you care about freedom? Imagine that Microsoft disappears tomorrow (okay, that's not very likely, but what about in 5 years, 10 years?). Or imagine it suddenly triples the price for a Windows or Office license. If you're tied to Windows, there's nothing you can do. You (or your business) relies on this one company, on its software, and you can't possibly make things work without it (what good is a computer without an operating system?). Isn't that a serious problem? You're depending on one single company and trusting it wholeheartedly to let something so important nowadays as your computers work the way they should. If Microsoft decides to charge $1000 for the next version of Windows, there's nothing you can do about it (except switch to Linux, of course). If Windows has a bug that bothers you very much and Microsoft won't fix it, there's nothing you can do (and submitting bugs to Microsoft isn't that easy, see the "Report bugs" section).
With Open Source, if a particular project or support company dies, all the code remains open to the community and people can keep improving it. If this project is especially useful to you, you can even do this yourself. If a particular bug annoys you, you can submit it, talk with the developers, but even better, you can fix it yourself (or hire someone to do so), and send the changes back to the upstream developers so that everyone gets the improvement as well. You're free to do (nearly) whatever you want with the software.

3.Don't pay $300 for your operating system (And don't copy them illegally)
You're probably saying to yourself : "Oh, I didn't pay for Windows". Are you absolutely sure ? If your computer came with a copy of Windows, then you paid for it, even if the store didn't tell you about that. The price for a Windows license amounts to an average of one fourth of each new computer's price. So unless you obtained Windows illegally, you probably paid for it. Where do you think Microsoft gets its money from?
On the other hand, you can get Linux completely free of charge. That's right, all these guys all around the world worked very hard to make a neat, secure, efficient, good-looking system, and they are giving their work away for everybody to use freely (if you wonder why these guys do such things, drop me an email and I'll try to explain the best I can :) ). Of course, some companies are making good business by selling support, documentation, hotline, etc., for their own version of Linux, and this is certainly a good thing. But most of the time, you won't need to pay a cent.

4.Enjoy free and unlimited support
One of the great assets of the Open Source community (and Linux in particular), is that it's a real community. Users and developers really are out there, on web forums, on mailing lists, on IRC channels, helping out new users. They're all happy to see more and more people switch to Linux, and they're happy to help them get a grip on their new system.
So if there's something you don't understand, a program that doesn't behave the way you would expect, or a feature that you can't seem to find, don't hesitate to go and ask for help. If there's somebody near you (family? co-workers?) who is using Linux, he or she will probably be happy to help you out. Otherwise, just go online and you'll find literally thousands of places where nice people will answer you and walk you out of your problem most of the time: geeks actually are very nice people, if you ask your question politely. Just type "linux help" (or replace "linux" with whatever distribution you chose -- see the install section) in Google and you'll undoubtedly find everything you need.

5....OK I am tired now cause there are loads of other reasons.......


NOW WHy you should choose Windows!??!....REASONS galore....------

1.There is proprietary software you can't live without

2.You are a hardcore gamer

3.You work for Microsoft

4.Steve Ballmer or Bill Gates Or Paul Allen is your relative

5.Your business requires windows only....

6.You want to install several antivirus softwares

7.Your hardware is not supported yet

8.You want to be called a pirate or are afraid to lure into safer areas!....lollz

9.I am tired....if you've got more ideas,,,please comment.....

MCS Annual dayy!

Today was a special day for me and many others who were involved with the annual day of our school. The entire atmosphere was mind-blowing,superb,fantastic(himesh reshammiya ka styyle..!...:p) And the atmosphere was more upgraded....lollz by our comparing or........duhhh..watevaa!..hehehehe....the sounds and lights were good and the juniors were justttt sooooooo chweeeeettt!..seriously!...awesummmm....and i was really really surprised at how i spoke...and it turned out to be really good!...hehehe...
The entire show went really well and i sorta got some unattained attention or status??...whateva...was a nice feelin to get every1 cheerin me up and congratulating me!..of course any1 wud get happy upon being treated lyk that!..duhhhh...hehehehehehe..
anyway..guess thats enough fer todayy...bahbyeeeee..!

geekEd!

GEEKeD!

Helloozzz every1...I am Tenzin, a student at MCS in India.

come to think of it, this is my first blog,,,umm,,naah not the first but the n th blog,,,,where n is a positive variable!॥I have keen interest in computers and the recent symposium at DPS has fired a new blood in me....a blood of revenge....rather a passion....of doing sumthing the next time we go to a symposium।!...I took part in "the next question"....well,,frankly , it was a rather easy one yet i didnt get through the first round...shocking!...nd the second round seemed a lot easier..with ques like "the downloads of which software overtook microsoft's share in the browser market?"..!..sheesh..such lame questions..guess i expected too much from the second round!...Now the next one is at modern school...nd i promise i wud give ma damn best n let otherz bite the dust!....training's on and doin great these days.. I was really surprised as to how simple posting on ma blog can be!,,,hehe,,,,before this i used blogger.com and to be honest , i migrated here just coz i forgot my password and username there.!...Thats it for now as i have to practise my speech for my school's annual day!...voila!...so amigos..!..yea wateva!.
shit! now i m writin back in blogger.com......cant resist it anyways!..heheahahaha coz i remembered my password!....

BHO-Browser helper objects

What is a BHO?
BHO stands for Browser Helper Object.This is a small program, usually a DLL file, originally developed to enhance or customise the features of the Internet Explorer.Whenever a BHO is installed, this is registered in Windows Registry. When Internet Explorer is started, it checks the Registry for the entries of BHOs (which indicates the installation of BHO), these entries are known as CLSID's.
So, whenever the Internet Explorer is opened, the BHO is instantiated (created), and then this BHO has full access to the Page that is bieng viewed.
For example, if you have Google Toolbar, it installs a BHO, through which it can provide functions such as "Search within the Page", "Auto Fill", "Page Info" etc. Another one,a BHO from Adobe Acrobat Reader, which enables to open .pdf directly in the IE windows itself or Downloading Softwares such as DAP, DEX will create one BHO to integrate with IE and to catch the Clicks on the download link.
So, using BHOs IE can be tweaked so that, it will be one mean browser....

If BHO enhance the functionality of IE, then why is it avoided?
Now, time for some bad news about BHO.
Windows does not provide any direct way to see the installed BHOs.This adds some amount of stealth capability to the BHOs.Actually, if we know the CLSIDs, we can view the installed BHOs through Registry using tools such as RegCleaner.
Due to this stealthy nature of the BHOs, it provides an easy way for Spywares, Adwares, Trojans or Viruses to attack.Lets see the effects of these bad programs on IE and your Computer.

Some Spywares add a BHO without the knowledge of the user.So what happens is, whenever IE is opened that SpywareBHO will run and it keep an eye on what you do in that browsing session.It can monitor, what pages do you visit frequently, which services are used by you etc.Even worse case is that, they can hijack the Browser, that is they can chnge the Default or Search page, and they can not be easily recovered.
Adwares go one step furthur and they can bring you PopUp Ad's or Bad tasted Webpages randomly or they even can bring you context sensitive Ad's, that is Ad's based on the content of the Web pages you were viewing.
Trojans/Viruses can contact thier creator's website and download latest version of Trojans to your system.

If you see any HijackThis Log of Spyware/Trojan affected system, you will certainly see some BHOs, which will have links to suspicious Websites and also they will have links to download some files.
So, in all the cases, your privacy is at stake and your computer/data is at risk.

Since BHOs have virtually full access to the system, they can do anything.Some improperly coded or deliberately coded can cause Runtime Errors or Illegal Operation errors.
From Windows 98 onwards, MS has extended the support for BHOs to not only IE but also Windows Explorer. As you might be knowing Windows Explorer (Explorer.exe) is THE application that should be running anytime to use Windows.If any bad BHOs are installed, then they will get loaded whenever Explorer.exe starts.This is certainly not desirable.

What to do?
BHOs can be removed manually or by using any tools.
Manual removal can be done in two ways:-
1]By renaming the DLL file corresponding to the BHO which is to be disabled.
2]By deleting the DLL file and removing CLSID entry in the Registry.
We can make use of HijackThis to know the installed BHOs and delete thier Registry entries and then we can delete the DLL file associated with it.
A typical CLSID and DLL file of a BHO (Google Toolbar, in this case ) is shown here,
"CLSID = {AA58ED58-01DD-4d91-8333-CF10577473F7}
DLL File= c:\program files\google\googletoolbar1.dll

But, using some tools BHOs can be directly dealt with.There are many tools to view the BHOs installed in the system directly.Some of them are BHODemon, BHOInfo.These tools list all the BHOs present in the system, so that user can decide which one to keep or remove.
A popular tool is BHODemon, which runs in System Tray ,and scans for existing BHOSs and continuously monitor the system for any BHO installs.It provides the list of installed BHOs, and it also has some extra inforamtion about the most common good and not-so-good BHOs, so any new user can know about them.

Conclusion
So, BHOs are powerful means through which anything can be done, be it good or bad.
So be careful, while browsing, while installing suspicious looking softwares etc.Upadate AntiViruses regularly and run full system scans.

An Unofficial guide to spywares and online safety ..

What are spywares ?
Spywares are programs that get installed on your computer without your knowledge and collect data about your usage patterns like what sites you visit, what programs you run, even your personal details like age, gender and financial details too : all those things that can be useful for a marketing company to send you customized advertising. These programs send this data back to their websites where they are given to spammers and advertisers. All these things happen without the user's knowledge and that is the most ironical point of the story.

Categories of spywares:

Adwares:
Adwares usually monitors your usage patterns and show you ads corresponding to them. Adwares are usually installed as freewares and it is quoted in their EULA (End User License Agreement) that the program will show relevant ads.
Many of the adwares are freeware version of programs which are availible as paid versions. Examples of these programs : Opera, Divx, Download Accelerator Plus, Flashget etc. While these programs specifically tells the user that they can upgrade to their paid version if they dont want to get these advertisements but not every adware is like that.

Browser Hijackers:
This is a broad category in which parasites like home page hijackers and search hijackers can be included.
Home page hijackers change the start page of the user's browser to some specific sites and some notorious of these are very difficult to remove.
Search hijackers change the search behaviour of the user's browser and when user searches for something on the Internet, these search sites give them the results.

Usually both of the hijackers stated above work on clickthrough systems. Here they are affiliates to other companies which give them money according to the hits they recieve through them. So, the ultimate goal of hijackers is to make the users click on the links through which they earn their revenue. As this is a difficult task, the program authors go extreme ways to achieve it and create difficult to remove parasites. Recent examples of such parasite are CoolWebSearch and AboutBlank.

Dialers:
Dialers are programs that promise to make some "premium content" availible to the users by making calls through them. All their objective is to make the users dial the number which are usually long distance numbers of their affiliates.

Tracking Cookies:
Cookies were meant to be used for customizing the websites according to the user's preferences. But marketing companies found another use of them. This useful feature is being abused by marketing companies by putting "third party cookies". Third party cookies means cookies stored by websites other than you are visiting - most often put through banners and ad rotators. These cookies can keep track of what sites you visit that contains their ads.

Keyloggers:
Keyloggers arent thankfully installed by marketing companies. Usually they are installed by some trojans or hackers. Here hackers refer to those breed of computer users who use such programs to break into other's computers to steal passwords or to destroy those systems. These programs monitor each keypress on your system and keep track of them and send it back to their originators. There are many sophisticated keyloggers which have their own SMTP engine to mail back the tracking records.

>Sources of Spywares:
How do these programs get installed ?
These programs are usually installed as bundled with other programs. While most users dont care to read the Terms and Conditions of the programs they are installing, third party tools such as these are installed easily.
Browser hijackers are usually installed as ActiveX controls while the user is visiting their affiliate's websites. The most common source of spywares are porn and cracks websites. These websites promise the user to enable them to view their content if they install these add ons.
A new class of them is called betraywares. These programs promise to remove spywares but they are themselves housing many of them. A whole new breed of search assistants, pop up blockers, online form filling tools, password keepers comes under this list.

How to tell you are infected ?
Usually when spywares are installed on your system, your network traffic increases. If you feel your computer is not behaving the way it was supposed to be, most probably you are infected. You should check what programs are getting loaded when the computer is starting up and what programs are running in the task manager. If you notice some suspicious entries in task manager or startup list, look out what programs are these. If you are on an always on connection, you should monitor the network traffic of your computer.

How to remain safe from spywares ?
Spywares will not get installed if the user himself will not allow it to install. If the user is careful in monitoring what programs get installed to his computer, it become very difficult for spywares to get installed.
The user should pay attention to the Terms and Conditions or EULA of them program being installed. Reference to third party installation should be given more attention.

Not every freeware is a spyware. But those free programs which utilize the internet to deliver their objectives should be looked at suspicously. Usually Search Assistants or popup blockers apart from reputable companies should be avoided.
The user should remain careful of sites he visits. Most of the users get infected while browsing the "underground" sites. Websites that provides cracks or porn websites are often source of dialers and hijackers. The user should use his intuition while browsing these sites. They will not come to you if you dont go to them.

Use antispywares:
Programs like Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad Aware are considered reputed in removing spywares. Spyware Blaster is a great utility that will not let the spywares getting installed in the first place. All these program should be updated regularly as new parasites gets discovered daily.

Use Firewall:
Firewalls have become a necessity these days. And those with with always on connection should enable firewall on their systems. Firewall monitors the network traffics and blocks unnecessary connections. They are also effective against worms propogating through random ip addresses.

Use Antivirus:
Antivirus are now just as essentials as operating systems are. Antivirus should be updated regularly too as new virus are discovered on daily basis.

Use Windows Update regularily:
As new vulnerabilities are discovered, parasites exploiting them too arise. So patches to fix them should be installed regularily.

Make DVD iso from CD isos of Fedora Core 5

it is quite simple. Since things have gone multi-giga-byte now a days, handeling one DVD is way easier then poppin n jiggling six CDs one after the other. Ok here are the steps.What u need:1. The CD isos of Fedora core 5 ofcourse(the 1st five only, as sixth is rescue)2. Magic ISO to edit images. or any other free alternative3. An editor.4. A Dvd Burner.5. Daemon tools(makes life easier and lessens the free space req.)6. 4 Gb free HDD space(+ the space the CD isos are taking up)HowTo:1. Copy the CD1 to a temp folder.(there should be 4 GB space on this drive)2. Open Magic ISO and browse for the file.3. From the root of the image see for a file named ".diskinfo"4. Right click and extract on desktop.5. Open a command promp and type "edit"(notepad doest work with this nicely, u can use textpad too)6. Browse to the ".diskinfo" file. it will look like this:
Code:1142397842.393345
Fedora Core
x86_64
1
Fedora/base
Fedora/RPMS
Fedora/pixmaps7. Edit the file to look like this, basically append ",2,3,4,5" after "1" in line 4.
Code:1142397842.393345
Fedora Core
x86_64
1,2,3,4,5
Fedora/base
Fedora/RPMS
Fedora/pixmaps8. Save the file.9. Drag and drop it to the open iso in Magiciso.10. Right click on daemon tools in the taskbar and goto virtual CD/DVD-ROM>set no of deviced>4 Drives.11. After the drives have been created left click on daemon tools again and select "Device 0" and Browse to the 2nd CD image to mount it.12. Repeat the above step for Cds 3 thru 5. (and select device 1 thru 3 respectively). You should have cds 2 thru 5 loaded in virtual drives. check thru My computer.13. Next, for each drive(mounted image) go to Drive:\Fedora\RPMS and select and drag and drop all files onto the magic iso window under the folder Fedora\RPMS.(alternatively add then thru magic iso, whatever, just add all). You will be asked to over write a file "TRANS.TBL" each time u drag and drop. just select yes(for explanation see page 3 of this thread).14. After you have added all rpm files. select File>save under magiciso. rename the file to DVD from CD.15. You are all done. Now Burn and enjoy!!!Clean UP:1. Left click on deamon tools and select unmount all. 2. Right click deamon tools and goto virtual CD/DVD-ROM>set no of deviced>1 Drives3. Delete the CD isos if u want to free up space(1st check the DVD Image to be sure)4. Delete ".diskinfo" from desktopSHORTCOMING: This media will NOT pass the media check. so do no test it. If u are paranoid'nf then load a virtual machine and emulate the linux setup and "media-check" the individual cd isos there. To make it pass the media check u need to regenerate the checksums. which is beyond the scope here and worthless for home users.
OR..
Go to the fedora website hosting the CD isos.2. Directly mount the CD isos one by one in deamon tools via the webaddress(suppose drive x)3. Run "CMD" and execute the following commands:4. Change directory to drive x by typeing "x:"5. type "copy .diskinfo c:\cd1.diskinfo"6. Type "tree > c:\cd1.txt"7. Load the next iso in deamon tools and repeat the two commands above but keep changing the 'cd1' to cd2 and so on(in both commands).8. Now after u have all the directory structure u gotta get working. load the DVD iso in deamon tools9. Now using explorer create five folders named CD1 ... CD510. See the directory structure but running CMD and using the edit utility.11. Now for each folder duplicate the contents by copying the files from DVD according to the CD structure.12. Rename each "cdx.diskinfo" file to ".diskinfo" and place in respectibe CD folder13. Make iso using magiciso or nero.14. Varify the file size.15. Any files u dont find in the DVD, copy them off by loading the CD iso again in Deamon tools directly from the web.I sincerely dont think u will go thru the above painfull process.I am not aware of any simpler processes except downloading the ISO images.Just think of my effort to write this procedure and try it. give feedback.I havent tried the above so no promices but logically it should work.

source-www.thinkdigit.com