July 2008

Windows Hack: Shutdown Windows XP faster

by Sujoy on July 2, 2008

Now this is a very basic tip that involves editing values in the Registry. So, if you are not game enough to play with the Registry, I’d suggest stay out. But if you are willing to have a faster shutdown, read on. Go to Run [ Windows +r, or start Menu ,Run]. And then, type ‘regedit’ ( withouth the quotes) to go to the registry editor.

Now go and expand the explorer folder that reads :HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

Next go to the tree structure to its child elements to SYSTEM, and then CURRENTCONTROLSET and inside it select Control.

[In case you didn't follow that, the entire path is :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CURRENTCONTROLSET/Control]

Now on the right side, you will see a file called WaitToKillServiceTimeOut. By default, the value set for it is 20,000. To accelerate the shutdown speed change it to something smaller than 20,000. May be 1000 or any number dear to you. And voila! Jobs done and you will sure notice the difference.

But yeah, please try it at your own risk, and do know how to undo it, incase the shutdown speed is a bit too fast for your taste.

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Links for 2008-07-03

by Sujoy on July 2, 2008

iphone 3g Screenshot Tour

5 Ways To Improve The Quality Of Your Blog Posts

Skype 4.0 BETA

Microsoft’s $240M not enough to make Facebook IE compatible

10 Great Sites and Resources for GIMP Tutorials and Guides |

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WordPress Wiki: How to put Favicon on your WordPress Blog

by Sujoy on July 2, 2008

See the cute little sun shining on my WordPress page address bar above? Or the very familiar ‘g’ on the address bar when you go to any Google page . That’s the Favicon. (So sorry, IE 6 users can’t see it ).And why is that minute design detail necessary. Well, it works more like a brand logo of your website/blog rather than just another design feature. You of course want to project your blog as a brand , a service which is recognisable. Labnol.org has the favicon of ‘D i’ as in Digital Inspiration. Now it is just a piece of little code to be included in your WordPress package and we’ll get to that in a while.

For those who host it on Blogger, by default the Blogger favicon should appear, but then, that can also be done away with. Now back to WordPress. Go to the Theme Editor page in your Admin console. Now if you don’t know how to reach there, once you LOGIN to your WordPress Admin page, click on the Design tab, and then click Theme Editor. GO to the Header php file titled header.php (surpisingly).

Now typically, this is where you include the code for the favicon. First and foremost, upload your desired Icon ( a .ico file) on any image hosting service ( photobucket, flickr..you know the names) or you can host it on your own server where you have hosted your wordpress. This is more advisable so that whenever you change your theme, your favicon would change as well. Anyway, typically, the icon goes in the theme folder itself. Now if it is included within the template folder itself, this is how the code will read.

<link rel=”shortcut icon” type=”image/ico” href=”<?php bloginfo(‘template_url’); ?>/favicon.ico” />

You have to include this code in the header.php. Almost anywhere, but I prefer to keep the code a bit clean by including below the code for the navbar:- the bar which has the link to the pages. And once you are done with it, click update and voila, your WordPress blog is now Favicon Branded. Flaunt It.