Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Learn Windows Vista

First the booting sequence of Vista.

The sequence of booting Windows Vista is slightly different to any previous version of windows .

First, when the computer is switched on, either the BIOS or the EFI is loaded. In the case of a BIOS system, the MBR of the boot disk, which can be a hard drive or external media, is accessed, followed by the boot sector of the drive or of relevant hard disk partition. This boot sector then loads the rest of the boot blocks.

For Windows Vista, the boot sector loads the Windows Boot Manager (Filename:Bootmgr.) which accesses the Boot Configuration Data store and uses the information to load the final stage

Windows Boot Manager

The Windows Boot Manager reads the Boot Configuration Data and "displays an operating system selection menu"

WINLOAD.EXE

winload.exe is the operating system boot loader. It is invoked by the Windows Boot Manager in order to load the operating system kernel (ntoskrnl.exe) and (boot-class) device drivers and is in that respect functionally equivalent to (the operating system loader functionality of) NTLDR in prior versions of Windows NT.

Boot Configuration Data

Boot Configuration Data (BCD) is a database for boot-time configuration data. It replaces the boot.ini that was used by NTLDR, and is used by Microsoft's new Windows Boot Manager.

Boot Configuration Data may be altered using a command-line tool (bcdedit.exe)

Boot Configuration Data contain the menu entries that are presented by the Windows Boot Manager, just as boot.ini contained the menu entries that were presented by NTLDR.

These menu entries can include:

Options to boot Windows Vista by invoking winload.exe.
Options to resume Windows Vista from hibernation by invoking winresume.exe.
Options to boot a prior version of Windows NT by invoking its NTLDR.
Options to load and to execute a Volume Boot Record.

Lets see hardware requirements of Vista.

Minimum Requirements (Vista-Capable PCs):

* 800 MHz Intel-compatible processor
* 512MB of RAM
* DirectX 9.0-Capable Graphics Processor
* 20GB HD
Windows Vista recommended system requirements.

Home Basic

1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
512 MB of system memory
20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
Support for Direct X 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory
DVD-ROM drive

Home Premium / Business / Ultimate

1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1 GB of system memory
40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
Support for DirectX 9 graphics with:

* WDDM Driver
* 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)
* Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware
* 32 bits per pixel

DVD-ROM drive.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Disk Defragmentation

When Microsoft Windows XP stores files on your hard disk it does not lay them down in one spot. Instead, it stores parts of your file in different places all over your hard disk. This 'scattering' of the parts of your file is called fragmentation.

Why Is Fragmentation Bad?

Your hard disk reads the information on your disk by moving a 'head' (like a cassette tape head, only smaller) across the disk surface. If the data that the drive head is looking for is in several places (fragmented) on the disk it has to physically move to every location that the data is stored in. This physical motion of the drive actuator arm that holds the head takes time, so the more fragmented your files are, the longer it takes to read them, thereby slowing down your computer!


Defragging Your Disk Does Not 'Fix' Anything

Many new computer users seem to think that defragmenting their hard drive will fix problems. I Don't know why so many people think this, but they are probably confusing Microsoft's Defrag program with Scandisk. Scandisk can check your disk for errors and fix many common problems. Click Here to read more about Microsoft Scandisk. Microsoft's Defrag can help speed-up your PC, but it will not actually fix anything.


How To Run Microsoft Defrag On Your PC??

To defragment your hard drive follow these steps:

* Find the My Computer icon and double click.
* Find the icon for the drive you want defragmented (usually C:) and click it with your right mouse button
* On the small menu that pops up, choose Properties
* On the Properties window that appears, click on the the Tools tab at the top
* On the Tools window, press the Defragment Now button located in the center of the window
* After the Disk Defragmenter Window appears, press the Defragment button
(note that you may also have a Defragment icon in your start menu, under Accessories)


Go Take A Break While Windows Defragments Your Hard Drive

A severly fragmented hard drive can take hours to fully defragment, so plan on doing your defragging when you don't need your PC.

Friday, June 22, 2007

OS Market Shares

Client OS Market Share for May,2007
Windows XP - 82.02%%
Windows 2000 - 4.31%
Mac OS - 3.95%
Windows Vista - 3.74%
MacIntel - 2.51%
Windows 98 - 1.24%
Linux - 0.70%
Windows NT- 0.69%
Windows Me- 0.62%
Other - 0.17%

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Visa Cards

We all use credit cards and debit cards, we find "VISA" on those.
What is this VISA???
Is it an organisation??

In 1958, the Bank of America launched its pioneering BankAmericard credit card program in Fresno, California. The product idea was that of a bank branch manager, who stopped by a local store and observed clerks in a back room preparing customers' monthly bills. It struck him as inefficient to spend so much time (and money) to prepare and collect bills that were often for paltry amounts,and he wondered if the process could be efficiently centralized, with his bank's computer preparing the bills in off-hours.

In 1970, Bank of America gave up control of the BankAmericard program. The various BankAmericard issuer banks took control of the program, creating National BankAmericard Inc. (NBI), an independent non-stock corporation which would be in charge of managing, promoting and developing the BankAmericard system within the United States, although Bank of America continued to issue and support the international licenses themselves. By 1972, licenses had been granted in 15 countries.In 1974, IBANCO, a multinational member corporation, was founded in order to manage the international BankAmericard program.

In 1976, the directors of IBANCO determined that bringing the various international networks together into a single network with a single name internationally would be in the best interests of the corporation; however in many countries, there was still reluctance to issue a card associated with Bank of America, even though the association was entirely nominal in nature. For this reason, in 1977 BankAmericard, Chargex, Barclaycard, Carte Bleue, and all other licensees united under the new name, "Visa", which retained the distinctive blue, white and gold flag. NBI became Visa U.S.A., and IBANCO became Visa International.




Visa offers through its issuing members the following types of cards:
* Debit cards (pay from a checking / savings account)
* Credit cards (pay monthly payments with interest)
* Prepaid cards (pay from a cash account that has no checkwriting privileges)

Features

Even though the service is offered by thousands of banks, the end result is standardized for consumers by the Visa International Association. Two protocols are used, depending upon the type of card marketed, often called "credit" and "debit."

The debit protocol involves using the card at a point of sale terminal (POS) or automated teller machine where the PLUS or Interlink logo is shown, with a Visa card that has the PLUS or Interlink logo on the back of the card. A PIN (personal identification number, known by its acronym) is used to identify the cardholder. The money is deducted from the attached checking account or prepaid account (which is similar with no paper check-writing capability) or, more commonly, from a current account.

Bank of America is pioneer in Credit cards Program...
And Bank of America is a end-to-end client of Infosys Technologies(INDIA).
Thats what infosys is.....

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Speed up Internet Connection

Microsoft reserves 20% of your available bandwidth for their own purposes like Windows Updates and interrogating your PC etc

To get it back:

Click Start then Run and type "gpedit.msc" without quotes.This opens the group policy editor.
Then go to:
Local Computer Policy then Computer Configuration then Administrative Templates then Network then QOS Packet Scheduler and then to Limit Reservable Bandwidth.
Double click on Limit Reservable bandwidth. It will say it is not configured, but the truth is under the 'Explain' tab i.e."By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 20 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default."
So the trick is to ENABLE reservable bandwidth, then set it to ZERO. This will allow the system to reserve

Friday, June 15, 2007

Push2Talk Services

Push-to-talk allows people to communicate using a walkie-talkie function. The user simply selects one or several contacts, presses and holds the talk button, speaks, then releases the talk-button. There is no dialing or waiting for the other parties to pickup.

If the recipient is not immediately available, the message is stored and delivered once the user signs onto fastchat. A fastchat user can also manage several push-to-talk conversations simultaneously.

Simultaneous group conversations
fastchat allows the user to push-to-talk in a 1-to-1 or in a group conversation. The user can participate in several push-to-talk conversations simultaneously without losing any messages.

No special hardware
fastchat uses the phone's native voice capturing and playback mechanisms. Users don't have to purchase any additional hardware.fastchat runs on today's GPRS networks. Operators don't have to purchase any additional GPRS infrastructure hardware. fastmobile can host the service, eliminating all of the operator's capital expenses.


Not limited to voice
fastchat users are never locked into a modality. They don't have to reply to a voice message with another voice message. A reply can be sent in text or picture format - whatever is suitable for the given situation and conversation.
Likewise, a user can reply to a text message using push-2-talk. The user simply selects the message to reply to from the message history, presses and holds the talk key, talks, and releases. The speech is sent back to all the recipients of the original text message.

Have it all fastchat spans networks and geographical boundaries and offers the user another instant communication dimension and a means to work around limited input devices.

Push-2-talk to offline friends
fastchat users can send push-2-talk messages to friends that are offline or simply out of coverage at the time. Messages are saved in the system while the recipient is unavailable; then delivered to the recipient once he or she is available again.

Key features of fastchat

* Allows both group and one-to-one conversations
* Single user interface for seamless integration of services
* Ability to reply to messages in alternative methods (text. voice or pictures)
* Does not require special hardware or infrastructure equipment.
* Works on today's 2.5/3G networks.
* Connects users across different operators and geographical boundaries.
* Users can mix subscribers, non-subscribers and legacy mobile phone users in a single or group conversation.

These services are not yet available in india.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Types of visas

A Visas (Official Visas)-
A-1: For Ambassadors, public ministers & consular officers
A-2: For immediate family members of A-1
A-3: Attendants & servants of A-1 and A-2 holders

B (Business/Visitor) Visa -

B-1 Temporary visitor for business
B-2 Temporary visitor for leisure

C & D Visa (For Aliens in transit) -

C-1,2: Alien in transit directly through US
C-3: Family of C-1,C-2 in transit
C-4: Transit without Visa(TWOV)
D-1: Sailors departing on vessel of arrival
D-2: Sailors departing by other means

E - Visa (For Traders/Investors) -
E-1 Treaty Trader, spouse and children  
E-2 Treaty Investor, spouse and children  

F Visa (Students) -

Want to study or research at a U.S. college? Then F is the visa for you -
F-1: Academic Student
F-2: Spouse or child of F-1

H (Temporary Worker) Visa -
H-1B: Persons in a specialty occupation
H-2B: Seasonal nonagricultural workers
H-3: Trainees other than medical/academic; also training of handicaps
H-4: Dependants of H visa holders

I Visa (Mediapersons) -

Are you a reporter, film person, Editor? Then you require an I-visa -
Essential docs: Your press ID, a letter from the editor.
 
J & Q Exchange Visitor Visa -
J-1 exchange visitors may be academics, scientists, businesspeople or students.
J-1: Visas for exchange visitors
J-2: Spouse or 'child' of J-1 under 21

Fiance(e) of US Citizen -

K-1 Fiance(e)
K-2 Minor child of K-1
K-3 Spouse of a U.S. Citizen (LIFE Act)
K-4 Child of K-3 (LIFE Act)
Docs: Marriage certificate & Photos, Intent of marrying within 90 days in US(for K1).

L Visa (Intracompany Transferees)-

L-1A Executive, managerial
L-1B Specialized knowledge
L-2 Spouse or child of L-1

Vocational and Language Students -

M-1 Vocational student or other non-academic student
M-2 Spouse or child of M-1

O -Visa (For Prodigies) -
O-1: For a Genius in Sciences, Arts, Education, Business, or Athletics.
O-2: Alien's (support) accompanying O-1
O-3: Spouse or child of O-1 or O-2

Athletes and Entertainers-
P-1: Athletes & Entertainment groups
P-2: Entertainers in exchange programs
P-3: Entertainers in cultural programs
P-4: Spouse or child of P-1, 2, or 3

R-Visa (Religious Workers)

R-1 Religious workers
R-2 Spouse or child of R-1

Impact of retail market

Hyderabadi people are experiencing a drastic change in retail market(in telugu chillara vyaparaam).There is a huge competetion in retail market.

Many IT,Telecom,Automobile,Diary gaints are entering retail market.

Some of famous retail markets at present in hyderabad.
1.Reliance Fresh
2.Fresh@ from Heritage Foods of our former C.M.Chandra Babu naidu
3.Magna
4.subhiksha
5.Bharti-walmart(Yet to be introduced)
6.Food Bazaar
7.Trinethra

The very fresh idea of Mukesh Ambani of RELIANCE INDUSTRIES is amazing. He took some thousands acres of land in punjab and other states and instructed farmers in order to yield a good crop.The farmers are given good ideas and to use technology to make better.

This is very good even for farmers as the risk is being moved from farmers to RETAIL MARKETS.

There is a huge comptetion in retail market.
You can observe
INDUTRIAL GAINT RELIANCE INDUSTRIES going for "Reliance Fresh".
Former CM of AP Nara Chandra babu naidu going for "fresh@".
A tie-up between INDIA'S TELECOM GAINT(SUNIL MITTAL LEAD BHARATI AIRTEL) and worlds largest Retail stores WAL-MART.
BIRLA'S are about to enter retail business.
Magna,subhiksha are also giving tough comptetion for other corporate gaints.
You can observe these stores well decorated to lure customers.
And many more customer loyalty programs to bind the customer.

Once you step into these stores you are given a loyality card, when you shop for the second time you are given many more benefits.

And these stores are spread across the city no stuck upto main areas.