April, 2008 Archive
How many times has this occurred? You find a great web site, but it requires an account before you can access the site. So you create the account, password and secret question and let FireFox remember the account information. Time goes by and your at work or on another computer, and decide that you want to visit that great site, but can’t remember the password.
Sure you can have the site email your password, but it also wants you to answer the secret question. Now what? Time to dig into FireFox Password Manager….
Just go to Tools, Options and click on the Security Tab then click on Show Passwords (version 2.0 shown below) or View Saved Passwords (version 1.5 not shown) button. Read More»
Posted in Firefox, Internet | No Comments »
Officially, Windows XP Service Pack 3 RTM is not yet available for download. Unofficially however, the story is a tad different. The third and last service pack for Windows XP has been up for grabs from various sources, more or less legitimate since a few days. And now the final bits of XP SP3 can be accessed straight from Microsoft, even though the Redmond company has failed to jump the gun on the previously announced general availability date: April 29, 2008. But failed only in appearance, as Microsoft has been serving the gold version of XP SP3 through its Windows Update infrastructure since the debut of this week.
The fact is that the Redmond company has debuted the preparations for the general release of Windows XP SP3 scheduled for April 29. In this context, the final bits of the service pack have begun making their way on the WU servers and propagating slowly. Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | 2 Comments »
Microsoft is hard at work searching for ways to improve its Office System. This is why the company has introduced a quasi-independent effort dubbed Office Labs. Designed to be a sandbox set up to streamline the experimenting, building and testing of new ideas, Microsoft Office Labs will offer the first taste of new products and features while still in the most early stages of development, even as prototypes. An illustrative example in this regard is Search Commands for the Office 2007 System.
“Search Commands helps you find commands, options, wizards, and galleries in Microsoft Office 2007 Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Just type what you’re looking for in your own words and click the command you need. Search Commands also includes Guided Help, which acts as a tour guide for specific tasks,” reveals the product’s description. Read More»
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I don’t know about you but I think the default font of the command prompt is ugly and hard to read. This guide shows you how to change the default font from a Raster font to a Consolas font specially designed for developers.
If your computer doesn’t have the Consolas font this guide shows you where to get it and how to configure the command prompt to recognize it.
Change the Command Prompt’s Font
1. Click the Start orb, All Programs, Accessories, and then open the Command Prompt.
2. Right-click the top bar of the command prompt and then select Defaults. Read More»
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Microsoft Windows XP was designed to make it easy to connect computers together and to give you access to everything the Internet has to offer, while still keeping your computer as safe as possible from potential threats.
After you add your computer to your home network, you’ll be able to print to a printer on your home network (the printer will no longer need to be attached directly to your computer) and access the other computers and devices connected to your home network. You’ll be able to share files, which means you can get data from any computer you connect to the network. You can even share one Internet connection among all your computers. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Internet | No Comments »
Let’s say you have a computer that’s connected to the internet via a broadband modem. This guide shows you how to share that computer’s internet connection (turning it into a router) with other computer(s) in your house without using a router or even a network switch in some cases.
Two Computers
If you want to share an internet connection with one additional computer on your network you’ll need an addition network (LAN) card installed on your computer if your broadband modem connects to your computer via a network (LAN) card.
If your broadband modem connects to your computer via a USB cable you probably won’t have to purchase an additional network card because one will be available. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Hardware, Internet | 6 Comments »
When a web browser (IE 8 or Firefox for example) connects to a website it establishes connections. Each connection downloads one thing whether it is the html of the page, an image, or ad. Connections are used as a throttle that’s being held back to keep web servers and the internet from getting overloaded.
By default IE 8 only establishes two simultaneous connections at a time to download a web page. The two simultaneous connections limit is specified in the HTTP standard. The two connections limit can be changed on your computer through a registry edit.
Increasing the maximum allowed simultaneous connects from 2 to 16 can increase the speed of some web sites because the sites are downloaded in larger chunks at a time. Keep in mind that this won’t work on all web sites because the number of connections limit can be controlled by the web server. Read More»
Posted in Internet, Software | 4 Comments »
Windows XP Service Pack 3 RTM is finally available for download. Microsoft released the service pack to manufacturing, at the beginning of this week, on April 21, 2008 and is now making headway towards the general availability of XP SP3. Officially, the final version of XP SP3 is scheduled for delivery starting with the end of this month. However, Windows XP SP3 RTM Build 5512 has been leaked and is already up for grabs, ahead of the release timetable outlined by the Redmond company.
At the start of this week, Chris Keroack, Release Program Manager Windows Sustainability Microsoft, announced the RTM of XP SP3, and pointed to April 29 as the date when end users would be able to access the service pack via both Windows Update and the Download Center. The Redmond company planned to serve the gold bits of Windows XP SP3 starting on May 2 to MSDN and TechNet subscribers, following general availability on April 29. Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | 1 Comment »
Whenever Windows stumbles across a file type it doesn’t recognise you are will see a message box that says Windows cannot open this file’ and gives you the option to ‘Use the Web Service’, to find the necessary program. I don’t know about you but I can’t recall a single instance where it has worked and it’s usually much quicker just to Google the file name or extension. Well, thanks to the clever folk at ‘howtogeek’ here’s a way to zap that dialogue box and go straight to the Programs list, that you would get if you chose the second option. It works in both XP and Vista and involves editing the Registry, so pay attention, and bear in mind the usual warnings and disclaimers about backing up the Registry first, and not messing with it if you don’t know what you are doing.
Begin by opening the Registry Editor (‘regedit’ in Run on the Start menu) and pop along to: Read More»
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This tutorial describes how to install Ubuntu by copying the contents of the installation CD to an USB memory stick (aka flash drive) and making the stick bootable. This is handy for machines like ultra portable notebooks that do not have a CD drive but can boot from USB media.
In short here’s what you do:
Prepare the USB flash drive
Boot the computer from your USB flash drive.
Install Ubuntu as you would from a normal boot CD Read More»
Posted in Computer, Linux | No Comments »