Chennaiist is a collaborative weblog and it is intended to share information about Chennai city. An initiative by a NRI from New Jersey Chennaiist provides a 360 degree view of various events and other hot topics in Chennai. I will be writing on college life and events in Chennai. If anything is cooking hot around you or in your college (Inter College cultural etc) feel free to leave me a message and I will try to cover the event for Chennaiist. My first post “What’s the price?” about the illegal management quotas in colleges is right now published there.

Happy to note that blog ban has been revoked. It was tiring to access every one of your blogs through proxies and pkblogs. Now we all are back with a bang. As I read somewhere at least the useless Government and the DoT have popularized the blogsphere by blocking and bringing the word blog to front page of all dailies and hitting headlines.

P.S: Chennaiist is looking for a fashion/lifestyle centric blogger. Please notify me if you are one or if you could find one.
Chennaiist

     ‘Revivals’ is the moniker given to this year’s five day long cultural fiesta conducted by the Madras Medical College. I visited MMC on the third day to participate in the quizzing events and the events were lull and not up to the hype created. This is the second time I am visiting a medical college in Chennai, the former being the matchless Ramachandra Medical College flooded with some of the wealthiest peeps who pay gunny bags of money to acquire a seat. Unlike the former, MMC is a government college which is the first destination for the medical aspirants from the state but lacks funding and infrastructure.

     The number of events was minimal and the prize money was also not big for the daily events unlike the choreo, fashion parade et al where they offered a whooping 16k for the first place. There were no seasoned quizzers in the college and the way they conducted was amateurish. There were two quizzes, general and sports and we didn’t get through in both. It happens the same way, the general prelims was quite ok but we were a little below the cut-off. If we had made it we would have given a good competition for the two regular winners. In the sports quiz we missed by a whisker and even if we had qualified we would have been sitting baaaaaah…There were some good sporting buffs.
  
     But me and Samba packed home with tickets for the Sunday professional light music show costing 100 bucks each. Some good relief after we got it as audience prize.  
One memorable thing was in the sports quiz, there was a question for which samba said Michael Jordan and I argued over how foolish he was and bet my head saying it was wrong. Later it turned out to be the right answer and bought him a juice for losing.
Phew! It’s happening….

HAPPY BUDDAY DEAR…
     I am feeling happy that I have completed a year in this precious blogging world. I have been so lazy and forgetful to put a birthday message on the exact date. With scanty updates and a few cherished visitors this stands as my priceless possession. Thank you one and all. At least next time I will cut a cake for you!!!!
WISH U A BELATED HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DEAR BLOG!!!!!!!!!!

     ‘Revivals’ is the moniker given to this year’s five day long cultural fiesta conducted by the Madras Medical College. I visited MMC on the third day to participate in the quizzing events and the events were lull and not up to the hype created. This is the second time I am visiting a medical college in Chennai, the former being the matchless Ramachandra Medical College flooded with some of the wealthiest peeps who pay gunny bags of money to acquire a seat. Unlike the former, MMC is a government college which is the first destination for the medical aspirants from the state but lacks funding and infrastructure.

     The number of events was minimal and the prize money was also not big for the daily events unlike the choreo, fashion parade et al where they offered a whooping 16k for the first place. There were no seasoned quizzers in the college and the way they conducted was amateurish. There were two quizzes, general and sports and we didn’t get through in both. It happens the same way, the general prelims was quite ok but we were a little below the cut-off. If we had made it we would have given a good competition for the two regular winners. In the sports quiz we missed by a whisker and even if we had qualified we would have been sitting baaaaaah…There were some good sporting buffs.
  
     But me and Samba packed home with tickets for the Sunday professional light music show costing 100 bucks each. Some good relief after we got it as audience prize.  
One memorable thing was in the sports quiz, there was a question for which samba said Michael Jordan and I argued over how foolish he was and bet my head saying it was wrong. Later it turned out to be the right answer and bought him a juice for losing.
Phew! It’s happening….

HAPPY BUDDAY DEAR…
     I am feeling happy that I have completed a year in this precious blogging world. I have been so lazy and forgetful to put a birthday message on the exact date. With scanty updates and a few cherished visitors this stands as my priceless possession. Thank you one and all. At least next time I will cut a cake for you!!!!
WISH U A BELATED HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DEAR BLOG!!!!!!!!!!

     What do we generally do the scratched CD’s/DVD’s which we have? Generally I throw it to the bottom of my drawer, else fix a screw to it and attach it in front of the cycle…LOL!!! This generally occurs to the movie DVD’s more particularly your fauvorite ones. Once this guy brought a 6 in 1 DVD to my home. It had Matrix and Terminator in it and was one of the most circulated discs and when it came to me the drive didn’t read it. It looked like a porcupine had placed its butt on the DVD.

     I was taken aback when he suggested me to do this. Eppdiyo DVD gaali, enna panna enna…seri try pannalam!!! Open the washbasin tap, place the DVD’s under flowing water with the readable side facing up or take a bucket of water and soak the disc inside it. I would go for the first one though. Take some Hamam soap and rub it gently on the disc and then wash it off. Now take a soft cloth and wipe the DVD slowly. Insert the DVD into the drive or the player….WOW, it works!!!

     Today I was watching GADGET GURU in NDTV, an interesting show wherein they discuss some worthy of note stuff. A babe was doing the same thing what I explained. COOL!!! Some additional tips from the show…
*Use toothpaste instead of soap for better results. It is a better cleansing agent for scratches than soaps. Of course we brush our teeth with it!
*Use a soft cloth like the one which we use for cleaning the specs (Ayyo..! I don’t remember the name!!!)
*Don’t use tissue papers, it will make things worse.
*Don’t wipe in circular motion, do it from the center towards to the outer end.  

     Try this with any of your old discs, it really works. If it doesn’t come on jus kick my ….Oops! Go kick that babe’s ass!!! Jus kidding…It REALLY works.
  

     What do we generally do the scratched CD’s/DVD’s which we have? Generally I throw it to the bottom of my drawer, else fix a screw to it and attach it in front of the cycle…LOL!!! This generally occurs to the movie DVD’s more particularly your fauvorite ones. Once this guy brought a 6 in 1 DVD to my home. It had Matrix and Terminator in it and was one of the most circulated discs and when it came to me the drive didn’t read it. It looked like a porcupine had placed its butt on the DVD.

     I was taken aback when he suggested me to do this. Eppdiyo DVD gaali, enna panna enna…seri try pannalam!!! Open the washbasin tap, place the DVD’s under flowing water with the readable side facing up or take a bucket of water and soak the disc inside it. I would go for the first one though. Take some Hamam soap and rub it gently on the disc and then wash it off. Now take a soft cloth and wipe the DVD slowly. Insert the DVD into the drive or the player….WOW, it works!!!

     Today I was watching GADGET GURU in NDTV, an interesting show wherein they discuss some worthy of note stuff. A babe was doing the same thing what I explained. COOL!!! Some additional tips from the show…
*Use toothpaste instead of soap for better results. It is a better cleansing agent for scratches than soaps. Of course we brush our teeth with it!
*Use a soft cloth like the one which we use for cleaning the specs (Ayyo..! I don’t remember the name!!!)
*Don’t use tissue papers, it will make things worse.
*Don’t wipe in circular motion, do it from the center towards to the outer end.  

     Try this with any of your old discs, it really works. If it doesn’t come on jus kick my ….Oops! Go kick that babe’s ass!!! Jus kidding…It REALLY works.
  

It was way back in my school when I noticed this in one of my school computers. The tutors name was there instead of the word start. When everyone asked him he said take it as a challenge and do it. It was the some 5 years back when ‘windows’ was flooded inside India and most of the students didn’t have a system in their home. Today I say that renaming the start button is a child’s play.

Step By Step Guide for Renaming the START button.
Everyone knows that this is the place where we have to start and it is annoying to see the same Start and “Click Here to Begin” everyday, why not we change it???
Here we go…

CAUTION: Be careful while doing this, if you do it incorrectly you may end up screwing up your OS. Don’t worry it takes minutes to restore if you provide the necessary back up as I mention.

1. In the Menu bar, click on Tools–>Folder Options–>view
In it select the option “show hidden files and folders” and uncheck the option “Hide protected Operating System files”

2. This is one of the most awesome tools for window hackers, Resource Hacker
(542 KB). This is required for this hack.

3. IMPORTANT: Providing Backup
Go to command prompt StartàRun àcmd
Type copy c:\windows\explorer.bak c:\windows\explorer.exe
Then type “yes” and “Exit”
(Assuming c is the directory in which you have loaded XP)

4. Launch Resource Hacker and open c:\windows\explorer.exe. On opening you will find collapsed fields like this.

5. You now will want to browse down to the item String Table 37 1033. It should now look like this. In that replace the word “start” with your desired text. (Not necessary to be 5 letters). Ensure that the quotes are intact. Then click on “COMPILE SCRIPT” present above.
Repeat this process for StringTable 38-1033. Replace start with the same text.

6. Now make sure all your windows are maximized, Go to Task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) –>Processes–>Select explorer.exe–>End Process. Now your taskbar will get vanished. Go to Resource Hacker and “save as” explorer.mod (Don’t save it as explorer .exe)
Again Task manager–>New Process–>explorer.exe

7. Next restart the system and press F8 while booting and enter “Safe mode with Command Prompt” Log on as “Administrator”. In the cmd type

Copy c:\windows\explorer.mod c:\windows\explorer.exe and then “yes” and “exit”. Then press (Ctrl+Alt+Del) Task manager–>New Process–>explorer.exe

8. You are now in safe mode, reboot and enter normal mode, you will see the customized start button. The text “click here to start” can be changed in string table 34-1033-Replace with desired text. Follow the same steps.

9. In case any error occurs, in the safe mode enter the command prompt and type copy c:\windows\explorer.bak c:\windows\explorer.exe and then “yes” and “exit”. You will be back to your normal state.

This may look long but the whole lot can be performed in 2 minutes. Lot of other hacks can be done with Resource Hacker, Step by step guide for other common hacks will come up soon.

Happy Hacking!!!!

It was way back in my school when I noticed this in one of my school computers. The tutors name was there instead of the word start. When everyone asked him he said take it as a challenge and do it. It was the some 5 years back when ‘windows’ was flooded inside India and most of the students didn’t have a system in their home. Today I say that renaming the start button is a child’s play.

Step By Step Guide for Renaming the START button.
Everyone knows that this is the place where we have to start and it is annoying to see the same Start and “Click Here to Begin” everyday, why not we change it???
Here we go…

CAUTION: Be careful while doing this, if you do it incorrectly you may end up screwing up your OS. Don’t worry it takes minutes to restore if you provide the necessary back up as I mention.

1. In the Menu bar, click on Tools–>Folder Options–>view
In it select the option “show hidden files and folders” and uncheck the option “Hide protected Operating System files”

2. This is one of the most awesome tools for window hackers, Resource Hacker
(542 KB). This is required for this hack.

3. IMPORTANT: Providing Backup
Go to command prompt StartàRun àcmd
Type copy c:\windows\explorer.bak c:\windows\explorer.exe
Then type “yes” and “Exit”
(Assuming c is the directory in which you have loaded XP)

4. Launch Resource Hacker and open c:\windows\explorer.exe. On opening you will find collapsed fields like this.

5. You now will want to browse down to the item String Table 37 1033. It should now look like this. In that replace the word “start” with your desired text. (Not necessary to be 5 letters). Ensure that the quotes are intact. Then click on “COMPILE SCRIPT” present above.
Repeat this process for StringTable 38-1033. Replace start with the same text.

6. Now make sure all your windows are maximized, Go to Task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) –>Processes–>Select explorer.exe–>End Process. Now your taskbar will get vanished. Go to Resource Hacker and “save as” explorer.mod (Don’t save it as explorer .exe)
Again Task manager–>New Process–>explorer.exe

7. Next restart the system and press F8 while booting and enter “Safe mode with Command Prompt” Log on as “Administrator”. In the cmd type

Copy c:\windows\explorer.mod c:\windows\explorer.exe and then “yes” and “exit”. Then press (Ctrl+Alt+Del) Task manager–>New Process–>explorer.exe

8. You are now in safe mode, reboot and enter normal mode, you will see the customized start button. The text “click here to start” can be changed in string table 34-1033-Replace with desired text. Follow the same steps.

9. In case any error occurs, in the safe mode enter the command prompt and type copy c:\windows\explorer.bak c:\windows\explorer.exe and then “yes” and “exit”. You will be back to your normal state.

This may look long but the whole lot can be performed in 2 minutes. Lot of other hacks can be done with Resource Hacker, Step by step guide for other common hacks will come up soon.

Happy Hacking!!!!