[INFO] All about LINUX

I. What is Linux?
II. Trying it out
III. Installing
IV. What to do now
V. The Console

Intro:
This tutorial is written with the total Linux n00b in mind.


I've seen too many n00bs get totally left in the dark by asking what
the best distro is. They seem to only get flooded with too many
answers in so short a time. I'm a little bit of a n00b too, so I know
how it feels. I will cover a grand total of two basic distros. You may
learn to strongly prefer other ones (I do!) but this is just to get
you started. I touch on a number of topics that would be impossible to
go into in depth in one tutorial, so I encourage you to actively seek
out more about the concepts I make reference to.


I. What is Linux?

Linux is basically an operating system (OS for short). The Windows
machine you're (probably) using now uses the Mcft Windows
operating system.

Ok, so what's so different about Linux?

Linux is part of a revolutionary movement called the open-source
movement. The history and intricacies of that movement are well beyond
the scope of this tutorial, but I'll try and explain it simply. Open
source means that the developers release the source code for all their
customers to view and alter to fit what they need the software to do,
what they want the software to do, and what they feel software should
do. Linux is a programmer?s dream come true, it has the best compilers,
libraries, and tools in addition to its being open-source. A
programmer's only limit then, is his knowledge, skill, time, and
resolve.

What is a distro?

A distro is short for a distribution. It's someone's personal
modification or recreation of Linux.

What do you mean by distros? I just want Linux!

Since Linux is open source, every developer can write his own version.
Most of those developers release their modifications, or entire
creations as free and open source. A few don't and try to profit from
their product, which is a topic of moral debate in the Linux world.
The actual Linux is just a kernel that serves as a node of
communication between various points of the system (such as the CPU,
the mouse, the hard drive etc.). In order to use this kernel, we must
find a way to communicate with it. The way we communicate is with a
shell. Shells will let us enter commands in ways that make sense to
us, and send those commands to the kernel in ways that makes sense to
it. The shell most Linux's use it the BASH shell (Bourne Again SHell).
The kernel by itself will not do, and just a shell on top of the kernel
won?t either for most users; we are then forced to use a distribution.

What distro is best?

This is not the question you want to ask a large number of people at
one time. This is very much like asking what kind of shoe is best,
you'll get answers anywhere from running shoes, hiking boots, cleats,
to wingtips. You need to be specific about what you plan on using
Linux for, what system you want to use it on, and many other things. I
will cover two that are quick and easy to get running. They may not be
the best, or the quickest, or the easiest, or the most powerful, but
this is a guide for getting started, and everyone has to start
somewhere.

How much does it cost?

computer + electricity + internet + CD burner and CDs = Linux
I'll let you do your own math.
Note however that a few do charge for their distros, but they aren't
all that common, and can be worked around. Also, if you lack internet
access or a CD burner or CDs or you just want to, you can normally
order CDs of the distro for a few dollars apiece.



II. Trying it out.

Wouldn't it stink if you decide to wipe out your hard drive and install
Linux as the sole operating system only to learn that you don't know
how to do anything and hate it? Wouldn?t it be better to take a test
drive? 95 out of a 100 of you know where I'm heading with this section
and can therefore skip it. For those of you who don't know, read on.

There are many distros, and most distros try to have something that
makes them stand out. Knoppix was the first live-CD distro. Although
most of the other main distros have formed their own live-CDs, Knoppix
is still the most famous and I will be covering how to acquire it.

A live-CD distro is a distribution of Linux in which the entire OS can
be run off of the CD-ROM and your RAM. This means that no installation
is required and the distro will not touch your hard disk or current OS
(unless you tell it to). On bootup, the CD will automatically detect
your hardware and launch you into Linux. To get back to Windows, just
reboot and take the CD out.

Go to the Knoppix website (www.knoppix.com). Look around some to get
more of an idea on what Knoppix is. When you're ready, click Download.
You'll be presented with a large amount of mirrors, some of which have
ftp and some of which have http also.

note: the speed of the mirrors vary greatly, and you may want to
change mirrors should your download be significantly slow.

Choose a mirror. Read the agreement and choose accept. You'll probably
want to download the newest version and in your native language (I'll
assume English in this tutorial). So choose the newest file ending in
-EN.iso

note: you might want to also verify the md5 checksums after the
download, if you don't understand this, don't worry too much. You just
might have to download it again should the file get corrupted (you'll
have to anyway with the md5). Also, a lot of times a burn can be
botched for who-knows what reason. If the disk doesn?t work at all,
try a reburn.

Once the .iso file is done downloading, fire up your favorite
CD-burning software. Find the option to burn a CD image (for Nero, this
is under copy and backup) and burn it to a disk. Make sure you don't
just copy the .iso, you have to burn the image, which will unpack all
the files onto the CD.

Once the disk is done, put it in the CD-ROM drive and reboot the
computer. While your computer is booting, enter CMOS (how to get to
CMOS varies for each computer, some get to it by F1 or F2 or F3, etc.)
Go to the bootup configuration and place CD-ROM above hard disk. Save
changes and exit. Now, Knoppix will automatically start. You will be
presented with a boot prompt. Here you can input specific boot
parameters (called cheatcodes), or just wait and let it boot up using
the default.

note: Sometimes USB keyboards do not work until the OS has somewhat
booted up. Once you?re actually in Knoppix, your USB keyboard should
work, but you may not be able to use cheatcodes. If you need to,
attach a PS/2 keyboard temporarily. Also, if a particular aspect of
hardware detection does not work, look for a cheatcode to disable it.
Cheatcodes can be found on the Knoppix website in text format (or in
HTML at www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/CheatCodes).

Upon entering the KDE desktop environment, spend some time exploring
around. Surf the web, get on IM, play some games, explore the
filesystem, and whatever else seems interesting. When your done, open
up the console (also called terminal, xterm, konsole, or even shell)
and get ready for the real Linux. See section V for what to do from
here.

note: to function as root (or the superuser) type su.


It's not entirely necessary that you are a console wizard at this point
(although you will need to be sooner or later), but a little messing
around wont hurt.

Just as there are many Linux distros, so there are also many types of
Knoppix. I won?t go into using any of them, but they should all be
somewhat similar. Some of them include: Gnoppix, Knoppix STD, Morphix,
and PHLAK. Other distros also have live-CDs.

III. Installing

I will guide you through the installation of Fedora Core 2. The reason
I chose Fedora is because it contains the Anaconda installer, which is
a very easy installer.

Download the discs from here:
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedo...ore/2/i386/iso/
If the link doesn?t work, then go to www.redhat.com and navigate your
way to downloading Fedora (odds are your architecture is i386).
You will want to download the FC2-i386-disc1.iso and burn it using the
method for Knoppix. Do the same for all the discs.

Note: do NOT download the FC2-i386-SRPMS-disc1.iso files.

Now, once you?re ready, insert disc 1 into the drive and reboot.

The installer should come up automatically (if not, then see the
Knoppix section on CMOS).

Note: installer may vary depending on version. Follow directions best
you can using your best judgement.

1. Language: choose English and hit enter
2. Keyboard: choose us (probably) and hit enter
3. Installation media: choose local CDROM (probably) and hit enter
4. CD test: you can choose to test or skip
5. Intro: click next
6. Monitor: choose your monitor to the best of your ability, if you?re unsure, choose on of the generic ones
7. Installation type: choose which ever you want (default should be fine)
8. Partition: choose to automatically partition (unless you know what you?re doing)
9. Partition: the default partitions should suffice
10. Boot loader: choose your boot loader (grub for default)
11. Network settings: choose the correct settings for your network (generally, don?t mess with anything unless you know what you?re doing)
12. Firewall: you can choose a firewall if you want to
13. Language support: choose any additional language support you want
14. Time zone: pick your time zone
15. Root password: set your root password (root is the admin, or superuser; you want it to be very secure)
16. Packages: choose which packages you want to install. For hard drives over 10 gigs, you can go ahead and choose all
packages (depending on how much disk space you plan on taking up later, note that most everything you?ll need is a package: the exception
being large media files). You will generally want to install all the packages you think you?ll ever need. Two desktop environments aren?t necessary.
Make sure you have at least one and the X window system! (if you want a GUI that is). I suggest you get all the servers too.

Note: Knoppix uses the KDE Desktop environment

17. Make sure everything is all right, and install
18. You can create a boot disk if you want

Note: Desktop environments might have a set-up once you enter them

IV What to do now

Now that you have a Linux set-up and running, there are many paths you
can head down. First, you should explore your GUI and menus. Browse
the web with Mozilla, get on IM with GAIM, play games, add/delete
users, check out OpenOffice, and anything else that might be part of
your daily use. Also, set up a few servers on your computer to play
around with, specifically SMTP (*wink*wink*), FTP (vsftp is a good
one), and either telnet or SSH (OpenSSH is a good one). The setup and
use of these are beyond the scope of this tutorial, but researching
them could prove to be very educational.

The filesystem
The Linux (and Unix) filesystem is different from the normal Windows
that you?re used to. In Windows, your hard drive is denoted ?C:\? (or
whatever). In Linux, it is called the root directory and is denoted
?/?. In the / directory, there are several default folders, including
dev (device drivers) mnt (mount) bin (binaries) usr (Unix System
Resources) home, etc, and others. I encourage you to explore around
the whole file system (see section V) and research more.

Once you are well situated, it?s time to get into the heart and power
of Linux: the console. The next session will guide you through it and
set you on the path to finding out how to do stuff for yourself. You
will (probably) want to start learning to rely less and less on the
GUI and figure out how to do everything through the console (try
launching all your programs from the console, for example).

V. The Console

The Console might look familiar to DOS if you?ve ever used it. The
prompt should look something like the following:

AvatharTri@localhost avathartri$

With the blinking _ following it. This can vary greatly as it is fully
customizable. Let?s get started with the commands.

First, let?s explore the file system. The command ls will "list" the
files in the current directory. Here?s an example:

AvatharTri@localhost avathartri$ ls

It should then display the contents of the current directory if there
are any. Almost all commands have options attached to them. For
example, using the -l option, which is short for "long" will display
more information about the files listed.

AvatharTri@localhost avathartri$ ls -l

We will get into how to find out the options for commands and what
they do later.

The second command to learn will be the cd command, or "change
directory". To use it, you type cd followed by a space and the
directory name you wish to go into. In Linux, the top directory is /
(as opposed to C:\ in Windows). Let?s get there by using this command:

AvatharTri@localhost avathartri$ cd /
AvatharTri@localhost /$

Now, we are in the top directory. Use the ls command you learned
earlier to see everything that?s here. You should see several items,
which are directories. Now, let?s go into the home directory:

AvatharTri@localhost /$ cd home
AvatharTri@localhost home$

And you can now ls and see what?s around. In Linux there are some
special symbol shortcuts for specific folders. You can use these
symbols with cd, ls, or several other commands. The symbol ~ stands
for your home folder. One period . represents the directory your
currently in. Two periods .. represent the directory immediately above
your own. Here?s an example of the commands:

AvatharTri@localhost home$ cd ~
AvatharTri@localhost avathartri$

This moved us to our user?s personal directory.

AvatharTri@localhost avathartri$ cd .
AvatharTri@localhost avathartri$ cd ..
AvatharTri@localhost home$

The cd .. moved us up to the home directory.
As you?ve probably noticed by now, the section behind the prompt
changes as you change folders, although it might not always be the
case as it?s up to the personal configuration.

You can use these symbols with the ls command also to view what is in
different folders:

AvatharTri@localhost home$ ls ~
AvatharTri@localhost home$ ls ..

And you can view what is in a folder by specifying its path:

AvatharTri@localhost home$ ls /
AvatharTri@localhost home$ ls /home

The last command we will cover as far as finding your way around the
filesystem is the cat command. The cat command will show the contents
of a file. Find a file by using the cd and ls commands and then view
its contents with the cat command.

AvatharTri@localhost home$ cd [directory]
AvatharTri@localhost [directory]$ ls
AvatharTri@localhost [directory]$ cat [filename]

Where [directory] is the directory you want to view and [filename] is
the name of the file you want to view. Omit the brackets. Now, if the
file you viewed was a text file, you should see text, but if it wasn?t,
you might just see jumbled garbage, but this is ok. If the file goes
by too fast and goes off the screen, don?t worry, we will get to how
to scroll through it later.

One of the most useful commands is the man command, which displays the
"manual" for the command you want to know more about. To learn more
about the ls command:

AvatharTri@localhost home$ man ls

And you will see the manual page for ls. It displays the syntax, a
description, options, and other useful tidbits of information. Use the
up and down arrows to scroll and press q to exit. You can view the
manual pages for any command that has one (most commands do). Try this
out with all the commands that you know so far:

AvatharTri@localhost home$ man cd
AvatharTri@localhost home$ man cat
AvatharTri@localhost home$ man man

One very crucial option to the man command is the -k option. This will
search the descriptions of manual pages for the word you specify. You
can use this to find out what command to do what you need to do. For
example, let?s say we want to use a text editor:

AvatharTri@localhost home$ man -k editor

And you should see a list of apps with a short description and the
word "editor" in the description.

With a blank prompt, you can hit tab twice for Linux to display all
the possible commands. For Linux to display all the commands beginning
with a certain letter or series of letters, type those letters and hit
tab twice.

Note: This is actually a function of BASH and not Linux, but BASH is
the default Linux shell.

Now that you know a little about moving around the filesystem and
viewing manual pages, there is one more trick that we will cover to
help you out. Remember how the man pages were scrollable as in you
could use the arrow keys to scroll up and down? That is because the
man pages use something called the less pager. We?re not going to go
into what this does exactly and how it works, but that?s definitely
something that you will want to look up. Here?s how to use the less
pager with a file:

AvatharTri@localhost home$ cat [filename] | less

That uses something called a pipe. The line is the vertical line above
enter on your keyboard. Briefly, what this does is take the output
from the cat command, and stick it in the less pager. By doing this,
you can view files that would normally run off the screen and scroll
up and down.

Some final commands to check out:

mkdir - make directories
cp - copy file
mv - move file
rm - remove file
rmdir - remove directory
grep - search a file for a keyword
pwd - display current working directory
top - display system resources usage (kill the program with control + c)

[TIP] Save HDD space, improve computer's efficiency

Do it yourself without using any 3rd party software.......
It will not only save your harddisk space but also increase the efficiency of the computer.........

Create a file named filename.bat on any of your partition and write the following code in that file and then save. After saving run and enjoy the increased efficiency of your PC.
Note: Add/remove the name of partition as per your partitions number/name like d: or E: or F: etc.
---------------------
cd\
del/s *.tmp, *.bak
cd C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp
del *.*
cd C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
del *.*
cd c:\windows\temp
del *.*
d:
del/s *.tmp, *.bak
e:
del/s *.tmp, *.bak
----------------------

Also if you wish you can add this filename.bat file to the startup of the computer/windows........

[TRK] Restarting Windows Without Restarting Your PC

A modern PC with Vista Home Edition takes about one and a half minutes to boot. An older machine with XP is about the same. That’s 30 seconds for the PC itself (the BIOS) to boot up, plus a minute for the Windows operating system to boot.

Sometimes, you need to reboot Windows (e.g. when installing new software), but there is no need to restart BIOS, too. However, the default is to reboot both. (That’s called doing a “cold boot,” rather than a “warm boot.”) There’s a trick that works on both XP and Vista to get it to do a warm boot instead, thus saving you 30 seconds per cycle.

The trick is to hold down the SHIFT key when invoking the restart.

Windows Vista: Select Start, then hover over the right arrow that is to the right of the padlock icon until the pop-up menu appears that contains “restart” as one of it’s choices. Hold down the SHIFT key while clicking on the “restart” choice.

Windows XP: Select Start. Select “Shut Down…”.
Change the drop-down combo box under “What do you want the computer to do?” to “Restart”. Hold down the SHIFT key while clicking on the “OK” button.
Or ... the alternate
Click on Restart, while holding the SHIFT key

[TIP] Use of Function Keys

F1
1) It is used to open help menu in most of the windows application.
2) Windows Key + F1 will open Windows help and support center.

F2
1) It is usually used to rename any file or folder.
2) Ctrl + F2 displays the print preview windows in Microsoft Word.

F3
1) Shift + F3 will change text in Microsoft word from upper case to lower case and vice versa.

F4
1) It opens Find Window in many applications.
2) Alt + F4 will close the programs in windows.
3) Repeats the last action performed in microsoft word.

F5
1) It is used to refresh desktop and refresh a page in internet browser.
2) It is used to open find, replace and go to window in Microsoft word.
3) It start slide show in power point.

F6
1) Moves the cursor to the Address bar in Internet Explorer and Firefox.

F7
1) It is used to spell check and grammar check a document in Microsoft Office applications.

F8
1) It is used to enter the Windows Safe mode.

F10
1) Shift + F10 is the same as right click on any selected item.
2) Activates the menu in any application of Microsoft Office.

F11
1)Opens the full screen mode in various explorer.

F12
1) Open the save as windows in various application of Microsoft office.
2) Shift + F12 saves the Word document.
3) Shift + Ctrl + F12 prints the Microsoft Word page.

....just posting it cuz i've seen the dust on function keys quite often 

[HACK] Run the Trial Version Software Forever

Most of us are familiar with many softwares that run only for a specified period of time in the trial mode. Once the trial period is expired these softwares stop functioning and demand for a purchase. But there is a way to run the softwares and make them function beyond the trial period. Isn’t this interesting?

Before we perforn this trick, we have to understand the functioning of these softwares. I’ll try to explain this in brief.

When these softwares are installed for the first time, they make an entry into the Windows Registry with the details such as Installed Date and Time, installed path etc. After installation every time you run the software, it compares the current system date and time with the installed date and time.So, with this it can make out whether the trial period is expired or not.
So with this being the case, just manually changing the system date to an earlier date will not solve the problem.For this purpose there is a small Tool known as RunAsDate.

RunAsDate is a small utility that allows you to run a program in the date and time that you specify. This utility doesn’t change the current system date, but it only injects the date/time that you specify into the desired application.

RunAsDate intercepts the kernel API calls that returns the current date and time (GetSystemTime, GetLocalTime, GetSystemTimeAsFileTime), and replaces the current date/time with the date/time that you specify.It works with Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista.

NOTE: FOLLOW THESE TIPS CAREFULLY
You have to follow these tips carefully to successfully hack a software and make it run in it’s trial mode forever.
1. Note down the date and time, when you install the software for the first time.

2. Once the trial period expires, you must always run the software using RunAsDate.

3. After the trial period is expired, do not run the software(program) directly.If you run the software directly even once, this hack may no longer work.

4. It is better and safe to inject the date of the last day in the trial period.

For example, if the trial period expires on jan 30 2009, always inject the date as jan 29 2009 in the RunAsDate.

Enjoy!!!

Download: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/run_as_date.html

Note: For some shareware programs, RunAsDate might really work, but many shareware creators are smart enough to detect that the date/time was modified and when they detect the time change, they end the trial period immediately.

[INFO] IP Adresses explained

Every system connected to the Internet or connected to a particular network has a unique Internet Protocol Address of an IP Address. Just as in the real world every person has his or her own Home Contact Address, similarly every system connected to the Internet has its own unique IP Address. Your IP Address is the address to which data should be sent to ensure that it reaches your system. The IP Address of a system acts as the system’s unique identity on the net.

An Internet Protocol Address (IP Address) is a 32-bit address or number, which is normally written as four decimal numbers (of 8 bits each) , each separated from the other by a decimal.. This standard is known as the dotted-decimal notation.

Example: A Typical IP Address would be as follows: 202.34.12.23

It can be further broken down as:

202 representing the first 8-bits.

34 representing the next 8-bits.

12 representing the third 8-bits.

23 representing the fourth 8-bits.

Thus when considered together 202.34.12.23 represents 32-bits. So basically we can conclude that each decimal in an IP Address represents 1 byte or 8 bits. It is important to note than an IP Address can contain numbers from 0-255.

There are a huge number of IP Addresses in use in the present day . All these IP Addresses have some sort of relation with each other and each individual IP Address can reveal a lot of secrets about the Network, of which it is a part. Before we move on to that, we need to understand the fact that all IP Addresses being used are divided into a number of ranges, which are as follows:

Class Range

A 0.0.0.0     to 127.255.255.255

B 128.0.0.0 to 191.255.255.255

C 192.0.0.0 to 223.255.255.255

D 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255

E 240.0.0.0 to 247.255.255.255

So, we can easily conclude that one can find out the Class to which an IP Address belongs to simply by comparing the numeral before the first decimal of the IP Address with the above table.

For Example: In The IP Address 203.43.21.12, the number before the first decimal is 203 and the above table tells us that it belongs to Class C of the range of IP addresses

The various IP Addresses are divided into the different classes on the basis of the structure of their Network or in other words on the basis of what the various numbers separated by decimals actually stand for. To understand this, let us refer to the following:

Class Information

A It has the first 8-Bits for Netid and the last 24-bits for Hostid

B It has the first 16-Bits for Netid and the last 16-bits for Hostid

C It has the first 24-Bits for Netid and the last 8-bits for Hostid

D It represents a 32-bit multicast Group ID.

E Currently not being used.

The above table will be clearer after reading the following examples:

Examples:

An IP Address 203.45.12.34 belonging to Class A means that the network ID is 203 and the host ID is 45.12.34

If the Same IP Address belonged to Class B, then the network ID would become 203.45 and the host ID would become 12.34

And if it belonged to Class C then the network ID would become 203.45.12 and the host ID would become 34.

Almost all ISP’s prefer to use a Class B Network and some may use class C network. If that is the case then each time you login to your ISP, then the first 2 octets of your IP Address would not change, while the last two are likely to change. However, even if only the last octet changes, and the remaining three remain constant, it is likely that the ISP uses Class B addressing.

An IP Address, which belongs to the Class-A addressing system having a network ID equal to 127, is referred to as the special address. It is actually known as the Loopback Interface. It allows clients and servers on the same system to communicate with each other.

The loopback address, which is commonly used, is 127.0.0.1. Almost all systems have also given the loopback address the special name ‘localhost’.

An IP Address does not necessarily have to be represented in the dotted decimal form. There is more than a single way in which one can represent an IP Address. Some of there are as follows-:

1. Decimal System: If an IP Address is being represented in the Decimal system, then it means that it is being represented in the Base 10 system. The normal IP Addresses are represented in the Decimal System. Example: 216.115.108.245

2. Domain Name System: If an IP Address is being represented in the form of human recognizable characters and names then it is said to be in the form of DNS system. Example: www.yahoo.com

3. DWORD Format: DWORD is short for double word. It basically consists of two binary
“words” (or lengths) of 16 bits. However, it is almost always represented in the decimal number system i.e. having a base 10. Example: D8736CF5, which when represented in the form of a decimal number system with a Base 10 becomes 3631443189

4. Octal System: If an IP Address is represented in the octal system, then it means that it is being represented in the Base 8. Example: 33034666365

5. Hexadecimal System: If an IP Address is represented in the Hexadecimal System, then it is actually being represented in the Base 16 system.

6. A Cross Breed: If an IP Address is being represented in the mixture of any of the above two systems, then it is said to be a Cross Breed.

All the examples portrayed above are some form or the other of the same address of the same system. What I mean to say by this is that typing any of the following in your browser will take you to the same site

[TRK] Notepad tricks, secrets revealed

You might be using Notepad since long but there are few tricks which are still unknown to you.

There few tricks which you can use in notepad. Well quite old but here is the complete collection

Step 1: Open Notepad
Step 2: Write following line in the notepad.

this app can break
Step 3: Save this file as anything.txt
Step 4: Close the notepad.
Step 5: Open the file again.
Voilla!!

or

1> Open Notepad
2> Enter four words separated by spaces, wherein the first word has 4 letters, the next two have three letters, and the last word has five letters
3> DON'T hit enter at the end of the line.
4> Save the file.
5> Close Notepad.
6> Reopen Notepad.
7> Open the file you just saved.
or  

1> Open a note pad
2> Type Bush hid the facts
3> Save that file,
4> Close it
5> Again open and see...

WORLD TRADE CENTER TRICK
Did you know that the flight number of the plane that had hit WTC ...on 9/11 was Q33N ....Open your Notepad in ur computer and type the flight number i.e Q33N... Increase the Font Size to 72, Change the Font to Wingdings. U will be amazed by the findings.


WHY?
The reason this happens:
In notepad, any other 4-3-3-5 letter word combo will have the same results. It is all to do with a limitation in Windows. Text files containing Unicode UTF-16-encoded Unicode are supposed to start with a "Byte-Order Mark" (BOM), which is a two-byte flag that tells a reader how the following UTF-16 data is encoded.

1) You are saving to 8-bit Extended ASCII (Look at the Save As / Encoding format)
2) You are reading from 16-bit UNICODE (You guessed it, look at the Save As / Encoding format)
This is why the 18 8-bit characters are being displayed as 9 (obviously not supported by your codepage) 16-bit UNICODE characters

LOG TRICK !!! Make your notepad a diary !!
Sometimes we want to insert current data and time, whenever we open the file in the notepad. If you are a lazy person like me, who don’t like to press F5 whenever you open a notepad. Then here is a trick to avoid this. Just add a .LOG in the first line of your text file and close it. Whenever you open the file with that text in the first line in the notepad, it will insert the current date and time at the end of the file. You can start entering your text after that.

[INFO] Introduction to Greasemonkey

Never of heard of Greasemonkey before? No problem, I’ll tell you what it is. It is a Mozilla Firefox extension that allows Firefox users to install scripts that make quick changes to web pages. Greasemonkey can be used to add new functionality web pages and web sites like adding an HTML signature in Google, bypassing image verification in Orkut etc.

Ok, then the next step is to download and install Greasemonkey in Firefox. Download it from here. That’s it. Now, by installing Greasemonkey scripts related to your interest, enhance your browsing experience like never before.