Archive for the ‘Computing Tips’ Category
Friday, December 11th, 2009
Ok, so a while back (during the initial launch of Windows 7) there was a link that Microsoft was hosting for this tool. After shenanigans were called on the inclusion of open source code the link went away. Now the code is back on Codeplex for your downloading pleasure.
http://bit.ly/8FRFLy
That is all for now, Cheers
Tags: codeplex, download, ISO, USB, Windows, Windows 7
Posted in Software, Windows | No Comments »
Saturday, August 15th, 2009

While in the process of performing some data transfer/recovery using my Jaunty Live-CD I decided that I didn’t really want to sit right beside the server while doing this work to save my sanity and hearing.
My attempts to enable remote desktop (using the Preferences > Remote Desktop applet) using Vino were hit and miss as I could only connect to the server 1 out of every 20 attempts.
(more…)
Tags: Linux, live-cd, ssh, ubuntu, vnc
Posted in Computing Tips, Linux, Mac OS X, Tutorials | 1 Comment »
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
In this initial SSH tunneling tutorial you will learn how to create tunnels to allow access to systems that may not be directly accessible. This can be handy for remote administration and securing your traffic while going over the internet.
(more…)
Posted in Linux, Mac OS X, Tutorials | No Comments »
Sunday, June 21st, 2009

Anonymous Pro Free Font from Mark Simonson Studio
While surfing around today checking out an ARS article on the demise of the Monaco font I discovered this very readable and clean OS X and Windows font. The font, Anonymous Pro is a free download and can be grabbed at here: Anonymous Pro.
The download contains 4 variations of the font. You will notice that it is very easy to work with courtesy of the differentiation of the O and 0, 1 and l so on. Check it out.
Mark Simonson Studio / Notebook: Anonymous Pro Now Available.
Tags: Fixed Font, fonts, mac, OS X, Windows
Posted in Computing Tips, Link of the Day, Mac OS X, Windows | No Comments »
Friday, June 12th, 2009

A picture is worth a thousand words…
If you have ever felt like showing someone how cool that new app looks or needed to send your resident Mac Geek a picture of what’s “broken” Apple included the feature with your device.
The next time the need arises simply press the Home and Power buttons down together. Your screen will blink and voilà a shiny screencap in your Pictures.
From pictures you can email your photo or set as a wallpaper.
Until next time…
Cheers
Tags: Getting more done, iphone, ipod, tip
Posted in Computing Tips, Mac OS X | No Comments »
Monday, March 9th, 2009
My first requirement for iWork and come and gone. Over the weekend my Son was attending a birthday party and wanted to have something to give to his friend since his actual present won’t be released until March 21st.
I must admit that I was a little concerned as we had a whopping 15 minutes to come up with a design and phrase it to everyone’s satisfaction… Oh before I go on, this was the first time that I had started or used pages as well…
After sitting down in front of my Mac I decided that it could be spelled out best in a certificate. So off to start pages and create a landscape document.
(more…)
Tags: apple, iwork, mac, Software, word processing
Posted in Mac OS X, Software | No Comments »
Saturday, January 24th, 2009
I came across this blog posting a couple of days ago and I have to say that it is one of the best write-ups on Windows 7 features. Tim’s post includes a number of hidden features and shows off some of the under the hood enhancements.
A few of the tips (and developments) that I really appreciate are the updates to the taskbar in side-mounted position, the ability to choose various presentation modes (via Win+P) and the ADD helper-like Win+Home combination that will minimize everything besides your active window.
Be sure to read through this one if you are currently running Windows 7.
Tim Sneath : The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets.
Tags: beta, blog, microsoft, secrets, tips, Windows, Windows 7
Posted in Windows | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
Hey all you Windows 7 Beta testers out there.
Microsoft has released an update for the Media Center bug in Beta 1 (Build 7000). The bug has a nasty tendency to eat the beginning of some mp3 files if they also contained meta-data.
If your Windows installation has already chewed up some of your files MS notes that you may be able to recover them with the “Previous Version” backup that may be automatically stored (a system restore point and drive protection will have to be on).
Here is the link to the MS download page
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/961367
Tags: beta, microsoft, mp3, mp3 bug, patches, Windows, Windows 7
Posted in Software, Updates, Windows | No Comments »
Thursday, January 8th, 2009
Well here we are running the beta of Windows 7. This one has been anticipated here for sometime and so now comes the fun.
I have to agree with most of the reviews that I have seen on the internet… Overall so far 7 is running faster than Vista SP1 and we are still looking an code that has not been optimized.
For the seasoned XP aficionado, W7 can be a little strange. Even against Vista there are a number of changes that have been implemented “based on user input”. For instance they have debuted Libraries for media types. What it looks like is that Microsoft is really just grooming people for WinFS whenever it makes it to the public stage (WinFS for those who don’t know it is a file system that is maintained in a monolithic database, as in bye-bye drive letters)
I think my biggest issue is with the new format of the taskbar. While it is very esthetically pleasing the execution is lacking. The removal of the generations old task list layout could work well, however due to the confusion resulting in icons located between running tasks new users may have an interesting time (see screen cap)
One of my favourite innovations is the Aero Windows Peek feature which allows you to get a view of either your desktop (to check on gadgets) or applications that are running. Here are a couple of caps showing the feature in action.
Keep an eye out here as I will be documenting more of the features in the latest release of Windows 7.
Tags: 7, beta, reviews, screencaps, Software, Windows
Posted in Software, Windows | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
I found a broken link online referring to this and with a little big of digging got the correct address. This tool provides an abstraction layer to your WiFi card under XP that allows you to create multiple virtual wireless cards.
With this tool you could connect to multiple wireless networks simultaneously and ever create profile specific NICs. Follow the link below for more details and the download.
Microsoft Research Virtual WiFi – Microsoft Research.
Tags: HAL, microsoft, wifi, Windows, wireless, xp
Posted in Internet, Software, Windows | No Comments »