How to turn on automatic logon in Windows XP
I note this down because I keep forgetting this.
Method 1:
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type control userpasswords2, and then click OK.
Note : When users try to display help information in the User Accounts window in Windows XP Home Edition, the help information is not displayed. Additionally, users receive the following error message:
Cannot find the Drive:\Windows\System32\users.hlp Help file. Check to see that the file exists on your hard disk drive. If it does not exist, you must reinstall it.
3. Clear the “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer” check box, and then click Apply.
4. In the Automatically Log On window, type the password in the Password box, and then retype the password in the Confirm Password box.
5. Click OK to close the Automatically Log On window, and then click OK to close the User Accounts window.
Method 2:
1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
3. Using your account name and password, double-click the DefaultUserName entry, type your user name, and then click OK.
4. Double-click the DefaultPassword entry, type your password under the value data box, and then click OK.
If there is no DefaultPassword value, create the value. To do this, follow these steps:
a. In Registry Editor, click Edit, click New, and then click String Value.
b. Type DefaultPassword as the value name, and then press ENTER.
c. Double-click the newly created key, and then type your password in the Value Data box.
If no DefaultPassword string is specified, Windows XP automatically changes the value of the AutoAdminLogon registry key from 1 (true) to 0 (false) to turn off the AutoAdminLogon feature.
5. Double-click the AutoAdminLogon entry, type 1 in the Value Data box, and then click OK.
If there is no AutoAdminLogon entry, create the entry. To do this, follow these steps:
a. In Registry Editor, click Edit, click New, and then click String Value.
b. Type AutoAdminLogon as the value name, and then press ENTER.
c. Double-click the newly created key, and then type 1 in the Value Data box.
6. Quit Registry Editor.
7. Click Start, click Restart, and then click OK.
Apple, XP, Linux
I’m on Mac OS X and Windows XP simultaneously – a possibility which I didn’t believe existed I till set this up all myself 
.
Firefox has already replaced Safari on my Mac. Scribefire works all the same. Yahoo messenger works just the same on a Mac.
This week I plan to try out Debian on VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop.
XP running on Mac certainly seems to be missing a few “power things” that a native Windows PC can do. But Mac’s Leopard is an excellent learning platform available today.
I’m still figuring things. Suddenly, I’m overwhelmed by all the new features I have in front of me to learn.
Goals for 2008
1. 180 hours of exercise @ 30 minutes a day.
2. Complete reading the Thirukkural. Write down my own notes for at least 360 out of 2660 lines.
3. Learn Debian Linux. Meet, in real life, at least one other person who uses Debian.
Day of firsts
Today was my first day at the new fitplaza gym.
Today I also made my first visit to Ambi mall, which is supposedly the largest mall in India. I found Reliance Trends to be very interesting – excellent value for money.
Back from a vacation
I just returned home from a year end vacation.
Caught up with my relatives. Ate. Slept. Rested. Read the Da Vinci Code. Watched a full movie after months. Went to beaches. Saw a light house. Visited temples. Performed Poojas. Played chess with my 5 year old nephew. Got my 18 month old niece vaccinated. Clicked pictures. Went to a theme park with family. Picked up excellent books written before 1940 on Thirukkural to continue my study of it. Laughed to my brother’s and sister’s jokes. Didn’t publish new year resolutions. Didn’t strain myself to contact many friends. Didn’t update my blog. Didn’t read my RSS. Didn’t check my office mails. I just unwound in preparation to take up more work in office later this month. I feel better after the vacation now.
But now the house is dusty and the car wont start. Thats a thing for tomorrow though…
All is well, even with XP
I’ve decided to be on XP Professional till my Rapidshare premium account runs out. I have to face it. Rapget can’t be replaced 
. Symantec corporate edition is keeping me secure. My OS is up-to-date. Rapget, uTorrent, Flashget and Feed reader are all working 24 x 7 to fetch me the infomation I need. I have 12,523 posts and 31,584 emails to read. Winamp plays Beethoven, Mozart and Tchaikovsky. There is this general feeling of well-being well past the Saturday midnight …
A new look
Finally, a clean look for my desktop. It meets all my expectations. Its cool, black, has no text, is minimal and “superfunctional”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Each day sees a task begin
Each night sees it close
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night’s repose.
Learning to fly
Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction holding me fast, how
Can I escape this irresistible grasp?
Cant keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I
Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded warnings, I thought I thought of everything
No navigator to guide my way home
Unladened, empty and turned to stone
A soul in tension thats learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try
Cant keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I
Friction lock – set.
Mixture – rich
Propellers – fully forward
Flaps – set – 10 degrees
Engine gauges and suction – check
Mixture set to maximum percent – recheck
Flight instruments…
Altimeters – check both
(garbled word) – on
Navigation lights – on
Strobes – on
(to tower): confirm 3-8-echo ready for departure
(tower): hello again, this is now 129.4
(to tower): 129.4. its to go.
(tower): you may commence your takeoff, winds over 10 knots.
(to tower): 3-8-echo
Easy on the brakes. take it easy. its gonna roll this time.
Just hand the power gradually, and it…
Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air,
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night
Theres no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, a state of bliss
Cant keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I
Food quotes
I enjoyed reading the following quotes which were written on KLM’s in-flight meal boxes.
“A smiling face is half the meal – Old proverb”
“Hungry thought Haiku
The food was so rich
That I wanted to save it
Till I had nothing”
Artifical life, in a test tube!
The guardian reports that scientists have now been able to achieve artificial synthesis of protiens. Mind blowing, indeed.
The article is at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/sep/06/2
Well, Synthetic biology?
I’ve never even heard of it despite being an engineer for over a decade.
I don’t know how many doors this would open though.
HP iPAQ 610 business messenger
This is the news I’ve been waiting for.
http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=1173338163
HP iPAQ 610 ships this month or next. Hopefully it should be in India by the last quarter. It is one super gizmo which is a mini-computer with windows mobile 6, can run office, push email, a mobile phone, a camera, a PDA with a touch screen and – hold your breath - a GPS all in one tiny bundle less than 150 grams.
No wonder Apple dropped the i-Phone prices.
The specs are here and the phone retails at US$600
Now the question is, if I get to lay my hands on it. Buying this makes even more sense to me – because this can tether with my laptop, which is also HP, to give wireless internet access at every location where there is phone coverage.
Office lunch
I had a great lunch at office today.
Basically it was tacos with chicken dumplings, cabbage shreds, tomato slices, pickled japalenos, guacamole, sour cream and a cheese rich sauce. After my rather large bowl was filled with this salad, I grabbed another box and threw in large slice of roasted salmon with yet another salad of broccoli, baby corn, carrot, peas and onions.
Food choices can become difficult for guys like me who don’t touch the stove. Also, we don’t eat everything that comes our way. Angus cheese burger – no thank you. Pepperoni pizza – no thank you. I can tolerate pieces of ham on my panini though.
All last week, I ate foot long submarines with white bread, mayonnaise, mustard, lettuce, tomataoes, onions and chicken every day for lunch. Today the very sight of good food at the next counter freaked me out and I just finished two really large bowls of salads.
God bless Skyline Deli.
Educational objectives
There are said to be six major areas in the cognitive development process that includes: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
1. Knowledge is remembering previously learned material, from specific facts to complete theories.
2. Comprehension is the ability to grasp the meaning of material.
3. Application is the ability to use learned material in and concrete situations. This may include the application of such things as rules, methods, and concepts.
4. Analysis is defined as the ability to break down a problem into component parts so that its organization is understood.
5. Synthesis is defined as the ability to put parts together to form a new whole view or aspect
6. Evaluation is defined as the ability to judge the value of materials for a given purpose
Graphing calculators, RPN convention
I downloaded and installed graphing calculators for my Palm today.
Now I can choose between HP48SX, HP48GX and HP49G on my handheld
The website version of Power 48 does not run HP49G.
There is an update available here.
Calculator ROMS are available here.
Trying to learn about RPN from Wikipedia, I landed here.
Voidware, hpcalc.org and HP calculator museum were interesting too.
The lemon tree instant
The description of this moment is borrowed from the Fools garden:
I’m sitting here
I miss the power
I’d like to go out taking a shower
But there’s a heavy cloud inside my head
I feel so tired
Put myself into bed
While nothing ever happens and I wonder
Isolation is not good for me
Isolation I don’t want to sit on the lemon-tree
I’m steppin’ around in the desert of joy
Baby anyhow I’ll get another toy
And everything will happen and you wonder
Whataburger!!!
Texans sure know Whataburger.
I’ve never been to eat there. What is in a burger, after all?
When I returned from office today, I just hit the bed and it was like 7 p.m. I can now faintly recollect my wife asking me what I’d like to have for dinner and me telling her something light, like the onion buns we picked from Walmart. She asked me if I would like to have chicken between the slices and I said yes. She asked if I’d like some cheese or butter and I declined. I dont remember anything that happened after that, as I crashed for some much needed rest.
8.30. pm. My wife woke me up and served me dinner almost by force. I refused to let her turn the lights on. I sat up on the bed without even slipping out of the blanket entirely and looked the sliced Walmart onion bun that was on my plate in a dim light that originated from the next room. I lifted the top half and to my relief found some thing filled in between though it didn’t add a lot of volume. I knew that filling would change the taste of my bun. Half asleep, I bit into it…and chewed on it.
Whataburger!
It had 1 cm cubes of chiken, a paste of potato, chillies, onions, coriander and traces of many other masalas all of which showed up at once.
I didn’t wake up after the first bite. But by the time, I finished half of it, I had the lights on and was pretty much conscious. My wife figured that I liked ‘it’ and and offered to make me one more.
After two “super Indian style ‘it’s/’whataburgars”, I demanded a large glass of diet coke to be served at my bed. No sooner than I finished my coke, I jumped out of my bed and reached for my laptop.
I am good now and fully prepared to take on an official call at 10 pm, which I’m secretly hoping won’t come. But it might.
“Ghar ka whataburghar” took me by surprise. Ghar ka khana can indeed open up new possibilities
Piel Frama
The Piel Frama case for my handheld was delivered to me today.
After spending 74 USD, I’m learning to love the new look of my Palm TX.
Memoirs, or the lack of them
It occurred to me in an instant that I should write about it. At that instant, every thing about that faint idea was clear to me. I could see how it could make a difference.
Then time passed by. One, two, three … millions of seconds passing over it, reducing the idea that was already a voiceless speck of dust into something much more insignificant.
The idea is lost. My mind is blank. I know that the same thought will perhaps never cross me again. But my fingers seem to be typing this out to the utter amazement of my blanked out mind.
I’m sure you know what I’m talking about… perhaps, not.
Heard on TV
They say, in the state of Texas, “Never let the truth get in the way of a perfectly good story”.
Internet, at last
Since I came to Houston on 22nd June, I didn’t have an internet connection outside of my office. I assumed that I will need to pay for it and wasn’t willing to shell out money for a new connection that needs to be discontinued in a few weeks any way. I fired up my wi-fi, checked for public networks, but nothing was available. Finally, today, I am connected to a public network with a feeble signal in my apartment.
Phew, such a relief. It is almost like I’m breathing again.
Mama Pendse
Mama Pendse said:
Whether we are based on carbon or silicon makes no fundamental difference. We should each be treated with appropriate respect.
Now, I’m thinking….
Killer apps
I am beginning to like simple programs that pack a lot of power.
I’d mentioned TED notepad earlier.
Today I discovered two other great apps. The Foobar2000 player and ScribeFire.
Foobar2000 is my default music player within just one hour of its installation.
And, of course, I’m typing this on ScribeFire – which runs from within firefox.
These are two great apps which will now be permanent features on my PC.
Powered by ScribeFire.
Hello, again, world!
Its been a long break from blogging.
Looking back I can see why.
It was a hectic month at office.
It took a lot of time to learn about all those gizmos purchased in the last couple of months.
I moved – all out – to Vista / Office 2007 at home. My only connection with Windows XP is my office PC, till such time its is upgraded as a part of the Vista roll-out. I struggled for Vista programs. Still dont have a decent freeware fire-wall or even a blog client. Wonder how other Vista users write their blogs !
Then there was a week long vacation.
Prakash was here.
Blogging, sadly, seems to be low in the list of my priorities of a zillion things to do.
No wonder the page rank slipped from 4 to 3. Not that I’m worried about it – but I’m just hoping to find more free time to write.
