Everybody Geek

How to format a large hard disk to FAT32 in Windows

2011-03-23T23:44:00.001+01:00

You want to hook up your external hard drive to your PlayStation, DVD player or any other media player device that requires the hard drive to be formatted in FAT32? Are you trying to format a hard disk to FAT32 in windows but can't seem to find how to do it? As of Windows Vista, the format option in Windows only offers you to format a hard disk in NTFS or exFAT. There is no more option to format to FAT32 in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

On the internet you can find many article about how to use the command line format.exe utility that allows you to format in FAT32. Unfortunately, as of Windows XP, Microsoft has limited formatting a hard disk to FAT32 to partitions smaller than 32GB (although the theoretical limit for FAT32 is about 8TB).
So how to format a large hard disk or partition to FAT32? The answer is simple: FAT32Format.

The FAT32Format utility comes in two flavors: a command line version and a GUI powered version, which I prefer. To format your hard disk to FAT32:

Go to http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm and download Guiformat
Run Guiformat.exe. A window as shown below should open
Select your drive
Select Quick Format to perform a quick format, or clear the Quick Format box to perform a full format
Click Start and wait for the format to finish

A Quick Format only should take a couple of seconds. A full format entirely erases your disk bit by bit and can take a couple of hours to finish (the full format option seems to have a bug in calculating the percentage completed, and even resets to 0% every now and then. But the format itself finishes correctly).

Counter Snipe: kill or get killed

2010-09-02T20:21:00.003+02:00

In the world of the Sniper there are rarely any second chances. Find and neutralize the enemy sniper before he gets you. That's what Counter Snipe is all about.

Counter Snipe is a free online multiplayer browser game developed by Ninja Kiwi.
In single player mode, you can practice your sniping skills and get to know the different maps and weapons. But the real challenge is the online multiplayer mode.
In multi-player mode, you have to spot and kill other players before they finish you off. During your killing spree, you earn cash to buy new weapons and expand your inventory.
You can also challenge your friends in a private game.

You can play Counter Snipe on the Ninja Kiwi website.

But I recommend to play Counter Snipe in full screen mode! Click here to open Counter Snipe full screen.

Adobe has released an important security update for Adobe Reader

2010-08-19T21:35:00.002+02:00

Today, Adobe has released an important update for Adobe Reader and Acrobat. (Check the adobe blog the official announcement).

This update addresses critical security updates in Adobe Reader and Acrobat. One of the issues that has been fixed is the flaw that recently has been discussed at the Black Hat USA 2010 security conference (by Charlie Miller). It is advised to update Adobe Reader as soon as possible!

Open Adobe Reader
Go to 'Help' and select 'Check for updates'
Click 'Download' to download the update
One the update has been downloaded, click 'Install' to install the update.
You need to restart your computer once the update has been installed

One minute of pure fun / frustration

2010-08-11T15:54:00.003+02:00

Are you ready for one minute of pure fun?
Are you ready to play an insanely fun game that only lasts 1 minute, and after 20 minutes of trying, the only thing that is insane is you?
Are you ready for Morplee?

Morplee is a very simple game, in which you have to complete 25 minigames and defeat one boss. You get exactly 1 minute to complete your task. Will you succeed?

Morplee is one of the funniest online games I have played in months. The idea is so simple yet the goal is so difficult to achieve. Pure addiction!
After a little more than 20 minutes of trying, I finished the game and had 6 seconds left.
Can you do better than me?
Let's find out.

Click here to play Morplee!

Use your pictures as a screen saver in Widows 7

2010-05-08T16:00:00.002+02:00

You have a nice collection of pictures or photos that you want to use as your screen saver? This is very easy to do in Windows 7. All you have to do is put your pictures in one folder and enable the screensaver. Simply follow the instructions below.

Open Windows Explorer (or use My Computer or press Windows + E)
To use the photo screen saver, all pictures must be in the same folder. You can use an existing folder, or you can create a new one like I did.

I'm going to create a new folder in the Pictures library
Right-click on the Pictures library and select 'New => Folder'
Enter a folder name: e.g. 'Pictures for screensaver'

Now copy all your pictures into the folder. Within this folder, you can organize your photos into subfolders. the photo screen saver will also display pictures that are in the sub-folders
Close Windows Explorer

Ok, so now it's time to tell Windows to use this folder as your screensaver.

Right-click on your desktop and select 'Personalize'
In the bottom right, click on 'Screen Saver'
On the screen saver settings page, click the selection box and select 'Photos' from the list
Click on 'Settings'. This is where you can select the folder to use and set other options.
Click on 'Browse' and select the folder you want to use (in my case, I select the 'Pictures for screensaver folder in the Pictures library).
Select the 'Slide show speed': Slow = 10s; Medium = 5s and Fast = 3s
If you don't want to see the photos in order, select 'Shuffle pictures'
Click Save
You can set the waiting time or click preview to test your screen saver
Click OK

Now you can enjoy your photos as a nice screen saver.

Farmerama: Enjoy Country Living (Browser Game)

2010-05-01T11:37:00.011+02:00

Trade in your city life for a taste of the country. Run your own homestead, till your own fields and raise your own cattle. Keep trespassers off your land: This is your farm now!
Farmerama is country livin' at its best. Cultivate, fertilize and harvest your crops. Raise livestock and trade with other farmers.

Farmerama is a free online browser game where you have to run your own farm and become the biggest farmer in the county. You have to grow your own crops, breed your own cattle and compete against other farmers all over the world. Sell your animals on the market, buy new seeds in the city, plant new trees, show off your farm on the internet and make new buddies. It's all part of Farmerama. Hours of fun guaranteed!

Farmerama is an online browser game, so no download and no software to install. Farmerama is totally free. So no need to spend money. Of course, you can buy upgrades with real money to speed up the game, but you don't need to spend a single cent to be able to play the game.

Farmerama is a great alternative to the immense popular Facebook game Farmville. But I like Farmerama a lot better, simply because you don't need a Facebook account (or any other social networking account) to play the game. So you don't have to worry about people trying to hack into your account, you don't have to bother with a social network, only to be able to play a game.

Registration is very easy and you can get started in less than a minute! All you have to do is enter your email address and choose a password. An in-game tutorial guides you through the game, and in the forum, you can get help from the Farmerama community. In addition, let me give you some small hints to get you started:

Step through the tutorial until step 10 (chore 10). While you are waiting for your first chickens, start growing wheat and lettuce until you reach level 2
Now go to the city, visit the Farmer's Society and play the first couple of Restaurant contracts (make sure you have enough plots on your Farm and you have enough seeds before starting with a new contract!)
Don't use your water on growing your seeds. You don't need water to complete the contracts and refilling water is expensive.
Barnyard Bills are extremely valuable, but you only get them for some quests or you have to buy them. Don't use your Barnyard Bills until you totally understand every aspect of the game! (so not within the first couple of days and until you reach level 3). You don't need them to play the game, but wasting them is a shame.
The game currently has some refresh problems. If you performed an action (planting seeds, placing a plot, ...) but it doesn't show, simply refresh your browser window (refresh button or press F5)

That's all folks!
Click here to start playing Farmerama and make sure to add me as a buddy!

Have fun!

10 reasons why you should NOT buy an iPad

2010-04-23T18:31:00.006+02:00

Apple has released the iPad two weeks ago in the USA, and all versions of the iPad will be released in the rest of the world in the next weeks/months. But is it worth buying an iPad?
Short answer... no! At least that what I think.

As always, the iPad is a huge hype and Apple's marketing department has done a great job, you gotta give them that. In every newspaper and on every tech and non-tech website, people are talking about the iPad. And as always, there are two types of people: those who hate the iPad, and those love it (and neither of both parties even have touched or seen the iPad). But the numbers speak for themselves: within the first week, over 500.000 iPad have been sold.

Should you buy an iPad? Is it really a useful device or just another over-priced gadget?
If you ask me, stay away from the iPad and spend your money on something else. Here is why:

Price: as always Apple products are over-priced, and the iPad is no difference. Despite this article, I'm sure the iPad has some nice features to offer, but for its feature set, is seriously overpriced! A correct price would be in the 300$-400$ range. But for 600+ bucks, you better buy a decent lightweight netbook with touchscreen (like the Acer Aspire 1825PTZ).
No USB port or card reader: the iPad does not have a card reader or USB port. So despite Apple claiming the iPad is the best way to experience photos and video, there is no way to put your pictures or movies on the damn device (other than transferring them over your network). Sure, Apple has some adapters (hey, let's spend some more money) to deal with this problem, but this device is marketed as ultra-portable.
Limited disk space: the entry level model only has 16GB disk space. The more expensive models are equipped with 32GB or 64GB capacity. Because there is no support for external media (flash card, USB stick, HDD), that's all you get. With photos, videos and applications getting larger, there is no need to tell even 64GB is not enough (every netbook is equipped with at least 160GB disk space).
Wifi-only: the only network support on the basic models is wifi. No 3G or other networking capabilities. Since wifi is not always available (public transport, public locations, ...), 3G is a must have for such a device. Apple charges you an additional 100$ for a 3G model. In addition, wifi is not stable on a lot of iPads and Apple refuses to acknowledge the problem.
No camera: once again, Apple claims the iPad is the best way to experience the web. Sure, in a world without video conferences and video chatting. No camera also means no photos. So taking a picture with your ultra-portable iPad and emailing it to your friends... not possible
No multitasking: the iPad is running the iPhone OS. So no support for multi-tasking. Steve Jobs already announced multi-tasking support in iPhone OS 4, but this is limited to few selected processes. So no 3rd party apps.
No kickstand: the iPad does not have a kickstand. So yo have to keep the iPad always in your hands, even when watching photos, movies, etc.
No flash support: like the iPhone, the iPad does not support flash. The entire Apple community keeps yelling that they don't need flash because flash is slow and not an open standard. They might be right, but the truth is that the web is full of flash websites and flash applications. So much for the 'best way to experience the web'.
Micro-SIM instead of regular SIM: the 3G models only support the micro SIM-format. Many operators still don't use the micro-SIM format, so you even might not be able to use 3G even if you pay for it due to the lack of micro-SIM not available in your country.
Questionable screen: with a resolution of 1024x768 pixels (4:3 aspect ratio), the screen of the iPad is not suited for 16:9 video content (once again, Apple states that the iPad is the best way to experience video). So in an era of 16:9 video content, the iPad lacks behind. Some say the 4:3 format is more natural for reading ebooks. Unfortunately, the iPad does not have an eInk screen like the Kindle does. Reading an e-book on the iPad is not very comfortable.

The Apple iPad clearly is not a netbook. Featuring the iPhone OS, you can hardly call it a computer. It lacks storage capacity, multi-tasking capabilities, support for external storage, and many other basic OS features.
Although the iPad runs on the iPhone OS, it's not a smartphone either. You can't make calls with the iPad.
So basically, the iPad is a very expensive ebook reader and crippled smartphone without phone capabilities. In my opinion, you're better of with a true netbook with touch screen like the all new Acer Aspire 1825PTZ. Or for the price of the iPad, you can buy a decent netbook AND smartphone.

No, the iPad is an over-hyped gadget that has no real use for 95% of it's buyers.

SQL Server 2008 R2 has been released

2010-04-22T00:03:00.005+02:00

Today, Microsoft released SQL Server 2008 R2 to manufacturing!

SQL Server 2008 R2 will be available to customers in early May through Microsoft’s distribution and partner channels.

To celebrate the release, Microsoft, in collaboration with the Professional Association for SQL Server, will host more than 85 live launch events worldwide. For customers and partners who cannot attend a live event, Microsoft is offering a SQL Server 2008 R2 Digital Tour online at http://www.sqlserverlaunch.com.

Key enhancements in this release include the following:

Managed self-service business intelligence (BI) for reporting and analysis
Enterprise-class scalability and greater IT efficiency
Platform integration spanning the datacenter to the cloud

A full comparison of the different editions of SQL Server 2008 R2 can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/editions-compare.aspx

Comodo warnings: Rundll32.exe is trying to execute different dlls

2010-01-11T19:45:00.004+01:00

Today I got a question about Comodo Personal Firewall running on Windows 7.
Here is the problem:

Whenever your pc is idle, you get Defense+ warnings from the Comodo Firewall saying:

rundll32.exe is trying to execute

Although this seems normal behaviour on Windows 7, it is very annoying. Luckily, this is very easy to resolve.

Why do you get these warnings?
Whenever your computer is idle, Windows 7 collects program telemetry information that is used for the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program, if opted-in.
This information is collected, even if you selected not to participate in the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program. The information is simply not used.

How do I fix this?
Stopping these warnings about rundll32.exe to pop up is very easy. All you have to do is disable the scheduled task that is responsible for collecting program telemetry information.

Open the Task Scheduler

Click the Start button and enter 'Task Scheduler' in the search box
Click 'Task Scheduler'

Open Start => Control Panel
Select 'System and Security'
Under Administrative Tools, select 'Schedule Tasks'

Disable the scheduled task

In the Task Scheduler, navigate to: Task Scheduler Library => Microsoft => Windows => Application Experience
You should see two scheduled tasks: AitAgent and ProgramDataUpdater
Right click 'ProgramDataUpdater' and select 'disable'
Reboot your computer

That's all. No more Defense+ warnings about rundll32.exe trying to execute different dll files.

7 things I don't like about Windows 7

2010-01-09T15:30:00.000+01:00

A couple of days ago I have been blogging about the 10 things I like the most in Windows 7. And although I'm quite impressed with Windows 7, there a also some features or changes I don't like about Windows 7 or that couldn't impress me at all.

Pinning: In Windows 7 you can pin programs to the task bar for easy access. This feature has replaced the Quick Launch toolbar. Although the pinning idea is not too bad at all, it couldn't impress me, and definitely cannot replace the Quick Launch toolbar.

Once pinned, the task always remains where you pinned it. This makes it difficult to differentiate between open and not open programs.
There is way to much spacing between pinned tasks. And this cannot be changed.
Opening a new instance of the same program is not possible anymore using a single click.

Windows XP Mode: I've been using Microsoft Virtualization technologies for years now. So actually, I'm a big fan of Windows XP Mode, however, there is one show stopper: performance! Compared to running Windows XP inside a Virtual PC image on Windows Vista, performance of Windows XP Mode is a huge step back. Overall performance is below par and watching a video on YouTube for example is pretty sluggish.
Taskbar layout: The new taskbar has been designed with the big icons in mind. This makes the default task bar way too big! Revert to small icons is possible, but takes too many clicks: you have to tell every toolbar separately to use small icons, or you get the strangest results.
Action Center: The action center checks your security settings, firewall, virus protection, etc. and notifies you if any problems have been found on your computer. Unfortunately, even if no problems have been detected, the action center keeps sitting in the notification area taking up space.
Windows Live Messenger: When minimizing Live Messenger, it minimizes to the task bar, not to the system tray as it used to do for the past 10 years. Maybe it's just a habit, but I don't like any messenger to take up space on the taskbar when minimized. In addition, if not minimized, there are two Live Messenger panes on the task bar: one for the actual program, and one serves as the 'system tray' icon. A big no go!
Windows Explorer navigation and headers: Folder and file navigation and representation seems to be something Microsoft likes to change in every version of Windows. When opening folders by double clicking them in the right pane, the tree view in the left pane does not expand automatically. Luckily, this can be changed under Options.
Windows automatically changes the headers in the right pane, based on the content of the folder. Although this is somewhat useful, it is a complete disaster for mixed content folders. For example, no matter what content is in a folder, I always want to see file size. For some content, this is not visible by default.
I'm kinda oldschool, and organize everything in files and folders. I almost never use Favorites and Libraries etc. With every version of Windows, they keep pushing 'My Computer' further down the navigation pane.
Windows Movie Maker: Microsoft decided to remove Windows Movie Maker from Windows 7. OK, you can download it separately as part of the Windows Live suite, but still, it's annoying that a program that was included in Windows Vista is removed from it's successor.

There are other smaller things that I don't like about Windows 7, but they are not worth mentioning.

What do you don't like about Windows 7?

10 things I like about Windows 7

2009-12-23T11:33:00.005+01:00

I've been using Windows 7 for quite a while now and overall I'm very impressed. It's not just all eye-candy Windows 7 has to offer, there are actually quite a lot of improvements in the background that makes Windows 7 a lot better than Windows XP and Windows Vista. Here is my top 10 pick of features I like the best in Windows 7:

Start Menu: Microsoft did a great job in Vista redesigning the start menu and it's even better in Windows 7. No more clutter in your start menu and the Search box makes it easier than ever to find the program or file you need
Windows 7 Gadgets: Gadgets are a great way to add tons of information and useful tools on your desktop. In Windows Vista, you could only place them on the sidebar, now you can put them anywhere on your desktop!
Aero Peek: Take a quick peek at your desktop by making all open windows transparent. Simply hover your mouse over the bottom right corner of your screen, or press 'Windows+Space'. After all, what's the point in having desktop gadgets if you have to minimize all windows every time you want to see them like in Vista
Taskbar preview: Hover your mouse over a taskbar icon and you'll see a small preview of the page or program. Point to the small preview and you get a full-screen preview.
Devices and Printers: The built-in device manager offers a single location to organize all your devices like printers, midi devices, faxes, phones, headsets, etc.
Driver support: Windows 7 has the best driver support ever and is actually the first Windows version that automatically installed all my devices. Installing Windows 7 is really as simple as inserting the DVD, clicking next a couple of times and off you go. (remark: for optimal performance, it might be recommended to check the vendors website every now and then to see if newer drivers are available).
User Account Control (UAC): Where Vista bothered you with 'are you really, really sure you want to do this' questions, in Windows 7 UAC is just right. You only get UAC pop-ups if really needed, and only once!
Window resizing: Windows 7 makes it easier than ever to resize your windows, even side-by-side. Simply drag your window to or from the top side of your screen to maximize or return to normal view. Drags windows to the side to align them side by side. Or shake a window to minimize all the others.
Windows Paint: Paint finally has been given the ribbon interface which makes it a lot easier to use. Paint also has some small improvements that I've been waiting for for ages, like the ability to set the pixel size when resizing images.
HomeGroup: Setting up a home network to share files, music, printers or other devices in just a few clicks. One small remark, you can only enjoy the full power of HomeGroup if all the pc's in your network are running Windows 7.

Of course, there is more in Windows 7 than the above: better performance, multi-touch support, remote media streaming, etc. But either I have not been able to test those features, or I wasn't too impressed by it.

What do you like about Windows 7?

InSSIDer: optimize your wireless network

2009-12-23T10:59:00.005+01:00

Over the past years, more and more people are using wireless internet at home. Buy a cheap wireless router, turn it on, let your computer find your network and off you go. It's that simple, right?
If you are happy with an unsafe and potentially slow network... that's all you have to do.

In order to optimize your wireless network, there are two important things you have to do. And both require you to scan for other wireless networks in your neighbourhood.

Protect your network: make sure your network has at least the same protection level of your neighbour (attackers always choose the least protected network)
Make sure there is no interference from other wireless networks to optimize your network speed.

InSSIDer is a free Wi-Fi network scanner for Windows Vista and Windows XP (it also works with Windows 7), that allows you to analyze all wireless networks in your neigbourhood.
Here is what you have to do.

Download and install InSSIDer
Launch and and start scanning
Identify your own network and look for 'Channel' and 'Security'

Channel
The wireless channel defines the frequency on which your network is broadcasting. Multiple networks broadcasting on the same channel can interfere with each other. It is advised to have 5 channels between your network and surrounding networks. Recommended channels are 1, 6 and 11. If your network is broadcasting on the same channel as your neigbours's channel, change it.

Security
Security is set on your router and defines the protection level used to encrypt data between your computer and your router. The better security you use, the more difficult it is for an attacker to use your network. Because an attacker always tends to break into the least secured network, my advice is simple: Make sure your network has better (or the same) protection as your neighbour!
From worse to best, these are the security levels used for wireless networks:

None > WEP > WPA-TKIP > WPA-AES or WPA-CCMP > WPA2-TKIP > WPA2-AES or WPA2-CCMP

If a network shows RSNA-CCMP, that's similar to WPA2-CCMP. So RSNA-TKIP > RSNA-CCMP

If needed, change the wireless security on your router.

If you prefer some more eyecandy, you can also use Xirrus WIFI Inspector. Xirrus WIFI Inspector offers more or less the same feature set as InSSIDer and is a good alternative.
It is also available as a Vista gadget. But this eye-candy comes at a price. Xirrus WIFI Inspector is more CPU hungry and has a larger installer.

Because InSSIDer is more lightweight, my vote goes to InSSIDer.

Google Goggles: search using pictures!

2009-12-10T20:18:00.005+01:00

On Monday, Google launched Google Goggles, a new mobile application.
Google Goggles is the newest member of the Google Mobile App family and enables you to search using pictures. All you have to do is take a picture with your mobile phone, stream it to Google and you get a list of search results related to that picture.

Google Goggles has a lot of uses:

Take a picture of a book, DVD or CD and learn everything about the author or artists
Point your mobile at a store, landmark or any other location and find out interesting information about it
Take a snapshot of artwork or a bottle of wine and impress your friends with all the information that Google delivers directly to your mobile phone

Technically spoken, Google Goggle even enables you to search using face recognition, however, this is currently not enabled. Google is still experimenting with this feature and they first have to straighten out some legal concerns about privacy before they can offer this feature.

Currently, Google Goggles is only available for Android 1.6+ enabled phones, but Google plans to release Google Goggles for all popular mobile platforms like the iPhone and Blackberry.

Read all about Google Goggles over here.
To learn more about Google Mobile App, take a look over here.
And for a list of Android enabled phones and devices go to this page.

GetJar: boost mobile phone with hundreds of free applications

2009-12-09T05:00:00.001+01:00

Are you looking to enhance your mobile phone with some new applications? Take a look at GetJar!
GetJar is the world’s largest cross platform app store and provides more than 50000 mobile applications and games for each popular mobile phone platform: Java (J2ME), Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm and Android.

Although GetJar offers applications for almost every platform, most applications are for the mobile Java (J2ME) platform, which is great news!
Many people think you need expensive smartphone like the Nokia N97 or Iphone to be able to install and enjoy new applications. But they don't realize that almost every mid-range gsm supports J2ME.

You can search for an application by category download it to your computer and transfer it t your mobile phone using USB or bluetooth. Your phone doesn't have a USB port or doesn't support buetooth? No problem, you can also download the applications directly onto your phone:

On your computer, go to GetJar.com
Search for the application you wan to download and click 'Download App'. Write down the direct download code
On your mobile phone, go to m.getjar.com
Select Quick download code on the bottom of the page and enter the code

That's all folks!

GSMArena: the best mobile phone review site

2009-12-06T10:22:00.006+01:00

Holidays are coming, so this is typically the time of the year many of you are looking for a new mobile phone for yourself or as a gift.
Before buying, make sure you check out http://www.gsmarena.com! Gsm, pda or smartphone, GSMArena has all the information you need!

GSMArena is by far the best mobile phone review site on the internet. They offer extensive gsm reviews, testing every possible feature of the phone. They keep you up to date with the latest news about mobile phones and even list every mobile phone which is rumoured to be released.

But what I like the best about GSMArena is that they offer full phone specifications for every possible mobile phone ever released. And it is very easy to compare 2 phones.
Not sure what gsm you are looking for? No problem, they also have the best 'phone finder' on the internet. You can basically search and filter on every possible feature a mobile phone has to offer.
In addition, for each phone you can read a lot of user opinions, to make sure the phone fits your needs.

The only minor drawback is that you can only compare 2 phones at the same time.

Happy gsm searching!

Windows 7 Released

2009-07-24T00:17:00.003+02:00

Windows 7 has been released to manufacturing!
You can read all about windows 7 right here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/home?os=nonwin7

But when will you get Windows 7? Well, you still have to wait a little longer to get it.
General availability begins October 22. Retailers and OEMs will be offering new systems preloaded with Windows 7 and copies of Windows 7 at retail on that day. f you are not a regular customer, you might get it earlier.

By the end of the week PC builders (OEM partners) will get it by the end of this week, so they can start pre-installing Windows 7 on their computers.
ISVs, IHV partners, Technet subscribers and MSDN subscribers will get the English version on August 6. Other languages will be available October 1.
Windows 7 will be available to Microsoft Gold certified resellers on August 16 from the partner portal. In English only. Other languages will be available on October 1.
Microsoft “Action Pack” subscribers will get it on August 23
Windows 7 will be available to Volume licensees on August 7 or September 1 depending whether they have an existing Software Assurance license or not.

Free Windows 7 Upgrade
You don't have to wait to buy a new computer. Buyers of new computers equipped with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate will get the option to upgrade to Windows 7 for free once it is released.

Fight my Brute

2009-05-06T20:21:00.000+02:00

Are you a little bored? You want to have a good laugh? Or maybe you just have some time to waste? OK, I dare you to fight my brute!

All you have to do is go to http://everybodygeek.mybrute.com, enter your character's name and start playing! No registration needed!
Just sit back and watch your brute being slaughtered by my brute :-)
You can upgrade your brute by killing other brutes and invite other people and train them as your pupils.
Have fun !

Windows 7 released to the public

2009-05-05T21:18:00.000+02:00

A little earlier than expected, Microsoft has released the Windows 7 Release Candidate to the general public. You can download Windows 7 RC right here!

What's new in Windows 7 RC?
Windows 7 RC of course comes with all exiting new Windows features 7 like an improved taskbar and jump lists. Windows 7 RC also offers improvements in performance, reliability, and compatibility. In addition the Windows 7 RC has two new exiting features:

Windows XP Mode (beta): This new feature allows Windows 7 Professional users to run many Windows XP productivity applications seamlessly in Windows XP Mode. Utilizing Windows Virtual PC, Windows XP applications can be launched with a single click directly from the Windows 7 desktop. (Please note that Windows XP Mode is currently not included at the time of downloading Windows 7 RC. Windows XP Mode can be downloaded here.)
Remote Media Streaming: Remote streaming enables you to securely access your digital media libraries regardless of where you are. Simply associate two Windows 7 PCs with the way you connect to the Internet and allow Internet access to your media on both of them. Windows Media Player displays and plays the media libraries from those remote PCs in the same manner as other shared media libraries on a home network.

A complete list of all new Windows 7 features can be found on the Windows 7 website.

Microsoft recommends to install Windows 7 RC as a clean installation. An upgrade from a previous beta build is possible, but has not been tested thoroughly.
Windows 7 RC is a time limited version. The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours.

What are you waiting for? Go download Windows 7 RC!

Warning 2: Facebook is dangerous

2008-12-15T11:28:00.004+01:00

Only 3 weeks ago, I blogged about how dangerous social networking can be. You can read the post here. I mentioned some different scenarios why Facebook can be dangerous. Most of them were hypothetical. Past 3 weeks have not been the best for Facebook and it turns out I was completely correct. Facebook is dangerous, and the scenarios I wrote about are not hypothetical at all.

Facebook viruses
First of all, Facebook is facing quite a lot of virus attacks. Two weeks ago the Koobface virus showed up on Facebook (read all about it on msnbc). Koobface is a virus that uses the social network's messaging system to infect PCs. Once infected, it tries to gather credit card and other sensitive information. All 120 million Facebook users are targeted by the virus. In August, MySpace was already targeted by the same virus.
The virus spreads itself by sending messages to other Facebook users with titles like 'LOL. You've been catched on hidden cam' and a link to a dangerous URL.
How to stop the Koobface virus? It's very simple: Never click on any link in a Facebook message!

The social dangers of Facebook
Yesterday I was reading the newspaper, and an article about Facebook drew my attention. The article was dedicated to one of the dangerous scenario's I mentioned: background checks.
Apparently, in some countries, employees of the tax department use information from Facebook to verify the income and tax information of some people. For example, people claiming to have a low income, and as such have to pay low taxes, but bragging about their very expensive hobbies on Facebook are potential targets for an in depth tax checkup.
Is this legal? What about privacy? According to a cyberlaw expert, it's perfectly legal, as tax employees are authorized to use any publicly available information. The information might not be usable as evidence in court, but it is usable as 'facts'.

So once again, be very careful when using Facebook (or any other social network)!

Never trust messages from people you don't know. And even if you do know the sender, never click on any link.
Think twice before sharing information on social networks. Everyone might be able to see and use that information.

Change the color scheme in Microsoft Office 2007 programs

2008-12-12T07:00:00.000+01:00

By default, Microsoft Office 2007 programs like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook come with a blue color scheme. The color theme covers the entire ribbon interface and the area surrounding the document. Did you know you can change this default color scheme and match it to the Windows Vista taskbar and color scheme? Yes, you can choose between a blue, black and silver color scheme for each Office 2007 program.

So how to change the color scheme in Office 2007 programs like Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook?

Open any of the Office 2007 applications
Click the Office button on the upper left of the application (the round button with the Office logo)
Click the Options button at the bottom of the menu (Word Options, Excel Options or PowerPoint Options)
Select the tab Popular and look for Color scheme
Change the color scheme: Blue, Silver or Black
Click OK to apply the color scheme and close the menu.

Personally, I like the black color scheme as it goes very well with the Vista theme.
Let me know if you like the other color schemes!

Record what your hear through your speakers in Vista

2008-12-08T07:00:00.001+01:00

By default in Windows Vista, you can only record sound using a microphone or from an audio device connected to the line-in connector. In this article, I'll show you how you can record what you here using stereo mix and how to enable this option. This allows you to record exactly what you hear through your speakers, and save it as an audio file on your computer. This is really useful if you want to record your own music mix, record audio from a microphone over a playing song, etc.

Enable the 'What You Hear' recording device

Right click on the speaker icon in the system tray and select 'Recording Devices'
The Sound window will open and the 'Recording' tab should be selected (if not, select it)
You should see two (or more) devices: Microphone and Line In
Right click in the white area below the available devices and select 'Show Disabled Devices'
If your sound card supports it, you should see some new devices. The one we need is called 'Stereo Mix' or 'What You Hear'.
Right click on 'Stereo Mix' or 'What You Here' and select Enable
Right click the same item again and select 'Set As Default Device' (or click the 'Set Default' button)
Click OK to close the Sound window

If the option 'Stereo Mix' or 'What You Hear' does not show up as disabled devices, your sound card does not support recording streaming audio. This is the case for many integrated or onboard soundcards. In case you have a desktop pc, you need to install another sound card that supports recording what you hear. In case you have a laptop, you are out of luck (unless you can find and external sound card that supports recording streaming audio. I haven't found one so far).

Record what you hear through your speakers

Open the Vista Sound Recorder (Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Sound Recorder) or any other recording software
Click 'Start Recording'
Start playing whatever sound you wanna play through your speakers and record
Click 'Stop Recording'
Enter a filename and click Save to save your recording.

In case the volume level of your recorded audio is too low, you might need to configure your recording device.

Right click on the speaker icon in the system tray and select 'Recording Devices'
Select the 'Stereo Mix' or 'What You Hear' device and click 'Properties'
Select the 'Levels' tab and adjust the slider to 100.
Click OK and OK to close both windows

Happy recording!

Warzone Tower Defense

2008-12-05T05:00:00.000+01:00

Here's another very nice online tower defense game: Warzone Tower Defense.
Your goal is to protect your base and survive as long as possible in a hostile environment. Defend your base from enemy vehicles, tanks and aircrafts by building machine guns, cannons, turrets, lasers, flame throwers and many more. Warzone Tower Defense features different levels and 10 game modes.

Warzone Tower Defense is different from other tower defense games.

There is no fixed path. The combat area is an entire warzone. Your enemies can go everywhere and you have to built a path to guide and destroy them.
There is no fixed number of levels to defeat. Your goal is to survive as long as possible while your enemies get stronger.

So there are almost unlimited possibilities to play the game. The screenshot below shows my best game so far (click to enlarge). I made it to wave 119.

You can play Warzone Tower Defense right here
http://www.madcowinteractive.com/TDWarzone/

Hints and Tips

Start of with building two machine guns and one cannon.
Use Building Blocks to make sure the enemy only has one exit path
Place your weapons in such a manner that they form a maze to limit the enemy's movement.
Place your plasma turrets close to each other to force the enemy to walk in a C shape around them.
Create a long straight path and put 4 lasers in the end to kill everything in it's line of sight
Don't forget to built air defense

Submit your Blogger sitemap to all search engines

2008-12-03T05:00:00.002+01:00

The first step to generate some traffic for your blog is to submit your blog to all major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Live search. It can take weeks for the bots to crawl your site and probably only some pages will be indexed. If you want your blog to be fully indexed in those search engines, you need to submit your blog sitemap. So make sure to submit your Blogger sitemap to all major search engines. In this article, I'll explain how to generate a sitemap for your Blogger blog.

The good news is that Blogger generates this sitemap automatically for you.
The bad news is that this default sitemap has some serious limitations.

The sitemap generated by Blogger for your Blogspot blog can be found at this URL:

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/rss.xml
http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml

The first one is in RSS format, the second one in Atom format. It doesn't matter which one you use, they should both be accepted as valid sitemap. I use the atom feed.

So far so good, but this sitemap has some limitations

By default, this sitemap only includes the latest 25 posts. So not all your blog posts might get indexed
If you use FeedBurner and enabled feed redirection on your blog, this sitemap does not work as it is redirected to your FeedBurner feed, which cannot be used as a valid sitemap

Let's deal with these problems and generate a valid sitemap for your blog.

Disable the redirect for your sitemap
If you are using the feed redirect option for your Blogspot blog, you need to add a parameter to your sitemap to make sure the sitemap does not get redirected to feedburner

atom.xml?redirect=false

Show all posts in your sitemap
By default, the sitemap only shows the latest 25 posts. Using a parameter called max-results, you can specify how many posts need to be included in the sitemap.

atom.xml?max-results=100

The number of posts can be any number from 1 to 500. In my example, I'm using 100 results in my sitemap.
But what if you have more than 100 posts on your blog? Or more than the maximum number of 500? Don't worry, you can generate multiple sitemaps and submit them all to Google, Yahoo and Live.

Finally, we are going to add a last parameter that tells the sitemap where to start.

atom.xml?start-index=1

The 'start-index=1' parameter tells the sitemap to start at post 1. Using the start-index and max-results parameters, you can now define multiple sitemaps, that start at different locations in your feed, to cover all your blog posts.

Let's put it all together
As an example, let's use a Blogger blog with 250 blog posts and feed redirection to FeedBurner enabled. I'm going to include 100 posts in a single sitemap, so I need 3 sitemaps to cover the entire blog. This is what the sitemaps look like:

http://blogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=100
http://blogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=101&max-results=100
http://blogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=201&max-results=100

The first sitemap will include the first 100 posts of the blog.
The 'start-index=101' tells the second sitemap to skip the first 100 posts and include post 101 to 200. Start-index=201 is used for the third sitemap.

You can now submit the 3 sitemaps to Google, Yahoo and Live search.

Keep in mind that submitting a sitemap does not guarantee that all your blog posts will be indexed. Google, Yahoo and Live use sitemaps to gather more information about your site to help the robot crawling your blog. So after submitting one or more sitemaps, you have a better chance of your blog being fully indexed, but no guarantee.

How to assign a hotkey to the Vista Snipping Tool

2008-12-01T05:00:00.000+01:00

One of the new features of Windows Vista is the Snipping Tool, a nice little screen capture program. Snipping Tool allows you to capture of a screenshot or a portion of your screen and save or share the image.
With the Vista Snipping Tool you can capture the entire screen, a single window, a rectangle or a free-form snip. You can easily add annotations to your screenshot and highlight portions of the image. With a single click, you can save or share your image and send it by mail.
You can open the Vista Snipping Tool from the Start menu (Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Snipping Tool)

There is only one problem. By default, there is no quick access available to the Vista Snipping Tool, so you always have to go through the start menu. Not anymore! Find below two solutions to enable quick access using hotkeys to open the Vista Snipping Tool.

Solution 1: Quick Launch toolbar

Open the Vista Snipping Tool from the Start menu
Click on Options
Select 'Display icon in the Quick Launch toolbar'
Click OK

You can now open the Snipping Tool from the Quick Launch toolbar, or by using the hotkey combination 'Windows Key + #', where # is the location of the Snipping Tool icon on the Quick Launch toolbar (for example: Windows Key + 5 if the Snipping Tool icon is the 5th on the Quick Launch toolbar)

Solution 2: Assign a hotkey
If you don't want to add the Snipping Tool icon to the Quick Launch toolbar, you can also assign a hotkey combination directly to the Snipping Tool.

Open the Windows Start menu and browse to the Snipping Tool icon
Right-click on the Snipping Tool icon and select 'Options'
Locate the field 'Shortcut Key'. It should show 'None'
Click inside the field 'Shortcut Key'
Press the hotkey combination you want to assign to the Vista Snipping Tool (for example Ctrl + F12)
Click OK

You can now open the Snipping Tool using the hotkey combination you selected (Ctrl + F12)

Happy snipping!

Bloons Tower Defense 3

2008-11-28T06:00:00.000+01:00

Bloons Tower Defense 3 is the 3rd and long awaited sequel in the Bloons Tower Defense series created by Ninja Kiwi.
Bloons tower defense is a tower defense game wrapped in a colorful bloons theme. You need to stop the balloons from escaping the maze by building and upgrading defense towers. Your weapons include dart throwing monkeys, tack shooters, boomerangs, cannons, bombs, road spikes, ice and super monkeys! Pass all 50 rounds to finish the level.

Bloons Tower Defense 3 features 8 brand new levels, more tower types and upgrades, new bloons and a lot of fun.
Click here to play Bloons Tower Defense 3

If you are not familiar with Bloons Tower Defense, you might want to start with playing Bloons Tower Defense 1 and Bloons Tower Defense 2.