The 3 lucky winners for Left 4 Dead 2 game has been randomly chosen through an online list randomizer. Here are the winners. Only the first 3 are winners. If they do not respond to my friend, my friend will send the L4D2 gift to the next person in list.
My friend will be contacting you by adding your STEAM username to his account and then send you the free L4D2 gift.
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Without a doubt that AVG Antivirus is one of the most popular antivirus program thanks to its free version. 2 months ago, AVG released version 8 for its products but the free version still remained at version 7.5. Today, they finally released AVG Anti-Virus Free 8.0, the latest version of the AVG’s popular and widely-used free security software, which now also come with anti-spyware and safe-searching utilities.
If you’re using AVG Anti-Virus 7.5 free edition or do not have any antivirus at all, I’d advice you to download and install the free AVG Anti-Virus 8.0 because the latest version incorporates protection against spyware through a new combined anti-virus and anti-spyware engine. Remember that AVG Free 8.0 is intended for personal and non-commercial use on single computers running Windows 2000, XP or Vista.
AVG Anti-Virus Free 8.0 provides basic protection against viruses and spyware, together with the safe-searching component of the company’s patent-pending LinkScanner® technology, incorporated into the new AVG Security Toolbar. The Free product does not include the proactive safe-surfing (“drive-by download†protection) of the full LinkScanner module that is included in the commercial AVG products, nor the protection against hackers, keyloggers, spam, phishing attacks, and malicious file downloads that can come through instant messaging and attachments from seemingly friendly sources.
Here is what the new AVG Anti-Virus 8.0 Free Edition looks like.
The installer also installed AVG Security Toolbar on both Internet Explorer and Firefox.
I usually only post one article a day but today is an exception because I’ve been monitoring AVG’s website for the release of AVG Anti-Virus 8.0 free edition as I wanted to be the first to inform you about it. The file size of the installer is really huge (46.1 MB) So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and download the new AVG Anti-Virus 8.0 Free Edition from the link below!
[ Download AVG Anti-Virus 8.0 Free Edition ]
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Pro Wrestling Torrents (PWT) tracker site has came back online but it’s without WWE footage/material except for WWF, WCW and ECW tagged materials until they get further instruction from World Wrestling Entertainment. Sarge, the owner of Pro Wrestling Torrents is still trying to determine the authencity and validity of the legal warning e-mail which he received yesterday.
Yesterday I’ve introduced Xtreme Wrestling Torrents for your alternative wrestling downloads and today I am going to introduce you another wrestling tracker site.
FullContactZone (FCZ) also has a lot of wrestling materials such as WWE, INDY, and TNA in their tracker. FullContactZone also has Formula1, Nascar, Soccer, Football and etc…
Do check FullContactZone out as you’re able to sign up for an account at their tracker before one day they decide to close their signups. That will usually happen when there’s too many leechers hit-and-run, meaning download and run off.
Enjoy 😉
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After months of The Grabber not working because RapidShare has updated their code, Team CMS has updated their famous The Grabber and even made it better with new feature!
This latest version of The Grabber 1.4.8 fixed rapidshare.com grabber and link checker. A new feature is added in this latest The Grabber that is “Huawei Tool“.
It is for renewing IP address for ADSL users(Supported hardware: SmartAX MT882 ADSL Router/Modem) – currently only USB mode is supported and next version will allow to specify router address (it is now set to 192.168.1.2 — you can configure your router to that address anyway so it will work in “Network Mode” — i.e. when connected to the LAN NIC))
This release is no longer private because it is sponsored by StackFile Corp. I have no idea what StackFile is all about because the website will only be open after 9 days. Anyway, thanks to StackFile for sponsoring The Grabber, otherwise it won’t be updated for all of us to use.
22 October 2007 Update: An updated version of Grabber is out. It is a minor update and fixes RapidShare.com code. You can download the updated Grabber version 1.4.8A at the link below.
[ Download The Grabber v1.4.8A ]
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FTP is File Transfer Protocol. A very common method of moving files between two Internet sites. FTP is a way to login to another Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files. FTP was invented and in wide use long before the advent of the World Wide Web and originally was always used from a text-only interface.
I am working in an environment where the administrator of my company has firewall installed and blocking a lot of ports including FTP.
A lot of drivers are also located in FTP but not WWW. My working place has about 800 computers and I am in constant need of downloading and updated the latest drivers. Now how can I do that when I can’t access FTP?
No matter what type of FTP client I install, it won’t work because port 21, which the port that FTP uses, is blocked.
Do not worry as there is a way around this. This method can be considered as bypassing firewalls, routers, and proxy servers in order to upload and download through FTP even if it is blocked.
You can use Web based FTP to access any FTP account through a Web interface – no matter whether there is a firewall or not. You can use webftp for the complete administration of your homepage, downloading files or just making small changes.
All you need is a web browser, the FTP server, username and password. To download drivers, usually the FTP server will allow anonymous connections to their FTP.
I’ve searched and tried a few web based FTP and I can say that Web2FTP works the best for me.
By visiting Web2FTP, you will have 3 choices of FTP login.
1. The normal FTP login where you need your FTP server, port, username and password.
2. FTP with that requires SSL-Login
3. FTP anonymous login where mostly used to download drivers
Once logged in, you’ll be presented with an web based FTP interface on your browser which looks like the image below.
The only improvement I think should be done is to have automatic transfer mode. Currently you’ll need to select either BINARY or ASCII. For BINARY, you must use this mode for everything that contains binary data as pictures and other files that are not text only. This mode is preset at www2ftp. As for ASCII, this mode is used for transferring text files. If the server is running on Unix you must use this mode for text files as the line endings are different. The ASCII-mode will convert the line endings to unix line endings removing the “CR” from the file.
There is another limitation where you can only download and upload files no bigger than 50MB. Files, which you want to transfer from or to your ftp server are stored temporarily on web2ftp server and processed by www2ftp. This limitation is to offer to all users a stable service and to protect against overloading to web FTP server.
In order to be able to log in on your ftp server, web2ftp must know your ftp password. This password is transferred from your browser to web2ftp and from there to your ftp server. An encrypted transmission of your server data to web2ftp (and the server reply back to you) is possible with the SSL Login. This is no different from any other FTP client and is thereby no characteristic of web2ftp..
For technical reasons web2ftp needs your ftp password with each ftp command you execute, therefore web2ftp stores your password for the duration of the session locally. This has the advantage that your password does not need to be sent continuously between your browser and web2ftp. The password is stored in a file inaccessible to the public, and totally unrelated to your username. Additionally the password is encrypted by DES with a public and private key. If someone gets access to this file (which is nearly impossible) and decodes the password, your password is nevertheless worthless to him. The connection between password and user name is made by a session ID, which is put in hidden HTML fields together with the server data. The stored password can be only used, if both the randomly produced session ID and the user name are known. This information is only known by you!
The password file is deleted together with the session ID when you press the Logout Button. This guarantees that the browser’s or any proxy’s cached copies of the HTML pages cannot be used any longer. If you forget to logout your password file is deleted automatically after 60 minutes of inactivity! Files downloaded by the ftp server are transferred automatically by web2ftp to your computer. Only you have access to these files as there is an htaccess file that limits the access to your IP address. If another internet user should know the name and the directory of the downloaded file (which is highly improbable), the download attempt would fail as their IP would get rejected
Of course they claim that they do not store any personal data. Activity-related data is stored only for statistics purposes and deleted after the regular evaluation. Of course they will keep this data secret. Again it is pointed out that all passwords are deleted after use! With web2ftp it is neither necessary nor possible to register and store personal data. Therefore abuse of such data is generally impossible!
This web based FTP service to bypass firewall, proxy and router is FREE. I hope it will maintain the way it is.
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HijackThis is a very powerful free tool which quickly scans your Windows computer to find settings that may have been changed by spyware, malware or other unwanted programs. HijackThis creates a report, or log file, with the results of the scan. HijackThis does not determine what is good or bad. So it’s better for you not make any changes to your computer settings unless you are an expert computer user.
Here’s another free tool that’s similar towards HijackThis with a few more extra features.
a-squared HiJackFree, program name is quite similar to HijackThis, is a detailed system analysis tool which helps advanced users to detect and remove all types of HiJackers, Spyware, Adware, Trojans and Worms.
HijackFree also has the ability to save a logfile just like what HijackThis can. However, I find that some of the HiJackFree buttons are a little small and can be hard to find with just a glance. The save logfile, print logfile, refresh online data, online analysis and options button are the small buttons.
HiJackFree Features
1. Running Processes
– Like the Windows Task Manager, the a-squared HiJackFree Processes section lists all running processes. But additionally it shows tons of useful information at the details pane. File properties, loaded modules, online information and process details that indicate whether the program runs as a service, was started by an autorun entry or opens TCP and UDP ports.
2. Open Ports
The Ports section of a-squared HiJackFree shows all local open ports. An open port means that there is a process running which listens on the port number for input from outside. The Ports Manager shows also the processes which listens on the ports so you can quickly see which processes must be shut down to close a specific port. You can kill a process and put it to quarantine for a later restore if needed.
3. Autoruns
– View and edit all autorun entries. More than 30 different autorun locations are displayed and can be edited as well. Beside the default registry autoruns of the current user (HKCU) and all users (HKLM), a-squared HiJackFree also shows autoruns in files like win.ini, system.ini, autoexec.bat and config.sys. Additionally it lists all programs which are automatically run by the autorun start menu folder. Autoruns can be deactivated temporarily or removed permanently. The tricky autoruns cover all locations of the registry which are not mainly used to autorun files, but can also be used to start processes like the default screensaver path and others.
4. Services
– With the included Service Manager you can easily see which services are installed and started. Additionally to the Windows Service Manager it shows the full path to the executable service file in the list to help identifying potential harmful services quickly. It also lists services that are not shown in the Windows Service Manager
5. Explorer- and Browser-Addons
– The Addons section of a-squared HiJackFree allows you to view and edit plugins and addons of the Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer. Addons are mainly Browser Helper Objects (BHOs) which extend the functionality of the browser or additional Toolbars.
6. LSP Protocols
– The LSP section shows all installed Layered Service Providers which are some kind of network drivers. Some spywares use LSPs to place ads on transferred website files you view with your browser.
7. Hosts File
– The Hosts file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. This file is loaded into memory at startup, then Windows checks the Hosts file before it queries any DNS servers, which enables it to override addresses in the DNS. You can use the Hosts file to redirect ad network server names to localhost to avoid ads on websites. Another ‘feature’ of the Hosts file is used by worms. Many of them use that file to redirect all requests to websites of Antivirus companies to localhost to avoid removal of the worm.
8. Active-X
The Active-X section shows all installed Active-X modules (DLLs) on the system. The list shows invalid references which can be removed.
9. Online Analysis
– The a-squared HiJackFree Online Analysis is a very powerful helper feature to see quickly which autoruns, processes, addons or open ports are harmful. You can click the “Refresh Online Data” button to get the online analysis directly at the program or you can also click the “Online Analysis” button at the right top of HiJackFree, to see a combined analysis web page. There a new brower window comes up with a detail analysis of your system configuration. The report is stored so you can also tell the web address of the report to specialists if needed.
Weirdly, HiJackFree website state that last update a-squared HiJackFree is on 8/30/2006 8:15 AM with version: 2.0.0.429. If you run HiJackFree built-in updater, it will update your HiJackFree to version 3.0. If you’re an advanced computer user, this tool is very helpful in identifying if your computer is infected by any unknown virus or trojans…
Although HiJackFree is free for private use only, business users and private users who need personal support and help must purchase the Pro license at $19.95.
[ Download a-squared HiJackFree ]
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For the past 2 weeks, I’ve been lucky to stumble twice on RapidShare giving out free premium accounts while I was accessing RapidShare to download some files. You can always browse to RapidShare freeaccount.cgi to check but it’s very troublesome since you need to refresh each time to check.
The full link to for RapidShare Free Premium Accounts is rapidshare.de/cgi-bin/freeaccount.cgi.
If RapidShare is not offering any Free Premium Accounts, you will get a popup saying “All free-accounts are already taken“.
However, if you’re lucky to visit the freeaccount.cgi when RapidShare is offering Free Premium Accounts, then you will get a page where it ask you to enter your email address and 3 random CAPTCHA code to verify that its human registering and not some automated programs.
The RapidShare Free Premium account will be valid for 2 days and will not be deleted after those 2 days. You can extend your account month by month for free by uploading files and collecting premium-points. You get points as soon as someone downloads your files. RapidShare will delete expired accounts after 45 days. This means, you have whole 47 days to collect 10000 points. As you can see, RapidShare free premium accounts only last 2 days if you keep on downloading without uploading.
You can easily use the free programs below to automate checking of RapidShare free premium accounts.
1. RapidCheck
RapidCheck is a free RapidShare free premium accounts checker. It has 6 predefined sounds when there’s any rapidshare free premium accounts available. You can also choose if you’d like the program to check the freeaccount.cgi every 1, 3, 5, 10, 30 or 60 minutes.
[ Download RapidCheck ]
2. CMS RSFAN v1.0
CMS RSFAN v1.0 is also free but it requires you to be a active member of CMS forum in order to access the download page. Somehow this program got leaked out and I found it. From the settings, I couldn’t find any sound notification on this program. However, you can define yourself the seconds or minutes you’d like the program to check for free RapidShare premium accounts. There is an extra feature where the program will open up RapidShare page using your default browser if the free accounts are available.
[ Download CMS RSFAN v1.0 ]
In my opinion, these free programs is great but it only takes RapidShare to change the freeaccount.cgi filename or the URL and the program stops working.
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NBA playoffs 2009 is here! In fact it started yesterday but I didn’t get to watch because was really tied up at work. Today I get to watch the game 2 of Chicago Bulls vs Boston Celtics in my workplace even there is a firewall that is supposed to block all these internet activities! It was really an exciting game and Ray Allen hit a 3 pointer at the final 4 seconds to win the game. Well Ben Gordon was really good as well. As for SA Spurs vs Dallas Mavericks, the match is still going on while I was writing this and Spurs tries very hard to lead the game by 2-0.
If you’re a big fan of NBA but somehow you could not watch because of the restriction at work or your TV is broken, no worries because I’ll show you how easy it is to watch the NBA playoffs 2009 live on your computer as long as you have an internet connection.
The easiest way to watch live streaming NBA on your computer without installing any software is from Justin.TV. All you need is a computer, web browser, flash player and internet connection.
Justin.TV is a network of diverse channels providing a platform for lifecasting and live video streaming of events online. In my opinion, Justin.TV is still the best if compared to a few live streaming websites such as ustream, freedocast and etc because it has reliable live streaming channels although sometimes you can also find a fake channel with static image and asking you to go to another website for streaming.
If you are having trouble in locating a good channels to stream NBA playoffs 2009 live for free, check out ATDHE.NET as it provides “working” channels listings from Justin.TV. There should be a few channels to choose for every game, so make sure you find the best one with clearest and smoothest streaming.
If somehow live streaming does not work in your web browser and would prefer to use third party software such as PPMate, SopCast, TVAnts, and etc, you can check MyP2P.eu for a list of working channels.
I am definitely going to catch tomorrow’s game because both best of the eastern and western conference team Cleveland Cavaliers and LA Lakers are playing. Can these two teams end up playing against each other in the finals? Which two teams would you like to see in the NBA Finals 2009?
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You know me, I am always looking for methods for me to work faster on my computer such as using shortcut keys, mouseless browsing firefox addon and etc. In fact, I use my keyboard more than mouse because it has been proven that keyboard works faster than mouse. One annoying problem in Windows that I don’t like is when I have a lot of programs and windows open and navigating around them in my 17″ LCD monitor is somehow tough.
To move an active window in Windows operating system, we’ll have to make sure that the window is not maximized and we’ll have to move the mouse cursor to the titlebar to drag it. However this is done much easily in Linux operating system by holding the Alt key and then just left click anywhere on the window dragging it anywhere we like. This saves you the trouble of moving your mouse all the way to the top to restore down the Window first and then move it by holding the left click on titlebar.
I found a small tool called Flying Windows that is able to enable the Alt + Window drag in Windows plus a few more useful hacks for Windows system.
First of all, Flying Windows is portable and very small. The executable file is only 7.88KB in size and the DLL is only 3KB. Running in in background takes only over 3MB from memory.
Flying windows option enables you to drag both active and background windows by pressing and holding the Alt key plus using your mouse to left click and drag to wherever you want. Very handy when you have a lot of open windows at the same time. Then there is intelligent mousewheel option which allows you to scroll the window using your mouse wheel without having to bring them to focus first. Again this is very convenient when you have a lot of open windows. Finally, Flying Windows includes “enable and unhider” feature where it can reveal passwords behind asterisk, enable “disabled” menu and submenu, windows title buttons, buttons, checkboxes and read-only edit controls. It can even remove text limit for an edit controls if there are programs that has. Do take note that the “enabler and unhider” option is recommended to be disabled and only enable when you really need to use it.
You’ll notice that there is a time counter but not to worry because it is not some sort of time bomb. It’ll count the amount of time Flying Windows running on your computer. The time counter feature cannot be disabled and the count is stored in a configuration file flyingwindows.ini every minute.
I’ve scanned flyingwindows.exe with 39 types of antivirus from VirusTotal and 16 of them found it suspicious. I’ve analyzed the file on ThreatExpert and it is absolutely safe. The reason why some paranoid antivirus detects it as a threat is because the author of Flying Windows used a packer (MEW 11 SE) that is known to be used by malware to compress the program.
[ Download Flying Windows v1.3 ]
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One of my favorite All-In-One dos bootable CD to troubleshoot computer problems is Hiren’s BootCD. Hiren’s Boot CD is a live CD containing various diagnostic programs such as partitioning agents, system performance benchmarks, disk cloning and imaging tools, data recovery tools, MBR tools, BIOS tools, and many others for fixing various computer problems. However, many of these tools are warez (pirated) and it cannot be used on some places because it is illegal.
If that is the case, you can try Trinity Rescue Kit. Back in 2001, Harakiri (one of Trinity Rescue Kit’s developer) had this great bootable dos CD which he created, packed with all great utilities for offline PC operations called “The Vault”. Unfortunately, the Vault consisted for 90% of software you should pay for. So distributing it in a legal way was certainly no option and he is not the guy that wants to spend his time in maintaining something that is illegal anyway. So he brewed on the idea of creating a free bootable Linux CD called Trinity Rescue Kit containing all available free tools that can help you in any way of rescueing your Windows installation.
Trinity Rescue Kit or TRK is a free live Linux distribution that aims specifically at recovery and repair operations on Windows machines, but is equally usable for Linux recovery issues. All you need to do is to download TRK iso file, burn it on a CD and boot the computer up using the TRK live CD. The latest method is it can boot from network over PXE. With version 3.3, it has the ability to act as a network bootserver itself, without any modifications to your local server.
Here’s a sumup of some of the most important features, new and old:
- Easily reset windows passwords (backup and restore option in 3.3)
- 4 different virusscan products integrated in a single uniform commandline with online update capability (5 in the latest version 3.3)
- Full ntfs write support thanks to ntfs-3g (all other drivers included as well)
- Clone NTFS filesystems over the network
- Wide range of hardware support (kernel 2.6.19.2 and recent kudzu hwdata)
- Easy script to find all local filesystems
- Self update capability to include and update all virusscanners
- Full proxyserver support
- Run a samba fileserver (windows like filesharing)
- Run a SSH server
- Recovery and undeletion of files with utilities and procedures
- Recovery of lost partitions
- Evacuation of dying disks
- UTF-8 international character support
- 2 rootkit detection utilities (version 3.3)
- Elaborated documentation (+manpages as of 3.3)
Do take note that Trinity Rescue Kit is a complete commandline based distribution, apart from a few tools like qtparted, links, partition image and midnight commander. Most of the time you’ll have to type commands to get the tools running. It’s not as easy as clicking an icon and that’s it. You should read the documentation to know what are the commandlines that can be used. An example to launch a virus scan using AVG, you’ll have to type “virusscan -a avg” in the console. So don’t be shocked to only see a linux console that says [root@trk]:(~)#
[ Download Trinity Rescue Kit ]
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I am sure that most of you are running an antivirus software since I shared a lot of promotions and gave out free licenses from time to time. Antivirus are an important software to keep your computer from being infected by virus BUT it shouldn’t be something that you should totally 100% rely on. The current antivirus software is not like antivirus 10 years ago when an antivirus detects it as a virus, it IS a virus.
As for now, when an antivirus detects a software which I downloaded from a a trustworthy source as harmful or malicious, I’d rather trust the source rather than the antivirus. Of course, I would only take it as a warning and then analyze it in ThreatExpert. A lot of antivirus today implements heuristic scanning method which is the main cause of false detection. Heuristic scanning is a method for antivirus to analyze the instructions of a program to determine if it is a virus or not. It is mainly used to check for new undetectable virus or trojan.
When a software gets detected by an antivirus, there are 2 ways to fix it. Either contact the antivirus company about the false detection and wait for weeks to get it fixed or use some private version of crypters for an immediate solution.
Crypters are tools that makes another software undetectable by antivirus. Since crypters has the ability to make a virus or trojan undetetected by antivirus, most of the downloadable public versions of crypters that can be found in search engines are already being detected by antivirus as a threat. Another important rule is not to simply download any crypters that you find because some of them are embedded with malicious code that opens up a backdoor and allows the hacker to get in your computer.
Since I have a private version of a crypter called iCrypt, let me show you how it works. I will use Nirsoft’s MessenPass as a test. MessenPass is a password recovery tool that reveals the passwords of the instant messenger applications. I uploaded MessenPass to NoVirusThanks and 9 antivirus out of 24 found that it is infected. MessenPass is actually a clean tool but because it can dig out password from a computer, some paranoid antivirus company thinks that it is a hack tool.
Now I launch iCrypt and select mspass.exe to crypt.
Here are some options to choose. According to the instruction file, if the EOF box is enabled, then I should check the box. As for NTcompression, it is only used when need to bind or attach extra files to mspass.exe. Anti Methods is for enabling Anti sandbox. Meaning when a user tries to run the crypted file in a sandbox program such as sandboxie, it won’t run.
The next page I get to bind up to 6 files. Binding means combining a few files into one so when you run a single file, it actually launches all 6 files.
Finally, I get to make it undetectable by using a custom private stub. As for file clone, it is a must use option as well. Simple select a legitimate program that is not flagged as a virus (I select 7-Zip). I then click the Build button and I get a new file.
Now I scan the new crypted file in NoVirusThanks and NONE of the 24 antivirus detected it as infected.
When you buy a private version of iCrypt, you get a unique custom stub which can make a program undetectable by antivirus. A unique stub doesn’t get shared so it will remain undetected for a very long time but not forever. Overtime, some really good antivirus will find out how the crypter works and it gets detected. That’s when the support comes in and provide a new update with new methods to beat the detection.
First iCrypt unique stub I got 3 months ago: 5 out of 24
Second iCrypt unique stub I got 1 month ago: 2 out of 24
Third iCrypt unique stub I got this month: 0 out of 24
Private version of Trojan I got more than a year ago: 6 out of 24
First BCD unique stub but shared among members I got 5 months ago: 13 out of 24
Second BCD unique stub I got 2 months ago: 4 out of 24
Can you now see that an antivirus can’t keep your computer 100% safe? The truth is there are a lot of undetectable virus or trojan lying around the Internet and you won’t even know that it is one. Having a firewall and also always analyze an unknown file in sandbox helps to keep your computer safe.
[ Visit iCrypt ]
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I was working on a friend’s computer recently, with my toolkits I’ve put together over the years, when my friend, a devout Windows user, went snooping though my CD toolkit. He found what I always carry on me when it comes to a repair job: a copy of Windows XP, Vista, and 7 both in 32 bit and 64 bit system configurations, DBAN, Avira and Kaspersky Live CD scanners, RIP Linux, Clonezilla, DriverPack 10 Professional, and a LiveCD of Puppy Linux 5.0.1. Like many people that aren’t in depth aware of computers, he asked me what each one did, and how and why I use it. When it came to RIP Linux, Clonezilla, and Puppy Linux, he was especially puzzled by them because he didn’t know what they did. So I told him that I use RIP to recover data off computer and to use a liveCD partitioner and Clonezilla was to be a replacement for Norton Ghost.
As for why I always carry Puppy Linux with me to repair sites, is to give me a second option in trying to copy data over from a dying disk. For those people who have never used it as an operating system, or an LiveCD, it is a very quick operating system that won’t complain when you try copying files over, no matter what the situation. I’ve actually used Puppy to recover data off computers that wouldn’t boot for me to use Roadkil’s Unstoppable Copier, though technically Clonezilla could do the same thing. However, this is direct access to any file system on any computer, something I’ve personally noticed only Linux can do. The other nice thing is that I can test to see if it’s only Windows that can’t do something, implying a problem inside of Windows that needs fixing, or if the hardware is bad. I say this because sometimes people are in a rush and very vague when asking for my help, so usually I’m not aware of what I have to do before I actually have to do it. With Puppy Linux, it will strike out another possibility that I would otherwise would left wondering about if the person is in a rush, which most times I’ve noticed, the person is when I’m repairing their computer on site. I’ve also left Puppy Linux on a computer while I’ve worked on the hard drive of a computer, because it doesn’t rely on the hard drive at all, being a liveCD. This allows me to have a bit more time when trying things out when the person is impatient and needs to get stuff done, or is bored and would like to use the computer, even though it’s still being repaired by yours truly. Finally, I have direct access to the hardware, unlike Windows. I admit, I could use Unknown Device /Unknown Device Identifier but even so, they’re limited when it comes to the Linux command of lspci.
Puppy Linux, more then just cute when it saves your computer
While you aren’t limited just to Puppy Linux in terms of selection (one of my friends swears by MicroCore Linux, another friend swears by Lubuntu) and it was never designed to do some of the things I use it for, it’s definitely earned itself a place in my toolkit. I feel it is a better choice then a ‘Live Windows CD’ that most warez sites would offer, because not only is it lighter, but if you are called upon by a company, you won’t have to try and explain yourself for a possible infection for them to face. With it also being free as in cost, and is able to be quickly remixed to how you’d like to use it, per computer with it’s repositories being only a click away, it’s not as hard as most people think. And since Puppy is so small and lightweight, older computers can be worked on without having to worry about waiting forever and a day for everything to load.
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Go ahead and download the new Windows Live Messenger! It’s cool, and it rocks… and you’re gonna love it!
Download Official Windows Live Messenger v8.0.0787 Final
â–º English
â–º Dutch
â–º French
â–º Spanish
â–º German
â–º (Brazilian) Portuguese
â–º Italian
â–º Chinese (Traditional)
â–º Russian
â–º Polish
â–º Finnish
â–º Hungarian
â–º Turkish
â–º Slovak
â–º Danish
â–º Swedish
â–º Norwegian
â–º Japanese
â–º Taiwanese
â–º Israeli
â–º Greek
â–º Korean
â–º Arabic
The popular Mess Patch for MSN/Live Messenger will be released in a few hours. I will post the link once it’s out.
Oh, and let’s hope that this new Windows Live Messenger eliminates the MSN Messenger 80048820 error 😉
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All of my friends including my wife’s friends knows that I am a computer guy. I work on computers to make a living and has been doing that for the past 13 years. For that reason, many of them ask me to check their laptop periodically to see if there are problems that causes slow down. Recently one of my wife’s friend bought a new laptop and asked me to check if it was worth buying it. In terms of hardware specifications, everything is faster and more powerful than my laptop but weirdly my laptop boots up and shuts down faster than hers. Not only that, I can even feel that there is a slight delay whenever I run any installed application on the new laptop.
At first she thought she was cheated by the salesperson in buying a lousy and slow laptop but I told her that it is the unnecessary bloated software running in background that is causing the problem. If configured, tweaked and installed the correct software, the new laptop should run much faster. Unfortunately all of the branded computers or laptops comes pre-installed with a lot of junk and unnecessary software that runs when Windows is booted up. I personally have NEVER used the recovery disc provided by the manufacturer on my computer or laptop. I prefer a clean installation of Windows followed by a step by step driver installation and finally installing the third party software that I “need”.
Some manufacturers such as Dell gives a “reinstallation DVD” that allows you to install a clean version of Windows 7 without any of the pre-installed tools. If not, you can use ABR tool to backup the Windows 7 OEM license and either borrow or download Windows 7 to install and activate it. You probably don’t even need to look for drivers because Windows 7 has a huge database to support a lot of hardware devices. But if you need to, you should have a drivers and utilities CD provided by your computer manufacturer.
If you don’t want to reinstall Windows 7, you can also manually uninstall the software IF you know which ones are not needed and is safe to remove. Uninstall wrongly and it would only cause more problems with some features not functioning. If all that seems to be too much work and too risky, then the easier method is to use SlimComputer or PC Decrapifier. Both SlimComputer and PC Decrapifier helps identify unnecessary software that comes pre-installed on a new computer such as promotional programs, toolbars, links to advertising or trial offers, then giving you the option to uninstall them. In fact both of them can also be used on a non brand new PC.
PC Decrapifier is a single portable executable file and works in a wizard style series of questions. You get to choose what you want to uninstall that PC Decrapifier thinks that it is unnecessary from the built-in database. It relies on the Windows System Restore to restore what you have removed with PC Decrapifier.
As for SlimComputer, it needs to be installed and comes with a nice looking graphical user interface. Other than identifying software that comes pre-installed on a new computer, it is also bundled with a couple of helpful tools such as startup optimizer and supercharged services. It is also possible to restore back the items that you’ve removed.
A big difference between SlimComputer and PC Decrapifier is that SlimComputer uses community-sourced feedback to get up-to-the-minute recommendations for any PC, unlike PC Decrapifier uses a fixed definition.
[ Download SlimComputer | Download PC Decrapifier ]
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Demonoid.com is a website and BitTorrent tracker that was originated by an individual known only by the pseudonym Deimos. The website indexes torrents uploaded by its members and categorizes torrents under Anime, Applications, Audio Books, Books, Comics, Games, Miscellaneous, Movies, Music, Music Videos, Pictures, and TV. Demonoid is one of the most popular semi-private torrent tracker with an alexa ranking of 400. The site went off-line on November 9, 2007 due to alleged legal threats from the Canadian Recording Industry Association and the site was brought back on-line on April 11, 2008.
As promised, I will notify you guys when the next Demonoid.com user registration is open and it is NOW open! The registration are already open for more than 16 hours already so quickly register your free demonoid.com account fast before it closes again.
With a registered demonoid user account, you can get to access more than the limited 3 torrent downloads per week. I am sure you can bypass that restriction by changing your IP address or clearing browser’s cache, but it could be very troublesome to do that if you’re a frequent torrent downloader. Opening a demonoid account is free but it will only be open at least once or twice per month.
To register for a free demonoid account, just visit the link at the end of this article, enter your username, password, email, birthday and the verification code.
Next you’ll need to check your email to activate your demonoid account.
I don’t download using torrent nowadays, so can anyone confirm with me whether it’s true that Demonoid tracks and displays users’ upload/download ratios but takes no action against users with low ratios? As far as I know, Demonoid previously banned users with low ratios, but I heard they stopped doing so due to the ratio system being inaccurate for some users with non-static ip addresses.
I usually get all my stuff from rapidshare but I still need to search them in demonoid once in a while when I am looking for a very rare software that I couldn’t find especially Mac OS software. If demonoid.com registration closes before you can get a account, leave a comment and I’ll send you one because I have a lot of spare demonoid.com accounts 😉
Register your free demonoid.com account here: http://www.demonoid.com/register.php
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