Cisco on Cisco News

Here's a free quarterly e-newsletter that is worth checking out. It has exclusive articles on how Cisco IT uses its own products and solutions to enable the business. This will give you an insider's view on the business reasons for Cisco implementations, including best practices, lessons learned, and tangible benefits. Find out first what is new in the world of Cisco on Cisco.

Request for a free subscription here.

What Musical Instrument Should You Play

I took the quiz from a site (I forgot the name) and here's what they give me:

You Should Play the Guitar

You're very independent - both in spirit and in the way you learn. You can teach yourself almost anything, even if it makes your fingers bleed. You're not really the type to sit patiently through a music lesson - or do things by the book. It's more your style to master the fundamentals and see where they take you. Highly creative and a bit eclectic, you need a wide range of music to play. You could emerge as a sensitive songwriter... or a manic rock star. Your dominant personality characteristic: being rebellious Your secondary personality characteristic: tenacity

What Musical Instrument Should You Play?

Well, I play the guitar, I have a very old stratocaster that could scream like a tormented soprano every time I am up to it. I could not live without a guitar around, I play it when I am happy, when I am sad, or when I am angry. I play every time I feel strong emotions. I used to play in a band, that was 15 or 16 years ago. I have never played in a band since 1997 but I continue to play at home, with the computer as my band. I fool around with Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Acid Pro. I do a lot of Guitar Pro stuff that I upload to forums and site for guitarists.

Why You Have Computer Problems, And What You Can Do About It

Nobody likes to work on a problematic computer. However, there are very few who know why these problems occur and what we can do to prevent these problems. In this article, we are going to have a look at some of the common causes of computer problems and then we will learn a few maintenance tasks that one can perform to prevent these problems.

Some of the most common causes of computer errors are:

• Virus and spyware infections


• Outdated and buggy device drivers and software


• Damaged registry


• Malfunctioning hard disk


• Hardware problems

There are many tools, utilities and methods available today that you can use to prevent these problems and ensure that your system stays at its best performance for a long time.

Let us start with virus and spyware infections. Many errors, such as the “Cannot find svchost.exe” error occur when virus programs infect the system files and change the system configuration information to prevent these files from functioning normally on the system. Malicious programs, such as virus, Trojans, and worms usually infiltrate your system through infected emails, open network shares, infected websites, and infected external media. These programs replicate quickly and start generating several computer errors. Some viruses even have the capability of erasing entire hard disks making you lose all your data. Spyware and adware function a bit differently. These usually come bundled with other software, especially freeware and shareware tools, games, and media that you may download to your system from the Internet and other sources. Some of the common symptoms of spyware and adware infections are: sudden appearance of undesirable popup ads, unwarranted change of the Internet Explorer home page, and redirection of Internet searches to affiliate Websites. To prevent these malware programs from taking over you computer, it is essential that you perform regular full-system scans using efficient antivirus and antispyware tools. To ensure that these scans are effective, it is recommended that you run them in Windows XP Safe Mode.

Code 39 and other driver-related errors occur if the device drivers on your computer are either outdated or buggy. You can resolve these problems by updating or reinstalling the faulty drivers. You can do this easily by using the Device Manager utility. In addition to device drivers, even your operating system and other software on your computer require regular updates. To keep all your Microsoft products updated, you must enable the Automatic Update feature on your Windows XP or Vista computer. Moreover, you must ensure that you update other software on your computer on regular basis.

Windows registry usually gets damaged when it bloats up to a very large size due to accumulation of several unwanted entries within it. These entries usually comprise of outdated, invalid, and orphan entries that collect over a period of time. To prevent these registry problems, you must regularly scan and clean your registry. You can do this easily with the help of a good user-friendly registry tool.

Your Windows XP or Windows Vista computer includes two very useful tools that you can use to prevent unnecessary clutter and fragmentation of data on your hard disk. These are the Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter tools. You must use these tools on regular basis to maintain your hard disk at its optimal performance.

Free Magazine : CRM Magazine

Here's another magazine that is open for free subscription.

This magazine is especially written for senior business and IT management with a goal of fostering and promoting an understanding of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and the associated business and technological strategies.Senior managers will benifit much from this magazine because it helps them to identify how to maintain and gain profitable customers, generate loyalty and reduce business costs.

Request for your copy here.

Turn Any ZIP or ISO File into a Virtual Drive

Mounting a disc image as a virtual drive is not new, there are many utilities out there that let you do it. But here is a utility that is worth mentioning here because of three things. First it is freeware, second it is very easy to use, third it has the added benefit of also being able to mount ZIP archives.

Pismo File Mount Audit Package can be downloaded for free from Pismo website. After you install the program you will be able to mount a ZIP or ISO file by right-clicking on the file and selecting Mount or Quick Mount from the context menu. Another way of doing it is to launch Pismo File Mount first and then browse for the files you want to mount.

How to Modify Vista's Cursor

Windows Vista’s blinking cursor can be very thin that sometimes it can be very hard to clearly see it. This is especially true if you are using a laptop. But it’s really easy to make the cursor thicker—pretty much as thick as you want. Here's the hack: select Control Panel→Ease of Access→Optimize visual display. Scroll toward the bottom of the screen, until you come to “Make things on the screen easier to see.” In the box next to “Set the thickness of the blinking cursor,” select a number. The larger the number, the fatter the cursor. You’ll see a preview of the cursor in the box next to the box. Click Save. The cursor throughout Windows Vista will now be fatter and easier to see.

Walk for a Cause

When a disease has no known cure we should not give up on it and just watch helplessly as a loved one suffer from it. My best friend's father suffered from Alzheimer's and I felt the pain his family had experienced because I was always there to see the suffering. But the family did not give up on the person suffering from such a disease, their love and care they were able to make the life of the head of their family bearable.

When people unite nothing is impossible to achieve. Help the Alzheimer's Association raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research by taking part of Alzheimer's Memory Walk. Become among the champions of this cause. To help make this event a success, team up with the Alzheimer's Association and walk with a purpose, walk towards the goal, a world without Alzheimer's.You can start your own team, select a walk nearest you and register online. It is easy to start a team, you just need to invite three people who will also be inviting three each.

Be part of this event so that together we can move a nation.

URL-info

If you have nothing to do today, here's a tool that will give you something that is not really important to do. This tool will give you a bunch of information (that you could live without ) about a webpage. This tool is called Url-info. Try visiting this site and enter a URL you would like to have information about then click "Go". You will be presented with a bunch of information about the webpage, such as the kind of web analytics the site uses, the operating system of its server, and a list of images and internal and external links on a site. There are a lot more information it can give you about a site. Try it now if you have nothing else to do to kill your time, I have tried it even if I am on tight schedule :)

Preparing for Cisco Certification

In a world that breathes technology, a career related to technology could get you to the top. Now that I am preparing for a Cisco certification I try to grab all the opportunities to learn and equip my self for the exam. I read a lot and have actually accumulated quiet a number of books that I believe could help me in achieving this important goal I have set for my self. But I know that reading books and self study are not enough to guarantee a smooth ride to a Cisco Certification. I must have other sources of knowledge. Aside from actual experience working in the field with people who have Cisco certification, joining forums and communities is of help also because there are many real life situations that are not covered in the books that could be opened in discussions.

One very helpful community is The Cisco Learning Network. In this community I am learning a lot by just reading threads. The members of this community are a mix of people like me who are aiming for a Cisco certification and people who are experts in this field. Many of the questions of members in the community's forums are like the questions playing in my mind. The answers and advises from expert members are like beacons that help guide those who are in the dark. I have read one thread started by someone who posed a very broad question. He was asking this question : How to prepare for CCNP. He got 38 useful replies. Those 38 replies from experienced members also helped me because I have more or less the same question in my mind as the guy who started that thread. The interaction between the experts and those who are learning is very helpful to both sides because both sides learn.

The Nimblest Portable Linux

NimbleX is aptly named. It is nimbler and quicker than Jack. There are many Linux distributions around but NimbleX could not be overlooked. This small but versatile operating system is able to boot in various ways. You can boot it from a CD, from your flash drive, USB pens, or mp3 players. You can even boot it from the network! It does not require installation. This beautiful OS which is based on Slackware is packed with many features. I am saying that this OS is "beautiful" because it really is. Aside from having a pretty graphical interface to boast about, it has many built-in softwares for writing documents, listening to music, playing movies, and of course, browsing the internet. It even has basic server functionality. Examples of the softwares it has are Firefox, XMMS, K3B, MPlayer, Gimp, Klam AV, Kopete, Transmission, and K Office. All these in a 200 MB CD. And before I forget, NimbleX also comes with VirtualBox installed, just in case you decide you want to get Windows XP running in it.

But how does it perform? well, it is safe to say that it runs faster than a fox even on systems that are not that well-equipped with the trappings of modern computing.

The Art of Understanding Money

All of us loves money but only very few understand it. Understanding money can help me and my family meet our goals and get the most out of life. This is what I have learned after taking my Bills IQ quiz. Before taking the quiz I always felt that my money seems to slip through my fingers, and I could not understand why it happens despite the additional income I get from the sidelines. And no matter how much comes in it, seems to be always "not enough". Probably there is a science behind the art of handling money well. Understanding things like Debt consolidation and Debt relief is a must for someone who wants manage his finances well.

I have always known that my financial literacy is very low, I barely notice how much comes in my pocket and how much goes out. I know that I need to take action or else I would end up needing Credit counseling, or worse, declaring Bankruptcy. The BillsIQ quiz I took opened my eyes to Debt consolidation, Debt relief, understanding how to Consolidate debt, and Debt help.

Now, if people ask me, ‘What is the secret to being good with money?’ Though I am not yet good at it, the answer I give is that there are a few basic financial habits that can really make a difference. Understanding money really does pay off.

Your PDF Download Solution

Downloading and opening a large PDF file in our browser often gives us headache. We wait for ten or more centuries before it opens in our browser and while waiting we kill time by scolding ourselves for clicking the link. But kiss this problem goodbye because there's a free Firefox extension that will give you several options upon encountering a PDF file. This little plug-in will warn you every time you are on the brink of clicking a link to a PDF file. You will be given the choice to download it, view it as HTML, skip it, or bypass it using PDF Download.T his plug-in also has the ability to convert PDF to HTML for easier viewing. You can also choose how and when to view your PDFs. The coolest feature it has (for me) is its ability to convert a web page to PDF. Mind you, it retains the look and layout of the webpage you convert.

What's the name of this cool Firefox plugin? It is simply called PDF Download. Its current version is 2. Check it out.

Website Magazine

Here's a good magazine for all of us who maintain blogs or sites. This magazine caters exclusively to the business of running a website. You will learn a lot from its contents written by premier talent in the Internet industry. If practical advice and insights on maintaining your site or blog is what you are looking for, this magazine is for you.

You can request for your free copy of this magazine here.

Vulnerability Management for Dummies

If you own an online business, or if you are a network administrator, or someone responsible for the security of your company, you need to have a good understanding of vulnerability and security. Here's a good book (it is free!) that will help you with vulnerability management.

Vulnerability Management for Dummies arms you with the facts and shows you how to implement a successful Vulnerability Management program. Whether your network consists of just a handful of computers or thousands of servers distributed around the world, this 5-part book will help:

* Explain the critical need for Vulnerability Management (VM)
* Detail the essential best-practice steps of a successful VM Program
* Outline the various VM Solutions - including the pros & cons of each
* Highlight the award-winning QualysGuard VM solution
* Provide a 10-point checklist for removing vulnerabilities from your key resources

If you are from Canada or the USA, you can request for your free copy of this important book here.

Orca Browser

The people who developed the Avant Browser is coming up with another browser, the Orca Browser. This new browser, which is based on Firefox 3, boasts of features that you can get in Firefox if you tweak the settings and load it with a lot of add-ons. So this should look like a Firefox on vitamins.

I heard that it is faster than Firefox but when I tried it myself I did not see any difference in speed. If there is a difference the average user would not notice it. Or is it because I did not tweak its settings, I just tested it directly after I installed it.

The look and feel of this browser is, as far as I am concerned, a cross between Firefox 3 and IE 7. It has all the things you get from Firefox 3 but of course they are arranged differently. The Menu bar is in a somewhat difficult position (for me) because I am used to having it on the left. They have moved it to the right. But this is a minor thing, one will get used to it in a few hours of use. Overall I think this browser is worth checking out.

Anyway, you can check the thing out here. It's in the beta stage though.

Rewards

Rewards do not always come in cash, they sometimes arrive in kind. This morning while checking one of my blogs, I learned through a message (from LoveJoy) in my blog's chat widget that one of the posts I made in this blog is the "best post to date" in one of the opportunities in SocialSpark. It brightened my day to learn about it. When I checked the status of my SocialSpark-related posts I realized that I actually have three "best to date" posts. Wow, this is something that money could not buy.

How To Speed Up Windows Aero

If your system is not that fast but you would like to enjoy the beauty of Windows Aero you know that you need to choose between eye candy and speed. If you would like to have the speed and just wait for the eye candy until your next hardware upgrade, you can choose to turn off Aero. Here's how to do it: Right-click the Windows desktop and select Personalize→Window Color and Appearance. Click “Open classic appearance properties” for more color options.In the Color scheme drop-down box, choose Windows Vista Basic or Windows Standard, and click OK. Aero will now be turned off.

But what if you want a little of both worlds, a little speed and a little eye candy? Well, there's a little trick that you can do. You can turn off some Aero features to speed up your PC, but leave others on that you like using. To do it, select Start→Computer→System Properties. Click Advanced system settings, then in the Performance section, click the Settings button. A screen appears. Uncheck those features that you want to turn off, then click OK. You're done.

The Crowning Glory

Magical moments in your romantic life do not just happen like magic. A little preparation here and there could actually lead to your desired magical moment. Preparation involves being ready all the time to create a spark when the perfect partner for the magical moment arrives. But how
does one prepare for it? Some people just have the knack for it while some need to read blog entries like this one before they can dive into the fiery game of flirting and romance. Of course one requirement is being physically appealing. Another requirement is the ability to read body language. We all know that majority human beings see the physical aspects first before seeing the intangible--the personality. So capitalizing on your looks could give you the edge.

The crowning glory of one's beauty, male or female, is the hair. The way you wear your hair matters a lot; it could make you shine out among the crowd if you wear it properly, or it could kill your natural light if you do not know how to handle it. But worry not because maintaining a beautiful hair is as easy as knowing about Extreme Style by VO5. With Extreme Style by VO5 you will be able to maintain your hair without the need to go to the salon because it will act as a natural conditioner that would tame distressed hair and make it silky and soft to touch. With the knowledge that you are wearing your hair beautifully, you will be confident to play the flirt and make things happen, one thing would lead to another and another and then you realize you are already in the middle of a magical moment. That is Victory Hair.

Now, if you would like to try out how good a flirt you are you can join the Ultimate Flirting Championship. I already played this game and enjoyed it a lot. In this game you can choose to be a player or a judge. If you go into the game as a judge you can ask questions to decide who the winner is. If you opt to be a player you better prepare your best line and you wit to answer question. This interactive experience is fun and exciting because you get to interact with different kinds people. You will have the chance to expand your social circle.

If you have a blog you can have a widget found at Extreme Style by VO5 site and join the live challenge.

How To Remove Browser Toolbars You Did not Install

Add-on toolbars are meant to enhance and speed up your Web browsing experience. But some browser toolbars, especially those that you do not remember installing yourself, could slow down your browser because their makers did not really make them for your sole benifit but for themselves. Some of these toolbars are malicious in nature, some of them are spywares.Here are some tips to help you remove these unwanted browser toolbars.

For IE users, you need first to close any open Internet Explorer windows then open Control Panel and the select the "Add or Remove Programs" link.In the list of Currently installed programs, look for the toolbar you want to remove. Select the "Remove" button or the "Change/Remove" button. After this process restart IE and see if the unwanted toolbar is still there. Of course it is no longer there if you did the removal process correctly.

For Firefox users, here are the steps you need to take: Open Firefox and go to Tools then select Extensions to display the Firefox Extensions Manager window. Scroll down and select the option for the extension you want to remove. Select Uninstall or OK to remove toolbar. Close the Firefox Extensions Manager window and restart Firefox.


The methods listed above are the common methods to uninstall common toolbars from IE FireFox. There are some toolbars, especially the malicious ones, that are not that easy to remove therefore you need some antispyware tools to remove them. There are many freeware tools for removing these kinds of malwares. It is also recommended that you perform a registry cleanup and defrag using a reliable registry cleaner tool to ensure that any left behind information and empty registry keys are eliminated. I recommend RegVac registry Cleaner, just google it and it will come up in the search. You can use the trial version and it works well in cleaning your registry.

Pump Up Your Site's Income with RevResponse

I came upon Revresponse.com a few months ago while looking for another way to increase the income of the blogs I maintain. I immediately signed up after reading their FAQ because Revresponse has a unique way of bringing income to bloggers and website owners. Beat this : a blogger could earn a good income by giving away for free business and technical magazines, reports, white papers and more. During that time the trickle of income I get from my blogs only came from Adsense and AdBrite. Discovering Revresponse was like discovering another good source of water. One of the blogs I maintain focuses on reviews of books and magazines so the referral program I get from Revresponse fitted it.

After signing up, Revresponse also gave me a free co-branded site where I could offer free Business, Computer, Engineering and Trade magazines, white papers, downloads and podcasts. These papers and magazines focus on almost every technical and financial field you can think of. Examples of the magazine I give away in my co-branded site are Oracle Magazine, Decorative arts Magazine, The Economist, eWeek, Profit Magazine, Global Finance, Cisco and Cisco News, Website magazine and many many more. All of these magazines and white papers are completely free for anyone to subscribe and download (international subscribers are welcome). For every qualified subscription, I recieve a commission of $1.50! This is what really hooked me, I earn by giving away something for free!

Another good thing about this is that I do not have any problems using Revresponse with other 3rd party CPM advertising. Try Revresponse now and pump up your online income.

How To Animate Windows Vista's Network Icon

Here’s a quick way to see whenever you’re sending or receiving data over your network—animate the network icon that sits in the system tray. Right-click the icon and select Turn on activity animation. Whenever data is being sent or received, the icon will subtly light up. To turn off the animation, right-click the icon and select Turn off activity animation.

How is Your BillsIQ ?

When it comes to handling finances I am not that good. I do not really religiously count the money that comes and go. I just have a rough estimate of how much comes in and how much comes out. I am poor in accounting. I never really worried about things like Debt consolidation or think much about Credit counseling until I took the BillsIQ quiz. After the quiz I realized that I have so much to learn about my finances. I realized that I virtually know nothing about maintaining a good credit standing, that many of my practices are not advisable if I want to have a clean credit standing. Though it hasn't come near to a point where I have to declare Bankruptcy, now is the right time to correct whatever those that are making my credit standing weaker.

On the area of Credit card debt I am, as of now, clean but I learned after taking the quiz that if I would not change some of my spending habits I would soon need Credit counseling and Debt help. For a person like me, who at times feel that his finances is getting out of control, Debt relief is always welcome especially when the weight of the debt is threatening to come crashing down on the face of my credit standing. Try taking your BillsIQ quiz and see how much you know about your financial health.

Pre-release of VLC Player 0.9.0 Now Available.

Good new to media junkies : the pre-release of VLC 0.9.0 is now available for both Windows and Mac. But the new version is not for those who are still using (are still there?) Windows 98 and OS X 10.3.9 machines. This new version supports Last.fm (AKA Audioscrobbler). Other new features are better subtitle support, album art support, Shoutcast TV listings, and many more. Check the stuff out now!

Lines That Paint a Thousand Pictures

The reason why I prefer watching films at home is the chance to rewind the movie if a good line escapes me or if a good line needs a second listening. One of the best Hollywood lines that I really like is from the movie The Bridges of Madison County it says : "I don't want to need you 'cause I can't have you". This line speaks more than what it speaks about, it speaks the ineffable. If you use this line to someone who is already taken and you use it with perfect timing, your chance of having that person is quiet big. With just that one line you break the rules without being rude, you nail your point, you emphasize without forcing.



I know that you also have your best Hollywood line, you have kept it in one of the many corners of your heart so that if in case you stumble upon someone you'd want to flirt with you'll have a line ready to spit out to shoot him or her through the heart. Why not try out your best kept lines in the Ultimate Flirting Championship created by Extreme Style by VO5. You should try and play the game there and see how your Victory Hair flirting style and your flirting line would help you win. I tried the game and I had a good time with it. Click the widget below to play the game.

Search Spoken Text in Videos with Google

Google is Google is Google. Google has added a new dimension to video search. You can now search for spoken text in a video with Google! If previously searching for a particular video means relying on the title and tags, now words and phrases or the actual spoken text in a video are searchable. Beat that! But of course it is not yet as perfect as what you are thinking right now. This applies not to every video in Youtube and other sources in the internet, it only applies to a few political videos. Google uses speech recognition technology to automatically transcribe the text of these videos and add them to an index.This is a good step forward and we can expect much from this development in the near future.

To check out this new feature, just add the Google Election Video Search Gadget to your iGoogle page. You can also view the gadget as a standalone page.

Turn Firefox into an Advanced File Manager with FireFly!

Do you want a full-featured file manager for Firefox? If you do, you need to have Firefly . This Firefox plugin has good features that you won't find in other browser plugins. Beat these:

- could split window horizontally or vertically and allows adding of unlimited number of windows.

- the ability to preview audio, video, PDF's, and many image documents
- ability to seach current folders and subfolders
- allows creation of keyboard shortcuts
- ability to use Firefox or Internet Explorer rendering engine
- could filter display using regular expressions or wildcards

The above mentioned features are not the only ones you'll enjoy with Firefly, there are a lot more like the ability to copy, cut, or paste files from one folder to another. With these features in one little plugin, you'll have a very good file manager out of Firefox.

Flirt Up!

I am a flirt and I like girls who flirt. Flirting is a mind game that is, I think, more exciting than games like basketball or volleyball. What makes flirting more exciting than any of those sports? Probably it is because when you do it you dare break some unwritten rules, you dare touch another person's bubble and see if that person reacts favorably to what you are showing. I take all the chance to flirt; I flirt whenever there is a chance for me to do it in my writing; I flirt with my pretty officemate when I am in the office; I do it when I am at the mall, eyeing a pretty salelady, I even do it at times at the church (when my wife would sometimes successfully drag me to that place) with some willing girls; And of course I flirt a lot with my wife because she's one of the prettiest things that happened to me and I love the way she reacts to flirting. I flirt all the time, it's second nature to me because I am a hot-blooded mammal. The ability to read body language is a plus for flirting. The ability to read who is open for it and whole is not is of help. To be successful in your flirting endeavors you need to be able to read the subtlest signs sent by your object. Once you read the signs of irritation you can drop the game immediately. But once you read acceptance and enjoyment, you may push the game further to where you would want it to go.


One important factor in flirting is the looks (not unless you do it over the internet through chatting and other means where no visuals are involved). For women the crowning glory of beauty is the hair so a woman with Victory Hair has more chance of having more flirting partners than those whose hair are worn like those of losers. Now Extreme Style by VO5 is hosting an Ultimate Flirting Championship where participants would have the chance to see how much of a flirt they are. If you are a natural flirt, and loves flirting, now is the time for your flirting talent to be shown. Join the game and see how you fare with other flirts in the world.

Monetize Your Blog with ScribeFire QuickAds

Bloggers, have you heard about ScribeFire? Well, it is one of those little big things that are there for free to make the life of bloggers easier. ScribeFire is a Firefox add-on that lets you easily post to your blog by allowing you to drag and drop formatted text from pages you are browsing, take notes, and post to your blog. Its intuitive WYSIWYG editor makes it very easy to use. Recently, the team that created ScribeFire launched ScribeFire QuickAds, a service that makes it possible for bloggers to add a fully optimized banner ad to their blogs without adding a single line of code. By just clicking an ad size and choosing a location on the blog, a blogger can place ads in his blog. This service is currently in limited beta. When you register a blog with QuickAds, a little code is automatically added to your blog template through ScribeFire. This little code will allow ads to be added to your pages via ScribeFire. All the earnings from the ads will go to you. The ads will come from different networks and ScribeFire will determine which ads would generate the highest income for your blog. Regestered members will have a dashboard where ad impressions, earnings, and other statistics could be viewed.

Low Price for High Speed Internet

Who says speed is expensive? Many internet users sacrifice the quality of their internet experience by sticking to the ultra slow dial-up because they just think that high speed internet equates to high monthly bills that could burn holes through their pockets. But this is not always the case because Charter internet is here to erase the myth of "high speed internet equals high price that is beyond your reach". With a price as low as $14.99/month you'll be able to enjoy speeds as fast as up to 5 Mbps. This is 90 times faster than the usual 56 kbps dial-up speed. Charter internet gives a reliable service without requiring you to commit to long-term contracts. Their $14.99 a month record low price also comes with a 30 Day Risk free trial and a $25 Shell Gift Card with Online Orders. Aside from the speed and the low price, you'll also get the following :

* Automatic protection from viruses, hackers and spam - Charter High-Speed Security SuiteÆ has the fastest response to new virus threats and best virus detection.

* 10 e-mail accounts - enough for the whole family plus 20MB of Web space.

* Download in seconds, not minutes plus a reliable always-on, always-fast connection.

* Exclusive content on charter.net- get your news, weather, local movie listings and more!

Windows Vista's Hidden Boot Screen

This is an old trick from the bag of Vista tricks but I know that many Vista users do not know about this one yet so it would be a good addition to their arsenal of Vista hacks.

The Windows Vista default boot screen is good to look at but after you've seen it for the 1,032nd time you begin to want to see something else. Well, Vista has a hidden boot screen that waits to be tapped into life by you, it is called Aurora because it looks like Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights), a beautiful phenomenon only seen in areas nearer the North pole. Here's the hack to make Aurora your Vista boot screen:

Run the MSCONFIG utility, and on the Boot tab, select “No GUI boot” and click OK. From now on, you’ll use the hidden Windows Vista boot screen. If you are a natural hacker and you’ve previously replaced the winload.exe.mui file with your own boot screen, you’ll need to restore the original to see the Aurora screen.

Beck's Humor

I recently stumbled upon Glenn Beck's blog and I found my self enjoying the unique humor in his writing. I have a love-hate relationship with politics; I love to hate politicians that is why I love to follow anything that is related to politics. Satire is a fun way of hitting those who deserve to be hit and Beck is giving us a good ride with it in his blog. The sharpness of his humor is accentuated by the bursts of bluntness in his language every time he hits his target, I love the way he handles this, this is his art.

Now Glenn Beck is having a summer political tour. He will have a show in Dallas show on July 17th. This show in Dallas will be broadcasted nationally to select movie theaters nationwide on that date. So watch out for it, I am sure you will have a really good fun at it.

Listening to a Sci-Fi Adventure

In this age of technology, those who deliver entertainment commodities have almost unlimited means of delivering their product. Podcasting is not that new but some people use it with a new twist. When I think of podcasting I think of music but after I stumbled upon Leviathan Chronicles a few days ago I realized that it could be a powerful medium for delivering some things that are made of more than just music. Podcasting could be a powerful means of delivering a Sci-fi adventure especially if the ones delivering it know what they are doing. Sci-fi could be a powerful experience when the audience are allowed to use their imagination to fill in the gaps to what purely aural experience could deliver. The Leviathan Chronicles is a sci-fi saga created by Christof Laputka. I have downloaded Chapter 1 (entitle Evil Undertow) of the story from Leviathan Chronicles website. It tells of a Chinese submarine attempting to deliver a mysterious cargo but encounters problem during the voyage. It meets another submarine, a US submarine, that offers some assistance. It is here that the story begins to become really interesting. The first chapter gave me a glimpse of the bigger picture which is a tale about a war between immortals. I am now downloading the next chapter, I'd like to continue listening to it while I am working in the office. I am hooked.

Increase Your Bandwidth By Clearing Up Router Congestion

Reduced internet bandwidth are often caused by a congested router. When your home router is congested (this happens when incoming packet buffers get full) it drops packets which causes your bandwitdh to suffer. Windows Vista has a hidden feature to help clear up the congestion in your home router. The Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) not only clears the congestion, it also helps in speeding up downloads and improve the reliability of data transfer when your router isn’t congested.By default this feature is turned of because not all routers support it. If it is not compatible with your router and you turn it on it will only create problems that may worsen your connection's problem. So the question is, how do we know if our router supports ECN? The answer begins with logging into Windows Vista as administrator and running ECN. Go to www.microsoft.com/windows/using/tools/igd/default.mspx and agree with the terms. After you agree with the terms you will be askd to install an ActiveX control. Install it. After following the prompts for installing the software a new page will appear. Click "Start test". The test will take several minutes and then you will see the result screen. The result screen will have hundreds of words and many paragraphs so you only need to find the Traffic Congestion Test section and see if the word "Supported is there and there is a check mark beside it. If it is supported you may turn on ECN.

How to turn on ECN? Run an elevated command prompt by typing cmd at the Search box and pressing Ctrl-Shift-Enter. Then at the command line, type this command :

netsh interface tcp set global ecncapability=enabled

Hit enter.

The command prompt will respond with an OK. ECN will now be enabled. If you notice a degradation in performance, you can turn off ECN by typing this command at an elevated command prompt and pressing Enter:

netsh interface tcp set global ecncapability=disabled

Convert Anything with FormatFactory

If you are a media junkie you'll love FormatFactory. What with its ability to convert audio, video, and image files from and to just about any format you can think of. And it can do it it batch-style without requiring the user to make hundreds of clicks. You just feed it your sources and watch it go to work, it doesn't care what files you want to swap in what order. And unlike other file conversion softwares, FormatFactory doesn't limit you to only video or audio, or even to one file at a time. It can even repair damaged video and audio files and rip DVD. But the best feature of this super app is that it is FREE.

A Devil Without a Tail

Cleaning the house is something that I wish I do not have to think about because I do not have the patience to do it. But the sad reality is that I have to think about it because, insignificant as it may seem, it is part of life. A house needs to be cleaned often especially if a little boy who sounds and moves like a dozen little boys and girls live in it. My three-year-old boy is quiet hyperactive so he helps a lot in the dirtying of the house. For a middle income family cleaning the house is not as easy as just dialing for a maid or calling for the dog to lick the food spilled in the kitchen (we do not have a dog!). I do not do the cleaning myself because I do not have time to do it so it is my wife who does it. I am planning to make my wife's cleaning easier by buying her a vacuum cleaner but I could not imagine her lugging around the house with a large and noisy machine with a long cord that could get entangled with the clutter of large and small toys that my little boy would scatter around the house. And besides machines like these eat a lot of current which means that our electricity consumption would increase significantly.

But I changed my mind after I learned about this little devil without a tail. Dirt Devil has come up with new AccuCharge Stick Vac and Hand Vac. These cordless vacuums are the first of its kind to be given the Energy Star approval because it enables a 70% reduction in energy consumption as compared to other cordless vacuums. With this vac, my wife would have an easy time cleaning the house, and there would not be any worry about my little boy getting entangled with some cumbersome cord. What's heavenly with this tailless devil is the fact that it won't add to much to the electric bill.

SwitchAbit Makes the Life of Bloggers Easier

If you maintain multiple blogs I know that an app that would allow you to make cross-site posting is very much welcome. Well, switchAbit has developed an application that exactly does that. SwitchAbit routes your content to multiple social services Like the "Cc:" function in email, switchAbit lets you write content once and publish to multiple services The app is in beta stage but if you would like to get a taste of what it has to offer, go check it out.

Inside the Cisco Learning Network

I'm on towards my goal for this year, a Cisco certification. Of course I know that this is something that I should take seriously if I want to get to what I have aimed for. One of the serious steps I have taken (which I have mentioned in my earlier post about this topic) was through having an account with The Cisco Learning Network. My first few visits to the community was some sort of getting the feel of the community, a way of trying to see where I could fit in such a thriving social learning network. I assumed the stance of an observer because I know that majority of the members of the community are real IT professionals with years of solid experience neatly tucked under their belts. I, on the other hand, inspite of the tons of books I've read and a handful of experiences I managed to have in this field, is the novice who is aiming for his first Cisco certification. This morning I got my self into the community's discussion forums. By reading the things that are in there many new ideas and possibilities were opened to me. I saw in the community's forums that there are also many members who, like me, are there to take the serious business of learning from more experienced peers. This made me feel more comfortable with the community. I'd be frequenting the forums and I'd soon be contributing. sharing of knowledge makes the world go round. Online discussions with other networking professionals could widen one's knowledge in this field, it is very important and the community supplies it. But it is not just the knowledge gained in the online discussions that matters, it is also the connection that every member gets.

We Did It!

I have just received this e-mail from Firefox :

We did it! We set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. With your help we reached 8,002,530 downloads. You are now part of a World Record and the proud owner of the best version of Firefox yet! Don't forget to download your very own certificate for helping set a Guinness World Record.


So I downloaded the certificate which is in PDF, here's the screen shot :

Flash is Now Searchable

Yes, Flash is cool because it offers designers limitless possibilities for creating rich-media apps, games and video. But Flash has lost its shine in the battlefield where the name of the game is SEO. Flash content is not searchable, search engines are blind to it. So what good would it bring to a website that needs to be seen by search engines? This is the reason why many designers have learned to avoid the beauty that Flash brings on the design. But yesterday Adode has announced that "the company is teaming up with search industry leaders to dramatically improve search results of dynamic Web content and rich Internet applications (RIAs). Adobe is providing optimized Adobe® Flash® Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently undiscoverable by search engines."

This means that millions of RIA's and other dynamic content that run in Adobe Flash Player will now have relevant automatic search engine rankings. This is good news to designers.

The Place to Advertise

Advertising is as old as commerce. Many would say that advertising is one of the many marketing tools that are used to attract attention of prospective customers to a business or its products or services. But advetising is not just a tool in commerce, it is commerce itself.

In today's world where new brands and new products are created almost everyday, it has become necessary for companies to use advertising to survive. Whatever a consumer is looking for there are always too many sellers. So it has become the prime concern of every marketer to promote their brand as a notch better than the competitors', it has become necessary to make the extra effort to be heard above the noise that other competitors create. Not too long ago television, print, and radio were the places to put advertisements in. But time changes the face of commerce. Now internet has become part of the realms of advertising. We all know that the little widgets in this blog are advertisements and they mean a lot to the companies that own them. But aside from just being content with little text links and images that beg to be clicked, there are other better means of bringing the products and services to the multitude. Blogging is a good way to spread news about a product or service. A blogger's testimony about a product has a strong impact on the reader especially if it is based on first-hand experience with the product.

Now comes SocialSpark.com a place where bloggers and advertisers meet. How I wish big brands like Coke and Adidas will have SocialSpark as their partner in maintaining their mark in the world. It would be very exciting for a blogger to compete for opportunities from such big names. Big names means big bucks. The bigger the name, the bigger the bucks, the easier it is to write about it because we literally grew up with this big name companies.

Better Screencaps with FireShot

Every blogger who blogs about technology and the web has experienced having to post something that requires a screen shot of a web page. Of course we have the good old Print Screen key but web pages are quiet tricky to handle because we are talking about the whole screen. Now there is a new Firefox extension that really makes capturing screens very easy. FireShot is quiet unlike other extensions because this plugin provides a set of editing and annotation tools that let users quickly modify captures and insert text and graphical annotations. This is what bloggers need to make their lives easier.

Social Spark is Great for Mommy Bloggers

My wife is a stay-at-home wife because I snatched her out of her last semester in college to marry her. She was one of the prettiest faces in campus that was why I took all the pains and risks to have her. We have a very active and handsome little three-year-old boy who is almost more than enough to keep my wife busy. This little boy feels and sounds like a dozen little boys and girls; he keeps the house in topsy-turvy condition. We find it cute.

We are now in our fourth year of marriage and so far everything's looking great especially on how our relationship has matured to a level that allows us to glean the profits of the emotional capital we had invested on our relationship six years ago. We started out as friends, then best friends, then couple, and finally parents. We have plans. Mine are quiet big, my wife's are simple. Whatever the sizes and shapes our dreams and plans take, we know that it would be easier for us to realize them if she earns her degree. She's just a semester shy of her degree. So this November she'll be back to college and on March 2009 she'll have her diploma. That is my plan. It has become her plan too. We know that her going back to college entails a lot of concerns. It spells money. We are preparing for it. My wife wants to help me earn extra cash but I could not allow her to work as of now so I introduced her to blogging, it would allow her to earn money at home. She's not a stranger to the computer so she started her own blog. Like most women who are not really into the technical side of things, she needs help in the coding side of her blog, like how to make a third column in Blogger.I maintain the layout of her blog and on how to run ads in it but I am hands off on the content. My wife's blogging makes her happy. She's happy when someone leaves a comment to one of her posts or in the shoutbox. She was all smiles on learning about her little income from her ad links (just $0.34) two months after her blog was up. Now she's planning to have a second blog, a mommy blog that is quiet different in look and content from the blog that she has now. I told her that she should also join SocialSpark after her second blog is up. There are many opportunities for mommy bloggers to take and it is a good source of income. I have shown her the blogs of other mommies who get solid income out of the opportunities they get from SocialSpark. She's very excited about it. She has the whole day to blog while I am at work so she could have more opportunities than I would have during the day. She has signed up for Paypal and I've processed a credit card for her. I know that once she becomes a member of SocialSpark and start winning opportunities and earn money she'd be much more happier. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my wife very happy.

Wikipedia is Now Pocket-Size

We all know Wikipedia, who doesn't? It's the best source of quick information from the internet. Do you know that you can now carry Wikipedia in your Pocket PC? Yes, Pocket Wikipedia 1.0 is now available for download. This frees software contains hand-checked selection from Wikipedia which is about the size of a fifteen volume encyclopaedia (24,000 images and 14 million words). The selection was made by Schools Wikipedia. This application runs on PocketPC, Windows and Linux. The .zip package of the program is around 175 MB in size, and contains about 24,000 images and over 14 million words covering about 5,000 articles. After you download the package just extract the files from the archive and it is ready for use, no need of installation.