Well, to think that Microsoft had left out all the fun out of the once amusing Windows OS and here I am finding that there does exist a secret easter egg withing Windows 7 and perhaps even Vista!

This hidden egg called the GodMode by the enthusiasts who found it is indeed a great tech user’s delight. To use it, follow the following:

1. Create a folder
2. Rename it as > GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

That’s it. The moment you do this, the folder gives you all the features of the OS in one place. This allows you to take control of your OS even though most of the options that you get to set from the folder are already available from various places within 7 but still having one click access is far better than having to search for them in the various locations/menus etc.

Well, hope you enjoy this (I definitely am enjoying!).

Wordpress 2.9 is here people! And, not being the one to be  left behind, I have upgraded my blog with immediate effect. I am yet to feel the actual effects of the exciting new features available in ‘Carmen’, but I’m sure you are going to get a lot more from Matt & co.

Some features highlights are:

1. New Trash Can feature that lets you restore accidentally deleted posts
2. Integrated image editor
3. Plugin installer and much more.

Check the new Wordpress 2.9 today and you will know why it is one of the most popular and leading web publishing platforms out there today!

Btw, there’s a handy video to show you the features at a glance:

Haven’t you been wondering what you will do with the Windows 7 shipped on your shiny new laptop since you are familiar to be working with XP? What does Windows 7 have to offer that Windows XP or Vista doesn’t have?

Well, Windows 7 has many changes on the surface and many more under the hood is all I can say. You can go to the official site and play some videos available there highlighting all the features available in 7.

In the meantime, I got a great article that gives tips and tricks for use on your Windows 7.

Sample this excerpt from the article regarding some great keyboard tricks:

Keyboard magic

Windows 7 allows you to use the keyboard in some pretty imaginative ways. For instance, to quickly dock the current application to the left or right side of your screen, hold down the Windows key and tap the left or right arrow keys. To quickly maximize the current window, hold down the Windows key and tap the up arrow key. To return the application to its former size, hold down the Windows key and tap the down arrow key. To minimize all open applications except the one in the foreground, hold down the Windows key and tap the Home key. The same key combination returns all applications to the state they were in before you pressed Windows key: Home.

The Windows key in combination with the numbers along the top of your keyboard can be used to activate minimized applications as they are represented in your Windows taskbar. Windows key+1 restores the first application icons on the taskbar. Windows key+2 restores the second application, and so on. For instance, if Internet Explorer is the first icon on your taskbar, pressing Windows key+1 will bring Internet Explorer to the foreground. Press Windows key+1 again, and Explorer is minimized again to the taskbar. If you have multiple instances of Windows Explorer — or another application — minimized to the taskbar, keep pressing the Windows key and the appropriate number to cycle through the instances of the running application.

For more such tips, go to the article right away! If you plan to upgrade to Windows 7 from XP or Vista, make sure to run the Upgrade Advisor on your PC/laptop to ensure that all the available features work on your machine. Best of luck with your adventures in Windows 7! I have got the Windows 7 Enterprise Edition (yay!!!) that I have installed on my PC and I must say that I can’t get enough of it.

Links in this post:

• Tips & Tricks for Windows 7 on Arab News website.
• Windows 7 Video Tour.
• What is Windows 7?
• Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

Well, Microsoft has made a beta version of Office 2010 available to the general public. I just came across the link while I was checking out the big M’s website. In fact I went there to check out special downloads or such stuff for Windows 7.

Anyway, I guess this news is exciting enough. Great features in Office 2010 are sure to knock you off your feet! Check out the beta and share your comments. I am currently downloading it and will post my comments later.

Links:

Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Beta Download

I had been watching the show from the sidelines for a while (and was busy too!). But, ever since Mozilla introduced a feature called Addon Collections on their Addons website, I had this desire to share the great firefox addons that I use and that have made my life quite easy, secure and safe.

I have created my own collection of addons called, “APU’s PowerUser Addons”. The collection can be accessed from here.

Be sure to share your thoughts about this collection of plugins and addons that I have share with you all. In the meantime, I will be adding more addons that are deserving!

Before I could even upgrade to 2.8.3 (Yeah. Everytime I auto-upgraded, it somehow couldn’t complete and reported a failure), there’s a new version released today: 2.8.4.

Now, I finished upgrading to .3 just a couple of minutes before that today itself and I wonder what could have prompted the guys at Wordpress to issue another upgrade?
Turns out that there was a security vulnerability in the software that could allow any one to use a specially formatted URL to reset the admin password. Wow! That’s a bummer. I wouldn’t want that to happen to my blog. So, I have upgraded to 2.8.4 with immediate effect.

It’s a good thing the Wordpress Team recognized and fixed this issue even before it could cause a large-scale problem for WP blog owners.

I highly recommend that you upgrade to the latest upgrade. You can also automatically upgrade your blog from within your administration panel itself. Do it. And do it fast.

Hi Guys,

It’s been quite sometime since I updated my blog. That aside, I would like to bring up one question that has been asked to me for quite some time. People have been asking me regarding my pet project, NuvoPad. I want to do a little status check on it.

Now, first thing’s first. NuvoPad is very much alive, albeit on life support. I want to reveal a very embarrassing thing that happened to me regarding NuvoPad: I have somehow lost the source for the damn editor! I am sorry people but I HAVE been careless these days. It started right after I got engaged. I haven’t been paying much attention to my projects ever since.

I am trying to focus on my projects and am preparing to restart my unfinished work on NuvoPad. I will try to release the source under some accommodating license which will allow me to keep my right to the source but give new developers the freedom to contribute or create their own NuvoPads out of it. I am not certain on this yet. I am trying to do whatever is in the best interests of the NuvoPad project.

Will keep you all updated on the progress.

Google seems to be getting ready for a head-on battle with market leader Microsoft by drawing up plans to launch it’s own Operating System which they are referring to as Chrome OS. The operating system is being billed as a next generation OS catering to the needs of the modern times. It will be an open source OS and will be built upon the Linux kernel.

Microsoft could easily create issues if it sticks to it’s guns stating many times in the past that Linux uses some of it’s proprietary technologies. Let’s see where this goes. By the way, take a look at the features of the future Chrome OS from Google.

Google has decided to move it’s chief products like Gmail out of beta. It’s being done to promote the efficient products with prospective corporate clients. With competition heating up, drop in ads sales, and a stagnating slowdown all around us, the company has definitely taken a positive step.

I am happy that Gmail and other products like Google Docs and Spreadsheets will finally be out of Beta!

Windows 7 RC is now available for download from Microsoft. If you are a technology freak, why not go ahead and download it?

Microsoft is surely getting good reviews for it’s latest Windows Operating System. With many of the nagging ‘features’ amended and new useful ways added to the OS, this is really a welcome refresh to the Windows Desktop Family.

The Release Candidate (RC) will expire on June 1, 2010. Even before it expires, though, it will start restarting every 2 hours starting 1st March 2010.

Keep in mind that there are some limitations to Windows 7. So, even though it is receiving great reviews, you decide whether you want to use 7 or not!

I am already downloading my copy from Microsoft and will install it tomorrow if possible. I just can’t wait to experience 7. With Vista’s stupid features either amended or gone all together in this release, it will be exciting to try the new OS from Billy.

(Troubled) Yahoo! have announced that they are going to shutdown Geocities. Frankly, they are only doing what’s right for them at the moment.

“As part of Yahoo!’s ongoing effort to build products and services that deliver the best possible experiences for consumers and results for advertisers, we are increasing investment in some areas while scaling back in others.”

GeoCities is a web hosting service founded in 1994 as Beverly Hills Internet and bought by Yahoo! for more than three billion dollars during the height of the infamous dotcom boom in Silicon Valley.

For me, this will signify a big loss. I mean, I have literally grown my technical skills on Geocities.com. That’s where I had hosted my first website, about nine years ago. If that wasn’t enough, I made my very first mistakes as well by uploading ASP content on my geocities without knowing that ASP content would only work on IIS servers! This could be purchased on Geocities (?) by upgrading to their premium account. Frankly speaking, I didn’t have the dough to get one premium account at that time!

Looking back at those times in retrospective, I feel that there couldn’t have been a better place for novices to setup their very first website other than Geocities. It was so easy even a kid could host a website there.

Well, ever since I discovered blogging and the power it wields at Blogger.com, I have been hooked to the new smarter form of website called the blog. So, I switched to blogger then. That’s when I had discovered that instead of logging in to my account on Geocities everyday and ensure changes or simply letting friends know what I was doing would be taking a lot of time and so, Blogging was way better. This is what I believe has changed the way people use the internet.

Now, the next generation of blogging has already begun with Twitter where users can post instant updates of what they are doing, or simply what they want to tell others. Also called microblogging, this form is a compressed form of blogging. You can even use your phone to update what you ate at KFC’s!

So, with a heavy heart, I bid Goodbye to Geocities. An innovator in the 2000s but lagging behind ever since. We will miss your exceptional services and hope to see a revival some day in a new avatar (hopefully). Until then accept our heartfelt condolences.