I want to believe

Cannot open PDF files in Internet Explorer

2012-08-03T13:00:00.001+07:00

If you received an error "There is a problem with Adobe Acrobat/Reader. If it is running, please exit and try again (xx:xx)." in Windows XP/Vista/7 and using Adobe Acrobat Reader X, just simply:

1. Close your current IE browser and open Adobe Acrobat Reader X
2. From the menu select Edit - Preference - General
3. Uncheck mark the option for Enable Protected Mode at startup
4. Click "Yes" if you are prompted to “manually restart the application”
5. Press "OK" to continue
6. Exit from Adobe Acrobat Reader X and open your browser again
7. Try to preview or load the PDF files again

If these steps still not working, uninstall the Adobe Reader X with a lower version (9 or 8) or try using another free PDF reader such as FoxIt Reader.

Using ImTOO DVD Ripper

2011-01-26T16:50:00.001+07:00

Just tested using one of the popular software for DVD ripper from ImTOO Software Studio, DVD Ripper Platinum. Never try to convert one of my favorites DVD movies to my Google Android-based mobile phone. Hopefully can accompany me in a trip by watching movies using my phone next weekend.

After a quick installation, the software is ready to begin ripping from DVD to AVI. Conversion feature are extensive, can convert to different type of format such as AVI, MPEG, WMV, XviD and many more to mostly existing portable players.

Although the software has a lot of options, the interface and layout are quite nice and makes me feel easy to use for a beginner. The default setting is using high quality version, remember to change it to different optimization that suit your needs.

For more details you can visit their site here and mac version here.

Formula problem in Open Office and Microsoft Office

2010-07-07T11:46:00.002+07:00

Be careful when using formula for different type of spreadsheet software such as Open Office 3 and Microsoft Office 2003. Although using the same XLS file extension, the result in formula will be different. The error was slightly simple, but will cause you a lot of problems at the end. The error I found recently:

=IF(A1=0,"",A1)

In Open Office the formula result when A1 = 0 is 0
In Microsoft Office the formula result when A1 = 0 is ""

The result "" will cause error when you try to use it with other formula such as multiply or any other math formula.

Just revise the "" to 0 (zero)

=IF(A1=0,0,A1)

And everything will be fine.

Already tried to open the XLS (Open Office version) in Office 2007, and still got the same "" result. So, it's better to change to string conversion to zero instead.

How to delete Yahoo Messenger Custom Status Messages

2009-12-30T13:35:00.002+07:00

Today I just realized that YM don't have the menu/setting to delete the custom status messages.

So, how to delete it anyway?

1. Just type another custom status message
From the Yahoo Messenger official site:

Yahoo! Messenger "remembers" the last 9 custom status messages you create. If there are currently 9 custom messages in Messenger's memory and you add a new one, it forgets the oldest one and replaces it with the new one.

Although there's no way to manually delete the old custom status messages, they'll be deleted as you make new ones.

That's why no available setting/menu to delete it right? It's automatically deleted!

2. Delete it the hard way

a. Click START
b. Click RUN
c. Type "regedit" without quotes
d. Select the tree with the following:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\yahoo\pager\profiles\"Your YM ID"\Custom Msgs

At this point you can see all the custom messages.

e. Right click on the selected messages in NAME column and click DELETE
Repeat this step if you want to delete more status

3. Delete it the easier way

Just download Andy's Clear/Edit Yahoo Messenger Status History utility.

4. If nothing works for you, try to reinstall YM again :)

Just give comments if you want to share more tips to delete it.

Joomla at a glance

2009-12-29T16:26:00.001+07:00

Joomla is an open source content management system referred by tens of thousands as the best CMS (Content Management System) in the world.

After being installed, we can set up sections, categories, content items and much more add-ons to our new website. Forget the HTML, PHP, Ajax and any other languages for coding the websites, because using Joomla means create a website using friendly menus. With just point and click interface, it will be much easier.

Sounds interesting right?

The fact is, you must really get used to the menus and the terms in Joomla. The terms "easier" means everything are much easier than coding it entirely from the first place!

So, the first thing you can do is find the best source in the internet to learn it or for me I have my own “Joomla! For Dummies” book as guidance.

Next step you have to download the latest version of Joomla (you can download it here for the latest version). And remember to download the database component (I'm using XAMPP it means linuX, Ajax, Mysql, PHP, Perl). You can download XAMPP from this link.

The hard part (for me) is selecting the best template that suits you.
I prefer some FREE templates you can choose:
- Joomla24
- JoomlaShack
- SiteGround

Now you will begin sweating and swearing, it is not that easy as it says huh?

If you are a serious user and want to design it more professional you must find website professionals or get some help from ecommerce web services if you want to get the best of your internet business.

Not to worry if you are just starting new business and using website as your media, because generally web services can help you in the retail business.

Solving "Too many different cell formats" error message in Excel

2009-08-19T14:26:00.002+07:00

This error appear when your try to format a cell or a range of cells.

And the reason you getting this message because your workbook exceeds more than approximately 4,000 different combination of cell format. A combination is defined as a unique set of formatting elements that are applied to a cell. A combination includes all font formatting (for example: typeface, font size, italic, bold, and underline), borders (for example: location, weight, and color), cell patterns, number formatting, alignment, and cell protection.

WARNING!
If you are in the middle of saving your files, just save as the file to a different name. So, it didn't temper the previous version of your file.

For the quick fix:
1. Use the same type of font or use the standard font
2. Use borders format consistently. For example do not overlap formatting the same border
3. Remove the patterns by clicking No Color in the Patterns tab of the Format Cells dialog box

Try to save your file after apply these quick fixes.

Some ways to solve this problem:
1. Install or use Open Office. Open the file. Save and replace the file.
Open Office organized and formatting information is slightly different from Microsoft. Hopefully can solve the issue temporarily.
2. This final tip WILL works 100%. Upgrade your current Excel version to Excel 2007. Because the limitation is upgrade to 64.000 different combination.

Hopefully this tip can help. Just drop some other comments that can resolve the issue.

The Basics of Home Security

2009-08-11T16:11:00.001+07:00

Sometimes people always forget and careless about how important the security systems on their own home. Although in the neighborhoods the burglary rarely occur, it is better to prevent the crime to take place in our own home.

There are two types, for indoor and outdoor.

For the indoor:

Just lock the doors and windows as a habit. Even you leave the house for a few minutes. With the modern technology the use of home alarm will help a lot.
Try to illuminate as much of your expensive property. It will lure the thieves to be the target of a crime.
When on vacation remember to set the electronic timers for indoor lights, TV or radio.

And for the outdoor:

Please don't leave any house keys near the door, such as doormat, potted plant or even above the door. It's too easy for the thief to find it. Nowadays, this silly act can be change by simply using the latest home security device such as fingerprint door lock.
Remember to lock the garage door, because it's not funny to know that thieves will use the tools available in the garage to break into your house.
Use timers to maintain the outdoor lights. This simple tip will create illusion that is somebody in the house.
Be a good neighbor. When on vacation, we can the neighbors to pick up the mails or newspapers, so it looks like there are people in the house.

With all the precaution we take, technology surely can help us more. By installing a complete home security system in the house such as burglary detection, CCTV, fire and smoke detection, carbon monoxide detectors, gas detectors and other safety devices.

Delete DrWtsn32.log to free up space

2009-07-23T14:26:00.001+07:00

Just found a large file while defragmenting my hardrive. The DrWtsn32.log file holds about 400MB. That's a lot!

It is safe to delete this file?

After googling, I found out that the file was generated from Dr. Watson Windows XP application itself. It is a program error debugger that detects and diagnoses program errors and creates User.dmp and DrWtsn32.log files to contain the diagnostic data.

In Windows NT these files are stored in the %systemroot% folder. In Windows 2000, these files are stored in the %systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\DrWatson folder.

For Windows XP, these files are stored in the %systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson folder.

The DrWtsn32.log file is appended each time a program error occurs; the User.dmp file is overwritten each time.

To turn off the Dr Watson debugger, apply the following Windows NT / Windows 2000 / Windows XP registry hack:

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug
Name: Auto
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 disable
Value: 1 enable

To re-enable Dr Watson, you can change Auto back to 1 or from the command line type drwtsn -i.

For the conclusion, just delete DrWtsn32.log anyway. It's no harm whatsoever.

How to delete and block friends in Facebook

2009-07-22T13:06:00.001+07:00

Firstly go to this person's profile and at the very very bottom of their page just click Remove from friends.

This person never knows when existing friends had already removed from their Facebook friends list.

The numbers that represent your total friends will decrease but Facebook won’t reveal the name of the person who just removes you.

To be sure that this person is not being able to see your profile anymore put this person on your blocked list.

Click Settings on the main menu and select Privacy Settings, find the Block List and type the name on the Person text box and click Block to match the name. After you confirm the name, in the Block List will appear the person's name.

You can remove this block if you change your mind later on; it's really not a permanent blocking.

With this action the person won't be able to see any of our activities on Facebook just like you deleted your account to this person. Hope this tips can help.

Microsoft Office 2007 File Converters

2009-06-12T16:05:00.002+07:00

Still stick to your current Microsoft Office 2003 and can not open the latest Office 2007 files? Do not waste your time by searching some freeware or utility to convert it. Microsoft already has that tool for you.

By installing this File Format Converters all the Office 2007 files can be directly open with Office 2000, Office XP or Office 2003 such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. But remember to save it again with your current Office version.

I'm already patching my Office 2003 with Service Pack 2 while installing this tool. It's written in Microsoft System Requirements. So, remember to download the latest Office Service Pack first before installing this tool.

You can download it here.

Easy Animated Banners with Easy GIF Animator

2009-06-09T15:19:00.003+07:00

A few weeks ago I really need a small software that can create banner quickly and hustle free. After searching the internet, I decided to try Easy GIF Animator to a temporary solution in my urgent needs. This software let you try 20 times. So I give it a try.

Installment only takes a few minutes away and learning to use it was an easy task. In a short time I had already created my first animated banner. Looks great and nice!

I use a couple time after that for some quick modifications. And I realize that Easy GIF Animator is a powerful and really easy to use program for design and edit GIF files. And not only banner, it also can create animated pictures and buttons with great visual effects. Convert the animated banner to SWF file is a bonus!

I'm downloading Easy GIF Animator version 4 when trying it. Sorry guys, but this is not a free software. But it can help you while you're in a hurry.

You can visit their website on Bluementals Software for more information and screenshots.

> Operating Systems: Windows Vista, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 2000
> Additional Requirements: Windows Me/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista
> Limitations: 20-use trial

Unable to save the resume file in uTorrent

2009-03-11T13:15:00.001+07:00

I received this error on uTorrent a few days ago.

"Unable to save the resume file. some data may be lost.
Another program might have the file open, or the disk is full. please correct this and click retry. If you press cancel, the resume file will not be saved."

Really scare you out when you are still downloading a few gigabytes files and the status was 80-90%.

Advise from uTorret FAQs :

How do I fix Error: Unable to save the resume file?

Simply create two blank files named "settings.dat" and "resume.dat" (without the quotes) in the same folder utorrent.exe is saved in. Make sure Windows is not hiding the file extension when creating the file (in Explorer, Tools -> Folder Options -> View, uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types", hit OK)

But I didn't find all that files in uTorrent.exe folder. You can find it in :

c:\Documents and Settings\Your Name\Application Data\Resume.dat.old

WARNING!
If you ever try to tweak the uTorrent, please remember all the settings before you perform this fix.

Just delete resume.dat.old, resume.dat, settings.dat and settings.dat.old. After that create a blank files by opening notepad File>Save As and type in resume.dat.old, File>Save As and type in setting.dat.old, File>Save As resume.dat and File>Save As setting.dat

Please stop the uTorrent service when you do this!

If you find another error message that says :
"Cannot delete resume.dat: The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable."

Try to run chkdsk. Start -> Run -> chkdsk /F C:
Click yes when it asks, then reboot.

Also, you may check out Bit Defender. Sometimes it can causing the problem to uTorrent.

Top 8 New Year Resolutions

2008-12-30T13:55:00.002+07:00

Bill Vaughan

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.

My resolutions :

Keep changing cell phone after a few months is really not helping me a better understanding of gadget technology.
Want to utilize current gadgets. Really don't need an iPod, iPhone and a palm at the same time.
Keeping your photos from digital cameras for over 2 years is bad for hard drive space. Back it up to a DVD is a good idea.
Microsoft must have good reasons and purposes for creating Chkdsk, Disk Clean Up, and Defrag in Win XP. Just lost my hard drive because not using it.
Play more games. Scientists say they're good for you and improve your visual skills. But you always knew that.
Always remember that these are not my computers, these are not my notebooks, this is not my personal internet connection, and I exist only to serve the needs of the company and its employees.
Bosses: You can't live with them, and you can't live without them. Career and salary are in their hands. Just try to get a long with them.
Try New Things. Spent all of last year bored out of your mind? Take the plunge this year and try something new. Make the most out of your year by resolving to try more new things.

My last resolution came from this dumbspot site. You can try your New Year Resolution from here.

Anonymous

Many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits.

Happy New Year 2009!

How do you acquire new Technologies, Innovations or Inventions?

2008-12-30T08:34:00.000+07:00

How do you acquire your new technology? Do you look out for inventions or innovations? And how? Everybody or business does, yes sooner or later but of course the expensive and hard way. There is an easy way, You Techno. You Techno is an information resource dedicated to technologies, innovations and inventions and their applications in IT, Software, E-commerce, Business, media and Health. In today's world faced with a new problem of choice due to floods of technologies with no guarantee which one will really work for your one in a million particular situation and how? Why not find such a quest answered for you at You Techno, be it a business or an individual.

Search Engine Submitted & Optimized by ViVva

Quick Media Converter

2008-12-27T09:39:00.002+07:00

Quick Media Converter is a powerful and completely free tool for audio and video conversion.

For me I call it all in one converter tool because Quick Media Converter can converts from different formats such as flv, avi, divx, xvid, mpeg4, ipod, iphone, psp, 3GP, 3G2, AVI, DIVX, XVID, TS, DVD, VCD, MPEG, MPEG2, MP3, WAV, amr, m4a, mp4, vob, mov, h264, h263, wmv, wma.

Also support multiple files (in different formats) with a single process and have the Easy and Expert mode options. In easy mode everything are using the standard conversions settings. You don't have to change everthing, just select the file and the conversion type. Everything is good to go. But if you are a skilled user just try expert mode to more enhanced conversions setting such as bitrates, aspect, sizes and many more codes that require more knowledge of video and audio conversion.

For bonus, Quick Media Converter includes CamStudio which can capture your desktop activity to video.

I try this Quick Media Converter for a few times by convert mp4 iPod and VOB files to avi. The results are great.

You can download it here.

Solving Error 1304

2008-12-24T15:47:00.002+07:00

I've recently try to uninstall one of microsoft software and this error showed up.

Error 1304. Error writing to the file File name and location. Verify that you have access to that directory.

I've checked the permission issue, but everything was OK. I try to create and delete some files in that directory and there's no problem with that. Still received the same error after restarting the PC.

Next I try to Add/Repair the software and still displaying the same error.

After desperate for three hours, later on I try to replace the troubling file by downloading the same file from the internet (it's a dll file).

And it took me by surprised because I neither delete nor rename the file!
Now I really understand what the error message try to tell me. How stupid of me!

The way to solve this problem is by running the chkdsk utility from windows XP. You can find that menu by right click on your hard drive properties, select the Tools tab and click Check Now button. Check mark both option and click Start. It will display a message that chkdsk will be perform after restarting the windows XP. Just restart the windows and the system will perform the check disk procedure.

In my case, chkdsk will repair the trouble file that I'm having.

After chkdsk finish, I can continue uninstall the software smoothly. Whew ..

Auslogics Disk Defrag

2008-12-13T11:17:00.002+07:00

I just received a brand new hard drive for my notebook. My previous hard drive was crashed due to bad sectors. After a couple hours of installing and set up some default software, I try to find a better defragmenter tools that are available to use from the internet.

So, after spending two more hours searching and comparing, at last I choose this Auslogics Disk Defrag that was more recommended by the users. And it's absolutely FREE.

Auslogics Disk Defrag is a good utility for fast hard drive optimization. After optimizing it will speed up your hard drive start up and shutdown time, also increase the bottleneck of the system performance. As you know, hard drive is the slowest component in our computer. CPU and memory work faster because they don not have moving parts.

Auslogics Disk Defrag supports FAT 16, FAT 32, and NTFS volumes.

I already try this utility a few times and it works out great.

You can download it from their website here

MP3 bitrates converter using CDex

2008-12-06T12:02:00.002+07:00

I've just downloaded one of my long time favourite mp3. The huge file size about 13 MB really took me by surprised. What the heck?! 13 MB for one mp3 file?

It's sure big because of the sound quality is marvelous, near CD Audio quality!

Below are the common bitrates for mp3:

96kbs: The sound clearly lacks definition: as an example, hall's noises are perceived as some breath. The result is comparable to a good FM radio.

112kbs: The sound seems less present and less natural than the original. The definition is a bit less good, the voice is less clear. Attacks are less spontaneous. The spatialization is different from the original recording: the sound seems to be located more far and more lower. There is however a very noticeable improvement compared to 96kbs.

128kbs: Hall's noises are slightly less defined than the original. The violin is a bit less present and the piano attacks a bit less sharp. The voice is nearly identical to the original recording but sibilants are less pronounced. We can notice the same spatialization problem as with the 112kbs's one although there is again a good improvement compared to the 112kbs rate.

160kbs: The sound is more natural than 128kbs but the improvement is less spectacular than during the two preceding stages. The sound is different from the original, without however being possible to tell in what. I think that the difference resides more in what we feel rather than in what we hear.

192kbs: The sound is not felt as the original recording. It is however totally impossible to tell in what.

320kbs/256kbs: The sound is indiscernible from the original. It is impossible to make the difference with the original recording.

After understanding the bitrates quality stuff, I wanted to convert that 13MB file for standard listening in computers. That is 128kbs. I don't want to waste my hard drive space for only one song.

So, I found this great software, called CDex (it's FREE!).

CDex is a tool to do all sorts of things audio related. Mainly focused on ripping and converting, things like turning your home Compact Disc collection into an mp3 collection on your hard drive become extremely easy.

I try to convert the 13 MB file using 128kbs and the size had been change to 5MB. Whew, that's really save my space a lot!

But remember not to improve your sound quality from lower bitrates to higher bitrates, because whenever mp3 file has been compressed to lower bitrates, it is certain that part of the volatile sound which can not be compressed has been lost. So the result after the conversion is the same quality!

Ever try to convert mp3 before? Drop your comments to share your experiences.

You can download CDex here.

PBBG

2008-12-05T15:53:00.002+07:00

One of my fellow blogger introduces me about online game, call Meetoto. Meetoto is a web-based gaming world which introduces a novel and exciting way to enjoy the fun of casual online gaming with the benefits of serious social networking. I heard this kind of online games a few times and I just realized that there are lots of online games available at the moment. And all you need is just a browser to play it and of course your internet speed!

A browser games mean that they do not need any client side software to be installed. Really that simple!

After a few minutes googling, I found out another kind of browser games. They call it PBBG, a Persistent Browser-Based Game, a computer game that is both browser-based and persistent (able to progress with successive playing sessions). Because using the internet, most developers incorporate massively multi-player and community elements into their PBBGs game. And in PBBG the progress is made over days, weeks, or months.

PBBGs usually using some kind of server-side code, such as Perl, PHP, Python, Java or Flash to store data on the client's computer. With this server-side coding the security aspect when reading and writing from user's local file system can be reduce.

I had to admit, some of these PBBGs have a nice 3D rendering such as RuneScape and Ikariam. But never expect any full action pack from this kind of games, as I mentioned before this persistent games, it will takes days, weeks, or months to complete it.

If you have slow connection but still eager to play, just try Travian, Magic Duel or Gladiatus.

Any other online games need to share?

Funny Flash Drive

2008-11-25T13:00:00.003+07:00

This is one of the geek gadgets that will make people smile or scratching their heads.

Actually it's only a 2 GB flash drive, but it appears as though you've ripped the end of a USB cable and stuck in into your computer.

The little gizmo is called Hacked! The OH!*#% Flash Drive.

With this gadget you will be less concern if someone might took away your USB cable...

You can visit or even buy that from here.

BeFunky

2008-11-20T15:21:00.002+07:00

Want to convert your current image or photo to cartoon?

BeFunky is a FREE online image tool that can transform images to cartoon style.
You don't need to be an expert to use it. The choices are simple and easy. You can adjust your image with different kind of results.

They have:
* Cartoonizer - an online application that allows users to turn images and videos into digital paintings, cartoons and comics.

* Uvatar – a digital visual identity tool that takes the avatar concept to an extraordinary new level by letting users create a more accurate digital representation of themselves.

You can upload your image from desktop, url and even a snapshot via webcam (this is cool!).

After uploaded your photo, they have more tool option:
- Sketch: to create a black and white pencil drawing of the photo
- Color: to make sketches look colorful
- Warp: to push and pull any area of an image
- Goodies: ability to add fames, speech baloons, text, graphics, shapes and more

You can see the sample from Mr James Bond (Daniel Craig) images below.

So, what are you waiting for? Be funky...

PicMarkr - Free Watermark

2008-11-13T09:07:00.003+07:00

PicMarkr is online tool that will add custom watermark (image or text) to your images. Usually image watermarking being used to protect your copyrights or add some descriptions to your pictures. You can see the image examples from my previous posts.

The steps for creating this watermark are easy:
1. Upload your photos
You can either import it from Flickr (you must have the account) or just upload it from your computer. You can upload 5 files and total file size less than 25MB. PicMarkr has the option to resize your uploaded pictures to 500 pixels, 800 pixels and 1024 pixels.

2. Set watermark to your images
PicMarkr has 3 options, Text watermark, Image watermark and Tiled watermark. It has the option for the presets and watermark align.

3. Save your images
After creating your watermark, you can upload the images back to Flickr or save it to your own computer.

That's it, with minimum settings and don't need to download or install everything, PicMarkr has help me to create watermark the easy way. And yes, it's FREE.

Legal Alien in Singapore - Day 5

2008-11-06T15:59:00.004+07:00

Friday, 31st October 2008 It’s time to leave Singapore, and with a few hours left, I try to walk around the Changi Airport. And the GST refund makes me wonder. And the fact is tourists may claim reimbursement of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) paid on goods purchased from retailers participating in the Tourist Refund Scheme. There are eligibility criteria and conditions, but I am only aware of a minimum of $100 to claim this GST. In other words, you can get your money back after $100 per transaction outside the Changi Airport. Not all the money, only the tax you had already paid! It’s fair enough, right? Lots of shops inside this airport. For the last-minute shopping, it's more than enough, from foods, toys, chocolates, and electronic gadgets. That’s all for my trip to Singapore. I hope you can enjoy reading it too.

Legal Alien in Singapore - Day 4

2008-11-06T15:52:00.003+07:00

Thursday, 30th October 2008 This is my last night in Singapore. I visit Bugis Junction mall to have my meal there. The food court was crowded as always. Maybe the price is not that expensive and they provide more menu variations. There are Korean, Japanese, Western, and even Nasi Padang! I pass for this one; I eat that a lot in Indonesia. So, I try my luck by choosing Nasi Curry just because I haven’t tasted anything spicy for the last 3 days. No more places to visit and I really don’t feel up to it. Must pack all my stuff and prepare all the things together. Just want to have a good sleep tonight.

Legal Alien in Singapore - Day 3

2008-11-06T15:49:00.001+07:00

Wednesday, 29th October 2008 Yes, it’s Orchard road at night, one of Singapore's “must visit” places. And it’s shopping heaven for the ladies. I have to admit that Singaporeans have a good taste for fashion and style. But, as I walk through these crowded pedestrians, I wonder why every food courts are always full of people? Do the Singaporeans prefer this type of habit, or they simply can’t cook? Sorry, no offense, it’s only a thought. I also try the GPS maps using wireless internet when enjoying the walk. Very useful when you’re getting lost and don’t know where to go. In the end, I just felt tired after walking all the way through Orchard road. You will be amazed by the malls and plazas surrounding it. A few of them have a banner for the Halloween party and promos to attract visitors.