IT Magique - Google+ Posts

With all of the focus on security lately, lets have a look at something a bit more basic... http://a...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:38:21 GMT

With all of the focus on security lately, lets have a look at something a bit more basic...

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/03/how-i-became-a-password-cracker/

How I became a password cracker
Cracking passwords is officially a "script kiddie" activity now.

This article doesn't go into much depth, and I have probably gone more in depth in the last few posts...

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 18:11:31 GMT

This article doesn't go into much depth, and I have probably gone more in depth in the last few posts that I made, but this is a really good summation.

http://www.examiner.com/article/how-can-google-plus-help-small-business

How Can Google Plus Help Small Business?

Every IT Pro needs to have one of these handy at all times :-D

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 21:40:47 GMT

Every IT Pro needs to have one of these handy at all times :-D

xkcd: Tech Support Cheat Sheet
Narrator: Dear various parents, grandparents, co-workers, and other "not computer people." Narrator: We don't magically know how to do everything in every program. When we help you' we're usually just doing this: [[There is a flowchart there. Numbers are included to improve clarity, ...

How to use Google+ to Market your Small Business, for people who suck at Marketing (Like Me) This is...

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 15:52:20 GMT

How to use Google+ to Market your Small Business, for people who suck at Marketing (Like Me)

This is a question that I have had often. As you may or may not be aware, I am a small IT company who mainly deals with other small businesses with 1 - 50 employees. Like most other small business owners, I am extremely bad at marketing. I have managed to be bad at marketing not only privately, but professionally as well.

When +Google+ first came about, I jumped on the bandwagon early (and I'm glad I did). As a techie, I was thrilled at the idea of a Diaspora-like social networking platform being run by Google existing. The Diaspora project was too tinfoil-hat to ever be seriously considered by businesses and anyone interested in doing more than simply keeping in touch with friends and family, so +Google+ was a welcome relief.

Time went on and G+ pages came about. Even more thrilled! With the addition of Local+, "Sh*t got real". That is to say that all of a sudden, G+ was a very serious marketing platform for the little guy. However, that's where the problem starts...

As "the little guy", you see all kinds of businesses simply throwing money at ads and simply posting pointless updates on their site and various social media pages, and it works for them. So it's very tempting to simply follow in those footsteps, but with G+ it's entirely different. Anyone who has spent any real time on G+ will tell you that if a company does that, they will simply get ignored. This is how social media marketing should work.

But yet, it poses another challenge... How to effectively utilize it?

Well, I am sad to report that I don't have all the answers, but thanks to +Mark Traphagen , +Mike Elgan and others, I have a much better idea, so I am going to share my strategies and hopefully I can get these guys to weigh in with their own ideas, suggestions, etc (and I hope they correct me where I post incorrect information!).

Talk with people, don't talk at people

This is probably the hardest thing to learn. Small businesses have a bad habit of talking at people, as opposed to talking with them. It's the equivalent of having an annoying friend who randomly shoves a full page advertisement in your face when you are trying to interact with him. As you would in real life, people on G+ will quickly lose interest and look elsewhere.

This idea that you must inundate people with advertisements really grates on my nerves. I don't do any advertising at all. However, I suppose saying that I don't do any advertising is a bit misleading. Depending on how you frame it, I do a lot of advertising, but it isn't advertising in the traditional sense.

One of the best weapons in my arsenal is generosity. I help people online constantly with their tech issues, and I do it for free without any request or expectation of reciprocation or compensation. Why? Because it gives me an 'in' with people. I help them with their problems and at the same time it breaks the ice. As a result, those people are more likely to check me out, and by extension, my business. Suppose that person then happens to mention it to their friends... Ripples

I suppose you could sum up my entire marketing strategy with that one word. Ripples, as opposed to one giant splash. I think of it in terms of doing a big advertising push as throwing a large rock in a pond, whereas interaction being the equivalent of throwing a bunch of pebbles in the pond. The rock makes a huge splash, but it's a temporary disturbance. Pebbles may not cause a huge disturbance, but the residual effect lasts much longer. Ok, enough analogies for one day...

But my industry is obscure/notinteresting/completelyboring, so how am I supposed to interact?

You might be surprised to learn this, but of the currently 400 million users of G+, you or your industry probably has a lot in common with a large number of those people. Finding them can be somewhat difficult, but it isn't impossible. In my opinion, communities are the easiest ways to find people with similar interests. You would think that this would be a total no-brainer, but a lot of businesses dismiss communities. Another method would be simply using the search feature of google plus to find posts relating to your industry and/or interests.

On another train of thought, the why of the reasoning behind businesses disregarding communities is rather interesting. Most of the time, it's because interaction takes patience and hard work. Businesses have this idea that they should be able to just throw advertisements around and those advertisements will stick. Good luck with that. That is not the way that it works in G+, and that is one of the amazing things about G+. All of a sudden, a small business on G+ is on equal footing with a large business. The fact that there is no paid advertising in G+ makes it a real marketers paradise. The more you put into it, the more you will get out of it.

On G+, you need to stop thinking of people as mindless automatons that willingly soak up your advertising/posts. G+ is inherently social, and it is also inherently private. If you simply start throwing your advertising around and not trying in the least to interact, the only thing you will achieve is getting people to ignore you or at the very least, disregard you.

I am reminded of a post that +Matthew Inman of #theoatmeal wrote a long time ago where he stated that his interaction on G+ was very low compared to other social networks. So, I went and had a look. Almost all of his posts were his comics, linking back to his site, and I was unable to find a single spot to where he had talked to any of his fans in his comments. With this in mind, it is no wonder that he had little interaction. The Oatmeal is popular, but if all you do is throw posts around without bothering to even speaking with people in the comments, are you really going to be shocked when no one bothers to say anything? If so, you should start rethinking your strategy, because it will fail.

Granted, The Oatmeal has no shortage of followers (myself included... <3 The Oatmeal), but it was a very clear example, and for the sake of it, you should go check it out (because the comics and humor are priceless and made of win and awesomesauce ( http://theoatmeal.com/ )).

So where do I start?

That's an excellent question, and one that isn't easily answered. The way that I started was that I made posts about things that I was interested in, and work that I had done. I use an RSS feed so that posts on G+ also post on my site ( http://www.it-magique.com //obligatory shameless plug), the upshot of which is that when I make a post on G+ it not only adds content to my G+ page, but also to my site. I hope that at some point, we will be able to take the stream of our posts from G+ and directly display them on our news pages, complete with comment ability, that links directly to G+. Until that moment, I will keep dreaming. :-)

The hardest part about starting, is actually starting. An easy way to start would be to find news articles and repost them, but don't mindlessly just repost news articles. Take the time to read those articles and post your comments and thoughts along with them. That adds exponential value to the post. I get all my android news almost exclusively via my G+ stream, and I highly value the comments that others have on those articles. Be a person. Give your business a face. Yes it's complex. No one said it wouldn't be, but for all it's complexity, it really is pretty easy, but you have to put time and work into it. If you don't, you'll simply be another face lost in the crowd.

The Search Engine Optimization world has been turned on it's ear due to +Google+ , and it is fast becoming a world where to not be on +Google+ and active is to be on a trend of irrelevance. Don't let yourself fall into the marketers deathtrap where you are flinging out advertisements everywhere, hoping that customers will magically appear on your doorstep. Actively cultivate relationships and help your business grow.

You won't see immediate results, but you will see results if you have patience and persevere (Also, follow +Mark Traphagen and +Mike Elgan. Both post wonderful articles and following them will help you immensely!)!

#google #advertising #marketing #marketingtips #strategy #demads #datad #nikolateslaisawesome #wasawesome #sadface #edisonsuxteslarools #hashtagfail

#wp51 #dos #dosbox #wordperfect Throwback Memorial Day Remember WordPerfect 5.1? I sure do. ...

Mon, 27 May 2013 20:29:35 GMT

#wp51 #dos #dosbox #wordperfect

Throwback Memorial Day

Remember WordPerfect 5.1? I sure do. Of course there isn't really any way for me to forget about it considering that one of my customers still uses it to this day.

I decided today to give a little bit of an insight into how I made it all work.

First off, we need an environment in which we can use wp51 and not be completely hosed due to windows or keybinding quirks. In this case, the obvious choice is DosBox. In particular, DosBox 0.74.

Now, DosBox is not meant for this purpose. DosBox' main priority is to run old dos games (at which it excels), so we have to do a bit of re-purposing, starting with keybinds. To make things easy, I have linked to the keymapping file that I have set up for this purpose, here:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B25BbZxm93S9ZWU5eHVTVnVyVms/edit?usp=sharing

Keep in mind that this mapping file is necessary because many of the mapped keys will override the hotkeys within wp51.

Next, we need a proper display method. This part is a bit up to interpretation. My customer has a rather large widescreen and she wanted to have a lot of extra black space around the wp51 area as opposed to having it take up the entire screen area. Below is the config file I use for dosbox in order to make this work. It's important to note that by default, wp51 will look terrible, so we force the hqx2 scaler in order to make the text have very nice edges and increase readability. The conf file that is used is available here (If you use it be sure to change the mounting stuff at the bottom -- the mounting stuff in this case was very specific to this customer and her setup). https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B25BbZxm93S9a2pldGo3TnZ0MU0/edit?usp=sharing

Ok, so with that, Wordperfect 5.1 should be up and running... Sweet! :-)

But now you are getting into the groove... What about printing? Believe it or not, that is quite possible.

First off we need a few programs. We will need printfile, available here: http://www.lerup.com/printfile/

Next we will need ghostscript, available here: http://www.ghostscript.com/

Next all we need is a lot of patience, because the way that printfile works is very odd if you aren't used to it.

Essentially, you set up settings profiles, and then it creates shortcuts for you to run those settings profiles. It's kind of odd, but it works really well.

So what we need to do is first, set up a print driver in wordperfect. You will want to go into the print section (shift+f7), the select a printer, and make a copy of the default printer (probably the apple printer listed), then you will want to edit your new "printer".

Name it "DosBox Printer" or something (the name is more or less irrelevant).

Next,t he most important part is the port settings. Go into the port selection, and choose option 8 (Other). You will be prompted for a directory/file name. In my case I chose c:\wp51\wpspool\output.ps . I'm not going to explain this further, as I am assuming that you understand how dosbox mounting works.

Now, when you print, you should have a file named output.ps created in the wp51/wpspool folder (wherever that may be... in the case of this particular customer: C:\Users\Doris\Documents\workfiles\Google Drive\C\WP51\wpspool ).

We're almost done! Now all we have to do is set up printfile. Printfile can act as a spooler, which basically means that it will watch a particular directory for a file, and if that file is there, it will send it to the printer and delete the file (kind of a general explanation, but close enough). In this case, we'll want to open up printfile and go into settings.

Give your settings a name. This this case, I used wp51 printer. Once again, the name is more or less irrelevant.

Make sure that you enable the spooler function and select the correct printer. My settings looked like this: http://i.imgur.com/k4ItD8X.jpg

Ok now we need to go into "shortcut and create a shortcut for it.
http://i.imgur.com/0Gna98D.jpg
This will cause a shortcut using the settings that you have chosen, to be created on the desktop. I told you this [program works very strangely... This is it's weirdest working. However, while it's setup is very odd, it lends itself very useful if you need to have a bunch of different spoolers running.
Note Put the storage directory somewhere that is writable, otherwise you will need to give printfile admin access every time you run it, and that's annoying. I suggest something like documents\wp51 printfile

For example, imagine you ahve an office of people all running wp51. You could create a spooler for each user and have all the installs of wp51 print the ps file to a specific server network drive using different filenames. In this way, they would all be able to print without interfering with one another, assuming that the network drive is located on a server and that server is the thing running the spoolers. There are MUCH more elegant ways to do that btw (the easiest of which would be assigning each instance of wp51 a different <filename>.ps, and then instructing one printfile spooler to look in a certain directory for any files named *.ps), so while this example would work, please, do NOT do it this way -_-.

So, next we need to set up the ghostscript conversion. This part is pretty easy really. In printfile settings, click on "conversion" and in the dropdown box choose postscript and check enable (if you check enable first, it will uncheck it when you choose postscript... _ ).
http://i.imgur.com/2JOTckr.jpg

You will need to point the location to the ghostscript(c) executable file. In this instance I am using the 64bit version, and the path on your machine will likely be the same as shown above.

In the parameters line you will need to add this string:
-dNoCancel -dQueryUser=3 -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=mswinpr2 -sOutputFile="\\spool\&p" &i

Now, make sure that you save and apply this in the printfile settings box. Once you do, it will create a shortcut on your desktop to your specific settings for printfile. Right click on it and choose "properties".

In order for the spooler to work, we have to feed it a parameter that tells it where to look for the postscript files. We do that by simply adding /s:C:\WPSPOOL\output.ps (WPSPOOL is the actual location where you told wp51 to put the output.ps print file).

So the entire shortcut target line might look something like this:
"C:\Users\Doris\Documents\WP51 Print\PrintFile - WP51Print.exe" /s:C:\WPSPOOL\output.ps

In order to make it easy for myself, I actually created a few symlinks in windows 7 so that I could reference one location instead of many. I won't go into how to set up symlinks on windows, but you can read up on it here:
http://www.windows7home.net/how-to-create-symbolic-link-in-windows-7/

Now, you should probably click and drag the printfile shortcut that you created over to the start button > all programs > startup, so that that way it will automagically startup with windows. Go ahead and run the shortcut and printfile will come up.

At this point, you can print in wp51 and after printfile runs the conversion via ghostscript (can take up to a minute), it will print out on your printer!

Pretty easy, but the way that printfile works is very strange which make the process take much longer than it should, however, it is doable!

Hope you guys enjoyed my throwback tech Memorial Day :-) On a serious note, a big thank you to our troops and veterans for their service and their sacrifice. Politicians will forever spin what you do one way or another in their speeches, but that does not change the fact that you guys are badasses, and should be praised accordingly.

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Ok, I have to admit. This one made me laugh. To summarize the article, it is a conglomeration of 17 ...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 22:28:38 GMT

Ok, I have to admit. This one made me laugh.

To summarize the article, it is a conglomeration of 17 companies (pushed ahead by and Oracle (big surprise)) who are whining about the fact that +Android is free and open source.

Somehow +Android is destroying competition in the marketplace by being free. No. I am not making this up. All of a sudden, providing something for free should be outlawed. Coming from Microsoft and Oracle, that doesn't surprise me much. What does surprise me is that Microsoft can waltz into a courtroom and say that with a straight face.

They further allege that anyone using +Android *MUST* bundle the +Google Play default apps as well (IE maps, youtube, etc). This statement is about as close to a lie as you can possibly get. For one thing, these apps are not baked into +Android , they are addons. Anyone who has ever used +CyanogenMod can tell you that. +CyanogenMod is provided with only +Android. You must flash google apps separately.

Moreover, you don't even have to use the +Google Play store... There are alternatives, such as F-Droid ( http://f-droid.org/ ) which are appstores in and of themselves. F-Droid in particular deals only with Free and Open Source software.

So essentially, the claims rendered here are absolutely baseless. This is simply a case of other businesses being butthurt because they are getting their respective asses kicked.

It is noteworthy that Apple is not part of this group, but you can be sure that they are sitting in their offices rubbing their hands with glee. I don't expect anything to come of this, but I do find it quite funny.

Microsoft, Nokia and Oracle moan to EC about Google Android dominance
Android is a ‘Trojan Horse’ and Google is a predator, FairSearch consortium argues

Just finished up a new site design for +Transimpex - Translators • Interpreters • Editors • Consultants...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:23:23 GMT

Just finished up a new site design for +Transimpex - Translators • Interpreters • Editors • Consultants

It is fully "responsive" (meaning that it will adapt to phones and tablets automatically). Pretty awesome stuff!

http://www.transimpex.com

Transimpex | Translators • Interpreters • Editors • Consultants
Transimpex is a full-service Translation / Foreign Language Communications Company. We have established an Excellent Reputation for Quality Work; our translations have been referred to as “Better Than the Original”, and many times, we have even become the “Rescue Squad” for translations that had ...

IIS or Apache?

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 09:47:09 GMT

IIS or Apache?

Copyright, Software developers, Android, and you! Today lets talk about copyright. I had the distinct...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 22:14:12 GMT

Copyright, Software developers, Android, and you!

Today lets talk about copyright. I had the distinct "pleasure" of receiving an email from the US Department of Justice (Specifically the FBI), informing me that I was a possible victim of a crime.

Immediately I started trying to figure out what had been done to me across state lines that was so terrible that the FBI needed to get involved. I read the entire email, bewildered, trying to figure it out.

Obviously, the first thing I did was look at the headers. Completely legit. I had a little trouble understanding why the FBI would send an email, as opposed to a phone call. I couldn't make any sense of it until I clicked on the press release.

Long story longer, the FBI seized domains of some sites who were distributing "cracked" Android apps. Which is entertaining, because my "apps" had no DRM in the first place. I am an Android developer (In the loosest sense of the word) apparently, and so it is "possible" that my "apps" could have been "stolen" and provided free of charge to gasped #dempirates . Oh the horror.

Nevermind the amount of canceled orders from Russia I get on a semi daily basis. I am aware that those orders are likely people ripping it off. Do I care? Not one bit.

See, government types have been conditioned by the MAFIAA, RIAA, MPAA, etc, to think that by shutting down these sites does us, the "artist/developer", some kind of favor. In fact, I look upon it as a source of pride. That my "apps" were good enough for someone to actually want to pirate them. I'm a-ok with that. I made those "apps" for a very specific purpose, and that purpose did not include grasping hold of them with a deathgrip until someone paid me to have them.

Some may be a bit surprised to find out that I oppose the prosecution of sites like this. They are on the seedy side of the internet anyway, and the apps tend to be riddled with malware (which is about the only way to get malware on Android anyway). Anyone with half a brain knows that it isn't a good idea to grab an Android app from any of these sites.

It is my opinion that prosecuting for copyright doesn't do anyone any good. Certainly not the Developers and Artists behind the copyrighted works. Most artists and developers are stuck behind the "Advance against royalties" model, meaning that the artist/developer gets paid an advance (usually about 5%), meaning that the artist/developer immediately gets paid say, $5,000, but then once whatever they are working on goes on sale, they don't get squat until their item sells $100,000 worth of profit, at which point on future sales they receive 5% of the profit.

As you can see, that's an even more crooked racket than credit cards and APR loans put together and makes Goldman Sachs look like a shining bastion of freedom and ethical behavior. So now, maybe you can see what I mean when I say that these sites being prosecuted doesn't do artists/developers any favors whatsoever, other than getting potential malware off the internet (yeah, because seizing those domains made a real dent rolleyes ).

So rolling back around to what I was getting at... The government and it's agencies are spring loaded to think that piracy = bad and piracy = starving artists/developers. The fact of the matter is that those artists/developers are already starving due to the fact that they are leveraged in this crooked AAR (Advance Against Royalties) scheme to begin with. As an artist/developer, the only way to not get screwed is to go Indie. Thankfully there are a lot of services bringing indie software to the forefront (Like, most notably, Moddb/Indiedb's Desura, and also Valve's Steam), so hopefully that will continue.

So does this domain seizure help me, the "victim", in any way shape or form? Not at all, but I'm sure it made the FBI feel great that they took down another "filthy haven" of #dempirates .

The fact of the matter is that anyone that went to that site would not have paid for my "apps" anyway. So, in all honesty, who cares? The fact of the matter is that "piracy" is not a huge problem. Not even close. Piracy was never a real issue for artists/developers (People like to throw their money at developers; Not so much at publishers. If you disagree, feel free to visit kickstarter and be amazed), but MAFIAA/RIAA/MPAA saw a way to turn their customers into cash cows (intimidation via threats of criminal action, lawsuits, illegal subpoenas, etc) in addition to they way they were already screwing their artists/developers, and leapt at the chance to burn the candle from both ends.

Then you wind up with clueless adjudicators of "Justice" who do the exact same thing on behalf of the government, to the point to where someone is driven to suicide, even when what they did wasn't even illegal. I am of course referring to #aaronswartz (Aaron Swartz).

All of this done on behalf of "The people". What a joke. I feel so much safer now that my $1 apps won't be stolen by #dempirates .

Here is some food for thought... Piracy is not synonymous with "theft". Theft is when someone actually steals something from you. Copying something does not constitute "theft", as nothing was really stolen in the first place.

In my defiance of MAFIAA/MPAA/RIAA, I point out my completely free game, +Evolution RTS.

Makes me want to post my "apps" on F-Droid as an additional "Screw you" as well.

I'd say the primary difference between me and a publisher, would be this:
Imagine you are walking down the street with your phone out, and I notice that you have my app on your phone.

My reaction is one of joy that you found my app useful enough to have it on your phone

The publisher's first reaction is to ask you for your name, address, birthdate, and serial number.

Need to get someone's attention? Use a windows error sticky note! Unfortunately, you might also give ...

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:20:13 GMT

Need to get someone's attention? Use a windows error sticky note! Unfortunately, you might also give them a small heart attack as well, but what could be better in the realm of office warfare than error code sticky notes?

(Not counting the webcam controlled, nerf missile launcher... You know you want one)

http://goo.gl/uNSoC

On the trend of poking fun at Internet 'Exploder', I found this to be quite hilarious :-)

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:10:36 GMT

On the trend of poking fun at Internet 'Exploder', I found this to be quite hilarious :-)

If You own a computer repair business. This is how you find future customers on Google+ Via Reddit

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:07:12 GMT

If You own a computer repair business. This is how you find future customers on Google+

Via Reddit

And that... that is how computers are made...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 13:15:21 GMT

And that... that is how computers are made...

RBTray: Minimize any window to the system tray, at any time This is another program I use on a daily...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 11:52:24 GMT

RBTray: Minimize any window to the system tray, at any time

This is another program I use on a daily basis to solve windows related annoyances. RBTray is a tiny little program that runs in the background and enables the ability for you to right click on the minimize button of any window, and that window will be minimized and sent to the system tray instead of the taskbar. For me it is a must have. There are many windows that I need to have open, but I do not want cluttering my taskbars.

I am very much about productivity. My customers rely on me to get things done quickly and efficiently. Little helper programs like this are part of the reason I am able to be as efficient as I am. In the world of productivity, it's all about finding what is best for you and what enables you to complete tasks as fast and efficiently as possible. For me, this is one of the greatest (and most used) tools in my arsenal.

You can get RBTray on it's Sourceforge page here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rbtray/

RBTray
RBTray is a small Windows program that runs in the background and allows almost any window to be minimized to the system tray by right clicking its minimize ...

Icon Restorer: make your desktop behave the way you want. I should probably mention that this is in...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 11:42:23 GMT

Icon Restorer: make your desktop behave the way you want.

I should probably mention that this is in no way a new program. It's actually quite old. It's main purpose is actually a bit different than what I use it for, but we'll get to that in a moment.

Have you ever wished that you could make your desktop icons sort themselves like they do in windows explorer? I do. I would even take it a step further and say that I essentially want detail view on my desktop, complete with dates, sizes, and scrollbars. Unfortunately, I can't quite have that, but you can have listview.

There are a bunch of free apps out there that claim to do this very thing. Sadly, none of them work in Windows 7 (I know, I tried practically all of them). Moreover, I was trying Icon Restorer as a last ditch effort and the author's site was down for a long time. However, with a lot of google-fu, I managed to find a proper mirror for the setup file. Installed, and within moment had the beautiful setup that you see below (filled with a bunch of random stuff to show what it looks like when you have a lot going on).

Sadly, it has a lot of shortcomings. The largest of which is sorting. Getting it to sort alphabetically is an interesting prospect, and much of the time your wishes will be ignored, regardless of auto-arrange and auto-sort. That said, it's better than nothing, and it's a lot better than a screen full of huge icons.

Icon Restorer (From the developer's website):

"Backup and restore icons position on desktop (and wallpaper) separately for every screen resolution

In the event that a computer crashes, if automatic desktop icons placement is selected or if the screen resolution is changed there is the possibility that the icons shortcuts position on the Windows desktop becomes scrambled; IconRestorer has been designed to remember the icon setup to avoid the boring job of manual restoring for the right icons position on desktop after these events.

IconRestorer can be used to place the icons back to their original location on the Windows screen when needed, or even to manage two (or more) profiles of icon position.

The icons position on desktop (layout) can be saved manually when wanted (every screen resolution will be saved separately) and can be restored at any time.

IconRestorer also have the capability to:
Save and restore the desktop wallpaper with the icon positions.
Automatically restore icons position when resolution changes."

You can download Icon Restorer from:
http://goo.gl/3HR8p (Mirror - Google Drive)
http://fsl.sytes.net/iconrestorer.html (Developer's website (seems to go up and down randomly)

How to 'Google It'. An awesome infographic from HackCollege.com! http://i.imgur.com/hkmIT.gif

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 05:00:51 GMT

How to 'Google It'. An awesome infographic from HackCollege.com!

http://i.imgur.com/hkmIT.gif

i.imgur.com/hkmIT.gif

'Ask - a - Techie' has been moved to a Google+ community! I did this for a few reasons. Chief among...

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 10:49:02 GMT

'Ask - a - Techie' has been moved to a Google+ community!

I did this for a few reasons. Chief among them is the fact that so many people fail to put their address in properly, so when I try to reply, I end up with a failure notice, and on the other end is a person who needs help and gets no reply.

No good for either side. Plus, by using the communities feature, I give others the chance to easily browse past questions, search and other members can also participate in the discussion.

I hope you like this feature, borne out of the belief that knowledge is meant to be shared!

I keep hearing that passwords are being 'stolen' from big corporations. Is this something I need to be...

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 09:04:56 GMT

I keep hearing that passwords are being 'stolen' from big corporations. Is this something I need to be worried about?

Short answer, Yes!!! Very much so. It takes longer for me to explain how a hacker nabs your password than it takes to actually do it. The worst part is that a "hacker" stealing passwords doesn't even have to have much in the way of technical know-how.

One of the easiest ways of stealing passwords is by using a method called "Packet Sniffing". Packet sniffing is as easy as downloading a program which analyzes network traffic. In other words, when you perform actions on the internet, that traffic can be spied upon by any other computer on that network, including someone in the parking lot with a laptop and one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833164030 which can join a network up to a mile away (if not further). Much of what you do on the internet is transmitted over the network in plain text. Email for example. Emails are transmitted in plain text, meaning that they are not encrypted nor obfuscated in any way. Moreover, when an email is sent, it has to route through many other email servers, and each server saves a copy ! That alone should terrify you if you have transmitted sensitive information via email (like credit card numbers, usernames passwords, social security numbers, etc). For this reason it is extremely important to never transmit secure information via email.

Other methods may involve more technical methods such as breaking into a server and stealing password databases.

For someone who doesn't know much about this stuff it can be pretty scary, but don't worry, protecting yourself is pretty easy but it requires a shift in thinking with regards to security.

First of all, most people's passwords are woefully insecure. It is astounding to find the number of people who thought that "password123" was a good idea as a password. Passwords should contain at least one lowercase letter, one uppercase letter, a number and a symbol. A password should be no less than 8 characters and for best results should be at least 16 characters. Example: @8DAtr2Fy%XVYy*d Additionally, you should NEVER use the same password in more than one location.

This is usually the point where most people get lost. If you use a different password for every different website, how in the world are you supposed to keep them all straight??? Enter password managers. The 3 most notable password managers (in order of how much I like them) are:

* Lastpass
* Dashlane
* Keepass

For the sake of my carpal tunnel I am only going to cover Lastpass. Lastpass integrates with your browser and allows for super simple password management with a simple click.

The idea behind password managers is that you have 1 single password to remember, which unlocks the password manager at which point, the password will then manage all of your individual passwords. As an example, once I have unlocked my password vault with lastpass, if I enter a username and password into a website, lastpass will ask me if I want to save the user/pass for that site. All I do is hit "save password" and from that point forward lastpass will take care of keeping that password safe for me, I don't even need to know what it is.

When you are signing up for something new, you can simply right click in the password field and have lastpass generate a secure password for you. As mentioned previously, you should be using a different password for every single different thing that requires a username/password. It does require a shift in thinking and how password management works, but after a short time it becomes second nature.

How many of you would be completely SOL if someone managed to get hold of your password? My guess is that the number of you who are vulnerable is uncomfortably high. Don't take a chance. Be smart, be safe!

Here is an excellent writeup done by Lifehacker some time ago that explains the various programs in more depth: http://lifehacker.com/5483119/the-easy-any+browser-any+os-password-solution

Lastpass : https://lastpass.com/

LastPass - Password Manager, Form Filler, Password Management
LastPass is an online password manager and form filler that makes web browsing easier and more secure.

I'm considering switching my company's computers over to Linux. Is there anything that I need to know...

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 22:07:42 GMT

I'm considering switching my company's computers over to Linux. Is there anything that I need to know before taking the plunge?

(This is dealing specifically with Ubuntu/Derivatives (such as Mint))

Linux users instantly know what a broad question that can be. Most windows users think that switching to a different operating system is like running "windows that looks different". Such is not the case, by any means.

As it is such a broad question, I'll try to narrow it down somewhat. Regarding applications, it is important to note that you cannot simply install your windows programs on Linux. Yes, Linux does have a program called WINE that (saving myself from a lengthy description) pretends to be windows so that you can install your windows program on linux and still use it. That said, whether your windows programs will play nicely with WINE is another story entirely. Generally the answer is yes, but not always.

However, another thing to consider when talking about applications in linux is that Linux Ubuntu/Mint has what is called the "Software Center", which houses thousands upon thousands of free apps that can be installed at the click of a button. Many of which are a more than suitable replacement for the programs you used in windows.

Of course, the main application mentioned will be Microsoft Office (specifically, Word). Linux has many office suites available for it. Two of the main ones are LibreOffice and OpenOffice (my favorite). Both are excellent replacements for Word and are arguably far better than Word. But there is yet one more thing to consider, and that is the fact that if your organization is set up with Google Apps (as it should be), there is no need for any office software at all as you have it all available via Google Apps, which is by far the best choice out of all of them.

One of the great benefits of "being in the cloud" is the fact that apps that you use often (such as google docs) can be accessed from virtually anywhere with a web browser and an internet connection (yes, there is offline google docs), meaning that the Operating System at that level is entirely irrelevant.

Linux has a myriad of advantages over Windows systems, but it does not come without it's own issues (most of which you will never see, but accidents happen). One potentially large problem is that if anything goes wrong on one of the linux systems, you won't immediately know how to fix it (however, most of your office workers wouldn't know how to fix their windows machine either, so this point becomes moot to some degree). You will need to have IT staff familiar with Linux on hand. The good news is that issues in Linux can generally be fixed very quickly and with less pain and suffering than a windows machine. Moreover, Linux systems are, to some extent, easier to recover than windows systems.

Deciding whether Linux is suitable for your business will likely come down to the issue of using applications that are not available on Linux. A perfect example would be Photoshop. It is worth noting that Linux boasts it's own advanced graphics program known as "Gimp", however, transitioning from Photoshop to Gimp can be especially jarring. For graphic design artists using very advanced photoshop techniques, Gimp will most likely not be able to meet their needs. Gimp is, however, a very capable application and should not be dismissed without proper examination.

Transitioning to using Linux full-time does require a slight shift in thinking. Windows has trained users to be complacent. What I mean by that is, (completely disconnected example, but serves the purpose) if I say the words "Hard Drive" to a linux user, they immediately know what it is (generally). If you say those same words to a windows user, that user will likely respond with "Oh you mean the box that is beside the desk?".

The reason I make this example is because in linux, if you know your way around your computer, you can accomplish tasks much more quickly than you could on windows. That said, you will spend the first few days learning more and more about your computer and the terminology associated with it (progressively) simply as a result of using it.

As you have seen, much of the primary deciding factors rely directly on applications. We could go into hardware issues, but as a general rule, Linux rarely has hardware issues with desktop machines. With laptops, the most common hardware issue is with Broadcom wireless network adapters (but that can be overcome pretty easily).

Do I recommend that you switch?

In short, if you can, yes. It will prove to be a boon in the long run. It is important to understand that switching operating systems will never be a perfectly smooth transition. Switching offices from the archaic Windows XP to Windows 7 is more jarring than switching from Windows XP to Linux, but it is a significant change.

As a test, I would recommend taking one machine and switching it. Then, set it up how it would need to be for one of your office workers to use it. Can they perform the same tasks (the cases that this is not a yes will be fairly rare)? If so, then success!

As a business owner, it may be very frightening, however, in the long run it will yield huge benefits. Not the least of which is the fact that Linux and much of it's supporting software is entirely free and open source!

Which distribution do you recommend?

Without a doubt, my favorite distribution of Linux comes in the form of "Mint". Mint is the most popular distribution and comes with pretty much everything you need pre-installed. This means that after installing, you can "Hit the ground running" and immediately go to work instead of having to spent hours getting it set up with everything that you need just to perform basic tasks.

Check it out!
http://www.linuxmint.com/

There is a LOT that I didn't cover, and granted, it would require writing a book to cover everything, but I tried to stick with things that are most important to small business owners.

What about you? Do you have any questions or concerns about switching to Linux or do you have anything on the subject that you would like me to address?

Why is Outlook's search so bad??? Lately I've been getting this question quite a bit. Customers using...

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 23:16:35 GMT

Why is Outlook's search so bad???

Lately I've been getting this question quite a bit. Customers using outlook tend to have email boxes that are years old, and because Outlook compiles everything (Email, Contacts, etc) into a single file (PST) instead of multiples (the vastly more open "mBox" format (Mozilla Thunderbird uses this format)), that causes huge headaches when dealing with anything that affects/effects all the content of that PST file.

For example, indexing of attachments. This is kind of a big one. Attachments get progressively harder to find the larger a PST files gets, for the same reason that individual emails get harder to find. In short, windows search starts to break down when it comes to heavy lifting.

Some time ago I gave up on the idea that windows search would ever stop being crappy and have since moved on to using a grep tool for windows. Namely "dnGrep". It is free, supports find in files, and massive multi-line search and replace, and most importantly, It's blazingly fast!

http://code.google.com/p/dngrep/

At this point, all of you Linux junkies are smiling smugly thinking about "Grep" being a tool built into the Operating system, and honestly, you should be feeling good about that. Search is very important. Most of us file away things that we know we will need to reference later, in places that make sense at the time, but months or years later, we cannot find them.

Search should always be taken seriously. On windows, this problem is compounded when using microsoft office products, because the search inside those products is just as bad (if not worse) than windows search, or they may tie into windows search (which technically, is even worse).

A long time ago, there was a program add-in for Outlook called "Lookout" that handled search for Outlook. It was great! Then Microsoft bought Lookout and absorbed the company into it's vast recesses. Obviously, the absorption of the Lookout staff and application didn't do any wonders for windows/outlook search.

Thankfully, for Outlook users, there is a solution! It is a little free add-in for Outlook called "Xobni".

https://www.xobni.com/download/outlook

Here are some of the proclaimed features for Xobni:

* View complete profiles for everyone.
* Search first, last or company name.
* View all the attachments you've exchanged.
* Xobni Gadgets bring you info about your contacts from Evernote, Dropbox and more. You'll never have to leave your inbox.
* Spam Rescue is here to help.

Obviously, Xobni strives to be more than just search for outlook, and in addition to search wants to turbo charge outlook into the dangerous territory of making outlook actually useful.

It's great that Outlook has a 3rd party savior, but it begs the question "Will Microsoft ever take search seriously?" Of course Redmond will shout from the heavens that they already do, but that's the equivalent of a Hollywood star proclaiming that they will go to rehab.

My guess would be no. I think that Microsoft is in some ways quite senile about certain products and others are labeled as "Good enough". Search in windows/office is "Good Enough". Thankfully, there will almost always be 3rd party programs to pick up the slack from Microsoft's shortcomings.

In all reality, there is little reason to use outlook unless you absolutely have to. Gmail outclasses outlook in more ways than I can count and if possible, you should switch to using the gmail interface. That said, many of you simply don't have a choice as to which email application you can use. With the help of Xobni and other 3rd party programs/plugins/add-ins, at least the lack of choice becomes bearable.

dnGrep
http://code.google.com/p/dngrep/

Xobni (For Outlook)
https://www.xobni.com/download/outlook

((Screenshot ~~shamelessly~~ stolen from the Xobni Website))

What do you guys think? Have you found better solutions than what I have come up with?