April 27, 2013May 9, 2013 by Kush Sharma

How to: Create folder that no one can access not even you

These type of folders generally known as Private folders. To make Private folder which nobody can open, delete, see properties, rename we need to modify its permission for system. This can either done by going to its Properties > Security Tab or through Command Prompt, we will going to discuss later one.

First create a simple folder that you normally create.
For example- “softnuke”, in D drive so the Directory will look like “D:\softnuke”.
Open command prompt (Win+R ,type cmd) and then input the following command on the screen.

CD D:

This line is to change our directory to D drive where our folder “softnuke” resides.

Cacls softnuke /E /P everyone:n

This line sets permission of everyone to deny from any access. “n” after everyone is used to set none.

Now the folder is inaccessible from any user even from administrator. To access that folder again try the following command.

Cacls softnuke /E /P everyone:f

And the folder is accessible again. We have used “f” to set Full permissions to everyone.

You can use this method to store valuable assets and documents which you don’t want to be deleted or want no one to temper with.

You can fasten this by creating 2 “.bat” files. One file will be used for setting permissions to none and second for full permissions. Here is an example just edit it with notepad to adjust by your needs. You need to modify the name of folder and copy both of the files in same folder where your target folder is stored. :

Bat File 1 : Download

Bat File 2 : Download

Note: Your browser may show you that this file is malicious but trust me thats only because “.bat” file is powerful enough to execute any cmd command thats why its warning you not to download these type of files from untrusted sources. But Softnuke will never going to harm its readers and you can download that file without worrying much.

April 22, 2013April 22, 2013 by Kush Sharma

Android: Easiest way to type in Hindi with Google

Have you ever wanted to send a text message to someone in Hindi but was unable because your cell phone didn’t comes with a Hindi layout keyboard, and suppose even if it comes with it then it will surely consume a lot of time and effort to write a single paragraph.

Google recently introduced his new app Google Hindi Input which let users to type in Hinglish(Hindi in English alphabets) and it will convert it to Hindi for you. If you have an Android smartphone or tablet, Google Hindi Input is the quickest and easiest way to compose emails, send messages and post on social networks using Devanagari script. There are alternatives also available on Google Play enabling typing in Hindi and other Indian Languages : PaniniKeypad and Lipikaar are two such apps. But we will focus on Google Hindi Input first.

Google Hindi Input has two methods for writing Hindi text. In transliteration mode, you simply type a Hindi word in English (like namaste), and the app will automatically convert the word to Devanagari script (नमस्ते). And you can get suggested words in Hindi language when you type some letters only. This will save your time and no need to type full Hindi words. Switching between English to Translator to Full Devnagari Keyboard is super smooth and just a button away.

Hitting the globe button switches to a full Devanagari script keyboard, with Hindi consonants ordered alphabetically on two pages. In this mode, you can long press at any time to select various forms of a consonant.

How to enable keyboard Input method?

Open Settings -> Language & Input, under “KEYBOARD & INPUT METHODS” section, check Google Hindi Input, then click Default and select “Hindi transliteration/Google Hindi Input” in the “Choose input method” dialog.

Don’t forget that it will not going to support if your android device does not have Hindi fonts installed. If so then you have to install it first but most of the Indian manufactured devices are pre-installed with it.

Bad Sides:

No voice or handwriting input: The keyboard gives no option to help the user input text using voice or handwriting.
No Gesture Support: There are plenty of android keyboards now who have started gestures a major thing to emphasize on and let user feel comfortable but Google Hindi input still needs to work on it.

Real time prediction while typing with devnagiri keyboard

Real time prediction while typing with devanagiri keyboard

Over all, Google Hindi Input offers an excellent option to those who would wish to use Hindi text while communicating through their Android devices. It’s simple and intuitive and makes typing in Hindi very easy.

Play Store Link : Google Hindi Input

April 21, 2013June 13, 2013 by Kush Sharma

Brief : Why you should concern about security ?

Web
adware, concern, internet, phishing, security, spyware, virus
4 Comments

Adware can bring down your PC, a virus can mass-mail annoying contents to all the contacts in your address book, a key logger can send every keystroke of yours to someone on the Net—and these are just a few risks that are out there affecting PCs. Also, for someone even moderately well versed with operating systems, getting into a poorly-secured PC is child’s play.

WHY SECURITY?

As computers become more and more integrated into our lives, we end up leaving a lot of sensitive information on our PCs—from passwords, e-mail IDs (even official e-mail IDs) and bank accounts to personal diaries and notes, business plans (or worse still, tender bids), confidential documents, a log of surfing habits (which can be viewed out of context), a backup of phone SMSes, and much more. Then there is another risk, especially when you are online—viruses and spyware. Though viruses and spyware are talked about in the same breath, there is one fundamental difference: a virus is written to cause damage to your operating system, programs or files, usually with no direct benefit to the virus creator. Spyware, on the other hand, is written for gain. This could be by tracking the surfing habits of a user on an infected computer and sending this information to someone who would send the user advertisements supposedly targeted at him based on his surfing habits.

Very strictly speaking, spyware is not intended to cause damage, at least in the traditional sense, but more often than not, they end up doing so on your PC, which is rendered difficult to repair. When we speak of computer security, what we mean is the ways in which you can prevent people from accessing data on your computer, keep your computer safe from viruses and spyware, and protect yourself from hacking and phishing.

The Internet

The Internet brings the world to your desktop, no doubt. But that world also includes a sub-world of spyware, worms, phishing attacks, and more. The most common of online irritants is spam e-mail. Spam is simply unsolicited email that urge you to buy herbal concoctions to enlarge certain body parts, promise youthfulness via a pill, say that you’ve won a Rolex watch, and so on. These mails invariably contain a link to a supposed online store that will ask you for a credit card number for an online payment. It is difficult to believe how someone can fall for a trick like this, but apparently, there are a few innocent people out there who get tricked into buying a “herbal” cure or a “collector’s watch.” Needless to say, you need to just delete these mails. The other common annoyance, which can also bring down your PC, is spyware / adware. The source of these is most usually pornographic sites or those with cracks for software. These sites can also be the very links you get in spam mail. Once they get installed, they are able to send a list of the Web sites you surf, and even your e-mail address. Based on your surfing habits, spam is sent to your email ID, advertising products or services that would ostensibly be of interest to you. An adware program will open browser windows all by itself and direct you to Web sites selling products of the same nature. Some of them are so designed that if you close the window that they bring up, they will open two or more instantly! If you receive a suspicious looking file in an e-mail (something like “annakournikova nude playing tennis.avi.scr”) even from a known source, do not download the file. It is likely that a virus has hacked into the sender’s e-mail client (or even disguised the sending address as something else—yes, that’s possible too) and is sending out spam or offensive mails.

Spyware

The affected person may not even know that spam mails from his ID are being sent. You can be a good friend and call him up to let him know of this so he can take curative measures. Some sites even make use of the fact that people occasionally make typographical errors! A recent example is www.ork0t.com (now taken down), which you could have visited if you typed what you thought was “www.orkut.com” and made a typo. When one entered one’s user ID and password into that site, it would be used to hack into your account and send out spam to all your contacts! Phishing is a threat that can potentially rob you of your money. It’s a means of fooling you into disclosing your login details of any site / service. If you are using an e-banking service, be very careful of mails that you may receive claiming to be from your bank, asking you to fill in your login details. As a policy, most banks do not send out e-mails asking you to fill in any e-banking details. If you do receive such a mail, it is fake. Before you fill out any details on a site following a link sent via e-mail, do confirm with your bank’s customer care if they have indeed sent out such a mail. Visit only your bank’s official site for all transactions.

Attacks From Known Sources

It is not uncommon for crime investigators to find that the culprit was known to the victim—this is the case with computer security as well. Someone who works at your computer may access your personal files—and even your surfing habits. It is not generally practical to keep your PC under lock and key, but what you can have is a digital version of a lock and key: set up passwords and encrypt files.

Data theft is a growing concern amongst corporates. Personal and professional harm can arise if someone gets access to your private data or worse still, your e-mail, wherein they could email someone posing as you. You can assign a password to access your PC and, similarly, password-protect your files as a first step to safeguard yourself from this risk. And, it is good practice not to let anyone install unfamiliar programs on your computer.

You must realize that given sufficient time and resources, a competent enough person can eventually break into your PC, but that is no reason to leave it entirely unsecured.

A cartoon from drxtoon

April 9, 2013April 9, 2013 by Kush Sharma

Why is Ubuntu popular ? Who can’t use it ?

Worthy
distro, Free, linux, open, popular, source, ubuntu
8 Comments

Ubuntu is a Linux-based operating system with its origins in South Africa. Its name means “humanity towards others”. Back in 2004, Linux was already established as a server operating system, but free software was not yet a part of everyday life. Further, Linux was thought of as a complicated operating system which non-technical people couldn’t use. It was at this time in 2004 that Ubuntu began as a Linux distribution aimed at ease of use. Mark Shuttleworth, the creator of the project, gathered a few developers and went on to create the most popular Linux distribution till date.

Why is Ubuntu popular?

For those who’re interested in computing, Linux is something which they take pride in being a user of, and love its freedom and flexibility. Among all the Linux distributions, which already are extremely popular (use Google’s free keyword tool to avail salvation for yourself), Ubuntu is the most popular. The reason for its triumph over all other Linux distributions is its ease of use.

Before Ubuntu came into picture, Linux was thought of as a real tough nut to crack. Many had the (wrong) notion about Linux being a completely command line based operating system. While it is still true that an extremely rich set of useful applications, programs and features of Linux are dependent on command line (or call it the console), Linux certainly was much more than just a console-driven, type and press Enter styled operating system, even before Ubuntu was born. The one thing it lacked was the real ease of use offered by other operating systems such as Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu changed the scene with its innovative solutions to issues. It ensured that users could download new software easily. The OS was further popularized by the fact that it allowed you to use the system right from the CD and install it only once you felt pleased enough. The installer was simple and the looks were different and beautiful. Ubuntu software updates were fuss-free even for the regular user to understand. One of its most innovative technical aspects was its self-upgrade feature. You didn’t need to download a separate ISO file, burn it to a disk and then install or update from it. All you had to do was upgrade from within the OS. The required files would automatically be downloaded and installed. Version changed! Slowly, many other innovations came in: a music store (just like Apple), a software centre, integration of music players and social service into gnome shell and what not. It’s these little changes over time that increasingly increased the interest of new as well as already interested users.

The cherry on the topping was the awesome ‘no drivers required’ approach. Ubuntu made it easy for users to plug in their mobile phones, select their country, fill in a few details and get ready with a GPRS connection. This was, and still is, a huge boost for people (mostly students) who live in places where they can’t afford to have wired connections or costly wireless plans.

For some users, the last mentioned feature (built-in drivers) is most important. Although you won’t find Pentium 4 processors in the market anymore, some still use such machines just because it does all they want it to do. These users don’t upgrade either due to monetary problems or because they’re simply happy with the PC which taught them what a computer is. The bigger problem with owners of ‘boxes’ such as these is more on the side of support than features. If you lost the only copy of the driver CD of the motherboard for a P4 computer today, you will be forced to buy a new system. The reason is lack of support from the manufacturer. In all probabilities, manufacturers would have stopped supporting the device. So you wouldn’t get the drivers on their web site, with little luck getting it elsewhere either. Since the Linux kernel has a huge database of drivers, Ubuntu gives you reason to rejoice. It brings life back to such old PCs. While system requirements of most other new operating systems for running are high, Ubuntu doesn’t need much to get great performance from older machines. While 512 MB RAM might seem a little less for Windows 7 or Windows Vista, Ubuntu can not only be used on such systems but can also perform pretty decently.

In case that description suggests even in the slightest of ways that Ubuntu (or any other Linux distribution) is meant to run on slow devices, you might be enlightened to know that most supercomputers in the world today use Linux as their operating system. All these facts and features make Ubuntu more popular than any other Linux distribution. Not only it is capturing computers, it has started targeting smartphones recently which is still in beta version by the way but who knows? Ubuntu could be the next iOS.

Who can use Ubuntu?

If you were to ask this question to the creators of Ubuntu, they would say ‘anyone’, and they wouldn’t be wrong. Ubuntu comes with almost all software which you would require as a normal computer user. We know demands differ, so let’s look at the valley from different mountains:

Home user

The term ‘home user’ would almost automatically ask your creative side to form an image of a person who enjoys using a computer for entertainment and a few not-so-important tasks. That would include music for passing the boring Sunday evening, a few movies to make yourself smile, email to keep you posted, web browsing to stay updated, a messaging client to chitchat with friends and probably a spreadsheet to help keep expenses in limit. Ubuntu comes with all of this. It’s got ‘Banshee’ to play your music, the ‘totem’ video player to play the movies, ‘Evolution’ to manage your calendar, contacts and email, Firefox to browse the mighty online mess (although beautiful and organized, the web is a mess after all!), ‘Empathy’ for chatting with friends on Yahoo, Google Talk and others and ‘LibreOffice’ for your office needs. We believe that is what a home user would want from his / her computer.

However, in case an Ubuntu aficionado wants more, installing software on this OS is a piece of cake. Windows users has direct installation wizard tool known as Wubi.

Office user

The typical office user fills data into spreadsheets, creating presentations to be shown to clients and/or typing in a leave letter. Despite the change in definition of offices or its users, almost all software manufacturers (including Microsoft) continue to consider “office applications” as a set of software used for creating documents, presentations, spreadsheets and small database applications. Ubuntu comes with an office suite named LibreOffice (Libre means open) which is similar to and compatible with the Microsoft Office range of applications. In addition to the document, spreadsheet, and presentation application, it also comprises two other programs named ‘Draw’ and ‘Math’ which can be used to create illustrative drawings and complex formulas for office purposes. Math is unique to LibreOffice because it is a full-fledged formula editor. You couldn’t ask for more.

Who can’t use Ubuntu?

This is one question which depends heavily on the needs. If you’re a hardcore gamer, Ubuntu probably isn’t for you. If you want to blame it on Linux, we suggest you change your mind. While there are games made for Ubuntu, the most popular games (we believe your brain is running a pronunciation simulation for spellings like ‘Crysis’, ‘Need for Speed’, etc.) were never meant to be run on Linux platforms. Although ‘Wine’ and ‘PlayOnLinux’ exist and recently steam was also released, a clean run can’t be promised, not by us at least.

The reasons for Ubuntu not having major game releases are much more social than technical. The first reason would be that Linux developers and users have traditionally been geeks (until the recent changes) and gaming was never on their list. So Linux didn’t receive much attention from the game developers. The second reason could very well be the mental set-up of game manufacturers: only those who can pay for software would pay for games. Since Linux is free, the platform never was considered good for hardcore gaming. Yet another point in favour for Windows can be the availability of DirectX APIs on Microsoft platforms as they make life easier for game developers. Nvidia rejected to pay attention for the drivers and support in Linux because of its open source tag and they are afraid that their so called secret ways to handle graphics will be easily accessed by public. There, however, are some fine 2D and a few nice 3D games for Ubuntu. Oh, and it does have board and card games like Chess, Sudoku and (the all-time favourite) Solitaire. You might also not like Ubuntu if you are a designer. Most desktop design and publishing software are not available for Linux. So if you’ve produced all your great graphics using Adobe’s Photoshop software, you won’t be able to open those beautiful projects inside GIMP as they don’t get along well. Animators and movie creators may also dislike Ubuntu for not supporting their Windows software.

Ubuntu, however, has some very good applications for all these tasks. Audacity, Blender, dia, Inkscape, GIMP, Pinta and VideoLAN Movie Creator are a few names you might want to keep in mind. But as we said earlier, the reasons for not using Ubuntu (or any other Linux system) are more social than technical. Different file formats, different software packages, different features, interfaces and a lot other similar problems and issues stand between you and Ubuntu. If you’re ready to restart your life in a free world, Ubuntu, we remind you, means humanity. It will warmly welcome you into a fresh new world.

Conclusion

If a summary of who can’t use Ubuntu is expected, we’d encapsulate it in one sentence: Anyone ,whose previous life has been on influenced by closed source software so much that he can’t survive without it, might not be able to use Ubuntu. At the same time, it’s our duty to remind you of two great terms: Wine and Virtualization.

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