Technology for the Masses

Share large files (up to 1GB) instantly

Bob Ngu — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:58:10 +0000

Courtesy of lifehacker article

Brilliant new file sharing web site EatLime expedites online file sharing by allowing your friends to begin downloading the file as soon as you start uploading it, meaning you don’t have to wait for the file to finish uploading before they begin downloading. You can share files up to 1GB with a free registration or up to 100MB with no registration. In testing EatLime, I found that eventually—once my download caught up with my upload—I was essentially downloading in real-time from the upload, which is fantastic. If you’ve ever shared large files online, you know what a pain it can be in terms of time. EatLime could cut a significant chunk out of the time it takes to share files online.

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3 ways to track bandwidth

Bob Ngu — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:45:00 +0000

Courtesy of this Cnet article

Line Speed Meter is a free program that’s great for getting bandwidth stats and following trends in your connection speed. After a quick setup process, you can run a test to get basic info about upload and download speeds.
Net Meter is a shareware alternative ($19.95) that includes all the information you need within the interface. A small window shows real-time connection speeds for multiple network connections and a right click to the interface lets you bring up stats for daily, weekly, and monthly trends.
BitMeter This free app offers everything you need right in the interface like Net Meter, but the smaller window and the way it displays stats seems more appealing.

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Save big $$$ with generic drugs

Bob Ngu — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:22:05 +0000

Ok, slightly off topic but I can’t pass this up. If you take prescription medication, you can substitute a lot of your expensive name brand drugs with much cheaper generic equivalent. Consumer report has done the hard work for you, check here to start saving. Some examples of savings:

Taking the generic equivalent Symastatin instead of Vytorin could save $50 to $65 a month.
Allergy drug Claritin, which costs only $13 compared to Zyrtec at $101, saving patients $88 per month.
The cholesterol lowering drug Lovastin costs $34, compared to Lipitor at $98. The switch is $66 cheaper.
The most savings are with Prilosec, an over the counter heartburn medication at just $26. This is compared to $210 for prescription Nexium, which saves patients a whopping $184.

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Defrag your drive

Bob Ngu — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:43:25 +0000

Here’s a cool tool, defraggler, to defrag your drive. It differs from other defrag tools on the market, by enabling you to quickly and simply defrag the files you want to, without having to process the whole drive. Simply run it, select the file and defragment in seconds. No more struggling with the Windows defragmentation tool!

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Be like Mac

Bob Ngu — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 07:01:48 +0000

So you are on Windows but you really like the cool Mac dock, you know the one that magnifies the application icons as you mouse over them. You can do it with Stardock ObjectDock, for free even. For $20, you can get the Plus version that allows you to replace the Windows task bar with full functionality. Just to whet your appetite, here’s a picture of the mouse over effect of the weather icon.

Another option is to RocketDock, also free. A nice feature RocketDock has that the free ObjectDock version doesn’t is the ability for minimized windows to appear as icons on the dock. Unfortunately it doesn’t pick up the system tray icons, so it’s incomplete IMO. It has a lot more dock skins than ObjectDock though. You can set the dock to stay on top, normal, or stay on bottom. Staying on top is inconvenient when I have other windows open. Staying normal is also inconvenient because it doesn’t come to the top when I mouse over the dock if there is a window on top of it, ObjectDock brings it to the front, personally I like that better.

Play with both and see which one you like better, enjoy!

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Play your iTunes songs on any MP3 player

Bob Ngu — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:41:51 +0000

Courtesy of lifehacker

Freeware application doubleTwist converts your DRM-laden iTunes purchases to DRM-free MP3s that you can play pretty much anywhere. In addition to the DRM-stripping (which really is the marquee feature), doubleTwist is actually a full-fledged tool for sharing music with friends and syncing your iTunes library to any device—currently supporting devices like the PSP and Sony phones, Nokia N-Series phones, Windows Mobile phones, and even the Amazon Kindle. The DRM-stripping isn’t lossless (sound degradation is reportedly about 5%), but at a conversion rate of about 100 songs per half hour, it’s very fast. Brought to you by DVD Jon (the guy famous for cracking DVD encryption), this freeware, Windows-only (for now) app can free you from the shackles of Apple DRM.

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Worried about your cell phone minute overages?

Bob Ngu — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:46:23 +0000

I am paranoid about going over my wireless plan minutes, now there is a good way to get notified before that happens. This is a free service provided by overmyminutes. It works for all the major US carriers and is featured on CBS News. You have to register on the site and supply your wireless carrier’s site login information. Once you set up your alert preferences, you will get automatic notification via email and / or text message when you are about to exceed your minutes.

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Identify that process

Bob Ngu — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:14:53 +0000

On Windows XP, I can hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete and launch the Windows Task Manager. If I click on the Processes tab, it lists all the running processes on my system under the Image Name column. However, I see funky names like ehmsas.exe, mqtgsvc.exe, mcagent.exe, etc, not very readable and usually not helpful in identifying the software behind the process. I usually type the funky name in Google to get details about the software. There is a free software, ProcessQuickLink, that makes it much easier to get details about the process. It is shown below integrated with Window Task Manager.

Click on the “i” button and it will launch the browser with details about the process.

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$40 conversion coupon for your analog TV

Bob Ngu — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 04:11:32 +0000

Heads up, US TV programming will only broadcast in digital format starting Feb. 18, 2009. If you subscribe to cable, there won’t be a problem even if you have an analog TV. However, if your analog TV receives programming with over-the-air-antenna, you will stop getting a signal. To fix the problem, you can get a converter box for $50-$70 at most major retail electronics store. To ease the pain, you can get a $40 coupon towards the purchase. To request a coupon, consumers can apply online at www.dtv2009.gov starting Feb 19, 2008. The government also has set up a 24-hour hotline to take requests, 1-888-DTV-2009 (1-888-388-2009).

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Time to upgrade your free Lavasoft Ad-Adware anti-spyware software

Bob Ngu — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 01:29:14 +0000

Lavasoft Ad-Adware SE Personal edition is one of my long-time favorite free anti-spyware software. However, when I tried to update the definitions today, it gave me a rather nondescript error showing a progress of “5%…Error”. Huh, maybe the update server is down, so I tried it again (like 5 times). Each time I got the same error. So I did a search and discovered that the error is caused by an old version of the software having expired and the solution is to

Uninstall the old version
Clean out temp files, click start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup > select Temp.Files / Temp.Internet Files / Recycle Bin > run
Install the new 2007 version

I wish the error message has simply told me that I need to upgrade my software, pffft. All is well now. A side benefit of upgrading the software is the new UI, I like it.

BTW, I also occasionally run several other free anti-spyware programs because there is no one perfect solution. It is best to use a combination of anti-spyware programs to catch those sneaky hackers. I have been known to use the following anti-spyware / rootkit software (all are free): Spybot Search & Destroy, AVG Anti-Rootkit Free, Comodo Malware, Microsoft Windows Defender, Hazard Shield, and HijackThis. The list does not include anti-virus or firewall software, that’s for another post.

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