Extract text from images

Have you got an image that contains a lot of text and you want that entire thing as a text file. May be you downloaded some image from google books but simply cant copy text from it. It would be a real headache to type the entire thing isn't it..?

Luckily, there are tools on the internet that can allow us to save time.
One of them is www.free-ocr.com
OCR stands for optical character recognition, i.e it identifies characters from the image and outputs as text.

Step 1.>
Let us suppose we have this image and we want to get the text.

Step 2.>
Open www.free-ocr.com and upload the file.

Step 3.>
We get the desired text as the output.

Notice that you get some unwanted text at some places but that can be easily removed...its still better than typing the whole thing.
You will also get better results if you use an image that contains black text on a white background.

So, next time you have an image and want the text out of it...you know what to do.. : -)

NFS - Most Wanted All Jackspots, Billboards and speedcams

A post once more for NFS lovers...the latest release (Need For Speed Most Wanted) was out a few weeks ago and this one is really addicting allowing you to smash through bill boards and find cars in hidden locations...
I made the work a little easier for you...the following images show all these locations on the map... :D
so just drive to these locations and unlock cars and achievements...

All JACKSPOTS (Click on the images for a higher resolution)

All BillBoards...

All Speed Cams...

Enjoy playing the game now... :)

Password protect any program

Have you ever missed a feature in windows to lock any application you do not wish others to use. I know there are softwares available that allows you to lock a particular folder, but how about locking a program such that when someone tries to open Google Chrome on your computer, he requires a password. Maybe you have some bookmarks or active logins to your personal sites... ; - )

Even I missed this feature and after some searching I stumbled upon this software EXE password. Yes..as the name suggests you can lock any exe file on your system in a really simple way..

Firstly download this software HERE.

Install it, and when it runs for the first time it will ask for a key. Register using the key given in the notepad file. OK, now we are good to go.

Step 1.> 
Launch the software, and select the desired .exe file from anywhere on your computer. I am selecting my favorite Firefox browser from my desktop..(you may click the image to enlarge)

Step 2.>
Type the desired password and then re-enter to confirm it. Now click 'Next' and you will see a successful confirmation dialog and now my Firefox browser is password protected. No one except me can access it. :-D

Step 3.>
What's the point of a lock when you can't unlock it. Well, here is a way to reverse the process.
Start the program EXE password again and select the desired .exe file again(firefox in my case).
You will now see different options if the same file is selected.
Chose to delete the password or change it as per your wish and you are good to go...

Do give this wonderful software a try.... :)


WARNING: For totally new computer users, please do not lock any files from the System32 folder, they contain necessary files to keep windows running.

Create a file of any size in windows

Ever wanted to create a blank file in your system or maybe a garbage file which has no use at all..just for testing purposes or something else..??

Here is a trick to create a blank file from windows of any specific size without any software.
Just follow these steps:-

-> Goto RUN(win key + R) and type cmd and press enter.

-> or open c>windows>and right click on cmd and click run as administrator.

-> in command prompt type

-> fsutil(space)file(space)createnew(space)name_of_drive:name_of_file.extension(space)size

example 
fsutil file createnew e:testfile.avi 1000000

where 1000000 is file size in bytes and e: is the name of the drive where you want to create the file.
after writing this, hit enter and the file will be created in the specified drive.

You can change the extension of the file to whatever you like or leave it blank to create an unknown file.

Note:keep the drive in which you are creating the file opened in background. 

Download Angry Birds Star Wars [CRACKED]

The latest version of angry birds is now out and available for download on PC/iOS/Android/Windows Phone.

If you want to get the PC version, you can download it here..

DOWNLOAD LINK.

Remove start button from windows 7

The recently launched Windows 8 has removed the start button which used to be a trademark since a long period of time. Instead of it, they have introduced a completely new start screen that gives you access to all kinds of new apps with live tiles and stuff.

If you want to get a feel of the it by removing the start button in Windows 7, it is possible.

There is no inbuilt way to remove the start button in Windows 7, but a third party tool allows you to do it.

You may also want to remove the start button to get some more space for icons on the taskbar as the start menu can be opened directly by using the 'WIN' key on the keyboard or some shortcut like 'Ctrl+Esc'.

Here's how to do it.

Step 1.>
Download this software. START KILLER.

Step 2.>
Install it. Will take just a few seconds.

Step 3.>
Run the program and your start button will be removed... : D

Here's a screenshot of my desktop after removing the start button...

The best part of this tool is that you can set it to run at startup and it will automatically remove the start button everytime.
The beauty further increases as it does not disable the start menu, and you can access the start menu by using the keyboard shortcut or pressing the 'WIN' key on the keyboard.

Here's the menu after pressing the 'WIN' key...

The process shows in the taskbar and if you want your start button back you can simply exit the process. Simple... !!

Do give it a try...

3 passwords in facebook

What does the post title suggest to you? Can you set 3 different passwords for facebook or are you allowed to change your password 3 times within a week or something like that...??

NO!!
By the post title I mean that your Facebook profile has 3 passwords by default and you can use any of them to login...and facebook will get you through... ; - )

Now, you might be wondering how can a single account have 3 passwords...??

To understand this let us suppose that the original password of your facebook account is:- 'geeksRuLe'
I am considering the capital and small cases as well.

Now have a look at this image

Yes, these are your 3 passwords

Password 1:- your original password

Password 2:- your password with the small cases with only the first letter in capitals.

Password 3:- your password with all the cases toggled (i.e:- capitals are now small and the smalls are now capitals)

You can try this trick on your own account and facebook will let you in with these 3 variations.. :-D

The logic behind this is that some smartphones have auto capitalization of the 1st letter, which gives password 2.
Suppose you have the caps lock key ON and you type your password holding the shift key, this will result in entry of the password in toggled cases than your original password...and hence Password 3.

Smart Facebook!!...isn't it..??

Lock a folder without any additional software

Do you want to protect your personal files but hate installing a totally new software for it.
YES, it can be done without any software.

Difficulty level: VERY EASY

Step 1.>
Go to the location where you want to create a Locker.

Step 2.>
Create a new notepad file and copy the below code exactly as it is:-

cls
@ECHO OFF
title Folder Locker
if EXIST "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" goto UNLOCK
if NOT EXIST Locker goto MDLOCKER
:CONFIRM
echo Are you sure u want to Lock the folder(Y/N)
set/p "cho=>"
if %cho%==Y goto LOCK
if %cho%==y goto LOCK
if %cho%==n goto END
if %cho%==N goto END
echo Invalid choice.
goto CONFIRM
:LOCK
ren Locker "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
attrib +h +s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
echo Folder locked
goto End
:UNLOCK
echo Enter password to Unlock folder
set/p "pass=>"
if NOT %pass%==nikoo28 goto FAIL
attrib -h -s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
ren "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" Locker
echo Folder Unlocked successfully
goto End
:FAIL
echo Invalid password
goto end
:MDLOCKER
md Locker
echo Locker created successfully
goto End
:End

Step 3.>
Look for the text "nikoo28" in the above code. This was the password for my folder locker. You can change it as per your requirement. Just remove it and type your own.

Step 4.>
Save this file by the name of locker and change its extension to .bat

Step 5.>
You are almost done now. Just double click the file. If this is the first time you are using this locker.bat file, a folder named Locker will automatically be created.

Now drag all your personal files in this folder.

Once you are done, again double click the locker.bat file and you will be asked for a confirmation dialog "DO YOU WANT TO LOCK? (Y/N)". Press Y and your folder will be locked.

To Unlock, double click the locker.bat file again and you will be prompted for a password. Enter it and your folder will reappear... :-D

I hope this tutorial helps....any further discussion can be done in the comments.

Send encrypted emails (private emails)

Sending private email messages is one thing and sending encrypted email messages is another.
For naive users encryption can be very tough. I recently found this web tool that allows you to easily encrypt your messages and send it as a email.
Encryption is basically a technique to protect your messages even if your account is hacked. They can only be decoded if you have the correct key to decrypt the messages.

So, if you need to send some really confidential messages I propose to you a very easy solution.

Step 1.>
Open www.lockbin.com

Step 2.>
This site offers a free encryption facility. Click on 'Start Now'.

Step 3.>
You are now presented with a form, in which you can fill the particulars, enter a secret password and then send the email to the desired recipients. After filling the form click on submit to send the email.

Step 4.>
Now, you need to convey the secret key to the receiver through some means like a text message or a phone call. This is a secure method as you can set the same password every time you send an encrypted mail.

That's it...you are done.
This method of encryption is an added layer of security to protect your confidential messages. Go ahead and give it a try...

Make your laptop a wifi hotspot

Most of us have seen the feature in android phones which allows you to convert your phone into a wifi hotspot and then the mobile's data connection can be used in latops or other wifi devices to connect to the Internet.

Have you ever wondered if you could do the same with your laptop.
Suppose you have a USB modem(or a LAN connection) that allows you to connect to the Internet on your Laptop but you are limited and cannot use that Internet connection on your mobile device or some other laptop.

Maybe you are in a room with 3 or more friends where one of the guys has a USB modem. Only 1 person can access the internet at a time?? If you have any of these problems, I present you a solution which will help you out... : D

You can convert your laptop into a wifi hotspot using a third party tool 'mhotspot'. Download Link.

Step 1.> Download the above software. Its a very small 300Kb file. ;-)

Step 2.> Run the downloaded file.Goto Setup tab and enter the hotspot name and password of your choice.

Step 3.> Now,goto hotspot tab , click Start hotspot and "open network and sharing centre".

Step 4.> Click on the blue label of your active internet connection . 

Example:- Local area connection,PPOE connection, 3G-USB Connection, etc.

Step 5.> Then a status box will appear, click properies.

Step 6.> Go to sharing tab and tick the box,"Allow other users to connect through this computer's internet connection" and select the wireless network connection 2(This is the same name which appeared in the image of step 4). 

Step 7.> Click "start hotspot" to enable sharing your internet through wifi.

Step 8.> Final view.

  

And you are done.... !!  

Now you can view and connect to this network on your other wifi devices and use it freely... :D
 You need not configure this entire process every time you set up a hotspot. One time configuration will do.

If you change your internet connection, then you need to reconfigure.

You can even create a hotspot if you are accessing internet using a LAN cable also.  

Download Link 

Google changes its 'i am feeling lucky" button

The homepage of google has had a "I am feeling lucky" button for almost a decade...what it does is take you directly to the 1st search result of whatever you do.

Google changed this on 24th Aug 2012, and it now lets you feel other things as well.. ;-)
Now the company has made a clever little change to this feature designed to show off some of Google's most interesting projects.

To experience this just navigate to the homepage of Google

Now hover your mouse over the "I am feeling button" and wait for the magic. The button turns into a slot machine and finally stops upon something that says "I am feeling wonderful' , "I am feeling puzzled"..etc etc..
Just click on these to explore something new each time.

I found all these permutations, you must try them as well..

• I'm Feeling Stellar takes you to the Google Earth Hubble telescope image gallery.
• I'm Feeling Puzzled takes you to the Google A Day search-based puzzle.
• I'm Feeling Trendy takes you to the Hot Searches page.
• I'm Feeling Artistic takes you to the Google Art Project site.
• I'm Feeling Hungry takes you to a page of search results for "restaurants."
• I'm Feeling Playful takes you to a gallery of interactive Google Doodles.
• I'm Feeling Doodley takes you to a full gallery of Google Doodles.
• I'm Feeling Wonderful takes you to the Google World Wonders project.

Keep trying...who knows Google adds new combinations from time to time..

Microsoft uncovers a new look

Microsoft just did something which had been constant since the last 25 years. They unveiled a new logo yesterday.

As quoted from the official blog of Microsoft- "its a perfect time for change".

Surely this is supposed to be a huge year for Microsoft, with the release of Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, the new Microsoft Outlook, new XBOX services, the Microsoft SURFACE and also the latest version of MSOffice.
Microsoft has been trying to provide a familiar and seamless experience whether it be your PC, Laptop, Mobile, TV or any Tablet. With these new beginnings Microsoft also evolved their logo visually.

The software giant's new logo reflects a change in the company's branding that has been triggered by the new look Windows 8 interface and branding. Microsoft's Office team has also adopted a similar interface and style, and Windows Phone 8 completes the trio of products for Microsoft's major rebrand this year.

As quoted from the official blog "The Microsoft brand is about much more than logos or product names. We are lucky to play a role in the lives of more than a billion people every day. The ways people experience our products are our most important “brand impressions”. That’s why the new Microsoft logo takes its inspiration from our product design principles while drawing upon the heritage of our brand values, fonts and colors."

BONUS:- You can also Download the new Microsoft Logo Wallpaper Pack here.

Add "defrag a drive" in right click menu

Disk defragmentation is a useful tool to boost up the performance of your system and you should generally defrag your drives once every two weeks.
But are you fed up of the long method, opening "Disk Defragmenter" and then selecting drives and then clicking the defrag option.??

Wouldn't it be cool if you got a shorter way to achieve the same process...how about a simple right click...?? ;-)

You can easily achieve this effect in WINDOWS 7 by a small registry trick. You can then defrag a drive by going to My Computer->right-click the drive->choose defrag.

Step 1->
Open "regedit" from the RUN(win key+R) dialog box, and navigate to the following key.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell

Step 2->
Right click on "shell" and select the option "create a new key". Type its name as "runas" (without the quotes).
Look in the right pane and right click the (Default) icon and select "modify data". Type in "Defragment".
Actually whatever you will type here will appear in the right click menu in My Computer. You should now be having this.

Step 3->
Now right click on "runas" and again "create a new key". Type its name as "command". In the right pane, the key is created. Right click and click on "modify data".
Type in "defrag %1 -v"
You should have this now.

 
Press the F5 key, this refreshes the registry. Open My computer and right click any drive. I hope you get it.. :-)
As you click on Defragment, a cmd terminal will open up that starts defragmentation of the drive.

Enjoy..and stay tuned...

For Beginners who are scared to edit the registry:-  

You can download the files for automatic process here. Just extract the file and double click on .reg file that says addDefrag.

Download any torrent in zip format

Have you ever thought of a way that you could download your favorite torrents without using any torrent client like utorrent,BitTransmission or BitTorrent etc.
Also maybe you study in an institution which allows internet access but has block all gateways for you to run or download torrents.

Well, I present you a way that you can download any torrent in .zip format just by using your browser ;-)

Step 1.>
Open your favorite torrent site and browse for the torrent you want to download. I will be showing my example using www.kickasstorrents.com

Right click on the download link and click on copy link address.

Step 2.>
Once you are done, open the website www.zbigz.com

You will see a text area to past the torrent link. Right click on the text area and click on paste. The link of the torrent will appear in the text box. Alternatively you can also download your favorite torrent and upload it using the option provided.

Step 3.>
Click on GO. You will be presented with a choice of free user or premium user. Select the free user option and then wait for a while while the website caches the torrent for you. This should hardly take a minute or two(depends on the torrent size).
Once the caching is done, a link will appear that will allow you to download the torrent in zip format.

Just click on this link and you are good to go... :-D

HAVE FUN!!

Optional Tip: In case of very big torrents like 7-8 GBs, caching will take sometime, what you can do is create an account on the website and add the torrent. The caching will continue and you can even download the torrent next day.

Hidden themes in windows 7

After installing windows 7..you might surely have chosen the personalize option to setup a theme as per your mood. But do you know that windows 7 offers you FIVE hidden themes that are by default country based.
But this should not be an obligation to you..right... ;)

Here are some of the wallpapers you will not find in your theme packs..

To enable these themes you need to navigate to the folder:-

C:\Windows\Globalization  (considering windows is installed in C drive)

Now you need to access a folder named MCT..by default it is hidden and you will not find it...to access it simply click on the address bar and edit it this way..

The folder now gets opened and it shows you 5 folders based on different locations...australia, united states etc...

Open any folder and you will get a folder named Theme. Open that folder and you will find a theme file inside it...simply double click it and viola!...you have a totally new theme you can boast about in front of your friends..

If you have trouble finding the folder, I uploaded all the themes at a single place and you can DOWNLOAD IT HERE..

The South Africa theme has some really good wallpapers..do give them a try..

Alternate download link.

The new Microsoft Outlook

"Microsoft just did the impossible"...with its new mail service Outlook..it has given a fresh and a tidy look which offers a great competition to the current king gmail...
I am not saying that it is a better alternative to gmail but surely it has a upper hand in some areas. Many users may find it more appealing and useful..you need to try it on your own for a few weeks to make up your mind.
Just to give a quick glimpse of the new Outlook I have connected my gmail to it and have been using it for a few days. Meanwhile I found some cool and unique features of this new mail service, that you will surely miss in gmail.

1.>Login with a temporary(one-time use) password

This feature is something quite new and you may not find it in any other email service. Logging in with a temporary password is especially useful when you sign in using public computers. Once you add your mobile number to your outlook account, you can make use of this feature.
The Sign in page of outlook looks like this.

Click on the one-time-use password and you will be then asked for your mobile number. Enter it and you will receive a code on the registered mobile number. You can use this code to Sign In.
This code expires after first use and thus there is no risk. Gmail has an equivalent two step verification, but this one-time-use method is way more easy.

2.>Unlimited Storage Space

Gmail offers you a 10GB storage space, whereas Outlook offers a virtually unlimited storage space. The size of your inbox will keep on increasing as you keep receiving more and more emails, certainly a plus point as you need to pay for more storage space in Gmail

3.>Easily recover your deleted mails

What if you delete a mail, surely it goes to your trash folder and what if you empty your trash folder accidentally. Poof!..all the mails are gone. Outlook has a upper hand on this as it allows you to recover your deleted mails. I am not sure how long Microsoft is gonna keep the mails on their server, but certainly this feature can come in handy.

Just go to your trash folder and you will find the link to recover mails in case you have deleted them. Gmail has no such feature.

4.>Get disposable email addresses

This is one of the feature I certainly loved about Outlook mail. Creating disposable email addresses. You may certainly be visiting websites that require registration and ask for your email addresses. Once you sign up they will send you emails about their new campaigns, promotions, ads and what not.
To avoid this, you can simply create a disposable email address when you want to sign up somewhere. The advantage lies that you can delete these email addresses permanently when you don't need them.
Suppose the website starts sending you ads etc..simply remove the temporary email address and you are saved.. Cheers!!

However, its completely your choice to keep those email addresses in case you like the newsletters or something like that..

5.>Compose a message directly in HTML and CSS

Outlook offers a rich text editor as the gmail, but for power users it also offers a hidden surprise. You can switch to html editor and specify your own CSS styles to compose a mail. Like I said, it will certainly tickle the power users.

6.>Blocking email addresses

Gmail offers filters to block a particular sender from sending you emails. Outlook has made this process really simple by giving you the option of directly adding the blocked domains or users.

7.>Send large files with attachment

Like Gmail, Outlook also offers a maximum of 25MB to be attached with the mail, However, if the attachment size increases by 25MB, you need to upload the file to dropbox or some file sharing site and then send the link...tedious job isnt it..??
Outlook on the other hand automatically uploads the file to SkyDrive and sends it. This way you can easily attach large files to send. Gmail still lacks this functionality in-spite of having Google Drive that is similar to the Microsoft SkyDrive. Again a plus point.

8.>Sort By Size

Some people are really gonna like this functionality. Gmail misses it. You can actually sort your emails by size, that means you can know which emails are consuming a lot of space of your Inbox and it becomes easy to get rid of them.

Miscellaneous PLUS points:-

• Outlook is fast. Other than the beautiful UI of the new service, it is presumed to be relatively fast than any other mail service. Microsoft is calling it the preview version, but I couldn't find any bugs.
• If you are fed up of the ads gmail offers. Microsoft promises that it wont scan the keywords in your inbox to send you similar advertisements.
• Outlook is new. The point is that many new usernames are up for grabs. You can even get an id like yourname@outlook.com
  So, don't miss the opportunity.

Well, this was the first impression...feel free to comment and add your own opinions...also stay tuned for more..and yes..

SIGN UP NOW...

The amazing spiderman theme for Windows 7

I bet you had a funtime watching The Amazing Spiderman. For those of you who want to customize there laptop/desktop with the amazing spiderman theme, I have a good news for you.

You can download the customized theme here.
The theme comes with 15+ wallpapers and custom sounds and iconpack.
Here are some of the screenshots.

The custom icon pack is as:-

So..don't wait..and apply this theme as quickly as possible...

DOWNLOAD IT HERE... (just simply double click the theme file)

Give curved edges to your pictures

You have got some awesome snaps and may be you want to upload them online, or create a photo album but hate the rectangle edges...do you want rounded edges that give your photographs a smooth look..?? like this one...eh..??

Manually cropping each photo will drive you insane and will bore you tremendously. Luckily, we have a online tool at www.cutmypic.com .
This tool allows you to easily round the image corners and even add special effects to it that can give your photos a decent look.

Step 1.> Open www.cutmypic.com

Just browse and select a photo from your computer that you want to give rounded corners.

Step 2.> Once the upload is complete, you will be directed to a new page that will give you several options to edit the image. You can give rounded corners, add a drop shadow, apply light effects, sharpen, denoise etc etc..

For an effect like the top picture set the options as pointed by red arrows.

Step 3.> Once you are done with the options you are provided with an option to crop the image as per your desire..I made some size of my own, and then you can click the preview button which will show you the output image.
You can directly share this image to social networking sites like facebook and twitter.

Step 4.> Once you are over with it, click on done and you will be provided with an option to save the image to your computer.

So, go ahead and refine those special moments of yours...happy curving, cropping and sharing... : - )

BONUS for fans: You can download this Avril Lavigne full resolution wallpaper here.