Archive for the ‘Tech’ Category

Yahoo is a joke!

August 20, 2010

I used to use Yahoo for lots of things.  Yahoo would provide me email, news, stock quotes and of course messenger.  In a free market there’s the leader of the industry (Google) and then there’s the underdog (Yahoo).  Even though Yahoo search was out before Google it lacked the precision Google brought to finding the exact thing you are searching for.  I always believe that in any industry you should have fierce competition.  Competition brings down cost to consumer and force the companies to strive to be innovative with their products.  Just look at the computer industry.  All those competition in the PC market has lead to powerful computer system that anyone with job could afford.  Let’s not get off the subject here.

What has Yahoo done to me lately that has ticked me off so much that I’m willing to drop them in the recycle bin like yesterdays newspaper?  Is it that Yahoo mail has a poor spam filter?  Is it that Yahoo search (it’s core business) just sucks at finding things? Is it that Yahoo doesn’t allow me to retrieve my email other than to visit it’s portal?  None of those things bother me enough to drop Yahoo.

The thing that ticked me off the most, well it’s actually two things.  First thing that ticked me off is Yahoo messengers update recently.  A few days ago I updated Yahoo messenger to it’s latest version (10.something) and the damn thing install Yahoo Toolbar without asking me.  My beloved Firefox now has this hideous toolbar that I find absolutely unnecessary plastered at the top.  I thought Mozilla is a people minded company and would not allow add-ons to install itself without the users knowledge.  I guess I was wrong.  So I ignored it and a few days gone by.  Once in a blue moon I would fire up Internet Explorer.  BAM, Yahoo messenger update installed the @#$! toolbar on IE also.  That was not the thing that broke the camels back for me.  It was, listen up Yahoo, it was that you changed my homepage to Yahoo without my consent.  That itself is a heinous act.  I specifically set my homepage to a site that is actually useful and Yahoo had the audacity to set it it’s website.

Yes, I know how to change it back but that’s not the point.  To have software from a public company do this has to say something about the company’s integrity.  I’ve always rooted for the underdog (Yahoo) but this time it’s bye bye.  My one single vote is to say good bye to Yahoo for good.  I’m moving my services over to Google or even Microsoft.  Yeah, yeah I know in about five years Microsoft is going to buyout Yahoo.  Mark my word Yahoo is going down.  Down like the clown it is.

How to change your admin password on D-Link DIR-655N router

February 1, 2010

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.

New Facebook app for your PC

January 31, 2010

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.

How to remove Windows.old

November 20, 2009

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.

How to setup a new hard drive on Vista.

October 24, 2009

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.

System and Maintanence

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.

New Simple Volume Wizard 1 - Initailize

3. If you hard drive is less than 2TB then you would want to select MBR (Master Boot Record)

Initialize Disk

4.  Now you want to right click on the “unallocated”  area and select New Simple Volume

New Simple Volume

5.  New Simple Volume Wizard pops up and you continue through.

New Simple Volume Wizard

6.  Pick a drive letter you would like to associate with that new hard drive.  I picked M for “Mass Data”.

New Simple Volume Wizard 2

7.  Here you want to leave everything as is except for the Volume label.  Change it to whatever your heart desires.

New Simple Volume Wizard 3

8. Now you are done, your new drive should show up when you click on “My Computer”.

New Simple Volume Wizard 4

How to setup dual monitor on Vista

July 30, 2009

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

GeForce_9600_GT_bracket_med

On Vista right click on the desktop background and select Personalization

DualMonitor

Then, select Display Settings

DualMonitor1

Click on the “2″ or second monitor and check the box that says “Extend the desktop onto this monitor

DualMonitor2

Now you are done.  Both monitors should be on and you can drag and drop anything between the two.

Nikon D5000 DSLR on sale at Buy.com

July 7, 2009

Just a quick deal post.  Buy.com has it on sale for $796 with free shipping.

Make: Projects – Outlet-mount device charging pocket

July 5, 2009

This looks like a fun project.  Save money from buying a similar item and also reuse a bottle so that there is less garbage in a landfill.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/07/make_projects_-_outlet-mount_device.html

How to install a “Patch”

June 10, 2009
Vista Safe Mode

Vista Safe Mode

So, I’ve got this software that I’ve downloaded and it won’t work without a “patch”.  The executuable file will ask me to register and provide a serial number.  I don’t want to do either.  So I downloaded a “patch” to fix that.  When I ran the “patch” my anti virus McaFee would quarantine the patch.   According to McaFee this patch is some kind Trojan/spy ware.  Go figure.  I tried restoring the file from the quarantine and it would show up in the folder.  As soon as I clicked on the patch the file would be be quarantine again and the patch wasn’t able to do it’s magic.

You can’t disable MacFee antivirus because that would defeat the whole purpose of an antivirus program.  To resolve this I can either uninstall Macfee and then re-install it after I ran the patch but that is too much work and too many reboots.  So the solution to this is I rebooted in Safe Mode.  Windows Vista safe mode somehow disabled MacFee real-time antivirus agent.  I ran the patch and it worked.  Now my software is working smothly without any “request”.  Haven’t tried on other system or antivirus software.  Let me know if this help you patch things up.

FTC Shuts Down Notorious Rogue Internet Service Provider

June 4, 2009

 

SPAM

SPAM

First time ever the FTC shuts down an ISP.  Usually the FTC will just shut down the spammer but this time they took it a step further and shut down the ISP.  “A rogue Internet Service Provider that recruits, knowingly hosts, and actively participates in the distribution of spam, child pornography, and other harmful electronic content has been shut down by a district court judge at the request of the Federal Trade Commission.”  This is awesome, they should be doing this more.  Action like this will not wipe out spam but at least it will slow them down (a  little bit).  This is just the start and I can see the FTC will get more forcefull to companies that are in this pratice.


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