Add Background Images to Folders in Windows

Suppose you have a music folder that contains all songs by your favorite singer. Would it not be great if instead of the plain white background, you could add the singer's image as the background of this folder?

It is relatively easy to add background images to folders using a simple desktop.ini trick just as easily as you can change your Desktop's background.

Desktop.ini is a system file that is used to customize the appearance and behavior of folders in Windows. We can use this ability of desktop.ini files to add backgrounds to folders just by adding a few lines of code.

This is how the background in folder looks like.

Steps for adding backgrounds to Folders

1. Open Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the following code:-

[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}] iconarea_image="location of the image"

3. You need to slightly modify this code on Windows Vista and Windows 7 as the ability to add folder backgrounds has been removed. So, if you use these versions of Windows, install AveFolder and then, replace [{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}] with [AveFolder] in the above code. To install this app, extract all the files and then, open the folder according to your installation of Windows (32 bit or 64 bit), right click install.bat and select Run as Administrator.
4. In this code, iconarea_image is the parameter where the location of your image will go.
5. Save the file as desktop.ini.
6. Place this file in the folder where you want your personalized background.
7. On Windows XP, you need to add system attribute to the folder where you want a background. To do this, open command prompt and execute "attrib +s D:\Music" (without quotes) if "D:\Music" is the location of your folder. If there are spaces in the location of your folder, you need to add double quotes around it. Windows Vista and 7 users need not add system attribute to folders.
8. You might need to log off and log back on for the changes to take effect. Sometimes, AveFolder app fails to work in which case you need to restart Windows Explorer. I recommend you to create a System Restore point in case you do not like the results.

You can hide this desktop.ini file if you feel that it is something that should not be visible in your folder.

Google’s “Project Loon” Wants Balloons to Connect You to the Internet

We don't live in a world where our Internet is beamed down from stratosphere balloons, but we might be soon.

If you live in an area that’s under-served by modern Internet infrastructure, you’re kind of missing out. The Internet is great, but you’re reading this on the Internet, so you probably know that already. Not everyone is so lucky. There are billions of people without access to an Internet connection, but Google wants to change that — with balloons. Here’s how.

Google’s “Project Loon” wants to launch solar powered balloons more than 60,000 feet above sea level into the stratosphere. These balloons would beam the Internet down to land-based antennas, offering previously disconnected people access to all the information the Internet has to offer, and also videos of cats.

The program is still in early tests, but Google hopes to one day have thousands of these balloons in the skies. Of course they have obstacles to overcome, like the fact that balloons tend not to stay where you put them. To get over that problem, Google is using “variable buoyancy” which lets the balloon change altitude to find winds going in the right direction. If a balloon is getting blown too far to the north, it could drop down a little bit into some southerly wind.

It took some time to work out, and some balloons didn’t go where they were supposed to. That’s why Google is testing the balloons in New Zealand. It’s remote enough that the likelihood of a balloon drifting across hostile borders is minimal.

While testing the balloons, obviously some of them came back down to Earth sooner than expected. The antennae payload would disconnect from the balloon in cases of failure, and then fall back to Earth with a parachute. Google couldn’t always be the first on the scene to recover their equipment so they labeled it “HARMLESS SCIENCE EXPERIMENT” and offered a reward for its return.

Imagine you see a strange object fall from the sky with a parachute. You examine it, only to find the words “HARMLESS SCIENCE EXPERIMENT” on it with a number to call promising a reward. There’s probably no way that would cause any sort of alarm. It’s just a HARMLESS SCIENCE EXPERIMENT that fell from the sky. Nothing to see here.

There are still a lot of things to be worked out before Google launches a planet-wide balloon Internet, but things seem to be progressing. There’s no word yet about a possible date for Project Loon to hit the mainstream, but a few New Zealand homes already have balloon Internet.

Moto X - You don't even have to touch,to use it. The phone that might save Motorola

Motorola is finally making a play for smartphone relevance. Although the company’s previous Android handsets were generally well-received, they've never achieved the same popularity that Samsung enjoys with its Galaxy line. That may soon change, as the Moto X is easily one of the most interesting Android phones Motorola has produced in recent memory.

I managed to snag some alone time with the Moto X on Thursday and walked away from the encounter with a better idea of how Motorola is trying to position itself in the smartphone market.

A full spectrum of color choices

The Moto X will be available in a host of colors.

This is is easily Motorola’s best-looking handset to date: While the company’s previous Android efforts are boxy and rigid, the Moto X features gentle curves that help the phone rest comfortably in your hand. The Moto X is made primarily of a composite material that doesn’t feel as flimsy as the plastics used in other smartphones, although I would have preferred if Motorola had used aluminum. The back of the phone can be customized to be practically any color you can imagine, and I was particularly smitten with a red model Motorola had on display at the event.

The front of the phone features a 4.7-inch, 1280-by-720 AMOLED display. It looks good, but it's not as impressive as the displays of other recent Android phones from Samsung, HTC, and LG. It’s disappointing that Motorola didn’t opt to go with a higher resolution display, but I honestly doubt most people will care—the 316 pixels per inch you get on the Moto X is comparable to the 326 pixels per inch offered by Apple’s Retina display iPhone 5.

You don't even have to touch it to use it

Much like the Verizon Droids that Motorola announced at the end of July, the Moto X is powered by a 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor that uses Motorola’s custom X8 system architecture. The phone didn’t seem any less responsive than any of the quad-core phones I’ve tested in the past, though I did notice a bit of lag when taking photos and trying out the voice recognition software in Google Now. The Moto X has “touchless controls” that you activate by saying “Okay Google Now” followed by a command.

It's always listening for "Okay Google Now," even when you're not touching it.

You can activate touchless controls at any time—even when the phone is in sleep mode—and the software learns your voice so you don’t run into the problem of other people trying to activate your phone. Unfortunately, you can’t change the trigger phrase to anything you like, though I’m sure some clever hacker will figure out a way to customize it into something awesome. (“Make it so, number one.”)

The Moto X has a 10-megapixel camera that uses an RGBC sensor, which features a fourth "clear" pixel in addition to the standard red/green/blue, to take in more light and improve performance in low-light environments. The camera worked well in the dimly lit demo room at the event, and it will be interesting to see how well it performs out in the real world. Motorola’s previous Android phones didn’t have stand-out cameras, so I’m glad the company is finally taking steps to improve this feature.

It looks like Motorola is finally paying serious attention to the camera.

The camera app on the Moto X is custom-built and lets you take a photo by simply tapping anywhere on the screen. You use a gesture to access the camera settings, which is also how you switch between taking regular photos and panoramas. Unfortunately, there’s no option for all-encompassing photospheres, which is a shame considering how much better this camera performs compared to the one on the Nexus 4.

An even bigger shame is that the Moto X ships with Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2. Motorola told me it definitely plans on updating the phone to the recently announced Android 4.3, but that update could take weeks (or even months) to roll out. For a company owned by Google, you’d think Motorola would be able to ship a phone running the latest version of Google’s mobile OS—especially when the two worked so closely together on developing this device.

Don't call it a comeback, yet

Motorola may need more than just customizable phones to become a dominant force in the phone market again.

All things considered, the Moto X is almost a re-birth of sorts for Motorola. It proves that Motorola does know how to make a stylish phone that can compete with the likes of Samsung and HTC, and shows us that Motorola is willing to try new things to stand out from the rest of the Android horde.

Although the phone is launching on all four major carriers, it's entirely possible the Moto X will be overshadowed by its Verizon Droid cousins as they share many of the same specs and features in a slightly different form factor. I know plenty of people who would be willing to give up customizability if it meant their phone could go 48 hours without charging, like the new Droid Maxx. Only time will tell if this new Motorola was worth the 13 billion Google spent to acquire it.

Forget iPads. Here's Why The iWatch Could Be Your Next Smart Home Controller

This Could Be Your Next Smart Home Controller

With news breaking yesterday thatApple AAPL -0.91% had the forethought to file a patent five years around smart home control scenarios with the iPhone, there’s no doubt that the prescient company from Cupertino has probably spent a development cycle or two – if the rumors about the iWatch are indeed true – on how a smartwatch could be a key part of the smart home.

And truth be told, they wouldn’t be the only ones. Existing smartwatch makers have told in interviews I’ve done for Smartwatch.FM that they’re are looking at ways to connect their smartwatches to the smart home.

So what would a smartwatch controller for the smart home do? Well, much like the smart home control apps available today from the likes of Vivint,Lowe’s, SmartThings and others, a smartwatch could receive alerts from sensors notifying home owners about any home security events or information about home energy usage, or it could even provide command capabilities to enable things like locking doors, controlling a home’s temperature or turning on lights.

The natural next question is whether people would want to use their watch as a smart home information and command center. Well, much like with how people are discovering the smartwatch is a good companion device to their smartphone or tablet – in large part because it’s not always convenient to have those screens in front of you – a smartwatch could pair well with either of those devices as a fairly passive companion device to present monitoring information or it could be a device that enables basic commands either through a fully independent smartwatch or even through a companion-watch.

I believe the first implementations of smart home-connected smartwatches will mainly provide monitoring data, but over time these watches will allow their owners to execute basic smart home control commands.

Will Apple be the first to enable these scenarios with the iWatch? Maybe. But no matter who the manufacturer is, I do think some of you no doubt use your watch to lock the door,  turn on the lights within the next few years.

Michael Wolf is Chief Analyst for NextMarket Insights and proprietor of Smartwatch.FM, a site all about smartwatches. You can read more thoughts on smartwatches as part of the smart home here as well as sign up for smartwatch profiles and news alerts. 

Top Executive Recruiters Agree There Are Only Three True Job Interview Questions

Image by World Economic Forum via Flickr

The only three true job interview questions are:

1.  Can you do the job?
2.  Will you love the job?
3.  Can we tolerate working with you?

That’s it. Those three. Think back, every question you’ve ever posed to others or had asked of you in a job interview is a subset of a deeper in-depth follow-up to one of these three key questions.  Each question may be asked using different words, but every question, however it is phrased, is just a variation on one of these topics: Strengths, Motivation, and Fit.

Can You Do the Job? – Strengths

Executive Search firm Heidrick & Struggles CEO, Kevin Kelly explained to me that it’s not just about the technical skills, but also about leadership and interpersonal strengths.  Technical skills help you climb the ladder.  As you get there, managing up, down, and across become more important.

You can’t tell by looking at a piece of paper what some of the strengths and weaknesses really are…We ask for specific examples of not only what’s been successful but what they’ve done that hasn’t gone well or a task they’ve, quite frankly, failed at and how they learned from that experience and what they’d do different in a new scenario.

Not only is it important to look at the technical skill set they have…but also the strengths on what I call the EQ side of the equation in terms of getting along and dealing or interacting with people.

Click here for more on interviewing and being interviewed for strengths

Will You Love the Job? -Motivation

Cornerstone International Group CEO, Bill Guyemphasizes the changing nature of motivation,

…younger employees do not wish to get paid merely for working hard—just the reverse: they will work hard because they enjoy their environment and the challenges associated with their work…. Executives who embrace this new management style are attracting and retaining better employees.

Click here for more on interviewing and being interviewed for motivation

Can We Tolerate Working With You? – Fit

Continuing on with our conversation, Heidrick’s Kelly went on to explain the importance of cultural fit:

A lot of it is cultural fit and whether they are going to fit well into the organization…  The perception is that when (senior leaders) come into the firm, a totally new environment, they know everything.  And they could do little things such as send emails in a voicemail culture that tend to negatively snowball over time.  Feedback or onboarding is critical.  If you don’t get that feedback, you will get turnover later on.

He made the same point earlier in an interview with  Smart Business,referencing Heidrick’s internal study of 20,000 searches.

40 percent of senior executives leave organizations or are fired or pushed out within 18 months. It’s not because they’re dumb; it’s because a lot of times culturally they may not fit in with the organization or it’s not clearly articulated to them as they joined.

Click here for more on interviewing and being interviewed for fit

T-Mobile to launch its first Firefox phone next week

T-Mobile will begin its rollout of phones based on Mozilla’s Firefox OS when it puts the Alcatel One Touch on sale in Poland next week.

MARTYN WILLIAMS

Firefox OS home screen

The launch in eastern Europe will come just two weeks after the new smartphone OS made its global debut with Telefoniain Spain.

The OS is based around Internet technologies and particularly HTML5. Applications for the phone are written in Web languages—a departure from the current practice where apps are typically written and compiled for each smartphone platform. Mozilla is promoting the openness of Firefox OS as a better alternative to systems like Android or Nokia’s Asha for low-end smartphones.

T-Mobile will launch the Alcatel One Touch in Poland Monday starting at 1 zloty (US$0.30), the company said. It didn’t provide any tariff details. In Spain, Telefonica put another Firefox handset, the ZTE Open, on sale July 2 for €69 (US$90) with a prepaid subscription.

Both carriers are planning wider availability of the phones as the year progresses.

MARTYN WILLIAMS

The Firefox OS dialer

T-Mobile said it plans to have Firefox OS phones on sale in Germany, Hungary and Greece by the end of the year. Underlining its low-end focus, in Germany the phone will be sold under T-Mobile’s no-frills Congstar brand. Spain’s Telefonica has plans to launch Firefox OS handsets in several South American markets within 2013.

Beyond the two launch carriers, Mozilla has already signed up at least 15 other mobile network operators to put Firefox OS handsets on sale. They include América Móvil, China Unicom, Etisalat, Hutchison Three Group, KDDI, KT, MegaFon, Qtel, SingTel, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia Group, Telenor, TMN and VimpelCom.

These additional carriers are yet to announce firm launch plans for Firefox phones.

The platform has also attracted support in the supply chain with Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, planning a series of Firefox OS-based devices. It is hiring a team of several thousand software engineers to work on the platform and support customers, it said recently.

With phones now getting into the hands of consumers, Mozilla is starting to eye its first tablet PC based on the platform, a Mozilla executive said last week when speaking in San Francisco. Mozilla is “moving aggressively and you’ll see things soon,” CTO Brendan Eich said when asked about a tablet.

Thai Airways to have wi-fi on board

National carrier Thai Airways is applying for a license with the national telecom regulator to become the first airline in Thailand to offer in-flight wi-Fi.

Jesada Sivaraks, secretary to the vice-chairman of the National Telecommunications Commission of Thailand’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission NBTC, explained the commission is now considering approving a license for Thai Airways to provide wireless internet access on the aircrafts. If everything goes through, it is expected to be available from early September onwards.

The airline didn’t get the license when it applied two years ago. Back then, Thai airways asked the regulator for two licences to provide both in-flight WiFi and mobile services. However, the NBTC could not award the  license  for mobile services as it would violate Section 46 of the Frequency Allocation Act, which states:

Section 46. A spectrum license for telecommunications business is the exclusive right of the licensee and is not transferable. The licensee who has been authorized to use spectrum for telecommunications services shall carry out the services by himself or herself. Business management either in whole or in part shall not be rendered or permitted to act on his/her behalf.

In other words, the National Telecommunications Commission will be considering the license for WiFi first, and the usage of mobile will be discussed later.

The spectrum that Thai Airways requested for wifi is automatically licensed to everyone who requests it. After obtaining a license, the airline carriers will have to select a WiFi service provider. At present, the only two providers globally are OnAir of Switzerland and AeroMobile Communications of the UK.

The 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Has Some Of The Best Seats Of Any Car Right Now

These are the standard GT seats on the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. There is also an optional Competition seat geared for track driving that has more aggressive side bolsters and provisions for a four-point harness. (Credit: Chevrolet)

The Chevrolet Corvette used to have some of the lightest seats in the industry, which matters a lot for sports cars because every last ounce counts.

So why did engineers decide to give the highly anticipated 2014 Corvette new seats that weigh 11 pounds more?

“We felt like we had to do it,” says Tadge Juechter, chief engineer for the C7 Corvette, “because we were so heavily critiqued for the previous seats.”

The current industry trend is for cars to shed mass, and generally speaking Chevy is like other automakers in this regard. But the new Corvette weighs more overall than the model it replaces, and the seats account for 12 percent of its extra 90 pounds.

Juechter is satisfied, though, that the iconic sports car gets heavier to get better, with the seats being a case in point.

Though they had been among the lightest in the market, the previous seats also were among the weakest. They would flex and creak during spirited driving. A complaint that has plagued Corvette interiors for nearly 50 years is that they feel cheap, and the seats are partly to blame.

So when designing seats for the 2014 model, the engineers started from scratch.

“The whole seat is a big, single, cast piece of aluminum,” Juechter says. “Then all of the joints are through-bolted so that the whole thing ties together as a rigid body.”

The beefier frame adds mass. But to help offset this, the new seats incorporate more parts made of magnesium, which has two-thirds the density of aluminum.

The result is a strong and supportive seat that didn't budge during a three-hour test drive of the C7 Corvette on the serpentine roads of Southern California. It also felt well cushioned and contoured, with enough compliance for longer journeys to be comfortable.

A noteworthy benefit of the added rigidity has to do with the head rests. The seats in the 2014 Chevy Corvette won’t flex much during rear-end collisions, which allows for the head rests to be positioned further back, while still complying with new whiplash safety standards.

In contrast, seats on most other new cars flex back during rear-end crashes, which means that their head rests must protrude further forward to compensate, often to the point where they can poke against the back of the head during everyday driving. This can make it difficult for some people (me included) to get comfortable behind the wheel