A picture is worth 1000 dollars

They say a picture is worth a thousand words... but this one is worth a 1000 dollars (fake) at least it is showing me that I'm loosing a lot of money (and quick)!

This widget clearly shows that I'm loosing more than I'm making... all of the prices are falling down by a lot of percent and I'm hardly making any money. Luckily there are a few pictures in green though that's why I'm not broke yet... I guess its only a matter of time.

Well at least this picture shows that I'm doing my work if not at least pretending to do my work...

I guess this is enough proof to show you that how much I love money, even if it is fake :D!

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The power of Openoffice

Today I just realized how powerful open source software can be. No wonder the people over at Microsoft have so much pressure to keep their standards high. If you compare Openoffice to Microsoft Office, the only difference I see is the price. You need to pay or not pay. Except for the fact that Openoffice doen't have a few of the features in other office suites, it's a great deal and of course you can't beat the price!

After playing around for a little while here are the features I really liked...

I just loved the fact that you can export documents to PDF format (to make it look more professional I guess).
I liked how it asks you what you want to delete when you press delete in OpenOffice Calc... although it is annoying sometimes, I seem to find it useful when you need to delete only one particular kind of data.
It's interface is also kind of cool, for the price you pay its well designed, for sure.
Before I know it I'm sure I'm going to find more stuff that is really interesting and great... hopefully.

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Its truly RIMarkable

Its kind of funny how stocks change in a matter of minutes, seconds even. Yesterday I thought that it was excellent that I just bought about 50 shares of Research In Motion Ltd. because they were making about .4 cents of loss (which was kind of bad compared to all my other shares) but today I fired up my computer and started my stock ticker widget and I was surprised to see that all the shares of RIM had gone up about 4$ (canadian) each!!!!!

This was the worst thing hapenning to me I thought and it couldn't get any worse! Why didn't I take more shares so that I could make more money, but I knew that even though nothing big had hapenned in the past I could really loose a lot of money (plus the other stocks that I had invested were also high risk) so I couldn't take a lot of risk.

Ah... no matter how much I wish I can't change the numbers around now (okay I can... but I don't like to cheat) besides its just a little game... or is it?

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If I ever had 100,000 dollars

If I had a 100,000 that I could blow up on something it would probably be a BMW or something. But unfortunately I need to spend those money on shares (yes, this is boring ol' business class stuff again) and make a lot more money. Well, if you are a beginner in the real share market you might think it is a piece of cake to do this but, let me tell you something it isn't.

It's seriously hard to come up with these choices... but anyways, I have to go with what I have.

If you want to see what I picked then you need to download the files below!

Here are the PDF and XML Files of my shares... for those who wan't to see what I have! These files will be updated weekly or once in 2 weeks. I'll also include graphs comparing profits/rise and fall of my shares from week to week.

Excel - 18 KB
PDF - 59 KB

Week 2
Excel - 21 KB
PDF - 46 KB

Tags: shares, sharemarket

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Another computer video...

Today we watched another boring (well most of it was boring anyways) old (I think this video was made in the early 90's or something) video that talks about computers. Basically it was just like any other video created for normal school students. It's soo old that in their intro they have a screenie of a windows 95 or a windows 98 computer screen. Here are some of my thoughts on it.....

The most part of it was boring. However it did talk about "Power Sources", "Load" and "Switches". It also talked about how cpu's are produced aand there are 46 steps that are there if you want to getinto the cpu production place. I believe it is called a "Clean room" according to a professor in a college that I visited last year. Supposedly they make microchips there... or make sure that the microchips are made properly or something like that.

The video also told us about how cpu's are manufactured and that how cpu's work. They have three main prosesses " fetch", "decode" and "process" and the cpu makers (at least the one sover at intel) seem to make cpu's with three main type of people. Teh architects, then the people who take the information from the architects "or the logics department" and finally the "masking department"

It also did talk about the basic stuff too such as transistors in cpu... and the usualy yada yada about input out and processing and storage. Its funny to see what example they give... in this video it seemed to be a "toaster" haha.

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The Share Market?

The share market... one of the most fascinating things ever. You never know what is going to happen and when it is going to happen. You can make money and sometimes loose it. I should know. Being an experienced "Blog Shares" player, I know how hard the real deal is going to be like. That's why here are some things that I've learnt (from real life and my business class).

1. Shares are a part of a company that funds it. So if you own shares then you are partially an owner of the company which is also called "Corporation". (you know what I mean right?)
2. You buy shares by investing in the Stock market and buying shares (obviously)
3. Shares are highly volatile because the value of each share depends on how much it is traded and how much profit the Corporation makes
4. You make profit when you buy a share at a lower price and sell it at a higher price (of course!)
5. If you do any day trading (trading shares every day) you might loose a lot of money and make a lot of money (or in my case "Blog dollars")

Finally never leave your shares unattended... bad things can happen. In my case I lost about 6 million blogshare dollars. Which is a lot considering that you only start off from 500 blogshare dollars.

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Excel, the program that loves doing math

Excel is one of the most used software for accounting around the world (or atleast that's what I think). Usually spreadsheet applications are very helpful when it comes to math (even though you need to do some thinking) because it does all the math for you! However, using it sometimes can be a little intimidating if you don't know what does what. That's why I've put together some Excel tips (more coming soon), and hopefully it might to help you out.

1. The box like thing between a row (the lines that are going horizontal corresponding to the numbers) and a column (the lines that are going vertical corresponding to the letters) is called a cell
2. The location of the cell is identified by the column and the row it is in. For example if a cell is in the A column and the 1st row its cell address is A1
3. Whenever you are writing a formula remember to keep in mind the BEDMAS rule and include brackets
4. Instead of typing in the cell address you can just click on the cell and the cell address will automatically be recorded in the formula
5. Always begin a formula with and equal sign
6. If you are working on a large spreadsheet don't forget to "split" it (Window > Split)
7. You don't need to use just the spreadsheet that you are working on you can also click on other sheets at the bottom of the window and do your work in that

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A few useful Blogger keyboard shortcuts

If you are a "blogger" (pardon the pun) then chances are that you need to post a lot. Even if you seldom post chances are that sometimes you are going to use the bold and italics or even underline text (well all right you can't use shortcuts to underline stuff). By the way did you ever notice that blogger never has an underline button?

I'm pretty sure that most people love shotcuts, because it makes our lives easer. That's why I've put together a list of shortcuts so that you people can benefit from it too...

• To make text bold need to press Ctrl+b (together). To stop typing text in bold just press Ctrl+b again to start typing in normal text (the same goes for most of the shortcuts)
• To change text to Italics you need to press Ctrl+I.
• To underline text (no... unfortunately there is not shortcut) place a u inside <> in front of the word you want to underline and /u inside <> after the words you want to underline. These are html tags... which specify underline, you need to use html to underline text.
• Ctrl+z is the shortcut if you want to undo something. However this shortcut isn't that helpful in un-doing stuff.
• Ctrl+y is to redo.
• To put in a hyperlink first select the text then press Ctrl+Shift+a
• To save your post as a Draft you need to press Ctrl+d
• To publish your post you need to press Ctrl+s
• To preview how your post looks like (yes you can do that) just press Ctrl+Shift+p.To hide the preview just press Ctrl+Shift+p again.
  

Technorati Tags: blogger, keyboard, shortcuts, tips, tricks

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What's up with the Plagiarism?

Hmm... its very interesting to observe that these days people have been copying stuff from my blog (why would anybody do that, I don't even have that much cool stuff in it)! So I guess it is important to protect yourself from this evil thingy. Well, okay ... I won't be suing anybody or anything like that I don't really care actually but it is an important problem. And its funny how people think that they can copy stuff from my blog and never get caught. I guess you need to be smart even if you want to copy stuff these days, ha ha.

But still how can people just blindly copy what I have on my blog and claim that they have written it? That's just not fair. Now i don't really mind that people are copying stuff from this blog ... but once you get into the habit of plagiarism its hard to break it.

People these days think they can get away with anything. Well thats true sometimes but its not the same thing everytime. My posts comprise of many components(well if you are a web guru you probably know what this is) that enable me to track down stuff ... soI can know if I created that post or not. This way I can find out exactly who is copying my stuff.

Just my 2 cents...

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Oh I just realised!

Oh, I juest realised that I was welcomed by tech-recipes.com... after like 2 days, I guess I need to subscribe to some rss feed

Thanks, guys even though I didn't deserve a precious spot on the blog!

It's always an honour to be writing tutorials and helping people out at tech-recipes.

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What's up with the Gangster talk?

Gangster talk (aka trash talk) is getting highly popular these day! It is spreading like wild fire...

There are many terms such as "what up?" and so on that we use... So I just decided to make my own dictionary of such terms... make sure you contribute something! Just click on the comment button and add some stuff (appropriate terms of course...)

Or just scroll down and add your term to the ultimate dictionary of interesting terms...

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How to use iTunes and iPod

iTunes is not the best of software when it comes to putting songs into your iPod. However this is the reccomended piece of software that you are supposed to use. So I'd rather use iTunes even though it is difficult to use rather than using other software (such as iPodderX for podcasts).

Since iTunes is so hard to use to put the songs that you want into your computer, I decided to write a tutorial on that!

You can also take a look at Apple's tutorial on how to use the iPod and iTunes (its 20 pages long!), but I think that my version of it is going to be much easier to understand!

First make sure that you have properly downloaded/installed itunes. It is important that you install iTunes properly or else it might not work properly.

Then make sure you have some songs to upload. If you don't then you might want to read the following instructions on how to put songs onto itunes from your cd.

1. Open itunes
2. Put the CD in the Drive
3. Click on the "Import" button to the top right

This should now import all your songs into iTunes. Now, you have some songs to put into your iPod!

To put songs into your iPod all you do is...

1. First charge your iPod
2. Open iTunes (start > All programs > iTunes > iTunes | or just double click on the iTunes icon)
3. If it is the very first time you are putting songs into your iPod then it will ask you the name you want to give your iPod and so on, and if you want to autofill (automatically put songs into your iPod) your iPod or not.
4. If you had chosen Auto fill then iTunes will automatically put ALL the songs you have onto the iPod.
Note: If you have more songs that your iPod can hold then it will pick random songs for you.
5. When your iPod is plugged in you can select from where you want to put in your songs from (for example the "Library", or the "Podcasts" section or the "Top 25 Most Played" and so on)

Whenever your iPod is plugged in you can See an iPod and the name that you have given your iPod in the Source list. If the iPod is updating itself then this is going to be blink red. Which means, do not unplug your iPod. You will also see a message in the green area that tells you how much songs are uploaded and so on. It is also going to tell you when it is safe to disconnect.

Now iTunes will remember your settings and use them... however the only down side is that you can only alter the settings when your iPod is plugged in updating itself.

You can also change the settings when your iPod is plugged in. To do this...

1. Edit
2. Preferences
3. iPod Tab

Here you can select your preferences.

Note: If you delete a song from the play list then iTunes will automatically delete it from your iPod. Unless you select manually manage songs and playlists, iTunes will automatically sync the playlist and iPod.

Now, after you've finished doing this, it is time to start using your iPod. Here are the instructions on how to use the iPod shuffle!

1. Unplug your iPod. To unplug your ipod click on the eject button (a triange over a rectangle) beside your iPod in the source list. You might also want to right click on the safely remove hardware icon in your system tray and then click on safely remove usb device then click on iPod usb device. Then click on stop. When you get a message box saying that it is safe to remove your iPod just unplug your iPod
2. Push the slider down (on the back side of your iPod Shuffle)
Note: your battery light should come on and the green light should come on. If this doesn't happen your iPod might need some restoration. So, you might want to refer to this post.
3. JUST PRESS PLAY AND ENJOY!

The rest is just basic stuff! And hope this helps !

Technorati Tags: iPod, shuffle, problems, troubleshooting, restore, firmware, tricks, tips, mp3, music, apple, itunes, tutorials

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iPod Shuffle problems?

Update: I've put up another post reagarding this as well, so do tell me if that works for you, but read this post first though...

If your iPod shuffle isn't working properly then this is probably a very useful post for you.

The iPod shuffle usually will not have any problems, but sometimes if something goes wrong during the installation/charging etc for the first time, this can cause your iPod to become "unresponsive"!

Usually the problems that occur are firmware/software problems, as the hardware on the shuffle is pretty sturdy and chances are it isn't damaged unless you did something to it.

Howevering, curing this problem is really easy. All you need to do is restore the firmware. Read this post and I'll explain how to do this (but chances are you won't need to do this)

First you must remember that if you restore the firmware on the iPod shuffle to factory it is going to get rid of all your songs and you need to upload it again.

This is what you need to do to restore your iPod to factory settings...

1. Click on Start
2. Then click on All Programs
3. Then you should see something called "iPod" in the all programs menu if you've loaded all of the software properly
4. Hover your mouse over "iPod" and another menu should pop up. In that menu you need to select "iPod Updater".
5. After that click on "iPod Updater" again when the other menu pops up ("iPod Updater" should have a iPod icon beside it)

This is going to open iPod updater. Now all you do is plug in your iPod and click "Restore"!

iPod updater is automatically going to update the software in your iPod.

Congratulations, now you've finished updating your iPod all you need to do now is put in songs again in your iPod (after it is charged of course) and your iPod is ready to go!

If this still doens't cure your ipod problems then just leave a comment and I'll try to give more specific instructions on how to make your ipod work, so that you too can enjoy the sweet music on the go!

Also, make sure that you have the latest software, if you purchased your iPod a while ago, then it is reccomended that you get an update. Before, when iPods were first created.. you needed to update the firmware on them through the iPod Updater. However, now a days, all you need is iTunes, so make sure you get the newest version of iTunes from the Apple Site.

Please read my other post on how to unplug the iPod
(click here) from your computer! If you fail to follow the instructions on this post, the music in your iPod may get corrupt, which also causes your shuffle to give the blinking orange and green lights error. Also, you might want to take a look at part 2 of this post. How to fix your iPod shuffle (an alternative way suggested by a reader) or use the search function to find more posts about fixing your iPod shuffle.

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Firefox 1.5 is here to reign the web browser world

Yes, its official, Firefox 1.5 is here. The final version was released today.

The long wait is over, and Mozilla has launched firefox according to its planned schedule (man, those guys are perfect). I assume you already know what firefox is so go right ahead and download the 1.5 version from the firefox site. You are going to enjoy it!

Why is the final 1.5 version better? It is way better than the alpha, beta and release candidate releases because it doesn't have the bugs

that it used to have before. Those small bugs that bug you all the time seem to have dissapeared.

You'll know it as soon as you download it. It's speed seems to be more or less the same (faster by a few milliseconds or so for most sites according to my calculations)

The only downside to it probably is the themes, some themes need to be updated I guess.

This sweet browser even passes the US Federal Government Requirement for Accessibility. Who would have thought there was even a requirement like that? And that firefox had passed it (it's supposed to be only one a few that passes)...

Untill the next major release of Firefox, I'm quite sure this is the best browser out there.

Technorati Tags: Computers and Internet, News, Computers, Software, Applications, Firefox 1.5 Final, Mozilla

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Finally an AIM version that looks better!

AIM has now launched its new AIM Triton, the newer version of Aol Internet Messenger. First of all it looks better than the old one, which is one of the biggest differences. Plus it comes with plaxo an address book service to keep all your contacts in one place (such as hotmail contacts, yahoo contacts)

If you are using AIM you are going to be prompted to download the new Triton. But if you live in canada you will be taken to the AIM Canada page(which I don't think is updated yet), so you might want to go to the American page if you want to get it.

AOL has done a good job in giving their new messenger visual appeal but unfortunately I find it a bit to slow to respond, probably due to the graphics etc. Logging in is also slow for that matter.

The font as you can see looks like it is blured a little bit, which is kind of the style these days I guess. The font looks something like Google talk, because of this blurry ness. Not exactly Clear type font I must say... at least not the kind that most people prefer.

Over all in my opinion this messenger gets a 8 out of 10. Mainly because of its looks, but the features still need way more work. Then again this is something new so it is going to be a while until it is perfect

Tags: Computers , Web, News, Computers, Software, Techology, Applications, AIM, AOL, Triton

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Underconstruction tutorials...

Here are the tutorials that I am currently working on...

• The Adobe Photoshop tutorial
• How to edit macros in word (for the advanced users)
• Make XP look more like Macish than ever...
• How to configure settings in firefox
• And a few ASP.NET tutorials as well

These tutorials will be completed as soon as I can because I have other stuff to do as well. But as soon as I'm done I'll make sure I make a post for all of them.

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Firefox 1.5 RC 3 is now here... do you have it yet?

Firefox's Release Canidate 3 is now released and if you have firefox 1.5 beta (1 or 2 I suppose) your browser will automatically update itself and then you can install it later. If you don't have it yet then you can get it at http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/ (yes they updated the site) and it is well worth the download.

The key things in this browser I've noticed:

1. The speed seems to be more. The pages load much more efficiently then it used to before.

Well, that's basically it and a few other things that might have been changed internally that I cannot be certian about.

This is what the people over at Mozilla had to say:

What's New in Firefox 1.5 RC 3

• Automated update to streamline product upgrades.
• Faster browser navigation.
• Drag and drop for browser tabs.
• Improvements to popup blocking.
• Clear Private Data feature.
• Answers.com added to search engine list.
• Descriptive error pages, redesigned options menu, and RSS discovery.
• Better accessibility support.
• Report a broken Web site wizard.
• Better support for Mac OS X.

And that's about it. I'm sure that the final version of Firefox 1.5 Deer Park won't dissapoint us at all! If this is good imagine how much better it will get...

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Netscape navigator as good as Firefox?

All right, this might sound funny and I don't know why I'm saying this but I am... I think that Firefox and Netscape Navigator 8.0.4 are equal...

Yes, today I found out how good Netscape Navigator 8 was. It is apparently based on firefox so I must add that it could be as good as firefox. Another thing that I seem to like the most is the rendering engine. You can render a page like how firefox renders it or you can render a page how Internet Explorer renders it.

So if you have a page that is suitable for internet explorer (for example -microsoft.com) then it is automatically going to use the IE rendering engine. Another thing that is good is that it tells you weather the site is verified or not. So its an easy way to know whether it is safe or not. I also seem to like the passcards feature, you can select which passcard to log in with.

Althought the themes are quite not good and I'd rather use Firefox or something all the time. I think that netscape could be as good as Firefox...

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Yes it's true, you can download the internet.

Yes, you can apparently download the internet! Take a look at my screenshot as I try to download the internet!

Ha, ha pretty cool isn't it?

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Google base (beta) is now officially open!

The long awaited Google base is now released ¦ http://base.google.com
¦. Google base is something very useful for many people. This is what Google
has to say about Google base.

"Today we're excited to announce Google
Base, an extension of our existing content collection efforts like web
crawl, Google Sitemaps, Google Print and Google Video. Google Base enables
content owners to easily make their information searchable online. Anyone,
from large companies to website owners and individuals, can use it to submit
their content in the form of data items. We'll host the items and make them
searchable for free. There's more
info here."

Many people say that this is good for nothing because no "average Joe
user" is going to use this. Unfortunately I agree.

This is where find articles, ideas and all that stuff so that "the
world can access it" according to Google. But I say if nobody is going to
post an item then how is anybody going to access it? So it's got a long way
until it comes out of beta. But I figure that Google is probably going to add
more features to "First Base" (that's what Google called it in their
blog) The most traffic is probably going to be from people doing research
work (like us students)

Now to compare this with a traditional news source, by Robert Hof and Sarah
Lacy from Business week online have this to say about Google base.

They say that Google search might success, but how far can they go if they
don't have any adds. But they too say that Google has cool services. Their
very first line speculates that Google might be wanting to get a few
classified adds and so on. I agree that every company has to get money somehow
but I don't think that Google is going to stoop down that low and go for the
money instead of the quality. Although the adds do seem to get more and more,
on the search pages and G-mail. But as long as they aren't annoying little
banners or pop ups I don't think the public should mind.

Also mentioned is that classifieds are product search which is what
Google's mission is "make product search easier".

Source for slashdot article

Hof,Robert - Lacy, Sarah article

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Latest recipe

This is how your computer will look like when you read my latest recipe at tech-recipes.com. You better be saying oh my good this looks so cool in you mind! :-D . I'm pretty sure about that.

Remember if you have Windows XP then you can make you computer look like this too, without downloading stuff like Windows Blinds (from stardock) and StyleXP (from TGT soft).

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Sony DRM Rootkit

Okay so Sony is now being accused of having digital media malware in their CD's.
It is a evil program that hides behind the os. That's why it is really hard to kill! And the scary news is that more than 500 000 people are infected now! This evil thingy also creates holes in your OS (making itself like the OS) so that other viruses can easily make your computer their new home (for a long time!)! :( The good news is sony doesn't make such disks any more, and no more DRM for furture PS3 disks!!!!! Also there are free ways of how to check wheather you have the rootkit on your computer or not...

If you wan't to check if you are infected or not here are some instructions (from AlexTheBeast):

1) Right click on you desktop
2) Go to the new option and click on create a new text file
3) Then create a new file that starts with $sys$ (for example $sys$something.txt)
4) If you can't see your file after you click anywhere else on your desktop you have the DRM Rootkit installed
5) If you have the DRM Rootkit on your computer then... sue sony and become rich etc... (or atleast this is what AlexTheBeast says)

What the rootkit does is screws your $sys$ files. That's why if you create anything that has $sys$ on it it gets screwed up. The people over at symantec say this:

When SecurityRisk.First4DRM is executed, it performs the following actions:

Copies itself as the following file:%System%\$sys$filesystem\aries.sys.

Creates the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services$sys$aries

which loads the risk as a device driver when the compromised computer is started.

Hides any processes, files, folders, or registry subkeys that begin with the following string:

$sys$

Checks the name of all processes attempting to access these processes, files, folders, or registry subkeys. If the name of the process begins with the following string, it allows access:$sys$

Otherwise, the risk prevents access to the process, file, folder, or registry subkey."

According to The Register Sony BGM "suspended" production of audio 'CDs' that use XCP. Sony being a big company has given out patches to all major anti-virus companies, but still a virus is a virus is a virus! You can view sony's statement here...

But you can also get some tools with which you can scan your computer/remove the rootkit over here:

free rootkit scanning software
you can also this update to unhide the rootkit

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Working super hard on the reviews and the site design

Well folks I'm working real hard, althought you might not notice anychanges, this site is still being updated "from the inside" you might say.

My previous template had a lot of problems and apparently so does this one so I'm going to have to start from scratch to make a template that is easy to maintain and update.

Any updates will be posted here!

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Windows Live Messenger 8 (beta)

Yup, it's true Windows has started their new service called Windows live messenger 8 which is supposedly better from MSN Messenger.

And after trying it out for a while I think so too. I do have a couple of invites by the way, so if you want one just leave a comment (although you don't need an invite to test the beta version). So far there are vast improvements over it's predecessor and I seem to be liking the skin although it isn't completely to my taste.

I'll also see if I can write a review of the latest Windows Live Messenger version on tech-recipes. Or perhaps syschat as well... with lots of screenshots and so on to prove my points. Until then this article about Windows Live Messenger has to do.

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How to create cool MSN nicknames

I have created a tutorial at tech-recipes.com that tells you all about how to create a cool MSN display name/nick name! If you are interested go take a look at it.

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Powerpoint is usually a good thing but sometimes...

Usually many people who discover Powerpoint (the software that is usually used for presentations in the 1980's) are really impressed with what they can create. Powerpoint sure does have a lot of power from a persentation makers point of View but the people who go through the presentation don't think so. I've uncovered this article that tells you all about how much people can hate Powerpoint presentations if they are overdone. Andrew Wahl tells us all about it! I suspect he also did see a boring Powerpoint presentation before he wrote this article!

That reminds me... when I went to see this

Just put together a good presentation with nothing fancy, is the key. Apparently the most effective thing in a presentation is "you!". Your voice and the way you go about the presentation is more important than the presentation slides!

I too think that the most important thing to do with PP is that to express your point. Other wise it will be "PowerPointLess"!

Here is another article that talks about the power of the New PowerPoint XP which is part of the new Office XP suite.

Powerpoint has many features that are unexplored or just aren't considered professional enough when creating presentations. That's why the key to making professional presentations is "Keep it simple"! ...

Another article by Ian Grayson from The Australian tell us how to utilize the power that is hidden away in power point.

Here are some of his tips

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Another cool resource...

When I was surfing around the new I just found another cool resource which is called Tech-Recepies. This place has all cool tutorials and tweaks and all that stuff no matter what system you have you can find it all here! I too have made some posts there because I thought I could pitch in and make this site more bigger and better.
Anyways, don't take my word for it just go check it out yourself if you wish! the address is http://www.tech-recipes.com
Enjoy!

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Are you new to the blogosphere?

Most of us are new to the blogging world (and yes there is a thing called blogosphere which consists of blogs). Starting out can be hard and it takes a lot of time to come up with cool posts (even though you know that no body is going to read it). But it doesn't have to be that way. When I was browsing around the new I found this blog by Rajesh Setty that had some cool tips on how to get started and how you can get more people to come to your blog and all that stuff. Take a look at it yourself! Go to Rajesh Setty's site!

Give me some more time and I'll come up with my very own list of things that you can do ... but until then I guess this one will have to do!

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Mail Nation giving you 1083984MB of storage?

Yes, Mailnation Solutions is giving away 1083984MB or so of storage without any adds for free (and no I do not work for mailnation).

This was created in order to make people swhitch over from google, yahoo and hotmail. But I guess this is basically just there so that you can buy their 19.99 USD service.
Well good if you want so store some files on the internet but otherwise I guess Gmail and Yahoo and Hotmail are better.
Sometimes I wonder if it is really worth it having such e-mail addresses because the domain name just doesn't click. What's the point of getting a e-mail address that is something like me@mailnation.net or others that are just as crappy as this one. Plus this company isn't a reputable company either. It's just beginning to make a name for iteslf.
But if you wan't to store some files as drafts so that you can access it from anywhere I would even blink before I sign up for my account. If you get more gigabites then anywhere else(well I'm not sure if you can get more) then it could be worth it.
If you wan't to try it out for yourself then go to www.mailnation.net. Then after you do that just come back here and leave a comment about how it was!


Technorati Tags:Computers and Internet, fAcTs, Computing, Tips, Email

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Tabbed browsing in IE with MSN toolbar!

Today I just realized that IE now has the tabbed browsing power. It feels good to realize that now even IE 6.0 can have tabbed browsing if you enable the new MSN Search Toolbar. You can download the latest version at their site http://toolbar.msn.com/.

But it is sad to know that Microsoft was slow in adding tabbed browsing to Internet Explorer and never thought of it before the others did. The other thing that bugs me is that when you right click in IE you find that there is no "Open in new tab" option there's just a "Open in new background tab" and "Open in new foreground tab" somewhere at the bottom. So using the tab option is harder. Although you can set the settings to
Somehow I don't seem to like IE though because of one main reason, it's speed. IE has a really slow speed especially the slower versions. No matter how fast internet you have even with high speed IE takes a long time. Where as in firefox, your pages load way faster and I guess you can really know that if you have like slow internet or something as I'm not sure. So untill they make Internet Explorer better and faster and easier (I wonder when that's going to happen) to use I'm not going to switch over from Firefox!
Technorati Tags: Computers and Internet, Computing, Tips, News, Technology News

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Password Security tips...

Passowords and pin numbers have become a big part of our lives now. Our passwords are as significant as our signatures except that you can never know who typed in the password. Keeping it safely can be a daunting task and that's why I've come up with these tips to help you out.

To know how we can keep our passwords safe first we need to know how hackers work.
Hackers seem to use 2 main kinds of attacks(techniques) with which they can figure out our passwords.
The first one is called the "dictionary attack" this simply means that the person uses a program that tries everyword in the dictionary until it can log in. So if your password is some word in the dictionary the hacker is going to say "bingo! I've got the change to log into their account!"
The other kind of attack is called 'brute force attack". This means that the culprit uses a program that tries out every single combination until it finds a match. for example it is going to try every single aplhanumeric character. Then try combination of one alpha numeric letter plus another. Like aa then ab then ac then ad and so on (you get the idea right!).

change passwords. simple password changing tips, ctrl+ alt+del. then change the password. but if it is a website then go to your account area where you can usually find links to change your password/account information.

Just like that some ingenious evil master minds came up with this idea:
Use a card reader when you swipe you card so that they know the card info. Then when you type in your pin(like in the debit cards and all that) they record that using video cameras. And voila instant access to your stuff!

A few days ago the police also busted a few people who were making credit cards and this goes to show that how techniques can be used to cause "identity theft"

Quick tips for safe passwords and drive away "to be identity thieves"

1. Never use a dictionary word!
2. Try to make it eight cahracters or so
3. Make sure the passwod is alpha-numeric
4. Never use the same password in different palces. Unless you consider that the account might not be important that way you can use the same password for low priority accounts(this way you can log into every account if you have lots of them).
5. Always make sure no camera or person is watching you while you put in your credit card/atm pin number
6. Also try to minimize online shopping this way the chances of phishing (phishing means that the hackers make a site that looks exactly like the original one but it isn't so if you put in your password and username and credit card no. the info goes directly to them. then using that info they hack into your real account and ... you get the idea)/hacking are more less
7. Never trust anybody even if you know them(because you never know if somebody is forcing them to do something)
8. Make sure that you change your passowrd every now and then so that people can't log into your account unless
9. Finally make sure that you check your bills, and log into accounts once every week or so because if somebody has hacked in or witdhdrawn any money you are going to know!
   
   Technorati Tags: fAcTs, High tech, Computing, Tips
   More blogs about Business. More blogs about technology.

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Good news!

Here's some good news for all of you. I'v almost finished coding my own Windows Vista template. It's not completely done yet but you can see how your blog might look. Just go to http://vistatemplate.blogspot.com and see for yourself!

Computers and Internet
Cool Blogs
Weblog
Blogging
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Tips

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Coming soon. . . . .

Here's a list of stuff that is under development. Just made this post so that you can be informed!

• A tutorial on how to edit macros in Microsoft Word -done
  
• A few blogger templates that were created by me- My very first template is going to be a template based on Windows Vista (for some reason I like windows vista a lot!) and then I'm also going to make other templates like Kubrick and all that but only better! After that I'm going to make some more templates that mimic operating systems (such as a mac template etc.) Click here to view a screenshot for My Vista Template!
• A few tutorials (for advanced users and beginners) for adobe photoshop
  
• The Beyond Teck Podcast

So "stay tuned" because you wouldn't want to miss this stuff!

I suggest that you subscribe to the RSS/Atom feed so that you can exactly know what is happenning @ Beyond Teck. This is also going to help you rememberto come back to this blog incase you forget.

If you are using Firefox then I recommend that you enable live bookmarking (the bookmarks get updated automatically as soon as I make a new post!) Click here to go to a tutorial on how to set live bookmarks.

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AutoRecover in Microsoft Word

We all need so save our work all the time, but due to those “system crashes” or those “word errors” it is harder for us to do that. Unlike some programs word doesn’t save information all the time. I’m sure all of you have lost some kind of data in Microsoft word due to a system crash. For some of us we see a box, which says, “Word has encountered a problem and needs to close. Sorry for the inconvenience.” That's why I decided to create this tutorial so that you won't get frustrated and start physically/verbally abusing the computer!

Then when you open Microsoft Word you either don’t see anything or you might see a copy of your file that was recovered because you didn’t save it before word closed down. The thing that does that is called AutoRecovery.
It comes with word and for some reason by default it is set to save information every 10 or 9 minutes. Due to this the saved information might be something that you had typed in 9 minutes ago and that was when it was last saved.
To change this feature and to make word save your work every one-minute just follow these steps. Note: due to this you might use up a little bit more ram and your cursor might go away while you are typing because word will be saving the date automatically.
Warning: Word only opens your file failure so remember to save your file regularly, because your better off safe than sorry.

1. First click on Tools. You can find the tools button in the menubar.
2. Then click on Options…
3. After that click on the Save tab
4. Make sure the check box beside “Save Save AutoRecover info every:” is checked
5. Then use the tabs beside the number you see to make the number lower (I recommend you set it to one). You can also type in number 1. Note: you cant set it to a number lower than 1 because if you do that the check box will “uncheck itself”
6. Just click on OK and your all set!

There are many more things that you can modify from the options area, so go crazy and have fun!

Sorry about the messed up tutorail and the wierd screenshots. I couldn't do any better at school. That's why I have a better version of this tutorial at my website!

Computers and Internet fAcTs High tech Computing Tips
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Ten things I didn't know about Microsoft word

Here are ten things that I didn't know about Microsoft Word.

1. Insert Cross-Reference- this means that you can put numbers so that you can reference it or go to it faster.
2. Merge Documents- This means you can merge the master and the other document
3. Online collaboration- You can have online meetings
4. Text Direction- Inside a table you can select a direction in which you can place the text
5. Document Map- This enables you to see things inside a document
6. AutoRecover Info- Word Automatically recovers your information
7. Table Auto Format- Autoformat
8. Protect Form/ Documents- Locks your forms so that you can't edit it.
9. Insert Sound Objects/ Comments- Insert comments and sound files that you can record from your microphone
10. Format Themes- Just like Microsoft FrontPage you can edit the look of your webpages
    

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Search the web tutorials

Well to be honest I'm not really familiar with "web searching tutorails" but I do know a few websites where you gan get some tips on performing web searches.

Here's what I've uncovered!

• If you want a good in-depth tutorial for websearching http://www.askscott.com/tindex.html this should be a good choice.
• If you want a basic tutorial http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bones/bones.shtml is quite nice.
• http://library.curtin.edu.au/staff/personal/gwpersonal/searchtut/ is also another good site out there.
• You can get tutorials from the search engine itself. For examlple google has it's own tutorial/tips page, and so do all the other search engines. Since each one works a little differently they all seem to have tips pages
  

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Project still in progress

My website is now complete but unfortunately now I have to go through the laborous process of checking each and every link and making all the pages look the same. Then I need to upload then. Hence it is going to be a while till me website is complete, about two days or so. .

Until then happy browsing

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Alienware PC's up to 4.0 GHz!

Alienware the creator of high performance computers comes up with cool computers. They now have set higher standards for their stuff. I guess a Pentium 5 5.0 GHz processor is going to coming sooner than I thought in the near future. If you wan't to know more then just go to alienware's website.They sure did break the performance barrier and out smarted their competition. No wait a minute they have none...

If you are a gamer or a video processing guru I guess you are going to need PC's like this in the near future if you don't have them yet.
One thing is for sure the people at Alienware do put a lot of effort into making their computer look very good. The pc's from alienware are one of the best pc's I've ever seen. They seem to stand out from the rest of the black and white coloured pc's.
If only I was a extreme programmer... I could have probably owned a alienware pc. Sadly I'm not, I guess that's just the way how things are.

Alien ware
Alien-ware
Ovenware
Ironware
Elenore
Edit...
Ignore all
Add to dictionary

Pentium
Pentiums
Pentium's
Edit...
Revert to "pentium"

coming
cumming
common
commune
combing
Edit...
Revert to "comming"

Web design
Web-design
Bedizen
Verbalising
Watson
Edit...
Revert to "Webdesign"

Blagging
Bogging
Logging
Clogging
Flogging
Edit...
Ignore all
Add to dictionary

facts
fact's
facets
factors
fact
Edit...
Ignore all
Add to dictionary

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Basics of how computers work

Computers work thorough switches and have only two states, it's either on or its off. There is no state in between.
Switches for example, when a switch is turned on then if we disconnect the power to it and re connect the power to it, it is still going to be on.
We can compare this to memory or rather storage.
It's sort of like 8 switches are equal to a byte.
"Computer Simulation Switch board of Science" is what Bill Nye calls his board that has switches!...

The information will still be there on the switches even if the power is turnded off.
He also compares the RAM to a Table. The bigger the table the more books you can keep open. Simarly the bigger the RAM the more programs or applications you can keep open. If you have a small table you can only keep a few books open. It's the same with the RAM too.
However if you turn of the computer all the data is lost in the RAM as it is only temporary, not permanent because it is votile!(unfortunately that's just how thing are, and I'm presuming that is going to change soon!)
But there is one more thing that I found out today. You always need to save your work in the computer, right? Well with Archy you don't it automatically stores all the data into your hard drive all the time. Cool!
So we can say that this application makes use of the RAM and the Hard Drive or permanent memory at the same time! Hence we don't have to worry if your computer accidently crashes as the info is already is stored in the hard drive.
I wonder how computer programmers (except Jef Raskin of course) couldn't think of a Ram that auto stores everything!

Quick facts of the day: BIOS or the Basic Input Output System is associated with ROM or Read Only Memory. That's because you can't alter or change the BIOS.

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How computers are involved in productions

Now a days there are a lot of things that are computerized. For example production of lenses and production of contact leses.

Mainly computer are involved because there is a necessity of precision. If lenses are not precise then it is going to be a huge problem for the patients.

Here below I have described the lens production steps for contact lenses:

• The lens starts our as a polymer disk, this disk can be in various colours
  
• Then the data of the prescription of the particular patient is fed into the computer
• A computer cuts the polymer disks into the desired shape
• The disk is shaped using a dimond edge cutter
  
• The disk itself rotates at about 6000 rotations per minute
• Then the disk is polished
• The thick ness of the disk is measured with a gauge
• The diameter is also measured
• Then the lens is put into a balanced ph saline solution.
  
• The lens then expands
• After that they use a meter to measure the optical precision of the lens and the optical power of the lens
• Then it is stored in a container of salt water with silicone and aluminum lids
• This lens now remains sterile till up to 7 years if the seal is not broken
  

A few facts about "how contact lenses are made": They can produce up to 1000 lenses per day and it takes only about 15 steps to do so.

In the olden days glasses used to be a symbol of geekdom. They used to be thick and bulky but in the modern times it is not so.

Here below I have described the production steps for glasses:

• The computer takes the prescription and then milling machines shape the plastic creating the concave and the convex end
• Then the lenses are polished
  
• They put protective film on the convex side
• Then they measure the precision with something called the lensometer
• After that the lenses go through a 15 stage automated cleaning.
  
• Anti reflective coating is also applied, up till now the lenses are completely round in shape too
• Then a computerized machine cuts the lenses to the desired shape of the frame.
  
• If they are normal glasses then the lenses are just popped in, but if the are "ultra light" glasses or atleast that's what the "how its made" people call it then holes are drilled in through the lens. This too is done by a computerized machine and after that the frames is fitted in.
  

Source: My notes, and of course the "How it's made" video!

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How Computers Came to Life

By the way let me first answer the trick question:

The Williams-Kilburn Tube could successfully store 2048 bits! Apparently that was a lot at that time! Not that much now a days, but during those times it was a great accomplishment!

Now to the things that I learnt today...

• Usually all the cool technology that we use today like internet or computers are usually developed be the military. I believe because they have a lot of money and since national defence is a big issue they can spend a lots of millions on new projects. Want to read more read what I dug up about the computer and the internet.
• In the old days the first computer was Eniac which was the size of the room that worked on wiring. Everytime you had wanted to do something with the computer you have to rewire it again. It had 500, 000 solder joints so maintaining it was also a big thing. So only the military ( you have three guesses to choose which military, and the first two don't count, hehe!) of United States could afford to maintain it.
• Older computers never had a memory until it was invented later using the The Williams-Kilburn Tube for in built memory.
• The main people behind the computer were: instead of me typing it all here just visit this link! A timeline of the History of the computer
• The ENIAC was used to do complex calculations for the military.
• For more information on the ENIAC please visit http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/comphist/eniac-story.html
  

Oh yeah and MR.C if you are reading this please tell me if I am right or wrong. I would also appreciate if you give me some feedback on my blog!

Will be adding more to this post as I uncover more information.
And another good source is this website that I found that explains all about Eckerts discoveries etc.
History of computers!

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