Playing a puzzle game with videos

We keep on using vlc media player without actually knowing its true potential of tools. Here I'll show you how you can convert your video into a puzzle, this one's a just for fun thing but there are many other pretty useful stuff you can do by using this method. Just explore similar stuff by following this method.

• Firstly you need vlc media player.
• Run a video on it and then navigate to Tools->Effect & Filters –>Video Effects –>Geometry
• Check the puzzle game checkbox to convert your video into a puzzle!
• You can choose the puzzle type by either selecting or deselecting the black slot option to change the puzzle mode
• Your video gets converted into a puzzle immediately ;)
• Enjoy solving it while it runs :D

Here's what I did to a video:

Similarly there are many other cool options, you can synchronize your subtitles, synchronize your audio, change colours, add motion and what not!

Just go out and explore ;)

To revert back, you need to deselect all the options you just selected or restart vlc player

Have fun!

Cheers ;)

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Why Linux does not need Defragmentation?

Regular defragmentation in a Windows PC speeds it up but if anyone of the Linux users have noted that there is no need of a defragmentation utility which come pre installed on your machine when you install a fresh copy and also you really don't need to install one on your machine while using Linux. Ever thought of why is it required in Windows and not in Linux?

To understand this first you need to understand what is fragmentation and why it occurs and how the two operating systems handle it differently.

What is fragmentation?

A hard disk is divided into various different sectors which contain small files and large files are spread over various different sectors which contain parts of the file. No person has a single file on hi system, heck even the Operating System is spread over a vast number of files. So when you update a file, say increase its size, the file system installed on the system tries to store this file next to the previous file's initial sectors but consider a scenario that the next sector is filled up, so the new part is stored in a sector which is not stored in a contiguous memory location. Hence when any software asks to read this file, the header of the hard disk must skip sectors while reading your file and hence reading chunks of file at a time slows down stuff.

So, now you can very well understand what defragmentation is, that is the process of moving around chunks of files to avoid the fragmentation as much as possible.

So because of the way the files are arranged in Windows (known as the file system, specifically NTFS or FAT in previous versions), they get fragmented over a time period and they need to be defragmented after some time to increase efficiency and speed.

Why not Linux?

ext2 and ext3 (file systems of Linux) allocates files to the hard disk in an intelligent way. Instead of placing files next to each other on the hard disk, they allocate them over largely scattered locations and hence there is a large amount of space in between them which can be leveraged when you edit your file. Even if fragmentation does occur, the file system manages it at run time itself and hence there is no need of any utility specifically for the purpose. Hence only when you fill the Linux system with huge amount of data, about 80%, you will start seeing some fragmentation.

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How to get better search results in Google

We all use Google everyday for various different purposes and we always need that we should find what we are looking for on the first page of our search results but many a times it is not so and we need to refine our search. Yes, keywords do play an important role when performing search but the following tools will provide you some more assistance as well:

1. Using Either/Or:
When you type in a query, Google usually looks for webpages that match all the keywords entered but when you are searching for multiple stuff you can either join them using the keyword "OR" or you can simple separate them by the piping symbol '|'
For eg Google | Microsoft

2. Search for exact phrases:
 When you wish to search for webpages for results that match the exact phrase as you type it in order, you can enclose it in double quotes.
For eg "Apple sues Samsung"

3. All but not a specific keyword:
When you wish to have search results from all webpages containing your query but not containing a specific keyword then this can come in handy. Use the minus prefix before the keyword you wish to exclude from your search results. For example Mobiles-samsung gives all mobile results except those pages containing samsung in the page.

4. Calculator:
Google recently launched this feature, been a few months. You can perform simple arithmetic in the search box itself. You can use the normal arithmetic operations in the query to get your results.

5. Definitions:
You can use Google as a dictionary as well! Just prefix the 'define:' before your keyword. For example define:technology will give you various definitions and also the pronunciation of the word as well.

6. Wildcard:
The * symbol can be used to replace any text. For eg if you cannot remember the exact lyrics of something, * can help. 'cant * me love lyrics' will return the Beatles song you have been searching for provided you remembered the remaining part.

7. Similar Terms:
The ~ returns similar terms.
~bad laptops will return results from ugly laptops and other negative words associated with laptops.

8. Number Range:
If you wish to search for terms within a specific range of numbers you can use 2 periods in betwwen the two extremes. This can be a handy tool. For eg best movies 2001..2009 will return the best movies in between the years 2001 and 2009

9. Specific to a website:
If you wish to search only a specific site for your results, you can use the 'site:' operator.
For eg site:facebook.com will return all public facebook posts that contain the keyword 

10. Advanced Search:
If you want to further detail and refine your search you can always use the advanced search tools ;)

Hope these come in handy some day :D

Cheers!!

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Enable Disabled Task Manager

I recently had this trouble of an error popping up when I pressed the Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys on my keyboard which said:

"Task Manager is disabled"

This can happen due to a couple of reasons,
One: A virus/malware infected your computer.
Two: You do not have the rights assigned to access it.

To get access, all you need to do is:

• Go to Run ( Start-> Run or WinKey+R)
• Type "gpedit.msc"
• Go to Group Policy settings->User Configuration->Administrative Templates
• Select System->Ctrl-Alt-Delete options
• Double Click Remove Task Manager
• Set it to Not Configured.

And that's it, you are done!

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