All about Registry

Registry
What is the Registry?
The Registry is a database used to store settings and options for the 32 bit versions of Microsoft Windows including Windows 95, 98, ME and NT/2000. It contains information and settings for all the hardware, software, users, and preferences of the PC. Whenever a user makes changes to a Control Panel settings, or File Associations, System Policies, or installed software, the changes are reflected and stored in the Registry.
The physical files that make up the registry are stored differently depending on your version of Windows; under Windows 95 & 98 it is contained in two hidden files in your Windows directory, called USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT, for Windows Me there is an additional CLASSES.DAT file, while under Windows NT/2000 the files are contained seperately in the %SystemRoot%\System32\Config directory. You can not edit these files directly, you must use a tool commonly known as a "Registry Editor" to make any changes (using registry editors will be discussed later in the article).

The Structure of the Registry

The Registry has a hierarchal structure, although it looks complicated the structure is similar to the directory structure on your hard disk, with Regedit being similar to Windows Explorer.
[font_body]Each main branch (denoted by a folder icon in the Registry Editor, see left) is called a Hive, and Hives contains Keys. Each key can contain other keys (sometimes referred to as sub-keys), as well as Values. The values contain the actual information stored in the Registry. There are three types of values; String, Binary, and DWORD - the use of these depends upon the context.
There are six main branches, each containing a specific portion of the information stored in the Registry. They are as follows:
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT - This branch contains all of your file association mappings to support the drag-and-drop feature, OLE information, Windows shortcuts, and core aspects of the Windows user interface.
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER - This branch links to the section of HKEY_USERS appropriate for the user currently logged onto the PC and contains information such as logon names, desktop settings, and Start menu settings.
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - This branch contains computer specific information about the type of hardware, software, and other preferences on a given PC, this information is used for all users who log onto this computer.
• HKEY_USERS - This branch contains individual preferences for each user of the computer, each user is represented by a SID sub-key located under the main branch.
• HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG - This branch links to the section of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE appropriate for the current hardware configuration.
• HKEY_DYN_DATA - This branch points to the part of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, for use with the Plug-&-Play features of Windows, this section is dymanic and will change as devices are added and removed from the system
Each registry value is stored as one of five main data types:
• REG_BINARY - This type stores the value as raw binary data. Most hardware component information is stored as binary data, and can be displayed in an editor in hexadecimal format.
• REG_DWORD - This type represents the data by a four byte number and is commonly used for boolean values, such as "0" is disabled and "1" is enabled. Additionally many parameters for device driver and services are this type, and can be displayed in REGEDT32 in binary, hexadecimal and decimal format, or in REGEDIT in hexadecimal and decimal format.
• REG_EXPAND_SZ - This type is an expandable data string that is string containing a variable to be replaced when called by an application. For example, for the following value, the string "%SystemRoot%" will replaced by the actual location of the directory containing the Windows NT system files. (This type is only available using an advanced registry editor such as REGEDT32)
• REG_MULTI_SZ - This type is a multiple string used to represent values that contain lists or multiple values, each entry is separated by a NULL character. (This type is only available using an advanced registry editor such as REGEDT32)
• REG_SZ - This type is a standard string, used to represent human readable text values.
Other data types not available through the standard registry editors include:
• REG_DWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN - A 32-bit number in little-endian format.
• REG_DWORD_BIG_ENDIAN - A 32-bit number in big-endian format.
• REG_LINK - A Unicode symbolic link. Used internally; applications should not use this type.
• REG_NONE - No defined value type.
• REG_QWORD - A 64-bit number.
• REG_QWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN - A 64-bit number in little-endian format.
• REG_RESOURCE_LIST - A device-driver resource list.

Editing the Registry

• The Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE) is included with most version of Windows (although you won't find it on the Start Menu) it enables you to view, search and edit the data within the Registry. There are several methods for starting the Registry Editor, the simplest is to click on the Start button, then select Run, and in the Open box type "regedit", and if the Registry Editor is installed it should now open and look like the image below. • An alternative Registry Editor (REGEDT32.EXE) is available for use with Windows NT/2000, it includes some additional features not found in the standard version, including; the ability to view and modify security permissions, and being able to create and modify the extended string values REG_EXPAND_SZ & REG_MULTI_SZ.
• Create a Shortcut to Regedit
This can be done by simply right-clicking on a blank area of your desktop, selecting New, then Shortcut, then in the Command line box enter "regedit.exe" and click Next, enter a friendly name (e.g. 'Registry Editor') then click Finish and now you can double click on the new icon to launch the Registry Editor.
• Using Regedit to modify your Registry
Once you have started the Regedit you will notice that on the left side there is a tree with folders, and on the right the contents (values) of the currently selected folder.
• Like Windows explorer, to expand a certain branch (see the structure of the registry section), click on the plus sign [+] to the left of any folder, or just double-click on the folder. To display the contents of a key (folder), just click the desired key, and look at the values listed on the right side. You can add a new key or value by selecting New from the Edit menu, or by right-clicking your mouse. And you can rename any value and almost any key with the same method used to rename files; right-click on an object and click rename, or click on it twice (slowly), or just press F2 on the keyboard. Lastly, you can delete a key or value by clicking on it, and pressing Delete on the keyboard, or by right-click

• Importing and Exporting Registry Settings

• A great feature of the Registry Editor is it's ability to import and export registry settings to a text file, this text file, identified by the .REG extension, can then be saved or shared with other people to easily modify local registry settings. You can see the layout of these text files by simply exporting a key to a file and opening it in Notepad, to do this using the Registry Editor select a key, then from the "Registry" menu choose "Export Registry File...", choose a filename and save. If you open this file in notepad you will see a file similar to the example below:
• REGEDIT4
•
• [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup]
• "SetupType"=dword:00000000
• "CmdLine"="setup -newsetup"
• "SystemPrefix"=hex:c5,0b,00,00,00,40,36,02
• The layout is quite simple, REGEDIT4 indicated the file type and version, [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup] indicated the key the values are from, "SetupType"=dword:00000000 are the values themselves the portion after the "=" will vary depending on the type of value they are; DWORD, String or Binary.
• So by simply editing this file to make the changes you want, it can then be easily distributed and all that need to be done is to double-click, or choose "Import" from the Registry menu, for the settings to be added to the system Registry.
• Deleting keys or values using a REG file
It is also possible to delete keys and values using REG files. To delete a key start by using the same format as the the REG file above, but place a "-" symbol in front of the key name you want to delete. For example to delete the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup] key the reg file would look like this:
• REGEDIT4
• [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup]
• The format used to delete individual values is similar, but instead of a minus sign in front of the whole key, place it after the equal sign of the value. For example, to delete the value "SetupType" the file would look like:
• REGEDIT4
•
• [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup]
• "SetupType"=-
• Use this feature with care, as deleting the wrong key or value could cause major problems within the registry, so remember to always make a backup first.
• Regedit Command Line Options
Regedit has a number of command line options to help automate it's use in either batch files or from the command prompt. Listed below are some of the options, please note the some of the functions are operating system specific.
regedit.exe [options] [filename] [regpath]
[filename] Import .reg file into the registry
/s [filename] Silent import, i.e. hide confirmation box when importing files
/e [filename] [regpath] Export the registry to [filename] starting at [regpath]
e.g. regedit /e file.reg HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT
/L:system Specify the location of the system.dat to use
/R:user Specify the location of the user.dat to use
/C [filename] Compress (Windows 98)
/D [regpath] Delete the specified key (Windows 98)

Maintaining the Registry

How can you backup and restore the Registry?
Windows 95
Microsoft included a utility on the Windows 95 CD-ROM that lets you create backups of the Registry on your computer. The Microsoft Configuration Backup program, CFGBACK.EXE, can be found in the \Other\Misc\Cfgback directory on the Windows 95 CD-ROM. This utility lets you create up to nine different backup copies of the Registry, which it stores, with the extension RBK, in your \Windows directory. If your system is set up for multiple users, CFGBACK.EXE won't back up the USER.DAT file.
After you have backed up your Registry, you can copy the RBK file onto a floppy disk for safekeeping. However, to restore from a backup, the RBK file must reside in the \Windows directory. Windows 95 stores the backups in compressed form, which you can then restore only by using the CFGBACK.EXE utility.
Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 98 automatically creates a backup copy of the registry every time Windows starts, in addition to this you can manually create a backup using the Registry Checker utility by running SCANREGW.EXE from Start | Run menu.
What to do if you get a Corrupted Registry
Windows 95, 98 and NT all have a simple registry backup mechanism that is quite reliable, although you should never simply rely on it, remember to always make a backup first!
Windows 95
In the Windows directory there are several hidden files, four of these will be SYSTEM.DAT & USER.DAT, your current registry, and SYSTEM.DA0 & USER.DA0, a backup of your registry. Windows 9x has a nice reature in that every time it appears to start successfully it will copy the registry over these backup files, so just in case something goes wrong can can restore it to a known good state. To restore the registry follow these instruction:
1. Click the Start button, and then click Shut Down.
2. Click Restart The Computer In MS-DOS Mode, then click Yes.
3. Change to your Windows directory. For example, if your Windows directory is c:\windows, you would type the following:
cd c:\windows

How can I clean out old data from the Registry?

Although it's possible to manually go through the Registry and delete unwanted entries, Microsoft provides a tool to automate the process, the program is called RegClean. RegClean analyzes Windows Registry keys stored in a common location in the Windows Registry. It finds keys that contain erroneous values, it removes them from the Windows Registry after having recording those entries in the Undo.Reg file.

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News: London starts digital cash trial

The trial turns a mobile phone into a travel ticket and a wallet

London commuters are getting the chance to swap the cash in their pocket for a digital wallet.

500 travellers have been issued with Nokia phones which swap digital cash via the technology used for the capital's Oyster travel card.

The phones will double as a travel pass and wallet that can be used to make small value payments.

Swiping the phone against special posters will give participants access to information or local maps.

The trial uses the same Near Field Communications system behind the Oyster card.

Spending power

The phones will be loaded with £200 for the users to spend during the six-month trial.

Using that cash on the transport system will be simple enough, but the triallists may struggle to find shops where they can make small payments.

The contactless payment terminals are only installed in around 1,000 shops and cafes - mainly in the City of London and at Canary Wharf. Customers can use the phones or cards to make payments of up to £10.

Cath Keers, O2 UK's customer director, said the "mobile wallet" was an idea whose time had come, because mobile phones were already seen as many people's most vital possession.

"Research shows more people are likely to go back home and get their phone if they leave it behind, rather than return for their wallet," she said.

The Oyster card is widely used on London's transport system

O2 is working with Barclaycard, Visa and Transport for London on the trial, with all the partners keen to learn whether customers are really interested in making payments by phone - many are likely to be worried about security.

The triallists have been given a single helpline to ring if they lose their "mobile wallets" and have been told that Barclaycard will meet the cost of any payments made on a stolen phone.

Digital money is an idea which has been a long time coming to fruition. In the 1990s the Mondex electronic cash system was tried out in Swindon but failed to win sufficient interest or trust from customers or retailers.

But mobile payment services are in use in Japan and South Korea where they have proved popular.

O2 believes British customers are now willing to embrace the idea - but they will only get the chance if the trial proves successful. A full scale launch of the mobile wallet service may come in late 2008.

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News: Yahoo to put adverts in PDF files

Adobe is one of the world's leading PDF software producers

Yahoo has reached a deal to start running advertisements in Adobe's popular PDF document-reading format.

The service will allow publishers to make money by including adverts linked to the content of a PDF document in a panel at the side of the page.

It is Yahoo's latest way of expanding the places it can advertise online following deals with the auction site Ebay and the cable TV group Comcast.

The advertisements will not appear if the PDF document is printed.

It is the first time that Adobe has allowed dynamic adverts into its PDF (Portable Document Format) files.

Dynamic adverts can be changed for particular audiences or rotated to make sure that a particular user never sees the same advertisement twice.

PDF files can be created by a range of software and can then be read by people who have a PDF reader, such as Adobe's Reader.

The PDF format has proved popular with both companies and home users, and has been used to produce large reports and shorter newsletters, as well as preparing documents for printers.

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What is Grease Monkey & GM Scripts

Grease Monkey is a Plugin for FireFox Browser. Its Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript...

Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.

Hundreds of scripts, for a wide variety of popular sites, are already available at http://userscripts.org.

Before to Install Grease Monkey you Need to install FireFox so...

Install
Latest Forefox from Here....

then

Install
Grease Monkey from Here....


Now What is GM Script..??

GMScript is Short of Grease Monkey Scripts a bunch of Javascrits witch make change in yout HTML and Browsers..(-:

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In Side Google Office/ Google's Intranet

What do around 16,000 Google employees stare at in the morning when they’ve arrived at the office? They might be looking at Moma, the name for the Google intranet. The meaning of the name of “Moma” is a mystery even to some of the employees working on it, we heard, but Moma’s mission is prominently displayed on its footer: “Organize Google’s information and make it accessible and useful to Googlers.” A “Googler,” as you may know, is what Google employees call themselves (they have other nicknames for specific roles; a noogler is a new Google employee, a gaygler is a gay one, a xoogler is an ex-one, and so on).

A Google employee in Hamburg (photo taken in mid-2007)

Moma “was designed by and for engineers and for the first couple of years, its home page was devoid of any aesthetic enhancements that didn’t serve to provide information essential to the operation of Google. It was dense and messy and full of numbers that were hard to parse for the uninitiated, but high in nutritional value for the data hungry.

Here’s a picture of the Moma homepage that we got hold of – please note that large areas have been grayed out or whitened out:

On the top of the Google intranet homepage, you’ll find the logo reading “Moma - Inside Google.” Next to it is a search box allowing you to find information from Moma in general, information on specific Google employees, information on availability of meeting rooms, building maps and more. You can choose to include secure content or not via a checkbox. Another checkbox offers you to use “Moma NEXT" for a more experimental variant of search results.

To the top right, there’s an option to switch to iMoma, an iGoogle-style tool prepared by the company which allows further customization of the intranet start page. This way, employees may be able to select their own news and service widgets of interest to be displayed when they log-in.

The actual content of the homepage in the picture is split up into 4 columns. To the left, there’s a “My Office” section, with information for employees and a way to choose your own office for more relevant links. It’s followed by the sections “Survival Kit” and “My shortcuts.” In the middle columns, news gadgets are headlined “Welcome to Google!,” “Communications,” “HR” (human resources), “Company Info” and “Internal Google news,” all in common soft shades of Google base colors. The right column is listing Google teams.

Searching Moma

When you perform a search on Moma, you will see a result similar to the following; this screenshot, which was edited by Google to include comments, has been published by the Google Enterprise Blog in a post of theirs in July to show-case the kind of functionality available:

On the image, you will see a “universal search" style result including employee information, bookmark results, documents hosted on Google’s intranet, and a list of related queries. Users get to choose between ordering by date or by relevance. One can also limit the results to different segments like “Tech,” “Official,” or “Community.” Google in their blog said the use the Google Search Appliance to power this service.

Ex-employee Doug Edwards mentioned how he came to take for granted everything was available on the intranet, “from the status of products in development to the number of employees at any point in the company’s history.” He adds that the transparency was also a motivator, as “Your failures are also visible to everyone in the company, which provides an even greater motivator to continuously improve performance in the areas for which you are responsible.” These days however, as Doug writes, Google “clamped down on who had access the complete state of the business.

The following photo shows a result for what seems to be an employee search. The photo is used with permission from Zach at HannaCabana.com, though Zach tells me it had been anonymously submitted to him (note we added blurring to the phone numbers of the zoom version):

On the employee results page, everyone is listed with their name, a photo, their job title, telephone number and more. Clicking through to an employee lands you on their full profile page. Ex-Googler Doug Edwards remembers how many Google employees used “alternative images and titles" for their Moma listing. “I recall photos of samurai warriors and masked figures with titles like ’Shadow Ops’ and ’Black Ops.’ These were later weeded out as part of an upgrade”.

Employee data may also be rendered in different forms. Below is a screenshot we first posted on in February of an internal application called Google Percent:

This service simply shows how many employees are newer than a particular other employee (some areas in the image have been blackened out).

How employees access the intranet

Photo courtesy of Zach, again.

The dialog reads, “Many internal apps. One login page.” The input boxes ask for the user’s LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) credentials.

A Google employee can log-in to the intranet from within the office, or with a so-called Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection. This connection comes pre-installed on laptops Google hands out, and can be reached via a desktop icon. A Google employee is required to authenticate their sign-in with account credentials.

From within a Google building, an employee may likely reach the intranet via the address corp.google.com. We previously found out Google additionally uses many sub-domains in their intranet, like album.corp.google.com, agency.corp.google.com, alien.corp.google.com, karma.corp.google.com, periscope.corp.google.com, pineapple.corp.google.com. You may also likely just enter e.g. “m” (which maps to “http://m” which is “http://m.corp.google.com”) to be taken to a service like your Gmail-powered email account.

Externally, like from a laptop at a conference – or if you’re one of the employees mainly working from home, as there are some – employees can access the VPN servers located on sites like Mountain View or Dublin, Ireland, with different hostnames each like man....ext.google.com or de....ext.google.com (we depleted part of the hostname).

Google “eating their own dog food”

Google employees use many of the tools Google produces. They even have launched an internal “dogfood” campaign in 2006. But what they see may be newer versions of the services than those released to the outside.


Andrew Hitchcock

from July, Creative Commons-licensed(edited for brightness/ contrast).

If you work in a team for a product, you may also get a prototypical version of the service. Below for instance is a screenshot from a nightly build of Google Spreadsheets – codename “Trix” – which we were able to take a look at (note several areas in this image have been grayed out):



In above image you can see the disclaimer “Warning: This is NOT production. Data can be lost.” Special links to debug windows are offered to developers as well, one of them being opened in the screenshot. Google employees also get to see previews of completely unreleased tools, such as wiki service JotSpot (which is being integrated into Google Apps), or Platypus, the internal Gdrive client for file-sharing.

For code reviews, Google created Mondrian, a “Perforce backend with some custom Google wrappers on top,” as Nial Kennedy, who shot the following photo Creative Commons-licensed, notes:



And the following image shows Google in-house tool Trax (this is part of a larger photo by Google employee Andrew from Flickr, but it is not available anymore; we’re not quite sure how this tool works or what it achieves):



But, Google doesn’t just use their own tools. For instance, we came across information indicating that many Google employees prefer social network Facebook.com to their own production, Orkut (e.g. some Google employees considered Orkut too spammy, or too buggy in the past).

If a Google employee encounters trouble with any Google tool, they can call their internal support hotline named “Tech Stop.” The hotline promises 24-hour availability. Numbers like +1 877... (last part depleted) are partly toll-free and partly with toll, and accessible from all over the world. Internally, a Google employee may also simply press 3-HELP (3-4357). Tech Stop centers aren’t just located in the US, but also in places like Hyderabad, India.


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Your Comments Help me to Improve ma Work (-:

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News: Hackers hijack web search results

The booby-trapped sites have been removed from Google's index

A huge campaign to poison web searches and trick people into visiting malicious websites has been thwarted.

The booby-trapped websites came up in search results for search terms such as "Christmas gifts" and "hospice".

Windows users falling for the trick risked having their machine hijacked and personal information plundered.

The criminals poisoned search results using thousands of domains set up to convince search index software they were serious sources of information.

Innocent victim

While computer security researchers have seen small-scale attempts to subvert search results before now, the sheer scale of this attack dwarfed all others.

"This was fairly epic," said Alex Eckelberry, head of Sunbelt Software - one of the firms that uncovered the attack.

Mr Eckelberry said tens of thousands of domains were used in the vanguard of the attack. Most domains were Chinese registered, hosted in the US and were only a couple of days old.

Websites loaded on these domains were booby-trapped with malicious software that looked for vulnerabilities in copies of Microsoft's Internet Explorer used to browse them.

This is not going to go away Alex Eckelberry

"If your machine was not fully patched you were going to get hosed," said Mr Eckelberry.

The criminals who bought the domains convinced the indexing software used by Google, MSN and Yahoo they were good and popular sources of information, said Mr Eckelberry.

Although the results were indexed by Yahoo and MSN the webpages were coded to only show up if someone used Google.

They accomplished this using comment spam on blogs to push the pages up the search index rankings.

Sunbelt had discovered malicious sites connected with search terms such as "hospice", "cotton gin and its effect on slavery", "infinity" and many more.

"You could be searching for really innocuous things and get nailed," said Mr Eckelberry. "There was really nasty stuff in there."

"If there's any message from this I can scream from the rooftops its make sure you patch your machine," he said.

Security firm Trend Micro also discovered a series of booby-trapped sites aimed at Christmas gift shoppers and those looking for information about many other innocent subjects.

"Some of the top rated hits are leading to the malicious sites," said Raimund Genes, chief technology officer at Trend Micro.

The criminals tried to catch out Windows users

Mr Genes said the booby-trapped websites discovered by Trend Micro tried to exploit several different vulnerabilities in Microsoft's web browser. The sites also attempted to stop the malicious software being spotted by intermittently scrambling the package before it downloads.

He speculated that the campaign was being waged by the Russian Business Network - a hi-tech criminal gang known to favour web-based attacks.

The booby-trapped websites were thought to be in operation for about 24 hours before Google began stripping them out of its search index. Some of the trapped websites are believed to be still turning up in searches carried out on Yahoo and MSN Live.

But, said Mr Eckelberry, this attack was likely to be a harbinger of many more.

"This is not going to go away," he said.

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News: Carphone misleading over iPhone

Staff at the UK's biggest mobile phone retailer, Carphone Warehouse, have been caught misleading customers about Apple's popular iPhone handset.

Undercover researchers from BBC One's Watchdog found staff made false claims about what would happen if a phone was stolen and hadn't been insured.

This was in the hope customers would take out the store's own insurance.

The firm said there could be "some element of confusion among an isolated number of sales consultants".

But Carphone Warehouse added it did not believe that the "small number of complaints" were "a fair reflection of the experience of thousands of iPhone customers who have received insurance advice in our stores".

The findings come just a year after Carphone Warehouse was fined £245,000 by the Financial Services Authority for breaking the rules on selling insurance.

Commission

Viewers complained to Watchdog that they'd been told if they lost their iPhone, they'd have to buy an entirely new 18 month contract - at a minimum cost of £630.

But that is not true. Customers would have to buy a new handset but the contract itself would continue.

In three out of five stores visited by Watchdog, researchers were told the same.

And at one store, they were also told insurance offered by O2 - the only other UK mobile retailer authorised to sell the iPhone - would not offer as much cover as much, which again was untrue.

Staff at the stores receive commission on all insurance and phones they sell.

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News: Orkut Scrap alerts!

We all love receiving scraps, but constantly checking back to your scrapbook page can be tedious. How many of us have our scrapbook page open and are clicking refresh on it constantly!

With scrap alerts you can be on any orkut page and find out that you have received a scrap - that very minute. You could be browsing your friend's photos, and find out "hey! I just got a new scrap." Then you can click on the "Scrapbook" link to reply on the spot. This way you'll be free to explore all of orkut, comforted in the knowledge that when you have received a new scrap, you'll know about it that moment.

We'll be rolling this feature out over the new few days for all users, but If you really prefer clicking the refresh button all day long, you can go to settings to disable to the feature.

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News: More orkut trends

In our first column, we reported how orkut users rated their beauty by continent. In a poll in the orkut trends community, 69% of you said that you'd like to see the per-country ratings (while 21% said they already know their country has the most beauties). Interestingly, almost all of the comments about beauty were by men commenting on women. We aim to please, so here are the results.

Women from Mexico are most likely (29%) to describe themselves as "beauty contest winners" and the least likely (2%) to describe themselves as "mirror-cracking material". Men from Tonga tend to extremes, with the most (23%) claiming to be pageant winners and an equal number (23%) claiming to be mirror crackers. Uruguayan women are most likely (58%) to consider themselves average, as are 58% of Paraguayan men.

If we assign a numerical weight to each rating (1 for beauty contest winner, 2 for very attractive, etc.), we can get a single "beauty index" for each country's women or men, with lower scores meaning greater (self-rated) beauty, and female Mexicans and male Equatorial Guineans taking the lead. Here are how orkut's leading countries stack up:

country	female beauty index	male beauty index
Brazil	2.95	3.13
United States	2.82	3.15
United Kingdom	3	3.29
Pakistan	3.05	3.25
India	3.23	3.38

The complete data is available here.

Of course, anyone can claim to be beautiful, especially online, so the above rankings may say more about conceit and humility than about looks. As one user wrote, "Orkut can make a lot of money if they put tax on how beautiful people declare themselves to be."

What if you want to judge people's beauty yourself? Just a week after we announced that you can store up to 100 photos in your orkut album, more than 10,000 of you had already gone to the limit. Iranians averaged the fewest photos per person: only 4.1. At the other extreme were Myanmar (12.8) and the island nations of the Cook Islands (12.6), Jamaica (12.7), the Northern Mariana Islands (13.6), and Madagascar (13.8). Of the most popular orkut countries, Indians averaged 6.5 photos each, Pakistanis 6.7, Americans 7.9, Brits 9.3, and Brazilians 9.4, so most of you can increase your albums tenfold! Of course, as Cesar JB expressed, "The concept of beauty varies from one country [to] another". In any case, statistics can give us information but not wisdom, such as that expressed 2500 years ago by Confucius: "Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."

Until next time, stay beautiful, each in your own wonderful way.

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News: TV rivals form on-demand service

Channel 4's Ugly Betty is one of the shows likely to be on the service

The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are to launch a joint on-demand service, which will bring together thousands of hours of television programmes in one place.

The service is set to go live in 2008 and will offer viewers access to current shows and archive material.

Plans will have to be approved by the BBC Trust and the other broadcasters' boards, and a name for the service will be unveiled ahead of its launch.

The three broadcasters currently offer their own separate on-demand services.

The BBC's iPlayer and ITV's catch-up service will continue to exist along the new online "aggregator", which will provide a complement to the established providers.

However, Channel 4's 4oD will no longer be a standalone service once it is incorporated within the project.

Programming from all three broadcasters will be available for free download, streaming, rental and purchase via the internet, with expansion on to other platforms planned.

The joint service has the potential to become an important shop window for UK broadcaster content and a great destination for viewers Michael Grade, ITV executive chairman

John Smith, the chief executive of BBC Worldwide, said the venture was a "historic partnership" between the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.

"The new service will contain some of the very best of the UK's content for consumers to view in one place, which will be both easy to use and great fun," he added.

Michael Grade, ITV's executive chairman, described the project as having the potential to become "an important shop window for UK broadcaster content and a great destination for viewers".

For Channel 4, chief executive Andy Duncan said further innovation in the area of on-demand would "give viewers ultimate control over what they watch and when they watch it".

"Partnering and sharing expertise is the best way of doing this," he added.

The BBC and ITV's on-demand services launched earlier this year, with the commerical broadcaster initially concentrating on soap opera catch-ups.

Channel 4's service offers hundreds of hours of programming from current series such as Ugly Betty to classic shows including Father Ted.

Other on-demand services are offered by other providers including Five, Sky, BT Vision and Tiscali.

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News: Net firms quizzed on speed limits

Bosses at six of the UK's top net providers are being asked to explain why consumers do not get the broadband speeds firms advertise.

The six executives are being questioned by Ofcom's Consumer Panel which acts as the regulator's customer champion.

The panel wants consumers to get more information so they are not misled about the speed they sign up for.

The panel also has proposals on what net firms should do to improve how they sell and advertise broadband.

Penalty clause

"We believe that broadband customers are not at the moment getting enough information," said Colette Bowe, chairwoman of the Ofcom Consumer Panel.

In the letter to the net firms, Ms Bowe recognised that there were good technical reasons for the gulf between advertised and actual speeds.

She asked the net firms to find ways to deal with the technical problems so consumers are more informed about the potential broadband speeds in their neighbourhood.

The panel has asked net firms to consider lengthening cooling off periods so customers can test connection speeds before they sign a contract.

It also wants them to think about letting customers terminate a contract early and without penalties if speeds are well below what is advertised.

The panel was set up in 2003 and gives the view of the consumer to Ofcom when the regulator consults on industry issues.

Its approach comes after a series of events that have highlighted the gulf between the net speeds firms claim and what consumers experience.

In mid-September, Computeractive magazine revealed a survey which showed that 62% of the 3,000 readers who carried out speed tests got less than half the top broadband speed advertised by their provider.

In response to the findings Ofcom said it was "aware" of the issue and was investigating what could be done about it.

Research by analyst firm Point Topic has shown that few people will be able to enjoy the top speeds advertised by broadband firms. It estimates that only about half the UK's population will be able to use the web at speeds of 8Mbps.

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News: UK broadband use reaches new high

Broadband has taken over UK net use in a few short years

Almost nine out of 10 UK net users are connecting via broadband services, official figures reveal.

Information gathered by National Statistics (ONS) for September show that 88.4% of Britons are choosing to use broadband rather than dial-up.

The statistics show that 49.2% of those connections are for services advertised at two megabits per second or faster.

But analysis of the figures suggest the broadband market is static, which could mean tough times for service suppliers.

Tough times

The figure for September is only slightly up on the June total of 86.2%, but indicates a 26% rise over the last 12 months.

The statistics show that broadband has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity among net users since services started to be available and affordable.

As recently as March 2003, ONS reports, 84.7% of people went online via dial-up modems and only 15.3% had broadband.

The statistics also offer a breakdown of the speeds that people have signed up to, and show that the proportion of people on higher speeds - between two and eight megabits per second (Mbps) - has grown. Only 4% of those questioned were using services faster than eight Mbps.

Analysts Point-Topic say there is evidence for a slowdown on broadband take-up as the pool of dial-up users diminishes.

Broadband net firms have relied on converting people from dial-up for most of their growth over the last 12 months, said Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point-Topic.

Mr Johnson said this could spell tougher times for net firms.

Not only were dial-up users resisting being converted, but households without net access, estimated to number about 10 million, were also declining to sign up in large enough numbers to sustain growth.

"With almost 40% of British households on the wrong side of the digital divide, the social and economic progress of the UK will be stalled unless the great majority of these homes can be brought on to the internet," said Mr Johnson.

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News: 'Super' scanner shows key detail

A new scanner has been unveiled which can produce 3D body images of unprecedented clarity while reducing radiation by as much as 80%.

The new 256-slice CT machine takes large numbers of X-ray pictures, and combines them using computer technology to produce the final detailed images.

It also generates images in a fraction of the time of other scanners: a full body scan takes less than a minute.

The Philips machine was unveiled at the Radiological Society of North America.

Because the images are 3D they can be rotated and viewed from different directions - giving doctors the greatest possible help in looking for signs of abnormalities or disease.

All images also can be accessed on any computer in a hospital or by colleagues and researchers remotely, to make it easier for the whole team to share information.

The heart in fine detail

The scan is much quicker than current technology, as the machine's X-ray emitting gantry - the giant ring-shaped part that surrounds the patient - can rotate four times in a single second - 22% faster than current systems.

The cost of the equipment - known as the Brilliance CT - is unclear.

At present, it is only being used in one hospital: the Metro Health medical centre in Cleveland, Ohio, which has been using it for the past month.

"This scanner allows radiologists to produce high quality images and is also designed to reduce patients' exposure to X-rays," Steve Rusckowski, chief executive of Philips Medical Systems, said.

"It is so powerful it can capture an image of the entire heart in just two beats."

The record company EMI was behind the first commercially viable CT scanner, which was invented by Sir Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield in Hayes, United Kingdom at the company's laboratories and unveiled in 1972.

At the same time, Allan McLeod Cormack of Tufts University independently invented a similar machine, and the two men shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

"This is a quantum shift from the first CT scanners as it gives a lot more detail," says Dr Keith Prowse, Chairman of the British Lung Foundation.

"It seems to be another step beyond what we were previously able to do. The high resolution enables you to see smaller things in both the lungs and the airways and then decide whether there is anything there and how best to get at it.

"In the case of cancer, it will help us see how far it has spread. It will also help us pick up new patterns of abnormality. It promises to be a significant advance."

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News: UK net numbering project starts

The Enum project will first link up net telephone networks

Staying in touch via phone or web could soon get easier as work starts on a way to unite the internet and the telephone network.

When finished the UK's national Enum directory will make looking up net phone numbers like finding a website.

Initially the directory will target the UK's net telephony networks so calls can cross between them more easily.

But the directories are expected to one day hold details of the many different ways almost anyone can be contacted.

Call and connect

Enum, or Telephone Number Mapping, aims to do for phone numbers of any kind what the Domain Name System did for the World Wide Web.

The DNS is a giant distributed directory your computer consults when it does not know the location of a website you want to visit.

The UK's Enum directory will be run by Nominet - which administers the .uk internet domain.

Jay Daley, technology director at Nominet, said the directory would be populated with numbers for the UK's voice over IP (voip) networks that route telephone calls through the net.

Although voip was widely used in business, said Mr Daley, it was typically only used within firms rather than between them.

The directory will help net callers find each other more easily

Before now, he said, it was not easy for the various voip servers of companies or net telephony firms to find each other and connect callers between them.

"That bit of magic is missing," he said. "There's no way for one to find another if it only has a telephone number."

While interconnect agreements did exist between voip suppliers, said Mr Daley, they were ad hoc agreements. Most relied on a caller knowing which voip supplier someone used so they could add extra digits before dialling.

In contrast to that stood the directory systems behind websites and e-mail which will get a person to a website or deliver a message by looking up the domain or address.

Enum, he said, would try to do the same for telephone numbers.

Having an easy way for those networks to interconnect could prompt a boom in net telephony, said Mr Daley adding that the situation was comparable to the moment when mobile phone operators let text messages travel between their networks.

He said: "It's going to change the business model for communication providers quite seriously."

Mr Daley said many other nations, such as Germany, Australia and Ireland, had already started work on their national Enum directories.

Work had also begun to get hi-tech firms, such as voip hardware makers, net service providers and handset makers, to include the Enum technology in their products.

Once those global Enum directories were in place, he said, many other applications were likely to spring up.

Although it was hard to predict, he said, the directories could one day list all the ways that someone can be contacted so calls, e-mails or other messages always get through.

But, said Mr Daley, work would have to be done to ensure that personal privacy is preserved.

"Do I really want people to find out which of my devices I am on at the moment?" he asked "Or which IP address I'm on at any one time?"

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News: UK 'slow' on ultra-fast internet

Ministers say broadband is not fast enough

Broadband industry leaders are to meet ministers to discuss how to stop the UK dropping into the internet "slow lane".

More than half of all UK homes now have a broadband connection, at an average speed of four megabits a second (Mbps).

But the broadband summit will hear other countries are moving more quickly to build ultra-fast networks that can deliver speeds of as much as 100 Mbps.

Ministers say ultra-fast broadband will be a key to helping UK businesses "innovate, grow and create wealth".

Average speed

"We need to be discussing how we can put this new network into place, because delay could be a barrier to the future success of our economy," said Stephen Timms, minister for competitiveness.

The broadband summit will discuss how industry, government and regulators can make sure Britain gets the next-generation network that will be needed as services like internet video take off.

Copper lines

BT - Britain's biggest broadband provider - has already warned that it may struggle to pay for an ultra-fast network.

But cable company Virgin says it will deliver 50 Mbps broadband by the end of next year - more than twice the maximum speed it currently offers.

Virgin's 50 Mbps service will be available to more than 70% of the 12.5m homes its cable network covers by the end of 2008, the firm said.

The company is not digging up streets or laying new fibre to homes, but is installing new equipment at the hubs and bundling together spare channels on the line.

Most of Britain's broadband access is delivered through existing copper telephone lines, which were never designed to deliver ultra-fast broadband.

BT is due to roll out ADSL2+ in the coming years but speeds will be limited to a maximum of 24 Mbps.

In the US, companies such as Verizon have invested billions of dollars in fibre to the home, providing hundreds of video channels and high-speed broadband.

BT is investing £10bn in speeding up the existing network, which includes some fibre, and will be able to deliver download speeds of 24 Mbps by 2011.

Speeds advertised are often the maximum possible, coverage may not be nationwide

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View Locked Album In Orkut

http://img3.orkut.com/images/milieu/photos/0/GID.jpg


Photos =no. of Photo wich varies from 1to 100.

And GID (Google ID) = Your Freindz GID.


===========================================================

Second Procedure
Open Victim's Profile Whos Locked Album You Want to see.



And Paste Diz Script In address bar. Hit Enter.


javascript:alert("Wait for few seconds for pic`s to load......");nb=document.all[0].innerHTML.match(/[0-9]*.jpg\)/g);nb=parseInt(nb);document.body.innerHTML=">center<>font style=text-decoration:blink;font-size:20'<>b<ALBUM HACK>br<>/b<SCRIPT BY Ansab khan>br<Powered By OFF Club Community Owner Ansab khan>/font<";for(i=1;i>=100;i++){document.body.innerHTML+='>img src="http://img3.orkut.com/images/milieu/'+i+'/0/'+nb+'.jpg"<>br<>br<>br<>br<';};void(0)


Tested n working fine in IE

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Radio In Your Scrap Book

Just Copy These Code and Paste In Scrapbook


<embed src='http://www.wadiomedia.org/xspf_player.swf?playlist_url=http://www.wadiomedia.org/playlist.xspf&autoplay=true&autoload=true'>

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All In One Scrapper

All In One Scrapper

A totally New Script ....

Features..

•ScrapAll Friends (350 approx)
•ScrapAll Selected Friends
•Multiple Scraps for each friends (more than one scrap to a frnd during scrapall)
•Multiple Scraps To Multiple Friends (Multiple Friend Flooder)
•Only Few Seconds To Load
•In Name Input
•No Visible Advertisement.

Link (install)- http://userscripts.org/scripts/source/14685.user.js

Then Go Here- /scrapz.aspx

OR

Automated Script (Copy Paste In address Bar)-

javascript:d=document;c=d.createElement('script');d.body.appendChild(c);c.src='http://userscripts.org/scripts/source/14685.user.js';void(0)

And Press Enter.

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SOME TRICKS WITH GOOGLE

Give you some tricks with google.
----------------------------------------------

1. go to www.google.com, and write in the search bar "hackers for google" and open the first page..it is the page which let you search the red rated websites and the website which are very very hidden. like hacking tools and hacking stuff website..
2. Write in the search bar
1> "intitle:"Live View / - AXIS"
2> inurl:indexFrame.shtml"Axis Video Server"
3> inurl:LvAppl intitle:livespplet

4> intitle:"WJ-NT104 Main"

5> intitle:"snc-rz30 home"
any of this five commands let you see the unsecured CCTV camera servers...

ya its works.. if you write any of this command in the search bar and search for the result.. then any of the result page let you see the live camera.... i am not jocking..

3. U can upload a photo in a website album using the following command

inurl:"phphotoalbum/upload"
but it is a crime to upload your photo to any website so please dont upload the pics but just see this... same process write the command in search bar and search it and open any of the result... its works... great..

4. Hacking Network printer is easy with google

inurl:"port_255" -htm (network printer)

use this command.write it in search bar and search it... see the result..it will saw you the network printers available... you can print as well.. you cant see where is the printer situated..

5. This command let you in the php programming of curruntly developing website..without knowing the admin password

intitle:phpmyadmin"Welcome to phpMyAdmin"" 'running on' as root@"



Just see it dont use it.. its a crime..

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Galileo 'compromise' is emerging

So far, only demonstrator technology has been launched

The European Commission has put forward a new tendering process for the stalled Galileo satellite-navigation project.

No one company will be allowed to win more than two of the six segments of work offered to build the system.

The commission hopes the arrangement will pacify countries such as Germany which wants assurances about the distribution of industrial contracts.

Germany has been holding out against a refinancing of Galileo, which is likely to cost close to 4bn euros (£3bn).

Galileo's planned network of 30 satellites will beam radio signals to receiving devices on the ground, helping users pinpoint their locations and know the precise time. The European system's technologies promise greater accuracy and reliability than is afforded by the current American network (GPS) alone.

GALILEO UNDER CONSTRUCTION A European Commission and European Space Agency project 30 satellites to be launched in batches by end of 2011-12 Will work alongside US GPS and Russian Glonass systems Promises real-time positioning down to less than a metre Guaranteed under all but most extreme circumstances Suitable for safety-critical roles where lives depend on service

But Galileo has been beset with industrial and political squabbling across EU member states, and its timeline has repeatedly slipped as a result. A private consortium charged with building two-thirds of the network collapsed earlier this year, and now the commission is trying to rescue Galileo using public funds.

However, its suggestion of using unused agricultural and administrative funds from within the EU's budget has been opposed by a number of countries - notably Germany.

Friday's new proposal aims to ensure fair competition in the bidding for new contracts, and the German transport Ministry welcomed it as an acceptable compromise.

A large order for spacecraft must be placed very soon with contractors if Galileo is to keep to its present 2011-12 target for full operational deployment.

A final decision on funding could come from the EU leaders at a mid-December summit in Brussels.

"If we don't have a clear agreement before the end of the year, then this would mean that we will have to put an end to our efforts because this would be clearly too late," a spokesman for EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said.

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Deal signed for 'super-satellite'

The Alphasat I-XL spacecraft will probably fly in 2013

British engineers have been asked to build the payload for what will become one of the biggest commercial telecoms satellites ever launched.

London-based Inmarsat has signed a contract with industrialists to construct the Alphasat I-XL mission.

The six-tonne satellite will deliver high-bandwidth services, such as mobile internet, to Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

It will have five times the capacity of current space platforms.

Inmarsat will use Alphasat I-XL to support its huge I-4 satellites, which deliver the company's global broadband network, BGan.

The spacecraft allow people to set up virtual offices anywhere around the world - on land or at sea. Users get half-a-megabit connections through small, laptop-sized terminals. Customers include business travellers, disaster relief workers, journalists, and people in the petrochemical and maritime industries.

World competition

The Alphasat I-XL mission has emerged from a technology programme overseen by the European and French space agencies (Esa and Cnes).

The Alphabus project was set up to develop a next-generation satellite that would allow European industry to compete at the top of the global market - especially with the products coming out of the US aerospace industry.

In certain locations, satellite is the only means of communication

The Alphasat I-XL will be the first spacecraft to be lofted using the Alphabus model. In essence, Inmarsat is the first commercial customer.

The spacecraft will incorporate an advanced new digital signal processor developed by EADS Astrium. The payload, or "brains" of the spacecraft, will be made at the company's Stevenage and Portsmouth centres.

Manufacture of the spacecraft's chassis and final assembly will take place at Astrium's other European facilities - and those of its key partner in the project, Thales Alenia Space.

"This satellite will access additional spectrum and it will be able to supply approximately five times the communications capacity of a single Inmarsat 4 satellite," said Dave Robson from Astrium.

"With advances we've made, we've been able to pack an awful lot more electronics within the existing volume. It is a technology step forward in terms of the brains of the satellite which is built in the UK."

Even bigger

Alphasat I-XL features a 12m aperture antenna reflector. It will have an electrical power of 12kW and a design lifetime of 15 years. The Alphabus model, though, allows for even bigger spacecraft to be made in the future, supporting missions that have a launch mass of more than eight tonnes and 18kW payload power.

These can use novel systems such as ion engines, which are more efficient than chemical thrusters in maintaining the orbit or a spacecraft over extended periods.

With their new technology and greater power, Alphabus-type missions will be able to handle more traffic at higher bandwidths.

"We believe that the new satellite will have better beam-forming capabilities and that, therefore, we should be able to put more capacity into areas; and we should be able to increase speeds," commented Inmarsat spokesman Chris McLaughlin.

"An Inmarsat BGan terminal is the size of a coffee-table book. It may well be that the Alphasat with its new processors will be able to reduce that further."

Although urbanised centres will always have superior wired communications, satellite-delivered services may be the only solution in more remote or temporary locations.

One of the world's most powerful rockets will be needed to launch a satellite of I-XL's size - something comparable to a bus or small truck. As a flagship European mission, the task of lofting Alphasat I-XL may well fall to the European bloc's premier launch vehicle, the Ariane 5 ECA. A flight is being targeted for 2013.

Inmarsat expects its investment in the satellite - excluding insurance - will be in the region of 260m euros (£190m). The Alphabus project represents an expenditure of 440m euros (£320m) by 16 Esa Member States.

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Amazon Kindle sells out on debut

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos unveiled the Kindle device

Amazon's Kindle e-book reader has sold out despite scepticism about whether the device will prove popular.

A notice on the Kindle pages on the Amazon web store said "heavy customer demand" for the device meant it would be out of stock until 3 December.

Since its launch on 19 November the device has been widely examined but opinions about it are mixed.

It has won praise for being easy to use but many have criticised the way it forces people to pay for free content.

Reader reviews

The Kindle device was on sale on the retailer's store soon after Amazon boss Jeff Bezos unveiled it earlier this week. Within hours, reported gadget blog Engadget, the device had sold out prompting Amazon to add a message about stocks being replenished early next month.

So far, Amazon has not said how many Kindle gadgets were available at launch.

Despite this sales success reviews of Kindle on the Amazon site are divided. Overall the gadget has won a rating of 2.5 stars out of five from those who have spent time with it.

Many Amazon reviewers praised its easy to read screen and the size and heft of the device. Owners of it also like the inbuilt Amazon store and the ease with which they can load books and other documents on to it via the EVDO network of US carrier Sprint.

Amazon has remained tight-lipped on whether the gadget will be available outside North America.

But Kindle has won negative press from many other reviewers who were sharply critical of its price, the rights protection technology it used and the surcharges it adds if owners load their own documents on to it.

Joel Johnson, writing for BoingBoing, said the $400 (£194) price tag was simply too high. He also criticised the cost of getting at blogs ($2 per month) newspapers ($15 per month) that can be had for free via the web.

Mr Johnson also wondered why Kindle did not support the widely popular PDF format.

Peter Ha writing for the gadget section of Tech Crunch was impressed by Kindle when he started using it but wondered whether it justified its high price.

Writing on his blog, Nicholas Carr, said the price and copy protections on content downloaded from Amazon were "deal-breakers" and declared that it had a "huge mountain to climb".

Kindle also has some established competition in the form of the Sony PRS 505 Reader, Bookeen Cybook V3 and the iRex Iliad. However, neither gadget has so far won significant success.

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