Date: 03/07/07     Keywords: no keywords

I've had to install the IIS server on my Windows Xp numerous times over the past few days. Every other Windows component has a simple to use self-extracting wizard, but IIS has a really quirky wizard, viz. I have to click cancel in the first dialogue that makes you find the location of the file (that's in a folder named i386), and then a dialogue box that asks me whether I want to continue appears, and I click "yes" for that. After I do that, the first dialogue shows up again, but this time asking the location of a different DLL file, and it proceeds and repeats teh same process for every damn file like this. I got so frustrated with this that I rigged up a macro to repeat these, and yet it still takes ten minutes to install the damn thing.

Can anyone explain why this is so problematic?



...

On top of it all, now after rigging up the macro, the stupid server is throwing these error messages,



...and it's not getting installed at all.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1046683.html

Date: 03/05/07     Keywords: no keywords

We just moved into a Comcast-only area, so we're stuck with Comcast's service. We got the "home networking" thing added onto the bill so that when I move out in a couple months, if the parents have trouble with the wireless or something, they can get help from... you know... not me.

Anyways, I also have a Nintendo Wii (yes. it's awesome). The thing is, the Wii is incompatible with 7 different comcast gateways (gateway, i'm told, is the term used to refer to a modem and wireless router built into one box). Everyone I've spoken to at comcast has come to the conclusion that I'm NOT going to be able to get a model that works. So I have a Linksys gateway that has special comcast firmware.

I was informed that it would be possible to hook my old wireless (Linksys also) router into the gateway, and connect to THAT with the Wii.

I have no idea how to do this.

I hooked one of the four LAN ports on the gateway to the WAN port on the router, and then plugged my computer into one of the LAN ports on the router. Couldn't connect to anything on my computer. All the lights on the router seem to be working properly.

...help?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1046315.html

Date: 03/04/07     Keywords: php, security

WordPress 2.1.1 compromised, upgrade to 2.1.2 ASAP

If any of you administer a blog based on WordPress and you recently upgraded to version 2.1.1 then you should immediately upgrade to 2.1.2 before your site is 0wn3d. Earlier versions of the 2.x release series are safer, although 2.1.x has numerous bug fixes and minor security fixes.

(Links open in a new tab or window.)

computerhelp

computer_help

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1045749.html

Date: 03/04/07     Keywords: virus

I have to get a new laptop for my aunt. I noticed that Vista is 64-bit ready, and apparently it is done better than XP 64, but I'm still confused on some things. If I go to HP and customize a laptop that has a Turion 64-bit processor with Vista, will that have the 64-bit version of Vista installed? Is there a spot in the installation or setup of Vista that says "Choose which version you want to run" or does it automatically detect it and therefore go with that configuration? Also, if it DOES run Vista 64, will I run into issues installing various programs like anti-virus (AVG or whatever free solution I can find), ZoneAlarm, or Open Office? Sorry but I know little to nothing about Vista, and since my MSDN membership ran out, I have been unable to get a copy of Vista to play around with.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1045320.html

Date: 03/02/07     Keywords: database, google

I just thought I'd post this for anyone who might be interested.

I got an orange shuffle for Valentine's Day, and I immediately started looking for alternatives to iTunes. I hate iTunes, especially for something as simple as a shuffle. I found a program called iShuffle that lets you organize your music on your shuffle how YOU want to and then rebuild the iPod database so it thinks you used iTunes.

Last night, I wrote a batch script that lets me right click on a Winamp playlist (m3u file) in My Computer/Windows Explorer and send the contents of the playlist to the shuffle. It's a little slow because it just uses the COPY command, so it takes a few minutes to transfer 850MB of music.

There is also a setup file to make it easy for you to use it on your own computer, along with instructions and a separate file that lets you change the iPod's drive letter in the batch file if you've already run the setup before.

I tested this on my own shuffle, and it worked beautifully.

So, if you're interested, give it a shot. If you decide you don't like it, you can just use the "Restore" feature in iTunes to erase your iPod and go back to using iTunes.

Get it here:
http://shifuimam.googlepages.com/home

It's my first real experience with writing batch files, so it might be a little ineffecient - suggestions are welcomed!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1045112.html

Date: 03/02/07     Keywords: no keywords

I have both a CD and a DVD drive installed on my desktop, and the CD drive has never worked for as long as I can remember. It used to work for a while a few years ago, but it suddenly stopped working some day, and I never bothered to fix it, because the DVD-RW was working so well. I decided to fulfill my new year's resolution today and start caring about the non-working CD drive and ran some diagnostics on it. The conclusion is kind of puzzling. It's working properly, according to my system manager; computer recognizes it and can even tell me its manufacturer (SAMSUNG CD-ROM SC-148), but be that as it may it still does not play.

I use Windows XP and ran the Windows Troubleshooting wizard several times, followed the recommendations and uninstalled the drive, reinstalled it, and so on. No difference. My CD-ROM has a bit of an attitude problem. Does anyone know a good way to make stubborn CD drives cooperate?

Secondly, and on a side note, it seems I have a superfluous G drive installed on my computer. I had never noticed this before, but it's there. So, aside from the A:, D:, E:, and F:, there is a G:. It's not a removable drive, and it doesn't show up on the hardware manager, and that's puzzling, as well. I don't know if someone can tell me how I can get rid of it....)

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1044816.html

Date: 03/02/07     Keywords: google

As a frequent Googler, I know all about the little tricks of the search bar. Such as the little trick that lets me search for a word in a site domain: "something site:www.domain.org." This search usually returns a ton of hits, but strangely enough that doesn't seem to work with www.wikipedia.org. Try it yourself and you'll see what I mean. Does this have anything to do with the peculiar structure of a wiki? Any ideas?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1044656.html

Date: 03/01/07     Keywords: web, linux

Hello All,

Does anyone have a static source for news type pictures? I am creating a personal screensaver that goes out and gets news type of pictures and updates a directory. These pictures will be displayed as my screensaver.

Right now I have lots of neat weather data from the NOAA website. Radar, IR, and general satellite pics for my area and nationally. All of these images have a static location. For instance: http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/national_forecast.jpg always has a national forecast image.

I'm looking for something like this, but not necessarily weather.

BTW, I use Linux, so I don't need a Windows program to do this (if it matters.)

Thanks in advanced

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1044087.html

Date: 03/01/07     Keywords: web, microsoft

Ok, so I need to get my hands on Microsoft Office.

I'm a student so student discounts are viable.

Where would be the cheapest place to get it?

I've got a trial of Office Pro 2003 pre-loaded on my new system, so I guess upgrading to Office Pro 2007 would be the way to go..?

Thanks..

Also, I'm looking into picking up a PDA.. I've got my eyes set on an HP Ipaq H4350. It seems to fit what I'd be looking for. My biggest concern is that it may not be compatible with Vista and/or my online school's website. (Particularly the Word and Acrobat files)

Anyone have any input on this device and/or it's possible compatibility (problems)?

Thanks again..

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1043851.html

Date: 02/26/07     Keywords: no keywords

I recently cleaned out and re-installed everything on my Alienware (including wasting 50 GB dedicated to XP 64-bit, which I could barely even find good utilities for.) Anyways back when I first had my computer I had problems recording from the Line-in port where everything would come in as Mono sound as opposed to stereo. I fixed it SOMEHOW a while ago, but since I re-formatted it went back to acting like that again, and I don't remember what I did to fix it. Does anyone have any ideas about this? The sound card I believe is a Realtek AC'97 audio 7.1 Channel sound card on an ASUS/Nvidia A8N-SLI Deluxe ACPI. The drivers are all up to date, and I'm not sure if it was a driver issue that was causing it in the first place. Any ideas about this? BTW thanks for that link to that utility program. No more waiting 5 minutes for TuneUp to load up!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1043670.html

Date: 02/26/07     Keywords: no keywords

Today I think I've pretty much had my fill of reading AMDZone. I couldn't stand the way Chris "go at it" anymore. I don't know how to explain this properly, but it's like how constantly dealing with a depressed/angry person tends to be a real downer in and of itself. That kind of behavior just drives me away because I don't like dealing with the negative energy that sort of builds inside my own poor stomach from it as well.

That compelled me to write this on this Monday:

intel_core

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1043349.html

Date: 02/26/07     Keywords: php, web

The pro version of AWS is being given away today
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?threadid=459229

I have been using versions of this program for years, and I can attest that it does work to improve overall system performance. It tweaks various settings on your system (will give you a list so you know what's being done before you do it) pretty much in a one-button operation.

The effects vary from setup to setup, the most dramatic one I have experienced is the performance increase on the dual processor PIII server board based machine I have. Unreal Tournament 2004 was crawling on the high settings I gave it before running the free edition of AWS. Framerates increased quite a lot afterwards. Basically the program detects sub-optimal settings in your registry.

Oh yeah, I don't work for any of these websites/programmers/whatever. I just really like this program, used it on all of my computers, and want to share.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1043173.html

Date: 02/26/07     Keywords: cms, php

what's everybody's favorite CMS system nowadays?

i'd prefer something free and/or open-source.
:]

oh and i like php.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1042816.html

Date: 02/26/07     Keywords: no keywords

This problem might be a little unexplainable. My media players aren't showing up on the front of my monitor, but they can be clicked at the task bar, and yet they refuse to come to the front. At first i thought maybe i moved them on my own to far from the actual screen -that is off the screen- and when i move my cursor "off-the screen" im able to click on my missing media player. Does this have anything to do with moving the monitor? I know that sounds like a dumb question but it seems everytime i move it the player moves from the screen. Is there a better way to get my media players in front of the screen without actually pulling them to the front. It's a really hard task...

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but its been annoying me for a while. I just hope it makes sense. 

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1042434.html

Date: 02/24/07     Keywords: no keywords

My laptop had been overheating a lot lately with causes a spntanious shutdown. Does anyone have a solution?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1042171.html

Date: 02/24/07     Keywords: no keywords

Does anyone know how to block programs using the registry editor?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1041756.html

Date: 02/22/07     Keywords: no keywords

Hey guys,

I'm wondering if you know a method to make a window stay permanently on top in Windows XP. This is possible with Task Manager, for instance, but I keep running into the hassle of switching back and forth between the word documents, where I keep my notes, and the thing that I'm reading because there is no way of making them stay on top of each other. It would make my life a lot easier if I didn't have to worry about my notes falling into the background. Do you know an application that does something like that?

Thanks.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1041573.html

Date: 02/21/07     Keywords: no keywords

Hey guys,

A quick question. I remember seeing this command a while back that can stop the shutdown process if you run it from the Run window. It was something like "shutdown -l -r." Maybe that's not it. Anyway, does anyone have any idea?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1041278.html

Date: 02/19/07     Keywords: ebay

I figured since I bugged y'all twice asking for advice on what I should do regarding a new computer that I should at least throw out there what I ended up with.

Plus it gives me a chance to thank y'all one more time.

I ended up getting a Dell through eBay.  I'm sure Dell will get a few groans, but I'm on a pretty strict budget and it fit that budget, so..

Here are a few of the specs of what I ended up with (and what I was going to order straight from Dell):

AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800+ (AMD Athlon 64 3200+)
2 GB ram (1 GB ram)
160 GB HD (80 GB HD)
Integrated nVidia 6150LE (256 MB nVidia GeForce 7300LE TurboCache)
2 yr warranty (1 yr warranty)
Both have Vista Premium

So aside from the video card everything is an upgrade, and from what I've been able to gather that should be sufficient enough for what I'm planning to do, anyway.  If worst comes to worst I can look into upgrading it later on, also.

Price wise, the one I ended up getting wound up around $50 - $100 cheaper.

So again, thanks for all your help.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1041104.html

Date: 02/19/07     Keywords: no keywords

I wondered if anyone out there has ever recovered a 3C16980 SS2 from a firmware problem. I have an SS2 that started to go a little brain dead recently. It would run fine for a while and then simply lock up. Rebooting and attempting to log in with the magic password (but never actually reinitializing the unit) and it would be fine again. Then it would lock up. I took the switch out of its location and just placed it on my desk quietly running with no computers hooked up and it still locked up.

Reflashing the firmware over the serial port seems to get hung up as well so I was wondering if there were any other tricks that might get the thing unstuck and working normally again.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1040717.html