How to Block Particular Website In Ubuntu Linux

I already discussed here how to block unwanted website in windows, on this article I will show you how to do the same thing in Ubuntu Linux. Website restriction is helpful to prevent some users specially your kids from accessing provocative, gambling, and other unwanted sites. With Ubuntu, blocking websites is relatively easy and doesn't require third-party software, you just need to make a simple entry in the /etc/hosts file.

To block some site on your Ubuntu machine, follow these easy steps:
1. Open the Terminal and type the following command.
gedit /etc/hosts
2. On the gEdit application, add the following line on the /etc/hosts document.
127.0.0.1 domain-you-want-to-block.com
Where domain-you-want-to-block.com is the name of the domain that you wish to block



Now everytime a user attempts to open a blocked website, the browser will display the "Failed To Connect" message.

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Add Confirmation Dialog Box When Closing a VB.NET form

To prevent your user from accidentally closing a form, you can add a confirm dialog that will ask first if the user indeed want to close the active form or cancel it instead. With this form behavior you can prevent losing unsaved work. In VB.NET, you can trap closing of form on FormClosing attribute. FormClosing event occurs whenever the user closes the form and before the form has been closed. Any code written on this block is executed first before the program close the active window.



To ask for confirmation, copy and paste the following code inside the FormClosing event:

        If MessageBox.Show("This will close this form. Continue?", "Confirm Closing", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo) = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.No Then
            e.Cancel = True
        End If

The MessageBox will provide user the option to continue closing by clicking the "Yes" button or cancel it by hitting the "No" button. If user presses the "No" button, VB will assign true to the Cancel property of the "e" argument variable that will abort the closing of the form.

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Get The ConnectionString to SQL Server Using VS Studio Server Explorer

To connect to a SQL Server instance, you have to assign the correct connection string to ConnectionString property of an SqlConnection object. For example.

Dim con As New SqlConnection
con.ConnectionString = "Data Source=.;Initial Catalog=x;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=sa;Password=password"
con.Open()

Now if your not familiar with the format of the connection string, you can get it online or using Visual Studio with these steps.

How to Get Free Internet Usage From Smart Bro Prepaid or Globe Tattoo

If you live in Philippines, there are two major network providers that provides wireless prepaid internet using HUAWEI USB MODEM. This trick was tested and can give you free internet usage on both Globe and Smart, however, it should also work on other network seamlessly. The are two pre-requisites before you can avail a free internet, first you must have at least 1 peso load on your prepaid account, and secondly you need a tunnel software like Freegate. Here is a short step-by-step procedure.

1. Download the Freegate Software.
2. Insert the USB Modem on your computer and then Run the software for the inserted modem. (For Globe, Use Globe Broadband and For Smart, Use Smart Bro Prepaid).
3. Connect to the internet by clicking the "Connect" button.



4. If already connected, Run the FreeGate software you downloaded earlier. It should automatically retrieve for available gateway servers as shown below.



5. FreeGate will automatically configure the proxy setting of IE. For other browsers such as Firefox, configure it manually by using the proxy server and port from the Status tab on the FreeGate software as shown below.

There you have it! Enjoy your free wireless internet!

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Instant Mask, An Easy Tool to Remove Background From Photos

When your into digital photography, more often than not you already tried removing background from a original photo and probably replace it with another scenery. This task can be achieve using advanced photo editing tools such as Adobe Fireworks or Photoshop. But these softwares require skills and training so if your not yet ready for it then you can try Instant Mask. It is a basic tool which main purpose is remove background and image masking.




The background removal is achieve in three steps. First, mark the background area of the photo with the red marker. And then the green marker is used to mark the foreground area of the photo. Lastly a click on preview button will process the request and display the result. Instant Mask is also available in Pro version and compatible with most Windows version including Windows 7.

Download Instant Mask via [clipping-path-studio.com]

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Portable Windows Desktop Search Engine Tool

If you need to search files by filename faster than the default Windows search then you have to try using Desktop Search tool such as Everything. It is portable, fast, light and accurate Search tool for Windows that initially index you hard drive for few seconds then displays all filename and foldername on a listview. Just download the portable version, run it and start searching.





Aside from basic file name searching, with Everything you can also search the network by creating HTTP server or FTP server from the Tools menu. You can also tell Everything which hard disk volumes you want it to search by going to Tools>Options>Volumes tab.



There are two versions available, default installer and the portable one which you can bring along with your USB stick. The latest version supports Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003/2008, and Windows 7.

Download Everything via [voidtools.com]

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Windows 7 Frequently Used Apps in One Pandora Box

For Users new to Windows 7 interface, finding the common program shortcuts may not be walk in the park after all. So a small app like Windows 7 Pandora Box which place all the frequently used applications & features of Windows 7 in one window and group them into various different categories can be really useful. It is a portable application and does not require installation. To use it, simply download the app and execute it from any folder or USB drive. Pandora Box has a total of 8 categories, Accessories, Programs, Tools, Administrative Tools, System Tools, System Properties, Ease of Access, and Display.



Windows 7 Pandora Box requires .NET Framework 4 beta and fully working only on 32-bit version of Windows 7.

Download Windows 7 Pandora Box via [WindowsVJ.com]


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Happy New Year 2010 to All Readers! ~ Fryan