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reCaptcha And Verification Image Problems

Website of all kind use reCaptchas due to the increase of spam, bots, and other automated processes that come their way. Sites such as forums, blogs, online games, and even regular websites are often target for spammers who try to utilize automated programs for some advantage or gain. This is why reCaptchas and verification images have become increasingly popular because they make it near impossible for anything automated to get through.

Unfortunately reCaptchas and verification images can also block people as well. If you have a problem with your computer then the reCaptchas may not appear and you could be prevented from entering the site, or going any further. This problem can be infuriating because you often aren’t told there is a captcha that you need to fill out!

So if you have finally discovered that there is a hidden or blocked reCaptcha then the first thing you need to do is make sure it is not something in your browser.

If you have Firefox the try switching over to Internet Explorer, and vice versa to see if the verification image works on the other. If it does, then you can assume that the problem is due to an add-on of some sorts, more than likely a pop up blocker that has its filters set incorrectly. Once that add-on is disabled then your reCaptcha should work perfectly after you refresh the page.

Unfortunately the above solution doesn’t always work however there is another simple thing that could be the culprit here: your firewall/anti-virus system. Some of the settings can be set so that they blog entirely too much, or they could have reverted back to the original settings through a glitch. Simply try turning the firewall/antivirus off for a few minutes, refreshing the page, and seeing if this works.

For those of you who have not had any luck with the first two solutions then perhaps this last one will remedy your problem.

The problem might be because you need an update for your computer so first try installing the latest Adobe Flashplayer update here: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ also try installing the latest Java update here: http://java.com/en/ Once those are both updated, refresh your page and it should work now.

IF ALL ELSE FAILS and the reCaptcha is STILL not working, then it is probably something on their side however this is very rare. If you cannot bypass the captcha then either have a friend or relative try on their computer at home, or wait for about an hour or two and try it yourself again.

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4 Registry Tweaks That Will Improve Performance Of Windows XP Significantly

How can I make my windows XP Run faster ??

Learn to tweak windows XP by hacking the registry and ensure your system runs faster than it normally does. There are a lot of commercially available tweaking utilities, while using them you need to be cautioned about where you are buying the utility from. Best is to learn to tweak registry with the tools which Microsoft provides with XP.

Before tweaking – you need to know your machines limitations. There can be significant improvement in your systems performance, doesn’t mean that you buy a good old Celeron and by making some minor adjustments turn it into an gaming monster XPS 😛 . Set realistic expectations to avoid yourself from any kind of disappointment. Here are some of the tweaks I’ve got on my system. There are a lot more tweaks on my system, but I’m listing down 4 of them which I can remember right away. I’ll list more registry tweaks as and when I recall.

Registry tweak to increase Menu Speed in Windows XP:

XP came with a bang new interface, which is it’s default look and feel and according to me, I just love the way it looks. But there are a lot of complaints that when a user clicks on “Start” menu, there is a bit of delay before you see any action. Inspite of the initial complaints people tend to use it, while some users prefer reverting to the  “Classic interface” version which is an option in XP.

Here is how you can increase the default speed of the “Start” menu in Windows XP :

Go to the Registry key : HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\MenuShowDelay . 400 is the default value. Change 400 to 0 and the delay is off completely.

There is a catch here, if you set it to zero, the menu speed becomes too fasat for you to activate any programs. Experiment with different values between 0 – 400. Find the speed which you are comfortable with, which should be a good point between speed and usability and set it to that value

Registry tweak to Place Windows Kernel into RAM in Windows XP:

Known fact is that any program on RAM runs quicker than that on hard drive and virtual / secondary memory. Kernel which is the building fondation of Windows XP access the Pagin Executve functions whichs slows down the system. Use the hack to create and set the DisablePagingExecutive DWORD to a value of 1.

Note: This hack should be perfomed only if the RAM installed is 256 MB or more.

Editing the Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive to 1 disables paging and ensures the hernel runs in RAM. You can set the value to 0 if you want to undo this hack. For the hack to be effective, you need to reboot the system, once the changes are done.

Registry tweak to Alter Prefetch Parameters in Windows XP:

Pre-fetching is a process in which the system boot files are read into cache, to help faster loading. If handled correctly, pre-fetching will have a significant impact on systems total boot time. With this tweak, you have the flexibility to select only those components which will make use of pre-fetch parameters. It involves a repetitive process of clearing cache and making a note of the files that are gathered in C:\Windows\Prefetch (assuming your OS is installed in C:\ Drive), for each setting.

Setting the Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher to 0 disables prefetching, 1 prefetches application launch files, 2 prefetches boot files and/or 3 prefetches as many files as possible.

Registry tweak to Disable 8.3 Name Creation in NTFS in Windows XP:

If you don’t know what 8.3 naming is then read this.

8.3 naming convention is for the older MS-DOS FAT file. On Windows XP this can possibly degrade the NTFS drives performance. If you have a strong reason to retain the 8.3 naming convention, go ahead, if you have no idea what it is then you can disable it to achieve better performance.

Set the Registry DWORD key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation to 1. Exit the Registry and reboot.

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How do I flush DNS in Windows, Mac and Linux ?

When do you want flush DNS?

You visit one of the most frequently viewed websites in your list and find it’s not loading up, it could be very frustrating at times.

The site can be down for more than one reason, the most common one being, the remote server being down. To ensure if the server is up, ping the server directly, and the response tells you the status.

Let’s assume that the servers working fine, but still the site does not load up in your browser! DNS failure can be the cause. And this us a common case if server is relocated and/or the site is moved on to a new server, as DNS propagation normally takes anywhere from 24 – 72 hrs to propagate and work fine.

This scenario is also true when you set up new domain on a server.

If the site fails to show up even after 72 hrs, you may have to clear your DNS cache to ensure the request is not going to the old ips of the site you are trying to load.

Clearing DNS cache will ensure your PC does not have old records of bad DNS entries.If the bad entries are not flushed then you need to wait up to 24 hours for it to be dropped from the cache automatically, which is a scheduled activity in some computers.

The following list gives you the set of commands to flush DNS on different platforms:

If you are on Microsoft Windows:

1. Use the command ipconfig/flushdns in your command prompt.

2. The ipconfig/displaydns can be used to view the DNS resolver cache.

If you wish to turn off DNS Caching on Microsoft windows then The client-side DNS caching can be disabled by using either of these two commands:

1. net stop dnscache

2. sc servername stop dnscache

Until the next reboot DNS caching will be disabled and to make this permanent user the Service Controller tool or the Services tool to disable DNS Client service startup type.

If you use Mac OS X Leopard:

1. Use dnscacheutil -flushcache

Eg: bash-2.05a$ dnscacheutil -flushcache

And if you are on any version of Linux:

1. Use nscd daemon which manages the DNS cache.

Restart the nscd daemon by using the command ‘/etc/init.d/nscd restart‘

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How To Reduce Spam — The Funny Way :)

Getting mails from unwanted sources, about unwanted things, which you never requested for…wondering how you getting these mails ? SPAM, that’s what these mails are and you are being SPAMMED 🙂 .. aarrgh what did you do get spammed ? Well you don’t really need to do anything .. It is almost  quite an automatic process.

There are these so called BOTs which pick emails from various sources and pound those mails with SPAM, most of the SPAM mails are commercial, requesting you to buy some cheap stuff or driving you to a website from where you can download heap loads of Viruses and Trojans on to your system.

Wondering how to fight these SPAMs ? Not definitely an easy task. Firstly, I’d recommend prevent bullying your self from the SPAMMERs, do not leave your mail ID in public forums, or contact notes, Do not use it as signatures in any Public discussion boards. The SPAM bots are well trained to pick all these sort of places. Next do not register yourself with sites you have no idea whose behind ’em. And certainly if possible, avoid Hacked or PORN stuff. This should pretty much easy ways to keep SPAM off your Inbox.

Next, most of the mail providers ensure they combat SPAM up to a large extent. I’ve been happy with GMAIL so far and Yahoo too has improved on their SPAM Flagging capabilities. If the SPAM fights all through this and ends in your box, you can simply hit the SPAM button, which will ensure the id/IP which you got the mail from gets listed on the mail providers service, helping them build a better SPAM fighter engine.

Well a popular blog recently mentioned about a report which said e-mail ids starting with A get 15% more spam when compared to those starting with ‘Z’. Doesn’t make sense, firstly, why would anyone be worried about spam even before I open a mail id, and next concern is, lets say that my name starts with A and I already have a mail id, after reading the statistics, does the author expect me to change my mail id ?? 🙂 ..

My explanation for that is, there are fewer people whose name starts with ‘Z’ than those whose name starts with ‘A’ ;), provided the statistics is a credible one :).