Category: Tech Articles

I haven’t had my own cable TV line since 2008. Well, I did, for about five weeks in 2010. Then I immediately shut it back down, because the bill was insane. I continue to get harassing phone calls from Time Warner Cable, trying to get me to reactivate, at all hours of the day and night. I tell them, perhaps if these special offers were their normal rates, I wouldn’t have left in the first place.

What saddens me most as how ostrich-like the cable companies remain. They say that people are leaving in record numbers, for economic reasons – not because they don’t like the service. Let that soak in. No, really – really let it soak. Because I, the consumer, don’t see enough value for my dollar, I quit using a particular service. But, the cable company thinks I only did it because I don’t have enough dollars in my bank account. How self righteous can an entire industry be!? (more…)

Even though I have listed off a good number of programs in my IT toolkit and cleaning malware infected computers, I have a new tool I’m starting to use more and more – and you already have it. It goes by two names. The “Malware Removal Tool” from Microsoft, or even “Microsoft Safety Scanner.”

Microsoft packs this little beauty in to your computer with each Windows Update. Simply go to your Start Menu and click RUN (or if you don’t have run just use the search box at the bottom of the Start Menu), type in MRT and press enter. You’ve opened the latest Malware Removal Tool! With a few presses of the next button, you’ll be on your way to scanning your computer for known pieces of malware that can slip right by antivirus and other tools.

If you don’t know the last time you’ve run your Windows Updates and you want to ensure you have the latest and greatest version right from Microsoft’s Security Scanner website. Don’t plan to keep this one in your IT toolkit – unlike the download from Windows Update, this download will actually expire every 10 days to ensure you’re keeping a fresh and up-to-date copy with you.

Microsoft has also launched the very interesting Malware Protection Center, which reports most active and recently published / identified pieces of malware. Currently, Microsoft is reporting the top ten desktop threats right now to be:

• Trojan:Win32/Sirefef.AC
• Trojan:JS/IframeRef
• Worm:Win32/Conficker.B
• Worm:Win32/Conficker.C
• Virus:Win32/Sality.AM
• Exploit:Win32/CplLnk.A
• Virus:Win32/Sality.AT
• Worm:Win32/Dorkbot!lnk
• Trojan:Win32/FakeSysdef
• Trojan:DOS/Alureon.E

So be sure to check your computer for your own safety!

Smart phone owners, I believe that it is high time we take the need for firmware updates out of the hands of the carriers. At the very least there should be some sort of written minimum guarantee when you purchase your phone.

Nearly two years ago, I purchased my Android phone: the HTC Evo Shift on Sprint. Now, I know what many of you have to say about Sprint, but I’m not checking my data cap every ten minutes and I regularly use over 2.5GB of bandwidth, so the service pays for itself. The phone was supposed to be the next chapter in the highly successful Evo product line. But it was destined to fail. Mediocre sales mean the phone saw one update, from FroYo to Gingerbread, then one minor service update.

During my time with Android, I purchased the HTC Arrive, a Sprint Windows Phone 7 device. It has received one update, the Mango 7.5 update, which Microsoft somehow made sure was released to every phone. The subsequent Tango update? Nowhere to be found. The forthcoming Apollo update? fat chance! Sprint officially “end of life’d” the phone.

The iPhone is easier to update because it is not so much a phone or a model, an operating system with iterative hardware. Although it is true that Android has seen Platform fragmentation, and iOS eventually will, Windows Phone 7 was a small enough environment that the updates should have been easy. But alas, silence for my Arrive.

I believe Apple has the best handle on their fragmentation, and being the manufacturer, they have the obligation to support their device. I just hope that the other mobile OS developers take a page from Apple’s book on this one and learn to centrally manage firmware upgrades. There must be an easier way! And even if there isn’t, then every phone yogurt buy should have a minimum of two major upgrade revisions. You should sign an agreement that the phone will be supported at least beyond the box it came in, unless perhaps you intentionally buy a bargain phone! I am hoping Windows Phone 8 relies on the old Windows Update model.

You can tell me that every phone’s hardware is just too different for centralized updates to work. But nothing on earth is more widely varied or open to the creator’s wills than the desktop PC market, yet Windows Update has been working pretty reliably for Microsoft since 1998. If they can make universal updates for a literally limitless combination of hardware components, it ought to be pretty easy to send out a few updates to some simple phones!

I’ve been talking with a lot of people who have recently published e-Books. I’m not sure exactly why I’ve been surrounded by it lately, but it might have been a few short stories a friend released for free by a friend under a pseudonym, or something paid but also hilariously evil, like The Diamond Club:

I would, most likely, do a book of poetry, or possibly short stories… but I’ve done a lot of thinking lately as to whether I would like to do something like this and try to self publish, use a service like Vook, or actually try to submit some work for publication with a “real company.” I’m one of those internet guys who likes to turn norms on their heads and do things my way. Just look at this site! It’s grown from nothing at all to thousands of visits a month… sure, I’m not rich and famous, but I’m excited for what the future is going to bring and I love watching my statistics for the website gradually increase. I’m lucky to have so many interested people, and maybe that means it really is time to try and put something together. But will it be what the people are looking for? We may have to wait and see.

In the early days of the World Wide Web, advertising was non-existent. But it didn’t take long before friendly “link-exchanges” became massive money making advertising schemes. Pay to show your banner ad, to drive traffic, pay-per-click, it all became about getting money in to people’s hands. These days Google is among the biggest and best in the business. I even use Google Ads on my website, and some day hope I’ll get a little something out of it.

But unlike the early days of the internet, where not just your spam emails were about viagara, but every pop up ad on the internet was completely random and might’ve had something to do with your personal disfunction, your love of collecting fine china, or your need for better virus protection. Or, of course, how lucky you were to be the ten thousandth visitor to the website, of course! Everybody thought the birth of the targetted ad was a wonderful thing – finally, something I care about, people would think. People were much happier to see advertisements for movie tickets, or a certain book, or that model of car they’ve had their eye on; it was better than more purple pills and lucky lotteries!

Before long that honeymoon was over, though, and people were suspicious of the advertisers. They know too much. If you really want to be paranoid, you can believe that. I don’t use things like AdBlock Plus because I really think that the few pennies a day that goes to lowly bloggers like myself is a nice gesture (made 3 cents yesterday!). But do I think it’s wrong that Google knows I shopped for a Clear mobile hotspot? No.

What, then, is the problem? It’s how bad that advertising is. It doesn’t work for impulsive people, and it’s really bad for families with multiple people sharing a computer. I was impulsive, and purchased that Clear hotspot. Several weeks ago. But I am still getting ads for it, on every website I visit! Am I reading something on Slashdot? Clear. Gaming news over at Joystiq? Clear. Wedding gifts for friends? Clear.

The perfect example presented it to me when I was previewing this article before publishing it:

How much is clear paying to advertise their product to someone who already bought it? And why can’t I tell the system that I own this item? And where were those ads when I was thinking about purchasing it? They didn’t exist. I bought it on a whim. It doesn’t work for impulsive people! The act is done, it’s in the past, quit reminding me that I should do it, because I already did it.

I don’t have a true solution to the problem, but the ability to click ‘beneath’ an ad and opt-out of certain types of ads, or ads for certain brands, or even provide feedback and say “yes, your advertisement made me purchase this item” would be nice. But once I have the product, and have been using it for two months, you should know when to stop wasting your advertiser’s dollar, because they’re not getting their money’s worth from you, the ad-agency.

If you were wondering what all Office 2013 was going to pack in, don’t forget about all of the fantastic touch integration for the version of Office that will be built in to future Windows RT tablets & Microsoft’s own Surface for Windows RT, which will include a version of Microsoft Office.

Well, if you are interested in downloading the preview version of Office 2013, or what Microsoft has taken to calling “the New Office” (kind of like “new iPad”), you can visit the Microsoft Office Preview site and click the green “Sign Up” button to enroll and download the preview.

I get this all the time. Here is what you most likely need to know. If you are running Windows XP, it is almost certain that you don’t have 64bit windows installed. With Windows Vista or 7, you can check with a few simple clicks.

Right click on the Computer icon. It should be on your desktop or in the Start Menu. Then left click on Properties. It will open the System window, which will have, as the screenshot above shows, information about your computer, including how much RAM you have and whether you are running 32 or 64-bit Windows.

It is important to note that you may have 32-bit Windows installed on a computer that can handle a 64-bit operating system, but to determine that you may need to run a special program like CPUZ or WCPUID. But almost anything manufactured in the last 5 years ought to do 64-bit computing, with the biggest exception being Intel’s Atom Processor, found mostly in Netbooks.

I’ve had lots of time to tinker with the various pre-release and preview versions of Windows 8. I find it to be quite snappy and good at managing system resources. But, I’m still concious of the fact that no operating system can do a truly unlimited amount of tasks. Microsoft (much like Google did with Android) insists that modern memory management doesn’t need to be babysat the way older operating systems did, but I’m a creature of habit! Occasionally you want to close completely out of one of the “Metro” Apps. So here is the quick and easy “how-to close an app” in Windows 8.

Let’s say I have Hydro Thunder open. If I press the Windows Key on my keyboard, it will “exit” the application – but all it really does is forces it to the background. If I re-open the app, it will resume right where I had left off, meaning that it’s constantly taking up at least some system resources. If you really want to completely exit the application, all the way out, your best option is to drag it down.

1. Put the mouse pointer (or your finger) at the very top edge of the screen. You’ll see the mouse pointer become a “hand” rather than the normal arrow.
2. Left click and hold, while you drag down toward the bottom of the screen.
3. At this point, you can choose to snap-aligh it to the left or right side of the screen if you wish, or:
4. Continue to drag off of the bottom of the screen, and release the left click.

Here is a how-to video:

With the coming rebranding of the Zune marketplace to “Xbox Music,” am inclined to wonder if this will lead to even more cross promotion on the Xbox Live Marketplace.  Microsoft has been extremely good to the members of the Zune marketplace on Xbox Live by having weekly deals and discounts highlighted on the dashboard, and featuring artists and contests that could allow you to play a game or two with celebrities.  But what more would I hope to see?  A little bit of gamer-goodies. (more…)

NTPassword is a free tool, available for download, which will help you reset a forgotten password for a computer. For example, if you have lost your Administrator password on your computer at home, etc… if this is your “work” computer, or if you computer is joined to a network “domain,” then I would advise letting your IT people handle this. Otherwise, for most home users, this could be helpful.

Although NTPassword doesn’t work in every case (for example, some SCSI and even SATA configurations can confuse it and prevent it from booting), I cannot deny that it has made me look like a super hero on more than one occasion. It is an extremely useful tool, and although I have mentioned it before, I haven’t explained how it works. So why don’t I show you? (more…)

Sometimes you might get a little worried that the data on your hard drive are getting corrupted. Occasionally, you might be compelled to run a “chkdsk” or “Check Disk” process (or, in Windows 9x terms, a scan disk!). The process is fairly simple. Here is how you do it in Windows 7, and the steps are nearly identical for Windows XP.

1. Open up Computer (or My Computer) either from the Desktop or the Start Menu.
2. Right Click on the drive you want to scan.
3. Click Properties.
4. Click the Tools tab.
5. Click the Check now… button.
6. Check both boxes (if you want to scan the drive itself for defects, rather than just search for corrupt files).
7. Click Start.
8. Click Schedule Disk Check.
9. Click OK, then Reboot!

During the startup process, the screen will have a 10 second count down that you can interrupt if you need to – but after the count down completes the scan process will start. It takes, on average, about an hour. The screen should say that it is on Phase 1 of 5 if you are doing the full surface scan.

Oh man. I’m pumped. I’m super pumped. Microsoft heald the Windows Phone Summit today and had a lot to say about Windows Phone 8. It’s the piece that ties at all together. One harmonious, Microsoft-based ecosystem. “One Microsoft Way,” as the street address of Microsoft headquarters states. And I’m one of the ten people on the planet who is all for it!

Android fans are rolling their eyes, saying it’s about time. iPhone users… well… they’re keeping quiet as upgrades to iOS are starting to lag behind the game that “big daddy M” is talking about. But when the announcement of Windows Phone 8 came today, I was at the edge of my seat. Microsoft proudly states that the software at the true core of the OS will be a shared core with Windows 8. In other words, it’s fairly straightforward that Windows RT and the Windows 8 Metro experience overtop of the Windows 8 Home and Pro desktop environments, is going to be all of the hard work that the Windows Phone team made come true. Taking the guts out of Windows CE and Windows Mobile, and turning it around to something that is this good was a lot of work, and I really hope the Windows Phone team is reaping the benefits!

Don’t take my word for it. During the very beginning of their presentation today, it was pointed out that Windows Phone 7 is really getting their biggest reward from their users. Somehow it’s still not selling, but the user reviews on Amazon rate seven of the top 9 phones on Amazon… as Windows Phone 7 devices. It wasn’t a joke, it wasn’t an exaggeration – I checked it out myself.

And what is Windows Phone 8 going to bring us? Better software – the same stuff you can get on the Windows 8 Metro store, you’ll be able to get on a Windows Phone 8. 90% of the code used on Windows Phone 7.5 can be ported to Windows Phone 8, there will be almost no effort needed to have all of the apps already in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace will be able to make their way to Windows Phone 8. Windows Phone 8 is also going to introduce multi-core support (dual core right away, and more to come – and they’ve already tested it up to 64 cores!). Support for two new higher resolution (720p and WXGA) screens are going to help keep higher definitions coming along, while not causing massive fragmentation along the platform.

MicroSD sounds like it’s “about time” but it is still exciting to know that I’ll essentially be carrying a full-blown Windows device with a memory card in my pocket – it’s not just going to be pictures and ringtones, it is going to be just as useful as an external hard drive on your current laptop. Microsoft made a big deal of their support for NFC, something that sounds convenient when working with multiple devices, and the new “NFC Wallet” type of experience, but that’s not a huge deal for me. Not enough brick and mortar stores that I’ve been to support that. I guess everyone in Seattle and Silicon Valley must have a need for it, but not so much me.

There are a few other benefits that were described, and these really have nothing to do with the real end-user features that Windows 8 will be pushing, but the one they are quite proud of is the more customizable start screen (as seen in the screen capture at the top of the page). Microsoft has decided to take Windows Phone 7 and the Metro UI’s most powerful feature, and make it even more powerful. I can’t wait. This fall, I will have a Surface, I will have a Windows Phone 8, and I will be thrilled. If you want to know more about what to expect from Windows Phone 8, or see it in action, check out the presentation stream from Microsoft’s Channel 9.

When you click links, most specifically links in your Outlook email client, you receive this error message: “This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.” Now, for the magic question that might blow your mind… have you ever had Google Chrome installed, and just recently uninstalled it?

If you say no, you can keep reading, the solution applies to many scenarios, but the Google Chrome uninstall is the most common. Google has supposedly fixed this is newer uninstallers, but I still see the problem all the time. The file association in the registry is still pointing to Chrome and can be fixed by modifying certain registry keys… but I’ve put together a handy .REG file that you can download, double click, and be done! Don’t forget to exit and re-open Outlook for the fix to activate. If you’re more intersted in what registry keys are being modified, you can right click the .reg file and select “EDIT” to see the keys that will be changed in plain text.

Download NuAngel.net HTML links fix

Microsoft has also developed a “FixIt” utility for this purpose, so if you don’t trust a random stranger making changes in your registry, I understand! You can download Microsoft’s official fix for Hyperlinks not working in Outlook (vague enough?) from their knowledgebase.