The TechFiles - Molder & Scully, it ain't.

Free AntiVirus software

2007-03-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

Well as I think I have said before, Norton Sucks.

I found this: www.activevirushield.com

Pretty good so far.

j.

Linux Command Line Cheatsheet

2006-08-03T15:32:00.000-07:00

A list of linux commands for common operations including: file searching, networking, directory navagation, etc.

Hell, I may actually learn linux now :) err not

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Marketing

2006-07-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

Natalee's Cast

2006-07-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

This is my little girl's new cast. We still dont' know how she broke it :( She only needs it for 3 weeks but she can't swim during that time. Poor kid.

How to bypass BIOS passwords

2006-07-06T19:05:00.000-07:00

I have not yet tested this but I thought it was at least interesting.

Apparently there are hardcoded or bypass passwords. The list is broken down by manufacturer.

I will definitely be testing it.

http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/reference/biosp.htm

Roll your own Windows Error Messages

2006-07-02T16:14:00.000-07:00

Woot!

This is just toooo dang fun

http://atom.smasher.org/error/

It lets you create all sorts of fun error messages.

Partition Magic Error 11019

2006-06-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

I ran into this recently with Partition magic 8. I was getting a nasty error when ever it needed to reboot: Error 11019

First I found this:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=211351

Then the answer was here:

http://www.tavon.org/site/work/node/293
My new hero! :) The solution there worked.

This is the most pathetic page I found:
http://tinyurl.com/j6odw

I wish Symantec a slow and painful death :(

Workarounds to disable Non Genuine Windows Warning Messages

2006-04-27T14:19:00.000-07:00

This copy of Microsoft Windows XP is not genuine. Windows XP Pirates have again found workaround methods to bypass the latest Microsoft Anti-Piracy effort - Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications that notifies you through annonying pop-up messages if your copy of Windows is not genuine.

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The latest twist in Indian Outsourcing - Wombs?

2006-04-21T10:30:00.000-07:00

I just think this is wrong on so many levels..... Judge for your self:
Women are getting paid as surrogate mothers to help Western couples with infertility problems. Is such outsourcing a logical outgrowth of India's fast economic growth or an ethically troubling trend?

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Microsoft's WIFI resource page

2006-04-04T18:52:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a cool page on microsoft's site.

Covers all things WIFI including how to do it without the latest service packs (if you must).

Check it out here.

Good stuff

efcdc.dll - What is this?

2006-03-27T21:37:00.000-08:00

This file registers as BHO on a computer I am fixing.... strange stuff.

The file has nothing as far as version information etc.....

Can't delete it in safe mode.....
----
solution: It was a problem with Vundo.
It has this as a CID: 18898424-E3AB-4BA9-8E8D-5434B1CECA75

Used vundofix.exe

Worked :)

Terminal Server Printer mapping

2006-03-17T21:00:00.000-08:00

I have been struggling with an HP 2550n printer not mapping to a windows 2000 terminal server.

Finally got it to work. It was related to how the port names are mapped from the client to the server. Kinda interesting and annoying all at once.

The solution was here, which I found by way of this page.

A couple of registry edits, and Bang.

Good stuff.

Spellcheck your will! (then use Google Maps!)

2006-03-13T08:29:00.000-08:00

This is just sad, seriously.

A guy in West Virginia tried to leave a fortune to a hospital in Israel.

The problem was that he spelled the hospital wrong and mentioned the wrong city.....

That just sucks.

Pixoh

2006-03-07T12:51:00.000-08:00

Amazing.

This will be nice when I am not home with photoshop :)

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World's largest Windows error message

2006-02-21T09:10:00.000-08:00

This is just classic........ now had it only been at a computer convention with Bill Gates on stage.... ;)

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digg - Submit Item

2006-02-20T11:54:00.000-08:00

A University of Utah student is facing federal charges this morning after he allegedly hacked into a computer to change his grades.

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Firefox 1.5.0.1 Officially Released

2006-02-01T15:56:00.000-08:00

I used the Firefox 'check for updates' streamlined tool for the installation.

Very smooth.

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MSN 7.5 , Can't sign in, Delay when typing

2006-01-27T21:24:00.000-08:00

Found the solution to a funky problem related to MSN messenger 7.5.

I think it was originally related to a Beta install of MSN 8.

I had to re-register the dll called MSXML3.dll.
regsvr32 MSXML3.dll

It also fixed a strange problem on windows update.

Network Connections Empty

2006-01-22T20:23:00.000-08:00

I amk working on a computer where the network connections in the control panel, is blank.

This the scenario that led to this:
Computer Wouldn't shutdown.
Removed SP2.
Reinstalled Windows XP Sp1 (install never completed)
Reinstalled Windows XP w Sp2
Computer shuts down. But there are other issues.
Had to run the subinacl utility to resolve Registry permission issues.
Installed XP SP2 again, just for fun :)
Now, Network Connections is empty (Also, I can't get into Windows Update)
Found this article Trying it now....... :)

Hello HAL

2006-01-22T17:26:00.000-08:00

So I have this computer I am fixing for a neighbor. Dang thing won't shut down when I tell it. No other issues that I can see.

So I figure out that the computer is showing as "standard PC" in the Device manager. Looking around I discover that it should probably be "ACPI enabled PC" or something along those lines.

This is the MS Support doc I found about it.

It seemed to work :)

UPDATE: I ran into a few problems
This is related

Spybot Search & Destroy

2006-01-21T14:29:00.000-08:00

My friends and I have talked about this in the past. On some installs of Spybot 1.4, when checking for problems it just does a quick search...counts to about 40 and stops.

I never figured out how to fix this until now.

My fix: I had to manually download the detection updates from the Spybot Downloads Page

Once I downloaded that, VOILA! It worked perfectly.

IBM Linux Cartoons

2006-01-20T14:31:00.000-08:00

Ok this is just stupid IMO.
Here we have the company who is considered by Bill Gates to be Microsoft's biggest competitor? http://tinyurl.com/e2tff

PUHHLEEEEASE. I wonder if the engineers' children wrote those?

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Viiv is DRM!

2006-01-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

Technology is frightening me lately. How is it that companies can screw or try to screw us so badly?

Intel & MS are going to potentially put other companies outta business in the home entertainment space because of new DRM techniques they will likely employ..... So where does that leave us? One stereo receiver choice? one DVR choice? Sounds just like PC operating systems.....

AMD for me....... but I still used windows @ home. /me is ashamed :)

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Got a Gmail Account? You may not be the only one receiving your mail...

2006-01-20T08:54:00.000-08:00

UPDATE:
The guy was mistaken. No big deal. I think he handled it ok :)

--This is just crazy.

--I haven't used my 6 or so gmail accounts much but this is just lame as hell.

--Worth a read

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The Best Ghost Photos Ever Taken

2006-01-20T08:35:00.000-08:00

Here is a collection of the most famous and most convincing ghost photos ever taken. Some of these pics are absolutely amazing.

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Nail.exe

2006-01-16T18:27:00.000-08:00

My thoughts on tech.....
Once I found a file on a computer called nail.exe. It was loaded along with explorer.exe as the shell. This was an XP machine.

My search on google resulted in ZERO hits. I was perplexed and eventually discovered it was part of a rootkit. Thankfully it was not my own computer.

What I learned from that is that I should blog my findings. A search today *Jan 2006* results in 35,700 English results on Google.

I am not a complete computer nerd. I can't always read binary without help. I don't understand hex completely. But I have a good eye for spyware hunting.... fun stuff.

I hope to post interesting things I find in the course of fixing computers all over town :)