Ctrl+Alt+Delete does not work

Sometimes the Ctrl+Alt+Delete command does not work. If your laptop doesn't restart after you press these keys twice, there is a problem with your system.

To solve the problem:

1. Press the power button and turn off the laptop.

2. Restart the laptop and check the keyboard lights to see if the keyboard is recognized. press the Num Lock or Caps Lock key to verify this.

3. If the keyboard is not being recognized, contact the manufacturer to solve the problem or connect another compatible keyboard to the laptop.

4. Check Event Viewer details to see if an error has been logged.

5. Run the Antivirus Program to detect a virus or Trojan horse in the system.

30 Cool Photoshop tutorials-for-beginners

place to start.

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Unix

UNIX Introduction

What is UNIX?

UNIX is an operating system which was first developed in the 1960s, and has been under constant development ever since. By operating system, we mean the suite of programs which make the computer work. It is a stable, multi-user, multi-tasking system for servers, desktops and laptops.

UNIX systems also have a graphical user interface (GUI) similar to Microsoft Windows which provides an easy to use environment. However, knowledge of UNIX is required for operations which aren't covered by a graphical program, or for when there is no windows interface available, for example, in a telnet session.

Types of UNIX

There are many different versions of UNIX, although they share common similarities. The most popular varieties of UNIX are Sun Solaris, GNU/Linux, and MacOS X.

Here in the School, we use Solaris on our servers and workstations, and Fedora Linux on the servers and desktop PCs.

The UNIX operating system

The UNIX operating system is made up of three parts; the kernel, the shell and the programs.

The kernel

The kernel of UNIX is the hub of the operating system: it allocates time and memory to programs and handles the filestore and communications in response to system calls.

As an illustration of the way that the shell and the kernel work together, suppose a user types rm myfile (which has the effect of removing the file myfile). The shell searches the filestore for the file containing the program rm, and then requests the kernel, through system calls, to execute the program rm on myfile. When the process rm myfile has finished running, the shell then returns the UNIX prompt % to the user, indicating that it is waiting for further commands.

The shell

The shell acts as an interface between the user and the kernel. When a user logs in, the login program checks the username and password, and then starts another program called the shell. The shell is a command line interpreter (CLI). It interprets the commands the user types in and arranges for them to be carried out. The commands are themselves programs: when they terminate, the shell gives the user another prompt (% on our systems).

The adept user can customise his/her own shell, and users can use different shells on the same machine. Staff and students in the school have the tcsh shell by default.

The tcsh shell has certain features to help the user inputting commands.

Filename Completion - By typing part of the name of a command, filename or directory and pressing the [Tab] key, the tcsh shell will complete the rest of the name automatically. If the shell finds more than one name beginning with those letters you have typed, it will beep, prompting you to type a few more letters before pressing the tab key again.

History - The shell keeps a list of the commands you have typed in. If you need to repeat a command, use the cursor keys to scroll up and down the list or type history for a list of previous commands.

Files and processes

Everything in UNIX is either a file or a process.

A process is an executing program identified by a unique PID (process identifier).

A file is a collection of data. They are created by users using text editors, running compilers etc.

Examples of files:

• a document (report, essay etc.)
• the text of a program written in some high-level programming language
• instructions comprehensible directly to the machine and incomprehensible to a casual user, for example, a collection of binary digits (an executable or binary file);
• a directory, containing information about its contents, which may be a mixture of other directories (subdirectories) and ordinary files.

The Directory Structure

All the files are grouped together in the directory structure. The file-system is arranged in a hierarchical structure, like an inverted tree. The top of the hierarchy is traditionally called root (written as a slash / )

In the diagram above, we see that the home directory of the undergraduate student "ee51vn" contains two sub-directories (docs and pics) and a file called report.doc.

The full path to the file report.doc is "/home/its/ug1/ee51vn/report.doc"

Starting an UNIX terminal

To open an UNIX terminal window, click on the "Terminal" icon from Applications/Accessories menus.

An UNIX Terminal window will then appear with a % prompt, waiting for you to start entering commands.

 

ca.2009@rocketmail.com

Corel PSP X3

Windows 7 and PSP have not been friends. Earlier PaintShopPro Photo Versions 11, 12 and 12.50 had "white screens of death." Although these can be resolved (see previous articles, listed at the end of this posting), I decided to quit fooling around and upgraded to x3. This post briefly describes the software and my experiences.
Corel PaintShop Pro X3 "PSP"

Cost New: $70 to 80.00
Upgrade Cost: $50.00
Upgrade Cost from 12.x series: $25.00


Overall Impression:

• A very capable and affordable photo editor; which for the most part looks and feels the same as the 12.x versions
• Not quite Photoshop, but close and a lot cheaper
• There are probably a hundred different editing tools
• I use this for all of my photo and illustration editing

New features (improved from version 12.x)

• Supports multi-core processors
• SmartCarver / cut objects from background is now built in
• Windows 7 compatible (finally)
• Express-Lab for quickly editing multiple photographs
• Better RAW support
• Text editing now happens directly on the image (a minor change)

The default editor workspace features a gray work-area so it does not compete with your photographs. It includes standard tools, such as dodge, burn, soften, straighten, contrast and color adjustments. Wizards include red-eye, blemish-removers and other such tools. Most everything works intuitively.

If you are in full-editor mode (the default view), layers and groupings are supported, with merging and blending between layers. Each layer can be vector or pixel-based. As with all editors of this caliber, learning how to use these takes some practice.

The Express-Lab that actually is useful: Pick a folder or memory card and all the photos appear in a list. You can quickly crop, adjust or discard the photos without bothering to individually edit each picture. There is also an "Organizer" which displays thumbnails and allows you to annotate and group photographs into categories; I admittedly have not used this feature.

PSP is weak in certain areas:

• There are rectangular, irregular, and 'magic-wand' selection tools, but no round-selection or diagonal-selection tools. You cannot rotate a selection-tool without rotating the pixels underneath.
• The magic wand tool (for irregular selections, usually to pull a subject off the background) is challenging to use and I have mixed results. But, in the same breath, I've never been happy with other vendor's magic-wand selectors either.
  
  

• Although the program supports graduated (gradient) fills, I failed every time I've wanted to use them. To begin, the setting is hidden in the Materials pallet and it seems to ignore all foreground and background color selections. I may have to read the online help.

• PSP treats Text differently than I'm used to and frankly, it is a bit weird -- but workable. For most illustrations, I follow these steps for the best-quality text:
  
  See this keyliner article:  PSP Fuzzy Text
  
  The drawback is as soon as you are done with the text, you have to flip the fore/back colors back. Click image for larger view, Back to return. These images have been compressed for this blog.
  
  
• With versions 10 through 13, I still see an occasional bug where (typically the line-draw tool) is selected, but it does not work. Click another tool, and back, and the tool springs to life. This happens infrequently, but is noticeable. I keep hoping this anomaly will get fixed.
• Occasionally, the editor hangs with a "white-screen of death".  See related Keyliner articles below for a suggested fix.  I no longer have this problem.
• In an unrelated problem, new users will get frustrated when other tools appear to stop working (this is different than the bullet-point above). This is not a bug. If you have an area highlighted, all tools only work within that marquee. If you attempt to use a tool elsewhere, the tool "hesitates" and will not work. De-select the other area (which may not be visible if you have scrolled); then everything will work -- but all new users struggle with this. The "hesitation," which you can almost feel in the mouse, is actually a nice feature and it is your clue to look for a lasso. Press ctrl-D to de-highlight.
• If you have technical problems, Corel's support site is weak, with few technical details. For example, the issues I had with version 11/12 and Vista were never adequately explained and ultimately, I had to talk with at techie to get the real answer. Their search-engine is flawed. This may explain why my previous post garners several hundred hits a month.

On the Plus Side:

Although that was a lengthy negative-list, I cannot help but brag about how nice the program is to use. Almost all of the wizard-like features are easy and straight-forward. You will have no problems with blemish and red-eye removers, and other such tools. Red-eye tool also works with dog and cat eyes.

The masking features, background removers, and the people-remover (Carver), are a hoot to use. The program comes with a "thinify." However, with that said, I don't require these features with the work I usually do.

With the fancy tools aside, I spend a vast majority of my time editing illustrations manually, using the standard run-of-the-mill editing tools. I find that PSP is a capable product and it gets the work done.

Typically, my illustrations are a mixture of Raster and Vector-based layers in all of my illustrations. Because some of the tools are nuisance to get to, I always build a custom toolbar, putting my most common, out-of-the-way tools at my finger tips. Here is an illustration of the new toolbar; this has really made the program a joy to use:



Conclusions:

I have liked PSP for years and now use it exclusively. Almost all of the editing in this blog has been done with one version or PSP or another. For example, the DC-3 airplane illustrations in this blog are from plastic model advertisements, where I've manipulated the backgrounds, adding text, clouds, blurred props, deckled edges, etc.

It has been frustrating to get the software to run on newer Microsoft operating systems (the jump from XP to Vista was particularly traumatic). Starting with Windows Vista, Corel has come out with a series of paid upgrades (abandoning WordPerfect's long history of issuing free maintenance releases). So far the price has been tolerable, with most "technical" upgrades costing $25.00.

To get this $25 technical upgrade price, I had to call Corel's 800 sales line and plead with them, using this legitimate excuse: "You said 12.5 would fix all of my problems; it didn't and I am still am still fighting this (see this link: 12.5 White Screen of Death)... can I get this for free?" This plea works if you are within 90 days of a purchase, outside of that, you will have to pay, but $25 wasn't horrible.

If you are buying for the first time, it is often on sale for $70; still a bargain for what this program offers. Full retail has crept up to $100, which is a cause for concern. If you already own the product, pay the upgrade fees, keeping the software current -- consider it as maintenance.

The X3 version has incremental improvements over 12.x, and this initial review shows it working (more) properly in Windows 7. Even with two paid upgrades in the past 4 months, I am still pleased and am not having any serious problems. The editor solves real needs and does real editing work, despite my negative comments. Would I like to use a program like Photoshop? Of course, but I'm also cheap.

Hopefully, future maintenance will be actual updates rather than under the guise of a new version. With normal maintenance releases, the product will have a chance to mature and won't feel as rushed.

TeamViewer Remote Control

Review: TeamViewer allows you to remote control any PC on the Internet with a super-easy-to-use program that works through all routers and firewalls. Free for personal use; inexpensive for business use.Sometimes it is nice to remote-control someone else's PC. I was on a call with a friend and he wanted me to see what was on his screen. I downloaded and ran TeamViewer and 20 seconds later, I was looking at his computer.

Another good example might be tech-support for a family member, again, in 20 seconds, you can see what they are seeing (and if needed, control their mouse and keyboard). Finally, you can use it to reach your home computer from the office.

The Product:

All-in-one TeamViewer Full Version
www.TeamViewer.com
Free for personal use

• Team Viewer can remotely control any PC anywhere on the Internet
• No installation is required
• A novice can start a session in about 60 seconds
• It works through all Firewalls and Routers!
• It works with any screen resolution
• Transmissions are encrypted
• It is fast, easy and free for non-commercial users

The Design:

To use the software, both sides of the connection need to run the program (a single executable, about 2MB). For a quick, one-time session, double-click the downloaded program and click "RUN".

Then decide if you are going to host the session or if you want to connect to another person's session.

If you are hosting a session (you as the presenter), the system generates a session-ID and password. Via Email or over the phone, tell the other person(s) the codes, which they type into their program. When they click Connect, they immediately see your screen and can have control of the mouse and keyboard. With a click, the session can be flipped around, making you the presenter. All of this works easily and transparently.

Detailed Steps:

These instructions probably appear more involved than they really are. Be aware when you start the program, you can choose to install the software or you can simply "run" it. Use "Run" for those one-time connections; use Install if you frequently need to connect to the same machine. 

1. Download the TeamViewer program.

a. Goto www.TeamViewer.com; click the download tab.

b. Download "All-in-one: TeamViewer Full Version".
(Both sides of the connection need to download this same software)

c. Save the file (TeamViewer_Setup.exe) to the desktop or other known location.

(If you are setting this up for a student or parent and they would never need to remote-control your computer, they can download the "TeamViewer QuickSupport", which runs immediately, again without installation, and does not require administrative rights to run.)

2. Double-click "TeamViewer_Setup.exe" and choose RUN if you want a quick, one-time connection with the other person.

Note: Although the program is called "_Setup.exe", it does not "have to be" installed, see below.

a. Windows 7 and Vista will prompt for permission; look on your task bar for permission.

b. When prompted to "Install or Run," most should click RUN.


If you plan on using the program often, consider installing and setting up more advanced options. You must 'install' if you need to connect to your machine unattended. However, for occasional remote-control sessions, the RUN option will work well.

3. The login screen appears next:

It is split into two halves:


Decision:

• If you are trying to remote-control someone else's computer, have them tell you their semi-permanent Session ID. You type their session ID in the ID box and click "Connect to Partner". You will be prompted for their password.
• If you want the other person to remote-control your computer, tell them your Session-ID and password, as displayed on the left of the screen.

4. You are connected and you should see their screen. You are done!

Do this: On the top tool-bar banner-menu, click "View, Show Remote Cursor" (so you can see their mouse move). I've noticed when you click any of the banner-menus, the session temporarily disconnects; click "Connect" to re-connect.

If you are the person being remote-controlled, your wallpaper will turn gray (as an indication your computer is being remotely controlled) and there is a pop-up window on the bottom-right of your screen, showing the status of the connection.

While Remote Controlling:

You can see and click anywhere on the other person's screen and you have full keyboard and mouse control. If the remote person moves the mouse at the same time as you, they win all conflicts.

One-time per session you will see a small nag screen offering to buy the product. The software is unabashedly free for personal use, but they want to remind you of this. The nag does not cause undue problems.

Other Features:
Without getting into details, you can upload and download files directly to their computer, choosing any directory. And it almost goes without saying, you can launch their copy of Windows Explorer and copy, move and delete files on the remote machine, as if you were there.


While on the Road - Connect to Home

If you install the full client (as opposed to Run-only), you can reach your computer while traveling. As long as your computer is on and you know the Session-ID and password, you can make an unattended connection to your own computer.

In summary:

This is a slick program and is better than previous software that I've used (including VNC and Ultra-VNC). It works over Port 80, passing through TeamViewer servers, and this is how it can tunnel through firewalls.

For personal use, it is free. For commercial use, see their website for costs. If you pay for a license, it is a one-time, perpetual license with all new versions and you can use it for presentations, demos, technical support, etc.