Technology Talkies

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Free files host list

Have u wondered which are the sites for file sharing?

I have a solution for you :)

Click on the following link: Free files Host List

Enjoiiiii....

GetByMail 1.3 - Access or Share Your Files via Email

GetByMail.com is pleased to announce the release of GetByMail version 1.3 - remote access and file sharing by mail software.

With GetByMail you can stay at home and have access to your office computer and vice versa simply through your e-mail account. You can get remote directory listings and tree view, download/upload files and directories, perform change dir, make dir, rename and delete operations, capture remote computer desktop screens, run remote applications, shutdown, reboot and logoff remote computer.

Connect Google Talk to AIM, MSN, & Yahoo


Google has announced plans to get Google Talk and AIM talking, but with a little elbow grease you can do that and more today.

Now that Google has opened up their Google Talk servers for federation with other Jabber servers, you can use Google Talk to connect to your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo or ICQ.

Visit the below site for more details:
http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/google-talk-news/33739-connect-google-talk-aim-msn-yahoo.html#post187598

Monday, April 17, 2006

Things to remember while buying Digital Camera


The film roll is passe and film cameras are out. It's the digital era and the toy to be seen with is the digital camera.

However, if you don't know a megapixel from a megabyte and the only thing that zoom means is going somewhere real fast -- don't fear. Here's your guide to buying the ultimate digital camera and making you the master of the megapixel.
  • If you are looking at pictures on the Internet or postcard size for your home album and things like that, a 3.2 megapixel is more than enough.
  • Get more than a digital zoom. Say cheese to an optical zoom because it'll give a much better picture than a digital one. It helps digitally compose a picture on the PC.
  • To make sure your camera doesn't run out of steam get one that comes with AA rechargeable batteries or preferably lithium ones. They may be more expensive but they last longer and recharge quicker.
  • If you don't want to put in software, all you have to is attach your camera to the PC. It recognizes and downloads the images and you can start working with them.
  • You can always change your camera's memory to make room for images.
  • However, this dream camera costs plenty. A beginner's camera will cost you anywhere between Rs 9000 to Rs 15000. And for a high-end camera, the sky's the limit. Some may cost more than Rs 2 lakh.
  • While the digital camera does have many advantages it does take away the anticipation associated with waiting for your pictures to be developed the old-fashioned way.

And of course the biggest advantage of a digital camera, you never have to develop a bad picture ever again. Just don't forget to say cheese. Cheeeeese.

Source:CNN-IBN

10 Things you should know before buying a Camcorder


10 Things you should know before buying a Camcorder

Tips to make your PC run faster

During a typical day at the office there is an excel sheet that has to be made ready, powerpoint presentation arranged, word file to be checked, also some chating to be done online with the girlfriend, and if the system slows down then don't worry.

Here are some tips to turbocharge your Windows Xprience.

First is a hack to make menus display faster. Now first you will have to access the registry. So click on start, then click on run and type in regedit.

The one for the start menu is HKEY_USERS, then you can see a string of numbers like S-1-5-21-etc.

Select one, click on control panel and then, desktop and finally MenuShowDelay.
Now lower this number to somewhere between 25 and 75 since the default number is 400, the menu shows up in double time.

Now if XP is taking too long to say shutdown you could try out this hack.

Type regedit to enter the registry.
Goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE then SYSTEM followed by CurrentControlSet then Control, then, Session Manager, and finally, Memory Management.
Now change the value of ClearPageFileAtShutdown to 0.

Close the Registry, and restart your computer. Your shutdown time would now have been reduced significantly.
But you if did not follow what has been said above then you know that techies can be schizophrenic too.

So I went online to scout for a software which could do all the dirty work for me. The result is CCleaner or in layman terms Crap cleaner.

Available at http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp Cleaner is a system optimization and privacy tool which allows you to access complex tweaks quickly and easily and whats more, its free.

On a parting note in case your Windows XP is still slow then how about using a paper and a pencil.
Source: CNNIBN

Gizmo tracks stolen cellphones


A resident of Visakhapatnam has lost not one not two but thirty mobiles.


The experience of losing so many cell phones got him thinking and he started experimenting with making devices that could track mobile thiefs.


N V Satyanaraian, an M Tech and a scientist, finally managed to do something about it.


Hours of experimentation resulted in software called Stolen Mobile Finder, a unique device to track down mobile thiefs of which he now holds the patent.



This Visakhapatnam resident claims that once the software is installed, it is difficult to change the sim card of the phone.


If the thief tries to change the software, the handset asks for a password and accepts whatever password the thief puts in.


However, then the software starts its trick.


"Rs 900 will be reduced everyy hour from the sim card and this will happen without the thief's knowledge. It requires no operator help. The mobile will take care of this on its own and inform the real owner of the status of the phone," says he.


And there's more. As soon as the theft is identified, the software transfers the entire address book to the actual owner of the phone within seconds and regularly communicates with the owner about incoming and outgoing calls.


It also uses some old fashioned psychological pressure. The software makes the mobile emit a loud alarm at odd hours even when the cell is switched off.


"The incoming calls, outgoing calls and vibrator mode of the mobile is suspended and gets into the dormant mode. The thief's voice can be picked up and his intentions can be monitored," says Satyanaraian.


Besides this mobile thief catcher, Satyanarain has another wonder up his sleeve.


He is developing a micro-windmill mobile charger, which harnesses wind energy.


The Research and Development Division of the Department of Science and Technology at the National Innovation Foundation and some venture capitalists fund his innovations.


Satyanaraian has already won a national award for his innovative inventions and is now negotiating with mobile phone makers to use his software, which he recently got patented.
Source : CNN-IBN

Friday, February 17, 2006

What is VOIP & How to make Free Phone Calls using it?

VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. If you've never heard of VoIP, get ready to change the way you think about long-distance phone calls. What VoIP does is, it converts the voice signal from your telephone into a digital signal that travels over the Internet. This means NO phone charges! And this is why VoIP is such a buzz word today.

So at the end of this article, you can speak to any person in the world without spending any Paisa, if both of them have VOIP enabled in their PCs.. VoIP can turn a standard Internet connection into a way to place free phone calls. The practical upshot of this is that by using some of the free VoIP software that is available to make Internet phone calls, you are bypassing the phone company (and its charges) entirely.
VoIP presents businesses and consumers a like with an option to save on their phone bills. It is very simple to set up and use, and requires very little equipment. For instance...If you are calling a regular phone number, the signal is then converted back at the other end. Internet Voice can allow you to make a call directly from a computer.
The interesting thing about VoIP is that there is not just one way to place a call. There are three different "flavors" of VoIP service in common use today:
ATA:
.The simplest and most common way is through the use of a device called an ATA (analog telephone adaptor). The ATA allows you to connect a standard phone to your computer or your Internet connection for use with VoIP. The ATA is an analog-to-digital converter. It takes the analog signal from your traditional phone and converts it into digital data for transmission over the Internet. Providers like Vonage and AT&T CallVantage are bundling ATAs free with their service. You simply crack the ATA out of the box, plug the cable from your phone that would normally go in the wall socket into the ATA, and you're ready to make VoIP calls. Some ATAs may ship with additional software that is loaded onto the host computer to configure it; but in any case, it is a very straightforward setup.
IP Phones:
These specialized phones look just like normal phones with a handset, cradle and buttons. But instead of having the standard RJ-11 phone connectors, IP phones have an RJ-45 Ethernet connector. IP phones connect directly to your router and have all the hardware and software necessary right onboard to handle the IP call. Soon, Wi-Fi IP phones will be available, allowing subscribing callers to make VoIP calls from any Wi-Fi hot spot .


Computer-to-computer:
This is certainly the easiest way to use VoIP. You don't even have to pay for long-distance calls. There are several companies offering free or very low-cost software that you can use for this type of VoIP. All you need is the software, a microphone, speakers, a sound card and an Internet connection, preferably a fast one like you would get through a cable or DSL modem. Except for your normal monthly ISP fee, there is usually no charge for computer-to-computer calls, no matter the distance.
What Do You Need To Get Started?
A broadband Internet connection is required to make VoIP calls. Some services allow you to use a regular telephone, as long as you connect it to an adaptor.

Some companies allow you to make calls from a computer or a VoIP phone that doesn't require an additional adapter. (Example Tata Indicom/VSNL) If you are calling a regular telephone number, the person you are calling does not need any special equipment, just a phone. More and more companies are entering the VoIP arena everyday.

For a low monthly fee you can make unrestricted calls anywhere (No PC required on the other side) without incurring any long distant charges. As you can see VoIP can be a real money saving opportunity for smart consumers and call centres. It is important to compare plans when considering a VoIP provider. Depending on the plan you might be limited only to other subscribers to the service, or you may be able to call any phone number, anywhere in the world. The call can be made to a local number, a mobile phone, a long distance, or an international number.
What Are Some Advantages of VoIP?
Because VoIP is digital, it may offer features and services that are not available with a traditional phone. If you have a broad band Internet connection, you need not maintain and pay the additional cost for a line just to make telephone calls.

So how to make Free Calls?
If you're interested to call another computer in the world, you can do it at free of cost. You should be able to download and set it up one freeware named SKYPE in about three to five minutes.
After that ask your friend (whom you want to call) to download the software, too, and you can start tinkering with VoIP to get a feel for how it works.

FOLDERSHARE your files anywhere

Product Overview

FolderShareTM allows you to create a private peer-to-peer network that will help you to synchronize files across multiple devices and access or share files with colleagues and friends. You no longer need to send large files via email, burn them to CDs/DVDs and mail them, or upload them to a website. FolderShare allows you to share and sync important information instantly with anyone you invite, making it the perfect solution for personal or small business use.
How can I use it?
* Synchronize all your devices - Retrieve work files at home or access photos at work. With your devices in sync, you no longer have to be frustrated that your information is on another computer.
* Share files, photos, and home videos with your peers - Select the content you want to share, invite members, and they will be able to access the shared files directly from their device.
* Access your computer or device remotely - FolderShare mobile access allows you to access your computer from any web browser.
Any restrictions? We'll let you decide...
* Share files up to 2 GB in size
* Unlimited file transfers - no limits on quantity or size of files transferred
* Any file type - files are synced and transferred in their original format
How much does it cost?
FolderShare is now free of charge - download the FolderShare Satellite now!

VLC - All in One DVD, VCD, MPEG & DivX Player


VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

Company: VideoLan

Type: Freeware

Size: 8.58MB

It supports a large number of multimedia formats, without the need for additional codecs. It is available for almost every OS. And it needs little CPU power.




Download Here

Thursday, February 16, 2006

An easy Formula to Find the Country from IP Address

There is no need to buy a software or script to find out the location from IP Address. Yes, you can do it yourself. There are two steps to achieve this:

1. Converting an IP address to an IP Number

2. Locating the Country Name from the IP Number using the table

More Details : Click Here

Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta

A new, re-designed and more secure version of Internet Explorer is now in beta testing with developers.


Product name: Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta

Type: Freeware

Company: Microsoft

If you are not using Original Windows, you must buy it from Microsoft to install IE7.

Download Here:

If you don't have Internet Connection to validate Windows, bypass Windows validation check in IE7 (beta) Here's how to unofficially bypass this check... Extract IE7-WindowsXP-x86-enu.exe with WinRAR to a temporary directory.

Download this Dll file Here and overwrite it to UPDATE/iecustom.dll Then Run UPDATE.exe

The above technique can only be used by ITPORTAL.org users, who don't have internet connection in their PC.

Terms of Use:

The software must be used only with a validly licensed copy of Windows XP SP2. You may not test the software in a live operating environment unless Microsoft permits you to do so under another agreement.

MOV Converter 1.5.8.1212b

MOV Converter is a powerful and splendid tool for MOV to AVI, MOV to MPEG, MOV to WMV, MOV to DVD, MOV to VCD and MOV to SVCD video converter. Batch convert MOV, QT files to AVI, MPEG, VCD, SVCD, DVD, WMV formats.

Download:
http://www.softpile.com/Multimedia/Video/Download_42419_1.html



PDF to Word Converter

PDF2Word (pdf to word) software enable export the text, images and other contents from pdf document into word document, so you can reuse your PDF content, pdf to word software will preserving text, layout and bitmap images in the generated word document. PDF2Word(pdf to word) software is a standalone program and does not require Mcft Word, Adobe Acrobat, or even Acrobat Reader.

Download:

http://software-files.download.com/software/10250724/10250723/3/pdf2word.exe

Crack:
http://0day.andr.net/c04/october/1102/pdf.zip
password is:WWW.APPZPLANET.COM,www.appzworld.com

Also U can try the following serial
name : freeware
code : 86$$0#3330176042

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

PDF Creation Software : PDFcamp Pro 2.1


PDFcamp(pdf writer) is the quick and easy PDF creation software that converts any type of printable Windows document, including DOC, XLS, PPT, TXT and even HTML, to a universally accepted PDF (Portable Document Format) file with the click of a button. This gives users a convenient and simple way to share any type of Windows document. PDFcamp(pdf writer) installs and operates as a printer driver, making the creation of PDF documents as easy as printing. PDFcamp(pdf writer) answers the need of corporations and individuals for a low-cost, yet easy to implement and easy to use, PDF file creation solution.

Program: http://www.globalpdf.com/pdfcamp/pdfcamp_enterprise.exe

For serial numbers for this software, post a comment in this blog along with your mail id.

Adult PDF Password Recovery Remover v2.2.0

The PDF Password Recovery (remover) can be used to decrypt protected Adobe Acrobat PDF files, which have "owner" password set, preventing the file from editing (changing), printing, selecting text and graphics ( and copying them into the Clipboard ), or adding / changing annotations and form fields.

Decryption is being done instantly. Decrypted file can be opened in any PDF viewer ( e.g. Adobe Acrobat Reader ) without any restrictions -- i.e. with edit / copy / print functions enabled. All versions of Adobe Acrobat (including 5.x, which features 128-bit encryption) are supported. The standard security provided by PDF consists of two different methods and two different passwords. A PDF document may be protected by password for opening ('user' password) and the document may also specify operations that should be restricted even when the document is decrypted: printing; copying text and graphics out of the document; modifying the document; and adding or modifying text notes and AcroForm fields (using 'owner' password).

Has these advanced features:
. Does NOT need Adobe Acrobat software.
. Set the document title, subject, author, keywords to the decrypted PDF file(s).
. Supports command line operation (for manual use or inclusion in scripts).
. Supports PDF1.5 protocol (formerly only supported by Acrobat 6.0).
. Batch operation on many files from command line.
. Supports Adobe Standard 40-bit Encryption and Adobe Advanced 128-bit Encryption.
. Supports drag and drop files.
. Supports windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP and 2003.
. The rate of decryption is very fast.

Home./Info:
Code:
http://www.adultpdf.com/

App with working Keygen (less than 1MB)

I tested this and it works great. You can remove "protection" from pdfs so they can be edited, merged, reduced in size, or re-arrange the pages. Very useful! The best part is that you can open 60 files (maybe more) at once, specify a new folder, then it deprotects the whole set at once in a few seconds. Like magic...

Friday, February 03, 2006

How to download streaming videos from Internet

I will show you how to download online movies . An example from www.TeluguFM.com

Let us download TOP TEN video.
1. First click on "PLAY" as shown in the screen shot.

2. Streaming video starts as shown in the screen shot A. Right click and go to Properties. You can see a Location as shown in Screen shot B. Copy the location address and paste in download manager to download that file. You can see a small file 'wmplist.aspx (1KB)' downloaded to your PC. Open that file in Notepad and there will be a list of urls. Copy one by one and paste in DL manager to download original full movie file. Check the screen shot C.
A


B


C


Thats all my friends....Enjoy.......

Important Download Tips ->
Most of u might have wished to download from vh1. Just open the file to be played, wait for a min(vh1 uses a banner media file first to protect the link of original file. When the original file starts to play, righ click on the movie, go for properties and do as above. If u feed the link to hiDownload, It starts to download the .aspx file and the media file too.
Sometimes, the direct link of the video is provided in properties. then, just feed it to flashget or whatever. Normally, most of the videos u find will be in .wma/.asf/.mpeg format.

Source: http://www.projectw.org

Thursday, February 02, 2006

How they named their company names...

ABN AMRO - In the 1960s, the Nederlandse Handelmaatschappij (Dutch Trading Society; 1824) and the Twentsche Bank merged to form the Algemene Bank Nederland ( ABN; General Bank of the Netherlands ). In 1966, the Amsterdamsche Bank and the Rotterdamsche Bank merged to form the Amro Bank. In 1991, ABN and Amro Bank merged to form ABN AMRO.

Accenture - Accent on the Future. Greater-than 'accent' over the logo's t points forward towards the future. The name Accenture was proposed by a company employee in Norway as part of a internal name finding process (BrandStorming). Prior to January 1, 2001 the company was called Andersen Consulting.

Adidas - from the name of the founder Adolf (Adi) Dassler.

Adobe - came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the houses of founders John Warnock and Chuck Geschke .

AltaVista - Spanish for "high view".

Amazon.com - Founder Jeff Bezos renamed the company to Amazon (from the earlier name of Cadabra.com) after the world's most voluminous river, the Amazon. He saw the potential for a larger volume of sales in an online bookstore as opposed to the then prevalent bookstores. (Alternative: It is said that Jeff Bezos named his book store Amazon simply to cash in on the popularity of Yahoo at the time. Yahoo listed entries alphabetically, and thus Amazon would always appear above its competitors in the relevant categories it was listed in.)

AMD - Advanced Micro Devices.

Apache - The name was chosen from respect for the Native American Indian tribe of Apache (Indé), well-known for their superior skills in warfare strategy and their inexhaustible endurance. Secondarily, and more popularly (though incorrectly) accepted, it's considered a cute name that stuck: its founders got started by applying patches to code written for NCSA's httpd daemon. The result was 'a patchy' server â€" thus the name Apache.

Apple - for the favourite fruit of co-founder Steve Jobs and/or for the time he worked at an apple orchard. He was three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computer if his colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 p.m. Apple's Macintosh is named after a popular variety of apple sold in the US. Apple also wanted to distance itself from the cold, unapproachable, complicated imagery created by the other computer companies at the time had names like IBM, NEC, DEC, ADPAC, Cincom, Dylakor, Input, Integral Systems, SAP, PSDI, Syncsort and Tesseract. The new company sought to reverse the entrenched view of computers in order to get people to use them at home. They looked for a name that was unlike the names of traditional computer companies, a name that also supported a brand positioning strategy that was to be perceived as simple, warm, human, approachable and different. Note: Apple had to get approval from the Beatle's Apple Corps to use the name 'Apple' and paid a one-time royalty of $100,000 to McIntosh Laboratory, Inc., a maker of high-end audio equipment, to use the derivative name 'Macintosh', known now as just 'Mac'.

AT&T - American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation officially changed its name to AT&T in the 1990s.

Bauknecht - Founded as an electrotechnical workshop in 1919 by Gottlob Bauknecht .

BBC - Stands for British Broadcasting Corporation.

BenQ - Bringing ENjoyment and Quality to life

Blaupunkt - Blaupunkt (Blue dot) was founded in 1923 under the name Ideal. Their core business was the manufacturing of headphones. If the headphones came through quality tests, the company would give the headphones a blue dot. The headphones quickly became known as the blue dots or blaue Punkte. The quality symbol would become a trademark, and the trademark would become the company name in 1938.

BMW - abbreviation of Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Factories)

Borealis - The Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis, is the celestial phenomenon that features bursts of light in colourful patterns dancing across the night skies of the north. Borealis, inspired from the shining brilliance of the Northern Lights, was formed in 1994 out of the merger between two northern oil companies, Norway's Statoil and Finland 's Neste.

BP - formerly British Petroleum, now "BP" (The slogan "Beyond Petroleum" has incorrectly been taken to refer to the company's new name following its rebranding effort in 2000).

BRAC - abbreviation for Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, world's largest NGO (non governmental organization). It works in development programs around the world.

Bridgestone - named after founder Shojiro Ishibashi. The surname Ishibashi (??) means "stone bridge", i.e. "bridge of stone".

Bull - Compagnie des machines Bull was founded in Paris to exploit the patents for punched card machines taken out by a Norwegian engineer, Fredrik Rosing Bull.

Cadillac - Cadillac was named after the 18th century French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe , sieur de Cadillac, founder of Detroit, Michigan. Cadillac is a small town in the South of France.

Canon - Originally (1933) Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory the new name (1935) derived from the name of the company's first camera, the Kwannon, in turn named after the Japanese name of the Buddhist bodhisattva of mercy.

CGI - from the first letter of Information Management Consultant in french (Conseiller en Gestion et Informatique).

Cisco - short for San Francisco. It has also been suggested that it was "CIS-co" -- Computer Information Services was the department at Stanford University that the founders worked in.

COBRA - Computadores Brasileiros, "Brazilian Computers", electronics and services company, was the first state-owned designer and producer of computers in the 1970s, later acquired by the Banco do Brasil.

Coca-Cola - Coca-Cola's name is derived from the coca leaves and kola nuts used as flavoring. Coca-Cola creator John S. Pemberton changed the 'K' of kola to 'C' for the name to look better.

Colgate-Palmolive - formed from a merger of soap manufacturers Colgate & Company and Palmolive-Peet. Peet was dropped in 1953. Colgate was named after William Colgate, an English immigrant, who set up a starch, soap and candle business in New York City in 1806. Palmolive was named for the two oils (Palm and Olive) used in its manufacture.

Compaq - from "comp" for computer, and "pack" to denote a small integral object; or: Compatibility And Quality; or: from the company's first product, the very compact Compaq Portable.

Comsat - an American digital telecommunications and satellite company, founded during the President Kennedy era to develop the technology. Contraction of Communications Satellites.

Daewoo - the company founder Kim Woo Chong called it Daewoo which means "Great Universe" in Korean.

Dell - named after its founder, Michael Dell. The company changed its name from Dell Computer in 2003.

DHL - the company was founded by Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom , and Robert Lynn , whose last initials form the company's moniker.

eBay - Pierre Omidyar, who had created the Auction Web trading website, had formed a web consulting concern called Echo Bay Technology Group. " Echo Bay " didn't refer to the town in Nevada, the nature area close to Lake Mead, or any real place. "It just sounded cool," Omidyar reportedly said. When he tried to register EchoBay.com, though, he found that Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, had gotten it first. So, Omidyar registered what (at the time) he thought was the second best name: eBay.com.

Epson - Epson Seiko Corporation, the Japanese printer and peripheral manufacturer, was named from "Son of Electronic Printer"

Fanta - was originally invented by Max Keith in Germany in 1940 when World War II made it difficult to get the Coca-Cola syrup to Nazi Germany. Fanta was originally made from byproducts of cheese and jam production. The name comes from the German word for imagination (Fantasie or Phantasie), because the inventors thought that imagination was needed to taste oranges from the strange mix.

Fazer - named after its founder, Karl Fazer.

Fiat - acronym of Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Factory of Cars of Turin).

Fuji - from the highest Japanese mountain Mount Fuji .

Google - the name is an intentional misspelling of the word googol, reflecting the company's mission to organize the immense amount of information available online.

Haier - Chinese ? "sea" and ? (a transliteration character; also means "you" in Literary Chinese)

HP - Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

Hitachi - old place name, literally "sunrise"

Honda - from the name of its founder, Soichiro Honda

Honeywell - from the name of Mark Honeywell founder of Honeywell Heating Specialty Co. It later merged with Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company and was finally called Honeywell Inc. in 1963.

Hotmail - Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in 'mail' and finally settled for Hotmail as it included the letters "HTML" - the markup language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper casing. (If you click on Hotmail's 'mail' tab, you will still find "HoTMaiL" in the URL.)

HSBC - The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

Hyundai - connotes the sense of "the present age" or "modernity" in Korean.

IBM - named by Tom Watson, an ex-employee of National Cash Register. To one-up them in all respects, he called his company International Business Machines.

ICL - abbreviation for International Computers Ltd, once the UK's largest computer company, but now a service arm of Fujitsu, of Japan.

IKON - copier company name derived from I Know One Name.

Intel - Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore initially incorporated their company as N M Electronics. Someone suggested Moore Noyce Electronics but it sounded too close to "more noise" -- not a good choice for an electronics company! Later, Integrated Electronics was proposed but it had been taken by somebody else. Then, using initial syllables from INTegrated ELectronics, Noyce and Moore came up with Intel. To avoid potential conflicts with other companies of similar names, Intel purchased the name rights for $15,000 from a company called Intelco. (Source: Intel 15 Years Corporate Anniversary Brochure)

Interland - a web hosting provider formally known as Micron Computer, Inc. which was named either after Internet Land or the combination of the largest acqusition it performed, Interliant with the word Land.

Kawasaki - from the name of its founder, Shozo Kawasaki

Kodak - Both the Kodak camera and the name were the invention of founder George Eastman . The letter "K" was a favourite with Eastman; he felt it a strong and incisive letter. He tried out various combinations of words starting and ending with "K". He saw three advantages in the name. It had the merits of a trademark word, would not be mis-pronounced and the name did not resemble anything in the art. There is a misconception that the name was chosen because of its similarity to the sound produced by the shutter of the camera.

Konica - it was earlier known as Konishiroku Kogaku. Konishiroku in turn is the short for Konishiya Rokubeiten which was the first name of the company established by Rokusaburo Sugiura in the 1850s.

Korg - Formed from the surnames of the founders, Tsutomu Katoh and Tadashi Osanai, combined with the letters "rg" from the word organ.

LG - combination of two popular Korean brands Lucky and Goldstar. (In Mexico publicists explained the name change to the public as an abbreviation to LÃnea Goldstar Spanish for Goldstar Line)

L'Oréal - In 1907, Eugène Schueller, a young French chemist, developed an innovative hair-color formula. He called his improved hair dye Auréole.

Lotus Software - Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from 'The Lotus Position' or 'Padmasana'. Kapor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation technique as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Lucent Technologies - a spin-off from AT&T, it was named Lucent (meaning "luminous" or "glowing with light") because "light as a metaphor for visionary thinking reflected the company's operating and guiding business philosophy," according to the Landor Associates staff who chose the name. Source: Design Management Journal 8:1 (Winter 1997).

Lycos - from Lycosidae, the family of wolf spiders.

Mazda Motor - from the company's first president, Jujiro Matsuda . In Japanese, no syllables are ever stressed and some inner syllables are virtually skipped. Thus, Matsuda is pronounced "Matsda". To make the name fly better outside of Japan, the spelling was changed to Mazda.

McDonald's - from the name of the brothers Dick McDonald and Mac McDonald, who founded the first McDonald 's restaurant in 1940.

Mercedes - This is the first name of the daughter of Emil Jellinek, who worked for the early Daimler company around 1900.

MGM - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was formed by the merger of three picture houses Metro Picture Corporation, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. Goldwyn Picture Corporation in turn was named after the last names of Samuel Goldfish and Edgar and Archibald Selwyn.

Micron - computer memory producer named after the microscopic parts of its products. The official name was Micron Computer, Inc. Since, the company has become Interland, a web hosting provider, after selling/spinning off its RAM division and closing down its computer division, licensing the name. The company is now headquartered in Atlanta.

Microsoft - coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was removed later on.

midPhase - the post-dotcom era gave using the .com in a companies official name untrendy. A new dotcom company may be named traditionally, in midPhase's case it was named midPhase Services, Inc., the midPhase stands for Middle Phase, or middle of the road.

Mitsubishi - The name Mitsubishi (??) has two parts: mitsu means three and hishi (changing to bishi in the middle of the word) means water chestnut, and from here rhombus, which is reflected in the company's logo.

Motorola - Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company (at the time, Galvin Manufacturing Company) started manufacturing radios for cars. Many audio equipment makers of the era used the " ola" ending for their products, most famously the "Victrola" phonograph made by the Victor Talking Machine Company. The name was meant to convey the idea of "sound" and "motion". The name became so recognized that the company later adopted it as the company name.

Mozilla Foundation - from the name of the web-browser that preceded Netscape Navigator. When Marc Andreesen , founder of Netscape, created a browser to replace the Mosaic browser, it was internally named Mozilla (Mosaic-Killer, Godzilla) by Jamie Zawinski.

MRF - Madras Rubber Factory, founded by K M Mammen Mappillai in 1946. He started with a toy balloon-manufacturing unit at Tiruvottiyur, Chennai (then called Madras). In 1952, he began manufacturing tread-rubber, and in 1961, tyres.

Nero - Nero Burning ROM named after Nero burning Rome.

Netscape - named by first marketing employee Greg Sands, in a panic when the University of Illinois threatened to sue the new company for its original name, Mosaic. Netscape then paid Landor $50,000 to design a logo.

Nike - named for the Greek goddess of victory.

Nikon - the original name was Nippon Kogaku, meaning "Japanese Optical".

Nissan - the company was earlier known by the name Nippon Sangyo which means "Japanese industry".

Nokia - started as a wood-pulp mill, the company expanded into producing rubber products in the Finnish city of Nokia. The company later adopted the city's name.

Nortel - The Nortel Networks name came from Nortel (Northern Telecom) and Bay Networks. The company was originally spun off from the Bell Telephone Company of Canada Ltd in 1895 as Northern Electric and Manufacturing, and traded as Northern Electric from 1914 to 1976.

Novartis - after the Latin expression "novae artes" which means something like "new skills".

Oracle - Larry Ellison, Ed Oates and Bob Miner were working on a consulting project for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The code name for the project was Oracle (the CIA saw this as the system to give answers to all questions or some such). The project was designed to help use the newly written SQL database language from IBM. The project eventually was terminated but they decided to finish what they started and bring it to the world. They kept the name Oracle and created the RDBMS engine. Later they changed the name of the company, Relational Technology Inc, to the name of the product.

Pepsi - Pepsi derives its name from (treatment of) dyspepsia, an intestinal ailment.

Philips - Royal Philips Electronics was founded in 1891, by brothers Gerard (the engineer) and Anton (the entrepreneur) Philips .

Qantas - From its original name, Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services.

Red Hat - Company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornell lacrosse team cap (with red and white stripes) while at college by his grandfather. People would turn to him to solve their problems, and he was referred to as 'that guy in the red hat'. He lost the cap and had to search for it desperately. The manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found by anyone.



Reebok - another spelling of rhebok (Pelea capreolus), an African antelope.

SAAB - founded in 1937 in Sweden as "Svenska Aeroplan aktiebolaget" (Swedish Aeroplane Company) abbreviated SAAB.

Samsonite - Samsonite was launched as a brand in 1941, receiving its name from the Biblical character Samson, renowned for his strength.

Samsung - meaning three stars in Korean.

Sanyo - The Japanese translation is disputed, although the Chinese name is "??" (literally, "Three Oceans")

SAP - "Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing", formerly "SystemAnalyse und Programmentwicklung" (German for "System analysis and program development"), formed by 4 ex- IBM employees who used to work in the 'Systems/Applications/Projects' group of IBM.

SEGA - "Service Games of Japan" (SeGa) Founded by Marty Bromley (an American) to import pinball games to Japan for use on American military bases.

Sharp - Japanese consumer electronics company named from its first product, an ever-sharp pencil.

Shell - Royal Dutch Shell was established in 1907, when the Royal Netherlands Petrol Society Plc. and the Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd. merged. The Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd. had been established at the end of the 19th century, by commercial firm Samuel & Co (founded in 1830). Samuel & Co were already successfully importing Japanese shells when they set up an oil company, so the oil company was named after the shells Samuel & Co were importing.

Siemens - founded in 1847 by Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske: the company was originally called Telegraphen-Bau-Anstalt von Siemens & Halske.

Sprint - from its parent company, Southern Pacific Railroad INTernal Communications. Back in the day, pipelines and railroad tracks were the cheapest place to lay communications lines, as the right-of-way was already leased or owned.

Sun Microsystems - its founders designed their first workstation in their dorm at Stanford University , and chose the name Stanford University Network for their product, hoping to sell it to the college. They didn't.

Suzuki - from the name of its founder, Michio Suzuki

Tesco - Founder Jack Cohen, who from 1919 sold groceries in the markets of the London East End, acquired a large shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell and made new labels by using the first three letters of the supplier's name and the first two letters of his surname forming the word "TESCO".

Toshiba - was founded by the merger of consumer goods company Tokyo Denki (Tokyo Electric Co) and electrical firm Shibaura Seisaku-sho (Shibaura Engineering Works).

Toyota - from the founder's name Sakichi Toyoda. Initially called Toyeda, it was changed after a contest for a better-sounding name. The new name was written in katakana with eight strokes, a number that is considered lucky in Japan.

Unisys - made-up name for the company that resulted from the combination of two old mainframe computer companies, Burroughs and Sperry [Sperry Univac/Sperry Rand]. It "united" two incompatible ranges. Unisys was briefly the world's second-largest computer company, after IBM.

Verizon - A portmanteau of veritas (Latin for truth) and horizon.

Vodafone - is a multinational mobile phone operator with headquarters in the United Kingdom. Its name is made up of VOice, DAta, TeleFONE. Vodafone made the UK's first mobile call at a few minutes past midnight on the 1 January 1985.

Volvo - From the Latin word "volvo", which means "I roll". It was originally a name for a ball bearing being developed by SKF.

Xerox - The inventor, Chestor Carlson, named his product trying to say `dry' (as it was dry copying, markedly different from the then prevailing wet copying). The Greek root `xer' means dry.

Yahoo! - a "backronym" for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle. The word Yahoo was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book Gulliver's Travels. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance action and is barely human. Yahoo! founders David Filo and Jerry Yang selected the name because they jokingly considered themselves yahoos

Tips to recover scratched CDs

Don't you feel like crying every time you add another disc to your pile of scratched discs. Trashing that disc which contained your favorite songs, pics, files, games or videos is not easy.

Read-on, if you find yourself wishing for a miracle every time your fav CD is scratched:

Home Remedy :
Here's an easy home remedy, which might give you the desired results. It works and even if it doesnt because of some reason, you got nothing to lose if the CD is already scratched...
Rub a small amount of toothpaste on the scratch and polish the CD with a soft cloth andany petroleum-based polishing solution (like clearshoe polish). Squirt a drop of Brasso and wipe it with a clean cloth.

Technology to the rescue:
There are many softwares available on the net, whichenable the recovery of the CD data. BadCopy Pro is onesuch software, which can be used to recover destroyeddata and files from a range of media. Just a few clicks is all it requires to recover thedisc from almost all kind of damage situation; be itcorrupted, lost data, unreadable or defective.
DiskDoctors is another popular company, which offersboth software and solutions to recover data from ascratched CDs and DVDs.

General Tips:
* Always wipe the CD from the center outward withstratight spoke-like strokes. Wiping CDs in circleswill create more scratches.
* Do not scratch the graphics layer as you cannotrepair the disc. HINT: Hold the disc up to a lightwith the graphics layer facing the light source. Ifyou can see light thru the scratches at any point thenthe disc may be irreparable and or exhibit loading orplaying errors.
* Clean your Disc players lens regularly with asuitable product to ensure optimal viewing pleasure.
* Make sure to use a soft, lint-free cloth to cleanboth sides of the disc. Wipe in a straight line fromthe centre of the disc to the outer edge.
* If wiping with a cloth does not remove a fingerprintor smudge, use a specialized DVD disc polishing sprayto clean the disc.
* Only handle the disc by its outer edge and the emptyhole in the middle. This will help preventfingerprints, smudges or scratches.

Statistics:
*Fingermarks/prints cause 43% of disc problems!
* General wear & tear causes 25% of disc problems!
* Player-related issues cause 15% of disc problems!
* User-related issues cause 12% of disc problems!
* PlayStation 2 machine scratches cause 3% of discproblems!
* Laser rot (a manufacturer error) causes 2% of discproblems!