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Free Wallpaper Image Of The Day - The Human Eye

brett — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:38:38 +0000

Free 1900 x 1200 pixel widescreen wallpaper titled The Human Eye. Click image to view full size [324KB 1920×1200]

You can also click HERE to view full list of free wallpapers for download.

Computer Clock Running Too Fast or Too Slow?

brett — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:52:01 +0000

Is the time running too fast or too slow on your Windows XP computer? If so it means the Windows Time Service which keeps your computer time accurate is broken and needs to be restarted. To restart the Windows Time Service you need get your hands dirty and enter some terminal commands at a command prompt. Even if you’ve never used the command prompt before don’t worry, because I will walk you through it with screen shots for every step (click images for full size).

1. Open a command prompt by clicking Start -> Run and typing “cmd” (without quotes) in the windows that appears, then click the OK button.

2. At the command prompt type “net stop w32time” (without quotes) and hit enter.

3. Now type “w32tm.exe /unregister” (without quotes) and hit enter.

4. Now type “w32tm.exe /register” (without quotes) and hit enter.

5. Finally type “net start w32time” (without quotes) and hit enter.

These four commands restart the windows time service so the time on your computer can run the time service at normal speed. If you get “The Follwing error occurred: Access is denied. (0×80070005)”

then access to your system files is being protected, usually by anti virus software. First disable your ativirus software and if that does not help uninstall the software completely and restart, then w32tm.exe commands should start working.

Disable Windows Update Restart

brett — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 08:10:27 +0000

This tutorial explains how to stop Windows Update from automatically restarting your computer. By default Windows XP’s Automatic Update feature is set to “Automatic” so that windows automatically downloads and installs updates. This is good as it keeps your operating system fully patched and secure, however windows will constantly nag you to restart your computer. Read on to find out how to get rid of the nag box forever (Windows XP only).

1. Open the Group Policy editor by going Start –> Run and typing gpedit.msc

2. In the Policy Editor browse to Computer Configuration –> Administrative Templates –> Windows Components –> Windows Update. In the right hand pane double click “No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates installations”.

3. In the window that appears select “Enabled” and click OK.

4. In the Group Policy Editor the “state” will change to “enabled” and you are finished. You won’t ever have to worry about the nag screen or losing your data again :)

Optional: If you are interested back at step 3 you can click the explain tab which gives the official Microsoft explanation of this setting.

Specifies that to complete a scheduled installation, Automatic Updates will wait for the computer to be restarted by any user who is logged on, instead of causing the computer to restart automatically.

If the status is set to Enabled, Automatic Updates will not restart a computer automatically during a scheduled installation if a user is logged in to the computer. Instead, Automatic Updates will notify the user to restart the computer.

Be aware that the computer needs to be restarted for the updates to take effect.

If the status is set to Disabled or Not Configured, Automatic Updates will notify the user that the computer will automatically restart in 5 minutes to complete the installation.

Note: This policy applies only when Automatic Updates is configured to perform scheduled installations of updates. If the “Configure Automatic Updates” policy is disabled, this policy has no effect.

Spore Spawns Discontent and Piracy

brett — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:40:47 +0000

The DRM monster is on the loose again, with the release of Will Wrights long awaited SPORE. Users are so unhappy with SPOREs included Digital Rights Management (DRM), they are downloading pirated torrents of the game in record numbers making it the most pirated game ever. Add to this an appalling one star user rating at amazon.com and it really is a looming public relations disaster if Electronic Arts (EA) does not act quickly.

To give you an idea of just how draconian SPOREs DRM is, the manual included with the game clearly states “You may have multiple Spore accounts for each installation of the game” but EA has admitted that this is a printing error. So for two people to play the game on one computer you will need to purchase a second copy of the game. Great. You can’t even back up the game without paying for EA’s Extended Download Service.

Including such draconian anti-piracy measures with possibly the most awaited game since Duke Nukem Forever is just baffling. Understanding how EA has failed to learn from disasters like Sony’s root kit debacle or Creatives Message to Daniel_K (just to name a couple) can only be achieved by Vulcan Mind Melding with every EA staff member responsible for the decision to include the DRM. Dare I say the meld would have to include WIll Wright himself? I hope not. I can understand EA treating its customers like this in search of profit, but surely not Will himself. I’m going to cling to the hope that he knew nothing about it until I learn otherwise.

You can read more about the backlash on TechCrunch, and for more about DRM in general I highly recommend and article by Matt Martin from Gameindustry.biz appropriately titled “User Friendly“.

Facebook is going to clear facebook accounts if

brett — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:21:22 +0000

I just received this on Facebook Superwall titled “Facebook is going to clear facebook accounts if ..”

We all know that Facebook is an extraordinary social network where you can talk to friends, find old friends, and so much more.
The Facebook team is well aware that Facebook is getting over populated due to the fact that registrations have increased 50% since February 15 2008. At their signing in database, it shows that more than a quarter of the members of Facebook havn’t logged into their accounts in over a month.
So where is this leading to you may ask. Facebook is clearing their entire data base and deleting users who have not sent this message to their friends. If you are one of the these people, you will get your user account wiped and would have to re add all your friends. So send this message to as many of your friends as you can, I know you don’t want to start all over from scratch so send away, show your pride for members Facebook!

- Irin rayiz

New Facebook Forced on Users

brett — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 08:04:24 +0000

Many sites are reporting user discontent over the forced introduction of New Facebook, with gearfuse describing it as horrible, atrocious and completely cluttered. Based the response to the discontinuation of network pages I’m not surprised. There’s even a “Petition Against the New Facebook” which currently has 478,670 1,050,119 members and can be signed here.

The new facebook profile design will be rolling out next week whether users like it or not, according to Facebook’s Program Manger Josh Elman who writes on the Facebook Developer Blog:

We’re nearing the time where we’ll switch over remaining users by default. We expect most of this to take place over the next week.

Some users are already getting a message that the change over is imminent when they log into their account, stating “New Facebook will soon be the only Facebook”.

The mere fact that a special Design Integration Guide exists suggests that at least some things will break when the changeover is complete (assuming it goes ahead). Only time will tell how smoothly the change over goes.

The early Apple II was notorious for that

brett — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 10:28:52 +0000

This rec.puzzles newsgroup mad me laught out loud. It’s completely out of place in rec.puzzles and he has stuffed so many technical terms into two paragraphs it just makes you laugh. I really don’t know how much truth to what he is saying because I have never heard of a 555 timer, pulse width, write strobe, NAND timer and so on. I have studied the entire history of PC architecture but have never encountered these terms. I guess I’m just not hard core enough :P

The early Apple ][ was notorious for that. I evenutally unsoldered
all the sockets and replaced them with high reliability versions.

The one time I had a guine memory failure wasn’t a RAM chip, though.
It was a NAND gate that passed the write strobe to the RAM chips,
so it could read memory but not write it. Obviously, the boot ROM
didn’t get very far. I tracked it down by attaching a 555 timer to
the reset line and slowly increased the pulse width until the address
lines went from stable to unstable. When I checked what opcode was
executing at that momement, it was the first return from subroutine
in the boot code. The gate must have failed due to vibration (output
was floating) because I had just transported the machine in my car
prior to the failure.

Link

Free Wallpaper Image Of The Day - The Arnisee Switzerland

brett — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:36:10 +0000

Free 1900 x 1200 pixel widescreen wallpaper of The Arnisee Switzerland. Click image to view full size [668KB 1920×1200]

You can also click HERE to view full list of free wallpapers for download.