Chat With FB Friends Via Yahoo Messenger!

Although it's still in beta version, it's quite a try.

Install Yahoo Messenger Version 11 (Beta). Then connect your Yahoo account with your FB account.

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And click the "Sign In" link to see your FB list of friends who are online on FB Chatbox

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You don't have to open your browser, regardless if you're online or not in your FB Chatbox.

I've done some tests (see image below) using my FB account (left) and my "Other" FB account (right) to chat with each other.

The message was sent across to your friend's FB Chatbox.

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The downside so far is that the messages can also be seen from your FB page even when you're in Yahoo Messenger. Through this, the conversations can never be private.

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So don't leave your FB page open at home. Don't let your browser save your passwords. Don't give your password to even your closest friend. Or better, don't use Yahoo Messenger to chat with your FB friends.

Another down side is, since Yahoo and Facebook have their own network infrastructure, the data exchange is not that close as real-time. There are delays. Meaning, you can't be notified immediately while in YM as soon as your FB friend signs out and vice versa. Your messages during this period of delay will have a 50% chance of being sent across but not vice versa. The next time you open your FB page...you'll get this:

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Rootkit Virus 'Yan!

Sintomas:
1. Kapag di nagload ang first tab ng IE mo, at saglit na naghahang ang buong system mo
2. Kapag ang Chrome mo ay di nagloload ng page at parang forever na ang wait o busy cursor mo, iisipin mo, "wala na naman Internet?! Anak ng!"
3. Pero pag nag-"ping" ka naman ng kahit anong site, may reply o kaya ang torrent mo ay nagdodownload naman.

Wala 'Yan Sa Anti-Virus Ng Lolo Ko!
Eh, ang hihina naman pala ng AV ng mga lolo n'yo! Kahit i-scan mo pa yan ng pinagmamalaki mo'ng AV, di madedetect yan. Kasi ang Rootkit Virus ay nagloload muna siya at mag-imbisibol na bago pa lang mag load ang AV mo.

Pa'no? Eh Puppet Ako?
Pa'no matatanggal? Ayon kay Wikipedia, re-install mo ang OS mo. Tapos alam mo na kung ano pa ang mga iinstall mo pagkatapos...lahat ng naka-install sayo ngayon! Harharhar.

Pero kung isa kang tanungan ng bayan kapag may problema ang computer nila, ganito ang gagawin mo:

1. Punta ka sa Services, o kaya i-type mo sa Run (Window Key + R) ang "services.msc" at wag kalimutan pindutin ang Enter, click mo ang header na "Description" para ma-sort sya alphabetically, i-disable mo yung mga services na tumatakbo at wala namang description.

2. I-delete sa Windows Registry ang mga services na kahina-hinala. Muli mo i-type sa Run ang "regedit", syempers, i-pindot mo ang enter. Tapos punta ka sa HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services at hanapin mo ang mga services na gusto mo i-delete. PAALALA: Wag mo gagawin to kapag di ka sanay maki-alam ng Windows Registry, baka magcomment ka na sinisisi mo ako.

3. Punta ka sa Task Manager, at i-End Task mo ang mga kahina-hinalang processes-sess!

4. Punta ka sa Task Scheduler at tanggalin ang mga kahina-hinalang tasks.

5. Punta ka ulit sa Registry Editor at burahin mo ang mga kahina-hinalang startup programs sa mga locations na 'to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/CURRENTVERSION/RUN
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/CURRENTVERSION/RUNONCE
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/CURRENTVERSION/RUNONCEEX
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/CURRENTVERSION/RUNSERVICES

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/CURRENTVERSION/RUN
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/CURRENTVERSION/RUNONCE
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/CURRENTVERSION/RUNONCEEX
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/CURRENTVERSION/RUNSERVICES

6. Punta ka rin sa Start->Programs->Startup at i-delete ang mga kahina-hinalang programs dun.

7. Di na kelangan magpunta pa sa MSConfig, kung ginawa mo na ang step 5.

8. Download mo at iinstall ang TDSSKiller. Follow mo lang ang mga instructions nya at magrerestart ka ng computer after nya may madetect na Rootkit.

Kung Ni-tatamad Ka Gawin Ang Mga Sinabi Ko Sa Itaas O Isa Ka Sa Mga Taga-Bayan!

Mag download ka na lang ng mga AV na meron nang Anti-Rootkit na kasama.
Ang i-recommend ko ay Microsoft Security Essentials, libre na, maliit pa ang footprint nya sa system mo. O kaya ang Webroot Security Essentials, pero di sya libre. Sa torrent meron libre.
Dami ko sinabi, meron naman palang ganito!

I Now Have A Reason Not To Go Back To Firefox

Google Chrome is fast indeed, but surfers like me don't want to see annoying ads. The only reason I went back using Firefox is because of the plugin AdBlock Plus. So I'm using two browsers depending on what sites I visit. But sometimes I forget. I get unaware opening sites that should be opened on the other browser.

Finally, AdBlock is now available on Chrome. You just have to upgrade your Chrome to the latest version and install the AdBlock Extension from here. At last, I will be surfing fast as ever and never gonna see those x-ray cellphone ads again.

Happy surfing!

Network Switching Software

Connecting to several networks like at home and to my work is tiresome and slow. I also have these mapped network drives at home, about four of them from drive W to drive Z, and I also have two mapped drives from my work which are drives U and V. The disadvantage is that I don't need these offline mapped drives on either networks. So I need a network switching utility that could also handle these map drives.

The best so far that I've been using is Mobile Net Switch. It replaced my Net4Switch (by Asus) utility. Mobile Net Switch not only handle your IP addresses, but also mapped drives, desktop wallpaper, Outlook accounts, network printers, and Internet settings. Changing between networks is just a click away. It is compatible with Windows 7.

Starcraft 2 Beta Opt-In Is Out!

System requirements:
• Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7
• 2.2 Ghz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
• 1 GB system RAM/1.5 GB for Vista and Windows 7
• 128 MB NVidia GeForce 6600 GT / ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card
• 1024×768 minimum display resolution
• 4 GB free hard space (Beta)
• Broadband connection

Unfortunately you need to sign up for a Battle.net account, opt in to participate in upcoming Blizzard Entertainment betas through Battle.net Account Management, and upload your system specifications using their quick system-snapshot software. If you’re selected, you’ll be notified in the coming months.

I'd rather wait for the final release. Meanwhile, I'm gonna have to enjoy the gameplay.

Pixel Shader, Shader Model

Pixel Shader is one of the most neglected main specification of a video/graphics card and Shader Model is often an ignored system requirement of PC games because it's new to most of us...excluding me.

Technically Speaking
A Pixel Shader is a type of shader program, often executed on a GPU. These programs are used to perform complex per-pixel effects. Moreover,
it is a computation kernel function that computes color and other attributes of each pixel. Pixel Shaders range from always outputting the same color, to applying a lighting value, to doing bump mapping, shadows, specular highlights, translucency and other phenomena. A Pixel Shader alone cannot produce very complex effects, because it operates only on a single pixel, without knowledge of a scene's geometry or of neighboring pixels. More info here.

A Shader Model is an instruction set that controls different types of shaders. One of which is the pixel shader. Shader Model is included in Direct3D.


Now, why the hell these became significant? Well, you don't want to spend your money on something that will be of limited use and you don't want to waste your bandwidth and time downloading games that won't even run on your rig. Also, that you will not wonder why that game you just bought won't run on your newly bought graphics card.

Some games will require your system with Model Shader support, and there are different versions that the game would require. Presently, Model Shader is on version 5 of Direct3D 11 and it comes with Windows 7.

So how would you know what Shader Model version that the game requires?
Check it's system requirements, and look for the Video Card part where it says "Shader Model".

How then would you know if your Video Card has Pixel Shaders?
Go to www.systemrequirementslab.com, choose "Assassin's Creed" game, and click on "Can You Run It" link. It will require you to install a component, allow it. It'll scan your system, and show you the results. Howevery it is not accurate, because I can run games that failed on its analysis. Or download GPU-Z, it will tell you everything.

Shader Model is hardware dependent. Even when you're on Windows 7 with DirectX 11, it'll still depend on your graphics card if it can support it. If your card was bought before Windows 7's release, then probably your card don't support it.

What's the difference?


No more polygons and the shades are smoother. Sorry XP users, you have to upgrade to Windows 7, and Vista users, you should be on the latest Service Packs.

So the next time you buy a game or a graphics card, be prepared.

Windows Management Instrumentation Win32 Classes Methods and Properties

I was looking for a quick reference for Windows Management Instrumentation, but I can't find a good one. Instead, I found a script that lists all the Win32 Classes of WMI. There are other classes aside from Win32, but that's the only one I needed.

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is the infrastructure for management data and operations on Windows-based operating systems. You can write WMI scripts or applications to automate administrative tasks on remote computers but WMI also supplies management data to other parts of the operating system and products, for example System Center Operations Manager, formerly Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), or Windows Remote Management (WinRM). For more details click here.

I am developing a library that will handle License and Registration for a program and I needed to get serial numbers of the devices such as the BIOS, CPU, and the mobo. There is already a .NET class for this floating around the Internet, but I am designing a counterpart for none-.NET applications. However I was wondering what classes does a device belongs to, and what exactly are their names. So I ran the script that I found and it generated this listing, click here. I hope this will be of use to anyone looking for the same thing.