TECH: HOMEDESK winrot correction plan

Saturday, August 12, 2006

HOMEDESK has a bad case of winrot that won’t allow it to network with anything. Argh. So, it needs a reinstall. Always a traumatic event. I’ve ordered a WD500 external disk drive for taking a complete backup. I’m going to get GHOST for repartitioning. My tentative plan is:

  1. delete all downloaded software installer distribtuions:
  2. copy everything from HOMEDESK to the WD500;
  3. make an image of HOMEDESK on the WD500;
  4. GHOST HOMEDESK to cd;
  5. pray;
  6. repartition HOMEDESK’s 90 into 10-25-45-10+;
  7. reinstall XP into the D drive;
  8. see what I have lost?;
  9. live happiply ever after?

Sounds like a plan. Comments

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: “Gadwin PrintScreen” … a must-have for your desktop

Friday, August 11, 2006

You know how I love free utilities. Here’s a screen print utility. I use it to take jpegs of screens for documentation or helping people understand what they will see. You may wish to put it in your arsenal.===

http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/

What is Gadwin PrintScreen?

Want to create a screenshot suitable for saving or printing? Then just hit a key on your keyboard. Oh yeah, you’ll have to download this program first.

There are several hotkey combos to choose from (PrintScreen is the default). Once you’ve chosen your favorite combo, head to the Destination tab and have the screen print out instantly, copy the capture to the clipboard, save it to a specific folder, or even send it through e-mail. You can perform full screen captures, or only capture a specific window.

Gadwin PrintScreen is an easy to use freeware utility that allows you to capture any portion of the screen, save it to a file, copy it to Windows clipboard, print it or e-mail it to a recipient of your choice.

There are also six different image formats to choose from, and each one can be resized. With all the customization capabilities, what more could you ask for?

Who needs Gadwin PrintScreen?

Screen captures can be used for many reasons. Use captured images from Gadwin PrintScreen to show off your product on the web. Enhance technical or sales documents and embed captures into presentations. Gadwin PrintScreen can help you capture and print or save computer screen data.

Why Gadwin PrintScreen?

On most Windows computers a full screen of data can be put on the clipboard by pressing the PrintScreen key. This sends whatever you see on screen to the clipboard, which you must then edit in a different graphics program to cut to the right size and image format. Here are some other reasons not to use the prefabricated PrintScreen function of Windows:

Full screen of data can be put only on the clipboard.

It is either difficult or impossible to capture some elements of a Windows screen, such as different shaped cursors.

You spend too much time making image captures.

Use Gadwin PrintScreen to save time and enhance your screen shots! Download freeware Gadwin PrintScreen now and try it out! This is the best way to learn what it can do.

System Requirement.

Gadwin PrintScreen requires Microsoft ® Windows 98/Me/2000/2003/XP, or Windows NT 4.0SP6. If you are running any of these operating systems and have a Windows-compatible mouse or pointing device, your system has already met all the requirements necessary to run Gadwin PrintScreen. A full installation of Gadwin PrintScreen requires 1 megabyte of hard drive space.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: HOMEDESK repartition strategy

Friday, August 11, 2006

In getting ready to fix my winrot problem, I’m not going to make the same mistake I made last time. I just laid it down over the old image. No, this is going to be a complete start from scratch. So, I am thinking that EVEN after I get all the data backed up, I’m going to “save my work”. Several sites seem to recommend having a partitioning strategy. They seem to favor: a CEE drive small; DEE drive about 25g for WINDOZE; an EEE drive for data; and an FFF drive for downloads and drivers. So if I carve up HOMEDESK’s 90g, it works out to be C=10g, D=25g, F=45g, and E=10g. Comments?

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: HOMEDESK is still in trouble. WINXP repair failed to solve the problem!

Friday, August 11, 2006

Well, I suspect that winrot will finally force me to rebuild the box. Arghhh. I just finished taking specific backups. I’m going to try one more trick. Hard wire the box into the home netwrk and see if that will allow it to limp along. Double arghhhh! I suspect that darn mcafee “security” package. That’s one thing that gets dumped in a rebuild.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: wireless keyboards

Friday, August 11, 2006

I got tired of the LUGable frying my leg when I use it. There was also some mild concern about about the three dell fires that have been blogged about. So I bought a wireless keyboard. I highly recommend the MX3000 from Logitech.

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TECH: HOMEDESK is still in trouble. Can’t get it to recognize the WAP.

Wednesday, August 9, 2006

It has to be Microsoft! It’s always Microsoft. I’ve been thru this drill before. I did an XP repair ng. It just doesn’t see the WAP. Maybe I’ll try an UBUNTU LIVE CD and see if it SEES the wap. In trying stuff, without touching ANY hardware, I triggered Microsoft’s Activation. I knew I didn’t like it when I heard it. I really suspect some Microsoft Update crap. Can’t prove it but I’m suspicious. Maybe I need to say good bye to Microsoft once and for all. Then, one have to decide if it’s Linux, the Web, or something else.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: “CARDSCAN” aka Rubbermaid has “new” stuff coming. (Hmmm?)

Wednesday, August 9, 2006

Dear F,

It seems that the good news about CardScan just won’t stop. And neither will my pleasure in sharing that good news first with our most loyal customers. This time, I am eager to tell you about the latest developments in CardScan technology – the new CardScan Version 8 products.

New scanners, even more effective software, and a totally new product, aptly named “Team”.
I think you’ll be astonished at just how different the new Version 8 scanners are from the ones you know now. They’re sleeker and altogether impressive. But your real delight will come when you experience improvements to our software, like the new navigation bar, the new export template for Apple iPod, better-than-ever drag-and-drop and de-duplication features, and many enhancements requested by our users. And I think you’ll find “Team” a terrific addition to our line – and one that will help your team do its work better, faster and more effectively.

Watch for our special “current customers only” advance notice.
In the next week or so, you’ll be receiving a special email offer from us. In it, you’ll get your first glimpse of the new CardScan Version 8 products – and a special, limited time offer to save when you upgrade to Version 8. I hope you’ll be as excited about the new products as we are and that you’ll take advantage of the offer. And, as always, if you have comments or suggestions about CardScan, feel free to contact me directly at pweyman@cardscan.com.

Sincerely,

Peter Weyman
President
CardScan, Inc.

Please do not reply to this email. The mailbox is not attended. To reach me, please send an email to pweyman@cardscan.com.

CardScan, Inc. 25 First Street Suite 107 Cambridge, MA 02141

This email is sent only to CardScan owners. If you do not wish to receive these emails in the future, please unsubscribe. For Sales or Customer Service, please call 1-800-942-6739 or for Tech Support 1-866-900-6902.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: “MOZY” got itself kicked to the curb for bad behavior

Wednesday, August 9, 2006

MOZY was in the running to displace the XDRIVE now from AOL. I don’t like to reward bad behavior so I have been entertaining replacements for AOL’s XDRIVE. And, MOZY was certainly in the running.

HOWEVER, today it took itself out of the running.

It did an upgrade on itself and, when I didn’t allow it to restart the platform, (thanks MSFT for a crappy architecture), it seized 98% of the box and wouldn’t let go. Eventually I had to restart costing me a30 minutes of my life, what I was doing at the time, and loss of position (i.e. all the balls I was juggling dropped).

So in recognition of the PPP, I uninstalled it. Arghh!

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: MICROSOFT activation … one more reason why I’m going to Linux

Tuesday, August 8, 2006

My old desktop has always been balky with the wireless networking. I stop and start the zero wireless configuration or restart the wap and it usually works. This time it’s not. AND, somehow — by doing nothing — I have triggered the dreaded Microsoft activation! Arghh. I can’t activate cause I can’t get the wireless working. I gave up my dial up inet account besides the phone line in the room ain’t working either. (I’m a mess!)

SO I may be going to linux sooner rather than later!

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: Yahoo adds a search control

Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Offer specific searches on your web site. (This wasn’t what I thought when I read their write up?) But, I did one for Jasper Jottings and it seems to work. Now what’s the difference between this and site:www.jasperjottings.com I don’t know. Aggh, so much to learn and grok!

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Posted by reinkefj

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