don v2.0

There are several really useful FF add-ons that I must have everytime I reformat my personal compy or at work. Even before browsing, the first thing I do is get these features included onto my FF.

Gmail Manager - This checks your email every x minutes you set it to so you don't have to obsessively check it constantly. It can also check multiple accounts so you don't have to log off one to log in the other.

FireGestures - This executes shortcuts based on your mouse gestures when you hold down the right mouse button (on default). This saves a butt load of time while browsing. Never have to drag all the way to the 'Back' button, click the close window/tab button, undo close window with a quick swipe, etc.

FlashBlock - As it sounds, it blocks embedded flash animations. It disables all website's flash files by default. To view them, simply click on the icon where the file would be. Or you can allow all animations hosted from a website. I do wish it worked the other way around, having every site white-listed and allow me to black-list as I get to them. Now no more accidently clicking on an ad or those annoying ads that talks to you! Omg those suck.

NoScript - Probably the grand daddy of all FF add-ons. Disables scripts from running when you visit a page. Not only our current page, but scripts embedded externally from another website. Load this add-on and view any random website and you'll be shocked how many other scripts are running in the background.

IE Tab - Just for those rare cases that a website is IE only.. Kind of useful if you want to be logged in at a website with two accounts at the same time. Or you can use use the real IE...

SearchIMDB - Convenient when you want to look up a movie without opening up a new tab, to go IMDB.com and type in your search. Whenever you highlight text and right click, it will give you an option to search it on IMDB.

Exif Viewer - I use this whenever I see a really nice, high-quality photo and wonder what camera was used to take it. Right click on an image, select the View Exif Data option and you can see it all (unless the hosting website removed it).

According to pingdom.com, Google has some interesting and maybe offensive domain names. They found some 2,500 domain names and that was in 2007. These are all in fact registered by Google. You can confirm this by looking up a whois on the domain.

 

The misspellings and typos:

• gewgol.com
• glougle.com
• goolgel.com
• glugli.com
• geggle.com
• georgle.com
• glogoo.com
• gmale.com

The Random

• 30dayfitness.com
• bayareaburritos.com
• donationcard.com
• essentialmommy.com
• greengardengifts.com
• mariolovespasta.com
• thesecretofburritos.com
• 1p0g0og1e.com
• az-on-url-je.com
• goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com

The Not safe for work:

• googlesex.com
• googleporn.com
• google-yahoo-porn.com
• google-yahoo-sex.com

The not so nice ones:

• checkoutsucks.com
• dejastinks.com
• frooglesucks.com
• fuckengoogle.com
• gmailblows.com
• gmailsucks.com
• googlefools.com
• googlemotherfucker.com
• googlepoo.com
• googlesucks.com

I recently installed Linux on my PS3. There were a number of options like the *buntus, Yellow Dog, and Fedora.

I chose YDL mainly because it supports Hi-Def so the resolution isn't all crapped out.. But I'm a Windows user so to be honest, I couldn't tell you the difference between any the Linux OSs in terms of functionality. 

Why to install an OS on the PS3? Well, why not unless you are completely low on HD space and refuse to upgrade? You gain a fully funtional computer with internet. surf the internet, check e-mail, program, watch/edit videos or pictures, game, etc. Especially when you need an extra computer to do something when your main one is broken or someone is hogging it. And probably the most popular reason: emulators: NES, SNES, PSX, PS2, MAME, etc.

I found a very helpful guide at softpedia but it was missing a few important steps, like the backing up the PS3 data and troubleshooting. And it doesn't have pictures and I love pictures, especially in a tutorial.

Backing up the PS3

 

Be warned your PS3 data could exceed 20gb so a dinky flash drive won't work as I thought because there is a lot more data than just game data. And if you think it is less hassle to just to keep the game saves and save them manually, note that some games have a ridiculous protection to them, like SF4. I thought "Wtf I can't back up my own game saves?" But anywho, it is more convenient to just do a full backup so you don't overlook something like themes, wallpapers, system settings, friends list, media files or if you have a lot of PSN downloads, you won't have to download over again. Note that reformatting your PS3 you do not need to re-buy any purchased games/videoes,demos as long as you log in on the same account.

The PS3 only recognizes FAT32 formatted drives so you'll need to, well, format it in FAT32 before you back up your PS3 data. This task was harder than I thought on XP. So I plug in my extra HD and wait for that little pop up that let's me know it's connected. Go to My Computer and right click on it, and choose the format option. It gives me two options: NTFS and exFAT. Hmm exFAT? Well it has the letters 'FAT' in it so it must be equivilent. So I format it in quick mode so I don't have to wait.

It finishes pretty quickly and I can finally get the show on the road. I unplug the USB connector from my laptop to my PS3. I browse the XMB menu and try to look for my external HD. Don't see it. So I restart the whole process again but in slow mode, hoping that would work. So I wait.. and wait...

And wait.

Finally it completes and I connect it to my PS3 with the same result. Ok google time. After some research, exFAT ≠ FAT. So how the hell do I format to FAT if it isn't an option, find a Windows 98 computer?? 

I found this awesome program, which I uploaded before remembering the website where I found it: fat32format.exe (48.08 kb) or the Official website. It is a command line application so don't be scared of the command prompt. Save it somewhere. Open up the command prompt (Start Menu -> Run. Type "cmd", hit enter. Navigate to the folder where fat32format is and type "fat32format X" where X is the drive you want formatted. It will warn you that all the data will be lost. Just do "yes" to everything and let it run its course. When it is done, you can finally backup your data.

To do that, in the XMB menu, scroll to the 2nd left-most menu option, 'Settings', then find 'System Settings' and scroll down to Backup Utility. (To see full image, right click on the image -> View Image)

 

After it backs up you can follow that guide to install your OS.

What you need before starting?

 

• PS3 backed up
  
• Bootable YDL on DVD
• USB keyboard and mouse - VERY important!! I didn't have a spare keyboard so during installation, I couldn't type anything. So my PS3 was stuck at the OS installation. If you try to reboot, it will go back here so you will be locked out of the PS3! Two full days my PS3 was stuck in limbo until my keyboard was delivered.

Installation

 

1. Go to 'System Settings' on XMB and choose 'Format Utility'
2. You will get two options, 'Use All for the PS3' or 'Custom'. Choose 'Custom'

3. Choose 'Allot 10GB to the Other OS'

4. Choose 'Quick Format' unless you have a lot of time to kill. (Screen of what I saw when I chose Full Format!)
5. Go eat or read a book
6. After PS3 reboots (all your settings and look & feel will be gone), go back to 'System Settings' and scroll down to 'Install Other OS'
7. Insert the DVD and select it. Then go up to 'Default System' and agree to restart the PS3
8. After it reboots it will go into the Linux boot up and display a bunch of text. And then display kboot: Here is where I got stuck while it waited for input. (Screen got chopped off a 'lil)
For Hi-Def TVs, put type: install_ps3_1080p. Other options are: install_ps3_1080i, install_ps3_720p or install_ps3_480i
9. Finally, you will arrive to the YDL UI. Go through the welcoming screen and choose your language and etc. Then select 'Remove Linux Partitions on selected drives and create default layout' and click 'Next'
10. Click 'Yes' when it asks about removing Linux partitions and the PS3 memory
11. For wireless internet users, check the two checkboxes and click 'Edit'
12. Check that checkbox, then enter your ESSID and Encryption key. Click 'OK' then 'Next'
13. Choose your tiime zone
14. Make a root user account
15. You can choose to install addition programs at your wish. This will be the last 'Next' to click!
16. Installation will take about 30-45 minutes. If you chose to install addition applications, it will take longer. It will reboot and spit out the DVD.
17. To boot back into the PS3, open up the terminal and type 'boot-game-os' or you can find it in the menu.

 

Restoring the PS3 

 

1. With HD with the backed up data plugged in, in the 'System Settings' menu, simply click on 'Restore PS3 System' and let it do its magic. It will take a couple minutes depending how much data there is. 

Getting back to YDL

1. In the 'System Settings' menu, scroll down until you find 'Default OS' and YDL. It will boot to it everytime the PS3 starts until you go back to the PS3

I've got more Dell woes! This is the 2nd problem I've had with my Dell XPS 1530 laptop in 8 months. I've had my last laptop, a 13'' Toshiba Satellite M55 and it was flawless for the year+ that I depended on it. Flawless. And I still love it.

My laptop usually can run for 3 hours on battery power, about 2 hours with wifi on. I take my laptop to school everyday and it lasts the whole day without a plug. I got to school early on Monday so I had my laptop on about an hour before my hour-15 class. With 5 minutes left of class, my laptop powers down as the battery is drained. Not sure if this had anything to do with my problem. Could be. Who knows.

So when I got home, I plugged it into the power adapter and it stayed that way for 3 days. Today, I wanted to take my laptop to the other room so I unplugged it and carried it over there. Before I got to do anything, it warned me of my low power and shut itself off. I was thinking "wtf?" I went back and plugged the power adapter back in, wondering if the battery was charging. I googled the problem and found some advice, like: try switching wall outlets, take out the battery and clean the connectors, or open the laptop and check the motherboard.. but I wasn't going do that.

I tried all of that, with exception to the last one. I unplugged the power plug, it went from 3% to 2%. I plugged it back in and the power meter displayed: "2% (charging)". The battery was charging!! What a relief!! I let out a big sigh and thought I was done with the whole ordeal. Then the meter said: "3%" but no "charging" this time. I thought "aww wtf?" I repeated the process a couple times with the same result.

So as the almost-last resort, I called Dell. Dell tip: never do the Dell chat customer service. They literally google your problem on the spot and copy and paste it back to you. They also insult you by trying to blame the problem on you. 

After about 20 minutes of waiting in the queue of callers, I described my problem to the kind lady and she instructed me to shutdown my computer and pop up the battery. On the battery, press the indicator button. Once for battery charge and hold it for 5 seconds for battery health. As expected, my charge lit up one light but the health lit up all 5 lights. So as quick as that, she told me she would need to get authorization to send me a new battery. After being put on hold for a couple minutes, she gave me a couple numbers to write down, so I did. She then informed me that I should receive a new battery in the mail within 3-5 days and when I do, I should use the same packaging to send my defected battery back to them. The total process took about 20 minutes, not counting on-hold times. This is my second experience with Dell (phone) customer service and it has been good. Of course it would be better if I didn't have any problems in the first place but oh well.

At the end she notified me about my warranty and if it was passed my 1-year purchase date, I would have to pay for a new battery. So I looked up the warranty vs battery cost: 1 year warranty extension: $189. New 9-cell battery: $179. 

 

Update:

So I called in on Wednesday and the battery shows up at my door step on Friday and works as promised (so far). I forgot to tell them I had a 9-cell but that's what they gave me anyway. Excellent.

After a reformat of my laptop, I realize how many un-needed apps I that have that aren't needed and only make my system feel bloated. So instead of some special program that requires you to install it, get some standalone programs that you can run on the fly. 

Notepad++ - Text/code editor. Replace notepad, wordpad, textpad and sometimes Word with this.

Media Player Class - Media player. Replace any video/audio player. You can uninstall Windows Media Player.

GIMP -Image editor. Remove MS Paint, a good Photoshop replacement.

There are alo a bunch of utilities that I use often for my specific needs, like ID3edit to edit ID3 tags on mp3s in batch, turnoff which shuts down the PC after a certain amount of time you set, the alternatives endless.

What I do is create a new folder, C:\DesktopApps and just put all the programs in there and create shortcuts on the quick launch on the taskbar.

Well, I just had to do an fresh reformat. Took about 3 hours. The last hour was for Windows. As much as a pain in the butt it is, I actually enjoy setting up all my apps I need for my system: Office, PS, FF, and other necessities. It reminds me how how clean my computer can be! It also rids of all the junk I don't need.

 

I got some kind of malware going to this foolish site I know I shouldn't have! No it wasn't porn! It was some sports site, playing the Lakers vs Suns over the weekend. As soon as I clicked on the link, the site froze for a couple seconds, I saw the java console in the systray and then a Windows warning saying my firewall got disabled. From then, I knew I was in some Sh#t. But I continued to watch the rest of the game lol. I ran my Adaware and  Avast but to no avail. It slowed down my system and created pop ups every so often. It was a bitch!

When ever you take a picture with a digital camera, there is data embedded into the file you just took, called EXIF data. This holds the data of the time of the shot, ie:  Camera model, shutter speed, aperture, focal length, etc etc. You can look for yourself. Just navigate to a picture you shot, right click and do properties. Hit the  summary tab and click the Advanced button.

The lesson to be learned here is that the EXIF also saves the thumbnail of the original picture. So say you took a pic of you and your dog, you crop the dog out of it and post the pic on your blog. I can then save that pic, extract the EXIF data and see the thumbnail or the original file with the dog. Eh, doesn't sound important right?

Well some tech-geek hot chick from G4tv, Cat Shwartz, posted pics of herself on her blog:

 

Obviously she cropped out her boobs. But apparently some desperate kid saved these pics and as he went to retrieve them, he saw the topless pictures of her in the thumbnails.

No nudey pics here but they can be seen here, make sure you turn off the google filter: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=cat%20schwartz&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi. It's not that great, but hey, they're boobies.