XP Tip: Using a blank password

Say you have two accounts on your Windows XP computer: An everyday account, set up as a Limited User, and an account in the Administrators group that you use for system maintenance tasks. Your computer is in a secure location, and you’re the only person with physical access to it. Which of the following options is more secure?

1. You assign a blank password to the administrative account
2. You create a strong password of 15 characters, using a randomly generated string of letters, numbers, and symbols, for the administrative account

Believe it or not, the blank password offers considerably more protection. Because of security enhancements introduced in Windows XP, accounts with a blank password can be used only to log on interactively at the computer by using either the Welcome screen or the Log On To Windows dialog box. You can’t log on to a non-password-protected account over the network using a Remote Desktop connection. Nor can you use the Run As feature to run in the context of an account with a blank password. An attacker who wants to break into your computer won’t be able to get administrative access over the network.

This approach isn’t for everyone – you don’t want to try it on a portable computer, or on one that’s part of a Windows domain, or if you actually need access via Remote Desktop.

But this strategy is a decent alternative for home computer users who don’t want to be bothered with passwords. You can return to the Welcome screen at any time by using the Windows key+L shortcut; from there, you can log on to the administrative account for system maintenance tasks.

Source…

Coffee Geek: Expresso Porn.

Expresso Porn…

S.Korean Man Dies After 50 hours of Computer Games.

It obviously wasn’t FIFA that he was playing.

Link…

Tiesto’s new Website.

Continuing with my “Tiesto high” after this weekend, I visited his site where I was welcomed by the site’s new look, which although impressive, what I found to be even more impressive was viewing Tiesto’s list of upcoming events. It is quite amazing how many countries he travels to and continents he crosses within a period of a month, in order to play his gigs…

11 Aug Amnesia / Radio 1 weekend, Ibiza (Spain)
12 Aug Pacha Barcelona, Barcelona (Spain)
13 Aug Energy Rave, Zürich (Switzerland)
13 Aug Sonne Mond Sterne Festival, Saalburg (Germany)
14 Aug Marktrock Festival , Leuven (Belgium)
15 Aug Eden Arena, Malta (Malta)
More…

How to Make Google Maps for a Site.

Link…

High-Resolution Camera to Survey Mars

A new high-resolution camera is set to depart for the planet Mars Wednesday morning aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The camera, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRise) is the largest camera ever sent out of Earth’s orbit and will deliver the highest resolution images of Mars yet.

The camera utilizes a series of mirrors and lenses that project the image onto a cluster of CCDs rendering images with a resolution up to 20,000 pixels by 40,000 lines, an image so large that it would take 1,200 typical computer screens to fully display. The camera’s high resolution will enable the identification of objects as small as a coffee table while the camera orbits 300 kilometers above the planet’s surface.

Read more at source…

Mounting ISO images in a virtual CD-ROM drive.

Some software vendors, such as Symantec, distribute their software in the form of an ISO Image, which normally means having to copy that image to CD in order to access and run the installation file(s). If you wish to access the ISO image but are not interested in copying to CD yet, then Microsoft has an unsupported “Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel for Windows XP“, that can be used to mount the respective ISO image to a virtual drive, to then be accessed and used exactly as a normal CD-ROM drive. The reason why it’s unsupported is because it contains no setup (only instructions) and the interface is basic, but the software works really well.

How to install and use the software…
Once downloaded from the link above, double click the executable and extract the files to a folder. There are three files:
1. Readme.txt – explaining how to use the software.
2. VCdControlTool.exe – the excutable for the program.
3. VCdRom.sys – the driver.

Open the Readme.txt and follow the simple installation instructions. Once completed, if you open “My Computer,” you should see the virutal CD-ROM drive been shown as a CD-ROM drive. Simple yet useful.

I saw Tiesto Live @ Pacha Ofir.

In the beginning of the summer, DJ Tiesto performed live in Lisbon at the “Ola Love 2 Dance,” concert, which unfortunately I was unable to organize tickets for. This weekend however, for my first time, I saw Tiesto perform live at Pacha Ofir – Portugal, to which I have two words to say…F**king Amazing.

Pacha Ofir has various dance floors and although it is one of the best clubs I have been to, the poor lighting effects on the dance floor where Tiesto performed, was in my opinion (I am not a lighting expert), way below the required standards for such a DJ.
All the same though, this did not stop him from living up to his title of World Best DJ for three consecutive years in a row, but did make me believe that seeing Tiesto perform live in concert, as can be seen in his DVD – Tiesto in Concert 2004, must be one of the best experiences for any Trance lover.

Although they are not very good quality, I was able to take pics…
To view more professionally taken pics click here…

What Goes Wrong When you Add "Copy To" to the Context Menu.

Although I am a big fan of the add “Copy To” and/or “Move To” options to the explorer context menu tweak, it does sometimes not behave as expected. Recently I found this post explaining the reason behind why the tweak sometimes does this.

Read…

XP Tip: Keep a clean desktop

Most people find it convenient to dump icons on the Windows desktop for easier access. However this can cause your desktop to get messy when loads of icons are involved. For steps on how to keep your desktop clean and tidy so that you can view your favourite background then click on the link…