Windows Tip!

System not running to well? Have your tried everything in your freeware ability to fix it but just don't know where to turn now? Once you have tried Search and Destroy, AVG, CCleaner, and all the other great stuff you have downloaded over the few years, then lets see if maybe something is wrong the OS files. This could cause a number of things to go wrong. If you are sure that your system is messed up yet you do not know where to look then this could give a start.

In XP

Open the START MENU>

Click on RUN>

Type in CMD>



In Vista

Open the START MENU

In the SEARCH BOX type CMD and hit ENTER>



Now you should have the Command Prompt window up.Now do the following

Type SFC hit ENTER
Type sfc /SCANNOW
This process may take a little while to work its way through. Once it completes you will see a list off results. From this screen you will be able to tell what is wrong and/or Google an error to see what the best solution is. Just because a file is corrupted does not mean that you have to reinstall the OS. Get out your Windows boot disk and put them in the disk. From here you will be walked through the process of going into the recovery console and fixing the issue. Easy as pie!
Now that you know how to go into the Command Prompt go to Microsoft Tech Net where you will find commands for diagnosing and repairing Windows issues.

More Free Software That I Love!

If you have ever stopped in from time to time you may have noticed that I am big on Open Source Software. I am even more fond of it when it is a replacement for a mediocre or just a down right bad service of Windows. So I will be providing you with four great apps and an OS that you could be some what familiar with. So a total of five great open source software/OS's that you should check out.

1. Security Task Manager- Windows actually makes a pretty decent app with Task Manager but this software goes beyond the call of duty! It not only lets you view actions, programs, and errors but also lets you remove malicious apps or entries. If you are not sure that is safe to remove the issue this app has a Google button so you can learn what is going on. It digs deep into your system so that it access the hives and tells you if you have malicious registry entries. Give this one a download and you will not regret it!

2. Helix- If you do any administationyou will want this app. You can boot into a customized Linux environment or Windows to wirk with this app. It includes customized Linux kernels, excellent hardware detection and many applications dedicated to Incident Response and Forensics. If you have a problem this will solve it! Lose you log on password? This can recover it!

3. Mozilla Firefox- Yes I often tell you guys about this one. In fact the download at the bottom of my blog will start you on the road to better browsing. For those of you familiar with IE7 you will think that Firefox ripped off IE. Wrong! Microsoft did what they do best! Rip off something great and then make it worse! It's the Windows way! What is Mozilla? A web browser! Where is it from? Co-founder of Netscape, Marc Andreessen, was the original developer of Netscape's popular Mosaic browser. Marc like any great developer decided that Mosaic could be better and must die. Hence you get Mosaic Killer aka "Mozilla". The rest is history! Firefox will eventually replace IE as the most popular browser. In fact it is used by over 55% of my visitors! You get more security, faster browsing, constant updates, more themes, and better add-ons then with IE! Better browser hands down!

4. Foxit PDF Creator- Adobe you make me ill! Why must you charge so much for a service that is free?! Open and create your own PDF files with this freeware! Cannot say much more besides this..."Anything with the word Fox in it seems to rock!"

5. Linux Ubuntu- This is the OS I was telling you about. Linux is getting easier to use. People who are trying it out are walking away saying WOW(which Vista as failed to do to people)! I fully believe that Linux will one day be the OS of the future. Not convinced by such simple words? How about these words...Free, Free, Free! Everything about it is free. Well if you pay for direct customer support you pay but why bother when you have forums all over the net that are written by Linux lovers to help you have a brilliant experience with Linux! Guys not only is Linux free but so is the software! If that doesn't catch your eye then I don't know what will. The greatest thing about Linux the customizing that you can do. If you use Linux you will learn it, love it, and make it personal.
This OS is RELIABLE! Since Super Bowl Sunday I have been dual booting and not once have I had a crash or a freeze(cannot say that about windows). Not sure if it is for you? Down load it and put it on a CD to make a Live CD. That means put it in your CD ROM and take it for a test drive. You can boot from the CD anytime you choose and never install it!Dig that!

Trying Something New. AGAIN!

Many woes have come to me due to the fact that I am fickle! I can and do move on from activity to activity like it is going out of style. I guess that is one of the reasons that I have welcomed the internet into my life with open arms. I am able to go from site to site and do very different things with ease.
So what is my new fix?
Working Windows!
This forum is designed with the intention to help myself learn common and not so common issues with Windows and to help people get their issues resolved! So pray that I take alot if this new site and am not too quick to move on! Thanks!
Feel free to come and tell about the common problems that you may have or had with windows so that we can build up our forum to help more people do more things.

My Favorite Online Stores!

I am in the middle of one of my blogger blocks. Yes that is just like a writer's block. While this post may seem generic it is true none the less. These are stores that really get me reaching for my wallet!

5. Ebay- Yeah it is alittle different then an actually store but I love the fact that you can buy some great used or new stuff for next to nothing (sometimes).

4. Tiger Direct- This is a very popular store in which you can find many many electronics for a good price. I think my favorite thing about Tiger Direct is how they set up there bare bones computers.

3. Target- While Target as actually stores all around where I live, I love the set up and simplicity of their website! It is just fun to shop at their website!

2. All Things Remembered- I only shop at this store for my wife. They have things that you know she will grow fond of and quickly. Ladies they have nice stuff for us also!

1. And my favorite store is..............NEWEGG!- I love this place! The prices, the selection, the website, the customer reviews! Everything about this site rocks! Go and check them out sometime!

Web Site Watch-Techexams.net

I am planning to take my Comp TIA A+ and MCP exams around June. Around March of next year I am going to take a few more exams. After receiving my books for the classes to help me get prepared for them and after about an hour of looking through the books, I had gained confidence that I could pass the test today. After looking around I found two site where you can take pretests. One stood out. It stood out because it is free! All you do is register and then you are free to take test.

One of my favorite and least favorite things about the site is you can take 5 to 50 questions at a time. I would like to be able to answer more than fifty but hey it is nice if you all have 10 minutes to answer a quick 5 and see where you stand!

If think you are tech savvy(and most do even if they are not) go and visit Techexams.net and see what you know.

Only Me and My Wife(Conflict of a Geek).........

We have some issues that we just cannot resolve. They are issues that most would never encounter but in the Foulks House it is everyday. Here are the five things that we encounter that no one else deals with counting down to the most the frequent issue....

5. She doesn't want our lives to be a remake of "Revenge of the Nerds."

4. We have more CRT monitors sitting on the front porch that we do TVs and they have been there for months.

3. That while in the house I still use the iPhone to check mail and browse web sites. My Viao is normally three feet away.

2. Cutting a hole in the bathroom wall to have a slide out laptop stand that includes an IBM Thinkpad. Every one should have one if you ask me.

1. Wanting to name my firstborn son Linux. This tends to go bad when I bring it up!:)

Isn't that just creepy!

We worry about people seeing us commit acts that for no apparent reason would make you uncomfortable if people would see you do it. How would you like it if a store was to record you on a camera that ran online 24 hours a day! Everything you did was laid out for the world to see. That is the case with most businesses that have online security cameras. This is list included but is not limited to churches, parking lot, market square areas where there is alot of action, roller skate parks, hotels,c-stores, and even in peoples houses.
Yes, my friend without a doubt something that you have done was recorded without you knowing it at some point in your life. Creepy as it is it happens. It creeps me out like it does knowing that someone as a picture of me that I don't even know exist. Look through your pictures and see how many you have taken with people in the background that you do not even know. Now how often do you think that as happened to you. This is on a whole different level.
Google maps does not bother me because it is old. They claim to keep updated pictures but the truth of it is that they have beens showing the same picture of my parents house for years. I know that the picture is at least 10 years old(the pool is not in the picture). This is live motion cameras that can and do record you without you even knowing it. So get excited!

To see what I think is so creepy just google the following.....
inurl:/view/index.shtml
The just click on any of the links that come up and see where they take you. It is wild where some of them will take you if you.

Check these Guys Out!

I found this website and instantly went head over heels! I myself love technology and the only thing that is better than a great gadget is hacking it to make it go beyond the call of duty! If it is transforming your wii remote into a mouse, use your PC for a space heater, cook a turkey using DVD-Rs and a light bulb, or using a real guitar in Guitar Hero, or converting your Nintendo DS into a smart phone you would love these guys. The site is called Household Hacker. While their site is not overflowing with posts yet it is impressive.

Updates

I have not been on here to blog in a little while. Today I had alittle time but made the choice to do some update. I lost some items and the one I should have lost a long time ago was adsense. Pointless unless you have 45000 hits a day/ I did however keep the links that will take people to a Fire Fox download page. Why? Try Fire Fox sometime.
The look is different but the content is the same. So if you a still looking for that reading to help you fall asleep on the couch we are still here!

Uber Bowl Sunday?!

Today is the day. It all comes down to this. Two very different teams face off! On one side we got the high flying Windows Vista on the side we have the underdog Linux Ubuntu 7.04 aka Feisty. This one proves to be a battle. Windows is a good OS(at least to me) but the curiosity of Linux is getting to me. This epic match up started months ago. With the arrival of the Ubuntu Live CD via snail mail.
Since October of 07 Linux has occasionally been booted. My only issue being my user failure of not being able to properly install the 3D-accelerated videocard drivers. Why am I struggling with it? I don't know. I locate the nvidia-glx package, mark it for installation, apply it and download it then run the proper command(or so I think): sudo nvidia-xconfig -add-argb-glx-visuals; then follow the prompts. Save then reboot. To my surprise I have failed every time.
However my stubborn side is not to let it go. I fully believe that will a little more effort I may be able to properly install my videocard drivers and manage to run Beryl like I am longing for. In case you have never witnessed Beryl you have to look no more. The picture you see above is the real deal.
I have always used Windows. Me, XP, and Vista. I have used them. I want to see a change and am looking forward to change. Here is the kicker though! I am going to control the best of both worlds. Dual Boot Baby! Yep!

Three FREE Downloads That I Now Love!

I was doing my little internet surfing thing. I managed to get alittle bored so I did what I love to do. Search for free-ware! I found two that are nice utilities and one that I went ga-ga for.
Back when my Vols were playing I went for a TV Tuner. Needless to say that after the lovely 115 dollar investment I was headed back to the store with in a day. Reception was horrible and I managed to get 5 and half station. Half of the picture on one was snow. So I went in search of a free-ware program that would allow me to watch TV. It didn't take long to get a surprise....

1. ANY TV. Simply....AWESOME. I have more channels than I care to count. Any type of sport is there. I can even watch Skateboarding 24 hours a day! If you one of those guys from Swap Blog you can watch Aljazeera(spell check that)TV(Just playing, I think). If you like Revelation then they have two channels dedicated to studying them. They break the different stations down into different categories like..
Channel, Genre, Bitrate, Rating, and comments. To put it simply I love this download!

2. Restoration- Ever done one of those bone headed file or picture deletions and then deleted it from trash only to find out a little while later that out you needed it later. I have! If you haven't then you are lucky. Restoration helps you to recover that information. Thats right folks. It can pull your file or pic back from the grave. It can be useful. I put it on my jump drive. How often will I use? Hopefully never but it is nice to have!

3. DoubleKiller- How many photos do you have on your PC that you have doubles. Never seems like you can find the time to delete the extras. I mean in between My Space, Halo 3, and all that time you send reading my blog you are hard pressed. Right? Anyway let DoubleKiller find those duplicates and remove them. Of course it will ask you if you are sure so no worries. Play and walk away! Not only works with pics but also files.

Of these three I have absolutely a heavy favoritism towards ANY TV. Maybe you can use them maybe not. I can!

Some Ugly Mods....

Read about these self proclaimed ugly mods at.....
Wikigiz and at Gizmodo

New iPhone Update Gets A Big + and A Big -!

I did my normal routine the other day. I sit on the couch and placed my Vaio ever so gently on my lap(of course I had first placed my feet on the coffee table), gave Vista time to boot up, and then right clicked to click open on iTunes. I then plugged that shiny white cord into the iPhone then into the USB port. I allowed the phone to go through sync. Once that was done I checked for updates. It said that update 1.1.3 is available. No it wasn't going to update my iPhone until 1-23-08 so did what any patient man would do. I did it manually. I was reading the user agreement when I saw one of my biggest issues with the iPhone was about to be fixed. I will be able to send one SMS to multiple receipts. I almost leaped for joy.
There is a catch however. My email was about to forgo a major change. My gmail was a POP account. This means that my email was sent to my iPhone and whatever I chose to do with it I could and the email would remain in my Gmail account. Example. If I got an email that I didn't want to see on my iPhone I could delete it from the iPhone and then read it in my Gmail account once I was a PC. Not anymore. Now Gmail have made it from POP ti IMAP. This means what ever I do on my iPhone to gmail is done to the actual account. Boo Hiss!
The Phone came with other updates that are very cool. They do not account the POP to IMAP but they are cool none the less. Such has...
Bookmarks can be sent to your home screen. Now this seems like it would clutter you home screen but now you have nine pages and you can put has few bookmarks you like or up to 16 items per page. You can also rearrange your home page to suit you better.
The Maps now have some more power to them. Like say, pressing a button and a circle encloses the area that you are currently in(Maybe the next update will actually make the iPhone strong enough to be considered a GPS model, Doubtful though).The Hybrid map that gives you satellite image with the street names able to be seen is cool. Before it was street names or satellite images, You couldn't have both. You can also drop a pin and move it to where you want to start a route or book mark from the positional pin.
iTunes added a cool feature that works with the iPhone. You can now rent movies directly off iTunes then download them to your iPhone. So some very cool updates but one in a bigger bummer than the positive ones. Here are three that I would like to see the next iPhone update do.....

1. Allow multimedia messages to be sent and received on the iPhone. We all love the direct email option from our photo album but would also like to be able to sent the SMS messages to our friends phones. This would be a big plus to any one who are down for their own social network that consist of four friends and picture messages to let them see what they are doing and where they are doing it. Me I just like to take pictures of stuff and send it to my friends at random.

2. Some new wall papers. I just keep the standard picture of the earth that is set to default when you buy the iPhone. I am a little tired of it yet the other ones just do not appeal to me at all. I am stuck on that one.

3. Here is looking at you Gmail. Give me back my POP account settings and take this IMAP back.

Web Site Watch!

Do you have a good vocabulary? Do you want one? Want to see how much you know? How about doing this while feeding the hungry? Sound good of course it does! To my atheist reader they are not a Christian site.
At FreeRice.com you play a game. The point of the game is to attempt to answer the questions you are given. The questions are all about vocabulary! You are asked to define the word you are given. If you guess it right the people who operate it have it set up so that they can donate 10 grains of rice. You may be thinking 10 grains of rice?! That isn't enough? Picture this. 100 Grains of rice is a plate. If you answer 30 of these questions correct then you provide three meals. You get smarter(according to our standards which base IQ off of vocabulary) and people get feed.
I am asking that you help to promote this site. It is legit. I assume they fund their rice through ad sense has it is clearly visible at the bottom. Me and my Psychology teacher are in a completive grid lock. I cannot get past having 25 points. She is at 41 and stays between 41 and 39. So go have fun, learn, and help to feed somebody.

Web Site Watch-Zipskinny

This is a fun fact filled web site. At Zipskinny you find what the title says. The skinny on your own zip. Thats right. Type in your zip and you will tons of information. Average wages, education, professions, marital status, age and much more. You can even compare the results of your zip code to others around you or around the nation. This was a blast.
Click here to go to ZipSkinny.

The Ugliest Products in Tech History. (According to PC World)

Microsoft Zune, above right
"iMac Flower Power and Dalmatian, left "

The photos you see are from PC World's recent article entitled the "The Ugliest Products in Tech History". I have to agree that some are very much hideous. How ever I like a couple of them. The Zune from Microsoft is a work of art to me. I enjoy the simplicity of the controls and the large screen. The player is no lightweight and cannot be crammed into a pocket but I still like the fact that it doesn't look like every other sexy MP3/Video player you will see out there.
The Nintendo Virtual Boy. I didn't think that anyone remembered those things. I had one when was a little lad. I never did like it much. It was never easy to see what was going on with the game and the thing was ugly and bulky.
Judge for yourself and to learn more about these ugly babies click here(links to PC World).

What my Visitors Tell Me

These are the O.S. that visits my site. Has you see XP is still the clear leader. Windows 2000 in second, Vista and the Mac OS X seem tied for third. We finish it out with Windows NT. I am disappointed that the penguin gets no love. Linux will be an at home O.S.. It is just obvious that it is not today.

Now this one is a little more interesting. 45% of the visitors I get use Firefox! That means more security for most but sadly once it is the mainstream Browser it will lose that secure element. IE6 and 7 have 42% and 11%. Making them the main browser. Combined the make up 53% of the browsers out there. Opera 9.X and Safari battle it out for the last place at one percent each.

Web Site Watch- Dinosaurs and Man Co-existed Together

Looking around on the net I found another website that really caught my attention. It deals with evidence that dinosaurs and man co-existed. This website doesn't only give you text but it also gives you the pictures of art that proves that dinosaurs were not a new concept at the discovery of some old bones(as would be believed by some). This website shows photos and gives the time frame on which it was made and where it was found.
Here are a few of the photos.


Now here is the thing. If dinosaurs were extinct before we ever arrived then how could these Peruvians have drawn such detailed pictures on these pieces of art. Notice the one with the triceratops and the MAN ON TOP OF IT! Yeah that is sort of a big deal. Evolutionist will have you believe that the dinosaur was unknown to man before the 1800's. This says otherwise.
Visit Dinosaur Art From Ancient Tombs In Peru to read more about these pieces of truthful art. They have many more great subjects to read on their homepage at...www.bible.ca

Web Site Watch...

This is the first in a series I may keep on a regular basis. It works like the title. Surfing the web can be a pain. I was searching for reviews of college institutions and realized that other than big name schools it is hard pressed to find a good review on a school. That was surprising to me seeing how the one I was searching for deals with information technology(they have to be producing some nerds,and nerd is not a negative word to me). I assumed (which never goes good for me) that someone would have written a blog review, discussed it in an open forum, or bashed it somewhere (everything can get negative feedback for something).
The best site I found is collegeboard.com. While it didn't give me the school's student reviews, it is simple to compare any school to any other school you can think of. You can compare three at one time side by side. You can find information on admissions,sports, international students,if it's public or private, their deadlines, the campus life(although it is summed up in one word),and tuition. This web site makes it simple to find what you need. For instance... if you were to click on "Am I on track" it would tell you what you needed to do to meet the requirement to enroll. So if you or some one you know is searching for a college they could easily go here and compare. it.

Early iPhone Buyers Feel Ripped Off.

So today Apple apologized for a price drop of 200 dollars off of the iPhone. Customers are extremely upset at the price drop. Steve Jobs(founder of Apple) is going to cut a check for 100 dollars to all those who bought the 600 dollar 8 GB iPhone.
Why? This is what technology does. If you buy a cell phone and it goes on sell two months after you buy one why complain? The holiday season around the corner you should wait. I didn't see the price drop coming this fast and that deep but with any product that is introduced to the technology field you will find that it drops in the price over time.
I myself am not a fan of Apple. They make gadgets and gizmos. Okay that is cool but what does the iPhone offer that any other cell phone or palm pilot cannot? You could get a phone and a palm pilot of around half the price of the iPhone when it released! Most cell phones are MP3 players, have browsers, are camera phones, and even have some better features than the iPhone. The iPhone's keyboard is too crammed for my liking. For the touch screen to work like it does with a 90 rotate video player(you turn the phone sideways to watch movies) then it should have plenty of room for the keyboard. It doesn't, they really just crammed it in there in the up right position(don't believe me then go to AT&T and try out the display phone, it is very difficult to press the keys you want to at times).
A full screen is nice but other phone (like some Samsung models) offer the same size screen, the touch screen is nice but palm pilots have these! I like the iPhone all in all but and think it is a more reasonable price for it. However I don't see why people are getting made. It all levels out. The Blackberry Pearl charges and additional 20 bucks a month for Data/Text. The iPhone doesn't. If you do the math in a two year contract you would save 240 dollars. It all comes out about the same if you ask me.