IT Gang - A place for tips and tricks

PC vs Mac vs Linux commercials

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:53:00 +0000

Ok! As promissed, here are some of the coolest PC vs Mac vs Linux commercials:

This video is one of my favorites from the series. Is made with SouthPark characters. Check out the last part of the movie credits where they say "created on a Mac AND a PC because one just isn't enough"...

This following video is a series of multiple commercials for Mac (Mac vs PC series). It has about 7:40 so take your time, but every one is fun to watch :)

Playstation vs Nintendo WII commercial

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:46:00 +0000

Yeah, you guessed it right! Today I am in the mood for commercials :) And because watching this Playstation vs Wii commercial remembered how fun all the Windows vs Mac vs Linux commercials are, guess what: the next post will have some of those :P So enjoy and remember the message from the ad: if you want a cheap, fun, good looking sporty console, get your Wii now! I bought mine a few months ago and never used it since :)

Superb Kawasaki commercial video

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:36:00 +0000

This is a banned commercial for Kawasaki Ninja. I really enjoyed watching it so I hope you will too :)

Dud Is A Program That Does Nothing

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:07:00 +0000

It feels rather strange reviewing a software program that does absolutely nothing. If you start Dud it will immediately terminate its process using 60 Kilobytes of computer memory in the short meantime. The question that is probably in your mind right now is about the usefulness of a program like Dud. Why would someone want to run a software program that terminates a second after execution? The answer is…

Original post:
Dud Is A Program That Does Nothing

My Twitter name is synonymous with ladies! Yey!

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:01:00 +0000

I have just created a new Twitter account for my Software company. Since it's such a buzz and I am getting to like it more and more every day, I checked out to see if @simpatic is available and since it was, I have registered it. Then I tried to see if searching for my personal Twitter user (@vladges) will work (because in the my first few Twitter days I could not find myself...) so I searched for 'vladges' on Twitter's Find People page.

So guess what? Twitter said: "Did you mean ladies ?"

WOW! I must say that feels good (I guess) to know that my username on Twitter is considered a misspell of ladies!

Wait, what are you implying? That I am some sort of misspelled lady? Hey, stop laughing, I'm talking to you!!!

...

PS: Yes, I did find myself on Twitter this time. I think tweeting about a few times was worth it :) Get lost! :)

How to make Skype audio work on Fedora 10

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:09:00 +0000

Since I installed my brand new Fedora 10 distribution a while ago I was unable to use Skype for more than just a chat engine. I had no sound and no recording device, so I was unable to call my friends. And since I am using Pidgin as a Yahoo Messenger replacement on Linux, which I am not really familiar (or fond on the other hand), I was getting a little frustrated of the silence and loneliness surrounding me.

Today I decided to fix this matter so I started searching for what to do to enable Skype sound. I found many threads, but none of which really fixed the issue. In the end, I started the plain old fashioned way of testing the configurations one by one to see which will work. And eventually, I did find the right one. I make a succesfull Skype test call to echo123 and also called one of my friends, Paul (thankx), to confirm that my "out-of-the-barrel" sounding is gone forever!

Please note that because of the many things I tried before getting this to work, I might miss something from this process. If this will not fix the Skype sound for you too, then what you can try is to remove the "Alsa to PulseAudio backend" (alsa-plugins-pulseaudio-1.0.18-2.fc10) rpm (I did it using the System->Administration->Add/Remove Software GUI tool, search for "alsa").

Ok, so I set my audio settings to look like the image below (System->Preferences->Hardware->Sound):

Then, in Skype Options (right click the tray icon, choose "Options", then in the left select "Sound devices") you should have something like below:

Again, this is not a general tutorial, guide or FAQ about how to enable Skype sound/mic, this is what worked for me and might also work for you. If you have problems, leave your comment and maybe we can sort it out for you too.

The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:26:00 +0000

by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, E-Commerce Consultant
Web Marketing Today, February 1, 2005. Originally published 2/1/2000
Easy Transfer Copy

I admit it. The term "viral marketing" is offensive. Call yourself a Viral Marketer and people will take two steps back. I would. "Do they have a vaccine for that yet?" you wonder. A sinister thing, the simple virus is fraught with doom, not quite dead yet not fully alive, it exists in that nether genre somewhere between disaster movies and horror flicks.

But you have to admire the virus. He has a way of living in secrecy until he is so numerous that he wins by sheer weight of numbers. He piggybacks on other hosts and uses their resources to increase his tribe. And in the right environment, he grows exponentially. A virus don't even have to mate -- he just replicates, again and again with geometrically increasing power, doubling with each iteration:

1
11
1111
11111111
1111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111
1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

In a few short generations, a virus population can explode.

Viral Marketing Defined

What does a virus have to do with marketing? Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, to millions.

Off the Internet, viral marketing has been referred to as "word-of-mouth," "creating a buzz," "leveraging the media," "network marketing." But on the Internet, for better or worse, it's called "viral marketing." While others smarter than I have attempted to rename it, to somehow domesticate and tame it, I won't try. The term "viral marketing" has stuck.

The Classic Hotmail.com Example

The classic example of viral marketing is Hotmail.com, one of the first free Web-based e-mail services. The strategy is simple:

Give away free e-mail addresses and services,
Attach a simple tag at the bottom of every free message sent out: "Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com" and,
Then stand back while people e-mail to their own network of friends and associates,
Who see the message,
Sign up for their own free e-mail service, and then
Propel the message still wider to their own ever-increasing circles of friends and associates.

Like tiny waves spreading ever farther from a single pebble dropped into a pond, a carefully designed viral marketing strategy ripples outward extremely rapidly.

Elements of a Viral Marketing Strategy

Accept this fact. Some viral marketing strategies work better than others, and few work as well as the simple Hotmail.com strategy. But below are the six basic elements you hope to include in your strategy. A viral marketing strategy need not contain ALL these elements, but the more elements it embraces, the more powerful the results are likely to be. An effective viral marketing strategy:

Gives away products or services
Provides for effortless transfer to others
Scales easily from small to very large
Exploits common motivations and behaviors
Utilizes existing communication networks
Takes advantage of others' resources

Let's examine at each of these elements briefly.

1. Gives away valuable products or services

"Free" is the most powerful word in a marketer's vocabulary. Most viral marketing programs give away valuable products or services to attract attention. Free e-mail services, free information, free "cool" buttons, free software programs that perform powerful functions but not as much as you get in the "pro" version. Wilson's Second Law of Web Marketing is "The Law of Giving and Selling" (http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmta/basic-principles.htm). "Cheap" or "inexpensive" may generate a wave of interest, but "free" will usually do it much faster. Viral marketers practice delayed gratification. They may not profit today, or tomorrow, but if they can generate a groundswell of interest from something free, they know they will profit "soon and for the rest of their lives" (with apologies to "Casablanca"). Patience, my friends. Free attracts eyeballs. Eyeballs then see other desirable things that you are selling, and, presto! you earn money. Eyeballs bring valuable e-mail addresses, advertising revenue, and e-commerce sales opportunities. Give away something, sell something.

2. Provides for effortless transfer to others

Public health nurses offer sage advice at flu season: stay away from people who cough, wash your hands often, and don't touch your eyes, nose, or mouth. Viruses only spread when they're easy to transmit. The medium that carries your marketing message must be easy to transfer and replicate: e-mail, website, graphic, software download. Viral marketing works famously on the Internet because instant communication has become so easy and inexpensive. Digital format make copying simple. From a marketing standpoint, you must simplify your marketing message so it can be transmitted easily and without degradation. Short is better. The classic is: "Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com." The message is compelling, compressed, and copied at the bottom of every free e-mail message.

3. Scales easily from small to very large

To spread like wildfire the transmission method must be rapidly scalable from small to very large. The weakness of the Hotmail model is that a free e-mail service requires its own mailservers to transmit the message. If the strategy is wildly successful, mailservers must be added very quickly or the rapid growth will bog down and die. If the virus multiplies only to kill the host before spreading, nothing is accomplished. So long as you have planned ahead of time how you can add mailservers rapidly you're okay. You must build in scalability to your viral model.

4. Exploits common motivations and behaviors

Clever viral marketing plans take advantage of common human motivations. What proliferated "Netscape Now" buttons in the early days of the Web? The desire to be cool. Greed drives people. So does the hunger to be popular, loved, and understood. The resulting urge to communicate produces millions of websites and billions of e-mail messages. Design a marketing strategy that builds on common motivations and behaviors for its transmission, and you have a winner.

5. Utilizes existing communication networks

Most people are social. Nerdy, basement-dwelling computer science grad students are the exception. Social scientists tell us that each person has a network of 8 to 12 people in their close network of friends, family, and associates. A person's broader network may consist of scores, hundreds, or thousands of people, depending upon her position in society. A waitress, for example, may communicate regularly with hundreds of customers in a given week. Network marketers have long understood the power of these human networks, both the strong, close networks as well as the weaker networked relationships. People on the Internet develop networks of relationships, too. They collect e-mail addresses and favorite website URLs. Affiliate programs exploit such networks, as do permission e-mail lists. Learn to place your message into existing communications between people, and you rapidly multiply its dispersion.

6. Takes advantage of others' resources

The most creative viral marketing plans use others' resources to get the word out. Affiliate programs, for example, place text or graphic links on others' websites. Authors who give away free articles, seek to position their articles on others' webpages. A news release can be picked up by hundreds of periodicals and form the basis of articles seen by hundreds of thousands of readers. Now someone else's newsprint or webpage is relaying your marketing message. Someone else's resources are depleted rather than your own.

Put into practice

Viral marketing is (fairly) easy to define, but very difficult to accomplish successfully. MarketingSherpa's How to Viral Market toolkit is the best book available on the nuts and bolts of developing a successful viral marketing campaign. Strongly recommended for serious marketers.
Dr. Wilson's review
Buy the book.

I grant permission for every reader to reproduce on your website the article you are now reading -- "The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing" (see http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/viral-principles-clean.htm for an HTML version you can copy). But copy this article ONLY, without any alteration whatsoever. Include the copyright statement, too, please. If you have a marketing or small business website, it'll provide great content and help your visitors learn important strategies. (NOTE: I am giving permission to host on your website this article AND NO OTHERS. Reprinting or hosting my articles without express written permission is illegal, immoral, and a violation of my copyright.)

When I first offered this to my readers in February 2000, many took me up on it. Six months later a received a phone call:

"I want to speak to the King of Viral Marketing!"

"Well, I'm not the King," I demurred. "I wrote an article about viral marketing a few months ago, but that's all."

"I've searched all over the Internet about viral marketing," he said, "and your name keeps showing up. You must be the King!."

It worked! Even five years later this webpage is ranked #1 for "viral marketing."

To one degree or another, all successful viral marketing strategies use most of the six principles outlined above. In the next article in this series, "Viral Marketing Techniques the Typical Business Website Can Deploy Now" (http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/viral-deploy.htm), we'll move from theory to practice. But first learn these six foundational principles of viral marketing. Master them and wealth will flow your direction.

"Copyright © 2000, 2005, Ralph F. Wilson, E-Mail Marketing and Online Marketing editor, Web Marketing Today. All rights reserved. Permission granted to reprint this article on your website without alteration if you include this copyright statement and leave the hyperlinks live and in place."

Play mp3 music on linux (Fedora)

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:44:00 +0000

I have downloaded some very old and nice Romanian songs played by Compact, my wife's favourite band. After I have unzipped the archive, I double clicked on it and then Totem Movie player started. But then I got an error because I was missing some codecs...

It was not the first time I got an error from Totem player, but this time I was really getting mad! Instead, as the famous saying says ("Don't get mad, get even!") I googled for "winamp for linux". I found a version 3 alpha that did not look very nice, nor stable, and then I found this on the winamp support forum:

Some people reported that Winamp can run under Linux using Wine (with limited features, eg. only classic skins). No guarantees though, Winamp is a Windows program.

(source)

Ok, so no linux version for Winamp... Not good, but I can live without it. But what player to use?

And so I found amarok which looked nice. But, most important, they had instructions on how to get the needed codecs to play mp3!

To enable MP3 support, the rpmfusion repository should be added to Yum. Click here to find out how to do that.

Once rpmfusion is enabled, the easiest way to enable all the freeworld/nonfree codec support, is to:

yum update @sound-and-video

This will enable mp3 support for Totem player also. But you can still go ahead and download amarok if you need a more robust mp3 player. I for one am using amarok.

PS: This command will also update all video codecs for Totem player. This means that from now on you can also play movies that were not able to play before (this includes compressed AVI, WMV format and more!)

What is Twitter? Who uses Twitter? Twitter stats, anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:44:00 +0000

I'm new to Twitter. One of my friends told me about it and I decided to look into it. I found out since then that it's kind of addictive, so if you don't have a "few" minutes to spare every hour to write 140 characters, then twitter isn't for you.

So What is Twitter?

To put it very simple, it's the simplest and easiest way to express what you feel, how you feel, what you are doing at some point. It takes 20-30 minutes to write a blog post, you have to style it, review it, add some photos to the post, set the labels for it... A pretty long process.

But what if you just want to shout something, like "i'm alive, i'm still here and kicking!"? Do you write a blog post for that? No, you don't, 'cause your readers will say "your roof is no longer on your house" (if you get my point :) ).

So this is where Twitter comes in the place. You just type what you feel at some moment of time, no styling, no photos, no nothing, just pure old fashioned FEELINGS! Yeah, you do write sometimes about other subjects as well, but this is (as I see it) the main benefit.

At the beginning you won't feel much to it, but then, when you start adding some friends/people to follow, you will realize the most refreshing feeling of all: YOU ARE NOT ALONE! What if you hate your job? Just write that on twitter. Maybe some of your followers hate their job too, so they will start tweeting answers to your tweet, and their friends will do the same, and their friends, and their friends... Get the picture?

People say that, because of this phenomenon, Twitter is the latest trend in marketing, as if you have someone say "I love IT Gang - itgang.blogspot.com", automatically hundreds of people (if not more, depending on how many followers they have) will visit the site. And it all happens almost instantly!

How to keep an eye on what other people are tweeting about?

First, create an account with Twitter. Then, you need to setup an easy way to be in touch with your twitter account and get updated when someone tweets about something. To do that, you just have to get one of applications/plug-ins out there that suit your need. Refreshing the Twitter homepage from time to time will not work, trust me (although it will actually work, the whole purpose is to get your friends feelings as soon as they tweet them, not 2 days later...).

I'm using TwitterFox, as I spend most of my day in front of my Firefox browser, but there are many tools out there.

Now that you're up and running, just go ahead and search for your friends (by name, location, keywords, anything will work), or follow somebody that you find interesting or has something interesting to say :)

Who uses Twitter? Twitter stats (statistics)

The answer is simple, again: Everybody uses Twitter! They say if you don't tweet you don't exist! So just search for your favourite actor/actress, singer, politician, you name it, and you can follow what they say every time they have something to say, not when you find out about it from the evening news.

I was curious to find who is the number one Twitter, who has the most followers, and I was able to find just that. At the time of this posting, the #1 World Twitter is ... Ashton Kutcher (2 million followers and counting)! (I don't know if he's the real thing or not, but anyway). The site I took this information is called twitterholic.com and it can show what's your ranking on Twitter based on the number of followers (http://twitterholic.com/vladges)

Yeah, ok, but who is the twitter who tweets the most every day? That's also something we can find in twitter stats. Just point your browser to tweetrush.com and look around! OMG, about 600+ tweets a day! Do they have time for anything else? I seriously doubt it.

Anyway, here you have it, folks! Tweet away!

PS: You can follow my tweets by clicking below:

Free 3 columns itheme with drag-n-drop submitted to www.eblogtemplates.com

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:06:00 +0000

As I promised, I have submitted the 3 columns itheme blogger template to www.eblogtemplates.com. They say it will probably take 2-3 weeks to review it:

Thank you for your submission! Your blog template, "iTheme with 3 columns and drag-n-drop (Blogger)" was uploaded successfully.

Please allow at least 2-3 weeks for your template to be reviewed. You will receive an email and see the status change on your dashboard once a decision has been made.

Note, due to the increased volume of new template submissions we have recently received, there might be a delay in reviewing your template. Please be patient and check back regularly.

To submit another template, click here.

Thanks again for choosing eBlog Templates as a distribution channel for your blog templates!

In the mean time, you can download the template from my site:

www.simpatic.ro/i3theme/itheme-3c-blogger.zip

Enjoy!

The famous itheme with 3 columns and box drag-drop effect - now for Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:46:00 +0000

After hours and hours of stress, searching the Internet for a 3 column itheme template for Blogger, I finally made one myself...

It has all the cool features that the guys in MangoOrange have created for the Wordpress template, but this one is for Blogger (aka blogspot.com). So if you're a blogspot user and not a wordpress one, then this template is for you!

For now I have uploaded the template on my site, but later on (probably tomorrow) I will upload it to www.eblogtemplates.com

Click here to download the template (.zip archive containing the xml)

Update: I have changed the download link to a more friendly one. Once people at www.eblogtemplates.com will accept the template, I will post back with their link. Also, there seems to be some problem with Google Chrome, as it will (only sometimes...) click in the box while you drag-n-drop it. Don't know why.

Just a cool Myth Busters website :)

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:59:00 +0000

This is a very short post, but since I posted the link to the Myth Busters show in the previous post, I also wanted to post the printscreen of their website that looks really nice with the 3 main characters: Adam, Jamie and Buster :P

Free Blogger and Wordpress templates for download

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:35:00 +0000

I decided it's time to change the look and feel of my blog. So I started searching for the perfect template to use. Of course, I wanted a free, good looking, user friendly template, in XML format. I had found one in the old HTML based Blogger format, but it was to difficult to customize and I wanted something easy. With Blogger's XML templates, adding widgets is a 1-2-3 process that can be performed by anybody, including a not so experienced blogger like many of us out there.

Anyway, I found out a cool site that I even registered with and downloaded this brand new template for my blog:

(I'm posting a screen shot for the days when I would change to a new template so that this post will still make sense)

The website is called www.eblogtemplates.com and they offer exactly what they say on their front page: Free High Quality Blog Templates

The template I am using is itheme. I had to do some modifications for it to work, but you can find my comments on the itheme page (currently the latest comment, but I hope it will not remain like this forever :p )

So my next task is to transform this template from a 2 column one in a 3 column template, by adding a column on the left side. It's not that I don't like it this way, but nowadays, with extra wide screens, it's useless to have a very loooooong but not wide enough page.

Back to work now, I hope to post the 3-column template in a couple of hours so wish me good luck :D

Linux - from terminal window to rich desktop environment

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:59:00 +0000

When I first found out about Linux, it was during one of my High School classes. We were using a text based Internet browser to navigate the world wide web. Oh, those days were beautiful! No worries, no cash, just pure old fashioned teenager fun! :)

Since then, I had always thought of Linux based systems as being a very simple text based window in which you type commands and hope to correctly interpret the text results printed on the screen. Many of my friends still see Linux as a "geek" thing, something that needs to be fed with lots and lots of text commands in order to do just a simple task. Way not user friendly in what all Windows users are used to.

But now that I have installed my own Fedora distribution and started using it on a daily basis, I keep getting amassed how simple things really are and how similar to what I had been trained for so long in my Windows days :)

In the first couple of days after I installed my brand new, soon to become old (since the release of Fedora 11), Fedora 10 distribution, I had convinced myself to learn and use the terminal and learn as many commands as I can so I can, someday, rule the Linux World. As I needed to perform an action, I would search for the proper command to use, learn how to use it, and then write it down on a paper to remember. I filled this way both sides of an A4. But today, a couple of weeks since my Fedora installation, I realized that I am no longer using the commands I laid on that paper, nor am I using the terminal. I do get prompted for the root password on a daily basis, for the administrative tasks, but no more Mr. Terminal for me.

What is the explanation for that? Simple: I discovered the UI tools that do most of what I need (actually even more than I need) so I am now back in the world of mouse moving and clicking, no need for commands anymore. I far far away of being a Linux master, but I am one of those who actually enjoyed MS Dos and the command prompt in Windows. Still, I do not feel the need to use commands on a daily basis, I prefer to use the visual tools that allow a more user friendly interaction. And since I am a Linux novice, user friendliness is exactly what I need!

If I were one of the Discovery's Myth Busters, I would say a BIG "BUSTED" to the "Linux is a text based commands geek tool" myth. This to say at least, because I find the Windows equivalent UI tools to be even better than what I was used to on Windows. Just take a look at the System Monitor tools (monitors CPU, RAM, HDD usage, processes, etc.):

And another screen shot:

One cool feature that I remembered now (because of the two above screen shots) is that on Windows, when you print screen, you need to open Paint and paste, then save the image. On Fedora, you are automatically prompted to save the file. You can also copy it to clipboard if that's your desire:

To conclude this post I would ask you to always try something before you jump with conclusions. I know this is an old advice, but the least you can do is ask around about Linux before you categorize it as a text based tool.

How to write a Linux virus in 5 easy steps?

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:16:00 +0000

Well, if you've read my previous post you probably know that I am the proud owner of a brand new Linux machine! Yeeeee!

So, as a Linux newbie, my next question after installing Linux was: how to protect myself and my computer against computer viruses?

Believe it or not, the most answers you get when asking "what is the best Linux antivirus" is: LINUX! No, don't laugh, it's not a joke! It really seems that you don't need an antivirus when running Linux. Yes, you need one if you are running a server based linux, used as an email server (for example) in order to clean the viruses from emails so that the WINDOWS based end users (the person whom the email is addressed to) reads the email...

Confused already? :) Let me put it this way: Person A sends an email containing a virus to Person B. The email server, Server E, will scan the email from A and remove the virus, so that when B reads the email, his Windows PC will not be infected. If you have a linux server (Server E in this example) you need an antivirus. If not, you don't need one.

Yes, there is malware for Linux, but in order to allow such a program inside your PC you really need to allow it to access it. As you can read in the post "How to write a Linux virus in 5 easy steps" ( http://www.geekzone.co.nz/foobar/6229 ), it's fairly simple to write a malware. Please be aware of the difference between the term "VIRUS" and "MALWARE". (If I got this right) A malware is an application that a user installs on his/her PC and which causes damage/propagation/bad things to that user's PC. A virus is a malware that installs itself, without the user's "agreement" (intervention) on one's PC.

So writing a Linux malware is very simple, but convincing a Linux user to blindly double-click on an email attachement to install the malware is ... well, usually not that easy :)

In conclusion, it really seems that you don't need an antivirus when running Linux, which is indeed a comforting though. But remember to keep an eye open on the "evil looking" email attachements. They just might ruin your faith in Linux, and if they do, you're the only one to blame!

Goodbye Windows, Hello Linux!

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:21:00 +0000

Lately, I've been thinking a lot on migrating to linux, but I was never forced to do it. I had my "linux testing periods" when I would install one of the (too) many Linux distributions and play with it for a while... Then, I would forget my root password (you can imagine how frequently I accessed my Linux partition in order to forget the root pass...) so I would either just leave it installed but never use it, or I would simply format the hard drive and move on...

I couple of months ago I started working on my own, being my own BOSS, taking the full responsibility for my actions and income (negative income so far, but ask me again in a few months :) ). Being an employee I have never given a dam on the licenses my work computer has, legal or not, expired trials or now (I know, BAD BOY - yes, I am). But from now on, every decision I make would affect me on legal terms as well, so that gave me a little thinking subject...

So I decided to go over to the other side and use free / open source software. Many people would say "Congrats!" other would say "Why not pay for licenses?". I plan on posting a post that shows a comparison between paid/free software doing (almost) the same thing, but bare with me, I still have a lot more to learn in this new (for me) environment.

Anyway, to wrap things up, I installed Fedora 10 on my Dell 6400 (Intel Dual Core, 1.6GHz, 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD, shared on-board video board). The install went fine, pretty smooth, kind'of like the Windows installer. That was great, since I was hoping to find more similarities between Windows and Linux, so I would still feel like home on my PC :)

But after the install, and after my initial "hello linux" good feelings, the frustration strated taking over... I struggled for about 5 hours (hey, I'm a linux newbie, don't expect too much from me, but I do have A LOT OF PATIENCE!). The problem was my wireless card was not detecting any wireless network, although I had properly setup and test my wifi on multiple Windows systems, including my Dell. After hours and hours of despair, I finally found out that it was the "Network Manager" that was broken, not my PC. Some guy (I thank you, although I don't remember the name/link) suggested on a forum post to update the whole linux to the latest version (yum update). I did that, took about 10 min to download ~450MB, then it took about ~2hours to install the updates, but eventually it finished. And VOILA! A brand new Network Manager, that is able to save your settings and has options to input different types of key encryption (WEP/WPA, etc.) AND accepts ASCII keys! Brilliant, simply brilliant!

I was so happy to see it (my new Linux) work that I started learning more and more about it, and getting more excited about my new Fedora Dell! So people, if you want to install a Linux distro, you can start with Fedora 11 :) I hope it saves some of the "fun" I had with my wifi. But if you decide to go with Fedora 10, please, please, PLEASE run "yum update" as the first thing you do, it will save you a lot of hair, nerves and time!

Will come back later with small newbie articles on some of the "Linux must know" commands. I have now just installed my first Wordpress blog inside lampp so I have to go back to what my new job is: web development under Linux!

See ya!

PS: I happily announce that this post has been written on my new Fedora 10 PC, running Firefox. No more Explorer error for me from now on ('till I will have to test one of my pages in IE :P )

Electronic Cigarette

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:19:00 +0000

Are you a smoker? Do you read the warning messages found on every cigarette pack, that "smoking can cause CANCER" or even "DEATH"? Have you ever tried to quit smoking but failed?

Or, on the contrary, you are not a smoker but you hate smokers because of all the choking smoke and bad odor they leave behind? Even a handshake with a smoker can leave undesirable "perfumes" on your hand and you hate that very much?

Well, for both categories (and even those whom I forgot to add on this list) the solution is simple: Electronic Cigarette! Yes, you read it correctly, it's called "Electronic Cigarette" (or even Electronic Cigar for those who flavor a Cuban now and then).

What is it?

"Gamucci is essentially an electronic smoking device or an electronic cigarette as it is sometimes referred to. It is a completely non-flammable product that uses state of the art sophisticated micro-electronic technology to provide users a real smoking experience without the tobacco and tar found in real cigarettes. It looks like, feels like and tastes like a real cigarette, yet it isn’t, it is so much more. It is truly a healthier alternative. We at Gamucci really believe this is the future of smoking." (quote from www.gamucci.com website)

How it looks like?

It looks like this:

It comes in different flavors (tobacco, menthol, apple, Turkish delight) , two colors (white and black), has two batteries included to last longer (a battery usually takes about one day/one cigarette pack equivalent smoking time to consume), a wall charger, a small pouch to carry the cigarette and 5 cartridges (equivalent to 5 regular packs of cigarettes). This kit (called Starter Kit) costs about $75-$100, and a set of 5 additional cartridges cost an extra $10. So this is a healthier and cheaper alternative to classic smoking.

What are some of the benefits? (Again, taken from the official website, www.gamucci.com)

Gamucci is a Healthier Option

Gamucci has no tobacco, no tar and doesn’t cause lung cancer.
A traditional cigarette has over 4000 chemicals of which 25 are carcinogenic. Gamucci doesn’t contain any carcinogenic substances. It looks like, feels like and tastes like a real cigarette, yet it isn’t. It is so much more. It is truly a healthier alternative.

Gamucci is Eco-Friendly

The Gamucci Electronic Cigarette produces no smoke, only a harmless vapour, and there is no need for ashtrays as no ash is produced. There is also less litter as there is no cigarette butt end to dispose off. The management of Gamucci have a vision of helping to create a smoke free environment around the world by offering clean smoking without tobacco, tar and the thousands of other chemicals found in traditional cigarettes. Gamucci is non-offensive, the smoke is non-offensive …only a harmless vapour is emitted. Gamucci is safer to the environment.

Gamucci is Non-Flammable

The Gamucci Electronic Cigarette is a completely non-flammable device. There is no danger of anything burning and no substance is lit within the Gamucci. Gamucci is a safe product and is CE & RoHS certified.

Gamucci has a cool sophisticated design

All our products have been designed to look sleek and desirable. They are simple to use in all situations. We only use the best quality materials and our design teams are working on a number of new and exciting looking products for future launch.

Gamucci comes in different flavours

Today there are more options available than just your regular tobacco taste. The Gamucci cartridges come in various flavours including Tobacco, Chocolate, Coffee, Apple, Cherry, and Mint in various strengths of nicotine as well as zero nicotine cartridges.

Gamucci is rechargeable

With the Gamucci starter kit you get two rechargeable batteries, thus giving endless hours of enjoyable smoking. The batteries and the atomisation chamber come with a 12 month product guarantee and all aspects of the product have been CE & RoHS certified.

Gamucci is cheaper than traditional cigarettes

The costs of smoking traditional cigarettes are becoming more prohibitive each year. A normal pack of 20 cigarettes costs between £4.50 to £6.00. With Gamucci you can enjoy massive savings. After the initial investment of the device many users have reported massive savings of up to 80 per cent. A single Gamucci cartridge is equivalent to a pack of 20 cigarettes but only a 1/5 of the price of a pack of 20 cigarettes.

--end quote--

So, what are you waiting for? Go over to their website and give it a try.

If you live in Eastern Europe you can also order it from the Romanian reseller, www.gamucci.ro

Happy (but most important, Healthy) smoking!!!

Make $65 with just one click

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Sat, 31 May 2008 10:11:00 +0000

How would you like to earn $65 (yes, that is 65 dollars) with just one click?

I'm sure you are wondering if this is some kind of scam, MLM or pyramid system where you send/spend a lot of money and get a lot of BIG BUCKS promises... Well, it's not! It is a 100% real and pure money opportunity for everyone to earn $65 dollars with one click!

So what is it and how can you earn the money? Where do you need to click?

We are talking about the Lunar Pages affiliate program. You most likely heard about Lunar Pages, they are one of the best and well known hosting providers, with literally millions of pages hosted on their servers. These days everyone wants to go global and the best way to do that is create a website. Any website needs a cheap and reliable hosting server, so here is where Lunar Pages comes into the equation: they offer the hosting package, whether a cheap startup one, or even dedicated servers for professional web applications.

OK, so far so good. It's time to earn your $65 dollars. To do that, you just have to Sign up as a Lunar Pages affiliate (which is FREE and takes about 2 minutes), then visit their banner pages, get the one you like and put it on your site! If someone clicks the banner on your site and registers for a hosting package with Lunar Pages, you earn $65 dollars with just ONE CLICK! It's that simple!

But wait, there's more! For each person that buys a hosting package from Lunar Pages you earn $65. 10 persons = $650, 100 persons = $6500!!! You don't have to do anything but keep your site up and running and get more people to see your Lunar Pages banner!

And it goes even further! You can refer other people to the Affiliate program, and for every $65 they make, you make $5!

So, with the Lunar Pages Affiliate Program, you get:

* $65 base commission rate
* $5 2nd tier commissions
* ready made banners
* a unique, close-knit staff
* incentives and commission raises at 100 referrals/month!
* tailored landing pages at 150 referrals/month

Below you can find some sample banners and also in the right sidebar of my blog I have already posted my banner. So what are you waiting for? Click here and start making money in no time! Remember, you can make $65 dollars with just ONE CLICK!

Learn to whistle very loud

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Fri, 30 May 2008 05:53:00 +0000

I've been trying a lot to learn how to whistle very loud, the type of whistle you perform at a Rock concert or football (soccer) game. But I never managed to do it...

Two days ago I went to a Rock concert of one of Romania's best rock band ever: Phoenix (you can listen some of their songs on YouTube, just do a search for "Phoenix Romania"; or click here for one of their song).

So, I went to the concert with my girl and everybody was either whistling or shouting while clapping their hands. And I could not do any of those two... I felt frustrated...

So I went on YouTube and searched for some videos that teach one how to whistle. I found many of them, you can do your own search, but the two I placed below made the most sense to me and now I am actually ... kind of... whistling... Just give me a few more days and I'll be expert! :)

The first movie is a very short one. Still, it shows how to do it:

The second movie is longer and made by some pretty annoying guy (no offense). Just skip the first minute and then you will get to the 4 steps that he tells about. Helped me...

Have a break, play free games

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:53:00 +0000

Are you working hard? Are you doing extra work without any extra money? Are you tired of seeing that joy in your office mates' eyes? Do you want to know the secret of happiness at work?

THE SECRET IS FREE FLASH GAMES! Yes, that's right! You can kick some balls (that is, soccer balls) or play the "Milky shoot" game.

Below you will find one of my favorites and a very modern ... EMO ... game. Now, now, don't you go crying on me! Just start the game and kick some EMO soccer! Enjoy.

Glider Instructions: Press the left and right arrow key alternatively as fast as you can in order to take off the cliff. Then, use the up and down arrows to gather points. Stay away from those nasty eagles and watch out for the rocks!

EMO Soccer Instructions: You have 2 field EMO players 1 goalkeeper. Use the left and right arrows to move, "A" key to change between the 2 players, "S" key to jump and shot with the head, "D" key to kick the ball. You can also get these instructions by clicking the Instructions link in the Flash game.

$100 Laptop Gets Redesigned

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:41:00 +0000

Tossing aside its iconic green-and-white laptop with its distinctive antennas, One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is pursuing a smaller 2.0 version, scheduled for release in 2010, in which dual touch screens will replace the keypad. The new version will have lower power consumption and a $75 price--a figure that OLPC claims is achievable despite the fact that the current model, the XO, sells for nearly double the sum mentioned in its "$100 laptop" moniker.

Conceptual design of XO-2: Illustrating touchscreen keyboard

With its hinged dual display, the new version could be used as a book, as a laptop with a touch-screen keypad, or as one continuous display when folded flat. "The display is going to get better and better, and it's key to the next generation," Nicholas Negroponte, founder of OLPC, said yesterday at a launch event at the MIT Media Lab.

The redesign is OLPC's latest effort to revitalize global adoption of its machines. Last week, OLPC announced that the current version will soon have the option of running on Microsoft Windows; previously, the machines only ran on the GNU/Linux operating system, plus a custom interface called Sugar that emphasizes collaboration among children. With the addition of Windows, OLPC hopes to boost sales to countries, such as Egypt, that already use Windows software in schools.

Pixel Qi, the display-technology startup founded by former OLPC chief technology officer Mary Lou Jepsen, will collaborate in the development of the new computer. Its smaller size will make the laptops easier for children to carry than the previous, larger version, Negroponte said yesterday. And despite the smaller size, the display will be larger--when both screens are used--than the one on the current version. Because the machine will have no keypad, there will be fewer mechanical parts to break. And whereas the current XO consumes only two to four watts--one-tenth of the amount consumed by a conventional laptop--the next-generation version will use as little as one watt.

But until the new machine comes online, the existing XO will continue to be sold. Only about 600,000 hard orders have come in--a far cry from the 100 million that, two years ago, Negroponte said he was hoping to obtain by 2008. And last week's announcement that the XO will have the option of using Windows or the existing Linux-based operating system has led to some debate among education officials. Yesterday, Oscar Becerra, a Peruvian education ministry official who directs the OLPC deployment under way there, says that he sees little value in adding Windows for computers in primary schools.

Visual Studio - Build process optimized for multi processors

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Mon, 26 May 2008 18:37:00 +0000

These days, everyone wants to buy state of the art technology when it comes to PCs. Fast processors, lots of RAM, stunning graphics cards, huge hard disk drives, blue ray drives, anything new on the market.

If you are a developer using Visual Studio 2005, you probably want to know how can you truly benefit from all the new hardware while programming your applications.

Well, I am happy to announce (for those of you who did not find out about this until now) that Microsoft has been asking this question for quite a while. When it comes to the RAM usage of Visual Studio, most of you already know that VS 2005 consumes more than VS 2003, but VS 2008 takes it to another level... Especially if you are a Vista user:

VS Version

Minimum RAM

Recommended RAM

2005

192

256

2008

384

384+ XP

768+ Vista

Having 2GB + of RAM is nothing our days. Tomorrow, we will probably count RAM using Terra Bytes.

One great thing that Visual Studio 2008 brings for us, developers, is not only compatibility, but also optimization of the build process on multi core processor systems. This basically means more cores = faster build! And that, I must say, is COOL! Imagine using dual Quad processor system for building projects that usually take up to 10 hours to build. That reduces the overall build time to about 12%!!! Nice.

What is NOT nice nor COOL is that this feature was present also with Visual Studio 2005, just nobody informed us! And it so easy to enable it...

The /MP option can reduce the total time to compile the source files on the command line. The /MP option causes the compiler to create one or more copies of itself, each in a separate process. Then these copies simultaneously compile the source files. Consequently, the total time to build the source files can be significantly reduced.

So, just open Visual Studio, open up your C++ project (sorry C# users) -> right-click and select Properties -> in the left tree expand Configuration Properties -> expand C/C++ -> select Command Line. In the Additional options text area, type "/MP" and press OK. That's it, you're all set!

PS: I don't know if you need to restart VS or reboot your computer. It should not, since you are only modifying the command line arguments of the build command. Anyway, if you don't see any results after doing this change, you either did something wrong or need a new processor :P

Clear RAM on Windows XP without reboot

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:40:00 +0000

I found a cool trick that is supposed to free your RAM memory without having to restart the system. I am a little skeptical about it, but I remember using a RAM cleaning tool when I was using only 64MB (a while ago :) ).

Steps to follow:

1. Create a new shortcut on your desktop (locate an empty spot on your desktop, right click on your mouse and select - New->Shortcut)

2. Type “windir\system32\rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks” without the brackets in the box and click next.

3. Name your shortcut “Clear RAM,” and click finish…. All done!…

Now, when your system slows down just click the clear ram shortcut, and you are back to your normal operating speed.

PS: I searched a few posts about this trick and some people even reported the reverse of this happening. I found some Delphi source code of an application that is supposed to also free the RAM memory of unused items. When I get the chance I will take a look and try to come back with a working solution to free up some RAM...

Windows ONE-Click shutdown and optimization

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:34:00 +0000

When you shut down Windows XP, the OS tries its best to make sure that all services (they help run things like graphics, printers etc) are shut down. But there are times when they don't close, thus Windows XP tries to give it the chance to shut down itself. This amount of time that windows waits for the service to close is stored in the system registry. If you modify this setting, then windows will shut down the service earlier. To modify the setting, follow the directions below:

Start Regedit.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control.
Click on the "Control" Folder.
Select "WaitToKillServiceTimeout"
Right click on it and select Modify.
Set it to a value lower than 2000, say 1000 as a test.

To speed up the shutdown process even more, you can create a one-click-shutdown following these directions:

Navigate to your Desktop.
On the Desktop, right-click and go to New, then to Shortcut (in other words, create a new shortcut).
You should now see a pop-up window instructing you to enter a command line path.

Enter one of these as the path: SHUTDOWN -s -t 01
If the C: drive is not your local hard drive, then replace "C" with the correct letter of the hard drive.
Click the "Next" button.
Name the shortcut and click the "Finish" button.

Now whenever you want to shut down, just click on this shortcut and you're done. Also, if you want to make life better and faster, you can right-click the new shortcut you just made, go to Properties, and type in X (or whatever letter) in the Shortcut Key box.

Outlook - Save Embedded Pictures in Their Original Format

noreply@blogger.com (Just little ol' me) — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:55:00 +0000

I just found a great post that helped me solve a problem I was having for a long time: how to download inline pictures from an Outlook (2003 in my case) message. If the images are attached, you can just select them all (using the SHIFT key) and copy/paste them in your desired location. But what do you do when you have the images inline (embedded) in the message? Check out the post below. In just 2-3 minutes you will have your problem solved!

I liked the article so much because it is very strait-forward. So I did not do any modifications to it. You can find the original post here: http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/saveembeddedpictures.htm

I also found a $20 solution for this problem (http://www.ope2000.com/product.htm), so thank you Internet! Here goes:

You’ve probably come across this at least once; You receive a nicely HTML formatted message with embedded pictures so the sender can tell the story with the pictures and when you try to save the pictures you can only save them as a bmp-file. Or; you receive a fun e-mail with an animated gif-file and when you try to save it you can only save or copy it as a bmp-file which will of course break the animation.

This How To article explains how you can save the embedded pictures in their original file format.

Make sure the Visual Basic editor is installed

Since we are going to create a macro from code you must have the Visual Basic editor installed (which is the default). If you don’t have it installed you can install it by Control Panel-> Add/Remove Programs-> select your Office version-> button change. Now setup will start. Here you choose for Add or Remove Features-> Select “Choose advanced customization of applications” (Outlook 2003). In the list you get expand Microsoft Office-> Office Shared Features-> Visual Basic for Applications and set it to Run form My Computer. Press “Update” to install. You might need to insert your CD during setup.

This is where you can find the Visual Basic Editor when you have it installed

Create Macro

As I already provide you with the code, creating the macro is easy. The code has been tested with Outlook 2003 on Windows XP and Outlook 2007 on Windows Vista but should work on previous versions as well.

We start up the Visual Basic Editor by going to Tools-> Macro-> Visual Basic Editor. This will open a new screen. Choose Insert-> Module to create a new module dedicated to this macro. Select the newly created module in the left pane and rename it to “SaveAttachments” by changing the Properties value in the pane underneath. Copy and paste the code below to the module.

Private Const BIF_RETURNONLYFSDIRS As Long = &H1 Private Const BIF_DONTGOBELOWDOMAIN As Long = &H2 Private Const BIF_RETURNFSANCESTORS As Long = &H8 Private Const BIF_BROWSEFORCOMPUTER As Long = &H1000 Private Const BIF_BROWSEFORPRINTER As Long = &H2000 Private Const BIF_BROWSEINCLUDEFILES As Long = &H4000 Private Const MAX_PATH As Long = 260 Function BrowseFolder(Optional Caption As String, _ Optional InitialFolder As String) As String Dim SH As Shell32.Shell Dim F As Shell32.Folder Dim WshShell As Object Set SH = New Shell32.Shell Set F = SH.BrowseForFolder(0&, Caption, BIF_RETURNONLYFSDIRS, InitialFolder) Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") If Not F Is Nothing Then 'Special folders don't always return their full path that is why we check the title first Select Case F.Title Case "Desktop" BrowseFolder = WshShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop") Case "My Documents" BrowseFolder = WshShell.SpecialFolders("MyDocuments") Case "My Computer" MsgBox "Invalid selection", vbCritical + vbOKOnly, "Error" Exit Function Case "My Network Places" MsgBox "Invalid selection", vbCritical + vbOKOnly, "Error" Exit Function Case Else BrowseFolder = F.Items.Item.Path End Select End If 'Cleanup Set SH = Nothing Set F = Nothing Set WshShell = Nothing End Function Sub SaveAttachment() 'Get all selected items Set MyOlApplication = CreateObject("Outlook.Application") Set MyOlNameSpace = MyOlApplication.GetNamespace("MAPI") Set MyOlSelection = MyOlApplication.ActiveExplorer.Selection 'Make sure at least one item is selected If MyOlSelection.Count = 0 Then Response = MsgBox("Please select an item first", vbExclamation, MyApplName) Exit Sub End If 'Make sure only one item is selected If MyOlSelection.Count > 1 Then Response = MsgBox("Please select only one item", vbExclamation, MyApplName) Exit Sub End If 'Retrieve the selected item Set MySelectedItem = MyOlSelection.Item(1) 'Retrieve all attachments from the selected item Dim colAttachments As Outlook.Attachments Dim objAttachment As Outlook.Attachment Set colAttachments = MySelectedItem.Attachments 'Here makes the user the folder selection Dim FolderPath As String FolderPath = BrowseFolder("Select a folder") If FolderPath = "" Then Response = MsgBox("Please select a folder. No items were saved", vbExclamation, MyApplName) Exit Sub End If 'Save all attachments to the selected location with a date and time stamp of message to generate a unique name Dim DateStamp As String Dim MyFile As String For Each objAttachment In colAttachments MyFile = objAttachment.FileName DateStamp = Format(MySelectedItem.CreationTime, " - yyyymmdd_hhnnss") intPos = InStrRev(MyFile, ".") If intPos > 0 Then MyFile = Left(MyFile, intPos - 1) & DateStamp & Mid(MyFile, intPos) Else MyFile = MyFile & "DateStamp" End If objAttachment.SaveAsFile (FolderPath & "\" & MyFile) Next 'Cleanup Set objAttachment = Nothing Set colAttachments = Nothing Set MyOlApplication = Nothing Set MyOlNameSpace = Nothing Set MyOlSelection = Nothing Set MySelectedItem = Nothing End Sub
Click in the area above and press CTR+A to select all. Press CTRL+C to copy the code

The code copied in the Visual Basic Editor.

Important!
Since this macro also uses Windows functionality to prompt you for a folder location we must add the reference to the project. To do this choose Tools-> References… and select Microsoft Shell Controls And Automation. After this press OK.

Now we debug the code by choosing Debug-> Compile Project1. You shouldn’t be getting errors if you’ve done everything correctly.
If you do get errors retrace your steps and also verify that any previous code you might have in ThisOutlookSession is correct. Debug until you’ve solved the errors (the code provided works correctly without any modifications).

To be able to run the code without setting your macro security level to medium I recommend that you sign your code which is a very easy process and only takes a minute.

Create a button for the macro

You can run the macro through Tools-> Macros… -> select the SaveAttachment macro and then press Run. However the easiest way to access and use the macro is to create a button for it. Since the macro works on the selected item we can create the button in the main Outlook window. Follow the instructions below to create a button.

Set the Toolbar in edit mode by going to View-> Toolbars-> Customize…
Select the tab Commands
In the Categories column select Macros
In the Commands toolbar click on Project1.SaveAttachment and hold down the mouse button.
Drag the icon to a location on the Toolbar so the pointer will loose the cross and release the mouse button to drop it in that location
Right click the icon to change the name and to assign it a button image you like (if you want to learn more about editing Toolbar buttons click here)
Press Close to leave edit mode

The Save Attachments icon in the Toolbar. Curious what my Running Man icon does?

Using the macro

Alright, now that we’ve gone through all the trouble we can finally save all types of embedded pictures in their original file format. To do this you select the message that contains the embedded pictures. When you click on the Save Attachments button you’ll save all attachments with a date and time stamp to a folder of choice. Note that it doesn’t save blocked attachments.

Say good-bye to converting bmp-s back to jpg-s and broken gif-s!