Ramblings of Squiggle

Official Website

2010-10-25T22:23:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed using this b log from time to time but I've decided to move my efforts to an official website.

I will continue blogging (hopefully more regularly) at drainedapple.com

I may use this blog to link to some of my first articles as they come up but the majority of my entries will take place at the site.

So go on and visit! heres links to a couple specific pages on the new site:

http://drainedapple.com/about/

http://drainedapple.com/category/photography/

http://drainedapple.com/category/tutorial/

and the RSS feed http://drainedapple.com/feed/

and heres on of the first posts: (which are mostly just empty at the moment)

http://drainedapple.com/desktop-10-25-2010/

http://drainedapple.com/life-hacking-rss-test/

http://drainedapple.com/from-zero-to-a-million-users/

L4D2 The Passing Glitch

2010-06-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

While playing L4D2 the game spawn'd two sets of the L4D2 survivors rather than one set. Thought it was fairly entertaining.

Desktop 5-23-2010

2010-05-23T21:09:00.001-07:00

Staying Safe Using uTorrent

2010-02-19T14:25:00.000-08:00

Though I dont condone pirating copyright material I am discussed by the way big business has been pursuing those who violate it. The recent imprisonment of the pirate bay founders is one of the more recent examples. Why we should fill the worlds jails with non-violent offenders is a mystery to me, seems like the world has alot of problems more pressing than peer to peer issues.

At any rate I feel the need to protect myself while online which is why I have previously used peerguardian as a firewall. Peerguardian uses ip blocklists hosted by bluetrack to prevent known anti-piracy groups from connection to you(see: Do p2p Blocklists keep You Safe?).There are also lists for spyware and ads which work the same way. Unfortunately peerguardian tends to be VERY buggy and common issues arent addressed as quickly as I would like. This isnt to ding the peerguardian developers - after all their giving the product away for free - but I'm not using 64 bit windows 7 and peerguardian barely works AT ALL. Thus I've had to look towards alternative programs to block malicious ip ranges.

If you use uTorrent (which is one of the most popular torrent clients right now. If you havent tried it I highly recommend it) has a built in ability to read .dat files and block ip addresses in them. Newer versions of uTorrent ship with the ipfilter.enable setting on so you most likely wont have to worry about that. Most guides to cover enabling the option though, so if you need to head over to this article and follow the steps. The thread on digiex describes a script that should update the .dat files so uTorrent always blocks the ip to date lists. I have never used that script so I cannot speak to its effectiveness.

Ultimately you'll want to download (or create, see next paragraph) a .dat file of a blocklist and place it in the C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\uTorrent folder and reload uTorrent. The logger tab should show 'ipfilter.dat' loaded or something similar. You can compile your own custum blocklist using bluetracks blocklist manager.

This guide covers the process in detail. I would highly suggest using the blocklist manager method since it generated the most comprehensive list and allows you to quickly update the .dat file.
Note: Unfortunately it seems that ipfilter.dat is the ONLY file uTorrent will load (I tried other blocklists with different names but uTorrent would only load the list if it was names ipfilter).

After creating and enabling a block list in uTorrent I stumbled across a peerguardian spin off named peer block. Peer block is based off the peerguardian code but its in active development and is far less buggy. I plan to write a more detailed review later. To download and try peer block head over to http://www.peerblock.com/releases

New Year, New Password

2010-01-31T21:28:00.000-08:00

After reading about the rockyou database being compromised (all 32 million username/passswords were stored in plain text and were easily compromised by a single hacker)I've decided to re-consider my current password.

Until now I would choose a single word (or two words for my secure passwords) and slap a number at the end to create a password. Then I would use that password for ALL of my accounts. Obviously, thats a very bad security practice.

I have been meaning to create a more secure password for some time now. The inspiration originated after reading the How to Choose and Remember Great Passwords guide I read on lifehacker. The guide is a great starting point for creating a secure password. Basically, you choose a root password (qwerty, your birthday, first letters of lyrics to a song) and then a rule that you use to generate a unique password for every account you'll be using.

For example if you use a series of keyboard keys (like qwerty or 1qaz) your password would be qwertyFAC for facebook or QWERTYblog for blogger. That way by remembering the base password you can easily remember the specific one you chose for that site so if your login is compromised on one site, the others are still secure.

Also while changing my passwords I'll be keeping track of them using KeePass, which will store my login information in an encrypted database on my computer.

If you use a overly simple password or the same password for everything I would highly recommend you look into creating a strong password. Before you decide on a password to use you should check it against a password checker like this one from microsoft that'll tell you how strong the password is.

Upgrading my Alienware

2010-01-06T22:24:00.000-08:00

My mobo died on my Alienware aurora, so I'll be needing a replacement.

I've decided I should take this opportunity to upgrade to AM3 and DDR3.

I've researched these parts but would appreciate any insights, advice or opinions. I thought it'd be useful to put my selections out there before I actually spent the money, see what the feedback is.

Link to thread on Tech Support Form

UPDATE: These (for now) are the parts I want to order

GIGABYTE GA-790XTA-UD4

AMD Phenom II X4955 Black Edition
3.2GHz quad core

G.SKILL Trident 2GB

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Original Ideas

MSI 790FX-GD70 mobo
790FX chipset

AMD Phenom II X4955 Black Edition
3.2GHz quad core

Mushkin Silverline 4GB
(note: I'm least sure about this product, never used Mushkin)

Computer Doesnt Post

2009-12-07T21:59:00.000-08:00

I have an alienware aurora w/ a 9800GX2 vid card. The other day I turned it on and the comp wouldnt post. No display, no beep. The system would hang from time to time so I powered it off, on, off, on. Nothing.

The fans, case lights and HD's come on but the comp never posts.

I checked the monitor on another computer, it worked fine.

I cleaned out the inside w/ air and proceed to check all the connections, re-seat the RAM, HD's and cd drive. No change. Tried re-seating the vid card. No change.

I took the vid card and powered up, no error beep or anything.

I doubt its the power supply since everything comes on per usual. The mobo and vid card have always been odd. Often the system will hang on boot (before post) and I'll have to power it down, reset the bios to default after an error message and be on my way. The vid card has run hot (62C idle) and has never performed well.

I'm beginning to suspect the mobo, but I want to check the vid card in another computer before jumping to conclusions.

Tomorrow I plan to reset the CMOS and re-seat the CPU, just to rule it out. I would also like to rule out the video card by sticking it in someones computer. Trying a lesser video card in my computer would also help; since I'd know if ANYTHING works as a video card that would prove/rule out power supply issues).

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -
UPDATE:
I have posted this is Yahoo answers here. Though the final answer will show itself through trial/error and elimination it wont hurt to get some advice/ideas.

JAVA: Find Consecutive Int who's sum is a number

2009-12-04T19:32:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: The internet is awesome. I was able to find two threads (here and here) where people were working on the same problem. I will post the final code once I test it
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

For my java class I'm writing a program. The assignment is this: have java get a number (int) from the user, then write a method that has java find ALL sets of consecutive integers who's sum is the users number.

At first I had no idea where to begin and though I've made progress, I'm still stuck.

I began by creating a few variables, initialized to 0, 0+1, 0+2, ETC and set up a loop that would execute if the variable sum was not equal to the users number. Each time the loop executed each variable would be incremented by one and thus java would run calculations over and over until it found an answer. This worked, but only for a set number of variables. Also java would only display that set and wouldnt go on to find any other fitting sets.

At this point, I'm not sure what direction to go with this. Perhaps an array of integers would be the best way to go, but how would you get java to loop that to find different sets? I know how to set it up to find a set of two, but how could you write a loop that would find the set of two (or not) then increment the set so java looked for consecutive sets of three?

Any suggestions (specific or conceptual) would be greatly appreciated.

I have a question posted about thid on yahoo answers here.

Below is my current code.

import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.Random;

public class Extracredit1NiceNumbers
{
public static void main(String [] args)
{
double user; //Number to be entered by user
Scanner keyin = new Scanner(System.in);

//Get users number
System.out.println("Please enter a number");
user = keyin.nextInt();

//Call to method getSum which will calculate the 4 consecutive integers
getSum(user);

}

public static void getSum(double user) //Send this method the users #
{

float sum;
double count = 0.00; //Create variable to count how many times the loop initiates
double ranNum1; //These ranNums were for storing random numbers generated by java
double ranNum2;
double ranNum3; //Use doubles so java can calculate decimal numbers for answers
double ranNum4;
double ranSum; //For storing the sum of all the random numbers and compairing the random sum to the users number.

//Random random = new Random(); //Grab random number. I was trying to get java to pick 4 random numbers between 0 and 30 and compairing their sum to the user entereed number.
//Issue is it grabs any random numbers. Need to find a way for it to use consecutive random numbers.

//Gets random value for ranNum1 and then incriment that number by 1 to get consecutive integers. This will always execute at least once.
// This must be executed outside the while loop to intilize ranSum
ranNum1 = 0/*random.nextInt(user)*/;
ranNum2= ranNum1 + 1.00;
ranNum3= ranNum2+ 1.00;
ranNum4 = ranNum3+ 1.00;
ranSum = ranNum1 + ranNum2 + ranNum3 +ranNum1;

//This while loop will repeat so long as the random sum is not equal to the users number
while (ranSum != user)
{
ranNum1++;/*random.nextInt(user)*/;
ranNum2++;
ranNum3++;
ranNum4++;

ranSum = ranNum1 + ranNum2 + ranNum3 +ranNum4;

count++; //This is for programming purposes so I can tell if java is executing this while loop
System.out.println("The count is " + count);
System.out.println("The integers are: " + ranNum1 + " " + ranNum2 + " " + ranNum3 + " " + ranNum4 + " the sum is " + ranSum);
}

System.out.println("The consecutive integers whos sum is " + user + " are " + ranNum1 + " " + ranNum2 + " " + ranNum3 + " " + ranNum4);

}

}

_____________________

When you run the program and enter the number '10' t he output is as follows:

--------------------Configuration: --------------------
Please enter a number
10
The count is 1.0
The integers are: 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 the sum is 10.0
The consecutive integers whos sum is 10.0 are 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0

Process completed.

_______________________________________________

UPDATE:

I figured out how to do it (kinda). I just copied the while loop and added a variable to each one so java would calculate a set of two, three, ETC. The disadvantage is that the program is limited (it'll only search for sets you actually coded in) but for now its okay. I assume using an array would be the better way to go, but I'm so unfamiliar with them I'm not sure how you'd get java to increment the # of variables per set or how to get it to display only the first and last numbers of each set. I'm sure theres a way to do it, its just beyond my expertise to do on my own.

First Evening with Windows 7

2009-11-13T22:10:00.000-08:00

Even though I dont have a single external hard drive large enough to backup all my data I finally got fed up with Vista. I stuffed everything I could onto my external hard drive, iPod and even used a few DVD's.

I was really surprised at how fast the install went. It only took around 45 minutes from boot to the default Win 7 desktop.

Once at the desktop I began installing various programs while exploring the menus and settings. I used Ninite Bulk Installer to get many of my programs and I'm pleased to say it went flawlessly.

I was also able to restore my previous iTunes library by going to file > library > import playlist > iTunes Music Library.xml (which was a file I saved from Vista). Though it took awhile for iTunes to import everything, my whole library (including playlists, ratings and play count) came right up.

I dont have time to add much detail since I have work in the morning, but heres a quick screenshot of my desktop.

Heading Towards Windows 7

2009-11-08T17:25:00.001-08:00

I've been ready to ditch vista since I first booted up my aleinware to find 33% of my ram used by a clean and fresh OS. Since that horrifying reality check, Vista has proven itself bloated and buggy at every turn. Its unresponsive when few tasks are running. Tweaking with msconfig and the running services hasn't alleviated the issue. Even reformatting hasn't helped.

Since Windows 7 was announced I've had a chance to try the beta and I was very impressed with the level of detail that had gone into it. Now that Win 7 has been officially released its been enforced by many end users - from common users to techno geeks - and its quickly becoming the de facto operating system for PC's (41% of lifehacker readers report Win 7 is their primary operating system).

Thankfully I have been able to download a full (and legal) version of Windows 7 via Microsoft's MSDN Academic Alliance; which allows participating schools (and their students) to download free Microsoft software. I have to give kudos to Microsoft not only for MSDN, but also for offering copies of Win 7 to students for $30. If I didn't have MSDN I would have jumped on that deal - but being a college student free is better than $30, sorry Microsoft.

At any rate, I'm starting to get all my data backed up in anticipation of the reformat (I plan to format the HD while installing Win 7 so as to get a fresh start on everything).

Just like previous posts, I'll be using this blog as a 'note to self' so I'll be able to quickly get to links for all the programs I'll be installing on the new OS. I'll outline them below so anyone reading can understand what each program does.

_________________________________________________________

Many of these programs can be found on CNETs Windows Starter Kit

Some can also be found on Lifehackers Essential Free Windows Downloads

Most can also be bulk installed via Ninite Bulk Installer
_________________________________________________________

Firefox
Actually, I'm not sure if I need to say much about this. If your not using firefox go get it. Now. There is no choice involved.
Add ons for firefox: Download Status bar; xMarks; WOT; Tab Mix Plus; Colorful Tabs; 1-Click Youtube Downloader; Flashblock; Stumble Upon and Brief.
Firefox Maybes: FoxyMeter; OPML Support; Site Launcher; Splash; Tweak Network; Fasterfox and Universal Print.

Opera
Though I love firefox dearly, Opera also has a place on my computer. Its a browser just like firefox, but its a very stripped down no hassel browser. That isn't to say you couldnt use it as your primary browser - alot of people do - but it isnt feature packed enough to keep my interest day to day. Its a useful tool to have though.

VLC Player
Its like windows media player - okay its nothing like windows media player. It plays ANY video format (I am yet to find one it wont open) it has all the basic features you'd expect from a video player and it doesn't get in your way.

Open Office
Microsoft really skewed up with the latest version of office. Alot of people have gotten used to it and truth be told I have found it usable after I tweak some of the menus and where this and that is. My biggest issue is: I can get open office, which runs and works perfectly out of the box or I can pay an arm and a leg for office - which works after I fight with it for half a day.

Rainmeter
This nifty little app is something I've been using only recently. It has all the functionality you'd find in Vista Gadgets, Yahoo Widgets and Google Gadgets...and I can get it all running one single program. Rainmeters been around for awhile but it wasn't under active development until recently. In many ways its not a program for the weak hearted, since setting up exactly what you want still requires messing with config files and other such things. Its well on its way to becoming as user friendly as it needs to be (the lastest 1.1 release sports a host of useful features) but its quickly becoming as useful to me as object dock is.

Objectdock
I've reviewed this stardock application before and I cant imagine using a computer without it. It creates an OS X like dock for windows - and after setting it up with my most used shortcuts there's little use for the start menu.

Digsby
I've been a digsby fan for awhile now. I prefer it over pidgen, adium and trillian because Digsby allows me to sign onto my IM accounts, email accounts and social networks all in one application. I'm yet to see this amount of functionality in ANY app. Its a really practical and productive 'hub' for quick access to all my online social accounts.

Myspace im
Sadly, the only thing Digsby does not do that I desperately wish it would is myspace im. I still need to run a separate app to login to the myspace im network.

Play On
This program creates a media server on my computer which lets me stream Hulu, youtube, CBS and other sites to my xbox. This way I can catch TV episodes off Hulu on my TV. This is one of the few paid programs I'll have on my computer - but its been a real joy to have at my disposal.

JCreator LE
A program that makes programming in java easy since it helps color coat the code your typing. You can also have it check your code for errors and you can run your program via JC.

iTunes
Music music MUSIC!
My largest concern with iTunes is moving my library (ratings ,play count and playlists) from one OS to the next.

XFIRE
An im Program specifically for gamers.

Steam
The big brother of computer games. It has alot of uses and advantages - but it tends to become obtrusive. I'll be transferring the game data on a hard drive so I don't re-download the large files. My current game list is: Counter Strike Source; Day of Defeat Source; EVE Online Demo; Half Life 2: Death Match; Trackmania Nations Forever and Left 4 Dead.

Impulse
Stardocks version of Steam for stardock apps. Fences, Objectdock, Logon Studio

Google Chrome
Another browser. I'm not a big fan, but its nice to have around.

Thunderbird
From the same people who create firefox, its an email program (much like outlook). I have it sync with my gMail. Since the email files get stored locally I can search my emails via google desktop easily.

Evernote
Basically, its a digital version of sticky notes. I can text notes to myself and they go straight to this program.

Google Desktop
This will index ALL the files on my computer (text, .doc, PDF, music...ETC) so I can quickly search everything on my computer. The same functionality can be found in the windows search built into the start menu, but I prefer to keep start focused on the programs themselves and use Google desktop for my actual data.

Simplify Media
Lets me stream music to my friends who have simplify media running. All of those who are 'friends' can have access to all my music and visa versa. It doesn't let us transfer files, just listen. Using the iPhone app I can also have access to my entire music library via my iPod (or android phone if they have an app).

Picasa
Awesome photo utility. Its really become useful now that the latest version has facial recognition so I can search my photo library by someones name and get all the pictures of them.

DVD Flick
Useful for burning video on my computer onto a playable DVD.

media Monkey
I find the interface cluttered, so I cant use this media jukebox all the time. Its auto tag feature lets me import metadata from the internet directly into the ID3 tags of my music - which is something iTunes doesn't do.

AVG Free Antivirus
In the past I've had issues with AVG being hoggy, but recent releases have worked really well for me. I use it as my primary antivirus program and ave it running in the background.

Smart Defrag
Vistas defrag was a mess. Smart defrag is a good replacement for windows built in defrag program and it also offers some extra features. Also might try Bootspeed which has the defrag and other stuff from the same company.

CCleaner
Clears your browsing history, cookies and much more. It pretty much wipes all the data regarding your internet surfing (except bookmarks and such).

EVGA Precision
A utility for my video card, lets me pump up the fan speed so it doesn't overheat.

Speedfan
A utility that lets me monitor the temperature of various parts of my computer.

Spybot S&D
An anti-spyware program. The scan always turns up a tracking cookie or two so its useful to have around.

SuperAntiSpyware
Though this isnt a HUGE name in the antivirus industry, I once had a sticky virus on a friends computer and this program killed it off quick.

uTorrent
A simple, no hassle torrent program. I use it to download linux distributions since I can turn a torrent on and off whereas direct download eats up my bandwidth until it finishes.

CD Art Display
Displays track into (song name, artist, album artwork) on my desktop. Also allows me to control iTunes via keyboard shortcuts.

Gadwin Print Screen
This app starts with my computer and most of the time I never notice its existence even though I use it all the time. It take s a full resolution screen shot of whatever on my screen, auto names it and stores it whenever I hit the 'prt scrn' botton on my keyboard. Its really a useful app to have around. The only features its lacking it automatically tagging photos wit metadata (like the program open, or simply with my name). Even so, its an awesome app.

Keyscrambler
Encrypts what I type into my web browser so any nasty keyloggers get gibberish rather than my credit card number.

7-Zip
Program lets me open all sorts of archive formats (.zip, .rar, ETC)

Active ISO Burner
The only windows ISO burning program I trust.

Easy BCD
Allows me to easily edit the boot menu from within windows. Very handy for dual (or....quad) booting.

Verizon Droid

2009-11-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

For me the initial hype about Verizons new Droid phone has subsided. Even so, I still want one pretty badly. Having access to my google calendar and remember the milk in my pocket available to me at all times is just too darn good to pass by.
The more I read reviews (PC Mag, Boy Genious Report) and watch walkthroughs the more I think this phone would be a nifty and productive gadget for me to have. Below are two such video reviews from youtube.

gCal to iPhone

2009-10-29T22:31:00.000-07:00

Though I am anxiously awaiting the release of verizons new Droid phone (based off the google ANDROID 2.0 os) I still use my iPod Touch for quick access to my calendar, social networks (facebook, myspace, twitter) and weather.

Though I can check all this on my computer, its nice to have snappy access to it at my fingertips so I can quickly browse the newest updates without logging in, opening a browser, ETC.

I use google calendar to keep track of all my appointments, my school/work schedule and pretty much anything and everything. Sadly, both Microsoft's outlook and apples iTunes seem to pretty much ignore gCals existence. I know iTunes is a music player - but lets face it, the program transcended that a long time ago. If apple integrated a "wizard" into iTunes to help users set up their iPhone/iPod where they could enter their email info and get access to their contacts, calendars and mail automatically it could give a boost to the kinda-but-not-really-technical people and let them use the device to its full potential. But I digress....

Google has made it fairly easy to access their services on mobile platforms (a winning business strategy it would seem). Google has set up a website to walk users though sync'ing their iPhones directly to their google accounts. This allows users to sync their calendars, contacts and email directly from their handset to the google server - so there is no need for a computer in the equation. The google support page for this feature has step by step instructions that are helpful and straight forward.

My Desktop October 18, 2009

2009-10-18T22:08:00.000-07:00

Testing Rainmeter

2009-10-17T23:59:00.000-07:00

Well, most of my afternoon was taken up by downloading the EVE Online trial and trying to figure out how rainmeter works. Rainmeter is a small program that lets users run widgets. There are alot of widget programs out there; from yahoo widgets to google gadgets - with conky, rainmeter, and OS X's dashboard in between. The major difference is that rainmeter is VERY small since it runs on .txt files. The most unfortunate part about it is that theres a major learning curve required before a basic user can start to understand and use rainmeters full potential.

I wont go into more detail right now, but heres a screenshot of my cluttered desktop.

UPDATE:

I've continued playing with Rainmeter this morning. Heres a new screenshot of all the different configs I've found and downloaded. I'm still trying to figure out whats staying and whats going.

9-11-01

2009-09-11T09:53:00.001-07:00

I don't blog about politics or world events much but I feel that 9-11-01 will be considered an important date in history.

I think its important to really look at what happened in the way that it did. We don't need to watch montages set to "Requiem of a Dream" or some heart wrenching sound track, we need to go back and understand how it affected us; how it felt while it was happening.

So Summer is Pretty Much Here

2009-06-10T15:43:00.001-07:00

So Summer is Pretty Much Here, which means its time to overhaul my desktop.

Not that I need an excuse.

Desktop June 10, 2009 by ~squigglethecow on deviant ART

File Sharing News

2009-05-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

Recently alot has been going on in the realm of file sharing. Its always a hot topic but lately it seems to have stolen the spotlight.

On April 17, 2009 four leaders of thepiratebay.org (currently one of the largest torrent sites out there) were sentenced to one year in prison and a $3,620,000 fine each (original news article here)
This verdict has been met with a great deal of hostility by most Internet consumers (even those who do not pirate material) and has even been slammed by content providers. Torrent Freak reports that "Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol...criticized the sentences received by the crew of The Pirate Bay, branding them as “way over the top”. The band’s frontman also says if you’re a file-sharer and you know how to get music for free, “f**king go for it.”

Since then, Charles Nesson, a Harvard Law Professor, has announced that he will be representing Joel Tenenbaum, an accused file sharer, in court and plans to prove that file sharing is "fair use". This defense is far more simplistic than what usually ends up in the courtroom, but in many ways it represents the opinions of people online. I remember a digg article once about a man being caught for selling software he had pirated, and nearly all of the comments expressed happiness that he was being brought to justice. Many commenter's said that even though they themselves used P2P networks to download material, they would never use it for profit. Rather than claim that Mr. Tenenbaum did not steal the material, Mr. Nesson is claiming that he did not necessarily steal it since he did not seek to profit from the material.

On top of that, PC Magazine writer John C. Dvorak brought my attention to another Ars Technica article regarding a study done by the Norwegian School of Management. The study claims to have proven that "illegal music connoisseurs are significantly more likely to purchase music than the average, non-P2P-loving user". So, if true file sharing does not rob the record industry of profits but stimulates profits. Of course, the RIAA are not convinced and it will be interesting to see if this study will inspire others like it.

So its been a very interesting time. On one hand, the legal side of things has gone very badly with the pirate bay (and through them, for file sharing in general) and on the other hand the defense for file sharing seems to have gotten much stronger than it has been in the past.

I'm not sure which side I would like to be victorious. I am not sure how "legalizing" file sharing would affect the entire media industry. Certainly such an extreme ruling would change the entire landscape of things. At the same time, the equally extreme extermination of file sharing does not seem to be the answer. Perhaps the balance is perfect right where it is, perhaps perfection is in the struggle.
Then again, I do not know for sure and I am exited to see how all of this turns out.

My Photography

2009-04-29T18:55:00.000-07:00

I have decided this blog should serve as more of a blog than a constant flow of badly written how to guides; so below a re a few samples of my photography.

I must admit, I am also curious as to weather posting the pictures on here will get them listed in google under my alias.

Please note, these pictures were taken by me and I have the right to post them. If you wish to link to this blog, or to the original submission on my deviantart, please credit me.

For some reason, blogger makes the pictures HUGE even though I set it to 'small image size' when importing. Odd.

Windows 7 Beta: First Impressions

2009-03-20T17:54:00.000-07:00

After the fiasco with my windows MBR earlier I have finally installed Wndows 7 on a clean partition.
I must say....I'm impressed.

Overall the system seems far more responsive, the font and other setup feels a bit blocky whereas OS X and Vista go for a more natural curve sort of look, you can see an example below. I have no preference between the two, both look good in their respective environments.

Microsoft seems to really be open to suggestions (weather or not they adapt them it yet to be seen). At the top of every explorer window there is a little like saying 'Send Feedback' which loads a small program installed with the system. A small window loads with a drop down menu for you to choose what your critiquing, basic ratings (from love to hate) and a comment box.

Right clicking the desktop reviels 3 new options for quickly playing with your resolution, gadgets and wallpaper/color scheme. Out of everything in Win7 the inverted options under the resolution menus have impressed me the most. They do literally what they say they will, they invert the screen. In reality, this is useless to most (probably all) users....but its potential use for April Fools day tricks and such makes up for its lack of usefulness.

The personalization menu comes equipt with ready to go themes with a basic array of backgrounds and a matching window color. Below these selections you can also adjust each setting individually according to your taste.

As you see in the third picture over, you can also choose multiple backgrounds (ctrl + click) and set a timer for them to change. This feature is overdue and a rip off of mac OS X (kinda like the search feature introduced in Vista) but its nice to have around.

Well as much as I could talk about Windows 7 I should stop writing this. Any critiques of my writing would be appreciated, it seems that since I dont write often my skill has diminished. Below are a few pictures of my Windows 7 desktop.

Vista Sucks.....more

2009-03-20T14:54:00.000-07:00

I hate to hate things. Anything. Really I do.

Yet microsofts abomination of an operating system can never let me be happy with it. The other week, upon installing a few updates my MBR went bad.
How? I haven't a clue. So I popped in my recovery CD (not on the actual Vista disk, it is on a separate disk just for alien wear computers) to try to recover the startup options. Once or twice I have had to do this since my ever changing combination of OS's can skrew up my boot record (ie: Grub takes over and doesn't want to leave).

To my unhappiness, Vista gave me an error reading: "Windows cannot repair this computer automatically. If you have recently attached a device to this computer, such as a camera or a portable music player, remove it and restart your computer. If you continue to see this message, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance."

I must admit, I had left my iPod Touch plugged in during this process by accident. Upon detaching the iPod and restarting the computer I got the same error. I then unplugged the computer for a few minutes....
same error.

Then I turned to what used to be the recovery console only to find that in Vista, all the commands that worked in XP do not work for Vista. At that point I decided that Microsoft put the FU back in Fun.

I continued browsing google on my iPod Touch trying to learn the new Vista commands. Apparently they are the same (for example fixboot and fixmbr) but you need to type the directory of them, you cant just type them. Kinda a step backwards I'd say.

After trying multiple commands several times, I gave up and attempted to install a new version of Linux Mint onto some empty partition space in the hopes Grub (the linux bootloader) would somehow allow me onto Vista.

The plan would have worked but when I went down to the Vista entry I received an error about the MBR being corrupt. My best guess is my fiddling with the recovery console commands was the cause of that one.

At around 3 in the morning I finally went to bed an unplugged my computer. When I woke up in the morning I tried the Automatic Recovery again and it repaired the MBR just like it should, and everything worked again.

Today I got the same error and had the same problem (though this time I had not left ANYTHING plugged in, nor did I attempt the recovery commands). I installed Linux Mint on some empty space and the grub bootloader was able to detect Vista and let me boot into it just fine.
While in Vista I installed a program called Easy BCD that allowed me to edit my MBR from within windows.

Finally! Songbird works!

2009-03-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

After trying songbird and being disappointed time after time, they finally make a version that works on my Vista.
Previously, the install would go well and then I was unable to load the program. Ever.

I am yet to try out the add ons (for adding lyrics, recommendations and album art) but thus far I'm just happy the window is up.

I should mention that the program hung for a LONG time before coming up, but once it did it runs fine. Screenshots below.

Operating Systems: In Order of Awesome

2009-02-24T22:55:00.000-08:00

For a school project the other day, I had to type something in word pad.

To add a speck of interesting to the obvious monotony, I typed up a list of Operating Systems ,in the order of awesomeness.

1) OS X Leopard
2) Linux Mint
3) Windows XP
4) Ubuntu
5) OS X Tiger
6) DOS
7) Windows 7
8) Windows Vista

Linux Mint 6 - Windows Installer

2009-02-03T21:18:00.001-08:00

Now that I have got myself all set up with Vista - I seem to be staying put for the better part of the foreseeable future....even though I really hate this operating system.

Recently though gnome do has added a OS X like application tray (gnome do is kinda like launchy for windows) and its gotten alot of attention. Rightfully so I suppose, but I like to use things before I form an opinion.

When I installed Linux Mint on its own partition, I was forced to select windows upon each boot up. This wasnt an issue when linux was my main system, but it became very old when I started switching back to windows.

I know I can adjust the boot ETC ETC but I didnt learn how exactly to do it, and I would rather it be just a basic entry under windows.

Anyway, that coupled with the usuals of creating a partition have turned me off to re-installing linux after I reformated my PC (stupid reasons, I know).

Ubuntu has a installer that runs through windows (called Wubi) that installed it just like it was an application. Performance is supposed to be slightly less but the ease of use will hopefully create more Ubuntu users.

Luckily, the creators of linux mint have included the same thing in their ISO and called it mint4win. Exited to hear about this I mounted my Mint 6 ISO (using magic iso) and tried to burn it. Sadly, the install only got a short way before I encountered an error and had to close it.
My suspicion is that this is due to my using a virtual drive rather than a real one, I'm going to burn and test my theory now.

Until then, here are some screenshots of the install process so far:

Now that I burned the iso to a disk with Active ISO burner it worked fine.

Now off to reboot and mess with things.

iLyrics

2009-01-30T19:49:00.000-08:00

Now that my library's album artwork has been updated (tagged to id3 tags via media monkey) I figured it was time to add lyrics to the mix. Unfortunately, neither iTunes or MediaMonkey have the ability to add lyrics automatically (you have to find them online, copy and paste) which makes managing a large library of music difficult.

A google search for 'Import lyrics to id3 tags) is riddled with questionable apps, luckily I found one named 'iTunes Lyrics Importer' (with a .exe of iLyrics...making it a program with two names) that works exceptionally well.

The program is amazingly straightforward with only two options: Update Automatically and Overwrite. Each does about what you'd expect. Once you select the songs you want to lyricafy (made up word) in iTunes just hit get lyrics and let it go. If you leave overwrite unchecked it wont import lyrics if you have already put them in, and if you don't check the 'automatic' box the program will display the lyrics and have you approve them before it adds them to the files tag.

Importing went quickly with it only taking a few seconds per song (I assume that says more about my internet connection than the program) and on the automatic setting the program kept going even if it didn't find the lyrics to a particular song.

Now that its run I've been checking the lyrics imported, and so far they are all correct. It didn't find the lyrics to ALL of my songs, but the majority now have them.

Myst Masterpiece Edition

2009-01-27T00:05:00.001-08:00

As is apparent: I have this thing for older games. I love the original Sims, Sim City 3000 is the bomb, and EarthSeige is a 2d textured blast from the past. All have been installed and played on my new Vista machine :-D

My most recent nostalgic obsession is Myst. I had a teacher in middle school who would play it while us nerd watched during lunch time (yes, I hung out in the classroom during lunchtime) and though I bought the anniversary edition with the first 4 games, I haven't ever finished any of them.

The install went well, but once I went to play the game all I got was wind noise and a black screen. After browsing through some forums (which are surprisingly active given this game came out in the 90's) I discovered that quicktime was probably the cause (obviously I had tried computability mode and such, which by the way needs to be set to 95). I had to uninstall the quicktime on my computer and repalce it with quicktime 4 off the Myst disk.
After that, the game works well. Xfire wont take screenshots in game, but it registers that I'm playing it.

Reguarding the quicktime solution, my iTunes will not work now. I will keep looking for a more long term fix.

Tweaking Firefox

2009-01-26T17:44:00.000-08:00

Now that I have Vista all set up, I figured it was time to mess with firefox a little bit. Since I have a very spastic low end DSL connection I need as much power out of my browser as I can get.

Most firefox tweaks involve the about:config file which you type into the URL bar to access. There are tons of well written guides out there so I'll just link the ones I used.

Tweak Friefox using Add On Tweak Network

Tweak Firefox using about:config

Fresh Start....again

2009-01-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

As I write this I'm gearing up to reformat my Alienware....again.
This past week Vista has been going steadily downhill. So far, my issues include:

- No access to control panel
- No access to desktop preferences menu
- Multiple windows processes running several instances of themselves (spread to regular programs)
- Password manager cannot keep hold of passwords
- Certain services that connect to the internet are blocked....sometimes, even when they are listed under 'allow'
- Right clicking takes a very long time to pop up
- Windows does not pass validation even though its a legit copy.

This all came at a bad time. I just finished tweaking Vista as well as setting up Thunderbird, Sunbird, Google Desktop, firefox and objectdock, ETC.

......Why didn't I buy a mac?

Vista Sucks

2009-01-19T08:40:00.001-08:00

I cant access my control panel.

The window appears, hangs (no icons) and then closes all by itself.

Tweaking Vista

2009-01-11T18:33:00.000-08:00

Though Linux Mint really got my blood going for awhile two major things have caused me to come back to Vista.

1) Songbird (the only music player I think is worth using in Laue of iTunes) wont work.
2) Digsby will not run on wine.

Perhaps at a future time I will go back, but for now I just need my computer to work without hassle (no offense to linux, I just don't have time to overcome the learning curve right now).

So first things first, I got all my programs and shortcuts organized via ObjectDock and the stacks docklet (after using the OS X dock, I find objectdock to be more customizable).

I put my most used programs (Firefox, Digsby, XFire) on top and worked my way down. Rather than put all my applications on the dock, I created a folder in my Documents entitled ' Shortcuts' and organized my shortcuts there. I then linked those folders to objectdock via the stacks docklet so I can easily access specific types of programs from objectdock (ie: games, utilities).

Now that my hsortcuts were organized I had to tweak the system itself. I began with MSCONFIG to disable which programs start up. I turned almost everything off except for AVG, Windows & NVIDIA stuff and Objectdock of course.

Then it was time to turn on the services. Rather than tell you exactly what I did below I'll link you to some great sites I used to guide me. Please note, do NOT EVER turn off a service in the MSCONFIG menu. It will do more than turn it off, it will disable it so it is unable to run AT ALL.
Use the services.msc program to set them to MANUAL. This way, the computer can start them if need be but they will not start automatically.
ie: If you set the iPod service to manual it will run when you plug your iPod in, but will be turned off until you do.

I used Tweak Vista, Tweak Hound and Black Viper to help decide which services to turn on/off.
For some other random tweaks and general advice I would suggest you look at H Enthusiast's 12 Vista Tweaks Guide and Technospots Vista Performance Guide.

Now that I'm dont with that its time to let Steam update my Left 4 Dead so I can finally play it. As much as I love Steam (and Valve) I'm very VERY annoyed that it wont let me open the game until it updates.
To make it worse it says it'll take 7 hours to finish.
grrrrr

Sync Google Calendar with iPod Touch

2009-01-10T12:57:00.000-08:00

I recently purchased a refurbished iPod Touch from Apple and have been spending my break setting it up.

One of my major peeves so far is that you cannot sync your iPod to Sunbird (or Thunderbird with Lightning) and have to use Microsofts Outlook.
Even after caving and setting up outlook I came to find it would only sync local calendars and not remote calendars.

While searching for a way to sync my iPod touch directly to my google calendar I came across this guide for using a service called NuevaSync to do just that - for free.

The instructions are step by step and easy to follow. Though I have reservations about teh NuevaSync website (it can access my private google calendars somehow) the site is encypted and now that its set up I can edit my appointments via the built in calendar on my iPod (its a 2-way Sync by the way).

I have tested adding and editing appointments from my iPod, Sunbird and web version of google cal - all have Sync'd fine with no issues.

So if your looking for a way to sync you google calendar to your iPod Touch or iPhone, check out this article. Hope it works for you!

Auslogics System Information

2008-12-25T18:10:00.001-08:00

While browsing download.com for programs to install on my family's fresh version of XP (blog on that coming soon) I came across Auslogics System Information. Since my favorite disk defrag program is Auslogics Disk Defrag I decided to give it a go.

The program is designed to show you information about your computer and it preforms that simple task very well. The interface is clean and logically organized and you can view basic to advanced information on anything from your hard drives, current drivers, installed programs and running processes.

This will be especially helpful when I am working on friends computers, so then I can quickly familiarize myself with the computer rather than spend time trying to figure out what kind of video card it has or when it was last updated.

Christmas Tech Woes

2008-12-25T17:08:00.000-08:00

ah Christmas.
A time for food, fun, gifts, celebrations and families....
...and all the tech issues people like me (and anyone with interest in this blog, really) are expected to fix for our families.

I'm very happy to say I received Left 4 Dead for PC and am very happy with it so far.

Both my Mother and youngest brother got the new iPod Nano's and, of course, now need a computer to run them off. My family currently uses a Dell Inspiron 4300 Desktop which is way WAY past its prime. Over time it has fallen into disarray since I now have my own computer, and because my father has a stigma regarding I do anything to it.

Since my family now would have need of the computer on a more regular basis I figured now would be a great time to format it from scratch and get it running smoothly.

First item on the agenda was backing up every ones data - which is pretty much nothing by my standards (a few word documents and two pictures on the entire computer). Once that was secure on my flash drive (which took a very long time due to the computer lagging) I went to reformat the disk and install windows XP.

Immediately (before booting to the disk) the bios was laggy and hung on the opening screen for several minutes. This was followed by an error beep and the computer telling me the disk was not detected (link to forum on similar issue). Usually my family hits F1 and the boot continues onto windows. Knowing this would not get me to the CD I booted back into the bios and adjusted the settings accordingly (cd first, disk second) then tried again. Somehow this did not work the first time, but did the second without any other adjusting.

I formatted the hard drive and installation copied the files as normal. Upon reboot, I got the same 'Hard Disk not Found' error, and was unable to do anything but boot into the CD from there. I stayed in this installation loop for awhile and did some research online.

The symptoms pointed to a bad boot.ini file. I tried to repair the boot file using the recovery console and the fixmbr and fixboot commands. Neither worked and I then needed to wipe the drive clean to do a fresh install - which the XP installation disk couldn't do for me. I attempted to boot into Linux Mint via the live CD, but had no luck since the hard drive wouldn't show up (which I found disappointing).

Since I was completely obliterating the disk I didnt necessarily have to do it on that computer so I took the hard drive out and shoved it into my alienware (yes, I have an ATA cable ^^) and formatted it via the 'disk management' utility. While waiting for the format to finish Im downloading all the programs I'll have to install on the new computer (AVG, keyscrambler, firefox, adobe reader, open office, XP Service Pack 2) and I'm looking at all the updates Dell has put out for that specific system.

After reformatting and using disk check I put the drive back into the Dell computer to try again. Of course, it didn't work. Same errors, same installation loops.

At this point Google became God. Browsing around I found that most people resolved their issue by playing with the cable order and resetting the bios (forum posts here, here and here). Lucky for me the computer only has two cables, one for the HD and one for the CD drives. The HD one wont service both CD Drives. I tried though, and it seems the 'no hard drive' error is gone however installation is taking MUCH longer to load. Even if it had worked I cannot leave the cables like that, my parents would never forgive me for 'breaking' the other CD Drive (since it would have worked before....grrrr). Yet again, installation looped and I cannot boot from the hard drive - only the CD.

I have also played with the bios settings and am disappointed there is no master reset option. Leaving me to guess what the defaults are/should be. I do not believe the motherboard battery is going out since it retains any changes I make to it.

At current, I have posted a question in Tech Support Forum and I am going to attempt a bios update.

Linux MInt 6 - FIrst Boot

2008-12-20T13:53:00.001-08:00

After wasting three disks (thanks Microsoft Vista) I finally booted into LInux MInt 5 and burnt the new ISO to a disk there (amazing how much better that worked).

I am not booted into the newest version of mint via the live CD. Everything looks pretty much the same as last time - except that GNOME Do (a launchy like app for linux) is installed and running by default. SInce this was on my To DO list I am very happy to see it pre-installed. IMplimenting programs directly into the OS is something both OS X and LInux seem to be getting right.

linux Mint 6

2008-12-19T19:43:00.000-08:00

As posted before my preferred linux distro is Linux Mint - a user friendly edition based off the heavily supported Ubuntu project.

Currently I run Linux Mint 5 Elyssa but have been having issues with youtube videos (full screen mode tends to be glitchy) and have tweaked this and that without knowing what the heck I was doing. All part of the learning process, but with the release of this new version its time for a clean install.

As I write this I am direct downloading the new version via firefox (the torrent sat in Vuze for 10 minutes without doing anything......) then I will have to check the MD5SUM againt the listed MD5 on the mint website (which could be problamatic since I have had bad luck with direct downloads and MD5 in the past).

Once I get this installed and up to date I plan to install screenlets (widgets for the gnome desktop), tweak the theme and go through the Compiz Fusion menus to set it all up how I like. I would like to experiment with jackfield - a program currently being designed to allow apples dashboard widgets to run under the gnome desktop but according to the site it is not yet ready for novice linux users.
I also want to try setting up Avant Window manager now that I have gotten better at setting things up in linux. I also need to learn virtual box so I can set it up on my brotehrs computer and let him boot XP for certain programs. I am also looking at trying out Launchy.

After that I plan to try out Songbird (iTunes alternative) and Sunbird (mozilla calendar program - syncs to gcal) to see if I can get either working. If I can find these in the packadge manager I will be more than greatful.

I'll also have to set up firefox with all my add ons (especially foxmarks - how did I ever live without it?).

Finally!!! A Decent Media Converter!

2008-12-17T00:18:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my previous blog, finding a freeware media converter that actually works is nearly impossible.

Tonight I ran across Quick Media Converter (made by Cocoon Software) completely by chance. The free software boasts the largest array of conversion formats I have ever seen. It will let you convert almost anything including flv, avi, divx, xvid, mpeg4, ipod, iphone, psp, 3GP, 3G2, AVI, DIVX, XVID, TS, DVD, VCD, MPEG, MPEG2, MP3, WAV, amr, m4a, mp4, vob, mov, h264, h263, wmv, wma according to the publisher descripton on download.com.

Impressed I quickly downloaded and installed the program - which was an uneventful process.

At first glance the interface is just a wee bit cluttered but its suprisingly navagatable since its organized in a 'step 1...step 2.... ' sort of structure so the user can easily click down the list and start converting.

Currently I am converting my plethera of .flv files that I cannot use on my iPod.

The program lags slightly while working - but that is to be expected with such things. Surprisingly the computer itself seems to be handling the task fine. Also, the time it takes to convert videos is fair. Not speedy but not overly laggy either.

In the end, I would highly suggest you take a look at this free program. I am grateful I ran across it and hope it helps you as well.

Quick Media Converter can be downloaded from:

Download.com

Cocoon Software (creaters website)

Snap Files

PC World

RelevantKnowledge - Adware

2008-12-10T19:29:00.000-08:00

I got my first virus (well, adware) since my re-format.
A week or two ago AVG was giving me a hard time opening an email attachment (which I knew was clean). Each time I would download it (Yahoo mail scans all attachments with Norton before allowing you to download them) AVG immediately told me it detected a virus and asked if I wanted to 'quarantine' or 'ignore' the file. Regardless of which I chose, the program did whatever the heck it wanted.

After becoming increasingly frustrated with this, I finally uninstalled AVG out of spite (I expect to be treated like an idiot my Norton of McAfee, not by AVG) and got my file.

Then I noticed firefox acting strangely. I opened a window and all my add ons were gone leaving me with a default firefox window. At first I wrote it off as some random glitch but then I opened iTunes and got the setup wizard.

At that point I began suspecting fowl play and noticed a very plain, but alien, icon in my 'notification' area by my system clock.

Upon clicking the icon I was taken to a website called 'relevantknowledge' claiming that ''

Video Converting Sucks

2008-12-05T20:46:00.000-08:00

A simple search for ''.flv to mp4' has yielded many free video converters.

I've tried somewhere around five, and am yet to see one that actual converts .flv files to .mp4

This is getting very old and very annoying.

If I didn't have math in the morning I would be awake all night figuring this out.

.....stupid .flv not being compatible with iPods.....

How to Install Songbird MInus the Terminal

2008-12-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: it didnt work, big surprise.

I don't claim to be an expert and I haven't any idea what the pro/cons are to the following instructions.

I downloaded songbird (an itunes alternative for linux) via the packaged manager and got an error about the 'chrome registration'.

I then downloaded the file directly from the songbird website and got a .tar.gz file.

Several guides instructed me to open the terminal, copy it somewhere and un-tar the file. AFter many MANY trys (to make sure I didnt mis-type the command) I decided to give up on that endevor.

Curious, I opened the .tar.gz file and extracted the folder 'songbird' onto my desktop.
I then remaned the etractred file '.songbird' like the program folders in the home directory (in linux program folders are hidden and designated with a . or so my experiance has shown me).

I then moved that folder into the home directory, opened it, and double chicked the songbird shortcut.

TO my surprise the setup opened wthout any errors, and started to scan my hard drive for media.

I doubt this method will work - its far too easy. SOmethings bound to go wrong soon.

Linux Mint Screencast

2008-11-30T21:10:00.000-08:00

Hello All,

here's a video of my Linux Mint Desktop.
I've been doing some tweaking with compiz fusion and my screenlets and really like how its all coming out (even though I have been having issues with Wine).

I used XVidCAP to capture the original screencast and added the song with AVIDmux.

Messing with WIne DAy #2

2008-11-30T17:39:00.000-08:00

I have now managed to get DIgsby and iTUnes installed on LInux MInt. However, neither is actually working.

When I log into digsby it checks for updates (succeeded in updating the first time) and then closes, never popping up again. RE-clicking the shortcut brings it back up like it just started.

Itunes opens but I am unable to access the file menu, nor can I drag and drop music into the window. Since I cant add music to the library, its pretty much useless.

After many google searches I have found that the new versions of Digsby are rated' garbage' in their c ompatability with WIne.

All the guides I have found to installing iTUnes require an older version.

I have to wonder if it would be best to install a OS X version of iTUnes rather than a windows version - since OS X is based on unix (like linux) and windows is based off the registry. However, apples website will only give me a windows version and I cannot find a 'OS X' version anywhere online.

Maybe it comes pre-installed and there is no need for an install file. I have no idea.

I have also tried WIne Doors to install 7-zip and Steam, neither of which worked. THe installer seems to have half way through and never does anything.
Second and third tried rendered the same hang, sometimes the window even greys out to signify its frozen.

I Have discovered where wine programs are installed. WHen you go to the home directory (folder names whatever your account it) you go to view > show hidden folders in order to find the .wine folder.
From there you go to Drive_C and into program files to find the .exe
(Dan Kegel mentioned this in a comment on my last blog)

I have also been adjusting my screenlets to my liking. Below you can see a nice desktop screenshot of them all.

At this point I am not ready to switch to linux mint full time. Programs like Digsby I cant live without (well, DIgsby itself I cant live without).
iTUnes would be handy to bring along as well. I'm considering updating to the newest release of linux mint and starting over from scratch.
Even so, its defiantly worth the space on my hard drive.

WIne Attempt #1

2008-11-29T22:51:00.000-08:00

This past hour I have been fiddling around with Wine - a linux program that is supposed to let you run windows programs in linux.

I have been stumbling through the install process fine, using the packaged updated in linux mint I was able to get wine up and running.

I thin downloaded the iTunes .exe from Apples site and tried to get it to install.

THe install went beautifully however I could not find the .exe AFTER the install. The guides I found online seemed to think it would appear on the desktop, which it did not despite the error-less install.

WHile browsing for an answer I discovered online that there should be a 'fake' C:/ folder in the WIne directory - which was as impossible to find as the itunes.exe I Was looking for.
Fortunately linux mint does haev a search. However, I was disappointed by the speed of it. Oh well.

I ended up trying to launch the programs via the .exe that was installed under Vista.
I tried both iTUnes and DIgsby. Though both seemed to run at first I very quickly got an error message for each.

I shall attribute this confusion to my being very tired.

Perhaps I Will spend tomorrow trying to figure it out (after all - its Thanksgiving Break still).

ALso note the lag between turning caps lock on and off, linux carrys over the caps one more character than its actually turned on for. Hmmm.

American Greetings Screensavers

2008-11-27T11:46:00.000-08:00

Today I came across a 'Turkey Protest' screen saver in honor of Thanksgiving. It consisted of turkeys protesting the holiday with signs like 'Vegans rule' and 'Beef: its whats for thanksgiving'.

Unfortunately, I had to make an American Greetings account in order to download it. Since I figured I would forget this account and never log in again, I made the most out of it and looked through the rest of the screen shots offered.

To my surprise (no offense to American Greetings) a few of them were pretty decent. I would suggest you take a look at their Turkey Protest, Mountain Scenery and fish tank screensavers.

Happy Thanksgiving Day Everyone!

Mint

2008-11-26T09:58:00.000-08:00

While browsing through CNET's list of the 'Best Free Software' I came across a financial program called Mint.

Curious, I browsed around the home page to find the Mint is an online banking tool which allows users to input their account information and have it displayed quickly and easily in one place.

The clean website shows bar graphs, pie charts and other easy ways you can view your information. Since Mint monitors and categorizes your purchases you can also set yourself limits per category and receive a helpful alert when you over spend.

According to firefox the connection is secured and the connection is encrypted. Also, icons for VeriSign, TRUSTe and McAfee are displayed at the bottom of the webpage. Though anything can be hacked with enough time and effort, I feel its safe to say that Mint goes to great lengths to protect its users data.

After signing up for the service (only requires email, area code and password) a very easy set up wizard of sorts pops into view so you can easily set all yoru accounts up with Mint.

Though I have not put my bank information into mint (I have no need of it) I plan to keep my account and test it out at a later date. If you need helporganizing yoru finances I would highly suggest you look into this service.

Vote for Digsby

2008-11-26T09:08:00.000-08:00

As you know from my previous blog about Digsby, its an awesome instant messaging program.

Currently Digsby is competing in the second annual web 2.0 Awards and it'd be awesome to see ti win. To vote, input your email below and click 'vote now'. You will receive a conformation email.

EarthSiege 2

2008-11-23T12:38:00.000-08:00

Since my last re-install of Vista and Linux Mint I haven't installed any games (with the exception of trackmania, a free game available through Steam).

After installing my copy of Sins of a Solar Empire (awesome game) I discovered an old friend among my pile of CD's - EarthSeige 2. Arguable, this was the first PC game I got into. I believe my Dads friend was unloading some old CD's and games and my Dad grabbed it and brought it home. My brothers and I fought over the computer for a chance to play it.

The install was almsot laughably nostalgic.

The 'maximum instal' requires 57 MB of hard drive space....what a hog!

Though, while this install process went through (much MUCH faster than I remember it being) it actually told me my computer couldnt run it.
No, really.
For whatever reason the game cant read my CD-rom drive...which is especially ironic since the disk is in that very CD drive while this is all going on.

The preferances tab also provided a bit of humor....both by the lack of actual options and the horrible screen resolution offered.

Upon playing the game I quickly discovered that you cant look up or down.
You can only move backwards, forwards left and right.

HOW THE HECK ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO TARGET!?

Though, after playing a breif game I started liking it. The controls are a little...archaic...and hard to use. But theres lots of cool futuristic gun sounds and exlosions.

Now, I am off to go waste time playing it for awhile :)

You can find more info on Earthsiege 2 at gamespot and gamesfirst

Linux Mint Part 2

2008-11-22T20:46:00.000-08:00

Once linux mint was up and running I began downloading updates (by double chicking the convenient lock symbol in the 'taskbar' as it were).

The download was decently fast and very straight forward.

I also used the hardware symbol to install the proprietary driver for my video card and fixed the screen resolution. Out of habit I re-booted (though in linux you rarely have to after updating).

As I might have expected, the fun had just began.
The computer started normally but after the boot screen I got a 'low graphics' error which informed me that my graphics card could not be detected.

After re-booting several times (in vista and in linux) I started browsing through the linux mint forums. I quickly discovered a program called EnvyNG which was supposed to help with situations like mine.

The program, which was built into my mint install (convenient) helps users remove, install and update their video card drivers. After installing, removing, re-installing again and otherwise troubleshooting the issue I eventually got it to work (how? who knows).

After that, everything seemed to work fine.

So, I have discovered that linux mint is a great distro with tons of built in features and some kick butt compiz fusion effects.

On a side note, I have also learned that its best to write blogs as you are doing something - not weeks after.

New Star Trek Trailer

2008-11-15T13:18:00.000-08:00

A new trailer for the upcoming Star Trek movie has began airing at showings of 007.

Enjoy the amazing.

Link to youtube video

More info at i09

All My Firefox Add Ons

2008-11-11T11:04:00.000-08:00

Since I am making a list of programs to re-install, I should probably make a list of firefox add ons to install as well.

Cutemenus
Adds icons next to the text in the menus

PDF Download
Lets you download web pages in PDF format

Forecast Fox
With some adjusting, leaves icons that show the weather, pop outs provide more info.

Download Statusbar
Clean replacement for the download window.

Flashblock
Blocks all those crappy web adds.

Colorful Tabs
Makes tabs diff colors so its easy to recognize diff ones.

WOT
Web of Trust. Adds icon by links to show how they are rated

Cooliris
Nifty way to search for photos and videos

Firemarks
bookmarks synchronizer

Video Download Helper
Lets you download video content from webpages with the click of an icon

RSS Ticker
Scrolls RSS feeds in the firefox window

Undo Closed Tab Button
Title says it all, saves tabs you closed so if you close one accidentally, you can click the icon and the tab comes back.

Splash
Adds splash screen when starting firefox

Digg This!
Easy way to submit webpages to digg.

A Fresh Start

2008-11-11T10:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Veterans Day everyone!

Since I have the day off I have decided to completely re-format my main hard drive and re-install Windows Vista for a fresh start.
The issue is, of course, that these things never go as planned.

So, I decided to write myself a list of all the programs I currently have on my computer so its easy to find them when I start fresh.

Objectdock
A rip off mac dock for the PC. I know, mac does it better. Its a great alternative to regular desktop shortcuts though.

Open Office
An excellent alternative to Microsoft office. Free, great interface and as many features as its competitors.

Firefox
The best browser in my opinion. Add ons are excellent. (quick blog on why firefox rocks here)

iTunes
My main music player (since I have an iPod).

Digsby
The best im client I have yet to find.

Keyscrambler
Protects my key strokes from falling into the hands of a hacker.

XFIRE
An im client for gamers - logs activity on games and such and uploads hours to a profile.

Active ISO Burner
An easy nohassle way to burn ISO's to CD's

Calgoo Calendar
The desktop calendar I use to sync to my google cal online. Wonderful program.

Easy BCD
A easy program to edit the vista boot loader.

AusLogics Disk Defrag
Alternative to the vista disk defrag...which sucks

CCleaner
Cleans registry, cookies, and other such stuff.

AVG Free
Virus protection

Steam
For downloading and updating games.

Impulse
Stardocks versionof steam for Stardock products

EVGA Precision
For monitering the temp of my video card and controlling the fan.

Linux Mint Part 1

2008-11-10T17:16:00.001-08:00

After using Wubi to install Ubuntu (screen shot here) I got to playing around with my new toy.
Honestly, I wasn't fond of ubuntu.
Probably since I grew up on XP and have used OS X for many things as well. I'm just not used to Linux. I found it impossible to install themes in Ubuntu (all the guides I found went right over my head). Ultimately, I just need more experience with it.

While searching around youtube for How To's I ran across an awesome video showing off compiz fusions robust set of features. In the description I found the person was using Linux Mint (video here)
A few google searches later I discovered that mint was one of the most user friendly distro's available.
(Note: a few great reviews can be found here, here and here).

Burning the ISO to a CD went fairly well. I used active ISO Burner and burnt at 1x speed (occasionally ISO don't like being burnt fast, increases the risk of errors).

Upon booting from the CD I got a clean boot screen. You can either press any key to get a menu (below) of just let the timer count down and it will boot automatically.

A this point, things got a little sticky. No matter weather mint booted in regular mode or in 'computability mode' I would always end up at an error screen that read:

Loading isolinux: Disk error 10, AX = 427e, drive EF
Boot Failed: press any key to retry\

Pressing a key resulted in a re-boot and I always ended up in the same predicament.
You can view my post in the help forums by going to http://linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=18601

I eventually was told to 'check the MD5 Sum' of the ISO I had been using. You do this by installing WinMD5Sum

You then load the ISO image into the program, and find what the 'MD5 Sum' should be from the website (on the mint download page it was right there by the download link). You then copy and paste the sequence from the website into the blank 'compare' box and hit 'compare' (geeze thats repetitive).

If it checks out, your good to go. If not, you should re-download the ISO.

Note: its safer to download the ISO from a torrent since torrent managers run Check Sums as your downloading. No, it isnt illegal to download Linux from a torrent.

The live CD worked and linux mint booted without issue, giving me this clean desktop:

I then began browsing around and found that linux mint had a very user friendly menu system with very easy to use windows and such. Pictures followed:

As you can see from the pictures above, its very user friendly and easy to figure out.
I then proceeded to install it onto my hard drive (via the install icon on the desktop) and ran into an error.

Fortunately, a simple restart caused this error to go away and the install went fine. It was pretty basic. First it started with a nice welcome screen:

Then unto picking your time zone:

Then you get to choose a partition. This is tricky, and I am still unfamiliar with the subtleties of it. Basically, if you dont know what your doing, BE CAREFUL!

You then go through a 'who are you' to set up your user account, and the system installs.

Then, its time to re-boot.

great article on linux mint http://linuxgazette.net/137/lazar.html

Random Vista Rant

2008-11-10T11:56:00.001-08:00

Why I hate Vista, originally uploaded by squigglethecow.

So, I turned my computer off, went to go shower and then did a few things. Upon coming back to my computer (which I expected to be cool and rested after being powered off for so long) I discovered that it HAD NEVER TURNED OFF and had been sucking power and generating heat the whole time.
In mac OS X theres a little timer, that warns you that your closing windows and may loose date - but that also counts down a certain amount of time until it says 'skrew it' and shuts off anyway.

See, OS X realizes that computer users have a life and that the computer works FOR THE USER not the not the way around.

If the Matrix Ran on Windows

2008-11-10T10:29:00.000-08:00

Great job College Humor, another amazing video released.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

XBOX 360 Games on a Computer

2008-11-09T11:35:00.000-08:00

While browsing around the internet to see weather I would be able to play 360 games on my computer. Of course, you cant (at least that's what I have found via google searches).

It'd be too convenient the two consoles worked together - even though both are created by Microsoft.

Personally, I prefer PC as a gaming platform. Though I use a wired 360 USB controller to play games (easier interface). The PC platform is much more customizable, upgradable, accessible and is often more powerful. Thats another rant.

Anyway, I came across a neat post in the Vista forms in the form of a suggestion.

The poster, named cherokeeblade suggested that microsoft emplament some sort of emulator that would allow users to play xbox 360 games on their PC's.

His argument is as follows:

To me a smart Ideal was to just include the emulator in vista.
Why you ask. One some people would go out and upgrade there system just to
play the xbox games. Yet they don't want to buy another consol unit. Also to
me it would fill in the lack of games that vista can run in the pc comunitie
and it would also increase Xbox game sells if the comintie knew they can run
Xbox games on there pc. I know Xbox360 hardwere can interchange with the pc.
THat was cool. But having a program to run Xbox and xbox360 games on the pc
would be cooler. I know it all about sells and money. But like me why buy
another consel machine when there is only 1 or 2 games out there I might ever
play xbox game.
Most of us hard gamers just wait till some over sea company puts out a add
on card or a emulator that allows the pc user to run that consol software.
Lots of emulators out on the web let a pc do this. and for me I like it. when
I can throuw in a dreamcast cd or Any consel that uses a dvd or cd to excute
a game and just play it off my computer instead buying that company system or
consol. Save me money that I can use to buy the game and play it and don't
have to set and switch from consol to consol to play.
You could really convince a lot of none vista user in this gaming area why
to upgrade to vista. Yes sell would drop for xbox and xbox360 in short term.
But in long term sell would been made up in Games being sold much more
faster. Then people going out to buy a xbox or xbox360.
For instance like me. I upgrade my pc to match or excead the xbox360. Now
I'm just waiting on a plug in card or emulator to come out and I be the most
happy Vista user around. Because I would have the best of 2 world on one
machine. Can you say Halo 3 on the PC. Come bring it on and let frag. You
Xbox360 user. And when they find out I'm playing them off my pc they will go
Oh my. I been fragged by a pc user. and all I had to do is buy the Dvd
xbox360 game. Not spend my hard earn money on another consol.
I guess someone in Microsoft sells department don't like having your
company bring in extra cash or they would thought of this too. Oh well your
lost and some 3rd party gain. Laterz.
C.O.G. Michael

Link to origional post

Installing a Husband

2008-11-07T14:25:00.000-08:00

As a guy, I do find this a bit insulting. Not sure if anyone could argue that it wasn't funny, however.

INSTALLING A HUSBAND

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to

Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall

system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry

applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many

other valuable programs, such as

· Romance 9.5 and

· Personal Attention 6.5

and then installed undesirable programs such

as

· Currie Cup 5.0

· Super 14, 3.2 and

· Golf Clubs 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and

Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

Please note that I have tried running Nagging

5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate.

DEAR DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind,

· Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment

Package, while

· Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html

and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install

the Guilt 3.0 update.

· If that application works as

designed, Husband1.0 should then automatically run the

applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above

application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy

Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1.

· Please note that Beer 6. 1 is a

very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring

Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any

circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in

the background that will eventually seize control of all

your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to

reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported

applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program,

but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new

applications quickly. You might consider buying additional

software to improve memory and performance. We recommend:

· Cooking 3.0 and

· Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck.

Tech Support

Check out Live Broadcasts

2008-10-27T23:52:00.001-07:00

Just found this, seems to be a plug in type program for xfire, so you can stream live video of what your playing to an audience. I havent tried it out yet. More info to come.

Broadcast and view LIVE dynamic content.

Go to: Live Broadcasts

Search Webpages for Specific Words - Firefox

2008-10-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

As a quick note, I have discovered one of the neatist things ever.

When on a web page, in Firefox, you can type '/' and then a word and it will search that web page for the word - highlighting it so you can find it easily.

This is especially useful when editing HTML.

Firefox rocks my socks.

UBUNTU

2008-10-25T22:51:00.001-07:00

UBUNTU, originally uploaded by squigglethecow.

Pic taken on my phone before my Ubuntu install. This blog being posted to test flickr's ''post to blog'' feature.

My FIrst Ubuntu Desktop

2008-10-25T16:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I saw a few youtube videos of compiz fusion in action on ubuntu, and decided I couldn't pass up playing with all those really REALLY awesome effects.

More info to come, but for now, heres a screenshot of my first linux desktop ^.^

For a Laugh

2008-10-19T19:42:00.001-07:00

Well, I decided to kill some time today browsing explosm.net, the home of cyanide and happiness.

Below each comic is the HTML code for each one, and the site states : ''Copy this comic into your blog, LiveJournal, Xanga, or MySpace''

So, I thought I would share.

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

link to web page with this comment here

Why firefox 3 is Awesome and How to make it better

2008-10-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

I originally found this video while browsing Vuze when it first came out (only downloading legal content, of course) and thought it was really awesome. Now that I have created my own youtube account (link) I was able to find the video, and many more created by Jimmy Ruska. Though I have no looked through many of his tutorials, I am relatively sure they are all quick, relevant and helpful.
Also, the sound quality is great! (most tutorials and such have...erm, less than desirable audio quality).

jimmyrcom: How to make Firefox 3 better

The following is copy & pasted from the info card on the youtube video:

Get firefox 3 release candidate
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/...

Tab mix plus, Developer Build for firefox 3
http://tmp.garyr.net/tab_mix_plus-dev...

Make a firefox video and win Prizes (see rules)
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/screenca...

Another firefox 3 screencast
http://people.mozilla.com/~beltzner/o...

You can install firefox 3 to a new directory and use firefox 2 as well.

I had gone over the downloads part but that clip got deleted apparently.

Also, out of a random update, I massively upgraded my old crappy role play site:
http://www.eliteskills.com/rp/rolepla...

KeyScramber: protecting your privacy one keystroke at a time!

2008-10-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

Everyone wants their computer to be secure, their identity's safe, and their log in info safeguarded from phishing and keyloggers.

All respectable websites go to great lengths to protect users information, and for the most part browsing the Internet is safe (especially when you use the WOT add on for your browser). I, personally, believe that most peoples fear of 'getting a virus' is unfounded and based on their own mis-understanding of how computers work...but thats another rant.

Bad programs come in all shapes, sizes and all have distinct ways to rip you off. One of the easiest ways for people to get your info are keyloggers, which are small programs that record everything you type, and then single out your user names, passwords, credit card numbers, ETC and send them off to the evil-doer who made them.

KeyScrambler prevents such programs from gathering information. It is both a program and an add on for firefox and IE.

Basically, when you type something, keyscrambler encrypts it, and then decrypts it just before you send it to the website. This way, even if you had a keylogger recording everything you typed, all it would pick up is gibberish.
This is especially advantageous since it covers a base no keylogger can (I know, SOMEONE will come out with one that makes me eat my words) and offers a great deal of safety for its small size and simple function. Beyond that, it just makes sense.

When you first install the program, (link) its settings will default to show an 'overlay window' as well as a tray icon. Personally, I find the overlay window annoying. Every time you type, a box pops up in a corner of the screen (props to QFX software for letting users customize which corner) to let me know that I am typing, and that keyscrambler is running.

The preferences has a decent amount of options, not too many not too few, that allow the user to customize hot keys and such. The overall jest of these settings is fundamental, few users should really have a problem deciphering it.

This is a great, unobtrusive program that I feel adds some much needed immunity to my daily internet activities. Before making any online purchase I always double check for the key scrambler icon in my tray.

Of course, this is not a total and complete way of protecting yourself from the dangerous internet (note sarcasm), but it is certainly a helpful tool to have in your armory.

This program can be found here, and you can find a quick and easy user manual here.

Objectdock: MAC OS X Dock for the PC

2008-10-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

This amazing program is created by Stardock - the maverick of windows customization. The easiest way to describe it is a fake MAC OS X dock for windows.

Rather than having all your icons clogging up the desktop, you can drag them into this dock (which sits anywhere on the screen you want it to) to reduce clutter, and add some eye candy to your desktop.

The app comes with a slew of features which are easy enough for an novice user to figure out, but that offer enough customization to keep the experienced users content.

Objectdock comes with a weather widget sort of thing built in, which works really well. After right clicking to input your area code, when you mouse over the icon a 5 day forcast will pop out.

After using objectdock for some time, I have found it instrumental is getting rid of desktop clutter. It is also far faster to use since the programs are displayed in icon form right on the desktop, as opposed to digging through the start menu to find what you need (granted, this has been addressed by vistas smart search feature, but still).

The download can be found here

Photos taken from here, here, and here.

Digsby = Amazing

2008-10-06T09:04:00.001-07:00

In a world where im's rule, the im client (program) you use becomes very important. Each service (yahoo, AIM, MSN, google talk, myspace im, ETC) has its own client with unique features, profiles and other customization. Unfortunately, if your anywhere near a normal internet user, you most likely have accounts with more than one email and im service.

This can quickly become an issue and lag out your computer as each program takes its share of your reasources. It is also counter-productive on a busy day when you have 10+ im windows in addition to whatever work your trying to do (or are avoiding doing).

This problem has been solved by multi-client im programs which can log you into various services at once, like trillian for example, which can log you into AIM, IRC, MSN, ICQ.
Although trillian is a great program and many people use it, I perfer the functionalty offered in digsby.

Digsby supports all manner of im services, including google talk, facebook chat, AIM, MSN and Yahoo. At the time of this posting it does not support myspace im.

However, what makes Digsby stand out is how it ALSO will log into your mail accounts (gmail, yahoo, aol, msn, and any pop mail server), AND social network accounts (myspace, twitter, facebook), giving you access to virtually all of your online accounts in a single, easy to use program.
You can also log into more than one account for each service (IE: 2 yahoo im, 2 myspace, 1 facebook, 2 gmail accounts, ETC) without a problem.

When you first run digsby, it will display an easy set up where you can input all your login info for various services, this can also be done via the digsby>my accounts menu after install. You also make a special digsby account, which backs up all your information to the digsby servers and allows you to log in via digsby in any location (ie: if you get a new computer, all you do is install digsby, log into it and all your mail, im, social network info is transfered to the new digsby). Of course, no one can access this information without your digsby username and password.

The customizations that come pre-installed are easy to access via the preferances menu, and the view tab also has a great deal of options. You can adjust everything from the im window arrangement, im window scheme, buddy list theme, ETC. It all comes down to personal taste, once you mess around with it a bit you will find a configuration that works for you.

At first, the digsby window will look a little cluttered, which is to be expected since its jamming so much into such a small packadge. After you customize and re-arrange everything how you like, however, this no longer becomes an issue.

Digsby is the best im client I have yet to find. The amount of functionality it offers is staggering, and they are constantly updating it, with many features being added as time goes on (hopefully myspace im soon). Unfortunatly, at the time of this posting Digsby is only for windows, looks like Mac users are stuck with Adium for awhile.

You can download and try digsby at http://www.digsby.com/features.php

Pictures taken from here, here and here....and here

Your are a Pirate!

2008-09-22T23:13:00.000-07:00

This is ridiculous, useless, annoying and immature
and I enjoy it a great deal.

http://www.cristgaming.com/pirate.swf

My Fav 5 Firefox Add ons

2008-09-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

Well, firefox is without a doubt the most customizable browser there is. Each little add ons contributes a little bit of functionality to your browsing - and to seal the deal they are easy as heck to install (go to addons.mozilla.org, find an add on you want and click 'add to firefox). Here's a list of the add ons I use each day.

1. RSS Ticker

This is, hands down, the most convenient way to view your RSS feeds. You know that little line of info that scrolls across the bottom of the screen when your watching the news on TV? It adds that to firefox - and it reads RSS feeds off firefox live bookmarks (which makes adding feeds a snap).
As with most feed readers, mousing over something gives you a little pop up, and clicking on it opens a tab. Its simple, easy and is a excellent way to keep up with news you want to read.
This can be found at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2325

2. WOT

WOT (web of trust) is one of those nifty little things that give the power to the user. Basically, everyone who uses this add on can rate whatever sites they visit based on 4 criteria (Trustworthiness, Vendor Reliability, Privacy and Child Safety).

Then, every time you view search results via yahoo, google, or whatever search you use, a small circle appears next to the link indicating weather it has been rated green (good), yellow (warning) or red (stay away) by the WOT community.

I addition, if the site is rated red WOT will fade it out and warn you before you can enter the site. This is especially useful for pop ups and the like.
This add on can be found at: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3456

3. Download Statusbar

This is one of the first add ons I ever tried out, and to this day its is hands down the best download manager for firefox. Rather than having a window pop up when you download a file, a small and unobtrusive bar will pop up at the bottom of the browser and will display all the info(and more on mouse over) the regular window would.

You can view download speed, % done and average speed (once the download is complete, that is). It also allows you to pause and stop downloads.

Since this is embedded into the browser, it minimizes and maximizes like the rest of the window, so it wont take up space on your taskbar.
Beyond that, it has a myriad of customizable options from colors to sounds, and info to display.
It helps keep clutter down, and I am sure many user appreciate that.
Download Statusbar can be found at: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/26

4. The undo closed Tabs Button

There comes a time when everyone closes the wrong tab, and often its something important. This add on allows you to get that tab back! It adds a simple button in the upper left side of the browser (right alongside refresh, stop, home, ETC) and will reopen your last closed tab (and beyond)

Simple, easy, and useful.
This add on can be found here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3082

5. Colorful Tabs

This is an add on I wasnt sure about at first, but as I have used it I take it for granted. It colors each tab slightly differently, so its easy to tell them apart in a more visual way. The colors are very light and subtle. You can set it to assign colors randomly or based on the URL. If your a tab sort of person, this is defiantly an add on to look into.

The colorful tabs add on can be found at: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1368

Hello All

2008-09-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I have decided to create my very own blog about software, hardware, politics and whatever else fills my fancy.

Until now, I have used blogs more as an online journal, but I think it will be nifty to use it to inform and express regarding more public topics.