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Windows 7 Themes

admin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:42:38 +0000

Whenever a new OS comes out routinely the first thing people do is run out and change the desktop image and the theme. Windows 7 comes with some nice default themes and images. Here are some of them and here are a list of other sites with some more themes.

Windows 7 includes five themes that will help you customize Windows to fit your taste. If you are tired of the default themes there are a few sites where you can download more. Check out these sites:

Map Windows Music to Ubuntu

admin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:00:01 +0000

Most people use Windows as their main downloading system just as a matter of convenience and availability of download tools. The pain comes in sharing these files with your Ubuntu system. This is when symbolic links really in a dual boot system.

This guide shows you how to map your /home/Music folder in Ubuntu, to your Windows iTunes folder. Doing this means only one folder needs to be maintained and any music program you installed on Ubuntu will load your Windows music library.

The same technique can be used for other folders to accomplish the same thing.

You first need to mount your Windows partition mounted. Next open up terminal and type the following;

cd /home

rm -r Music

ln -s /media/WINDOWSDRIVENAME/Users/USERNAME/Music/iTunes/iTunes\ Music/ Music

From this point forward, an application that uses your /home/Music folder, the application will be using your Windows iTunes music folder.

Show PID Process Identifier

admin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:47:00 +0000

Often when you are troubleshooting what is going wrong with your Windows box you are left to your own devices to guess what is running and what is screwing up. In the Linux world you can grep and get a view of what processes are running using Process Identifier, or more commonly known as PID or process ID. Here is how to get that same functionality in Windows.

PID is a unique number tagged with each processes running on a system, and used by most operating systems to identify a process. This comes in handy when, let’s say Lotus Notes crashes on you and you want to see what other services were started by nlnotes.exe so that you can kill them.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to use Task Manager. Task Manager does not display PID information by default.

To display the PID field in Task Manager, go to the Processes tab, click on the View menu, then click on Select Columns.

In the Select Columns or Select Process Page Columns dialog, place a checkmark in the checkbox for PID (Process Identifier), and click OK.

You will now see the PID column in your Task Manager.

How To Set Up A Version Cue Server

admin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:06:00 +0000

Adobe Version Cue is a fantastic tool for managing your images, photos and videos. Here is the complete reference guide on how to configure Version Cue so that you can use it in your production environment.

We’ll start from the assumption that you actually installed Version Cue. To use a Version Cue Server, you’ll need to turn it on and configure initial settings. Once you’ve configured initial settings, you can configure additional Version Cue Server settings in the Version Cue preferences and specify advanced server settings (such as enabling SSL) in Version Cue Server Administration.

For a video on setting up the Version Cue server, see Version Cue Video.

1. Do either of the following:

Click Start My Server in the Adobe dialog box or in Adobe Bridge.

Open the Control Panel and double-click Adobe Version Cue CS3 (Windows) or click Adobe Version Cue CS3 in System Preferences (Mac OS), and then click Start.

Version Cue starts Version Cue Server Administration and displays the Initial Configuration window.

2. In the Initial Configuration window, specify a system administrator password in the Password text box.
Note: Be sure to note the password you specify. If you forget the system administrator password, you’ll need to reinstall the Version Cue Server.

3. Specify a name for the server in the Server Name text box.

4. Choose an option from the Server Visibility menu:

To prevent other users in your network from seeing the server, choose Private. Private Version Cue Servers can be accessed only from your local computer.

To make the server visible to other users in your network, choose Visible To Others. (You must configure the server to be visible to grant others access to projects on the server.)

Note: If Version Cue is installed on a Windows computer that uses a firewall and you want to share the server with others, make sure that TCP ports 3703 and 5353 are left open. If you’ve enabled SSL for the Version Cue Server, also leave port 3704 open. If Version Cue CS2 is installed on the same computer, also leave port 50900 open (and 50901 if you’ve enabled SSL).

5. Choose an option from the User Accounts menu:

To enable users to access the server without an existing user account, choose Automatic User Creation. If you select this option, Version Cue creates a new user account without a password when a new user accesses the server.
If you enable automatic user account creation and then subsequently enable LDAP support, LDAP users are automatically imported when they access the server with their LDAP account name. Users imported in this fashion are added to the Everyone group, given a user access level of None, and are not able to log into Version Cue Server Administration. Use this technique to automatically assign LDAP users default access rights to projects on a Version Cue server without having to explicitly import users.

To specify that only named users, defined in Version Cue Server Administration, can access the server, choose Manual User Creation.

6. Click Save & Continue to log in to Version Cue Server Administration and specify advanced server settings.

Set Version Cue Server preferences

You can configure many Version Cue Server settings in Version Cue preferences, such as the amount of RAM available to Version Cue and the location of the Data folder. To configure advanced settings, such as enabling SSL, changing the name of the Version Cue Server, specifying server log options, resetting user locks, or backing up the server, you must use Version Cue Server Administration.

Access Version Cue Server preferences

1. Do one of the following to access Version Cue preferences:

Open the Control Panel and double-click Adobe Version Cue CS3 (Windows) or click Adobe Version Cue CS3 in System Preferences (Mac OS).

In Windows, double-click the Version Cue icon in the system tray at the lower-right of the screen.

In Mac OS, click the Version Cue icon in the menu bar at the top of the screen, and choose Version Cue CS3 Preferences from the menu.
Note: The Version Cue icon is hidden by default. To make it visible, select Show Version Cue CS3 Tray Icon (Windows) or Show Version Cue CS3 Status In Menu Bar (Mac OS) in Version Cue Server preferences.

2. Click the Settings tab in the Adobe Version Cue CS3 dialog box.

Make the Version Cue Server visible

1. To grant others access to shared Version Cue projects on the server, choose Visible To Others from the Server Visibility menu. To hide the Version Cue Server from other users, choose Private.

2. Click Apply.

Specify a workgroup size

1. From the Workgroup Size menu, choose the number of people who use the Version Cue Server on a typical day. This setting controls how the Version Cue Server handles the potential load.

2. Click Apply.

Keep the Version Cue icon visible

1. Select Show Version Cue CS3 Tray Icon (Windows) or Show Version Cue CS3 Status in Menu Bar (Mac OS) to keep the Version Cue icon visible.

2. Click Apply.

Turn Version Cue on when the computer starts

1. Select Turn Version Cue CS3 On When The Computer Starts.

2. Click Apply.

Connect to remote servers

Note: You can perform this task only if you have access to the full Version Cue feature set. See Accessing Version Cue features.

When you need to work on Version Cue projects that are located on a different subnet, you can use the IP address of the computer to access the remote Version Cue Server, as long as it is configured to be visible to other users. Version Cue Servers within your subnet that are configured to be visible are visible automatically.

1. Do one of the following:

In Acrobat, Flash, Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, or Photoshop, choose File > Open. If you’re using the OS Dialog box, click Use Adobe Dialog. Click Version Cue in the Favorites panel, and choose Connect To Server from the Tools menu or Connect To from the Project Tools (Acrobat) menu .

In Bridge, choose Tools > Version Cue > Connect To Server.

2. In the Connect To Server dialog box, type the IP or DNS address and port of the Version Cue Server (for example, http://153.32.235.230). If you’re connecting to a server that is on the same system as a Version Cue CS2 workspace, append the port number 50900 to the end of the Version Cue URL (for example, http://153.32.235.230:50900).
Display the Version Cue Server Administration login page to identify the Version Cue URLs that remote users and WebDAV applications need to access the server. Alternatively, view the URLs in the Inspector in Bridge.

3. Click OK.

A shortcut to the remote server is automatically included in your list of available Version Cue Servers.

Connect to a Version Cue Server using WebDAV

Adobe recommends managing non‑Adobe files with Adobe Bridge. However, if you’re collaborating with other users who don’t have access to Adobe Bridge, they can use the Version Cue WebDAV Server URL to access projects on a Version Cue Server.

You can access a Version Cue Server by using a WebDAV-enabled application, such as a Microsoft Office application. In Windows, specify a project on a Version Cue Server as a network place by specifying the project’s WebDAV URL. In Mac OS, specify the project’s WebDAV URL by using the Connect To Server Command from the Finder. Before attempting to connect, refer to your application’s documentation on using its WebDAV features.
Enter the Version Cue WebDAV URL, the port number (3703, or 50900 if you’re connecting to a server that is running on the same system as a Version Cue CS2 workspace), webdav, and the project name. For example: http://153.32.235.230:3703/webdav/ project_name

Use a Mac OS X Dock in Windows

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:04:00 +0000

I came across a really cool utility a little while ago. It allow you to use the MAC OS X Dock in Windows XP or Vista. It duplicates the functionality to a tee. Even the System Tray is included. Here is where to get it and how to install it.

A word of note before we begin. I found that it works great in XP, and will work on most installations of Vista. You don’t actually have to install the program, you just extract it and run the .exe. Download RK Launcher and extract it to a folder. Then just launch pklauncher.exe and away you go. That’s all there is to it. You can also use the right-click functionality on the Dock.

Turn Off Hibernate In Vista

admin — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:31:00 +0000

When you use hibernate in Vista (just like in XP) it creates a file called hiberfil.sys. This file can grow rather large,if you don’t use hibernate, the hibernate file hiberfil.sys is sometimes large enough to impact the amount of drive space you have available, and you’re not able to delete it because it’s in use.

Here is how you go on doing it.

1) To be able to get rid of this file you have to shutdown and disable hibernation in Windows Vista. You can do this by opening a command prompt as administrator

2) In the command prompt type "powercfg -h off" and hit ENTER (see figure 2, it should give you no message back, no errors just blank

How To Download Videos From Youtube

admin — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 03:34:00 +0000

Sites like Youtube and CNN offer free videos to viewers. It’s great to be able to watch them when you are online but what happens when you are when you are offline? What if you want to take the videos with you? The answer is to download them!

The first step is to get Firefox as your browser and then to get the VideoDownloadHelper Add-On to Firefox. This little utility is worth its weight in gold! To install Video Download Helper, launch Firefox and click Tools – Add-ons.

Video Downloader is a free program for p2p accelerating, downloading and transcoding video stream from all video websites, such as Youtube, Dailymotion, Metacafe, MySpace, Yahoo, etc. It has some tremendous features including;

1. P2P Accelerating?With P2SP (peer-to-server-and-peer), it speeds up downloading of video streaming. Its better algorithms have accelerated video downloading by more than 3–5 times.

2. Downloading: With automatically flash stream detection, video contents on many websites can be downloaded easily and free.

3. Transcoding: Videos can be transcoded into many formats supporting any mobile phones and PDAs, such as Nokia, iPhone, SamSung, iPad, iPod, and PSP. Would you please try it and recommend it in your blog?

You can see full details at http://www.bywifi.com.

Click in the search box and type downloadhelper. Then click on Add to Firefox to install.

To download videos, when a video is being played in Firefox, there will be a rotating image by the search box. If you click on the icon you will be able to download the video that is playing. In this case it is an FLV file.

Sync Your Bookmarks and Passwords in Firefox

admin — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 02:23:00 +0000

For the longest time I was using Google Browser Sync to manage my passwords and bookmarks. Unfortunately, a while back, just before Google Chrome was released Google discontinued the product. I wonder why? Since then I’ve been looking for something to manage my bookmarks and passwords for free. I finally found the perfect app! Foxmarks!

Foxmarks has been offering a synchronization solution for quite a while, now with password synchronization included their service, Foxmarks has entered the big leagues.

Foxmarks works by taking your Firefox personal data, encrypting it with a 256bit encryption algorithm using a PIN-code that only you will know and then uploading the content to the Foxmark server.

Once you setup Foxmarks on another Firefox client, you will be prompted whether to merge the bookmarks and passwords, use the server data, or use the client data. It then keeps track of changes in the clients and synchronizes them with the server. The server also acts as a backup of your browser data in case you have a system crash.

You can download Foxmarks.com on their website.

Install Windows Programs in Linux

admin — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:12:00 +0000

A while back we wrote an article about using Wine to install Windows programs in a Linux environment. There is a slightly better program out there that will allow you to use Windows programs in Linux. Here is the rundown on how to get it, install it and start using your Windows programs in Linux.

The program is called Crossover Linux from Codeweavers. It’s a neat little app that will allow you to run the most common Windows programs within Linux easily and efficiently as well as be able to install and use shareware ad no so common programs as well. Crossover calls these programs Unsupported Software, but it basically means any program that is not from a well known, brand name vendor.

If you are using Ubuntu you can just download the .deb package from www.codeweavers.com. They also have Mac packages. Once you download the file just double-click the .deb file to get the install started.

Click Install Package.

This is the trial version, so if you ever want to buy the full version just select Applications – Crossover – Register and unlock this Demo. You will be prompted for your account info to unlock the program.

To install a Windows program, go to Applications – Crossover – Install Windows Software. You will see the following screen;

If the application you wish to install is on the list, just click on it to highlight and click Next. Just follow the on screen instructions to finish the installation of the application.

If the application you wish to install is not in the list, just place a check mark in the Install unsupported software box. Then follow the on-screen instructions.
Menu items will be created for the installs, and you can access the programs from the Applications menu.

You can do some pretty sophisticated things with this software, so play around with it and see what you can do!

Computing Without The Price – Microsoft Azure vs Amazon EC2

admin — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:36:00 +0000

Microsoft recently announced a new operating system for the cloud called Windows Azure. Azure is a services platform that is hosted by Microsoft in Microsoft data centers around the globe and is completely scalable and affordable. Amazon.com also offers a hosted and scalable solution that they host. Here is the rundown on how to have reliable services without having to drop a ton of cash for your own servers, data center or infrastructure.

The Azure solution has been designed to help developers deploy web-based services centred around Visual Studio quickly and easily by not having to worry about the infrastructure costs or overhead that are typically associated with application delivery.

Once a you are ready to deploy you can select how many nodes you want to use in the Microsoft cloud of computing power, you reserve a those nodes and pay for just those node. As your web service becomes more popular, you can log in to the management web site and increase the node count with just a few clicks.
Windows Azure pricing is based on how much storage, bandwidth and computing time an application uses.

Visit the Windows Azure Community Technology Preview

Read the Microsoft Press Release

The Microsoft service is playing catch up to the Amazon.com service that has been around for quite some time, called Elastic Computing Cloud (Amazon EC2).

The major difference that pushes Amazon.com’s solution ahead of Microsoft is the fact that it is no based on one solution. With just a few clicks you can deploy a Linux, OS X or a Windows solution with prebuilt images.

Amazon’s solution is priced according to how much storage (cheap), bandwidth (not as cheap) and computing time (relatively cheap).
To use Amazon EC2, you simply:

Create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) containing your applications, libraries, data and associated configuration settings. Or use pre-configured, templated images to get up and running immediately.
Upload the AMI into Amazon S3. Amazon EC2 provides tools that make storing the AMI simple. Amazon S3 provides a safe, reliable and fast repository to store your images.
Use Amazon EC2 web service to configure security and network access.
Choose which instance type(s) and operating system you want, then start, terminate, and monitor as many instances of your AMI as needed, using the web service APIs or the variety of management tools provided.
Determine whether you want to run in multiple locations, utilize static IP endpoints, or attach persistent block storage to your instances.
Pay only for the resources that you actually consume, like instance-hours or data transfer.

You can read more about Amazon EC2 here.