Archive for August, 2006
Positive Proof of Global Warming
Posted by Nico Yan in Uncategorized Saturday, 19 August 2006 07:32 No Comments
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The Biker And The Old Lady
Posted by Nico Yan in Uncategorized Saturday, 19 August 2006 07:25 No Comments
A biker stops by the local Harley Shop to have his bike fixed. They couldn’t do it while he waited, so he said he didn’t live far and would just walk home.
On the way home he stopped at the hardware store and bought a bucket and an anvil. He stopped by the feed store/livestock dealer and picked up a couple of chickens and a goose.
However, struggling outside the store he now had a problem: how to carry all of his purchases home.
While he is scratching his head he was approached by a little old lady who told him she was lost.
She asked, “Can you tell me how to get to 1603 Mockingbird Lane?”
The biker said, “Well, as a matter of fact, I live at 1616 Mockingbird Lane.
I would walk you home but I can’t carry this lot.”
The old lady suggested, “Why don’t you put the anvil in the bucket, carry the bucket in one hand, put a chicken under each arm and carry the goose in the other hand?” “Why thank you very much,” he said and proceeded to walk the old girl home. On the way he says, “Let’s take my shortcut and go down this alley. We’ll be there in no time.” The little old lady looked him over cautiously then said, “I am a lonely widow without a husband to defend me. How do I know that when we get in the alley you won’t hold me up against the wall, pull up my skirt, and ravish me?”
The biker said, “Holy smokes lady! I am carrying a bucket, an anvil, two
chickens and a goose. How in the world could I possibly hold you up against the wall and do that?”
The lady replied, “Set the goose down, cover him with the bucket, put the anvil on top of the bucket and I’ll hold the chickens.”
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Thefts Prompt Products That Do More To Secure Laptops
Posted by Nico Yan in Uncategorized Saturday, 19 August 2006 07:18 No Comments
Recent thefts of laptops with sensitive corporate data have prompted more companies and individuals to snap up everything from locks to tracking software to protect data from PC snatchers.
They’re buying hardware and software to "create layers of deterrence," says John Livingston, CEO of Absolute Software. It makes software that tracks a computer’s location when it’s logged onto the Internet.
Laptop heists are among a wave of computer-security breaches in the past year, leaving thousands of people vulnerable to ID theft.
Fidelity Investments last week disclosed that someone made off with a laptop containing the names, Social Security numbers and other information for 196,000 current and former Hewlett-Packard employees. Fidelity manages HP’s 401(k) retirement and pension plans.
In recent months, laptops containing personal information have been swiped from Ameriprise Financial, Boeing and others.
As more people store data in a mobile environment, laptops and portable storage devices have become more attractive to ID thieves, says Bob Egner, a marketing executive at Pointsec Mobile Technologies, which makes security software. And, in most instances, the data were not scrambled with encryption technology because it was costly or inconvenient, says security analyst Eric Ogren of Enterprise Strategy Group.
Once a laptop is stolen, cracking the password is easy. Crooks restart PCs using a Linux operating system disk and change passwords. Others use search engines to get software tools that unlock a password. "Anyone skilled in computer forensics can crack a password in minutes," Egner says.
Security-conscious laptop users are turning to cable locks from vendors such as Kensington that connect laptops to desks and anything else anchored to the ground. Some locks have alarms heard up to 40 feet.
Others use data-wipe software that locks up or wipes out data when a stolen PC connects to the Internet.
There also are kitchen-sink security measures from Gateway and others.
This month, Gateway began offering a package of products that includes locks, tracking software and remote-wiping software allowing a PC user to remotely destroy data the next time the laptop is connected to the Internet.
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10 Tweaks to Make Windows More Comfortable
Posted by Nico Yan in Uncategorized Saturday, 19 August 2006 06:46 No Comments
We all are different. We like different things; we want to be unique and try to avoid the routine. The same things apply to the user-operating system relationship. Windows comes in a rough initial “shape” but not everybody is willing to accept it. So here are some useful changes to make it more comfortable.
1. Command your Windows Explorer to start in the location of your choice
By default, when you access Windows Explorer it will go directly to the My Documents folder. To change this, right click on the icon and replace the Target field with: “%SystemRoot%explorer.exe /e, c:”. You can make it start in your games folder or any other location. For example, you can instruct it to start directly on My Computer by adding this string: “%SystemRoot%explorer.exe /e,”.
2. Teach Windows to automatically log on to your account
Many of you may have realized that Windows does no longer log on directly to your account when you boot the computer. This happens because of the .NET Framework Update from Microsoft that creates an extra user account named ASP.NET. Of course, you would think that the easiest method is not to update the .NET Framework or to delete the newly created account. However, it is better to configure Windows to automatically log on to the user of your choice by using this method:
Go to Start->Run, type “control userpasswords2″ and click OK. The “Users” window will appear; select the account you want to automatically log on to then uncheck the “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer” option. If you have a password set, type it to complete the process. Unfortunately, this is available just for Windows
XP Professional users.
3. Are you in a hurry and your PC doesn’t want to Shut Down rapidly? Here are some tips:
For both Home and Professional edition users go to Start->Run and type “regedit” to fire up the Registry Editor. Navigate to the following key:
[HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management] and set the “ClearPageFileAtShutdown” value to 0.
XP Professional users can do this via the Group Policy Editor. To start it, go to Start->Run and type “secpol.msc”. Click Local Policies, then Security Options, and set “Shutdown: Clear virtual memory page file” to Disabled.
These registry tweaks may solve the problem partially because there may be other processes, services or malfunctioning installed applications that cause the shutdown procedure to take a long time.
4. Being a long time user of Windows, you are now aware of the Show Desktop utility function, but back in the past you have removed it from Quick Launch. Don’t know how to restore it?
Go to Start->Run and type the command “regsvr32 /n /i:U shell32″. The icon will reappear in Quick Launch.
5. Remove the username and picture from the new Windows XP Start Menu
The Windows XP start menu displays your username and a picture at the top. Many complain that they don’t want this information to be shown but there is no solution for this. Well, there is, of course without disabling the Welcome Screen and Windows XP Themes.
Go to C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataMicrosoftUser Account Pictures. Inside the folder there is a BMP picture file named after your username. If your name is Smith then the picture file should be named Smith.BMP. Rename it to Smith2.BMP, then rename the following folder: C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataMicrosoftUser Account PicturesDefault Pictures to “Old_Default Pictures”.
To remove the user name, go to the Registry Editor (Start->Run->regedit) and look for [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoft WindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer]. In the right panel, set the “NoUserNameInStartMenu” value to 1. After a system reboot, no username or picture will be shown.
6. Windows forgets your Folder settings?
If you are a meticulous person you might like to customize your folders to look nice, changing the view mode, position or display options. After restarting, you realize that everything was in vane, you lost the settings. This is due to the fact that by default Windows XP remembers the settings for at most 400 folders. To solve this go to Registry Editor and look after these keys:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsShell] and
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsShellNoRoam]. Set the BagMRU Size to 5 000 (or up to 8 000). Now it’s solved!
7. Set the command prompt to a desired path.
When you type CMD in the “Start->Run” window to access the command prompt, you notice that it will go to the user’s home directory. To change that, use the Registry Editor to navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoft Command Processor].
In the right panel, look for Autorun. If it misses, create a new REG_SZ and set the folder there, preceded by a CD (as you type in DOS). Example: typing just CD makes the Command Prompt default to C: drive. You can also type “CMD /?” in the Command Prompt for detailed information about its parameters.
8. Sometimes you might be unable to preview JPG, GIF and HTM files in the Display Properties dialog. To solve this error type “REGSVR32 /i SHIMGVW.DLL” and “REGSVR32 /i MSHTML.DLL” in Start->Run.
9. Clear the “Search for files and folders” history in Windows XP to keep your privacy.
Go to Registry Editor and look for [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoft Internet Explorer ExplorerBars{C4EE31F3-4768-11D2-BE5C-00A0C9A83DA1}FilesNamedMRU]. There you can delete the items.
10. Your zip archiver software has expired and after uninstall there is no zip associated program, although Windows can deal with zip archives.
Go to Start->Run and type “REGSVR32 ZIPFLDR.DLL” or “cmd /c assoc .zip=CompressedFolder”.
Please note that due to the large number of settings and changes that might have previously been applied to your Windows system, some of the tweaks mentioned above might not work as they were described.
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Otakuzine Fest ‘06 and the National Cosplay Competition 2006
Posted by Nico Yan in General Friday, 4 August 2006 03:58 No Comments
The Otakuzine Fest ‘06 was held in Le Pavilion, near Mall of Asia, heading this event were the Otakuzine Mag Staff along with HERO TV and Cosplay.Ph. Also the National Cosplay Competition 2006 was one of the big events that Otakuzine Fest took in as part of its one day activity. Though it was raining the whole day, the event was a successful one. Although some of the cosplayer, whose name was in the lineup, didn’t came but still Cosplay.Ph Staff manage to get more than 50 participants. If it’s more that 70 the event would take up to 10:00pm. I’m one of the marshall of the said event, even though it’s tiring once I see those young ones having fun, then it’s worth it.
The event was successful not because of a well-played event but more on the interaction of the audience and the event. And yes! There where some minor and major problems along the event but its worth saying “Ah! Success”. I congratulate Dennis and Brian Uy, and their Otakuzine Staff, also the Cosplay.Ph Staff and most of all the Event Marshalls! Without them the event wont be a success and meaningful. Also most of the staff are Team MyKyoudo Members, Salutations to you all!
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