Archive for the ‘Gadgets’ Category

Cyber Monday, and a couple of useful tools.

Sunday, November 28th, 2010

I have a couple of online deals that will be available tomorrow. First one is a thumb drive for under $15.00. It’s a Maxell® USB 360° Flash Drive, 8GB and only $12.99 at OfficeDepot.com. Valid 11.29.2010 only.

Next deal I have is a laptop. The specifications are excellent for the money. Save $220 on a HP G62-337NR Laptop Computer With 15.6″ LED-Backlit Screen & Intel® Pentium® P6100 Dual-Core Processor and buy for $379.99 at OfficeDepot.com. Valid 11.29.2010 only. LED-Backlit, Intel, only $380.00!  Very Nice. Hp’s website states the processor is a 2 Ghz cpu and this model comes with 4 GB of memory, expandable to 8GB.

If you set up your wireless network a long time ago, or maybe your memory is as bad as mine, you might have forgotten your wireless network key. Since your laptop only needed you to enter it once, it’s common to forget it. The answer to the problem is WirelessKeyView, snd it will show you the password you have stored on your network for all the wireless networks you’ve had to add passwords for. Check it out at http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_key.html.

If you want to reinstall your operating system fresh on an old PC, because it’s slow, or has gotten infected by malware, or for whatever reason, this next tool will help. DoubleDriver allows you to view all your driversand then lets you backup, restore, save and print the drivers you choose. Check it out at http://boozet.org/dd.htm .

Ciao for now!!!!!

Whole Lotta Stuff!!!

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

 Buncha Stuff to put up here tonight, so let’s get to it.

Winpooch is an open source anti spyware and anti trojan that is supposed to work with the open source ClamWin AntiVirus for a real complete anti-malware solution. Check it out at http://winpooch.free.fr/page/home.php?lang=en&page=home .

CopyWipe allows you to make a copy of your hard drive, for upgrading, or any other reason you wish. It also allows you to securely wipe any hard drive clean of personal data. Check it out at http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php .

Although it’s not likely to be free forever, right now you can get unlimited storage online at LiveDrive.com. Check it out while it’s in Beta at http://www.livedrive.com/ .

A week or so ago I found out the new Amazon Kindle 2 was now available for pre-order by the public. I’d love one of these myself, but just can’t afford it. If you don’t know what this awesome e-book reader is, or want to get one yourself, or maybe buy one for me, check it out here.

I found a great buy on a GPS, which is great for getting to customer’s houses. It’s the Garmin StreetPilot, refurbished, at TigerDirect.com. Only $69.99 I already love mine. Get yours here.

If you’d prefer a TomTom, I Noticed TigerDirect has the TOMTOM ONE 125 for only $99.95 right now. I Don’t expect it’ll last long. Get it here.

That’s it for tonight!!

Ciao for now!!!

Command Line Utilities

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

    I have decided to create a simple batch file that would run the most common command line utilities by just clicking on the batch file and clicking a letter on a menu, rather than going to the start menu, run, cmd, and typing in the command. So far it is working great, and when I finish it I will post it here for anyone to download. In the meantime I thought I would post a couple of useful commands I am adding to the batch file.

  The first is ” sfc /scannow ” and it’s the System file checker and will check all your “protected” system files to make sure they have not been corrupted, damaged, or maliciously altered.

  Next is ” mrt ” which loads Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool and allows you to run it, assuming of course, that it has been installed onto your computer.

That’s it for tonite, but I will be adding more in the coming days. My deal I want to point out today is a set of 2 Panasonic cordless phones at CompUSA. I bought them myself. Check them out.

SAVE $60 – Panasonic RB-KX-TG1032S DECT 6.0 Phone System – 2 Handsets (Refurbished) $29.99

Ciao for now!!!

Networking Help & A Power Supply Tester

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

I recently purchased and received a pair of Power Supply Tester’s in the mail from www.tigerdirect.com and had to try one out. It works like a charm, giving LED indicators for voltages that are present. The ones I got were inexpensive, I believe 2 for $20 plus shipping. Well worth the money. 

     For anyone trying to figure out network problems, I have a few Websites that can help. For a pretty simple flowchart to follow, go to http://www.fonerbooks.com/network.htm . For some great tutorials try either http://practicallynetworked.com/ or http://windowsnetworking.com/ .  One other resource for step by step network troubleshooting is this article by Carey Holzman http://www.crn.com/white-box/59200376 . He claims it’s guaranteed to fix your network problem if you follow it step by step.

     Ciao for now!!!

Monitor Tester

Sunday, December 14th, 2008

    A simple little program that tests capabilities of your monitor is todays program… Check out Checkmon at http://www.ykwong.com/checkemon.html . It can tell you a lot of stuff, and it’s portable, so you don’t have to install it.

      Ciao for now!!

3 Quickie Links

Friday, November 7th, 2008

 This neat item isn’t really for repairing computers, but it makes my life a little easier, as I remove a lot of usb devices from my computer, and often. It’s USB Disk Ejector, and it works like a charm, removing usb devices without worrying about the “safe to remove this device ” pop-up. Very small, very simple… I like it. Get it at http://quick.mixnmojo.com/usb-disk-ejector .  You’ll like it too.

Another quick tool that might be useful is Magic Transfer. It claims to transfer all your settings and changes from one pc to another. Useful if you are constantly bringing your changes home from work and taking them back to work from home. I haven’t used it but it looks good. Check it out at http://www.smartpctools.com/magic_transfer/index1.html .

  The last thing I want to mention is a disk pertitioning tool that claims to be as good as partition magic, but is free for the home user. It’s called EASEUS Partition Manager Home Edition and can be found at http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm . Check it out and let me know what you think. 

    Ciao for now


Spyware Removal

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

  I have recently added a couple of tools to my spyware removal arsenal. They have been praised as being great from a lot of technicians, so I pass them now on to you.

  The first is SmitFraudFix and can be found at http://www.afterdawn.com/software/desktop_software/desktop_security/smitfraudfix.cfm . It claims to remove what others can’t, so try it out.

  The second is Superantispyware. Find it at http://www.superantispyware.com/ .

 

  One last thing, I have yet to try out, is a program that claims to download all the programs for you, that people recommend to fix your spyware / malware problem. Find it at http://lunarsoft.net/news/lunarsoft/336-anti-malware-toolkit-103125 . and check it out.

 

      Ciao for now!!

I’m exhausted, but not dead.

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

    Since I attended my first class tonight, I am exhausted. You can read a little about that at http://s203794194.onlinehome.us/ . The one thing I decided to bring home from that was a link to a c++ compiler, open source of course, that was mentioned by the instructor. You can get it at www.bloodshed.net . I’ve downloaded it into one of my xp virtual machines, but have not played with it yet, nor will I probably get to for a week or 2.
  Another thing I wanted to mention was Tweak and Tune, which I have played with a little bit. It allows you to tweak hidden settings in Windows and I plan on adding it to all of my xp systems. Check it out at http://www.acelogix.com/freeware.html .

    The last thing I want to mention  is a new product revealed at Macworld called Macbook Air. You can take a look at it at www.apple.com , and I’d love one, but my prediction is, it will likely be a failure. With all of it’s advantages, I think people will be more inclined to buy a larger laptop with full functionalities ( Ethernet Port, CDROM, etc ) or else they’ll be buying a cell phone, because I think cellphones are “almost” there. I think I’d rather have a $400 I-Phone than this tiny notebook at the HUGE price they put on it. Hey, Just my opinion. I do think there will be a niche market for it tho, and will be great for the few that will buy it and use it for what it is.  But it’s no I-phone, and I do think it won’t meet the companies expectations. Check it out.

      That’s all I can stay awake for tonight, I hope to have more tomorrow, so check back soon. Ciao 4 Now!

  

PC Cleanup, and Folder Size Viewing

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

    I have to talk about the cleanup I did over the last couple days, just a little bit. The computer I worked on was loaded up with alot of “extras”, like toolbars, screensaver programs, fancy icon and mouse pointer programs. It was a 1.5 Ghz AMD Processor running XP Professional with 512Meg of Ram. After cleaning the spyware related applications and immunizing the system, defragmenting the drive, removing unnnecessary files then cleaning and defraging the registry, I doubt there was much of a noticeable improvement on the system. The system was running Norton’s security suite, as well as Yahoo’s toolbar and a Myspace toolbar ( for Internet Explorer ).  I recommended uninstalling these things, but the owner chose not too. I of course recommended installing AVG antivirus. Although if these things had been done, I doubt a HUGE noticeable difference would have been seen, although I do know that it would be noticeable. The main reason was the memory. There was so many of these little programs running on this laptop, the swap file on the hard drive must have been constantly been being used, and used heavily. The solution would have to be to add more memory.  So I recommended A gig of memory added to the system and that’s the best I could do for it. I must say also, that with the Norton Security suite on the system, and the owner running spybot and ad-aware, there wasn’t a lot of spyware on it to clean, just some that were part of some programs the owner just didn’t want to part with. ( I talked her into letting me remove them anyways ) Hopefully she’ll upgrade the RAM, get rid of Norton’s Security suite, and at least one of the toolbar’s,  and I am sure she’ll be much happier with the speed.

      The only other thing I have to blog about today is this: In my XP virtual machine, which I use for downloading podcasts and Usenet Newsgroups, I’ve been meaning to add a different file manager to it, one I used a long time ago, but that I have loong since forgot the name of. The only rreason I wanted it again, was to be able to look at folder’s, wiothout openning them, and knowing if there are files inside, and approximately how many, or how much space they are taking up. The one I used long ago, showed you the amount of data inside the folder. Well after a little desktop search through a bunch of manuals on my hard drive, one pointed me to an add-on for Windows explorer ( not good for Vista ). I installed it and changed default settings in my folder file properties to “details”, applied the change to all folders, and  now I have a column called “Folder Size”, telling me how many megabytes of data is in any of the folders listed. SWEET! Just what the doctor ordered.  You can get it at http://sourceforge.net/projects/foldersize/ , and as usual with most everything I blog about…it’s free to use, donations accepted.

         Happy Computing!!!

Ustream.tv and Some Online Apps.

Saturday, January 19th, 2008

    I was a little busy today. I have a spare laptop, not a very good one, but it runs windows xp. So I took the laptop and added this old webcam to it today. It didn’t load the driver for it, but fortunately I had a cd with the driver on it laying aroound, and once I found it, and installed it, the webcam worked beautifully. With it I went to my Ustream.tv account and updated it. WWW.ustream.tv is a website where anyone can broadcast live video over the web. It’s a beautiful thing, and so now I have the puppies streaming live out to anyone who wants to see them. It works as long as the camera is on, and the connection is up. I’ve had a couple disconnects, but most of the time it seems to be working great. You can see it at www.specialbob.com/springers/ .

      I added www.pownce.com to my personal page at www.specialbob.com/personal/personal.html . It’s a website that offers it’s users to share files and notes and a couple other things, via the net. Right now it is limited, requiring you to have an invitation to join, but the word is, it’s a pretty useful site to be a part of.

     I added a link for an online currency converter to my Online Apps page. The URL is http://www.xe.com/ucc/ so check it out and bookmark it if you travel alot or just want access to a currency converter for whatever reason.

     I added a website that has Owners Manuals for hundreds, if not thousands, of consumer items. If you have a TV, DVD player or something you would like the owners manual for, check out www.usersmanualguide.com and see if they have your model, in your language.

     Last, but not least, I added www.xdrive.com. They offer 5 Gigs of free online storage. Check them out.

           That’s it for now, have fun surfing!!