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Lost an Outlook Express Identity password? Here’s how to recover the email
Recently I had to help out a friend who, for various reasons had two Outlook Express identities on his XP machine. He had recently changed the password to his ‘important' identity and couldn't for the life of him remember what it was. No password, no access, no important emails. That's when I got called. Here's how to recover the mail from an Identity that you can't log in to.
Continue reading...How EA and Spore are causing piracy, the DasmX86Dll issues, removing SecuRom and some great DRM free alternatives
9. September 2008
Speaking of SecuRom - I'm not quite sure why software companies continue to insist that DRM of this type (or any type) is worth it. I wonder how much money EA stuck into this? The game was available on the torrents before it's official launch and yet here's EA and far to many other companies shoveling money down the DRM hole. And it's doubly a problem because of their refusal to see this as an issue. If the game sells well, EA says "See! DRM isn't that big a deal, people don't care and we're still selling games." If the game's sales are hurt by DRM they fall back on "Pirates are killing our bottom line!" Seriously? Games will get pirated, sure. But you're much more likely to sell copies if they're not crippled in the first place by software that does nothing to stop the pirates and everything to annoy legitimate users.
Continue reading...Things you should never EVER type in Linux. Ever!
28. August 2008
I feel that I need to put a warning at the top of this post because try as I might in the subject to be clear about what I mean, I know that someone will go and type/execute one of these things into their production server at work and then be horribly distraught and/or cause some sort of power grid catastrophe across the Pacific Northwest or something. So DO NOT, DON'T, NEVER EVER EVER EVER run these commands in a terminal session. If you do you will render your system anything from useless without a forced reboot to devoid of any useful purpose ever.
Continue reading...How to get updated world weather maps as your desktop background in Ubuntu
20. August 2008
I also like to see what's going on with the world, particularly the weather but often find myself not in orbit so I'm unable to track worldwide weather patterns like I want to. Then a though occurred to me - what if I set up one of my Ubuntu boxes to have a map of the world with clouds overlayed, updated every hour? Neat! I now have a map of the world with cloud overlays updated hourly for my background.
Continue reading...How to run a dedicated Steam server on your Ubuntu box – Countestrike style
18. August 2008
For a while now Valve through Steam have had a dedicated server for Linux from which you can launch your multiplayer fragfests. I've recently started messing about with it and I've gotten Counter Strike, Counter Strike Source and Half Life multiplayer to launch off of it. I'm still mucking about with server settings and finding statistics for it however I did not find a ton of documentation on this through Google so I decided to put up my notes here.
Continue reading...Book Review: The Way Toys Work
15. August 2008
Did you know that the inventor of the erector set won an Olympic gold medal in the pole vault in 1908? Or that the Slinky was named by thumbing through a dictionary looking for a word that sounded like the motion of a toy? Or that (despite popular belief), Furbies do not listen for new words to add to their vocabularies (and therefore should never have been banned from government property)? Neither did I, until I read The Way Toys Work:The Science Behind the Magic 8 Ball, Etch A Sketch, Boomerang, and More.
Continue reading...Lifehacker Debunks Common Windows Tweaks
7. August 2008
Lifehacker points out some common optimization myths and the reasons why they don't work, including clearing Windows prefetch data, registry optimization, and memory cleaners.
Continue reading...How to delete stuck folders and files from your trash in Ubuntu
5. August 2008
Every now and again, I’ll find myself with some files sitting around in my trash that I can’t delete. This can be particularily problematic when I’ve got several gigs worth of stale ISOs sitting there giving me an error like Error removing file: Permission denied I like computers but I’m not a big fan of [...]
Continue reading...Readyboost for Linux – a quick how to on getting more speed from a USB flash drive
24. July 2008
Readyboost for Vista is a feature added to the OS where you can encourage your limping Vista install to jog a bit faster by essentially using a smallish USB drive as disk cache. There's also some Vista Voodoo with Superfetch going on there. While Ubuntu (the distro that I use) and other distros don't really use Superfetch, you can still get an advantage using the disk cache functionality - particularily if you're running on a system that doesn't have a ton of RAM available.
Continue reading...How to rip, store, tag and enjoy MP3s on your Ubuntu install
16. July 2008
A short while back, I decided I needed to get a handle on my music collection. I've got random MP3s from years back, purchased MP3s, CDs and even an old 8 track or two. There are many ways to do go about this, but after throwing out the 8 tracks, here's what I did to get organized.
Continue reading...Get Google Gadgets up and running on your Ubuntu install
7. July 2008
Not to long ago Google released their gadgets for Linux. Those fine folks at GetDeb.net have compiled an easy to use .deb file for us Debian based Linux folk to use. It’s quite simple – here’s what you do. First, download this .deb file (or this one if you’re on a 64 bit Ubuntu install). [...]
Continue reading...Educational TV ROCKS!
11. June 2008
The other week I was having water cooler chat with my co-workers. Some how the topic of PBS educational programming cropped up and I admitted that I used to love 3 2 1 Contact. This of course led us to our attempt at remembering the theme song. Once we managed to invent new notes and [...]
Continue reading...Move over potato clock… build your own Multi-Touch pad
1. June 2008
Found on New Science and Gizmodo With gas prices now over the four dollar mark (Road Warriors still plays in my head when I think about that). Seth Sandler, you’re my new hero. With merely a cardboard box, tape, a piece of glass, paper and a webcam; he was able to create a Multi-Touch pad. [...]
Continue reading...Copy and Backup DVD Movies on Mac OS X
27. March 2008
This step-by-step guide is dedicating to demonstrate how to backup DVD movie (copyright protected included) to computer and copy DVD to a new DVD disc with no protections on Mac OS X (leopard included) The tool you need is Aimersoft Mac DVD Copy, which you can download for free from: http://www.aimersoft.com/mac-dvd-copy.html It’s very easy to [...]
Continue reading...Go ahead punk- start my day…
15. March 2008
The people of Make show you how to take a retro light gun, tilt switches and a vintage digital clock radio so you can wake up Dirty Harry style. When the alarm sounds off and you’re forced to be a morning person- blast away. I’ve gotta make me one of these! Phaser Blasted Alarm Clock! [...]
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24. September 2008
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