• Skip to main content

iCosmoGeek

Just everything in the Cosmos!

Best Of

How To Wake Your PC From Sleep Automatically

May 22, 2013 by Avinash Leave a Comment

Have you ever wondered whether you can wake up your PC automatically without actually pressing the power button? This can be useful in scenarios where you want to perform heavy downloads in off-peak hours or other similar actions before you wake up in the morning, without running your computer all the night!

Sleep PC

[Credit]

Follow these step by step procedure to wake your PC from sleep automatically:

Step 1: Open Task Scheduler by searching for it in Start Menu

Step 2: In the Task Scheduler window, click Create Task

1

Step 3: Name the task as shown below or any other desired name. I prefer to select other options to run this task whether the user is logged in or not and run with higher privileges.

2

Step 4: Click the Triggers tab and create a new trigger. Set options at your own desired schedule as below:

3

Step 5: Click the Conditions tab, and check ‘Wake the computer to run this task’.

4

Step 6: A scheduled task cannot run without at least one task. You could have any simple task like opening a notepad or any file-downloading program or torrent program. In this example, I am running a command prompt with the exit arguments so that it will open and immediately close it – doing nothing. To do this, type cmd.exe in Program/script and /c “exit” arguments as shown below:

5

Finally, save your task and close it. 

If you want to disable this whole thing, just delete the above created task by right clicking on it, of course from Task Scheduler.

From next time, your PC will wake up automatically at your desired time. Now, this procedure will work only if you put your computer in sleep mode. That is , the computer won’t wake up if it’s shut down completely. You can also change power options from Control Panel to have PC automatically sleep after it hasn’t been used for a while or when you press specific buttons.

The following are some of the screenshots to put your computer sleep instead of normal shutdown.

6

7

Wake On LAN is another method you can use to wake computers, but it works only over the network.

Filed Under: Best Of, How To

Looks like, I’m going with T-Mobile. $600 less than AT&T, $1000 less than Sprint.

March 27, 2013 by Avinash 2 Comments

As expected, T-Mobile finally lands the iPhone. That’s six years after Apple announced first game changing device. The company will start offering iPhone with LTE support starting from April 12, 2013. Now that iPhone (especially iPhone 5) is available on all major US carriers, which carrier offers the best deal? After careful breakdown, looks like, I’m going with T-Mobile down the lane after my contract ends with AT&T. T-Mobile is the clear winner on price — with a 16GB iPhone 5 and two years of service costing nearly $600 less than AT&T and Verizon and nearly $1000 less than Sprint.

Check out the comparison below.

T-mobile-iphone

Unlike AT&T, Verizon and Sprint – or most of the world’s carriers for that matter – T-Mobile will sell Apple’s device contract-free, tapping its previously mulled monthly installments in another uncharacteristic industry practice.

“We’re canceling our membership to the Wireless Carrier Club,” CEO John Legere made jokes at the presser.

Specifically, per T-Mobile’s press release, you’ll be paying $99.99 upfront to get an entry-level 16GB iPhone 5, without a two-year service contract. The rest of the device’s unsubsidized price will be recovered through installment plans requiring you to drop an additional $20 over the next 24 months.

Mashable did a quick comparison for an iPhone 5 on Sprint, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.


Sprint Simply Everything
AT&T
AT&T Mobile Share Plan
Verizon
Verizon Share Everything
T-Mobile
T-Mobile Simple Choice Unlimited
iPhone 5 price (16GB) $199 $199 $199 $99 down, $20 a month for 24 months
Monthly Bill $109.99 $110 $110 $70
Voice Minutes Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Text Messages Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Data Unlimited 4GB 4GB Unlimited (data may be slowed down after 5GB a month)
Mobile Hotspot $19.99 a month for 2GB Included Included 500MB included, additional hotspot data available at an additional charge.
Early Termination Fee Up to $350 Up to $325 Up to $350 None for new customers
Contract Length 2 Years 2 Years 2 Years No contract
Total Cost of Ownership Over Two Years: $3320, including mobile hotspot $2840 $2840 $2260

 

From the above chart, T-Mobile is the clear winner on price — with a 16GB iPhone 5 and two years of service costing nearly $600 less than AT&T and Verizon and nearly $1000 less than Sprint.

Under the new sales model, the entry-level iPhone 4S is also now available from T-Mobile for an upfront fee of $70, plus $20 per month for 24 months for a total hardware cost of $550. Likewise, the iPhone 4 will set you back just $15 in upfront payment at the time of purchase, with a $15 monthly payment for the next 24 months, resulting in a total hardware cost of $375.

Also, every T-Mobile device (the iPhone included) remain locked to the carrier’s network until it’s fully paid for through monthly installments, at which point T-Mobile will unlock it so you can take it to another carrier, if you like. T-Mobile will start accepting pre-orders for the iPhone 5 on April 5 through its web site.

What do you think? Has T-Mobile successfully re-innovated itself as a carrier? Will this strange move change the US carrier industry?

Filed Under: Apple, Best Of

How To Reset Domain Admin Password on Windows Server 2008 R2

January 22, 2013 by Avinash 1 Comment

One of my friends recently contacted me to help reset domain admin password on Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controller that I helped him set up a year back. There are many tools in the market which help resetting administrator password. In fact, most of them help in resetting local administrator password, but not domain administrator password.

Here is an easy way to reset your Domain Administrator password. All you need is a copy of the Windows Server 2008 R2 installation disk and one simple command line trick.

Reset Domain Admin

Steps:

1. Boot up the server using Windows Server 2008 R2 installation disk and select ‘Repair your computer’ as shown below

Reset Domain Admin

2. Proceed to the next step and select ‘Command Prompt’ option

Reset Domain Admin

3. In the command prompt, backup utilman.exe file using following command. You may have to change your drive letter to Windows directory accordingly

MOVE C:\Windows\System32\Utilman.exe C:\Windows\System32\Utilman.exe.bak

Reset Domain Admin

4. Make a copy of cmd.exe and rename it to Utilman.exe using following command

COPY D:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe D:\Windows\System32\Utilman.exe

Reset Domain Admin

5. Restart the server normally and press the key with the Windows logo and the “U” key at the same time at the login screen. This will bring up the command line window. Alternatively, you can click the Ease of access icon as shown below

Rest Domain Admin

6. A command prompt will open up and type the following command to change the password:

net user administrator *

Reset Domain Admin

7. That’s it! Exit out the command prompt and try logging again with new changed password. Finally, reboot the server again to the installation disk and undo the changes. That is, delete Utilman.exe and then rename Utilman.exe.bak back to plain old Utilman.exe using simple del and ren commands.

I have tried above mentioned steps on a Windows Server 2008 R2 and I am sure these steps will also work on Windows Server 2008. It goes without saying that you should make a backup of your system before doing any of this, and more importantly, I bear absolutely no responsibility if you mess up your system. Remember, we are not trying to access a box we have no business accessing in the first place – take the hint or risk going to jail or ready to get laid off!

Filed Under: Best Of, How To, Microsoft

Nokia Faked Its New Lumia 920 PureView Ad

September 5, 2012 by Avinash 2 Comments

Earlier today, Nokia announced Lumia 920, which comes with PureView, the same technology which received a decent response for 41 MP Nokia 808  device. During its press event, Nokia gave a look at the new PureView’s main feature: optical image stabilization (OIS). The idea behind this new feature is that it stabilizes the video you’re recording, giving you a more professional look instead of the amateur shaky-cam effect. To demonstrate this technology, Nokia played an impressive ad which show cases a side by side comparison of the video shot without OIS and with OIS. Obviously, the video shot without OIS doesn’t look very good, whereas the video shot with OIS activated looks excellent. Strangely, Nokia faked this PureView ad!

Its been revealed that the ad was not shot using the Lumia 920 and Nokia admitted in an official blog post.

According to Nokia, initial PureView model was focused on the problem of digital zoom and perfect details. Phase two of development focuses on low light performance, and adds more practical features that will allow more camera phone users to take better pictures. Watch the original ad below to feel the technology:

 

Here is how Nokia faked its ad.

If you go to 0.27 part of the video, we see the reflection of a white van keeping pace with the girl in one of the trailer’s windows. Here is the screenshot below to see for yourself:

 

Also, if you go to 0:48 of the video, you can clearly see the DSLR shadow which is hooked up to the swing.

The Verge discovered first that this ad was all fake and was not shot using the Lumia 920. It says –

As you can see in the video and photo above, there’s a curious reflection in the window of the trailer in the background. It’s not a young man riding his bicycle alongside the cheerful model, but instead a big white van with a lighting rig and a cameraman standing in the doorway — with what appears to be a large camera rig. Whatever he’s holding, we can reasonably agree it’s not a Lumia 920.

Later, Nokia admitted that the video was not shot using the Lumia 920 in its blog by posting a note at the end of the post:

The Lumia 920 pictures in this post were taken using prototype hardware and software, and then reduced dramatically in size. In addition, the OIS video, above, was not shot using the Lumia 920. 

The point is average Jo would think that it was shot on the Lumia. Whatever it may be, and despite the mistake happened, Nokia’s PureView technology may does what the company is claiming so far, may be up to some extent if not all shown in the deceptive demonstrations.  What’s your take on this whole thing?

Bonus: Animated gif of the busted clip!

Update 2: Nokia has come around and apologized formally for the above hand trick saying it should have put a disclaimer in the video. In addition, they released a new video showing the magic of PureView with an actual Lumia 920 device. The difference is clear. Happy now?

Filed Under: Best Of

Shame on Siri – Google Brings Enhanced Voice Search To iPhones And iPads

August 8, 2012 by Avinash Leave a Comment

In an official blog post, Google announced today that it’s adding its enhanced voice powered search to its ‘Search App’ for the iPhone and iPad. This update will include enhanced voice functionality which is similar to Google Now feature that’s already available for Jelly Bean users. This feature proved to give some prominent results in Android devices and  now Google is bringing this feature to iPhones and iPads to kill Siri.

[Credit]

Google Now is more similar to Siri but with more enhanced features and much better. The results are found to be more accurate and better in Google Now compared to Siri as it uses Google results when there is no information available for your search queries, unlike Siri’s dependency on Wolfram Alpha and few other third party services.

Within the next couple of days, Google will roll out an update that lets you search mapping info, songs, information about people and places, as well as perform mathematical calculations.

According to the post,

Often the most natural way to ask a question is by asking aloud. So we’ve combined our speech recognition expertise, understanding of language and the Knowledge Graph so that Voice Search can better interpret your questions and sometimes speak the answers back as full sentences. This has been available on Android for a few weeks and people love it. It’ll soon be available on your iPhone or iPad (iOS version 4.2+).

When Google announced this feature for Android in the past, tech enthusiasts already compared these two virtual assistants and found that Google has done good job with this new search. Here is a sample comparison example Techno Buffalo has done in the past –

 

 

As you can see in the video, Google’s voice assistant has done good job on Android and now we’ll have to wait and see how well it performs on iPhones and iPads.  When Google brings its stellar voice search to Apple’s devices in a few days, it’s going to make Siri look like the dumpy beta product Apple claims it is. Shame on Siri?

Additionally, its already confirmed that there will be no stock YouTube and Google Maps apps from iOS 6 and this clearly shows the tech giants’ hatred. These moves Apple and Google make can be seen as direct outcomes of the bad blood Steve Jobs of when he spoke about Android. Go giants!

Take a look of the upcoming update below:

Are you excited about the possibilities this coming update will enable on your iOS devices?

Filed Under: Apple, Best Of, Google

Bill Gates On India, China, Philanthropy, Technology and More

August 5, 2012 by Avinash Leave a Comment

In this recent interview for Bloomberg’s Charlie Rose, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates talks quite a bit about India, China relative to technology, Philanthropy, Technology industry, how US Politics slow down innovation and much more.

Its worth to spend around one hour of your time watching this video which was aired in the first week of July on Bloomberg’s network.

The interview starts with an intro of Bill Gates on his latest visit to India, what differs India from China relative to technology and his opinion of where each excels, etc. I have listed out some interesting from the video below:

  1. The first half is more about Foundation, India and China.
  2. He thinks China is far ahead than India relative to technology.
  3. There are two big jealousies in India – India is jealous of China and India is jealous among states inside.
  4. Both the countries benefited a lot from West, especially the US.
  5. Corruption is more in India, can overcome if we implement digital currency everywhere.
  6. Aziz Premji is doing great as a Philanthropist. India require more people like him.
  7. Steve Jobs did better than he did when he introduced iPad. Microsoft did not follow Apple model of software/hardware integration when they introduced tablet PC before iPad.
  8. Microsoft has something with the new Surface that could change the rules again with a single entity of PC and tablet worlds.
  9. Apple may have to make Surface like device in future.
  10. Politics slow down innovation.

Here is a clipping from the interview and head over to the official Bloomberg network link for full video.

 

Filed Under: Best Of, Microsoft

10 Things To Know About Ex-Googler, New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer

July 17, 2012 by Avinash Leave a Comment

Yesterday, Google’s first female engineer, Marissa Mayer, resigned. After spending 13 years at Google, she begins her career as Yahoo’s new CEO at the age of 37.

She is ‘product focused’ and focused on the ‘user experience’. She is good at mentoring talent. At Google, she was responsible for Google’s popular products: the simple white search homepage, Gmail, Google News, and Google Images.

[Credit]

Not familiar with this newly appointmented CEO? Here are some of the interesting things to know about Marissa with some inputs from GeekSugar:

  1.  She was accepted into every college she applied to (about 10 schools). She ultimately chose Stanford.
  2. When she graduated from Stanford, she received 14 job offers. She joined Google in June 1999 as a software engineer.
  3. Marissa originally wanted to become a pediatric neurosurgeon.
  4. She wasn’t a computer geek until college and when she bought her first computer.
  5. During her career at Google, she has been an engineer, designer, product manager, and executive and launched more than 100 features and products.
  6. Recently, she was Google’s Vice President, Local, Maps & Location Services.
  7. In addition to her work for Google, Mayer also serves on Wal-Mart’s board of directors.
  8. Her advice on being a woman in a male-dominated tech industry: “Work with the smartest people you can find, do something you’re not ready to do, find an environment in which you’re very comfortable so you can find your voice, and work for someone who believes in you — because when they believe in you, they’ll invest in you.”
  9. She married real estate investment manager Zack Bogue in 2009.
  10. Bonus – Marissa and her husband Zach are expecting their first child in this October and she just tweeted after her new CEO appointment news. Congratulations!

Here is one of the interesting videos of Marissa at LeWeb 2011 as VP of product management describing Google+ –

Filed Under: Best Of, Google

How To Set Chrome Browser As Default On iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch [Jailbreak & Non-Jailbreak Tweaks]

June 29, 2012 by Avinash 11 Comments

Yesterday, Google released ‘Chrome for iOS’ and its already in Apple’s top charts downloads. This browser brings all of the awesome features especially the user interface, Google account sync, Incognito mode, etc. Clearly, its much better browser than iOS’s default Safari browser. Unfortunately, there is no option to set Chrome as default in your iOS device. This means by clicking any link will launch Safari by default and there is no such option to change. But, there is already a tweak which allows you to set Google Chrome as default browser on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

This tweak is little bit easy if you have a jailbroken device.

If your device is already Jailbroken – 

  1. Open Cydia and add navigate to Manage > Sources
  2. Click ‘Edit’ and ‘Add’ new source URL – rpetri.ch/repo
  3. Once the repo is added, search for ‘BrowserChooser’ and install (its free!)
  4. Once installed, go to Settings > BrowserChooser  and select ‘Chrome’
  5. That’t it! The tweak works pretty much as advertised by its developer Ryan Petrich on his twitter account status.
  6. Now any link opened from Messages, Mail, and third party apps will directly open in Chrome browser.

 

If your device is not Jailbroken – 

For the devices which are not jailbroken, that means if your device has a stock OS, then here is a trick developed by Jon Abram that comes in the form of a bookmarklet you can stick in Safari’s address bar and tap anytime you want to open the URL in Chrome.

  1. Open this page (yes this page you are currently reading!) in your iOS device, obviously in Safari
  2. Copy the following code
  3. javascript:location.href="googlechrome"+location.href.substring(4);
  4. Add the current page to your bookmarks by clicking arrow and ‘Add Bookmark’ in Safari
  5. Name the bookmark something like ‘Open in Chrome’ and click Save
  6. Now, go to your bookmarks by clicking the little book in the Safari browser. Click Edit and edit ‘Open in Chrome’ which is set in the previous step
  7. Delete the URL that’s there in it (obviously, it should be the URL that was added in Step 1) and paste the copied code (from Step 2) 
  8. That’s it! Now, every time when Safari your desired URL by default, just click the bookmarklet ‘Open in Chrome’ which will launch the URL in Chrome directly. Its not the exact workaround, but this tweak eliminates the pain to copy manually the desired URL every time and paste in Chrome multitasking fashion.

Let’s hope Apple will allow to change the defaults which may not happen in near future. Do you plan on setting Chrome as your default browser? Try out above steps and let me know if you face any issues.

By the way, you can download Google Chrome for iOS here.

Filed Under: Apple, Best Of, Google, How To

What You Need To Know About IPV6 Launch Day. Father of the Internet Discusses Why We Need It [Video]

June 5, 2012 by Avinash Leave a Comment

On June 6, 2012, the world will change and its forever. Major Internet service providers (ISPs), home networking equipment manufacturers, and web companies around the world are coming together to permanently enable IPv6 for their products and services by tomorrow on World IPV6 launch day.

To remind about this launch, Google posted a video of Vint Cerf who is called Father of the Internet and also a Chief Internet Evangelist at Google where he discusses the next version of IPV6 and why we need it.

Before we step into why we are doing this – let us discuss some basics on what you need to know:

What are IPV4 and IPV6?

IPv4 is the current version of the Internet Protocol, the identification system the Internet uses to send information between devices. This system assigns a series of four numbers (each ranging from 0 to 255) to each device. IPv4 only allows for about 4 billion addresses and the Internet needs more room than that. IPv6 is the new version of the Internet Protocol and expands the number of available addresses to a virtually limitless amount–340 trillion trillion trillion addresses.

What is an IP address?

Just like a phone number helps you communicate with another phone, an IP address (short for Internet Protocol address) is provided to your computer so it can communicate with websites, Internet services, and other devices. IP addresses are numbers that are displayed as strings of letters or numbers, such as 192.0.2.1 (for IPv4) and 2001:db8::1234:ace:6006:1e (for IPv6).

Was there ever an IPV5?

Version 5 was reserved for the Internet Stream Protocol developed prior to IPv6–it was never widely deployed and will not be used publicly.

What is World IPV6 Launch?

World IPv6 Launch on June 6, 2012, organized by the Internet Society, is the day participating major websites and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) permanently enable IPv6 and begin the transition from IPv4.

Now, if we dig into more deeper details –

Why is this transition happening as part of World IPV6 Launch?

The problem is that the current Internet addressing system, IPv4, only has room for about 4 billion addresses — not nearly enough for the world’s people, let alone the devices that are online today and those that will be in the future: computers, phones, TVs, watches, fridges, cars, and so on. More than 4 billion devices already share addresses.

Who all are participating in this transition other than Google?

Akamai, Comcast, Free Telecom, KDDI, Time Warner Cable, ATT, D-Link, Limelight, XS4ALL, Cisco, Facebook, Internode, Microsoft Bing, Yahoo! and many more. For the complete list, head over to this link.

How do I verify if I am on IPV6 or not?

Google created a test page to verify this. Visit ipv6test.google.com to find out. Many devices you use already support IPv6; however, the websites you visit and your Internet Service Provider must first enable IPv6 before you can use it.

What if I experience any connectivity issues during or after this transition?

Google claims that over 99.9% of users will not have any problems going to IPV6. However, if you face any connectivity delay or latency issues which may have occurred by misconfiguration or misbehaving of your home routers, operating systems, etc.

To resolve common problems –

  • Upgrade to the latest version of the browser which you are currently using.
  • If you are using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, Microsoft posted a tutorial to disable IPV6 in this knowledge base article. Alternatively, this automatic fix download from Microsoft will allow you to prefer IPV4 over IPV6.
  • If nothing works, it could be a problem from your Internet Service Provider, contact them to resolve the issue.

Do let us know in the comments section about any other interesting information on this transition. Here is what the father of the Internet, Vint Cerf’s discussion about it –

 

[Image] [Content 1, 2]

Filed Under: Best Of, Google, Microsoft

Google Brings Epic Ramayana In An Awesome Interactive Chrome Experiment

June 1, 2012 by Avinash Leave a Comment

Google Indonesia has created an awesome and pretty sweet Chrome experiment that tells the story of Ramayana in an interactive visualization in a digital way. The story is the same classic Sanskrit epic but the characters Ram, Sita, Ravan and Hanuman use modern Google tools like Google Talk, Maps, G+, Docs, Weather, Gmail, Product search and other Google tools in this showcase. As the story goes on, Jatayu even writes a blog!

Chrome Experiments is a showcase for creative web experiments, the vast majority of which are built with the latest open technologies, including HTML5, Canvas, SVG, and WebGL. All of them were made and submitted by talented artists and programmers from around the world.

 

The visuals are gorgeous enough with a splendid music playing throughout the episodes. The experiment obviously works smooth in Google Chrome (you can give it a try in Firefox and IE, but I am sure you will not experience the full smoothness). When you launch the website, you might be surprised to find new Chrome windows use Google products and it is not just an usual animation with a running story. You will have to interact with the browser to move along. For example, in the above screenshot, I had to move my mouse along the browser scroll bar to lift ‘Shivadhanush’ in ‘Swayamvaram’ episode.

I have captured few screenshots, but head to Ramaya.na to try out yourself and enjoy this creativity. The script is written in Bahasa Indonesia but if you are slightly familiar with the original Ramayana, you’ll get through easily. This is not yet available in English or other International languages.

 

 

Filed Under: Best Of, Google

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 10
  • Go to Next Page »
    

Return to top of page

    

Copyright © 2022 ·Genesis Framework on WordPress at HostGator·

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×