Windows XP End of Support - Fromrum Friday

Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing great. Welcome to my blog on this nice Friday! :)



With Windows XP support ended, I would like to share today some good articles about the same from Internet. Enjoy reading! :)

End of the road for Windows XP

THIS week sees the last batch of bug fixes and security patches that Microsoft will issue for Windows XP. After April 8th, computers using the 13-year-old operating system will continue to work just fine, but all technical support for XP—whether paid or otherwise—will cease. In a change of heart, Microsoft has at least agreed to continue issuing updates for its Security Essentials malware engine, which runs on XP, until July 2015. Apart from that, users who continue to rely on the thing will be on their own—at the mercy of mischief-makers everywhere.

More than a few seem determined to stick with it. According to NetMarketShare, a web-analytics consultancy, Windows XP runs on...Read More

Windows XP support has ended

Microsoft provided support for Windows XP for the past 12 years. But the time came for us, along with our hardware and software partners, to invest our resources toward supporting more recent technologies so that we can continue to deliver great new experiences.

As a result, technical assistance for Windows XP is no longer available, including automatic updates that help protect your PC. Microsoft has also stopped providing Microsoft Security Essentials for download on Windows XP. (If you already have Microsoft Security Essentials installed, you will...Read More

Windows XP retires: Here is why you need to upgrade, and what happens if you dont

Microsoft has said goodbye to Windows XP.

Although the operating system is more than 12 years old, and Windows XP computers haven’t been shipped since 2010, there are still millions of them in use. Gartner estimates that as much as 25 percent of Windows PCs in the workplace are running XP. Consumers tend to be even slower in upgrading.

Why so many XP computers? ...Read More

Memory lane: Before everyone loved Windows XP, they hated it

It wasn't meant to be this way. Windows XP, now no longer supported, wasn't meant to be popular. For all its popularity and sustained usage, people seem to have forgotten something important about it: it sucked.

The Ars forums are a place for geeks to hang out and chat about tech, and especially in light of the hostility shown toward Windows 8, we thought it might be fun to take a look at how our forum dwellers reacted when first introduced to Microsoft's ancient operating system.

The biggest problem with Windows XP was that it was Microsoft's first operating system to feature Product Activation, the licensing system that tied product keys to hardware fingerprints. Gone were the days of buying one copy of the software and installing it on multiple machines. With Windows XP, every system would need its own copy.

When the first news of activation broke, in January 2001,...Read More

When Windows XP support ends, this is how you secure your PC and save all updates

Support for Windows XP has now ended. Microsoft's 8 April support deadline has been and gone and the final security updates for Windows XP have now been released. Worryingly, these updates fixed two critical security flaws that would have allowed hackers to remotely execute code.

The final security fixes are part of Microsoft's Patch Tuesday update for 8 April 2014, the last time Windows XP will be included.

Despite the end of Windows XP support looming, it is estimated that 27.7 per cent of the world's computers still use it. Many security flaws uncovered in Windows Vista, 7 and 8 may also apply to Windows XP, with hackers potentially able to use Microsoft's own security updates to find new ways of exploiting the ageing operating system.

Only Windows 7, with around 47 per cent of the market, sits above Windows XP, with the much maligned Windows 8 taking just shy of seven per cent of the OS cake.

If you're one of the many Windows XP users out there...Read More

Microsoft's Windows XP is still kickin' -- do you use it?

Microsoft's XP operating system is still used on more than a third of the installations out there, according to figures from Net Applications. Is it really still that popular?

XP was released in August of 2001, more than a decade ago. It got a new lease on life when its successor, Vista, was declared -- at least initially -- a disaster back in 2006.

On Friday, figures from Net Applications (see graph at bottom) showed XP with a robust 37.74 percent of all Windows and Mac OS installations worldwide, down only slightly from 38.31 percent in April.

Need more proof of its enduring popularity? Dell provided some visibility on how many of its customers are still using older Windows operating...Read More

Calling all hackers: the end of Windows XP support could herald new security risks

After almost 13 years, Microsoft has ended support for its popular Windows XP operating system. It could be a curse for developing countries where XP is still common - and a blessing for hackers.

The first Windows XP version hit the market in 2001. Today, it's a dinosaur among operating systems in the fast-moving Internet world. But the great-grandfather of Windows 8 - Microsoft's newest system software - is still wildly popular: in Germany alone, it's estimated that between 11 and 20 percent of all computers still use XP.

Worldwide, XP is installed on about one third of all computers, and the very fact that the system is still commonly used all over the world makes it a global risk.

Since its launch, ...Read More

End of Windows XP support spells trouble for some

Microsoft will end support for the persistently popular Windows XP on Tuesday, and the move could put everything from the operations of heavy industry to the identities of everyday people in danger.

An estimated 30 percent of computers being used by businesses and consumers around the world are still running the 12-year-old operating system.

"What once was considered low-hanging fruit by hackers now has a big neon bull's eye on it," says Patrick Thomas, a security consultant at the San Jose, Calif.-based firm Neohapsis.

Microsoft has released a handful of Windows operating systems since 2001, but XP's popularity and the durability of the computers it was installed...Read More

Windows XP support end: 10 steps to cut security risks

With the demise of Microsoft support for Windows XP, those sticking with the 12-year-old OS undeniably face risks. The question is whether the risks are tolerable and manageable.

In most cases, Windows XP can still be used while firms try to complete migrations with the risk cut to an acceptable level, according to analyst firm Gartner — and without having to pay for costly Microsoft Custom Support.

"While doing nothing is an option, we do not believe that most organisations — or their auditors — will find this level of risk acceptable," vice president and Gartner fellow Neil MacDonald said in a report, Best practices for secure use of XP after support ends.

Between 20 percent and 25 percent of enterprise systems are still running XP, and one-third of organisations continue to use it on more than 10 percent of their machines, Gartner estimates.

For those still using the venerable OS ...Read More

Great news by the week 27/09/2013 - Fromrum Friday

Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing great. Welcome to my blog on this nice Friday evening! :)



Tonight I am sharing with you all some great techy news from this week. If you missed any of these cool articles, go ahead and check them out! :)

How do I maximize security for XP even after support ends?

In MBAM and SuperAntiSpyware you have made two excellent choices. While OnlineArmor Firewall (OAF) is powerful it clashes with many other programs. Years ago I found that out the hard way - I was using Avast Free Anti-virus and I added OnlineArmor Firewall and that crashed my system.

I am going to quote the obviously biased manufacturers ...Read More

Hackers crack major data firms, sell info to ID thieves, says report

An illegal service that sells personal data "on any U.S. resident" -- which can then be used for identity theft -- hacked into servers at several major data aggregators including LexisNexis and Dun & Bradstreet, according to a report.

The service's customers have, the report said, "spent hundreds of thousands of dollars looking up SSNs, birthdays, driver's license records, and obtaining unauthorized credit and background reports on more than 4 million Americans."

In an article Wednesday, former Washington Post reporter Brian Krebs, who now writes the KrebsOnSecurity blog, outlined how a site called Expose.su managed earlier this year to post financial information on celebrities and government officials.

The site's activities triggered an FBI investigation, in part because...Read More

Do you think kids should have cell phones?

"You need to build an ability to just be yourself and not be doing something."

This, as famed psychologist Louis C.K. explained to Conan O'Brien, is one of the reasons he doesn't want his girls to have cell phones.

Cell phones, he believes, are taking away "the ability to just sit there."

Underneath everything, you see, there's the knowledge that it's all for nothing and you're alone. Cell phones try to make you pretend that you can be in contact with someone all the time....Read More

Valve's Steam Machine prototype to ship early to 300 lucky players

On the heels of its SteamOS announcement, Valve has confirmed the existence of its living room PC hardware called Steam Machines. To test its early prototype, Valve is giving out 300 machines to eligible Steam users who apply for its beta test.

As for the final Steam Machines, "We want you to be able to choose the hardware that makes sense for you, so we are working with multiple partners to bring a variety of Steam gaming machines to market during 2014,...Read More

Chinese APT Espionage campaign, dubbed 'Icefog' targeted Military contractors and Governments

Kaspersky Lab has identified another Chinese APT campaign, dubbed ‘Icefog’, who targeted Governmental institutions, Military contractors, maritime / shipbuilding groups, telecom operators, industrial and high technology companies and mass media.

The Hacking group behind the attack who carry out surgical hit and run operations, is an advanced persistent threat (APT) group, used a backdoor dubbed Icefog that worked across Windows and Mac OS X to gain access to systems.
"The Mac OS X backdoor currently remains largely undetected by security solutions and has managed to infect several hundred victims worldwide," the report (PDF) said.

This China-based campaign is almost two years old and follows the pattern of similar APT-style attacks where victims are compromised via a malicious attachment in a spear-phishing email, or are lured to a compromised website and infected with malware....Read More

Hope you find them interesting. Send me your suggestions: suggestions4blog@gmail.com and comments: comment4blog@gmail.com
Hope to see you soon again. Good night! :)

Friday the 13th - Fromrum Friday

Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing great. Welcome to my blog on this nice Friday! :)



So since you know today is Friday the 13th, quite hyped and much feared, I thought to post today about this belief/superstition. I won't call it a superstition because it is so many people's belief that I won't like to hurt anyone. This phobia is called as friggatriskaidekaphobia (Frigga being the name of the Norse goddess for whom "Friday" is named in English and triskaidekaphobia meaning fear of the number thirteen), or paraskevidekatriaphobia a concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή, meaning "Friday"), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς, meaning "thirteen") attached to phobía (φοβία, from phóbos, φόβος, meaning "fear").

In Spanish-speaking countries, instead of Friday, Tuesday the 13th (martes trece) is considered a day of bad luck. The Greeks also consider Tuesday (and especially the 13th) an unlucky day. Tuesday is considered dominated by the influence of Ares, the god of war. A connection can be seen in the etymology of the name in some European languages (Mardi in French or martes in Spanish). The fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade occurred on Tuesday, April 13, 1204 and the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans happened on Tuesday, May 29, 1453, events that strengthen the superstition about Tuesday. In addition, in Greek the name of the day is Triti (Τρίτη) meaning literally the third (day of the week), adding weight to the superstition, since bad luck is said to "come in threes".

In Italian popular culture, Friday the 17th (and not the 13th) is considered a day of bad luck. In fact, in Italy, 13 is generally considered a lucky number. However, due to Anglo-Saxon influence, young people consider Friday the 13th unlucky as well.

I have collected an excerpt from some good articles about this day. You can check the original articles by clicking the read more button. The current format of this post will now be adopted fro future Fromrum Fridays featuring such decorated divs separating different articles. I will try to share best articles I read during the week on Fridays in this layout. I hope you all enjoy!

Friday the 13th

Several theories have been proposed about the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition.

One theory states that it is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day.

• In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve hours of the clock, twelve gods of Olympus, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, the 12 successors of Muhammad in Shia Islam, twelve signs of the Zodiac, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table results in the death of one of the diners.
• Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales, and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects.
• Friday is also the day when Jesus Christ was crucified, making it through folklore and adding to its unpopularity.
• One author, noting that references are all but nonexistent before 1907 but frequently seen thereafter, has argued that its popularity derives from the publication that year of Thomas W. Lawson's popular novel Friday, the Thirteenth, in which an unscrupulous broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on a Friday the 13th.
• Records of the superstition are rarely found before the 20th century, when it became extremely common. The connection between the Friday the 13th superstition and the Knights Templar was popularized in Dan Brown's 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code and in John J. Robinson's 1989 work Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry. On Friday, 13 October 1307, hundreds of the Knights Templar were arrested in France, an action apparently motivated financially and undertaken by the efficient royal bureaucracy to increase the prestige of the crown. Philip IV was the force behind this ruthless move, but it has also tarnished the historical reputation of Clement V. From the very day of Clement V's coronation, the king falsely charged the Templars with heresy, immorality and abuses, and the scruples of the Pope were compromised by a growing sense that the burgeoning French State might not wait for the Church, but would proceed independently. However, experts agree that this is a relatively recent correlation, and most likely a modern-day invention.

...Read More

Friday the 13th: Science says it really could be unlucky for some

Genuine paraskevidekatriaphobics, triskaidekaphobics or friggatriskaidekaphobics are perhaps rare these days, possibly because of the spelling challenges, but one of the most popular, or unpopular, superstitions endures in a time we like to think of as more logical and rational than were the intellectually darker eras in which they were created.

And while they've been walking around ladders and dodging black cats, the superstitious may have stumbled on some truth to the matter.

Scientists, those logical and rational types, have put this date's expectations of doom and gloom into a statistical...Read More

Friday 13th travellers take chance on flight 666 to HEL

Would you board flight 666 to HEL on Friday the 13th? For superstitious travellers, that might be tempting fate. But Finnair passengers on AY666 to Helsinki apparently were not too bothered. Friday's flight was almost full.

"It has been quite a joke among the pilots," said Juha-Pekka Keidasto, who will fly the Airbus A320 from Copenhagen to Helsinki. "I'm not a superstitious man. It's only a coincidence for me."

The daily flight AY666 from Copenhagen to Helsinki falls on Friday the 13th twice in 2013. Friday the 13th is considered bad luck in many countries and the number 666 also has strong negative biblical associations.

Some airlines, such as Scandinavian Airlines, take such fears seriously and do not have a row 13 on board. However, the negative connotations are a relatively new phenomenon...Read More

Why Does Friday the 13th Scare Us So Much?

"If nobody bothered to teach us about these negative taboo superstitions like Friday the 13th, we might in fact all be better off," said Stuart Vyse, a professor of psychology at Connecticut College in New London.

People who harbor a Friday the 13th superstition might have triskaidekaphobia, or fear of the number 13, and often pass on their belief to their children, he noted. Popular culture's obsession with the fear-think the Friday the 13th horror films and even this story-helps keep it alive, added Vyse, the author of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition.

Although superstitions can be arbitrary-a fear of ladders or black cats, for example-"once they are in the culture...Read More

Why Friday the 13th Is Unlucky

The sixth day of the week and the number 13 both have foreboding reputations said to date from ancient times. It seems their inevitable conjunction from one to three times a year (there will be two such occurrences in 2013, exactly 13 weeks apart) portends more misfortune than some credulous minds can bear. According to some sources it's the most widespread superstition in the United States today. Some people refuse to go to work on Friday the 13th; some won't eat in restaurants; many wouldn't think of setting a wedding on the date....Read More

And by the way, if you noticed, I shared 6 pics on this post! SPOOOOOKY!!! O_O :O

Stay calm, and do good things. Whatever is bound to happen will happen, so don't give others a reason to associate a bad happening with your wrong karma! Be good and everything will be good! :) For now, I take a leave. Good Night! See you all soon again! :)

Google Cleaning for 2013 - Fromrum Friday

Hey all! I hope you all are having a great Friday! :) Welcome to my blog on this Fromrum Friday! :D

Straight from Google's Blog

I am copying this content directly from the official google blog(Original article here). You all must take a look at the big changes coming in this year.

A second spring of cleaning
(Posted: Wednesday, March 13, 2013)

We’re living in a new kind of computing environment. Everyone has a device, sometimes multiple devices. It’s been a long time since we have had this rate of change—it probably hasn’t happened since the birth of personal computing 40 years ago. To make the most of these opportunities, we need to focus—otherwise we spread ourselves too thin and lack impact. So today we’re announcing some more closures, bringing the total to 70 features or services closed since our spring cleaning began in 2011:

• Apps Script will be deprecating the GUI Builder and five UiApp widgets in order to focus efforts on Html Service. The rest of the Ui Service will not be affected. The GUI Builder will continue to be available until September 16, 2013. For more information see our post on the Google Apps Developer Blog.
• CalDAV API will become available for whitelisted developers, and will be shut down for other developers on September 16, 2013. Most developers’ use cases are handled well by Google Calendar API, which we recommend using instead. If you’re a developer and the Calendar API won’t work for you, please fill out this form to tell us about your use case and request access to whitelisted-only CalDAV API.
• Google Building Maker helped people to make three-dimensional building models for Google Earth and Maps. It will be retired on June 1, but users are still able to access and export their models from the 3D Warehouse. We’ll continue to expand the availability of comprehensive and accurate new 3D imagery on Google Earth, and people can still use Google Map Maker to add building information such as outlines and heights to Google Maps.
• Google Cloud Connect is a plug-in to help people work in the cloud by automatically saving Microsoft Office files from Windows PCs in Google Drive. But installing Google Drive on your desktop achieves the same thing more effectively—and Drive works not only on Windows, but also on Mac, Android and iOS devices. Existing users will no longer be able to use Cloud Connect as of April 30.
• We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.
• Beginning next week, we're ending support for the Google Voice App for Blackberry. For Blackberry users who want to continue using Google Voice, we recommend they use our HTML5 app, which is more secure and easier for us to keep up to date. Our HTML5 site is compatible with users with Blackberry version 6 and newer.
• We’re deprecating our Search API for Shopping, which has enabled developers to create shopping apps based on Google’s Product Search data. While we believe in the value this offering provided, we’re shifting our focus to concentrate on creating a better shopping experience for users through Google Shopping. We’ll shut the API down completely on September 16, 2013.
• Beginning today we’ll no longer sell or provide updates for Snapseed Desktop for Macintosh and Windows. Existing customers will continue to be able to download the software and can contact us for support. We’ll continue to offer the Snapseed mobile app on iOS and Android for free.

These changes are never easy. But by focusing our efforts, we can concentrate on building great products that really help in their lives.

Washington Post article, printing with permission

Google Reader being taken down news is a big concern for many webmasters. I know this news is quite outdated, but hey, I am a blogger, and google reader is about to be taken down this Monday, so just refreshing memories. So memories refreshed? :D See you all soon again. Have a great weekend up ahead! :)

Please get me rid of Norton!! - No Offences ;) [Removal Guide and Alternatives] - Fromrum Friday

Hey all my dear readers! How are you? Hope you are enjoying your Friday and planning big for the weekend! :D For me studies are on the cards with final theory exams starting from Monday. Wassup with you all?



So I have used Norton in my past and I never liked it. It's security is not a big problem, the performance issues are. The articles on Internet suggest that Symantec products are hot favourites of hackers and malware designers to play with! Phew, that sounds bad, really bad. Norton ain't that bad a security product, but it degrades the computer performance by a big factor, a really considerable one.

Last week I downloaded and installed a trial copy of the latest version on Norton 360 just to see if it has improved. The boot time of my PC sky-rocketed and it increased at least by a factor of 10(I mean 10 times more time was required to start the computer). If it were undoubted security, the trade-off could have been said to be worth it, but it is just a good one, not the best one. When I had BitDefender on my PC, neither the performance, nor the security was marred. I would say Bit Defender provides Class A security with 100% performance benefits! :) But anyways, our concern here is Norton.

So many problems still Norton is the most popular Antivirus solution? The main reason is that people get it pre-installed on their PC when they buy a new one, else the product is so well marketed, it catches the attention easily. Norton is not the worst product, but if you wish to leave it behind without re-installing the Operating System, it used to give a hard time to anyone. Though a few years back, Symantec itself started to ease the removal process by making the Norton Uninstall a better tool and moreover, for those who still had problems, use a simple Norton Removal Tool(Available here).

I read a couple of posts on the Internet, and used them as a guide to remove Norton from my PC, though I had no problems in removing it, still to show you all how to proceed, I have compiled this small guide with screenshots from my PC during the removal process. A few screens in the beginning would show both Windows XP and Vista, later since it is the screenshots of the tool only, so I have used just one OS example to proceed.

So shall we start? Oh yeah! :)

Norton Removal Guide(Works well with Norton Antivirus, Internet Security, 360, etc.)

PLEASE DOWNLOAD NORTON REMOVAL TOOL FIRST! CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD NOW(DIRECTLY FROM SYMANTEC'S WEBSITE, FREE OF COST). Click any pic to zoom.

Step 1.

Go to Start Menu and Open Control Panel.

Step 2.

Open Add/Remove Programs(WinXP) or Uninstall a Program(Vista/7)

Step 3.

Find Norton Product you wish to uninstall, and click Change/Remove(XP) or Remove(Vista/7).

Step 4.

Go through the Uninstall Wizard. It is necessary to try the simple uninstall at first. If it fails, you must use Norton Removal Tool, else you should use the removal tool for making sure that you have got rid of it 100%. The following pics will guide you through the Uninstall Process.

Step 5.

Run the Norton Removal Tool to remove any remaining bits of Norton. In case the uninstall wizard was successful, do this for surety that you are free of Norton, and if it was unsuccessful, use this removal tool to get rid off Norton. If you have not yet downloaded the removal tool(I have already shared it's link thrice in this post), CLICK HERE NOW TO DOWNLOAD IT. Don't worry, it is safe and 100% free and legal to use. It is supplied by Symantec itself :) The following pics will guide you through the process :)

So you are done removing Norton? Time to move to a new Antivirus. Now there are several Free Alternatives available, of which I suggest using Microsoft Security Essentials, or Avast, or else AVG Antivirus. In case you want a paid antivirus, then I suggest going for Bit Defender or Kaspersky. No other seems worth it if Norton couldn't keep you secure.

In order of Preference, I suggest you guys:

1. Bit Defender - Paid; but the best Antivirus available in the market as yet
2. Microsoft Security Essentials - Free; But needs you to own a Genuine Copy of Windows ( which I know most of you don't use! :P ); The best free alternative
3. Kaspersky - The second best paid Antivirus. If you are using it and don't wish to buy BitDefender, don't worry, Kaspersky is a good antivirus :)
4. Avast - The most popular free antivirus solution available. Almost everyone has used it once in their life, LOL!
5. AVG - The most popular alternative to Avast(hahaha!); Free and easy to use, as effective as Avast. But sometimes gives problem by slowing down the Internet

I hope this guide helped you all who are still irritated by Norton's presence in their system. According to most of the forums, etc. I have read and gone through in this regard, I will say this is the complete guide :) I may be wrong, and if you guys have any suggestions or additions, please let me know so I can update here and help others too. Good Day! :)

A few links to buy Antivirus and security products online :)

Margarine and Vanaspati Ghee, quite similar? - Fromrum Friday

Hey all my dear readers! How are you? Hope you are enjoying your Friday evening? :)



My final practicals for the sixth semester started today and the first one went on nicely. Let's hope the best for the rest too :) Anyways, talking about the topic of this post, I guess you all know what margarine is, right? If not, we will discuss it in a minute. Meanwhile, I want to draw your attention towards "Vanaspati Ghee" which is hydrogenated vegetable fat, which is quite widely used in India for frying purposes in cooking. But the doctors don't recommend it to the heart patients, instead they recommend them to replace it with Refined Oil, and Butter with Margarine. SO what? I shall discuss this too in a minute. Gimme a second!! :D

Why am I writing this post?

A local grocery and daily needs store in my locality had an offer for the customers a couple of months ago which was sponsored by a famous Margarine company in India(I won't use the name, since I don't wish to pin-point anything), "Buy goods worth 300 INR and get a 100gm Margarine free after filling a small form". It wasn't a lucrative offer, but wasn't an idiotic one either. Since we buy certain house supplies on monthly basis, we thought to buy from that store then not because of the offer, but more because of the prices that were quite nice. I filled the form and submitted it. The owner said, "It would take a little time before you get your margarine since we are running low on supplies and the company is not responding well in this regard these days." Though I wasn't startled by this statement, still I said, "You should remove the offer banner if it meaningless, moreover I bought the supplies because I needed them, not because of your offer. But since you have put that banner on your store, as a shopkeeper it is your responsibility to give people the free goods then. Anyways, I don't care about your margarine, but since I live a couple of blocks away and I am around here in this market every few days, I'll keep checking on you if you could give me my free product." I left and kept checking in for a few weeks until I assumed it to be a hoax offer and thought never to return to that store again. But I was in the same market a couple of days ago and just fleetingly checked on that store. The store owner, though recognised me refused to give me the free margarine saying I had taken it earlier, though I never got it! Huh! but anyways, I got it from him later, LOL! :D Using that margarine on my toast I found that it had no taste. It had the softness and color of butter, but nothing else. Then I recalled what margarine is and to confirm did a little research on the Internet. To my amazement, I was quite correct. I didn't find a good reason of margarine being suggested by the doctors to heart patients, so I thought to write this post.

What is Margarine?

Quoting this from Wikipedia:
"It is a foodstuff used for spreading, baking, and cooking. It was originally created as a substitute for butter in the 1800s. Margarine is made mainly of hydrogenated or refined plant oils and water. While butter is made from fat from milk, margarine is made from plant oils and may also contain milk. In some locales it is colloquially referred to as oleo, short for oleomargarine. Margarine, like butter, consists of a water-in-fat emulsion, with tiny droplets of water dispersed uniformly throughout a fat phase which is in a stable crystalline form. Margarine has a minimum fat content of 80%, the same as butter, but unlike butter reduced-fat varieties of margarine can also be labelled as margarine. Margarine can be used both for spreading or for baking and cooking. It is also commonly used as an ingredient in other food products, such as pastries and cookies, for its wide range of functionalities."
In plain English, I'd say from an Indian's point of view Margarine is Vanaspati Ghee or Dalda!! O_O

An eMail that was circulated a few years back

During my research about the topic on Internet, I found a copy of an eMail message that was rapidly spreading on Internet a few years back. On further reading and searching thoroughly, I found not everything is correct, but most of it is CORRECT! The email message: (Found HERE)
"Pass The Butter ... please

This is interesting. .

Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When they killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back. ! It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavorings.

DO YOU KNOW.. the difference between margarine and butter?

Read on to the end...gets very interesting!

Both have the same amount of calories.

Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 grams.

Eating margarinecan increaseheart diseasein women by 53%. Over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study, just add calories and more grams of fat. (no further harm done)

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.

Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarinehas few.

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods.

Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years .

And now, for Margarine..

Very high in trans fatty acids .

Triple risk of coronary heart disease .
Increases total cholesterol and LDL(this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)

Increases the risk of cancers up to five fold.

Lowers quality of breast milk.

Decreases immune response.

Decreases insulin response.

And here's the most disturbing fact.... HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC..

This fact alone was enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance).

You can try this yourself:

Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will note a couple of things:

* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)

* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value ; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not a find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic. Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?"

This eMail message has a lot of things that are true, but many that are completely false. I found some nice articles on Internet and thus I would present the following summary about the facts which are true. Rest of the facts can be considered as unproven, since they may or may not be false.

Difference between margarine and butter: Both Margarine and butter contain the same amount of calories present in them. On the contrary butter contains natural fats, which are essential for the strengthening the bones and has many nutritional benefits.

Ill-effects of margarine: Excess intake of margarine can worsen illnesses such as colitis and arthritis. The hardening agents used in the production of margarine include nickel and cadmium. Nickel is a toxic metal that when consumed in excess, causes lung and kidney problems. Cadmium is among the most toxic of the heavy metals. It may contribute to serious diseases such as arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure and malignancy. The study conducted at Harvard University, found that a diet high in trans-fat, which doubles the chance for heart attack and decreases life expectancy.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study A Harvard study of women between 1980 and 1994 found a significant reduction of heart disease risk by reducing smoking, hormone treatment, and dietary improvements including reducing or eliminating saturated fat (such as in butter). Further research has shown, however, that some margarines contained trans fat, which was even worse for the heart than saturated fat.

Margarine is high in trans fatty acids

Margarine lowers quality of breast milk

Margarine decreases immune response

The above "true facts" were found on truthorfiction.com THey call that email message more of an eRumor since not everything is true.

What is the stupid logic prevailing in India about Margarine?

The heart patients are recommended to use Margarine instead of Butter and Vegetable Oil instead of Vanaspati Ghee. Now the idiotic part is Vanaspati Ghee and margarine are the same thing but since they are popular in two different kind of packaging and uses, depending on when buying whether you ask from Vanaspati Ghee or Margarine, people perceive them to be two different things. On one hand people are asked to avoid a thing and the same person is asked to eat it. To me this seems more of a marketing strategy to sell Margarine which is otherwise a neglected and less sold commodity in the Indian Market. Being a huge potential for profits for any company, everyone tends to make a fool out of people and sell them products. The Margarine and Dalda story is no different, at least don't seem to be different.



I hope whatever I have found out is true and helps people. Staying healthy would ask nothing more than a balanced diet and regular exercise, starting them as soon as possible; rather than asking you to cut on calories using these stupid synthetic alternatives which only seem appealing, but are not so good as they seem to be.

Do it Yourself USB Drives - Fromrum Friday

Hey all my dear readers! :D Welcoming you all at my Blog on this Fromrum Friday, I know I am late, but well, it was a busy day!



A few days ago I received an awesome CNET article I would like to share with you all. It is an amazing one and tells you how to customize the look of your USB Drives so that you can make them look trendy! :D

This article was compiled by Sharon Vaknin of CNET. She writes amazing articles and perhaps one of my favourite CNET writers! :D So, let's see what she says on CNET:

"Whether you use them in your everyday work flow, or dust them off on occasion, flash drives are perhaps one of the handiest, most underrated gadgets out there. Despite the cloud storage trend, many of us still rely on these doodads when we need to transfer data in a pinch.

And thanks to the InterWebs, there's a seemingly endless variety of unique flash drives to match your equally special personality.

But, what's better than forking over $20 to $30 on a low-capacity, overpriced flash drive? Making your own on the cheap. After sifting through the Web for DIYs, here are seven of the most doable (and unusual) homemade thumbdrives out there. "

The article was so interesting and catchy that I couldn't stop reading it in full. It had numerous links to the sources where CNET would have found these amazing tricks. I will provide links to those sites as well :) But I'll share only those DIYs which I found the best! :D

An old Floppy into a Trendy Pen-Drive?

Broken USB Wire or an amazing USB-Drive?

Well this one is my favourite. It looks the best and is no doubt the one which would leave your friends wondering "How is that broken wire working?!" Check how to do this one HERE

A double headed USB Drive? LOL!

Check this one HERE.

My USB Drive is a Lego Block?

You can find the Instructions for this one HERE

I hope you all too find this article as interesting as I found it to be and as amazing as I thought! :D :D Looking forward for all comments and suggestions. Any requests you wish to make feel free to post it as a comment or in the CBOX. All appreciated!

Good Evening! :) I hope you had a great Friday and have an amazing Weekend ahead! :)

Is Windows 8 worth the wait? - Fromrum Friday

Hello all my dear readers! I hope you all are doing just great! :D



I installed the Windows 8 Release Preview(finally and reluctantly!) this Monday and using it for almost 5 days, I am in a position to throw some light on it. The following post includes my own experiences and I have shared at the end some good ones I read on the Internet. I hope you people like it and do get an overview of the Windows 8! :)

So, Windows 8, the much awaited Windows all because Microsoft released it's Developer and Release Preview, I guess for the first time Microsoft did that, else nothing else than Windows Vista was it's dream project and much awaited by the world. Anyways, Windows Vista was crap as the people say. but I say Windows Vista was the best Windows released by Microsoft. no, I am not out of my minds, neither I am becoming paranoid or sleepless or something that is hallucinating me! LOL! I'm fine and saying that in all my senses. Well actually, why I say Windows Vista was the best is because of the tonnes of features Microsoft released in that Windows. I agree they were all full of bugs and the Windows Vista crashed much often, but the features were so amazing that hey are still not present in Windows 8, I mean atleast not in the Release Preview! And Windows 7? well that's the worst one! Why? Why? Why? Well, Microsoft just suppressed the buggy features of Vista and released Windows 7! How foolishly we welcomed it! >_< Anyways, we were to discuss Windows 8 and not Vista or 7! :P Coming back to the topic, Windows 8. I installed it's release preview on Monday, July 2nd, 2012. In five days what my experience suggests is, well, I love Windows 7 now! >_< Windows 8, not that irritating, but enough to be completely rubbished by me atleast! It has big turn-offs and only some rare turn-ons!

Where the hell is my Start Menu?! >_<

The Start Button and the Start Menu that gave Microsoft the "almost" Monopoly in the Computer Market in terms of Operating System for last 16 years(I think so! :O) is shattered! is no more. is gone. is Vanquished. Is O_O NOWHERE!!! And the start menu that is now in it's new Metro Interface is soo irritating that I felt like my once superb PC is nothing more than some kind of Lumia 700 >_< There are no folders inside the Start Menu or whatever it should be called, it is not start menu, it is Start-Page! huh! Everything I installed, all the files that came inside the start menu in some folders upto Windows 7, were now openly ling in my so called start menu. Though they were bundled together and not scattered, but that doesn't means I am gonna thank Microsoft for that!! >_< Whatever, I hated the new Start Menu.

I found a little tweak to revive a simple, but yet approximate Start Menu on a website. The link goes here

1. From the desktop, right-click the taskbar, point to Toolbars and select “New toolbar.”
2. Type or copy and paste the following path into the Choose a folder window:
   

   %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

3. Click the “Select Folder” button and you’ll get a Programs menu on your taskbar.
4. Right-click the taskbar and uncheck “Lock the taskbar” if you want to move the new Programs menu around.
5. Drag and drop the grip at the left side of the toolbar to place it somewhere else on the taskbar, like at its left side — the Start menu’s traditional location.
6. Right-click the “Programs” text if you want to change or hide its name. After you’re finished, right-click the taskbar again and select “Lock the taskbar.”
   
   There’s one catch with this method — it won’t actually show all your programs. The Start menu actually grabs shortcuts from two different places. In addition to the system-wide ProgramData location, there’s a per-user Programs folder at the following location:
   

   %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

Backward Compatibility? LOL! You are kidding me damn-it!!

I remember, much before it was released, they said that Windows 8 will be having backward compatibility that means the programs of all Windows Versions from Windows 3.x to Windows 8 will run on Windows 8 which was completely lacking in the Release Preview. What happened was that, do you guys/girls remember that Windows Vista and 7 had problems running some games like GTA San Andreas, Hitman 2 - Silent Assassin, etc.? The problems I thought would be eradicated, were rather much more magnified in Windows 8. The games crash much more often rather they crash more than the times they run properly and moreover, all the problems that one could encounter in those games due to Operating System compatibility issues were multifold! Apart from that, Adobe Pagemaker 7.0, Microsoft SQL Server 2008, etc. all either crash while working else in no case would they close properly!!

Easy on resources? Come again! To hell!!

Don't you dare tell me that it is light on resources and easy on your processor! My Corei5 760 @ 2.80GHz was being used around 51% constantly when I was running nothing on my system but Windows 8 alone! Not a single app!! Though the memory was much free but my processor is so badly eaten up that I cannot multitask! oh yes! Multitasking, I will take on this one separately! >_<

Boots lightening fast!

Okay one thing I loved about Windows 8 was that it boots real fast, atleast 1.5-2 times faster than Windows 7. Unlike Windows 7 whose boot time kept increasing as the day passed by, Windows 8 till date boots at almost the same pace! That was awesome to see that my PC starts up and shuts down quite fast. This is one thing that I loved about Windows 8.

The pre-loaded Apps are amazing

Now this time, I have a pre-installed PDF Viewer on my system that came with nothing but Windows 8 and the Photo Preview is real cool too. Both apps are quite fast but with limited functionality, but for read operation, I would say they are quite nice! :)

Multitasking? GTFO!

This Windows 8 is completely tablet/mobile oriented version of Windows. Not a bit for the Desktop users I must say! It doesn't say "Click" anywhere, everywhere you'll see, "tap" >_< And when you run more than one software simultaneously, that is you multitask, doesn't matters if you have a damn-amazing processor, Windows 8 would rubbish it all!! YOU CANNOT MULTITASK PROPERLY AND EASILY AS MUCH YOU DID IN XP OR 7.

Metro interface v/s the original Windows GUI

It no doubt looks good but not for a Desktop or Laptop, that is, not for a PC! It looks good, but is irritating for any PC user. Super-Big icons and all the apps running full-screen and hey! there is no Chrome-Bar, I mean no "Minimize"/"Maximize"/"Close" Buttons, or Title bar! For closing any app that ran full screen and came installed with Windows 8, I had to press Alt+F4 to get it closed, there was no other way!! Thank God! that Windows Explorer is not in Metro Interface as yet, else it would have been a complete disaster!

Improved Task Manager, Copy-Move Processes

A good thing about the Windows 8 was the Task Manager. It is quite good-looking and also shows good deal of details and groupings of similar tasks/services. The Copy or move processes can be paused, a new thing and real awesome to see. Moreover, when you copy/move, you can see the speed graph too! :)

Internet Explorer 10

Well what else can I say more than that it's "Microsoft Internet Explorer" ? LOL! It looks good, no doubt, does seem promising when released full-fledged, but I don't think it would be any better than Internet Explorer 9 other than it's looks! Since it's release preview certain websites don't work like Yahoo! Mail shows huge amount of errors running on IE 10. Maybe the no-tracking policy is to be blamed, but I'm not sure. Whatever, it's just another Internet Explorer which looks better, but is irritating like it's predecessors!

My this review is totally based on the release preview, if the actual Windows turns out to be something else, then it's a different case! And don't think why this might happen. Microsoft is such a big company that even if it would do this, people won't be startled! >_< You may refer to some reviews in the following links:

Guardian

Telegraph

Engadget

Thanks all for your time that you spent reading this article. I hope to see you all soon again. All comments and suggestions are welcomed like always! :) Have a great Friday and an awesome weekend up ahead! :D