Change the default Operating System in start up boot menu

Fedora 18

Make sure you've logged in as root to the Fedora Environment.

1. Open /etc/default/grub and ensure this line exists:

   GRUB_DEFAULT=saved

2. Now list all possible menu entries

   #grep ^menuentry /boot/grub2/grub.cfg | cut -d "'" -f2

   Look for the line which shows the OS you wish to make default and write it down as it is.

    eg. Windows XP Professional (/dev/sda1)

3. Now set the desired default menu entry within single inverted commas

  #grub2-set-default
  eg. grub2-set-default 'Windows XP Professional (/dev/sda1)'

4. Apply the change to grub.cfg by running:

   #grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

5. Verify the default menu entry

   #grub2-editenv list

    If everything went normal the resultant line will show the 'menu-entry' given by you.

6. Reboot by typing

   #reboot

Darkness or Light, which is true?

Every teacher, every prophet, every enlightened person say, 'Light is Truth' and 'Light is Absolute'. Is't so? for me, it's felt that Darkness is True and Absolute. It has existence by itself and hence absolute. One cannot bring darkness to a place, because it's already there. He/She can only bring light to a place, light is 'made', and the moment light goes away, darkness, which is already in existence everywhere, is felt.

Teachers beware!

It's a misconception that

• All web-pages are available indefinitely, without any time limit. This is not always the case. You should check the web site addresses before hand, to see whether they had limited life or still alive, before suggesting them to your students.
• The contents of a webpage do not change. This may put you in trouble, especially links to undesirable web sites are added, after your last visit to the site. Check the page, just before the lesson, and keep watching for a reasonable period of time, as the students may be accessing the page on your advise.

Enable Administror Account in Windows 7

In Windows 7, when a user with Administrator privileges is created, the default Administrator account will get deactivated and will disappear from the default login window. You can always activate it back by following the procedure given below

1. Click START Button
2. Select All Programs - > Accessories
3.  Right-click Command Prompt and then select Run as Administrator.
4. At the command promptType net user administrator /active:yes and then press Enter.
5. Restart or log off your computer and log in as Administrator.

Static IP Addres in Ubuntu 10.10

If you want to setup a Static IP Address in your system , Modify the file  /etc/network/interfaces.  If your First Ethernet  Interface is eth0 ,see the following Example.  Just add the following lines in the file with the help of an Editor and Restart the network or system.

auto eth0

iface eth0 inet static

address 192.168.0.100

netmask 255.255.255.0

gateway 192.168.0.1

To apply the new settings the machine should be either restarted or a simple restart of the network service shall be made

$ sudo /etc/int.d/networking restart

How To Block Pen Drives/USB Drives in Windows XP

USB Mass Storage Devices (Pen Drives) are now been a major source of virus/spyware attack to your computer sytem, especially where a computer system is shared by a group of persons. One cannot deny the fact the USB drives have now made data porting simple and easy.
Whenever a new USB deivce is plugged into a Windows XP machine, the operating system (XP) loads a device driver named "usbstor.sys". So, if this driver file can be prevented from loading, usage of USB mass storage devices can be blocked. As in the case of every other driver files, information regarding this file also is stored in a sytem database called the 'Registry'. Extreme care is to be taken while dealing with this database, that mistyping a single letter may turn your computer sytem non-functional.
Here is a step-by-step procedure to edit the 'registry' to preven USB mass storage devices from loading.

1. Click on Start and select 'Run' from the pop-up window
2. Type regedit - This will open the registry editor
3. In the left pane, goto My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Current-ControlSet\Services\USBSTOR
4. Double click on Start in the right pane
5. Change the Value Data field to 4
6. Press OK - This will save the value

Now, try the new setting by inserting a USB Pen Drive. Sure, windows will not recognize it.

To revert back to the original setting, follow the steps 1 to 4 explained above and set the value to 3

Machine will now start recognizing your pen drives. No restart is needed in both cases.

another test post