Архив за май, 2008

Да помогнем на Firefox 3 да попадне в книгата на Гинес

30 май, 2008

Проектът
Мozilla започна кампания по поставяне на нов световен рекорд по брой
изтегляния на софтуер за 24 часа. косвената цел е ясна – да се попадне
в книгата на рекордите на Гинес.

Ако
искате да помогнете на Mozilla да постави световен рекорд, трябва да
изтеглите финалната версия 3.0 на популярния браузър Firefox в деня на
официалното начало на разпространението му.

Освен преки призиви за
изтегляне на браузъра непосредствено в деня на представяне на финалната
версия, наречен „Download Day“, от Mozilla приканват феновете да
поставят на сайтовете си специален бутон, който да напомня за
интересното събитие. Струва си да отбележим, че подобен рекорд досега
не е поставян и от Mozilla са първи в тази област.

Към момента не
е известна точната дата, на която Firefox 3 ще се появи официално, но
най-вероятно това ще стане в средата на месец юни. Според представители
на Mozilla, различни версии на браузъра Firefox се използват от много
потребители в 230 страни от цял свят, а интерфейсът е преведен на 45
езика, включително и български.

От адрес http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/
изтеглите бутони за сайта си или обещаите, че ще го направите, когато
настъпи „Download Day“. Ако търсите повод за купон, организирайте
Download Fest в училището или офиса си, присъединете се онлайн към
социална група със съмишленици, станете представител на Firexox в своя
университет и събирайте обещания за изтегляне на браузъра, когато Денят на тегленето настъпи.

Източник: soft.mail.ru

Google превежда на български

17 май, 2008

Ако
често посещавате сайтове на чужд език, който не владеете добре, се
налага да се използва инструмент за машинен превод, най-често към друг
чужд език, който владеем по-задълбочено, например руски или английски.
Вече не е необходимо да се преминава през такава процедура, защото
Google представи своя преводач и на български език.

Комуникациите
с хора, които говорят друг език стават по-лесни, защото на страницата
можете да преведете цитати ли цели уеб страници от чужд език на
български,

Има четири раздела:

  • Текст и уеб страници
    - тук въвеждате цитат, който предварително сте копирали или посочвате
    уебадреса на страница, която искате да четете на български.
  • Преведено търсене
    - написвате думата на български и посочвате на кой език искате да
    търсите. „Google преводач“ автоматично ще я преведе и ще ви покаже
    резултата от търсенето в представя в две колони – от дясно е
    оригиналния резултат, а отляво автоматично направения превод на тези
    страници на български.
  • Речник – тук има двупосочни речници на различни езици.
  • Инструменти
    - ако имате уебсайт, можете да добавите кратък код, за да стане
    възможно автоматичното му превеждане на други езици. От тук можете да
    вземете препратка за браузъра си. Щракнете на „Български“ и влачете до
    менюто „Отметки“. Така ще можете да преведете цялата страница, която
    сте заредили в момента.

    Адресът на преводача е http://www.google.com/translate_t?hl=bg

  • The Ultimate Windows XP Optimization Tweak Guide

    1 май, 2008

    This is one of the most complete Windows XP Tweak guides
    on the net. This guide will show you how to do everything from
    disabling startup programs to defragging your page file in order to get
    the most performance out of your Windows XP machine. My previous post
    on speeding up Windows XP startup times
    was one of my most popular posts for awhile. I encourage you to check
    that post out for some easy tips on speeding up Windows XP startup
    times.

    The Ultimate Windows XP Optimization/Tweak Guide is a comprehensive
    guide that will give you performance increases all across the board,
    perfect for a slower machine, and amazing for a fast machine. These XP
    tweaks will speed up XP dramatically along with improving Windows XP
    start times, shutdown times, file copying performance, playing games,
    installing and using programs.

    The guide is organized into 3 different sections, because it
    includes over 20 different tweaks and optimizations: Easy XP Tweaks
    include quick and easy XP optimizations that you can do in a matter of
    seconds and work your way through easily, Intermediate Tweaks includes
    performance enhancements that take a little more time and moving around
    in Windows XP to implement, while last but not least, Advanced Tweaks
    include things like modifying the registry and using 3rd party programs
    to optimize Windows XP. Don’t let the section names fool you, just
    because one is labeled advanced and the other is labeled intermediate
    does not mean that you’ll have a hard time performing the advanced
    tweaks, it’s just these take a little long to implement, and they are
    all fairly easy to do. The Ultimate Windows XP Optimization Tweak Guide
    will take you through each tweak, step-by-step.

    As with anytime you mess around with your OS, you should make
    backups of your important files and folders just as a precaution. I
    have been optimizing my Windows XP for a few years now, and have never
    had any problems with these tweaks as long as you follow the
    instructions.

    Sections:
    Easy Windows XP Tweaks
    Intermediate Windows XP Tweaks
    Advanced Windows XP Tweaks

    Easy Windows XP Tweaks

    1. Turn off Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop:
      Start Menu -> Classic Control Panel -> System -> Remote
      -> Uncheck ‘Allow Remote Assistance invitations to be sent from this
      computer’, and ‘Allow users to connect remotely to this computer’ ->
      Click ‘OK’

      Remote-Desktop-Assistance
      This saves memory by disabling these services that you’re most likely
      never going to use, and it increases XP security by preventing unknown
      people from trying to remotely connect to your computer.
    2. Turn off Windows Automatic Updates:
      Start Menu -> Classic Control Panel -> System -> Automatic
      Updates -> Select ‘Turn off Automatic Updates.’ -> Click ‘OK’

      Windows-Automatic-Updates
      This saves memory and increases performance because your computer
      doesn’t have to check Windows regularly for updates anymore, but since
      there won’t be anymore automatic updates you’ll need to make sure you
      check Windows Update Web site once a week so you don’t miss any
      important updates.
    3. Disable System Restore:
      Start Menu -> Classic Control Panel -> System -> System Restore -> Check ‘Turn off System Restore’ -> Click ‘OK’
      Windows-System-Restore
      System Restore is only good for if you end up breaking your computer a
      lot, having children that are on the computer, and love to download
      unknown files. However, if you somewhat know your way around the
      computer chances are you’ve probably never used it and probably never
      will. This will save you a ton of hard drive space (at least a couple
      gigs), and provide a decent performance boost.
    4. Set Your Virtual Memory To 1.5-3.0 Times Your Computer’s Memory:
      Start Menu -> Classic Control Panel -> System -> Advanced
      Tab -> Performance Settings -> Advanced Tab -> Change ->
      Select Custom Size -> Set the Initial size to 1.5 x amount of memory
      installed in your computer (I have 1024mb, 1GB of RAM installed so I’d
      set it to 1.5 x 1024 = 1536 MB) -> Set the Maximum Size to 3 x
      amount of memory installed in your computer (I have 1024mb, 1GB of RAM
      installed so I’d set it to 3.0 x 1024 = 3072 MB). -> Click ‘Set’
      -> Click ‘OK

      Virtual-Memory-Paging-File
      This makes sure the paging file stays put, by doing this it will
      perform better, and it is optimized for the amount of memory you have
      so Windows XP doesn’t have to keep adjusting the paging file
      automatically. It also helps prevent the paging file from becoming
      fragmented.
    5. Disable Windows Error Reporting:
      Start Menu -> Classic Control Panel -> System -> Advanced
      Tab -> Error Reporting -> Select ‘Disable error reporting’ ->
      Check ‘But notify me when critical errors occur’ -> Click ‘OK’

      Windows-Error-Reporting
      By disabling error reporting you will no longer get those annoying
      messages that your program has encountered an error, and asks to send
      information to Microsoft, this saves memory by getting rid of the
      feature. I think it’s a good trade-off to get rid of those critical
      error messages. You’ll still be notified when a bad error occurs.
    6. Turn off Indexing Service:
      Start Menu -> My Computer -> Right Click Local Disk (C:) (or
      available hard drives) -> Properties -> Uncheck ‘Allow Indexing
      Service to index this disk for fast file searching’ -> Check ‘Apply
      To All Files And Folders’ -> Click ‘OK’

      Windows-Indexing-Service
      The indexing service hogs a huge amount of system resources. It keeps
      certain files in memory to allow your Windows File Folder Search to run
      faster, so unless you’re using the Windows Search multiple times per
      day you don’t need Indexing, the search will still work, but just not
      as fast as it would if indexing is enabled.
    7. Change maximum size of the Recycle Bin to something more manageable, and get rid of the display delete confirmation dialog:
      Desktop -> Right click Recycle Bin -> Properties -> Set
      ‘Maximum size of Recycle Bin’ to a smaller, more manageable percentage
      like 3-5% -> Uncheck ‘Display delete confirmation dialog’ ->
      Click ‘OK’

      Windows-Recycle-Bin
      Lowering the maximum size of the recycle bin makes sure that it doesn’t
      use up more than a gig or few, because it’s normally set to 10% of each
      drive you have, and 10% of 250GB is 25GB, that’s a lot of space to be
      dedicated to your recycle bin. Unchecking the display delete
      confirmation dialog stops Windows from asking you every time if you’re
      sure you want to delete the file that you want to delete, which of
      course we always say yes. If you accidentally delete something it’ll
      still be in your recycle so you don’t have to worry.
    8. Disable Hibernation:
      Start Menu -> Control Panel -> Power Options -> Hibernate Tab -> Uncheck ‘Enable Hibernation’ -> Click ‘OK’
      Windows-XP-Hibernation
      Hibernation is one of those things that you’re just never going to use,
      unless you have a laptop, it makes it so that when you put your
      computer into hibernation mode it saves everything that was in your
      memory onto your hard disk. It sounds handy, but they don’t make it to
      put it into hibernation and it just mostly wastes space and processing
      power. Just put your computer in stand by if you don’t want to use it
      for awhile.
    9. Disable automatic search for network folders and printers:
      Start Menu -> My Computer -> Tools Menu -> Click ‘Folder
      Options’ -> View Tab -> Uncheck ‘Automatically search for network
      folders and printers’

      Network-Folders-Printers
      By disabling automatic search for network folders and printers when you
      open up Windows explorer your computer will not automatically search
      for network folders and printers that may or may not be there. Chances
      are you have no network printers or folders, and if you do Windows
      wouldn’t need to search for them every time you want to get into My
      Computer. This speeds up file browsing, access and Windows
      responsiveness.
    10. Defragment your hard drive:
      Start Menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Click ‘Disk Defragmenter’ -> Click ‘Defragment’
      Windows-Disk-Defragmenter
      Defragmenting your hard drive is very important to the performance
      health of your computer, it can speed up Windows XP significantly if
      you never have defragmented your computer before. It takes your folders
      and files and moves them around on the hard drive so Windows XP can
      have better and faster access to them, the more files you have the more
      they need to be organized on the hard drive.
    11. Check your hard drive for errors with Disk Check:
      Start Menu -> My Computer -> Right Click ‘Local Disk (C:)’
      -> Click ‘Properties’ -> Tools Tab -> Click ‘Check Now’ ->
      Check ‘Automatically fix file system errors’, and ‘Scan for and attempt
      recovery of bad sectors’ -> Click ‘Start’

      Check-Disk
      The Disk Check will require a reboot, and it certainly takes some time
      to check the disk (1-2 hours). Disk check allows Windows to scan your
      hard drive for any errors, and automatically fix any errors if they are
      found. If you hard drive contains errors it can slow down your computer
      and your overall Windows XP experience.
    12. Intermediate Windows XP Tweaks

    13. Turn off Windows Visual Effects:
      Start Menu -> Classic Control Panel -> System -> Advanced Tab -> Performance Settings -> Click ‘Custom’

      Uncheck:
      Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing
      Fade of slide menus into view
      Fade or slide ToolTips into view
      Fade out menu items after click
      Show window contents while dragging
      Slide open combo boxes
      Slide taskbar buttons
      Use a background image for each folder type
      Use common tasks in folder
      Windows-Visual-Effects
      This gets rid of certain visual effects. You won’t hardly notice any of
      the visual effects that have disappeared, but this saves lots of memory
      and processing power by disabling these visual effects. The only one
      that you’ll most likely notice missing is the Common Tasks in folder,
      if you want to you can go back and enable that one, but you don’t need
      it for anything.

    14. Delete unused fonts in the fonts folder:
      Start Menu -> Classic Control Panel -> Fonts Folder
      Windows-Fonts-Folder
      Delete
      any unnecessary or fonts that you will never ever use. As a precaution
      first move the unused fonts to a different folder so you make sure
      there are no side-effects, because you could move a system font that’s
      needed for Windows by accident. Feel free to delete Wingdings and
      Symbol and all those Eastern/Western fonts that you’re never going to
      use. Windows checks this folder each time it loads, and then it loads
      the fonts into Windows memory so they’re easily accessible with the
      click of a button, by deleting these fonts you save system memory and
      increase start up time.
    15. Disable unused Windows sounds:
      Start Menu -> Classic Control Panel -> Sound and Audio Devices -> Sounds Tab
      Windows-Sounds
      Set all the unused Windows/Application sounds to ‘None’. I just go
      through each sound and listen to it, and if I don’t need it’s disabled,
      some sounds you hear all the time, those are the ones I don’t disable,
      but the ones that are for Net meetings or Windows startup I disable,
      the more you disable the greater the performance boost.

      Here’s a list of the sounds I didn’t disable:
      Critical Stop
      Default Beep
      Exclamation

    16. Uninstall unused Windows Components/Programs
      Start Menu -> Add/Remove Programs -> Add/Remove Windows Components
      Windows-Components
      Uncheck
      the Windows Components that you don’t use. I uncheck Fax Services,
      Indexing Service, Internet Information Services, Management and
      Monitoring Tools, Message Queuing, Other Network File and Printer
      Services, Windows Messenger, Outlook Express, and MSN Explorer. They’re
      probably handy tools and services for businesses, but I will never need
      Message Queuing and Fax services. Also while you’re in the Add/Remove
      Programs menu look for any programs that you don’t use and uninstall
      them as well, it’ll save disk space and increase performance.

    17. Set all of your ATAPI drives to DMA:
      Start Menu -> Right Click ‘My Computer’ -> Click ‘Manage’
      -> Click ‘Device Manager’ -> Click ‘IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers’
      -> Right Click on each individual IDE Channel -> Click
      ‘Properties’ -> Advanced Settings Tab -> Select ‘DMA if
      available’ for ‘Transfer Mode’

      IDE-Transfer-Mode
      This setting changes your IDE device’s transfer mode to DMA. Switching
      all of your IDE devices over to DMA provides a significant performance
      boost compared to PIO only transfer mode, DMA is much faster.
    18. Disable unused devices in Device Manager:
      Start Menu -> Right Click ‘My Computer -> Click ‘Manage’
      -> Click ‘Device Manager’ -> Right Click unused devices ->
      Click ‘Disable’

      Device-Manager
      Be careful when disabling unused devices that you don’t disable
      something that may be important to the necessary functions of your
      computer. Only disable something if you have an onboard sound card, or
      an onboard ethernet adapter that you’re not using because you have PCI
      slots filled with a sound card or network adapter.
    19. Defragment your page file:
      Download PageDefrag at Microsoft TechNet -> Open the .zip and run PageDefrag -> Click ‘Accept’ -> Select ‘Defragment at next boot’ -> Click ‘OK’
      Page-Defrag
      Just like the Microsoft TechNet website said one of the problems of
      Windows XP/2000/NT is that files that are in use cannot be defragged,
      and that includes the pagefile. This program will defrag your pagefile
      at the next boot to ensure it’s working to it’s maximum efficiency.
    20. Advanced Windows XP Tweaks

    21. Use MSConfig to disable any unnecessary startup items:
      Start Menu -> Run -> Type ‘MsConfig’ -> Startup Tab -> Uncheck unnecessary startup items
      Windows-MSConfig
      Extra startup items are one of the main things that slows down a
      computer. The startup items are the programs that are loaded into
      memory when a computer starts up, like AIM, Antivirus programs, all of
      the little programs sitting in your task bar, and some programs you
      can’t see. Go through the list and look for any familiar programs and
      disable those first, then go back and look at the unfamiliar programs
      and try to find out what application they belong to, google the process
      name like ctfmon.exe and it should come up with a detailed use for the
      program in the listings and if it’s harmful or just a system program.
    22. Download TCP/IP Optimizer to enhance the internet connection:
      Download TCP/IP Optimizer at SpeedGuide.net -> Open TCPOptimizer -> Click ‘Optimal Settings’ -> Click ‘Apply changes’ -> Check ‘Backup’ -> Click ‘OK’
      TCP-IP-Optimizer
      TCP/IP Optimizer is a program that changes your Windows XP Network
      settings to optimize your network and internet performance, it change
      the amount of bytes it transfers among other things for your network by
      modifying some registry keys. It gives you a nice boost with your
      internet connection that Windows XP otherwise limits, and it makes
      backups that you can restore just in case something goes awry.
    23. Download and Install Cacheman to maximize performance of the caches:
      Download ‘Cacheman’,
      not CachemanXP -> Install Cacheman -> Run Cacheman -> Click
      ‘Show wizard’ Menu -> Click ‘All’ -> Go through the wizard and
      leave everything at the default settings, Cacheman will optimize
      everything -> Go to ‘Options’ -> Uncheck ‘Load Cacheman on
      Windows startup’

      Cacheman
      Cache man goes through your cache and optimizes them for maximum
      performance. It also changes a few other settings that help with memory
      throughput, performance, and lower the time it takes for Windows to
      shutdown an application, speeds up the start menu and speeds up Windows
      XP shutdown.
    24. Disable unused Windows XP services:
      Start Menu -> Run -> Type ‘Services.msc’
      Windows-XP-Services
      It’s important to always save the best for last. This last tweak is
      going to provide the most performance out of all other tweaks, and it
      takes the longest to implement. After
      you’ve opened up the Services windows you’re going to go down the list
      and look for services that you don’t need, then right click on them, go
      to ‘Properties’, pull down the ‘Startup type:’ menu and click
      ‘Disabled, then click ‘OK’
      . It’s not hard but you have to go
      through the list of services and figure out what’s needed and what’s
      not. Actually, someone else has already done that. Head over to Black Viper’s Windows XP Service Configurations.
      He has a table built that tells you what safe to disable and what you
      should leave alone, but if you don’t want to take time deciphering his
      table I’ll just tell you which ones you can go ahead and disable with
      no problems.

      Disable These Services:
      Application Management
      Clipbook
      Computer Browser
      Error Reporting Service
      HID Input Service (Note:
      This service will disable the multimedia functions on many multimedia
      keyboards, so if you have a multimedia keyboard it is recommended that
      you do not disable this service)

      Indexing Service
      Net Logon
      NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
      Network Location Awareness (NLA)
      Network Provisioning Service
      Portable Media Serial Number Service
      QoS RSVP
      Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
      Remote Registry
      Secondary Logon (If you only have one user on your computer)
      TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service
      Telnet
      Uninterruptable Power Supply
      WebClient
      Windows Time
      WMI Performance Adapter

    There you have it, the Ultimate Windows XP Optimization Tweak Guide
    has come to an end. These tweaks have been hand-tested, hand-proven,
    and took the contributions of many people over the years to discover
    all of these optimizations to Windows XP. I’d like to thank you all for
    making this OS faster than ever. If any reader has a major tweak that I
    may have missed somewhere that offers signicant performance boosts
    please be sure to drop me a comment or send me an email about it, and
    I’d be glad to add it to the guide if it is worth it.