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December 21st, 2008

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Lifestyle Changes


Considering that most of the posts on here have something to do with a computer, this is a pretty rare post for me.

A couple of weeks ago, I lost a first cousin (who was also a best friend) to a heart attack. He was 45. Back in 1992 I lost another first cousin to a heart attack - she was in her 30’s.

Heart disease runs in my Mom’s side of the family. Besides both of those first cousins (children of my Mom’s sisters), my Mom has had (and luckily survived) two heart attacks, one of her sisters has also suffered heart trouble as well and my Mom’s Mother passed away from a heart attack while in her early 50’s.

Besides the family history, I’m 28, I’ve been medicated for hypertension since I was 16 and I’ve been on a prescription for high cholesterol for the last 2 years.

If that isn’t a wake-up call, I don’t know what is. It’s time for some major lifestyle modifications for me for sure. I’m seriously overweight, I don’t eat right (not even close actually), I smoke and I definitely don’t get enough exercise.

Some things I can’t change right now, however there are some things I can. I want to quit smoking, but I have tried everything under the sun to quit and nothing has worked. The closest to success I’ve had was 3 weeks with “the patch” back in September, but I had a skin reaction to the patch and just couldn’t take wearing it any more - it was literally painful. I did make it 3 more days without the patch until something stressed me at work, and well, you know what happened next - I “took 15″ and went and got a pack of smokes. I’d like to try “Chantix” but that is ~$100 per month, not covered by my insurance and definitely not in my budget right now. Also not in my budget right now is a gym membership, but hopefully in a few months I’ll be able to swing both of those financially.

In the meantime, I can make some modifications to my diet. I need to create a diet for myself that helps me lose weight, but also is heart healthy as well, and can help keep my Blood Pressure under control. I already have a plan for the diet in place, and went grocery shopping this weekend and picked up some staples to help make this happen. I’ve traded the Fruity Loops for Cheerios, Whole Milk for Skim, traded Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning for the salt free variety (thank you Tony for making a Salt-free version of your seasoning!), also picked up some Ms. Dash, fruit for snacks, Salad “fixins’” complete with Kraft “Free” Catalina dressing (In which I can’t tell a difference at all in taste) and I’ve sworn off fried foods for good. I don’t think our “George Forman” grill has seen electricity in over a year, but it’s gonna be working overtime now!

I’m 100% sure I can succeed with the diet. I even managed to eat a Salad at Burger King before grocery shopping Saturday while watching my Mom eat a burger and fries :-)

Diet alone isn’t enough.

While I can’t afford the Chantix or the Gym membership right now, I can make an effort to smoke as little as possible. I’ve been doing pretty good this weekend (which is usually my “heaviest” time for smoking - I think it’s a boredom thing). I’m not smoking until I’m literally about to snap, rather than lighting one up out of habit and/or when I first get that urge. Also, even though I can’t join the gym right now, nothing is stopping me for exercising on my own. I’ve walked 3 miles each day this weekend, and I plan to keep this up each day (weather permitting). I’m also very close to the Mall where I work, and that is a great place to walk in any weather, so I can “burn away” my lunch hours speed walking in the Mall, after a healthy lunch.

Anyway, wish me luck as I pave the way for a new, healthier me.

Jayson

      

Written by jaysonrowe on December 21st, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Personal and otherSoftware.

Manual Removal of W32/AutoRun-HR Trojan Worm

Manual Removal of W32/AutoRun-HR Trojan Worm.

W32/AutoRun-HR is a Trojan for the Windows platform. W32/AutoRun-HR includes functionality to access the internet and communicate with a remote server via HTTP.
The file autorun.ini is detected as Mal/AutoInf-A.

Damage Level : High/Medium
Distribution Level: Unknown
Auto Removal Tool for W32/AutoRun-HR Trojan Worm
Kaspersky World wide Tool
Download From Softpedia
Trojan Worm Manual Removal Instructions
Recommend Removal from Safe Mode:

How to Start in Safe mode:
Restart your Computer, Press F8 Repeatedly, when your Screen turns on, Select Safe mode, press enter.

The Infected Files Can be Seen in these folders and names also Running in Tasks
End the Following Active Process Before Removal

  • %Windows%\hinhem.scr
  • %Windows%\scvhost.exe
  • %System%\blastclnnn.exe
  • %System%\scvhost.exe
  • %System%\autorun.ini
  • %System%\setting.ini
    • If you have any of these files in running process from task manger, end the process before removal.
    • Note: if task manager is disabled, Download the following file, Click to Download - Enable Registry.reg
    • Open it with Regedit.exe [%system32\regedit.exe], then it Confirms Add to registry Yes or No, Confirm Yes, then click Ok.

Trojan Worm Manual Removal From Registry

Click Start, Run,Type regedit,Click OK.
  • Note: If the registry editor fails to open the threat may have modified the registry to prevent access to the registry editor.
    Download and run this
    UnHookExec.inf, and then continue with the removal.
    Save it to your Windows desktop. Do not run it at this time, download it only.
    After booting into the Safe Mode or VGA Mode
    Right-click the UnHookExec.inf file and click Install. [This is a small file. It does not display any notice or boxes when you run it.]

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Yahoo Messenger
%System%\scvhost.exe

The following registry entry is changed to run scvhost.exe on startup:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell\
Explorer.exe

scvhost.exe

The following registry entries are set, disabling system software:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
DisableTaskMgr Value :1

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
DisableRegistryTools Value :1

The following registry entry is set:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
NofolderOptions Value :1

To Activate the Disabled options, Change the Value to 0 or 2

Search Registry For Virus File Names listed above to remove completely,
Edit Menu - Find
, enter Keyword and remove all value that find in search
.



Exit the Registry Editor,
Restart your Computer.

Recommended Removal Tools:
Kaspersky Antivirus or Internet Security (Shareware)
Spyware Doctor (Shareware)
AVG Antivirus (Freeware)
Killbox (Freeware)

Written by FireFly on December 21st, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on worm removal and W32/AutoRun-HR and trojan removal and manual removal and otherSoftware and Removal and Windows.

Windows Live Essentials – Integration with Microsoft Office 2007

Windows Live is not just a consumer product, there are some business functionality built into the suite too. In addition to the Office Outlook connector for managing Live Hotmail email in the Office Personal Information Manager, the Office Live WorkPlace add-in allows you to save your Microsoft Office files directly to your own online work space at Office Live.

Live Save

Save to Office Live Option in Office 2007

setup setup3

Complete Restart

Installing the Office Live Save Add-in

Setup

The Windows Live Suite does not include the add-in itself, that you will have to download. The ‘Save to Office Live’ pane features a sign in link which triggers the installation of the ad-in from Microsoft Downloads. Once you have downloaded and installed the ad-in, a restart is required. Once you have done so, the Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint Office Fluent file menu includes a new Save As and Open As capability for Office Live. Hopefully by the next release or even before then, Microsoft will support the add in across the entire suite of products.

 prompt

Log in prompt for Office Live Workspace

Once you have successfully installed the Ad-in, the next step is to sign into the service. Existing users of Office Live Workplace will get automatic access to their workspace, for first time users, you will need to signup and configure the service first. Lets take a look at that.

Wiz1

The Office Live Wizard gets you up and running in a few minutes.

After clicking continue in the Office Live Workspace wizard, your web browser is launched automatically which takes you to the Office Live web page where you must first accept the Service Agreement before continuing. 

Web Space setup Setup workspace workspace setup 2 Workspace

Setup and Signing into Office Live Workspace (click to enlarge)

Once you have setup and configured your Office Live Workspace, you are ready to start saving and opening Microsoft Office files from the web. With your workspace, you can store 1000+ documents online, share them with others, and then access them directly from Microsoft Office Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

save dialog

Saving to the workspace is very similar to working in Windows Explorer. The Office Live ‘Save As’ window works more like a Mapped Network drive. Initially, I got an error message trying to save, but after closing out the window and trying again it worked successfully.

Save progress

Save Progress

Saved document

Document saved to your Office Live Workspace

Once your document is up on Office Live Workspace, users have the option of sharing files, viewing the document as a web page. Unfortunately, I was not presented the option of doing so in the browser. Office Live instead insisted that I download the file and edit locally. So there are some issues still to be worked out where that is the concerned. Microsoft is promising that the next version of Microsoft Office ‘14’ will support editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in the web browser. Users can still appreciate the basic collaboration functionality built in such as versioning of files, commenting and the ability to share files in work spaces with multiple users.

I would like to see federation across Windows Live storage services, such as the option to have files uploaded, replicated and saved in your Windows Live Skydrive too. Having data scattered across different but similar services seems like too much manage. Overall, I appreciate the ability to work with my Office files in new and innovative ways.

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Written by Teching It Easy: Windows Vista & 7 on December 21st, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 7 Journal and otherSoftware.

THE ADVANTAGES OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

If the GPL seems like a bad idea from the standpoint of commercialism, consider the surge of successful open source software projects—they are indicative of a system that does indeed work. This success has evolved for two reasons. First errors in the code itself are far more likely to be caught and quickly fixed under the watchful eyes of peers. Second, under the GPL system, programmers can release code without the fear of being sued. Without that protection, people may not feel as comfortable to release their code for public consumption.

Most projects don’t start out as full-featured, polished pieces of work. They may begin life as a quick hack to solve a specific problem bothering the programmer at the time. As a quick-and-dirty hack, the code may not have a sales value. But when this code is shared and consequently improved upon by others who have similar problems and needs, it becomes a useful tool. Other program users begin to enhance it with features they need, and these additions travel back to the original program. The project thus evolves as the result of a group effort and eventually reaches full refinement. This polished program may contain contributions from possibly hundreds, if not thousands, of programmers who have added little pieces here and there. In fact, the original author’s code is likely to be little in evidence.

There’s another reason for the success of generally licensed software. Any project manager who has worked on commercial software knows that the real cost of development software isn’t in the development phase. It’s in the cost of selling, marketing, supporting, documenting, packaging, and shipping that software. A programmer carrying out a weekend hack to fix a problem with a tiny, kludged program may lack the interest, time, and money to turn that hack into a profitable product.

When Linus Torvalds released Linux in 1991, he released it under the GPL. As a result of its open charter, Linux has had a notable number of contributors and analyzers. This participation has made Linux strong and rich in features. Torvalds himself estimates that since the v.2.2.0 kernel, his contributions represent only 5 percent of the total code base. Since anyone can take the Linux kernel (and other supporting programs), repackage them, and resell them, some people have made money with Linux. As long as these individuals release the kernel’s full source code along with their individual packages, and as long as the packages are protected under the GPL, everything is legal. Of course, this means that packages released under the GPL can be resold by other people under other names for a profit.

In the end, what makes a package from one person more valuable than a package from another person are the value-added features, support channels, and documentation. Even IBM can agree to this; it’s how they made most of their money from 1930 to 1970, and now in the late 1990s and early 2000s with IBM Global Services. The money isn’t necessarily in the product alone; it can also be in the services that go with it.

Source of Information : McGraw Hill Osborne Media Linux Administration A Beginners Guide Fifth Edition

Written by magakos on December 21st, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on otherSoftware and Linux.

Multi-Touch Trackpad Update for Windows Vista and XP

About Multi-Touch Trackpad Update for Windows Vista and Windows XP

This update improves the performance of the Apple Multi-Touch trackpad when running Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista on a Mac computer using Boot Camp.

For additional information about this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3336

For more information about bootcamp, please visit this website: http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp

For more information on Boot Camp 2.0, which versions of Microsoft Windows are supported, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1888

Download : Multi-Touch Trackpad Update (3.7MB)

Trackpad patch v 2.1.2.100 will be installed as a result of applying this update.
[Via Apple]

Written by ShaDow on December 21st, 2008 with no comments.
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