Tuesday, February 10, 2009

With 2.0, though, the Miro Guide—the universal portal for content that anyone can browse for their media center needs—now includes links to streaming content. That includes shows on Hulu, like, say, Family Guy:


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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Net Neutrality: Measurement Lab Checks if Your Connection is Being Throttled

Net Neutrality: Measurement Lab Checks if Your Connection is Being Throttled

Google and a host of net-savvy partners have opened up a free set of web tools to help anyone determine if their net connection is blocking or throttling BitTorrent or otherwise limits their bandwidth.

At the moment, three tools are available—when their servers aren't jammed up, and they seem to be pretty popular at the moment. The Glasnost tool determines how your ISP is handling BitTorrent traffic and gives a readout on whether it's being denied, throttled, or otherwise impaired. Network Diagnostic Tool covers other problems that might affect your upload or download speeds. And the Network Path and Application Diagnosis tries to reveal the routing, network tools, and other "last mile" issues that affect net performance.

The tests are fairly simple, and each seems to require a working Java plugin to run. The Glasnost test, for instance, creates a fake BitTorrent stream between your connection point and the test's servers, then monitors what happens to the packets.

That's one reassuring block of HTML.

It doesn't take a senior analyst to see that Google is looking to shine some light on internet providers' moves against net neutrality, such as Cox Communications' "time sensitivity" throttling. In fact, the next two products due out of the "Measurement Lab" are DiffProbe and NANO, which will tell a user whether certain types of traffic, for specific applications or users, are getting priority over others. The side effect of the net giants' tussle, though, are some handy tools that (should) tell the user exactly why they are or aren't getting the speeds they paid for.

Measurement Lab [via Google Blogoscoped]

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Downloads: Four Experimental Extensions to Power Up Firefox

D

Four Experimental Extensions to Power Up Firefox

By
Kevin Purdy, 4:00 PM
on Tue Jan 27 2009, 35,418 views

You can find a lot of great stuff on the bleeding edge, and

Firefox extensions

are no exception. Here are four add-ons for the browser that aren't officially approved, but worth checking out.

As noted in the headline, the extensions we're pointing to are both unapproved by Firefox's maker, Mozilla, and require

creating an account

or logging into it. And none of them should be installed on the copy of Firefox you use at the NSA or nuclear research center, and should otherwise have their benefits weighed against some potential crashing or browser malfunction. That said, most experimental extensions are just waiting for a final go-ahead from Mozilla, and can be pretty darned useful.

URL Alias


URL Alias is yet another add-on that puts one of Chrome's best features in Firefox

, by enabling short keyword searches from the address bar. All it takes is adding an "alias" into a preference window, like so:

flickr http://flickr.com/photos/%s

Now typing flickr whatshisnamefrank gets you to whatshisnamefrank's Flickr photostream. You can, of course, just setup up straight alias keywords, like lh http://lifehacker.com", and have the address bar perform searches from your default search engine (that alias would be * http://google.com/search?q= for most folks). Pretty great stuff, and it nearly closes the interface gaps between Firefox and Chrome's browser bars. We're hoping to see this one wrapped up and approved soon.

Granted, Firefox already has support for keyword bookmarking (in fact, Adam

swears by it

), but URL Alias provides a streamlined, all-keyboard approach to adding new keyboard shortcuts.

Open in Google Docs

Does exactly what it says, through Firefox's right-click menu. When you come across a link to a Word doc, PowerPoint presentation, Excel spreadsheet, or pretty much any file Google's online office suite can handle, right-click and hit "Open in Google Docs" to send it there. You can get a more fully-fledged handle on web documents, with support for the competing Zoho suite and online editors like Picnik, from the

previously mentioned Open It Online, but Open in Google Docs

is perfect for its very specific shuttling service.

bit.ly preview

This one's great if you run into a lot of shortened URLs, especially

bit.ly, a URL shortening tool that we like for its traffic-watching abilities (as well as Gmail functionality). The bit.ly preview

Firefox extension provides hover-over previews of page titles and URL for pretty much any shortened URL from any service—tinyURL, snipURL/snurl, and so on. If any user made a bit.ly URL from the same page, it shows that link traffic, as well as the click-through traffic on any bit.ly URL you hover over. The time you save from following disappointing links from your Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace friends is yours once again.

Google Keyboard Shortcuts

Another real simple, real useful Google product tweaker, though more universally helpful. With

Google Keyboard Shortcuts installed, you can use your up and down arrow keys to scroll through your results, and hit Enter to launch the link, or Control+Enter to pop it into a new tab. That's pretty much it, but it's a nice way to keep your hands on the keys. Google provides its own switch-on experiment with similar features

, but that goes away every time you log out or choose a different add-on feature. This one sticks around, and might make it easier to focus on one result at a time.

Got your own extension with a pink-hued page that's worth an unofficial install? By all means, tell us about it in the comments.

ownloads: Four Experimental Extensions to Power Up Firefox
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Monday, January 26, 2009

Fast Email , Gmail that is….

 

From – Lifehacker:

 

the Fastest Way to Compose a Gmail Message

  • When you want to quickly compose and fire off a message with Gmail, you've got a lot of options. Chances are none of them are as fast as gCompose.

    We've covered similar alternatives in the past, like our very own Supercharged GmailThis bookmarklet, but none of them offer the compose-and-return-to-work speed of gCompose. Instead of a regular Gmail compose window, gCompose speeds up the compose process by linking to the iGoogle Gmail gadget's compose window, which strips what you don't need (it doesn't load Gmail chat or your inbox, for example) but still keeps the features you want (like contact autocomplete).

    Created by blogger Andrew Kortina, gCompose comes in a variety of formats: a simple gCompose bookmark, a gCompose bookmarklet that opens a new window for your message, or a gCompose plugin for previously mentioned Ubiquity. The post offers instructions for setting up gCompose with your Gmail account, so follow the link below for details. If you've got a faster method of firing off an email with Gmail, let's hear it in the comments.

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HEADHUNTER

Five Best People-Search Engines

By Jason Fitzpatrick, 9:00 AM on Sun Jan 25 2009, 32,522 views

Need to do a little online detective work? Track down anyone from long lost schoolmates to the new friend whose number you've lost with this assortment of powerful people-search engines. Photo by Byrne7214.

Earlier this week we asked you to share which search engines you use to find people. The votes have been tallied, and now we're back with the five most popular people-search engines.

Pipl

Pipl is tenacious people-search engine. Pipl's claim to fame is the depths to which it can plumb the "deep web" to find information. When you search for a person using Pipl, you're not limited to a simple white pages search. Pipl scours databases and indexes that standard search engines normally don't touch. If it's there to be found, Pipl returns all manner of things about the person you're searching for, including blog entires, photos, publications, donations on public record, profiles on social and business networking sites, and other overlooked sources. Pipl supports searching by name, username, phone number, and email.

Google

Specialized search engines you say? Heresy! Many readers eschewed fancy people-search engines—many of which often incorporate Google results into their own—preferring instead to get their hands dirty at the source. With more and more people cultivating an online presence, it's easier than ever to find people with broader search engines like Google. One of Google's strongpoints is that you can use additional search parameters that are unavailable at the other search engines. For example, it's impossible to search for "John Smith classic car restoration" to find an old car-obsessed friend of yours when all you can type in is Last Name, First Name. Additionally, Google can sometimes find incredibly obscure references to a person. (I once tracked down an old classmate through a single reference on an out of date softball team roster found through Google.)

Facebook

Facebook is principally a social network, but its the first stop for many people searchers due to its widespread popularity. By Facebook's count, 150 million active users frequent the site, about a third of which are in the United States. Even if you take those numbers with a grain of salt, that's still an enormous number of people who have put themselves out there to be found. Therein lies the strength of looking for someone on Facebook: By joining the service, Facebook users have essentially put up a big sign that says, "Find me!"

Spock

Spock is another people-search engine that relies on multiple sources and aggregation to cull as much information as it can about a subject. In addition to indexing information from various news sites and social networks, Spock has a variety of notifications options available. Like 123people (below), Spock supports email notifications of changes to a person search, but you can also subscribe to an RSS feed for your search.

123people
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Friday, January 23, 2009

pictures

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Windows 7 Punkbuster fix "Americas Army"

Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
Update: this fix has been confirmed to work for BF 2 as well on several clan gaming forums - thanks for the feedback guys...

Note: this fix has to be applied each time you run CoD4 as PnkBstrB gets instantiated/installed/run by the PnkBstrA service and the checkbox isn't checked the second time around.

Edit: I've had several people tell me that they're not getting kicked after around 25 minutes of play and are capable of playing the game in multiplayer on Windows 7 with the fix below. So try it out - could be i have something else running that it's not happy with though i can't for the time being locate the problem - will still keep looking.
Edit: after about 25 minutes of play Punkbuster kicked me again with a driver issue…so, still no fix…will keep looking
I’ve been wrecking my mind as to why Punkbuster enabled games couldn’t run on Windows 7 Beta.
I knew Punkbuster installed itself as a service so i figured i’d have a look at what it was configured as per default.

First i noticed there’s two Punkbuster services running on my system:

I opened each of the service properties and looked at Log On. Saw a little checkbox which stated “Allow this service to interact with the desktop” – checked it and tried to run COD4 Multiplayer.

Joined a game..and voila..NO PUNKBUSTER KICKS…
i tried three different servers and i didn’t get kicked from either of them.
That seemed to fix it for the time being. I’ll try joining some more servers tonight and see if the behaviour still exist.

Edit: after about 25 minutes of play Punkbuster kicked me again with a driver issue…so, still no fix…will keep looking

Published Wednesday, January 14, 2009 9:45 PM by Brian Madsen
Filed under: Windows 7
Comments
# Punkbuster - Page 3 - Windows 7 Forums

Pingback from Punkbuster - Page 3 - Windows 7 Forums
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 5:44 AM by Punkbuster - Page 3 - Windows 7 Forums # Fix punkbuster kick? - Windows 7 Forums
Pingback from Fix punkbuster kick? - Windows 7 Forums

Wednesday, January 14, 2009 1:41 PM by Fix punkbuster kick? - Windows 7 Forums # Fix punkbuster kick? - Windows 7 Forums
Pingback from Fix punkbuster kick? - Windows 7 Forums
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 4:30 PM by Fix punkbuster kick? - Windows 7 Forums # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
Does this help any?
Log Name: System
Source: Service Control Manager
Date: 1/14/2009 10:48:57 PM
Eent ID: 7030
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: PC-1
Description:
The PnkBstrA service is marked as an interactive service. However, the system is configured to not allow interactive services. This service may not function properly.
Thursday, January 15, 2009 1:14 AM by Rampant # Punkbuster - Page 3 - Windows 7 Forums
Pingback from Punkbuster - Page 3 - Windows 7 Forums
Thursday, January 15, 2009 8:48 AM by Punkbuster - Page 3 - Windows 7 Forums # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
these punkbuster services don't even show in the services.msc manager on Windows 7 x64, even though running the pbsetup.exe updater says it's all there.
Friday, January 16, 2009 3:52 AM by MRIS # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix

OK i tried your fix and i get nothing, are you running anything in compatibility mode or anything like that, also i have cod4 on steam, i wonder if that is the difference please let me know
Thanks,
Anthony
Friday, January 16, 2009 11:29 AM by Anthony # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
Also i am using 64bit 7 idk which you use
Friday, January 16, 2009 11:30 AM by Anthony # PB Kick: Unknown Windows API Function [131152] - i3D.net Game Forums
Pingback from PB Kick: Unknown Windows API Function [131152] - i3D.net Game Forums
Friday, January 16, 2009 2:46 PM by PB Kick: Unknown Windows API Function [131152] - i3D.net Game Forums # PB Kick: Unknown Windows API Function [131124] - i3D.net Game Forums
Pingback from PB Kick: Unknown Windows API Function [131124] - i3D.net Game Forums
Friday, January 16, 2009 2:48 PM by PB Kick: Unknown Windows API Function [131124] - i3D.net Game Forums # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
I am having problems finding the punkbuster service was wondering if you could guide me.
Thanks
Friday, January 16, 2009 3:51 PM by Rodgerdat # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
same here - the two services are NOT listed in the services list and the processors are not running :(
i'm not sure why it didn't install right???
Friday, January 16, 2009 8:46 PM by PK # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
God news! as a few people have said, PB was not installed correctly and as such, was not listed in the services list.
if you go here (www.evenbalance.com/index.php) and read the FIRST PARAGRAPH, u'll see a link to the service installation program (called PBSVC). download that puppy and u're good to go.
Friday, January 16, 2009 8:54 PM by PK # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
@PK
doesnt work iv'e tried that...
Saturday, January 17, 2009 4:08 AM by Eagle # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix 
just fixed the whole kick thing for me.
Give it a try and let me know if it works for you too.
Go into C:Users'YourUser'AppDataLocalPunkBusterCOD4pb
and find PnkBstrA and PnkBstrB.
Change these two to run as Administrator and then run CoD4 as normal (without changing the services as you have done).
I did this and have successfully played for over an hour now. I only got a crash from a buggy Nvidia driver.
Hope this helps!
aturday, January 17, 2009 4:14 AM by Angus Jeffrey # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
does this fix not work for 64 bit 7 or somthing, i have tried it with my steam cod4 and used a buds cd version and still it does absolutely nothing, punkbusterb just uncheacks it self and i get kicked even if i minimize after joining a server and go back in it unchecks again, its frustrating.
Saturday, January 17, 2009 6:22 AM by Anthony # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
Thanks for the update it is working now.
Saturday, January 17, 2009 6:39 AM by Rodgerdat # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
now i see the services, but i still get kicked after a few mins with the API thing. =( although i always apply the fix when i run cod4
Saturday, January 17, 2009 7:27 AM by Tam # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
I just tried it and got booted pretty much immediately... :(
Saturday, January 17, 2009 12:01 PM by wrangellboy # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
So does it work or not?
Saturday, January 17, 2009 2:15 PM by Fred # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
tried it all, re-installed punkbuster enabled the options in both services. still not working! win 7 64bit
Saturday, January 17, 2009 2:42 PM by Winddancer # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
Hey - i'm still looking into why it works for some and not for others.
i'm starting to suspect that it doesn't work for 64-bit.
i'm going to re-install Windows 7 32-bit, try it out again and then install a new copy of Windows 7 64-bit.
It could also be that it's the upgrade to Ultimate that's doing it. Again, another step i'm going to test.
It would be good if people would mention the SKU they're running (32-bit? 64-bit? Home Premium? Ultimate).
Anyways, am still working on it! Thanks for the feedback.
Saturday, January 17, 2009 5:14 PM by Brian Madsen # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
Well it's not working for me and I am on 64-bit.
Saturday, January 17, 2009 5:29 PM by tharrison # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
hey guys, I tried the tip, and it works
I've found that after 20 minutes or so that checkbox that says "Allow service to interact with desktop" becomes unchecked for some reason
So this is what I did:
First I reinstalled pb from the website (manual)
Then I
Then I start the game up...and every 10-20 minutes I alt-tab out of the game and go to services, and right lick "PnkBstr A" and select "restart"
It is VERY IMPORTANT that you do not restart PnkBstr B or else you will get kicked! from the server.
Of course, this is a pain sometimes...but in a multiplayer game, it's not that bad and it's worth it to play without punkbuster kicking you.
I'm guessing there's gotta be a way to write a program that automatically restarts "PnkBstr A" every 10 minutes or so and makes sure the checkbox that says "Allow service to interact with Desktop" for "PnkBstr B" is checked.
I've tested this method for almost 1 hr now and the game still runs fine.
I'm using Windows 7 32bit version and I've been playing cod4.
Thanks Brian!
(i probably won't be checking this website that often but I can be contacted through my website)
Sunday, January 18, 2009 1:50 AM by chesspro # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
Hey Chess,
what we need to do is to set the service (PnkBstrA/B), located in SysWOW64 so that it per default has that box checked.
To do that, i believe we need to edit the registry now...
need to find out how to set it so that those two services not only has VISTARTM and RUNASADMIN in their values...
Sunday, January 18, 2009 2:20 AM by Brian Madsen # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
i have thought of a batch file that automates this...
it is here
www.sevenforums.com/.../572-punkbuster-2.html
this is a proof of concept so if you can check and post if it works or not...
Sunday, January 18, 2009 4:26 AM by darkassain # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
I've been playing BF2 - prolly an hour of play. no probs at all.
I can' remember if i ran the manual PB services install as Administrator or not.
I'm testing it on Windows 7 Beta Ultimate 32bit.
Sunday, January 18, 2009 4:28 AM by PK # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
do it quick pls ;)
Sunday, January 18, 2009 2:26 PM by byQ # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
okay mr Brian Madsen...
the registry file you are looking for is here
HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesPnkBstrBtype to the value 272 (which means run as a system account and have interaction with desktop...)
www.sevenforums.com/.../572-punkbuster-2.html
Sunday, January 18, 2009 5:52 PM by darkassain # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
Hey Dark, thanks for that - will try it out tonight and hopefully that should sort out the service restarting without it checked :)
excellent!
Sunday, January 18, 2009 6:11 PM by Brian Madsen # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
Even with both A and B definitely on interact with desktop whilst in game; I still get kicked with the API error 131152. Is there no hope for us x64 users at all?
Sundy, January 18, 2009 6:28 PM by tharrison # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
forgot to say that in hexadecimal the value is 0x110 as this is a DWORD....
Sunday, January 18, 2009 8:34 PM by darkassain # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
Ever since I started running the .CMD Script posted on the Seven Forums, I'm now alternating between three different errors.
1: Disallowed Program/Drive
2: General PB Authentication Error
3: Unknown Windows API Function
I also changed the delay in the script from 600, to 300. On 600 I was always getting 'Unknown Windows API'.
Sounds like its a possibility of timing the restart of the service?
Sunday, January 18, 2009 10:09 PM by Cypher # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
Also, if COD5 is fully working with Windows 7, what are the differences between the two versions of Punkbuster? That might be a clue.
Sunday, January 18, 2009 10:13 PM by Cypher # re: Windows 7 Punkbuster fix
Hi guys...
I'm reading all the post with great interest!...
As for me, COD4 is the only game for me out there, and W7 beta is running smoothly!...
Can't seem to understand EvenBalance don't wanna make a patch or so to fix the problem, Isn't the meaning of a beta release, that it is to be testet in any possible way? And when W7 finally gets released, we don't have to wait for month of a new PB release.
Well... that was just some of my thoughts...
Now to the real question =)
Can someone to a quick round-up of wich combos work? I'm thinking 32bit? 64bit? Ultimate? Fixes and so on...6
//TjaLfE


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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

But there is another....

Google Calendar Desktop Gadget Released

By Kevin Purdy, 4:00 AM on Wed Jan 21 2009, 15,328 views
Windows/Mac/Linux (All platforms): Google Desktop's gadgets are looking more helpful these days, with the addition of an official Google Calendar gadget that puts your appointments at your fingertips.


Like the previously mentioned Gmail gadget, Google's own Calendar gadget offers quick access to straight-up GCal or Google Apps calendars, and allows for multiple instances if you're on lots of different schedules. Pull it up with the Shift-Shift tap for Desktop gadgets, and you can view your appointments in day-by-day, monthly calendar/agenda, or agenda-only view. Here's a full shot of what it looks like—while Google's blog post shows a map being drawn for location-specific items, it wasn't drawing on my screen for some reason.


Unlike the Gmail gadget, the Google Calendar Gadget runs on Google Desktop 5 for Macs and Linux, as well as Windows. It's free, requires Google Desktop 5 and a Google Calendar account.

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Hmm dont know about this anybody have a comment?

Gmail on your Google Desktop
Monday, December 01, 2008 4:48 PMPosted by James Yum, Developer Programs Engineer, Google DesktopOn the Google Desktop gadgets team, we've seen countless requests for a Gmail gadget over the years. That gadget is finally here, so if you've got Google Desktop for Windows, give it a try.You'll see that it covers the basics such as reading, searching, and sending messages. You can star messages, use the same keyboard shortcuts, and we didn't forget about contact auto-complete. It doesn't take up much space in your sidebar or desktop, and you can also resize it to show as few or as many messages as you'd like.When I'm at work, I keep two instances of the gadget open: one logged into my personal Gmail account and the other set to my Google Apps account for work related stuff. Instead of getting lost in a sea of tabs or browser windows, I can bring up the gadgets in an instant (hint: pressing the shift key twice brings up all your hidden Desktop gadgets).The Gmail gadget currently works with the latest release of Google Desktop for Windows.Try it out and please let us know what you think.Update: Changed title to clarify this is for Google Desktop.
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Hmm dont know about this anybody have a comment?

Gmail on your Google Desktop
Monday, December 01, 2008 4:48 PMPosted by James Yum, Developer Programs Engineer, Google DesktopOn the Google Desktop gadgets team, we've seen countless requests for a Gmail gadget over the years. That gadget is finally here, so if you've got Google Desktop for Windows, give it a try.You'll see that it covers the basics such as reading, searching, and sending messages. You can star messages, use the same keyboard shortcuts, and we didn't forget about contact auto-complete. It doesn't take up much space in your sidebar or desktop, and you can also resize it to show as few or as many messages as you'd like.When I'm at work, I keep two instances of the gadget open: one logged into my personal Gmail account and the other set to my Google Apps account for work related stuff. Instead of getting lost in a sea of tabs or browser windows, I can bring up the gadgets in an instant (hint: pressing the shift key twice brings up all your hidden Desktop gadgets).The Gmail gadget currently works with the latest release of Google Desktop for Windows.Try it out and please let us know what you think.Update: Changed title to clarify this is for Google Desktop.
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Monday, December 8, 2008

Windows Server 2008 Familiarization

By: Daniel Petri

Temporarily Bypass Windows Server 2008 Activation

In Windows Server 2008 (and previous Microsoft operating systems) you must activate your computer in order to use it legally. You have 30 days after installing Windows to activate it online or by telephone. If this 30-day period expires before you complete activation, Windows will stop working. If this happens, you won't be able to create new files or save changes to existing ones. You can regain full use of your computer by activating your copy of Windows. Activation is mandatory (unless of course you have a different sort of licensing in your organization).


Last evening, while giving a demo to one of my classes, I started up a virtual machine running Windows Server 2008 RC1. The VM had been installed a few weeks ago and hasn't been used since then, but before it was shut down, I had it configured with a static IP address, default gateway, and DNS server. When the machine was last configured, it was on my office network, thus, the network settings that had been applied to it fit my office network setup.The issue was that now I needed it, and I needed it at a different location- one that had a DHCP Server on it. Because of that, booting the machine with the current network configuration caused the virtual machine to not be able to access the Internet. All this is good and well, except it happened just in time for the Windows Activation pop-up to appear!

If you chose to automatically activate Windows online when you set up your computer, automatic activation begins trying to activate your copy of Windows three days after you log on for the first time. But if you haven't done so, you're stuck with the manually activation process.

As you see, just after the logon screen appears,  right after you log on, the activation screen appears:

Darn! Activation? Now? Just as I needed that machine up and running in one of my demo sessions?

Is there any way to bypass the activation screen and gain access to the system's settings? All I want to do is to change the TCP/IP settings so I can activate the server online. There must be a way!

Let's try.

Pressing the Activate Windows Online Now button doesn't help much (I knew it wouldn't, I don't have Internet connectivity right now!)

Pressing the Show me other ways to activate Windows button doesn't help much either as I already know I could use a modem or a phone to activate Windows.

Pressing the Set up an Internet connection button doesn't help much because I don't have a VPN connection, nor do I need one. I just need to change my TCP/IP settings, that's it.

Forget about safe mode, that won't help either…

I tried to open Task Manager by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC, but that did not work.

Hold on! What about one of the oldest tricks in the book? Will that work?

I clicked on the What is activation help link.

Immediately I was prompted with a warning message telling me that it was possible that I fell victim to software counterfeiting. That was not the case with this installation of Windows Server 2008, as I have used my own personal and legal copy of an MSDN ISO file to install it, and I used my perfectly legal product ID.

I clicked Close.

Another window popped up, asking me If I wanted to use online resources for my help search. I clicked Yes (it doesn't really matter for this demonstration).

I read a bit about activation, and then turned to see if my idea would indeed work. I typedCMD in the help search box, and pressed Enter.

Amazingly enough, the search results were not blocked. So I clicked on one of the first results – Open a command prompt window. In the help result I clicked on the link to open a Command Prompt window, and behold:

A nice, shining and black command prompt window opened in front of my eyes. I could stop right here, using NETSH to configure my network adapter to obtain an IP address from a DHCP. But why stop when the fun has just begun?

So I pressed on, typing Notepad and pressing enter. Hmmm…

What about running Task Manager? I typed taskmgr in the command prompt window and pressed Enter. BTW, you could also open Task Manager by searching for it in the Help window.

Cool. I'll return to the Task Manager windows soon, but now I want to finish what I came here for. So I went back to the Help window and performed a search on how to configure an IP address, and clicked on the Change my TCP/IP Settings link.

Sure enough, on the results I clicked to open network connections:

Getting to the Network Connections window solved my issues, and I quickly followed the easy steps to configure the server's IP address as needed:

Going back to Task Manager I wanted to test some more things, so I clicked on File > New Task (Run), typed Explorer, and pressed Enter.

Bingo! The desktop materialized in front of me and I could start working although the activation wizard was still clearly visible.

Looking at the tray area I could see the Internet connection globe. I tried to ping an Internet FQDN, and indeed, the connection was on.

That's cool. I couldn't minimize the activation screen, but I could move it out of the way. What about closing it altogether? I tried to kill the SLUI.exe process, but that turned out to be a party stopper because my current session abruptly ended and I was logged off.

But that's fine, I have my Internet connection set up and I can easily activate my copy of Windows.

I wasn't aware you could do all this with an un-activated copy of Windows. Any Windows. I will try Vista and tell you what I came up with. In any case, please read the following disclaimer:

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to be used as a hack/crack or as a way to bypass the legal activation process required by the EULA. The only reason for this article is to help those of you that are stuck, like I was, without the ability to activate their legally owned copy of Windows because of some wrong configuration setting. This article is not a hacking guide, nor is it to be used as an encouragement to use your operating system in ways that are not covered by the EULA. You should only use legally bought copies of Windows (or of any software for that matter). What you do with this information is not my business, and I cannot be held responsible for any legal results that may occur if you so chose to follow the steps outlined here. To make myself absolutely clear – Buy a legal license, activate your copy of Windows, and always use a legally owned product ID.

Windows Server 2008 Articles
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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Lifehacker Recommendation: Trim Down Windows to the Bare Essentials

DUSH has sent you a link to a post on Lifehacker:

Title: Trim Down Windows to the Bare Essentials
Link: http://lifehacker.com/374376/trim-down-windows-to-the-bare-essentials

DUSH says: Check this out

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Saturday, October 25, 2008

Internet acquirers such as Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), and News Corp. (NWS


Technology

Big Tech Buyouts

How 10 Internet startups cashed in big, and what their founders will do with the loot

By Douglas MacMillan

Silicon Valley angel investor Jeff Clavier expected August to be a slow month for acquisitions. To his surprise, two of the seven companies in his portfolio got bought within weeks of each other. Kaboodle, a site that combines shopping and social networking, sold to Hearst. Maya's Mom, an online parenting community, sold to Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). "It's a good time to be an investor because there are tons of opportunities out there that are interesting," says

Clavier, who put some of his returns toward starting a $12 million early-stage venture fund.


What's good for investors is an outright bonanza for entrepreneurs. Not only are established Internet acquirers such as Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), and News Corp. (NWS) spending lavishly on budding properties, companies such as Hearst and Getty Images (GYI) are placing smaller, strategic bets.

But what changes when these company founders see their handiwork snapped up by the highest bidder? Sure, some of these lucky ducks will plow proceeds into the next big thing. But many opt to stick around, keeping a hand at the tiller long after the ownership changeover.

In this slide show, BusinessWeek.com highlights the founders and venture capitalists behind some of this year's biggest tech buyouts to learn how they got their seat at the negotiating table with millions on the line, and what it's like to be among Silicon Valley's nouveau riche.

Mozy

Founder: Josh Coates
Acquisition Price: $76 million
Buyer: EMC
Funding: $1.9 million from Wasatch Venture Fund, Tim Draper, and Drew Major

The Runup:
Perhaps taking a cue from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who rebuffed a $1 billion offer from Yahoo, Mozy founder Josh Coates spurned advances from a major Internet player last year (rumored to be Google), holding out for a better offer. In October, Mozy, a provider of online data security, got acquired by surprise buyer EMC for nearly 40 times the investment.

The Payoff:
"Deals aren't like winning a lottery. Deals are messy slugfests," says Coates, who studied computer engineering at the University of California at Berkeley and started enterprise online storage company Scale8 before founding American Fork (Utah)-based Berkeley Data Systems and launching Mozy, its consumer-oriented storage service, in 2005. He says nothing in his career prepared him for the deal, which involved hundreds of hours "duking it out" with attorneys, directors, and bankers. EMC plans to keep the Mozy brand intact, but will move Coates into its existing technology division.


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