I’ve taken some time off from blogging, and it this time lots of things have happened. Read More
What am I up to?- Jose Julian is awesome.July 5, 2008
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Tethering a Windows Mobile to any OS
March 25, 2008 – 1:31 am
Posted in PC
Comments (2)
I’ve gotten lots of questions regarding the tethering of a Windows Mobile phone to a PC. There are lots of tutorials out there but I will attempt to show you how to do it regardless of the operating system. I’ve tried it with a Pantech Duo and a BlackJack, and it will work as long as you can find the IntShrUI executable under the Windows folder of your phone. I will not get into specifics, but rather give a general outline of how it is done. Disclaimers: 1. Make sure you have an unlimited data plan. 2. For OSX and Linux, you need bluetooth connectivity, so if your computer doesn’t have built-in bluetooth, pick up a cheap USB dongle from your favorite store. Read More
AVOID AVG 8.0 AT ALL COSTS!
February 29, 2008 – 11:35 am
Posted in Networking, PC, Ranting
Comments (25)
I hate to use caps in a title, but this time I’m forced to. Whatever you do, avoid AVG 8.0 which was released yesterday (2/28/08) . For that matter, avoid AVG altogether. I installed AVG Antivirus Network Edition on all the workstations at a clients’ and everything started to crash. EVERYTHING! Servers and workstations. I can only blame myself for installing a brand new version without testing (bad, bad mistake). I’ve used AVG extensively in the past, and I’ve never encountered any problems. As a matter of fact, I prefered using AVG because of its easy to administrate (install, monitor and update all the clients from the server) and because of its small footprint on the systems. My second choise has always been Bitdefender, and only because it costs about twice as much as AVG, but now it is my only choice.
Again, avoid AVG 8.0, at least until they get their act together. I believe they rushed version 8.0 out the door and therefor delivered an extremely buggy program. I can’t trust company like this anymore. It was nice to know you, AVG.
Website Review: Jean Costa
February 26, 2008 – 3:18 am
Posted in reviews
Comments (1)
In the spirit of attracting visitors to this website, I’ll review JeanCosta’s website, which in turn will (hopefully) result in a review of my site.
What’s JeanCosta.com about?
Jean Costa is a self-proclaimed “internet entrepreneur and college student”. He owns many domains and makes a profit from it (by the way, I’d love to see a post where he explains how he makes money from this, that is, if he isn’t revealing his secret formula). He blogs on numerous (mostly internet-related) subjects on a regular basis (a new post about every other day). Overall he has good grammar and his subjects are usually very interesting. I found his blog thanks to Entrecard, and the post that grasped my attention at first was one titled “Former Software Engineer”, where he describes how he decided to change career paths. Read More
The best password-remembering tip you’ll ever encounter
February 26, 2008 – 1:27 am
Posted in whatev..
Comments (55)
I’ll admit it. I’ve used the same password for many of my online accounts, which is terribly dangerous in today’s online-driven society. I changed this unsafe practice by coming up with a very unique system and in this article I’ll show you how to create unique and easy-to-remember passwords for all your online needs.
Imagine for a second having the same password for all your accounts, and somehow (either using social engineering or other tactics, such as a key logger) someone gets a hold of it and has locked you out of everything. Your Gmail, your online banking accounts, your goDaddy account and your domains, etc. Now imagine trying to regain possession of all of these accounts. Surely, a nightmare. Read More
What’s up with Paypal?
February 18, 2008 – 11:08 pm
Posted in Ranting
Comments (0)
Ever since Paypal redesigned their whole interface I’ve been having all sorts of issues. First of all, it is almost impossible to change your address. In my case, I needed to add the apt/unit number on the second line of my address. I tried several times, after adding new credit cards/deleting credit cards, but nothing worked. I finally gave up and decided to contact support via phone. After being on hold for about 45 minutes, the service rep (with a very heavy Indian-accent) added my aptartment number.
The second issue I’ve had with them is trying to obtain another debit card. The last step on the website just takes you back to the main profile page. I contacted support via email, and 2 days later I was told that they had ordered the card manually for me, but it never arrived.
I came across these issues about 2 months ago, right after they added some web 2.0 spice, and they still haven’t been addressed. In my opinion, Paypal just jumped into the new interface without fully testing it, and they still haven’t fixed all the bugs. Rather disappointing for such a huge company (they’re owned by eBay, after all).
Settting up and maintaining Mozy properly
February 12, 2008 – 3:22 am
Posted in PC
Comments (1)
I’m a big fan of Mozy backup. I use it on my personal server to protect and secure all my personal files (read more about my home setup here), I recommend it to all my home/small office clients, and I install Mozy Pro on most of the servers I maintain. It pretty much runs automatically and its just “set it and forget it”, except for a couple of reasons, which you should keep an eye out for. Read More
My First Mac Rant
February 8, 2008 – 5:47 am
Posted in Ranting, whatev..
Comments (1)
I’ve been using a Mac Book Pro running OS X Leopard as my main PC for about 2 weeks now, and my goal was to adapt without Windows (either via Parallels or Boot Camp) using native software. Browsing, well Firefox and all the plugins I use work in OS X. iTunes? Well…iTunes. Video/Codecs? VLC. FTP? Cyberduck. Office 2007? Well, there’s Office 2008 for Mac.
Everything seamed like a smooth transition until I started using Word, Excel and Entourage. Everything looks different. Tool bars and menus are totally different from their Windows counterparts. It is not easy for Mac-switchers as it is, getting used to not having a taskbar, jumping icons and what not, but why oh why does Word for Mac have to be completely different from regular Windows Word? Why is Entourage the complete opposite of Outlook? I mean, its the same program in essence that does the same stuff, but these having different UIs is confusing and just plain stupid. If Adobe can do it with evey single Creative Suite program Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, etc) why isn’t Microsoft doing it?
My guess is that Microsoft doesn’t care about Mac-switchers and they aren’t the core target. They care about providing Windows-Word like compatibility to Mac, same for Excel and Outlook (or Entourage). If I can open and edit Word documents using non-Word apps on a Mac, then what is the incentive for me to even purchase Word for Mac? I ended up installing Parallels and getting my Office 2007 via Coherence. Call me weird, but I love Office 2007’s ribbon.
I guess that is it. My first Mac-rant and I end up criticizing Microsoft….typical Apple!
Build an inexpensive Vista PC for $500 - revisited
February 2, 2008 – 4:49 pm
Posted in PC
Comments (5)
About a year ago I wrote a pretty successful article (it got Dugg over 1000 times and I still get traffic via search engines) and I’ve decided to revisit this article and update it a bit with fresh hardware. In a year, memory and processors got cheaper, so I will be including these in this new build. This time, we will be building the computer for about $500 (without tax) with Vista Home Premium included. I don’t get into the specific of building the machine itself Read More
Free teeth whitening in exchange for 15 minutes of work
February 2, 2008 – 3:43 pm
Posted in Networking
Comments (0)
Normally, I wouldn’t be blogging about my last visit to the dentist’s office (still no cavities, yay!) but I just had to due to outcome of the visit. I had an appointment for just a general checkup and cleaning. While the doc was taking x-rays he asked me about my work and how I earned a living. I gave him the standard answer, which is something like, “I fix/build computers, servers and I do networking. I also design and develop websites”. It was then that he decided to share with me his computer issues there at his office, which were networking related. Read More