January 2008 Archives

This program is very annoying, and it wont be removed with a simple program uninstall. There are also programs that will automatically run the application. When you try to use the new version Live Messenger, Windows Messenger will not be overwritten and will display 2 tray applications, One for the new MSN Live Messenger and the preinstalled Windows Messenger. This day, I have decided to get rid of the preinstalled Windows Messenger.

To my surprise, its not listed with the Add/Remove Programs icons at the Control Panel. Microsoft has hidden the uninstall option for this application. Windows 98 has that option, i wonder why they removed it from Windows XP.

So, I searched the System folder for the configuration. Here's how we could remove Windows Messenger successfully.

Browse to your Windows INF folder. Usually its found at C:Windows\inf. its a hidden folder so you have to explicitly type it at the address bar or using Run like this

1. Start -> Run
2. Type in C:\windows\inf [Enter]
3. Look for the file named SYSOC.INF
4. Open it with an editor, notepad will do.
5. Look under Components for the line like this:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7

6. Remove the word hide. Making it like it like this:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7

7. Save and close notepad. The Windows Messenger application uninstall should now appear at the Add/Remove Programs Icon in the Control Panel. Remove it from there.

8. Start -> Control Panel
9. Double Click on Add/Remove Programs
10. Click on Add/Remove Windows Components
11. Uncheck Windows Messenger
12. Click Next
13. Click Finish

Just wondering why its very easy to file charges in the most powerful country of the world (so they say) the US. I mean, its costly, its time consuming not to mentioning it can get be nerve-wracking but noooooo, I really have to sue this guy for stepping on my toe! (What a mentality). Perhaps its mainly due to the fact that there are a lot of lawyers in the US, not that I'm complaining, I mean if we go from state to state how many lawyers can we find. Heck perhaps in LA, I can find at least one los angeles probate attorney in every bar. Or perhaps its because its easy to pay for a lawyer? (If you can't afford one, one will be chosen by the government? How lucky). Regardless though, I think Americans should be a little more patient and not sue every single chap that crosses them. Its not impossible at all, all it takes is take to start with yourself (I'm suing comment trolls!).

My first choice would be of course man's best friend. A dog. I want to have an inexpensive dog that can guard my place as well and be playful too. German shepherd's I think are too large for my needs, poodles are definitely a no no for guys not unless you have a female tendency (just a tendency okay?). Ah, I think a chinese chow chow will fit me well. Not too big not too small either.

However since I live in an apartment on the second floor, I'll definitely need a dog litter box. Or perhaps a sandbox will do. I just don't want my pet too poo all over the place. That would be totally uncool plus it stinks. Wait a minute, I hate stink, I guess I'll have to convince myself some more to get me a pet, oh well.

This is not a life hack, but sometimes its fun to experiment with life. No not the genetics stuff with stem cells thats so debated about thats so old school. I'm talking about taking chances, I mean can anyone walk to their boss' desk and with a straight face say something like "I want a raise."

I guess not, but here's some thought I want everyone to realize, if you are so bored with your work to the point that you won't mind getting fired, why heck do it! Experiment with life. Try doing something exciting with your girlfriend or your officemate (if that won't get you fired). You can think of your circumstance as your lab equipment, then mix and match and see if it goes boom.

Almost always its inspiring to hear people who've made it big you know the rags to riches type of stories where the protagonist always start off as a pitiful lad with almost nothing to start with. Perhaps its not totally true at all I mean others who may have not the money but have the brains, others who doesn't have the brains have the money. So its basically a fair game but then again life isn't fair (else I would be in the Bahamas right now).

But forget the guys who toil their earnest and do hard work to make it on top. There are just some people who have all the luck. I mean you've heard of stories where regular folks get millions because they are the ONLY relative of a dead millionaire. I mean, how lucky can you get? Its not like some inheritance cash advance, but I'm talking about pure luck.

And if luck isn't enough some people are just so lucky that almost everything comes their way! Take for example this man who won a lottery twice in two years! Odds against all odds, I'm already talking about the lottery and he won twice? This must be a fiasco or something. Honestly though I'm wishing I was that man, not that I bought any tickets yet.

I'm not sure if a lot of people who dabble on their keyboard almost 8 hours everyday know this but if they don't watch out they may eventually experience carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). This is a condition where a nerve is compressed around the wrist usually the part where its almost always pressed like the underneath of the hand holding the mouse.

I'm usually in front of the computer almost 12 hours everyday, except on weekends (I do have a life you know). In order to combat Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, I use an ergonomic keyboard and mouse. You can find some good stuff about office ergonomics at ergoware.com. To combat CTS, I use my left hand to operate the mouse even though I'm right handed. I only use my right hand when I play games (he he he).

The best thing to do though to prevent CTS is to always take a break in between work specially if you just sit in front of the computer the whole day. Remember, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Its been almost a month now since i moved into MT4, it's a new world of blogging with MT4's new features. I would suggest you do the same with your MT powered blogs.

During my move, i found out that my RSS category feeds were lost. Now, im looking for some ways to restore the RSS Categories. Im not really fun of hacking or messing with my movable type installation and im pretty new to editing with MT templates. With a little bit of help from old blogs posts and the MT4 documentation, i was able to successfully restore my RSS category feeds.

Making a Category RSS feed
Let us start making category rss feeds by going to your blog templates section:
1. On your blog templates, click on your RSS feed template, the one with the file name index.xml
2. Highlight all contents and copy everything inside the template into the clipboard.
3. Click on the shortcut List index templates link on the right.
4. Now you are back to your blog templates page.
5. On the quick filters menu, click on the Archive templates.
6. Create an Entry Listing archive template
7. From the content you copied to the clipboard paste it into the textbox.
8. Assign a meaningful name to your new template, everybody is using Category RSS
9. Save your new template.
10. Create an archive mapping of type Category
11. At the path textbox place in categories/<$MTArchiveCategory dirify="-" $>/index.xml. Please note that movable type will store all the rss feeds into the categories folder you specified. You can also rename it to another name if you'd like to. I'm using rss as my folder for the rss feeds
12. Save your template.
13. Rebuild your Index templates, by clicking on the Publish icon

You can check if your work by visiting your blog thru your favorite FTP client. If categories folder is created then its good to go. Now we can insert the code into our main index template right before the category name. As for me, i placed an image as my rss feed link. try http://www.tildemark.com/rss/

14. Go back to your blog templates root
15. Click on the Widgets
16. Click on the Category Archives link.
17. Navigate into the list item

<mt:IfNonZero tag="mt:CategoryCount">
<li class="widget-list-item">

18. Paste the following right after:

<a href="<MTBlogArchiveURL>rss/<MTCategoryLabel dirify="-">/index.xml"><img src=<mt:StaticWebPath />/images/status_icons/feed.gif alt="<MTCategoryLabel> Category RSS feed" /></a>
<a href="<$MTCategoryArchiveLink$>"<MTIfNonEmpty tag="MTCategoryDescription">
title="<$MTCategoryDescription$>"</MTIfNonEmpty>><$MTCategoryLabel$>
(<$MTCategoryCount$>)</a>

19. Save your template
20. Rebuild and Publish your blog. The output should look something similar with my category lists on my main page.

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The merge and Center button in Excel only centers the top left text and deletes the rest. What if the two columns of First names and last names are to be merged into the format: Last name, First name it would then become a problem.

Using the Ampersand ( & ) operator, it allows us to merge cells in an excel worksheet. you can create a formula to merge cells in excel or just insert it right away on the cell formula bar.

Problem:
And you wish to merge the two cells at A1 and A2 to the cell at A3

Given:
Cell A1 has the text "Lastname"
Cell A2 has the text "Firstname"

Solution:
* First position your active cell on A3.
* On the formula bar input the following: =A1&A2 [ENTER]

It should display LastnameFirstname on cell A3

To add a space and a comma, use the following:
=A1&", "&A2
it will output: Lastname, Firstname

alternatively you can also use the concatenate function, like this:
=CONCATENATE(A1,", ",A2)

By default autorun is enabled on windows xp, this puts your pc into potential malaware risk or even virus infection. Mostly, viruses and worms are spread using the windows autorun feature. We should disable autorun on your computers to prevent it from being infected with any virus, malaware or worms. Here are several ways to disable the autorun function:

Disable Autorun with TweakUI.
The most convenient way is to install TweakUI a PowerToy from Microsoft we can download for free . Download TwealUI and install it. This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.

1. Run TweakUI
2. Navigate to My Computer -> AutoPlay -> Drives
3. Uncheck the drive you wish to disable the AutoPlay function.
4. Navigate to My Computer -> AutoPlay -> Types
5. Uncheck Enable Autoplay for CD and DVD drives
6. Uncheck Enable Autoplay for removable drives
7. Click Apply button
8. Click OK button

Disable Autorun with Group Policy Editor
If you are a geek type and want to do it the hard way we could use the GPEDIT.MSC tool to disable Autorun. GPEDIT.MSC does not work on Windows Home Edition, only on Windows XP.
1. Navigate to Start -> Run
2. type GPEDIT.MSC
3. Click OK
4. Navigate to Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Template -> System
5. Double click Turn Off Autoplay
6. Select Enabled from the radio buttons
7. On the Turn off autoplay dropdown box select All drives
8. Click OK button, Close Group Policy Editor

Disable Autorun with the Registry Editor
If you are using Windows Home, you can disable autorun using the registry editor.

1. Navigate to Start -> Run
2. type REGEDIT, click OK button
3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Services -> CDROM
4. Double Click on Autorun
5. Change from 1 to 0. The default value 1 means autorun is enabled on CDROM
6. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Policies -> Explorer
7. Double click on NoDriveTypeAutoRun
8. Change the current valut to B5 in Hex. This disables CDROMs and USB drives

To disable other devices refer to the table below.

Value	Meaning
0x1	Disables Autoplay on drives of unknown type.
0x4	Disables Autoplay on removable drives.
0x8	Disables Autoplay on fixed drives.
0x10	Disables Autoplay on network drives.
0x20	Disables Autoplay on CD-ROM drives.
0x40	Disables Autoplay on RAM disks.
0x80	Disables Autoplay on drives of unknown type.
0xFF	Disables Autoplay on all types of drives.

By default, Autoplay is disabled on removable drives, such as the floppy disk drive (but not the CD-ROM drive), and on network drives. The default value 0x95 (149) is the sum of 0x1, 0x80 (unknown types), 0x4 (floppy drives), and 0x10 (network drives). 0xB5 is the sum of 0x1, 0x4, 0x10, 0x20 and 0x80. B5 in Hex or 181 in Decimal.