Changing windows product key from command line

1. In the CMD admin window, type: slmgr.vbs -ipk
2. Activate windows after changing the key, slmgr.vbs -ato

Auto blogs

I like reading blogs especially related to automobiles.

Here are some Indian blogs

Team-BHP

Drivoblog Tirthankar Basu, I envy your vision "Many Dreams, Many Kilometers"

vicky.in

International blog

Autoblog

Lemme know if there are any good ones that I should follow

Paddle Shift : Ford Taurus

Its been a long weekend, July 4th, American Independence Day and we set out to see fireworks @ Savannah
This time we got the mean machine, Ford Taurus SEL version.

It has got all the electronic gizmos that you expect a bit more. Yeah Paddle shift baby !!.  Oh if you dont know about paddle shift read about it here.  

If you see the pic the two levers projecting from the steering does the job.  Put the gear in M mode. Drive off u can do up-shift with either of two levers. When u slow down down shift is done automatically. Well this is not as fun  to drive as fully manual but better than Automatic transmission. At-least u can rev her up.

Synergy plus

Ever thought of controlling multiple computers with a single keyboard and mouse and with out using a KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) switch ?

Try out the free software synergy plus. The only demand put by synergy plus all the computers that you control has to be connected to an Ethernet. No matter the machines has Linux, Windows, Mac or even ipad, synergy does its job. Even you can do copy paste from one machine to another. BTW I stole this image from here

Multiple Desktops in windows 7

I always wondered why Microsoft didn't care about multiple desktops feature in their No:1 Market share operating system. Linux had this feature from the Day 1 the KDE or GNOME was in place. From a developer point of view I suppose its a very simple feature. You have a desktop class, Just create multiple instances of it.

Anyways I used to use  Ubuntu Linux for all my work and Windows when I need excel or power point. Once I started using Windows 7, I'm kinda addicted to it. The Aero interface is uber cool and its really FAST !!!.. Needless to say, I have a Dual core with a 4gig RAM. I have been looking for 3rd party softwares for the Multiple Desktop feature in Windows 7. I tried many virtual desktop, NVIDIA Nview etc. I would say all of them are not stable and crashes at times or doesn't have the features that i need.  Then I came across the dexpot software for windows which provides multiple desktops feature.You can download the tool from here . Its much stable and its FREE !!. It has got all the bells a whistles you need. So go ahead and try it out and if it crashes let them know :D

Mission STS 132 : A dream come true

Alright for those who dont know, I'm a space enthusiast. Yeah lets get back and write some boring stuff "AMBITIONS". I had like 3 ambitions. First I wanted to be a test driver for the super car companies, second aerospace engineer, third astronaut. Guess what I ended up being a couch potato starring at the laptop. The  glorified software engineer.

Anyways end of digression back to the point "SPACE". I used to follow the rocket launches, Space station build, Mars landing etc and always wished to see a rocket launch live. Luckily I'm in Florida and the Kennedy Space Center is like 2.5hrs drive from my place, they had a shuttle launch (Mission STS 132) scheduled last Friday and its summer vacation I dont have any classes.

We ( 5 of us ) decided to head to flag off the shuttle. Augmenting the excitement we got a Pontiac G6 with 3.5L V6 monster under the hood.

We started at 11am. Had an awesome drive till Orlando other than annoying toll booths on the highway. WTF. America is so rich still toll !!. Anyways we took a short break at Orlando at Mcd. The Cape Canaveral  launch pad is like 40 mts drive from Orlando. We had a 1 hour buffer. Then comes the traffic. I lived in bangalore for 4 years and I have seen worse. At least here it moves. But still we thought we r gonna miss the launch. After 30 mts the traffic got less and I used my Indian driving experience, floored the gas pedal  to 95-100mph along with crazy lane changes . Thank God I guess cops went for the launch as well.

Yeah we reached the river were most of the people camp for watching the shuttle launch. The place is like 3-4 miles from launch pad. We asked a guy when is it gonna lift off. He said "Dude u've got 15 seconds". Oh boy that could have been a  near miss. The final count down begins 10, 8 ,7 ....1, lift off. Its the best thing I have ever seen. Two long flames from the solid rocket boosters and short flames from shuttle engines. In 10 seconds from lift off we could feel the sonic boom. The cars that parked were kinda vibrating. Well here are some pics. We didn't click the lift off as we didn't wanna miss the initial show.

Seeing all this I got jealous of the astronauts who are in the shuttle. I felt as if they are looking at me and saying What the heck are you doing down there you have better things to do !!. Oh yeah i can do better things. Hey astronaut r u seeing, You are floating at 13000mph.. I'm sitting idle, enjoying the beach breeze and gravity and I'm gonna get "high" soon !!

Tabspace in vim

For those vim users who care about code intendation.,You may put this in vimrc. For those who not or your favourite IDE is gonna auto intend for you then exit(0) ;)

set expandtab (Tab key will create spaces)
set tabstop=4  (If you need 4 spaces for a tabkey. thtz wht I use)


set shiftwidth=4 (The auto indent aligns putting 4 spaces for the nestings for loops etc..)