MP3 better than WMA???

MP3 is better than wma atleast for a portable media player. 
Wma causes your player's battery to drain fast than mp3.
That is because the complexity of algrothm in wma decoding is more than that for mp3. 
In other words wma takes more cpu cycles to decode.
That means more pressure on battery.
The difference is as much as 25% experts say. 

Faster web page loading in Windows XP

FOR FASTER WEB PAGE LOADING:

This tweak will help web pages load faster, it has no real effect on download speeds, just helps your pc look up websites faster thereby speeding up how fast the page loads and making websurfing more enjoyable.

Navigate to this registry entry and change the following settings:

For XP & 2K

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\ServiceProvider

For 98, 98SE & ME

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP\ServiceProvider


On the right for ALL OS's change these entries: (ALL values are HEXIDECIMAL)

Class - 1
DnsPriority - 1
HostsPriority - 1
LocalPriority - 1
NetbtPriority - 1

Speed Up Windows XP search

When you use the Search function in Windows XP, it includes compressed or zipped folders in the search. This can slow down your search. You can disabled Windows XP Search from looking for compressed or zipped folders.
Click on Start-Run and type the following command:

Regsvr32 c:\Windows\System32\zipfldr.dll /u

To change Windows XP Search back, use the above command without the /u

Close all parent windows in Windows easily

You can close all parent windows using this shortcut.
To close a folder and all its open parent folders, simply press the SHIFT key while clicking on its Close box or alternatively press ALT + SHIFT + F4.

Clear command history in Linux

In bash, to clear the command history, execute the following command

$ rm -rf /.bash_history

To disable history of the commands execute the following command

$ ln -s /dev/null /.bash_history

The above command in essence redirects all history data to /dev/null file, which is a dummy file (NULL file).

--

Alternatively, you can set the HISTSIZE variable in /etc/profile to 0.

Hide programs from appearing in Start Panel frequently used program list in Windows XP

If you want to prevent other users from seeing a program that you frequently use you have to prevent it from appearing in start panel's frequently used list. You can do this by this registry trick
Start>run
type regedit
Exapand HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT folder. Search through folders until you find called Applications. Expand that. Now you can see list of execuatble files of programs. Find the executable file the program you need to hide uses. Expand the key. If program you are trying is an windows application builtin then it won't be listed there. Then you have to right click Application select new key and give the name the name of executable file.

Now right click the executable's folder. Select New>String. Type NoStartPage as the name of string variable. Close the registry editor.Log off , log in. You will never see program listed in frequent program list.

Display free space of Hard Drive in Linux

The free command displays how much space is left in your hard drive
$free

Alphabetize your start menu using single click

This is a very quick ans simple way to alphabetize start menu.
Click start
move your mouse pointer to All programs
Right click on any folder in program listing and click sort by name.
And you are done.

Find location of your executable commands using which in Linux

which command shows the actual location of your executable programs.
$which
eg
$which bash
/bin/bash
This command is similar to type command which produces similar results. This is particularly useful if you are scripting more than one system.

Reach Classic login screen from Welcome screen in Windows XP

You can switch to classic login screen from welcome screen by hitthing Ctrl+Alt+Del two times at the welcome screen. This is particularly useful if your account is hidden or you want to login as administrator which is not shown default in XP welcome screen.