February 1, 2010 by Vu
Recently, I upgraded my old D-Link D-624 to a D-Link DIR-655N router so that my laptops can benefit from the 802.11 N speed. It’s supposedly 14x faster and 6x further than the previous 802.11 g, according to the manufactures website. Also, it is backwards compatible with any802.11 g devices.
One of the first thing I did after setting up the hardware is to change my admin password. It’s one of the easiest things to do that can protect you from nearby hackers. The default user id and password for most D-Link router is
Username=admin
Password= (leave blank)
and the router address is usually 192.168.0.1.
Step 1. In your browser type in 192.168.0.1 and hit enter
Step 1a. At this prompt page just hit log in since there is no default password
Step 2. Click on Tools and there under Admin Password go ahead and change it to something you can remember, then click Save Settings.
Short and simple. Make sure you close out your browser and try to log in with the password you just entered.
Tags: Admin, D-Link, DIR655N, How To, Password
Posted in How To, Routers, Tech, Web 2.0 | Leave a Comment »
January 31, 2010 by Vu
Are you a Facebook fanatic? Are you tired of the same-o same-o Facebook web interface. If so, then you might want to try out the Facebook app from Microsoft. You’ll need to download MS Silverlight beta here. After you install Silverlight then you’ll need to close your browser and relaunch the browser and go back to the same page to load the Facebook client installation file. Then you are done with Silverlight. Now you don’t need to launch your browser to view Facebook.
Tags: Facebook, Silverlight, App, Application
Posted in How To, Tech, Windows 7 | Leave a Comment »
November 20, 2009 by Vu
Have you upgraded to Windows 7? If not, then you should. Once you upgrade to Windows 7 you will find that there is a huge file (over 100GB) that contains your old Windows system. I upgraded from Vista and the file was located in the C: drive and ate up a big chunk of hard disk space. Before you remove this huge file make sure you make all your recovery disks and also back up your files. Here’s how to remove the file safely.
1. Run Disk Cleanup from the start menu
2. The Windows.old file is located on the C: drive, click ok
3. You won’t find the option here until you click on “Clean up system file“
4. Again select C: drive
5. Here you will be able to select “Previous Windows installations(s)“
Now you should see some extra disk space and maybe even a bit improvement on system performance since you got rid of thousands of files that you don’t need anymore.
Tags: How To, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows.old
Posted in How To, IT, Tech, Vista, Windows 7 | Leave a Comment »
October 25, 2009 by Vu
Have you ever needed to get some cash quickly but didn’t want to drive to the nearest ATM because you know you’ll be hit with a $2 fee from your bank and another $2 fee from the ATM. If you withdrew $40 that’s $4 in fees (10%).
A quick an easy way to get cash, up to $50, without getting hit with any fees is go to the nearest Albertsons, Safeway, or any other supermarket. Buy some gum, everyone needs some gum for fresh breath, or anything and use your Discover Card. When you swipe it on the PIN pad it will ask if you want cash back. Safeway will let you get up to $40 and Albertsons limit is $50. This will even work at those self-checkout registers. They will show up on your statement as a regular purchase for the total amount of the purchase and the cashback as one transaction. You won’t incur any fees and if you pay your statement in full at the end of the month there’s no finance charge either.
Tags: ATM, Cash, Fees, Finance
Posted in Credit Card, Finance, How To, Money | Leave a Comment »
October 24, 2009 by Vu
As of now you probably have heard of SSD, solid state drive, which is simply your thumb drive on steroids. SSD have no moving parts and uses NAND flash memory so the have great speed and greater reliability. With new technology old technolgy gets a discount. Nowadays a Tera-byte hard drive is less than $100. You can even find it even less online for around $70. Recently, I received one as a gift from a friend.
After you install the hard drive, follow the provided installation pamphlet, you have to set it up on the PC and format it. Here’s how to do it.
Note: a terabyte hard drive took me a few hours to format the drive so be patience when you are formatting the hard drive.
1. In Control Panel select System and Maintenance and select Create and format hard disk partitions.
2. Now you should see Disk Management application loaded and you should see a disk “Not initialized”. You wan to right click on the “Disk 1″ area and select initialize.
3. If you hard drive is less than 2TB then you would want to select MBR (Master Boot Record)
4. Now you want to right click on the “unallocated” area and select New Simple Volume
5. New Simple Volume Wizard pops up and you continue through.
6. Pick a drive letter you would like to associate with that new hard drive. I picked M for “Mass Data”.
7. Here you want to leave everything as is except for the Volume label. Change it to whatever your heart desires.
8. Now you are done, your new drive should show up when you click on “My Computer”.
Tags: GUID, Hard drive, How To, Initialize, MBR, Tech
Posted in How To, Tech, Vista | 1 Comment »
October 14, 2009 by Vu
Yes, the unimaginable has happen. Less than a year ago no one would have thought of the Dow at 10K. If you miss the 53% gain from March lows you might still have the a chance. The market will probably dip below 10K for the next few days and that represents a buying opportunity. The Dow closing above 10,000 has significant meaning. The significance of the Dow hitting 10K is that it shows people that the worst is over (at least for now). I doubt that the Dow will go up another 50% but you never know.
Tags: Dow, Finance
Posted in Finance, Stocks | 1 Comment »
October 1, 2009 by Vu
For Ebay auction to work properly there has to be a trust between the buyer and the seller. To trust a seller you need to be assured you get what you are paying for. To trust a buyer you want to be sure you get paid properly without any hassle. Seller ratings and comments provides this assurance that the item they are selling is legitimate and not some kind of knock-off. Buyer ratings and comments also provide assurance that we are dealing with someone that has a real interest in buying your item and is going to pay promptly.
Ebay only wants positive feedback left for both it’s buyers and sellers. Why do this? This absolutely makes no sense at all. If everyone has 100% positive feedback then the whole feedback rating system is pointless. It’s a scam. You cannot trust anyone on ebay using their rating system.
There is no Negative feedback option.
Posted in Scams, Web 2.0 | 1 Comment »
September 14, 2009 by Vu
Today Mint.com announced they are being acquired by Intuit for $170 million. The online personal finance company is be bought out by Intuit one of the largest financial management company that cater to small and mid-size business. Intuit better know for it’s Quicken products such as Qucikbooks and Quicken. They also have Turbo Tax for the consumer. Having Intuit acquire can be positive for mint users. This gives the company a more reputable name since people are already familiar with Intuit products.
Tags: Finance, Mint.com, money
Posted in Finance, News | Leave a Comment »
July 31, 2009 by Vu
A strange ritual in India where the drop infants from the roof of a shrine for good luck and prosperity. Click on image to start video.
Tags: India, Strange
Posted in News, Video, Web 2.0 | 1 Comment »
July 30, 2009 by Vu
What you’ll need:
1. 2 monitors, of course
2. A graphics card with dual video output like the NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Turn off your computer and plug both monitors into the graphics card, the image below shows the dual DVI ports to plug your monitor cables into
On Vista right click on the desktop background and select Personalization
Then, select Display Settings
Click on the “2″ or second monitor and check the box that says “Extend the desktop onto this monitor“
Now you are done. Both monitors should be on and you can drag and drop anything between the two.
Tags: Dual Monitors, How To, Vista
Posted in IT, Tech, Video | 1 Comment »
