But this story isn’t all about the struggles of becoming a physician in this day and age. What I left out is probably the most important bit: While in medical school I met my best friend and now wife. We got married just 2 months ago on the beautiful island of Jamaica where her family is from and went on a wonderful honeymoon via cruise to Mexico. Since we returned to The Bahamas we have taken up positions as senior house officers at the local hospital.

The reason I mentioned all of this is to show you that my offline life has been quite busy, but I’m still a tech enthusiast at heart. Hopefully now that things have settled down a little, I will make time to update this blog more often. Sorry about not responding to comments; that should change going forward.

With Black Friday sales last week and Cyber Monday sales a few days ago, businesses are still offering deals online for a lot of tech gadgets. Here are a few that made it to my inbox. It’s not too late to get discounts on some great stuff! Check out the links below. Will post others as I get them.

ZAGG.com (from the folks that brought you the invisibleSHIELD) – Save 20-50% off site-wide

SitePoint – get $5000 worth of eBooks and course material for only $99!

Raxco.com (from the creators of PerfectDisk) – get 35% off select software using code 35HOME13

Hostgator.com – get 25% off the package price at new signups using code 25OFFCYBER2013

MDDHosting.com – not really a Cyber Week deal, but you can get 25% off one of the best and most reliable web hosting providers around by using the coupon code uc33b at signup.

Domain.com – save 15% off domain names and hosting using coupon code DECEMBER15

eBay Daily Deals – Tons of stuff every day to look out for. And don’t be afraid to go refurbished.

Motorola.com – If you’re looking for a new Android phone then check this out! The Moto X was on sale today and will be on sale again next Monday, 9-Dec-13. While there, check out the Moto G.

Newegg.com Cyber Week deals – discounts on a host of computer hardware.

Dell.com – final days of Cyber Week deals on laptops, desktops and other electronics.

In the folder containing the subfolders that you want compressed, create a batch file, paste this in the contents and save:

The script uses the folder names as the file names and places the ZIPs at the same level as the folder. Execute by double-clicking on the batch file. Simple!

To apply the command, log into your router’s DD-WRT web interface and navigate to Administration > Commands. Paste the following within the command box and press ‘Save Firewall’. Afterward, you can either ‘Run Command’ or reboot the router to execute.

By the way, I’m using DD-WRT v24-sp2 mini build 14929 on the Linksys WRT54G v2 router and build 14896 on the Motorola WR850G v2. The WRT54G operates as the main wireless router; the WR850G is wired to the WRT54G and only operates in AP mode.

The batch script takes the manual effort out of purging the print queue. It turns off the Print Spooler, deletes the temporary files created from your print request, and restarts the Print Spooler. That’s all! You can do this manually, but why bother when double-clicking on a single file will do all of that for you?

Using a simple text editor such as Notepad or Notepad++, paste the following into a new file and, when ready to save, do so with quotes and a .bat file extension. For example, “force-print-purge.bat”.

@echo off
echo Stopping Spooler
echo.
net stop spooler
echo Deleting jobs in print queue...
echo.
del “%systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\*.shd”
del “%systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\*.spl”
echo Restarting Spooler.
echo.
net start spooler

The next time your printer is being stubborn, locate this file and execute it. You’re welcome.

First of all, the following recommendations will in no way require opening the device or void any agreement with Digicel. I do not promise that any of these recommendations will unlock speeds that you have never experienced with the device, but they should make the experience more bearable. Secondly, executing these changes is best done if your computer is directly connected via ethernet to the modem (it’s that white cable that came with the unit). You can disconnect it at the end. So let’s get started!

1. Change your modem’s web login password
This might seem pretty obvious, but you should change your modem’s web login password to something stronger so that others do not gain easy access and lock you out of your own connection. Go to your modem’s web address in your browser and click on the ‘Personalization’ page. Enter the old password and the new one, then apply. A strong password is more than 8 characters long and includes numbers, letters and symbols.

2. Choose a wireless mode
Again, log into your modem’s web interface and click on ‘Networking’. Under ‘Wireless mode’, choose something that is most compatible with all wireless devices connecting through your modem. If you only have a laptop that supports 802.11n, select ‘N only’ to take advantage of this wireless technology. However, as many might also want to use non-802.11n smartphones with their modem (especially pre-BB10 Blackberries which cannot see this signal), ‘G/N mixed’ is alright as well. Apply and wait for the unit to restart.

3. Choose a wireless channel
On the same page as before (‘Networking’), you will see that you have the ability to change the wireless channel of the device. Now, explaining this can get technical, so I will explain as best as possible. The wireless channel is the frequency at which your wireless modem will communicate with your wireless devices. Digicel’s modem only allows you to select from channels 1-6 on the 2.4GHz band even though the operable frequency spectrum of other devices can go much further. The important part, though, is to either a.) choose a channel that others are not using, b.) choose a channel that is at least 5 channels away from the busy one, or c.) if the spectrum is congested, choose the channel with the weakest signal. If you utilize a channel that others are also utilizing then your connection will slow down due to interference. Yes, at some times the connection might be fast, but as soon as they start using their wireless, both of your connections will slow down.

Metageek’s InSSIDer (free) for both Windows and Mac will guide you as to which channel to choose. Install it and launch the program. It will scan for wireless signals and show which channels are being used for wireless broadcasts in your neighbourhood. After sorting by RSSI (descending) your wireless modem should be listed at the top as the strongest. Stronger signals are closer to 0dBm. Look at the graphical spectrum display to determine which channels are not as busy or have a weak RSSI. Go back to your modem’s web interface and select this channel. You can exit inSSIDer for now.

4. Adjust the transmission (Tx) power
You would think that leaving the ‘Tx power’ at 100% is always recommended, but that can cause problems as well. Think about it: if you are only broadcasting your wireless signal to cover your small apartment where many other wireless signals from neighbours exist, why crank the power all the way up? If 75% power does not result in a significant drop in performance, use this instead. How is this beneficial? Since you are only covering your usage area, there is less chance of channel overlap and interference from neighbouring networks. Go back to the ‘Networking’ tab and change the ‘Tx power’ to 75% to start. You can dial down to lower power levels, but do not go too low as this might reduce your connection speed.

5. Adjust security settings
Under the ‘Networking’ tab, you will notice that there is a ‘Next’ link at the bottom of the page. Click it to be taken to some more advanced settings. First of all, change the ‘Use Default’ setting to ‘User defined’. Change your ‘Security Mode’ to ‘WPA2-PSK’ and ‘Encryp Type’ to ‘AES’. Enter a random alphanumeric key into the field below and make sure you remember it because this will be “password” required to access your network. Why are you doing this? First of all, WPA2 is the best security mode to use by consumer devices to date because it is more difficult to crack than the others listed. You can use WPA if your connecting devices do not support WPA2, but stay away from WEP as it is very weak. Additionally, I have found that AES encryption is not as bandwidth-hungry as TKIP. ‘Apply’ and allow the modem to reboot if necessary.

6. Adjust your modem’s position
Do not place your wireless modem next to microwaves or other electronics that can interfere with your wireless signal. Because the modem has to connect to the 4G network try to place it next to a window with as little obstruction as possible. Additionally, since it must also broadcast a wireless signal for your devices to connect through, it should be placed in a central area for best coverage. Avoid placing next to thick concrete walls if possible as nothing is gained in that area. To get a more objective measure of the best position for your modem, log in to the web interface and on the first ‘Status’ page, pay attention to 3 things: the signal strength bar, the RSSI (received signal strength indicator) and the CINR (carrier-to-interference noise ratio). Obviously, a better signal is graphically displayed on the signal strength bar as green, but you can rotate and reposition your modem until the RSSI and CINR are within certain ranges. Acceptable values for RSSI are -50dBm to -85dBm. Those for CINR are 10dB to 30dB. If you can get your device to show values within these ranges, you are doing well.

7. Measure your connection bandwidth
Only proceed to this step once you have completed the previous ones. It is also a good way of monitoring changes in bandwidth speed. Let’s see how your hard work has payed off for now! Head over to SpeedTest.net and run a bandwidth speed test through Digicel. If your results show a low ping (<100ms), a download speed of around 5Mbps and an upload speed of under 1Mbps, you're doing pretty good!

Conclusion
Unfortunately, your modem’s performance can change from day to day depending on other factors, e.g. the number of other people accessing the 4G network in your area, their modem’s settings, etc. [This might be the perfect opportunity to educate your neighbours on how they can optimize their networks so that there can be as little interference as possible for everyone.] Sometimes rebooting your router (from within the web interface) can temporarily fix connection issues or simply powering it down for about 20 minutes and powering up again. At other times, you might need to adjust the physical position of the modem using the status indicators in step 6 to guide you.

I hope you found this walk-through helpful. Feel free to post any comments you might have especially if you have any tips for improvement. Good luck!

1. Open Firefox and type about:config in the address bar. Press ENTER.
2. Confirm that you know what you’re doing and proceed.
3. Do a search for browser.newtab.url and edit the string to reflect the website URL you wish to load. For example, http://www.google.com.
4. Click OK and the change takes immediate effect.

That’s it! Reversing this change is as simple as finding the browser.newtab.url string again, right-clicking on it and choosing RESET.

If you have a web browser that supports Greasemonkey (for Firefox) or script importation (Opera natively supported; for IE; NinjaKit on Chrome; GreaseKit or NinjaKit on Safari), make sure that it is installed and activated.

Next, go to Userscripts.org and install the ‘facebook Photo Theatre Killer’ script and you are done! Wasn’t that easy? Now, revisit a photo gallery via your Facebook account and the annoying “theatre mode” should be gone.

Here is how it looks before applying the script…

Facebook image with theatre mode activated.

…and after.

Facebook image with theatre mode deactivated.

If you’re very observant, you will notice that all the script is essentially doing is removing the ‘&theater’ parameter from the URL string for the image. You can manually remove the parameter for each image being loaded without need of the script, but this does all of the hard work for you in the background so you can spend more time stalking your friends’ photo galleries!

Locate your theme’s functions.php file and open it in a simple text editor. Append with the following lines of code and modify depending on which fields you want to add or remove. Save and visit your profile to test.

// Add extra contact info to user profile page
function extra_contact_info($contactmethods) {
    unset($contactmethods['aim']);
    unset($contactmethods['yim']);
    unset($contactmethods['jabber']);
    $contactmethods['facebook'] = 'Facebook';
    $contactmethods['twitter'] = 'Twitter';
    $contactmethods['linkedin'] = 'LinkedIn';

    return $contactmethods;
}
add_filter('user_contactmethods', 'extra_contact_info');

The code is pretty simple to understand. Fields that you want to remove are preceded with unset; those that you want to add are not.

Continuing with the recent posts on adding functionality to WordPress via functions.php, navigate to your theme’s files and, with a simple text editor, open the functions.php file. If one does not exist, create one and save it to your theme’s directory. Add the following lines of code and modify the domain reference to suit your setup and the location of your favicon. Save and re-enter your Dashboard to see the effects.

// Specify favicon for Dashboard
function favicon4admin() {
 echo '<link rel="Shortcut Icon" type="image/x-icon" href="http://www.mydomain.tld/favicon.ico" />';
}
add_action( 'admin_head', 'favicon4admin' );

As usual, this is a per-theme modification, so you will need to reapply if you automatically update your theme or switch to another theme.