Sunday, August 3, 2008

Where To Hide Your Hidden Camera

Writen by Dan Crane

People like to observe and watch what's going on when they're away. For security purposes or just to satisfy their desire to spy. Many want to discover what their spouse is doing at home alone or how a babysitter is taking care of the baby when both parents are working.

These people sometimes get confused and don't even know where to hide their cameras in the house. Which area is safest (meaning that the camera won't be spotted)? Which place people wouldn't want to look at and so on.

Below, we'll try to look at some of the best places in the house where one would want to hide his or her spy camera in order to observe and record various activities in the area.

Hiding Spy Camera in a Bedroom If a person is concerned whether the spouse is cheating or not, the most obvious place to install a hidden camera would be in a bedroom.

But which place in a bedroom would be best to put the hidden cam?

Nightstand - Ok, most bedroom have nightstands, right. So one of the best places to put a hidden camera into would be a nightstand, behind some regular object, like a clock or radio. You could get a hidden camera already built into a clock and put it right on the nightstand.

Curtain-Rod - Another place could be a curtain-rod. If you can get a tiny spy camera, which is barely seen from a 10 feet distance, you could mount it on the top of the curtain or curtain-rod. You could get much better viewing angle and record everything without much trouble.

TV Set - Many people have TV's in bedrooms. So putting a tiny camera near the TV or on top of TV would be a good idea. Of course, the spy camera should be hidden and not look like a spy camera.

PC - Some people have PC's in their bedrooms. One could simply replace the regular speakers with new ones, which already have a spy camera installed and perform secret surveillance this way.

Book Shelf – Placing a hidden camera in a book shelf might be a good idea. Especially when the hidden camera is in a shape of the book.

Placing a Hidden Camera in a Living Room Teddy Bear – Many people have all kinds of plush toys. It's possible to simply take one and put a camera inside.

Toy Cars – If there are any toy cars in the living room or any other room, you could put a small micro camera into that toy and spy on the others.

Mirrors – You could buy a two-sided mirror and put a spy camera there. Otherwise, it's possible to buy a mirror with a hidden camera built inside already.

Lamps – You could take one light bulb or lamp out and put a spy camera inside. Then put the light back and start surveillance. Just make sure than someone doesn't try to repair it.

Flowers – You could put a small camera inside a flower pot and put it on a windowsill for instance. If you have some flowers in the living room or plants, this won't look odd.

Switches – Tiny cameras could be placed into light switches. Some light switches have covers, which help mask the spy camera's lenses.

Placing a Hidden Camera in a Kitchen Lastly, you might want to put a spy camera in the kitchen. This wouldn't look suspicious if you put a clock in the kitchen somewhere.

There are already designed spy cameras that look like coffee mugs. Could you find a better place for such item other than kitchen?

Lastly, you could get one of those wearable spy cameras and put it wherever you want. Bedroom, living room, kitchen or office room. Nowhere such item will look suspicious. They can be pens, glasses, lighters, cell phones etc.

Would You like to learn more about those hidden cameras that you've just read about? Or maybe a listening device to record conversations is what you want? Go to Vedosoft website now.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Windows Xp Performance Tips

Writen by Taejien Thoj

Here are some tips you can use to speed up Windows XP Operating System. First and foremost, what everyone should know is the utility in Windows XP called "Disk Cleanup" & "Disk Defragmenter." Both of them are located from the Start Menu>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>

Disk Cleanup will clean up all temp files, recycle bin trashes, history files, all those goodies to give you more space. Disk Defragmentor will put all the peices of your PC together (when you move folders, uninstall things, and what not) together to make it run more efficiently.

***Scroll down, these tweaks may cause problems if you have an ATI video card***

Now, here are some tips

  1. Improve performance by deleting prefetch
  2. After using your computer for quite some time without cleaning the prefetch, it will slow down your computer noticeably. What you can do is open C:WINDOWSPrefetch. Its not good to do this every single day, but atleast once a month or once every two months.

  3. Remove unwanted startup programs slowing your pc
  4. Go to your start menu and click on it. Go to Run. Type in "msconfig" w/o qoutes. When the window pops up, go to the last tab called "Startup" and uncheck programs you do not want to startup the next time you start your computer. Now, reboot.

  5. Help tune your Memory(RAM)
  6. I recommend that you have atleast 512MB of ram when using this tweak.

    Go to Start>run>regedit

    Now, navigate your way to this registry key. Between each ">" are the sub categories HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management

    Now, you will see these two values. Apply these tweaks to it.

    DisablePagingExecutive: Double click it. In the decimal put a 1. This allows XP to keep data in memory now instead of paging sections of ram which in terms give you a better performing PC.

    LargeSystemCache: Double click it. Change the decimal to 1. This allows XP Kernel to Run in memory which also improves system performance alot

  7. Remove fancy smancy for speed
  8. If you dont mind the fancy Windows XP look and want something like the older versions of windows like 98 or ME, right click on "My Computer" and click on properties. Click on "Advanced" tab. Click on "Settings" undes Performance Now, you see the visual effects. You can check/uncheck all or some or none to your liking. Fast = less checked.

  9. Speed up shutdown time if your shutdown takes FOREVER
  10. go to Start Menu.

    Run. Type in "regedit" and go through the sub categories to this.

    HKEY CURRENT USER>Control Panel>Desktop

    Then double click on "AutoEndTasks" and replace the 0 with a 1. Then, for "WaitToKillAppTimeout", change the Value data to 2000. For "HungAppTimeout", change the Value data to 1000. ***if those values does not exist for the last two(WaitToKillAppTimeout and HungAppTimeOut), create them.

    Now, reboot.

    After reboot if you have problems, make this change. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControl right click on "WaitToKillServiceTimeout" and change it to 2000 also.

Now, reboot and watch your PC go VROOOOM!

MORE INFO CAN BE FOUND AT http://www.writingup.com/taejien

Friday, August 1, 2008

8 Steps To Secure Windows

Writen by Mike Morris

The Internet is awash with viruses, Trojan Horse programs and worms which are constantly looking to infect vulnerable computers that are connected to the internet. If a worm gets into your computer it does not limit itself to the individual e-mails you send to friends, family and colleagues, as it can spread itself automatically to all addresses stored in your email program.

Take positive steps today to ensure both Windows and your email program are secure.

1. Install a more secure operating system. If you are not using Windows 2000/XP then you should consider upgrading to these systems. They use the NTFS (New Technology File System) and that is much more secure than FAT32, which earlier operating systems use.

2. Switch off windows scripting. Many applications can use Windows Scripting Host (WSH), but unfortunately worms also use this programming language. A famous example of this is the "loveletter virus". You should therefore restrict the use of WSH by disabling scripting.

3. Pay attention to the files types you open. Many worms hide behind false file types. JPG, GIF or ZIP files that may be sent to you as an attachment in an email are good examples. You can modify windows so you can better control these file types and protect your PC from possible infections.

4. Correctly configure Outlook and Outlook Express. These popular email programs are always a target for Hacker and Worm attacks. Ensure that you have all the security settings that these programs contain switched on.

5. Correctly configure Internet Explorer. Check the security settings in Internet Explorer. The security level should be set to "Medium" at the very least.

6. Protect your Microsoft Office Programs. The macro functions of Microsoft programs, for example Word, are popular ways for hackers to use to get into your PC. Ensure that you have correctly configured the security settings to prevent this.

7. File and printer control. To prevent access to your computer, you should deactivate file and printer sharing unless you are on a secure network.

8. Set up a firewall. In addition to good anti-virus software, you should also install a firewall. This will give your PC added protection against attack. Windows XP has a firewall built into it. Users of other operating systems should invest in a third-party firewall for their computers.

No PC can be 100% secure, but what you can do is minimise the security risk. By making changes such as those outlined in this article you can vastly improve the level of security on your PC.

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What Does That Error Message Really Mean

Writen by Jim Edwards

Surf the 'Net for about 10 minutes and chances rate very high that you'll encounter an error of one kind or another.

Whether the error message pops up on your own computer or on a website loaded in your browser, knowing what the error means can help you solve the problem much faster and avoid hours of frustration (especially in a situation where nothing you do will solve the problem).

The following represent some of the more common error messages you may encounter while surfing the Internet and what (if anything) you can do to correct the situation.

Error: 404 File Not Found

This means the web server cannot find the file or web page you tried to pull up in your web browser.

Almost nothing you can do will correct this situation. Try hitting your web browser's "Refresh" button to see if the page will load. If not, email the website operator to let them know of the problem and then move on.

Error: 500 Internal Error

This error usually occurs when you fill in a form on a web page (contact form, shopping cart, feedback form) and click the submit button.

This means the server or the script handling the form on the server has a major problem. Again, there's nothing you can do so just email the website owner and move on.

By the way, resubmitting the form a dozen times, banging your hand on the keyboard, and yelling at your monitor won't fix the problem!

Error: 408 Request Timeout

This error usually occurs when you try to download a huge file or large web page and, for whatever reason, the connection times out.

Simply hit your browser's "Refresh" button and it should pick up the download again where you left off.

If not, contact the website owner and inform them of the problem or check back later.

Error: Host Unavailable

Grab a cup of coffee on this one and fall back to reading the newspaper.

You can try hitting your "Refresh" button a couple of times, but, for all intents and purposes, this means the server has gone down.

Try again in a few minutes on the off-chance you tried to access the website just as the owners were restarting the server or temporarily disconnected it from the Web.

If this doesn't work, the phone rates your best course of action to contact the website owner since it's a safe bet their email won't work either.

Error: Unable to Locate Host

This message usually means one of three things: the web server is down; your Internet connection is dead; you typed in the web address incorrectly.

To correct the problem, first try retyping the web address into your browser's address bar. If that doesn't work, try surfing over to another website to make sure your connection is live.

If you can't load any websites, contact your Internet service provider (ISP) for technical assistance.

As a general rule, if you encounter an error while surfing the web, try these steps in order to fix the problem:

1. Click your Web browser's "Refresh" button.

2. Verify that you typed in the correct URL (web address)

3. Close down and restart your Web browser completely.

4. Contact the website owner to alert them to the problem or request help.

5. Contact your ISP for help.

(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr-e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...

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