MegaUpload alternatives: 6 sites still open for business

Posted: 27-01-2012 | Author: admin | Category: IT Stuff | No comments
flickr/roland

 

The U.S. government’s shutdown of MegaUpload might have seemed like bad news for online file sharing, but it could be a boon for other file sharing sites — at least those that aren’t afraid to keep operating. While some MegaUpload alternatives have suspended operations or restricted U.S. visitors, others are alive and well, and remain confident about staying that way.

[ Free download: The law of unintended storage consequences ]

Here are six MegaUpload alternatives, and why you might use them:

MediaFire [Link]

Benefits and Restrictions: No login required, unlimited total storage, unlimited simultaneous downloads.

Restrictions: 200 MB file size limit, files removed if the user or the file is inactive for an unspecified period of time.

Premium Version: $9 per month Pro accounts get 4 GB max upload size, no time limits on storage, no ads, 100,000 MB per month of direct downloads, secure redundant backups and other benefits.

RapidShare [Link]

Benefits: No file size limit, unlimited storage, unlimited transfer speeds.

Restrictions: Must create login to upload files, wait time required before downloads, files removed after 30 days of inactivity.

Premium Version: A RapidPro account costs 9.90 euros per month, or less when purchased in longer durations. It includes no wait times before downloads, no time limits on storage and SSL-encrypted file transfers.

Oron [Link]

Benefits: No login required, no ads for registered users.

Restrictions: 400 MB max upload size (or 1 GB with login), 244 GB storage limit for registered users, files removed after 30 days of inactivity, users may not download more than 10,000 MB per three days, slower download speeds, wait times before downloads begin.

Premium Version: A premium account costs 9.95 euros, or less when purchased in longer durations. It includes a 2 GB maximum upload size (but only other premium users can download files larger than 1 GB), unlimited storage space, unlimited download speeds, unlimited parallel downloads, plus other benefits.

Deposit Files [Link]

Benefits: No login required.

Restrictions: 2 GB file size, wait times apply, 5 GB per day download limit, files removed after 30 days of inactivity (or 90 days for registered users), priority speeds given to paid users, one download allowed at a time.

Premium Version: A Gold account costs $11.95 per month, and includes up to 50 simultaneous downloads, 15 GB of downloads per day and no waiting times for downloads.

Wupload [Link]

Benefits: No login required.

Restrictions: 2 GB max file size, wait times before downloads, 750 GB max storage space, files removed after 30 days.

Premium Version: A $9 per month Premium account provides 10 GB max upload and download sizes, no wait times, parallel file downloads, ability to resume downloads, unlimited storage space, no time limits on storage.

Minus [Link]

Benefits: No login required, files never removed for registered users, desktop and mobile apps available, unlimited downloads and transfers, ability to share and search for publicly available files.

Restrictions: 2 GB maximum file size, 10 GB maximum storage (or up to 50 GB with referrals).

Premium Version: None available.

Copied from: http://www.itworld.com/security/244015/megaupload-alternatives-6-sites-still-open-business

Use Spike to copy multiple blocks of Word text or graphics

Posted: 19-01-2012 | Author: admin | Category: IT Stuff | No comments

Spike is a Clipboard feature available in Word that lets you copy multiple selections of content to the Clipboard and then paste them as a group to a new location. It’s easy to use and allows for a bit more flexibility when the need arises. You can use it in most any document, and it works with text and graphics, as follows:

  • Use [Ctrl]+[F3] to copy text and graphics to the Clipboard.
  • Use [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[F3] to paste the contents of Spike. (This process also clears Spike’s content.)

We’ll use the document below to illustrate how easy this feature is to use:

  1. Select the Galleries heading and press [Ctrl]+[F3].
  2. Select the Formatting paragraph (not the heading) and press [Ctrl]+[F3].
  3. Now, open a new document by pressing [Ctrl]+N.
  4. Press [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[F3] to copy both copied blocks into the blank document.

This feature copied both the heading and the paragraph of text to a new document with one pasting task. Imagine how much time you could save if you needed to copy many components!

This technique can have a downside, however, depending on how you look at it. When you copy text or graphics using Spike, you cut, not copy, the content from the source document. That might not be what you want. Fortunately, after pressing [Ctrl]+[F3] to copy text, you can press [Ctrl]+Z to undo the cut, without removing the content from Spike.

Pasting clears Spike, but you can paste its contents without clearing it, by doing the following:

  1. Type spike
  2. Press [F3].

Or, paste Spike content using the AutoText feature, as follows in Word 2010:

  1. Click the Insert tab.
  2. Click the Quick Parts option in the Text group.
  3. Choose AutoText and the Spike content will be at the bottom of the list.
In Word 2003, do the following:
  1. Choose AutoText from the Insert menu.
  2. Choose AutoText.
  3. Click the AutoText tab and you’ll find Spike in the Enter AutoText entries.

Both paste techniques will paste Spike’s contents without clearing it!

 

Microsoft Excel

Make every user a power Excel user with dynamic conditional row banding

Thanks to conditional formatting, you can apply several banding schemes to your Excel worksheets, and we’ve discussed several of them already. One possibility we haven’t reviewed, however, is using data to determine which rows are banded. Throw in a little data validation and you can let users band (or shade) specific rows by simply choosing an item from a list.

To illustrate this technique, we’ll use data validation to display category values. When the user chooses a category, conditional formatting will shade records for the selected category. For example, I choose Beverages from the data validation list is G2 to identify all beverage records.

Steps

Implementing this banding scheme is easier than you might think. First, we’ll create a unique list of category values from the actual data. Using that list, we’ll create the data validation list in G2. Then, we’ll add a conditional format that will shade rows where the Category value equals the value selected in G2. When applying this to your own worksheets, you might not need all three steps.

Step One

First, create a unique list of category values, as follows:

  1. Select the list of values. In this case, select G4..G46. Be sure to include the header cell (G4).
  2. Click the Data tab.
  3. In the Sort & Filter group, click Advanced. In Excel 2003, choose Filter from the Data menu, and then select Advanced Filter.
  4. In the resulting dialog box, check the Copy To Another Location option.
  5. The List Range option should reflect the selection ($G$4:$G$49) from step 1.
  6. In the Copy To control, enter $I$4. You can copy the list most anywhere you like. I chose to copy the list near the data range, so you could see it in the figures.
  7. Check the Unique Records Only option.
  8. Click OK and Excel will copy a list of unique category values to column I.

Step Two

Now you’re ready to build the validation list to make the whole process easy and intuitive for the user:

  1. Select the cell where you want to create the validation list. In this case, that’s G2. (I also entered some explanatory text in G1, to help alert the user – this isn’t necessary for the technique to work, but doing so helps the user.)
  2. Click Data Validation in the Data Tools group (on the Data tab). In Excel 2003, choose Validation from the Data menu.
  3. From the Allow dropdown, choose List.
  4. In the Source control, enter =$I$5:$I$20.
  5. Click OK.

Step Three

With the validation list in place, you’re ready to apply the conditional formatting that will create the bands:

  1. Select the data range. In this case, that’s A5..G49.
  2. Click the Home tab.
  3. In the Styles group, click the Conditional Formatting dropdown and choose New Rule. In Excel 2003, choose Conditional Formatting from the Format menu.
  4. In the upper panel, highlight the Use A Formula To Determine Which Cells To Format option. In Excel 2003, choose Formula Is from the Condition 1 control.
  5. In the Format Values Where This Formula Is True control, enter the following formula: =$G5=$G$2. (There’s no option name for this control in Excel 2003.) Pay close attention to the absolute references. If you don’t enter the $ symbols correctly, this technique won’t work.
  6. Click Format and then click the Fill tab (Patterns tab in Excel 2003) in the resulting dialog box.
  7. Choose a color and click OK.

Using it!

After applying the conditional format, you’re ready to put all the pieces together. From the validation list in G2, select any category and watch Excel update the bands, accordingly.

There are a couple of things you’ll want to keep in mind when using this technique:

  • If you use the ribbon version’s table feature, be sure to use a banding color that contrasts with the table’s light blue banding.
  • Because the unique list of category values isn’t dynamic, this technique works best with a static list of values. You’ll have to work much harder if you want the validation list to update when you enter a new category value.

 

Microsoft Outlook

Use a rule in Outlook to delay email messages

We all work differently and there’s no reason you can’t configure Outlook to accommodate your needs, when possible. For instance, you might write emails, but want to send them at a specific time. Maybe you want to edit the email later or you have some kind of timeline to maintain. One way to do this is to save messages to the Drafts folder until you’re ready to send them and then send them manually. If you do this as a matter of routine, you might want to create a delay rule.

 

For example, you might want to delay messages for an hour, giving you ample time to return later to make last minute changes. To create a delay rule, do the following:

  1. In the Mail window, click the Home tab.
  2. In the Move group, click the Rules dropdown.
  3. Choose Manage Rules & Alerts.
  4. In the resulting window, click New Rule.
  5. In the Start From A Blank Rule section, select Apply Rule On Messages I Send.
  6. Click Next twice and then Yes (you don’t need to set a condition at this point, but you could).
  7. Check the Delay Deliver By A Number Of Minutes option.
  8. In the step 2 pane, click the a number of minutes link, enter 60, and click OK.
  9. Click Next. In the next window, you could specify exceptions to your delay rule.
  10. Click Next.
  11. In the last pane, enter a name, such as Delay Send Rule.
  12. Click Finish, and then OK.

Delay rules come with an inherent problem-Outlook will send messages when the time arrives, regardless of your intentions. In addition, a delay rule like our example will impact all of your mail, not just those you actually need to delay. In other words, a delay rule might have some unfortunate repercussions, so use these rules judiciously.

Copied from: http://www.zdnetasia.com/use-spike-to-copy-multiple-blocks-of-word-text-or-graphics-62303564.htm

 

The Stupid Things You Do at Work (and How to Fix Them)

Posted: 18-10-2011 | Author: admin | Category: IT Stuff | No comments

You’re a smart, productive person capable of amazing things, but every so often you’re your own worst enemy. You’ll often convince yourself you’re going to fail, put off important tasks that need to get done, make choices based on pride rather than logic, and potentially end up making your work life miserable. Here’s a look at the stupid things you do all day at the office and how you can fix them.

Stupid Thing #1: Psyching Yourself Out

The Stupid Things You Do at Work (and How to Fix Them)Presumably there has been at least one moment in your life where you’ve been tasked with something that seemed so huge you couldn’t possibly conceive of success—and then you managed somehow or failed miserably. Either way, no matter how large the problem actually was you managed to magnify its size with a little self-handicapping. Most of what you approach in life is do-able, but challenges can be scary and the process of psyching yourself out is simply putting a comfortable cushion on failure. This way, when you fail, you can look at the over-amplified problem and blame the circumstances rather than yourself. This is terrible not only because you probably could have succeeded, but also because you’re failing to take responsibility for your defeat.

Most issues rooted in self-delusion are solvable by simple boost in your awareness, but that’s not necessarily the case with self-handicapping. Generally, when presented with a big task—let’s use learning to code as an example—you psych yourself out because you’re not able to imagine yourself succeeding. If you’d learned a different programming language in the past, or even another foreign language for that matter, you might have an easier time accepting the possibility of success. But simply because this challenge is new, your brain instantly starts magnifying the difficulty so the failure you believe is inevitable won’t hurt so much when it comes swiftly down upon you. What you can do, however, is just pretend you’re an expert. Imagine (or better yet, talk to) someone who would have no trouble approaching a brand new programming language. Consider what they’d do, and what they did in the past to gain the requisite knowledge to make this task easier. This will provide you with actionable steps that will at least get you started. You may also benefit from taking a systematic approach to problem solving, which will help you break a large problem into smaller, more digestible parts. This will help you create do-able to-do lists that contain actionable, relevant steps, and help make the problem feel smaller. And, on the very big upside, the more you overcome these daunting challenges the less you’ll find you’re psyching yourself out.

Stupid Thing #2: Clinging to Your Ideas and Methods Even When They’re Bad

The Stupid Things You Do at Work (and How to Fix Them)When you work, you’ll have ideas and projects and other important things in your days that matter to you. This can be a great source of motivation, but it can also make you stubborn and fail to see what you’re wrong. This is because we have a tendency to stick with things we’re invested in emotionally, regardless if they’re good or bad. We’ll even do this when we know the alternative is better, simply because we fear loss. This may be loss of spent time and effort, control, or anything else. A better solution becomes irrelevant because the loss of our emotional investment is harder to lose than a simple resolution is to gain.

For example, imagine you’ve been keeping yourself organized through a task management system you designed. It works, but it’s complicated and it takes a few hours out of your day. Along comes a web application that will provide the same results without the time sink. In most cases, you’ll stick with your system because you’ve invested so much time in it. You’d rather lose hours each day—a loss you’re accustomed to—than lose all the time you’ve spent devising a system. You’ll tell yourself the software might be better for some people, but your way is better for you because you simply prefer it. You’ll justify your inability to let go of something that just isn’t as good.

There really isn’t anything you can do to prevent this stubbornness from surfacing within you, but you can watch for it. Whenever you’re feeling frustrated, just ask yourself if the way you’re approaching the problem is the best way. Is there a better solution that you’ve overlooked because you’re invested in the current method? Pay attention to opportunities to change and question any justifications you make against them. Sometimes your way will be the best way, but if the situation isn’t perfect you may find relief by entertaining other options.

Stupid Thing #3: Procrastinating When You Should Be Getting Things Done

As the Spanish proverb goes, tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week. Procrastination is one of the most frustrating problems we all share and can never seem to fully eliminate. This is due to something called present bias, or the phenomenon that causes us to choose what we want right now over what we should be doing. It’s what’s causing you to read this post instead of doing your work. The now version of yourself doesn’t have to face the consequences that the future version will have to face, so it can easily make the decision based on want. This leads you to procrastinate now and end up very frustrated, anxious, and stressed out in the future.

Solving the problem isn’t hard, but it is uncomfortable. You have to override the idea that what you want now will make you happy in the future. This is something you probably understand in a logical sense, but your emotional side refuses to accept. One simple method is to use your imagination to bring about the negative side effects of procrastination before they’re actually caused by your poor choices. Remember how draining they can be. Think about the times when you put off a project because you wanted to take a Facebook break. Make yourself worry about finishing on time and, if successful, you’ll have a little fear to help keep you motivated.

You can also make procrastination easier to avoid by creating good, relevant habits around your goals. The things you do when you procrastinate are attractive, in part, because you’re comfortable with them. You know how to play video games, check your email, talk on the phone, and so on. You have history dictating that these are enjoyable activities and you understand how to do them. Conversely, your work is not necessarily habitual. It requires you to think. If you can, at least, make your starting task a habit, however, it may not feel so daunting. The simplest way to do this is to pick a part of what you need to get done that you know will be easy and start there. Maybe that means writing an outline, or even just searching online for an answer you need in order to successfully complete the task at hand. Whatever the case may be, if you pick something easy and relevant you can start forming good and relevant habit-forming actions that will make it easier to override your procrastinating nature.

Stupid Thing #4: Thinking You’re Better Than You Are

The Stupid Things You Do at Work (and How to Fix Them)Most people will consider themselves to be the best person they know. Most people will also deny this despite our self-serving bias actively telling us how amazing we are. We have a tendency to ignore our failures and praise our successes as a self-preservation mechanism. This is because we can synthesize happiness that’s just as good as the real thing. It helps keep us feeling good when life isn’t going so well. While we can be our own worst enemies, in times of need we can be our own best friends as well. This is great when we need it, but our self-serving bias doesn’t really discriminate against failures we need to see as failures and unfortunate events where we need to find a silver lining. This can result in a lack of humility, and that can make you dumb at work.

The problem with pride is that you often feel like you’ve got nothing to learn, when in reality you are blind to an incredible amount of information. When you assume you know the right answer and don’t listen to others, you’re shutting off your chances of learning something new. For example, if your computer is having issues at work and it’s been having the same sort of issue for a long time, you may think you know what it is. You talk to IT and insist they replace it because the problem reoccurs no matter what you do, ignoring their suggestions. You get the new machine and find it has the same problem, leading you to discover you’ve been running some application that’s causing a conflict. Instead of listening to IT’s suggestions, you went through even more trouble to replace and set up a new machine with the exact same problem. A little humility could have resulted in a faster solution.

The solution to this problem is very straightforward: listen to people and consider what they say. You shouldn’t question yourself so much that it drives you mad, but take a moment and think about the things that others offer. You may not always learn something new, but you can be sure you won’t if you don’t listen at all.

Stupid Thing #5: Taking Your Pride to the Office

The Stupid Things You Do at Work (and How to Fix Them)To some extent, job titles are necessary to create a functional hierarchy in an organization. They’re also a way to provide people with a level of status at the company, which is something we seem to care more about than our actual salaries. You Are Not So Smart, David McRaney’s awesome blog of self-delusion, points to a study that demonstrates this dilemma:

Imagine you win $1 million in the lottery, but there’s a catch. This is a new experimental lottery in which the state says you must share your winnings with a stranger. You get to decide how the money is split, but the other person can reject your offer. If they reject it, you both get nothing. You only get one chance, and the two of you will never see each other again. How much do you offer? When this experiment was performed with real money and real people in the lab, all offers less than 20 percent of the total amount are rejected. In this scenario, the bare minimum you would have to offer is $200,000 – even though you are the one who won the money. Give this problem to a computer, and it will take anything above zero. Something is better than nothing to a purely logical mind.

This is, essentially, the same problem your employer faces when offering you a raise. Everyone should be happy when they find out they’re going to be paid more money, but it seems most people resent a raise lower than 7%. Resentment didn’t surface from getting no raise at all, but by getting a raise so seemingly insignificant that it came across as insulting. The easy solution? Take the extra money and shut up, or negotiate alternative benefits instead. The point is, ignore your pride when someone is offering an upgrade from nothing. Whether you hate or love your job is irrelevant—your pride won’t do anything to improve the situation.

Copied from: http://lifehacker.com/5843752/the-stupid-things-you-do-at-work-and-how-to-fix-them

The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.7.2]

Posted: 18-10-2011 | Author: admin | Category: IT Stuff | No comments

Building a hackintosh—that is, installing Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware—used to require extremely restricted hardware choices and quite a bit of know-how. Now your options are vast and the installation process is fairly simple. With that in mind, here is our always up-to-date guide to building a hackintosh that will walk you through purchasing compatible parts, building your machine, and installing OS X all on your own.

Currently Up-to-Date Version: Mac OS X 10.7.2

First Things First: What Is a Hackintosh, Exactly?

A hackintosh is simply any non-Apple hardware that has been made—or “hacked”—to run Mac OS X. This could apply to any hardware, whether it’s a manufacturer-made or personally-built computer. For the purposes of this guide, we’re only discussing a tried-and-true method for building a hackintosh that you build.

That means you’ll need to be comfortable with the idea of building your own machine
and providing your own technical support when you run into problems. While this can be a little bit of a scary prospect if you’re new to building a hackintosh, it comes with the advantage of saving you a lot of money while still providing you with an incredibly powerful, fully customizable machine. We’ll also point you to several resources we’ve put together to help you learn everything you need to know about building a computer so you can feel confident on your first time through the entire computer building process. While it’s important to know that building a hackintosh from scratch is not a project for beginners, it is something that anyone can learn to do. We think it’s a wonderful alternative to purchasing an official Apple product and a rewarding challenge. Now that you know what to expect, let’s get to work.

How Does This Guide Work?

It may seem strange to have an always up-to-date guide to building a hackintosh because the process changes based on the hardware choices you make. Although this is true, it doesn’t change that much. We’ll be discussing the process of building a hackintosh on a broad level, as it applies to most hardware. As a result, this guide will not always be able to tell you the exact boxes to tick and choices to make, but it will teach you how to figure that out for yourself. We’ll hold your hand as tightly as possible through as much of the process as we can, but there will be some decisions you’ll have to make on your own. It can be a little scary sometimes, but that’s part of the fun.

In summary, this always up-to-date guide will explain how to pick the right hardware for a great hackintosh and walk you through the standard OS X installation process, but it will also require you to be diligent and informed in regards to the variables in your specific build.

How to Choose the Best Hardware for Your Needs

The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.7.2]Picking out hardware and building a computer is often the most daunting part of this process. If you’ve never done it before, it can often feel like putting together puzzle where many of the pieces seem interchangeable but truly are not. That said, we have plenty of resources to help you demystify the purchasing and building process so you’re feeling confident.

First, let’s talk about choosing hardware and what makes certain options better than others.

The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.7.2]When Apple builds their official Macs, their parts are not that different from the parts we can buy online when we build our own PCs. In fact, they’re often the same. Additionally, third-party manufacturers will create hardware for Apple’s Mac Pro computers to add additional options to the mix. This means that Apple, or the third parties, need to create software drivers for Mac OS X in order for the hardware to work. This means that virtually any hardware with these drivers is going to be hardware you can use in your hackintosh build. Additionally, the talented people on the internet have developed their own open source drivers for non-Mac hardware in order to provide additional options for your hackintosh. While all of these efforts only span a small percentage of the available hardware on the market, it still provides you with a lot of great choices. Many motherboards, graphics cards, and processors are compatible thanks to these combined efforts.

The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.7.2]The next question is, how do you know what is and isn’t compatible? Like we’ve already discussed, if Apple has used the part before, that’s generally a good sign that you can use it, too. That said, you always want to double-check when you’re putting your hardware list together. To help you out, we’ve created a hackintosh hardware buyer’s guide so you can figure out what will and will not work. Follow that guide when choosing your hardware and you should be good to go. You can also reference our Hack Pro and Hack Mini builds, or just use the sample build provided at the end of this section.

The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.7.2]Once you have your hardware you’re going to need to assemble it into a working computer. We have an entire night school course on computer building, but this specific lesson will walk you through how to build your first computer. Follow it diligently, read your motherboard and case manuals closely, and you should have a functional machine in no time.

A Sample Build

With the resources we’ve discussed, you should be all set to build your hackintosh. Before we move on, however, let’s take a look at a sample build so you can get an idea of what a basic hardware shopping list looks like. This is an actual hackintosh we’ve built, based on hardware suggested by tonymacx86. It only costs a little over $300, so it’s a great option for beginners. Here’s the parts list:

You’ll find lots of builds like this on tonymacx86′s blog, so you can build those exact machines or use them as starting points to create your own build. However you want to go about it, be sure to read our a hackintosh hardware buyer’s guide if you want help with selecting your parts.

By this point you should have purchased your parts, built your computer, and turned it on to make sure everything is functioning. If all systems are go, it’s time to move on to the installation process.

How to Install Mac OS X on Your Hackintosh

Installing Mac OS X on hackintosh hardware involves a bit more than just popping in a DVD, choosing a boot volume, and clicking a button. You’ll have to do all of that, too, but there’s a bit of prep work involved. Let’s get started.

Step 1: Configure the BIOS

The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.7.2]When you turn your machine on, it should display its BIOS welcome screen. This is generally an image with the name of your motherboard and indicators for a few keys you can press to edit your BIOS. Before we can install OS X, we first have to make a few changes to the BIOS (your motherboard’s settings), so you’re going to need to press the key that corresponds to the BIOS Settings when you power on your machine. This is almost always a function key (like F12) or the delete key, but reference your BIOS image to be sure. (Click the image to the left to see an example.) Press and hold down that magic BIOS settings key and wait for the BIOS settings to load.

The BIOS settings for every motherboard is going to be somewhat similar but never exactly the same. For that reason we can’t tell you, command-by-command, where to go to find and make certain adjustments. That said, we can tell you what to look for. Here are the settings you will need to adjust (or at least verify) in your BIOS to make your hardware hackintosh-friendly:

  • Disable Quick Boot. You may have to look around for this, but we’ve often found this in a section titled Advanced BIOS Settings. Just look for a Quick Boot or Fast Boot option and ensure it is set to disabled.
  • Configure SATA as AHCI. By default, your motherboard will configure SATA as IDE and you’ll need to change this to AHCI. In some cases you’ll be asked if you want to do this when you boot up for the first time. If so, choose yes. If not, go into your BIOS and look for this setting as you’ll need to make the change for everything to work smoothly.
  • Change the Boot Device Order. Your BIOS will default to a specific boot order, which means it’ll look for a startup volume (where the operating system lives) in various places until it finds one. The boot order is the order in which it checks each location. In general, you want to set your optical drive to first boot device so you can easily boot to a disc by simply putting it in the drive and turning on your machine. The second item in the order should be the hard drive or SSD where you’re going to install OS X. The order beyond that isn’t terribly important and entirely up to you.
  • Adjust the Hard Disk Boot Priority. Some BIOS settings pages will also have a setting called Hard Disk Boot Priority, which is used to identify which hard drive to try and boot from first if there are multiple drives in the machine. If you install more than one drive in your hackintosh, be sure to set the Hard Disk Boot Priority to the drive where OS X will be installed.

Once you’ve made these changes, you’ll need to save them. In most cases you’ll only need to press the escape key a few times to get back to the main screen, and then F10 to save and exit. Your BIOS settings page will tell you which keys save, exit, and so on, so you should have no trouble figuring out the right keys to press.

Step 2: Install Mac OS X (Snow Leopard)

The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.7.2]Now we’re ready to actually install OS X, but this is going to be a fairly in-depth process that requires a number of tools. Before getting started, be sure you have the following:

  • Both a copy of Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Mac OS X Lion. You’ll need a physical copy of Snow Leopard, which you can purchase through Apple, but you’ll need to download Lion from the Mac App Store later on.
  • iBoot burned onto a CD. You’ll need to register for an account to download it from tonymacx86.
  • The Mac OS X 10.6.8 Combo Update, which will be necessary in order to upgrade to Lion (as it provides the Mac App Store).
  • MultiBeast, also available from tonymacx86. There is a version for Snow Leopard and a version for Lion. Get both.
  • The DSDT file for your motherboard of choice. If you followed our hackintosh hardware guide in the previous section, you may already have a pre-edited DSDT file for your motherboard. If not, visit tonymacx86′s DSDT database, choose your motherboard from the list—making sure you choose the version that matches your motherboard’s firmware—and download it to your hard drive. (Note: You can generally discover the firmware version of your motherboard by looking at its BIOS boot image.)

Note: You’ll want to put everything from this list on a thumb drive for later. Everything but iBoot, that is, as iBoot needs to be burned onto a CD.

Once you’ve got everything prepared, take your iBoot CD, put it in your hackintosh, and boot from it. It’ll take a little while to get going the first time, but once you see a boot options screen you can eject the disc and insert your Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 install DVD. After a few moments it will show up as an iBoot option. Select it and wait for the installer to boot.

The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.7.2]Before you can begin the installation, go to the Utilities menu and choose Disk Utility. Select the disk you want to use for installation and format it. To format it properly, follow these steps:

  1. Choose the disk in Disk Utility and click the Partition tab.
  2. Set the partitions to one (or however many you want) and their format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
  3. Click the options button and set the partition scheme to GUID Partition Table
  4. Click Apply and wait for the disk to finish formatting.

With your destination disk ready to go, you can now run the Snow Leopard installer just like you would on any other Mac. When it completes you might be met with an “Installation Failed” message at the end (or not), but that’s nothing to worry about. When the installation is complete, swap out the DVD for iBoot and restart your machine. Now you’ll see a new option in iBoot: the volume where you just installed Mac OS X. Choose that and boot everything up.

The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.7.2]Before we continue, congratulations! You just successfully built your own Mac. There’s still quite a bit of work to do, but there’s no harm in patting yourself on the back for a job well done. You’ve made it past the threshold.

Chances are you don’t want to have to use your iBoot CD to boot your machine each time, so the next thing we need to do is make your startup volume do that job. We’ll also need to update to OS X 10.6.8 since we’ll be installing Lion. To get started, launch MultiBeast and then the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Combo Update. Leaving both open, run the 10.6.8 update and wait for it to finish. When it’s all done, click through the MultiBeast installation windows until you get to your installation options. If we were only installing Snow Leopard we’d also install our hardware drivers right now, but since we’re going to update to Lion after this we’ll save those steps for later. The only box you need to check right now is UserDSDT Install. You may also want to check System Utilities because that repairs permissions, etc., and that’s never a bad thing to do.

BUT before you let MultiBeast perform its magic, you need to copy the DSDT file you downloaded earlier onto your desktop. If you’ve been following along closely, that DSDT file should be on your thumb drive along with MultiBeast. Once you’ve copied it over, run MultiBeast and restart your computer when it has finished.

Step 3: Update to Mac OS X Lion

The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.7.2] Now that you’ve got a semi-working hackintosh, it’s time to upgrade it to Lion. This process is a little quirky, so you’ll need to follow the instructions closely, but it’s pretty easy. Before you get started, you’re going to need another utility from tonymacx86 called xMove. You’re also going to need to purchase and download Mac OS X Lion from the Mac App Store if you haven’t already. Once you’ve got both of those things, follow these steps:

  1. Launch the Lion installer and run it on your Snow Leopard boot drive. This won’t actually install the operating system, but simply the necessary files needed for that to happen. When it finishes, click the Restart button to reboot.
  2. Upon rebooting, it’ll seem like nothing has changed. To get Lion set up for a proper install, open Disk Utility, choose your Snow Leopard boot volume, and click the Partition tab. Go ahead and create a new partition that’s 8GB in size, naming it Installer. (Technically it can be larger, but that would be wasteful.) It’ll take a moment for Disk Utility to live-partition your drive, so be patient while it does what it needs to do.
  3. Open up xMove and run it on the new partition you named Installer. This will move all the OS X Lion install files to the new partition and configure things as needed. Don’t interrupt it!
  4. When xMove finishes, reboot your machine and choose the Installer partition from the iBoot menu rather than just letting your computer boot up as normal.
  5. Run the OS X Lion installer like you would on any regular Mac. When it’s done, you nearly are, too!

Step 4: Install Your Drivers

Now you’ve installed Mac OS X Snow Leopard and upgraded to Lion, so you’re almost done. Before we can call it a day, however, you’re going to need to install your hardware drivers. To do this you’re going to need to load the Lion version of MultiBeast that you downloaded earlier. Open that up, click through the install windows, and get to the options page (which should be familiar to you at this point). Here’s a look at all your choices and what they do, using our sample build as a guide:

The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.7.2]

  1. EasyBeast Install – Just ignored this.
  2. UserDSDT Install – This is the option that applies your custom DSDT, but seeing as we took care of that earlier you don’t need to check it now.
  3. System Utilities – It’s always a good idea to check System Utilities as it repairs permissions, runs maintenance scripts, and other helpful stuff like that.
  4. Drivers & Bootloaders – This is the section where you’ll be making most of your decisions. You’ll have your pick from an array of hardware drivers that will allow everything from audio to Ethernet to function on your hackintosh. All you really need to do is go through this list and select the relevant hardware in your build. If you have Azalia Audio on your motherboard, that generally means selecting ALC8xxHDA and the AppleHDA rollback options. Most graphics cards you use won’t require drivers, and so you can often skip the Graphics subsection, but just turning on GraphicsEnabler, which you’ll do in the next section. Enabling any of the drivers in the Disk subsection will help provide support for SATA and eSATA hard disks, but they won’t be necessary for most users. The miscellaneous sections has a lot of goodies. If your board supports any of them (like USB 3.0, for example), you should check them off for installation. One kext that always seems to make things work better is NullCPUPowerManagement. We recommend installing this as it tends to make a significant difference in performance on some machines. Lastly you have the Bootloaders subsection, which you can skip as the UserDSDT Install process took care of installing the Chimera bootloader earlier.
  5. Customization – If you’re following our guide you’re using a pre-edited/patched DSDT file, so the only thing you’re going to want to do in this subsection is check off 64-bit Apple Boot Screen (unless your hackintosh has 32-bit hardware) to enable your video card in full force. You probably won’t need the other options unless you have a special situation or are troubleshooting an issue.
  6. OSx86 Software – You don’t really need to choose anything in this department, but if you’d like some handy OSx86 tools installed to your Applications folder you can choose them from this section.

The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.7.2]IMPORTANT NOTE: If you’re building a Sandy Bridge-based hackintosh with a motherboard using Realtek ethernet, be sure to check out Lnx2Mac’s ethernet driver. It’s released separately from MultiBeast and sometimes the version it provides is not the latest. That is currently the case and the latest version supports newer socket 1155 (meaning Sandy Bridge-compatible) motherboards. If you’re having trouble with your ethernet, download it directly.

Once you’ve made all of your choices, go ahead and run MultiBeast. When it’s finished, this generally means you’re done and can restart to your brand new hackintosh. In some cases you may need to find additional drivers that MultiBeast didn’t provide. This may be a driver for a Wi-Fi adapter you purchased or some third-party PCI card. If the driver wasn’t provided by the manufacturer or downloadable on their web site, use popular hackintosh forums (like InsanelyMac and tonymacx86) for help. Either way, once you’re done with MultiBeast you can install those drivers as well to finish up the job. Congratulations on all your hard work. You now have a functional hackintosh!

Step 5: Update Your Hackintosh to OS X 10.7.2 (and Beyond)

The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.7.2]For the most part, updating is pretty straightforward and you won’t run into issues, but it’s good to check tonymacx86′s blog when updates are released to see what you’ll need to do. In most cases you’ll just download the latest update from Apple directly (rather than running Software Update), remove Sleepenabler.kext (provided you’re using it), and then re-install it and any overwritten drivers using MultiBeast.

So how do you know what drivers were overwritten? In most cases, the only driver you’ll have to reinstall is the AppleHDA Rollback, because that driver needs to be installed directly into your System Library where OS X makes changes. If you made any edits to graphics drivers, the 10.7.2 may overwrite them so you’ll need to make those edits to the new, updated drivers as well. Whenever possible, MultiBeast installs special to a folder called Extra on your hard drive and then injects them into the boot process during startup. This method is used to prevent them from being overwritten by system updates, but if you have any drivers/kexts that aren’t installed to Extra you may have to re-install them each time.

Since you’ve got OS X 10.7 installed and there’s currently a 10.7.2 update, go grab it from Apple (direct download link) and run the update. Re-install anything necessary when you’re done and test everything to make sure it works. Most updates should go very smoothly, but you should always back up your boot volume beforehand (we like Carbon Copy Cloner for this process) in case something goes wrong. You never know what can happen, and restoring from a backup is considerably less time-consuming than going through this entire process again from scratch.

How to Troubleshoot

Things go wrong with hackintoshes all the time. It’s unlikely you’ll create one without running into, at least, a minor dilemma. A lot of troubleshooting involves trial and error, unfortunately, and you’ll just have to tinker around until you get the problem fixed. You will be able to find help on the InsanelyMac and tonymacx86 forums if you get stuck. You can also use tonymacx86′s rBoot rescue CD to help you boot when you’re having trouble doing so. You’ll also want to spend some time disabling potentially problematic options and kexts in your /Extra folder (which you can get to by pressing Command+Shift+G, choosing Go to Folder, typing /Extra, and see if removing anything can help. Sometimes you’ll need to add things, too, to get the proper hardware support without any glitches so just be diligent and you’ll get there.

Finally, once you do get things working you should clone your hard drive so you have a boot-able copy available should things go awry. This way you can restore back to that copy or at least compare the things that changed since it was all working nicely. No matter what you think, you’re going to screw something up at some point. Keep a backup. You won’t regret it.

For more troubleshooting tips, check out our hackintosh troubleshooting guide.

Copied from email from Life Hacker

The brewing browser brouhaha

Posted: 05-10-2011 | Author: admin | Category: IT Stuff | No comments

Five windows to the web are competing for your online time.

THE browser wars are heating up again, with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer fighting challengers such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera to be your window to the web.

More than 20 years have passed since World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee unveiled the first basic web browser. These days, chances are you fire up a web browser every time you sit down with a computer, tablet or smartphone. Your web browser lets you visit websites, check your email, share photos, catch up with friends, read the news, play games, edit documents, watch movies and even shop online.

The world’s two most popular web browsers, Internet Explorer and Firefox, were revamped significantly earlier this year to keep up with the times – each borrowing ideas from the other, as well as their competitors. Both Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4 offered new features and performance improvements along with spartan interfaces, which gave back much of the screen real estate that had been slowly eaten away throughout the years.

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Browsers graph.Recent trends in the browser market.

You’re not locked into using just one browser on your computer. If you are frustrated with your current browser, it’s easy to install another and give it a try before deciding whether or not to make it your default browser.

Internet Explorer is limited to Windows but Safari runs on Mac and Windows, while Firefox, Chrome and Opera are available for Windows, Mac and Linux. All five are free downloads. When installing, most browsers offer the option of importing your bookmarks and other details from your existing browser.

Dig through the menus on your browser and you should find an update option for checking whether you’re running the latest version. It’s a good idea to keep your browser up to date, as updates often include performance boosts and security patches.

Browser updates are coming thick and fast this year and it’s hard to keep track.

The team behind Firefox has accelerated the release schedule, unveiling Firefox 5 and then Firefox 6 during the past few months. Firefox 7 is expected to arrive by the end of this month. Meanwhile, Apple released Safari 5.1 in July to coincide with the release of Mac OS 10.7 ”Lion”. Opera 11.5 was released in June and Chrome 13 in August, although Google doesn’t draw attention to Chrome’s version number, as the browser updates itself automatically.

Browsers have come a long way in two decades. Berners-Lee’s first browser, called WorldWideWeb, was released in 1991 and later renamed Nexus to avoid confusion. Not long after came Mosaic, one of the first web browsers to display images in pages – offering a glimpse of what today’s browsers would look like. Mosaic, in turn, inspired Netscape Navigator, which quickly became the web’s most popular browser by the mid-1990s. Opera also emerged about this time. Originally spun off from a Norwegian telecommunications company research project, Opera was trialware at first but became free.

Microsoft was late to the party but its release of Internet Explorer triggered the browser wars of the late 1990s. Microsoft struck deals with PC makers and internet service providers to push Internet Explorer and stifle Netscape, deals that caught the attention of the US Department of Justice.

The release of Internet Explorer 6 and Windows XP in 2001 was the final nail in the coffin for Netscape, which was already lagging behind Internet Explorer in terms of functionality.

From the ashes of Netscape rose Mozilla Phoenix – later renamed Firefox. It was a lean and mean ”open source” browser developed by a worldwide team of enthusiasts to compete against the corporate giant, Microsoft. Not long after, Apple unveiled its Safari browser for Macs, which later came to Windows.

Riding a wave of anti-Microsoft sentiment, Firefox popularised new features such as tabbed browsing (although Opera had it first). Tabbed browsing lets you open more than one web page in the same browser window and easily switch between pages using a row of tabs.

Firefox became the new Netscape but also gradually became sluggish and bloated. In 2008, Google released the lean and mean Chrome browser, which quickly stole users away from Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Today, Internet Explorer is still the dominant browser, responsible for almost half of browser-based web traffic. This isn’t surprising when you consider it is pre-installed on every Windows PC, although its market share has been slowly falling for the past few years. New browser releases tend to feature significant security upgrades and Microsoft is running a campaign to encourage Windows XP users to upgrade from the old Internet Explorer 6, which is now considered a security risk.

Firefox 4 was also a significant upgrade that aimed to offer a big performance boost. Firefox holds about 30 per cent market share but is also slowly losing ground. Chrome and Safari are gradually gaining, sitting at about 20 per cent and 5 per cent respectively, while Opera hovers between 1 and 2 per cent.

Turning a close eye to the latest versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox, the first thing you’ll notice about both new browsers is the spartan interface redesign. It’s a welcome relief from the toolbar overload that has been eroding our precious screen real estate – especially if you’re using a tiny netbook PC.

Internet Explorer’s row of web-page tabs now sits to the right of the URL bar where you type in a web address. The separate search toolbar is also gone, with the URL bar now offering advanced search options dubbed ”One Box” – with the option to change search provider. You can also turn on search suggestions for real-time offerings from Google as you type.

Meanwhile, the Firefox interface is also stripped down to one toolbar – featuring Forward and Back buttons, the URL bar and search bar, along with Home and Bookmark buttons. The Stop and Refresh buttons have been combined into one to save space. Firefox’s URL bar is actually dubbed the ”Awesome” bar, as you can type to search your browsing history, bookmarked sites and open tabs.

Both browsers make it easier to get to your favourite websites. Opening a new tab in Internet Explorer presents you with a list of the sites you visit most often, plus the option to reopen the last browsing session or a recently closed tab. You can ”pin” websites to the Windows taskbar by dragging the tab on to it.

Some websites, such as Twitter and Facebook, also support ”jumplists”, so you can right-click on the taskbar icon and go directly to pages such as Mentions or Messages in Twitter or News and Messages in Facebook. These taskbar icons can even indicate when new messages have arrived.

Firefox lets you permanently pin tabs to the browser’s row of tabs. Once you pin a tab in Firefox, that site opens automatically when you launch the browser – handy if you rely on web mail. Pinned tabs only use a small tab with an icon, leaving room for other tabs you open.

Firefox’s new Panorama feature lets you sort your tabs into groups. Now you can see thumbnails and search through them by tab name. The new Firefox Sync feature makes it easy to synchronise bookmarks, passwords and history and even open tabs between Firefox running on different computers.

The five main browsers have also undergone significant overhauls under the bonnet this year, loading pages faster and chewing up less memory. They’re also embracing new technologies such as HTML5, which will underpin the next generation of interactive websites.

Twenty years since the birth of the browser, today’s leading players clearly have their eye on the future.

Copied from: http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/the-brewing-browser-brouhaha-20110928-1kvun.html

Top 10 Repair Projects You Should Never Pay For

Posted: 12-09-2011 | Author: admin | Category: IT Stuff | No comments

Things break down, whether due to accidents, negligence, or just plain wear and tear. Instead of shelling out for an expensive repair or replacement, though, you can often fix the problem yourself for much less. Here are 10 repairs you should never pay for.

Image from Refat/Shutterstock

10. Bicycles

Bicycles are quick to break down, especially if you don’t treat them properly, but that doesn’t mean you need to take it in for repairs every few months. Most of the fixes you can easily do yourself at home. Check out The Bicycle Tutor for instructions on how to perform pretty much any fix you could ever need, and if you need a repair stand, you can always make one of those for yourself too.

9. Headphones

It always seems inevitable that your headphone cords are going to start fraying, the ‘buds will detach themselves, and you’ll be stuck buying another pair. Instead of buying new ‘phones, though, you can easily fix those stripped wires with a bit of Plasti Dip. Alternatively, if it’s the actual connector that’s causing problems, you can replace that yourself in a jiffy as well. And, in the future, make sure you wrap your headphones correctly instead of just waiting for the inevitable—we’ve featured a ton of different ways to do this, so there’s no excuse to just let them get ruined!

8. Plumbing

There are certainly times where you want a licensed plumber on the job, but you don’t need to call them for every little clog and leak you get. We’ve shown you how to unclog almost any drain, from the sink to the shower to the toilet. If you’re feeling in the mood for a MacGyver trick, we’ve also mentioned how to fix your toilet with aluminum foil, use food coloring to diagnose a leak, use a stethoscope to locate a leak, and how to make your own homemade Drano without the harsh chemicals.

7. Clothing

Finding the perfect tailor is great for your nice suits and pants, but when it comes to the minor sewing projects, you shouldn’t have to bother them—just fix them yourself at home. Learn the basics of sewing and you’ll be ready to take on all sorts of DIY clothing projects—from sewing a button back on to fixing size issues in your new favorite button-down shirt.

6. Laptop Power Cords

You may keep your laptop in perfect condition, but that power cord probably still takes a lot of abuse—from the constant coiling and packing to people tripping over it in the coffee shop. Once the ends start to fray, many people would head off to the store to buy a new one, but not you. If it’s of the Apple variety, you know you can just open it up and add a new cable, and then learn how to wrap it properly in the future. However, for an easier fix, you can patch up just about any power cord with a bit of Sugru—heck, you could even throw the Sugru on before it frays to give it some extra protection.

5. Phones and Other Mobile Gadgets

No matter how careful you handle your phone, accidents happen, but you can save some cash by fixing it yourself. Repairing an iPhone screen is rather easy (heck, even a 10 year old can do it), and so is replacing its dead battery. If your iPod isn’t booting, you might be able to fix it with just a business card, and even older non-smartphones are fairly easy to fix. No matter what gadget you have, you can head over to repair site iFixit to see a full teardown guide. You might have to buy a replacement screen, battery, or other part online, but it’ll be a lot cheaper than buying a new one. Photo by Lars Plougmann.

4. LCD Monitors and TVs

Top 10 Repair Projects You Should Never Pay ForThere’s nothing worse than turning on your computer only to see a dead pixel right in the middle of the screen, ready to eat away at you until you go crazy and buy a new monitor. Luckily, these pixels are often just stuck, not dead, and you can fix them with computer programs, by massaging it away, or, if it really is dead, you can bring it back to life with a damp cloth. If you’ve burned an image into your LCD instead, you can fix that too with a white screen saver. If it does come time to replace it, do what you have to do—but if it’s a laptop monitor, you might want to try replacing the screen yourself instead of sending it in for repairs (or buying a whole new laptop). Photo by whyohwhyohwhyoh.

3. Cars

While you aren’t equipped to fix more complicated automobile problems, you can easily pull off lots of the low-level maintenance stuff yourself, without taking a costly trip to the dealership. Learn how to change a tire yourself, and check out VehicleFixer for videos on how to change the oil, replace your brake pads, and more. If you have a small dent in your car, you may even be able to fix that with a can of compressed air and a hairdryer. Note that while these are all things you can do yourself, minor jobs are also useful for testing out new mechanics—so don’t be afraid to hand that brake job over once in a while if you’re trying out someone new.

2. Your House

The walls and floor of your house are subject to wear and tear just like everything else, but much of it you can fix right on the spot. Repairing wall damage is easy, and you can always fill in floor holes with a melted crayon, fix stripped screw holes with a golf tee, and even fix cracks in your furniture with mayonnaise. If you want to get a few DIY skills for the future, we can’t recommend volunteering enough—working on a site with someone like Habitat for Humanity is a great way to learn more about home repair while doing something good in the process. Of course, when the problem is serious enough that you need to call a contractor, make sure you don’t get hosed in the process. Photo by Sharon Pruitt.

1. Computers

As many of you may know, rarely should you need to take your computer into the Geek Squad to get it fixed up. Whether it’s your computer, your roommate’s, or another friend’s, we’ve got a guide to repairing just about any problem they could have, as well as diagnosing a computer that’s just plain slow. If it’s a hardware problem, you can always head to iFixit for instructions on how to repair Macs, or open up that PC and see what might be causing the problem. Some hardware can even be fixed at home, like if your CPU pins are bent or if your video card’s solder points have become loose. Whatever the issue, make sure you read up on computer maintenance when you’re done, so you can avoid the problem in the future.

In the end, doing it yourself is great, but it’s also good to know when a project is over your head and it’s time to call someone else. In addition, sometimes it actually is better to replace your gear instead of fix it, so make sure you aren’t on a fool’s errand trying to fix a gadget that’s just reached its time to die. Got your own favorite repair project that you did on your own, or a skill any DIYer should know how to do? Share it with us in the comments.

Copied from: http://lifehacker.com/5837117/top-10-repair-projects-you-should-never-pay-for

How to Migrate to a Solid-State Drive Without Reinstalling Windows

Posted: 12-09-2011 | Author: admin | Category: IT Stuff | No comments

Installing a solid-state drive is one of the best upgrades you can make to your computer, but migrating your Windows installation to a small drive can be tricky, because your data won’t necessarily all fit on the drive. Here’s how to install an SSD without reinstalling Windows from scratch.

We’ve shown you how to migrate from an old drive to a spacious new drive, but when migrating to an SSD, things get a little more complicated. Instead of upgrading to a bigger drive, you’re usually migrating to a smaller drive, which means a lot of files—like music, movies, and games—might not all fit on the SSD. Luckily, it’s still pretty easy to do, and you should be able to go through the whole process in an afternoon.

Here’s what we’re going to do: We’re going to back up everything, and then delete your personal files—like your documents, movies and music—from your current hard drive. This will make your Windows installation small enough to fit on the SSD. We’ll then clone your current drive onto the SSD, and completely erase your current drive. From there, we’ll move all your user folders—like My Documents, My Music, and so on—to the original hard drive, and restore all your personal files from the backup. You’ll then be able to reap the benefits of an SSDs speed while keeping all your documents and files readily accessible on a second drive.

What You’ll Need

There are a number of different ways to go about this, but we’ve found this to be the easiest and most reliable method. Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Your current hard drive, with Windows installed. For simplicity’s sake we’ll call this drive—that is, the drive you’re migrating from—your “current hard drive” throughout the tutorial.
  • A solid-state drive. This is the drive you’ll be migrating to. To get a rough idea of how big it should be, head to your current drive, navigate to C:\Users\ and right-click on your user folder. Hit Properties, and mark down how much space that folder takes up. Head to My Computer and note how much space Drive C: has filled up, and subtract your user folder’s size from C:’s total. That’s how big your SSD needs to be, though I’d give yourself a good deal of wiggle room for future updates and new programs. We’ll assume, for the purposes of this guide, that you’ve already installed your new hard drive and are ready to migrate your data.
  • A backup of all your data. Since you can’t clone only part of a drive, you’ll need to remove your music, movies, and other personal files from your current drive before migrating Windows to the SSD. That means you’ll want to back up your data somewhere else—whether that be an external drive, a spare internal drive, or the cloud. Just make sure that data is safe and recoverable, since we’ll be restoring it later on.
  • EaseUS Partition Master. This is the program we’ll be using to migrate your installation. It’s easy to use, can perform multiple operations at once, and it’s free.
  • The Gparted live CD. We’ll need this for a quick partition fix after we migrate our installation. If you have an Ubuntu live CD lying around, that’ll work too, since it comes with Gparted installed under System > Administration.

A Note for Dual Booters

This guide assumes your main hard drive only has one partition on it, holding Windows and your documents. If you dual boot with Linux, OS X, or another version of Windows and it resides on the same drive, this whole process becomes a bit more complicated. Make extra sure you have a backup before continuing, and tweak the following two steps to the process:

  1. In step three, you’ll want to click on your Windows partition and clone only that to the SSD instead of cloning the entire disk. Cloning the entire disk would bring all your partitions over, which you won’t likely have room for.
  2. After step three, you probably won’t be able to boot into Windows on your SSD. This is because the Windows bootloader resides on the MBR, not the partition itself. After you’ve migrated to the SSD, you’ll need to insert your Windows installation CD and choose “Repair Your Computer” from the main screen. Choose Startup Repair from the menu, and your computer should reboot a few times and repair the bootloader.

Step One: Defrag Back Up Your Data

Before you start, you probably want to defragment your disk. Click the Start menu and type in “defrag”, hitting Disk Defragmenter when it comes up. Run one last defrag before you continue.

Next, you’ll want to make sure everything is backed up in case something goes wrong. You should already be backing up your data regularly, whether to an external drive or with something like Crashplan, but if you aren’t, now’s the time to start. Run one last backup before you start the migration process to make sure it’s as up to date as possible.

If you don’t have a regular backup, grab a spare hard drive—either internal or external—and start up EaseUS partition Master. Click on your current Windows hard disk in the right-hand pane—where it says “Disk # (MBR)”, not where it says “C:”)—and then click “Copy Disk” in the left sidebar. It’ll analyze the drive; and when it’s done, hit Next.

On the next window, choose your backup disk as the destination. Hit Next. If you currently have data on that drive, it’s about to be erased, so make sure you don’t need any of it. Hit Next until you reach the last window, then h it Finish. Click the “Apply” button in the upper-left hand corner of the EaseUS window, and your computer will reboot and clone your drive. When it’s done, it may reboot one more time, then boot you back into Windows.

Step Two: Slim Down Your Current Drive

The next thing you need to do is delete files from your main drive until it becomes small enough to fit on your SSD. That means if your SSD is 120GB and your current drive has 260GB of data on it, you’ll need to delete 140GB worth of files before you can migrate. Usually, this can be accomplished by deleting all the music, movies, documents, and other files out of your “My Music”, “My Videos”, “My Documents”, and other user folders. Don’t delete the folders themselves, just delete everything inside them. We want to keep the folders intact for later. And remember, we’ll be restoring your files later on, so don’t worry about deleting stuff you still need. Don’t uninstall any programs, unless you want them gone for good—we want to keep these on the SSD so they can benefit from the drive’s speed.

Step Three: Migrate to the SSD

Open up EaseUS Partition Master and click on your current disk in the right pane (that is, the line that says “Disk # (MBR)”). Hit the “Copy Disk” button in the left sidebar. In the next window, choose your SSD as the destination, and hit Next. On the last window, hit Finish, and then hit Apply in the upper left corner of the EaseUS window. It will reboot your machine and copy your Windows installation to the SSD. When it’s done, it may reboot one more time, then boot you back into Windows.

If it tells you the source drive is too big, then you haven’t deleted enough data. Remember that the size of the SSD—say, 120GB—is not the same as how much space will be available on the SSD after formatting. Once you’ve hooked up your SSD, check how much space is actually available and make sure your current drive is using less than that amount of space. Even if your source drive is bigger, EaseUS Partition Master should automatically resize the partitions so they fit on the SSD, as long as your source drive isn’t filled with too much data.

Remember, if you have more than one partition on your original drive, you wan to clone the partition, not the drive (that is, the part that says C:, not the part that says “Disk # (MBR)”) and stick in the repair disc at this point.

Step Four: Realign Your SSD

SSDs align their partitions differently than regular hard drives. A regular hard drive usually starts the first partition after 63 blocks, while SSDs require 64 blocks of data for optimal performance. This means when you copy your disk block-for-block from a regular drive, you can lose a lot of performance on your SSD. To fix it, we just need to boot into the Gparted live CD (or into an Ubuntu live CD, if you have one).

How to Migrate to a Solid-State Drive Without Reinstalling WindowsStart up Gparted and find your SSD in the dropdown list in the upper right-hand corner. Select it, and click on the main partition in the main window (it should be the only partition on the disk). Hit the Resize/Move button in the toolbar. Change the “Free Space Preceding” box to 2MB, uncheck “Round to Cylinders”, and hit “Resize/Move”. Hit Apply once and let it do its thing.

Now hit Resize/Move again, and change the “Free Space Preceding” box to 1MB. Uncheck “Round to Cylinders” again, hit Resize/Move, then click Apply. Now your drive will be aligned to exactly 2048 blocks after the beginning of the disk, which allows for optimal SSD performance.

Yes, moving it 2MB away then moving it back 1MB seems roundabout, but Gparted measures space in a weird way. When you first start up Gparted, your partition will have less than 1MB of space preceding it, but Gparted will only measure it as 0—meaning if you align it to 1MB right off the bat, it’ll keep the drive annoyingly misaligned at 1.03MB. If you set it to 2MB, hit Apply, and then move it back to 1MB, it works fine.

Reboot your machine and enter your BIOS setup. Usually, this involves pressing the Delete or F2 keys as your computer boots (it’ll say something like “Press DEL to enter setup”). In your BIOS, head to the section labeled “Boot Order” (or something similar) and set your SSD as the first boot device. Save your settings and exit your BIOS, and it should reboot you into Windows. It should look almost exactly like your old setup, though you’ll probably notice it boots up much faster than you’re used to. If it doesn’t find your wallpaper or desktop icons, don’t worry—they’ll come back when we restore your personal files.

If Windows gives you an error upon booting into your SSD, insert your Windows installation DVD and hit “Repair Your Computer” from the main menu. It might ask you to choose your Windows installation, in which case choose the one on your SSD. It should automatically detect the issue and repair it. Sometimes the realignment process can confuse Windows and you need to repair your bootloader.

Once you’re in Windows, hit the Start menu and search for msinfo32. Start up Msinfo32.exe when it pops up, and head to Components > Storage > Disks. Look for your SSD and find the “Partition Starting Offset”. If this number is divisible by 4096 (that is, if dividing it by 4096 reveals a whole number and not a decimal), your partition is correctly aligned. If not, head back into Gparted and try again—make sure there’s exactly 1MB of space before your partition, or it won’t work.

Step Five: Wipe Your Original Drive

Now that our SSD is working, open up Windows Explorer and find your original Windows drive. Right-click on it and hit “Format”. A Quick Format is fine here; we just need to clear off all that old data. Make sure you’re wiping your original Windows drive and not your backup; if you’re unsure, unplug your backup drive first. You don’t want to lose any of your data.

Step Six: Move Your User Folders

Now that you’ve got Windows on your SSD, you need to get all your other files back on your system. You probably don’t have enough room to fit it on your SSD, so we’re going to store them on your old drive. And, since we can remap the locations of your My Documents, My Music, and other user folders, we can put them on a second drive without Windows even batting an eyelash.

First, head into your old drive (which should now be empty) and create a new folder to house all your user folders. I just called mine “Whitson Gordon”. Head into C:\Users\[Your User Name] and you should see all your user folders there. Right-click on each one, hit Properties, and go to the Location tab. Click on the Move button, and choose your newly created user folder as the destination. When you’re done, you might have a few miscellaneous settings folders left over (like .gtkrc-2.0 or .VirtualBox), which you can leave there. Your Contacts, Desktop, Downloads, Favorites, Links, Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, Saved Games, and Searches folders should all be on your old drive.

Step Seven: Restore Your Personal Files

Lastly, we just need to restore all your personal files. Open up your backup—wherever it may be—and drag your documents, music, pictures, videos, and other files back into your “My Documents”, “My Music”, “My Picutres”, and other user folders that you just moved.

Now, your files will be accessible just as they always were. Even though they’re on a new drive, Windows still sees them as your main “My Documents” or “My Music” folders, so you shouldn’t have to change much else. You may have a few programs—the text-based todo.txt is a great example—that still use absolute paths (like C:\Users\Documents instead of just searching your “My Documents” folder), so you may have to tweak a few settings to get everything working properly. For the most part, though, everything should work as it did before, and you should have a much faster computer thanks to the SSD.

Proper SSD Maintenance

We’ve covered proper SSD maintenance before, so I won’t go too deeply into it here. In order to have Windows optimize itself for your new SSD, we’ll need to re-run the Windows Experience Index. Hit the Start menu and type in “Windows Experience”, and hit the “Check the Windows Experience Index” option. Click “Re-Run the Assessment” and it should turn off Defragmentation and turn on TRIM.

To double check that it all went as expected, head to your Start menu and type “defrag” in the search box. Click on “Disk Defragmenter”. Click on “Configure Schedule” and hit “Select Disks”. If all went well, Windows will realize it’s on an SSD and your SSD won’t even be an option in this menu. Now Windows will avoid defragmenting your SSD, which can be bad for it.

Lastly, we’ll want to make sure TRIM is turned on, which keeps your drive from slowing down over time. Open up a Command Prompt and type in:

fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify

It will either give you a 0 or a 1 as a result. If you get a zero, that means TRIM is enabled. If you get a 1, make sure you have a TRIM-compatible SSD—you may have to Google your SSD’s model number to find out.

Copied from: http://lifehacker.com/5837543/how-to-migrate-to-a-solid+state-drive-without-reinstalling-windows

10 Crazy Things People Put on Resumes

Posted: 11-09-2011 | Author: admin | Category: IT Stuff | No comments

It’s hard enough to get a job these days without making a hash of your resume and your references (not to mention your interview wardrobe and behavior), but some candidates just can’t seem to get out of their own way. Research from CareerBuilder led us to these lapses in judgment, which come from actual resumes and applications submitted for legit job openings. It is important for a candidate to stand out from the crowd – 45% of HR managers spend less than one minute reviewing the average person’s materials — but straining too hard to distinguish yourself will often backfire. “Hiring managers will notice and spend more time with resumes that are easy to read and include relevant experience customized to the position,” says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “Creativity and personal touches may seem tempting to some job seekers. But many times, it’s a disqualifying distraction for a human resource professional.” More than 2,600 employers took part in the research.

Copied from: http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Intelligence/10-Crazy-Things-People-Put-on-Resumes-763190/

Get 25% OFF your order! – GOdaddy!

Posted: 11-09-2011 | Author: admin | Category: IT Stuff | No comments

Limited time only. Act now to get 25% OFF* your order of $75 or more. This special offer expires soon, so don’t wait – order today!

Save on the products and services YOU want! Go Daddy has everything you need to succeed, from domain names and Web site builders to world-class hosting plans and powerful marketing tools – plus, LIVE 24/7 service and support that’s second to none.

This special offer expires 9/24/2011, so start shopping now! Use source code fbfhome25 to get 25% OFF* your order of $75 or more when you order online at GoDaddy.com or by phone at (480) 505-8821.

Top 10 Secret Features in Mac OS X Lion

Posted: 24-07-2011 | Author: admin | Category: IT Stuff | No comments

Lion’s out and there’s a lot of new stuff to explore. Apple tells you about most of it on their web site, but there are still some secret features you’ll want to know about. Here’s a look at our top 10 favorites.

Top 10 Secret Features in Mac OS X Lion

10. Add New, High-Quality Text-to-Speech Voices

Over the years, Apple’s been working incrementally to improve the quality of the text-to-speech voices offered with its operating system. For awhile we just had Alex, the only somewhat natural-sounding computer voice in the collection. While that hasn’t changed much, as far as the defaults go, you can add a bunch of new voices directly from OS X’s VoiceOver Utility (in Hard Drive -> Applications -> Utilities). Just click the Speech pane and then select “Customize” from the voice selection menu. This will let you choose from all the options—including a lot of the fun novelty voices you might have thought went missing.

9. Look Up a Word in the Dictionary with Two Taps

Lion comes with a lot of new multitouch gestures, and hidden in the new set is the ability to look up a word with two taps. All you have to do is place your cursor over a word you want to look up, then tap the word twice with three fingers. This will highlight it in yellow and show you a heads up display with the word’s definition. Of course, you’ll need to turn this on in System Preferences -> Trackpad -> Point & Click first.

Top 10 Secret Features in Mac OS X Lion

8. Create Search Tokens When Searching for Files

You’ll find this functionality throughout applications in Lion, but it’s especially useful when looking for files in the Finder. Basically, when searching you type in something like “Text” and are given some options in a drop-down menu. You might be looking for a file with “Text” in the file name or just a file that is made up of text. You can choose which one from this menu and it’ll create a search token. Once a token is created, you’ll start to get results. You can keep creating more and more tokens this way to refine your search, however, making it really easy to quickly locate the file (or files) you’re looking for.

7. Group a Bunch of Items into a Folder

The Finder has a handy new trick hidden in the contextual menu, and that’s the ability to select a bunch of files, right- or control-click them, and choose “New folder from X items.” What this does is groups all the files together and throws them in a new folder. Sure you could just make a new folder and drag them all in, but this saves you a step. Want to do this with a keyboard shortcut? Just press Command+Control+N.

Top 10 Secret Features in Mac OS X Lion

6. Add an Event to iCal by Typing a Phrase

Known as “Quick Add”, iCal now lets you just type a human-readable phrase to add a new item to your calendar. To do this, just click the + button in iCal and choose a calendar. You’ll get a little pop up that’ll let you enter whatever you want. Type something like “Movie this Friday at 7pm” and iCal will translate it into a new event.

Bonus iCal feature: Enter year view and you’ll see a heat map over the calendar. The warmer the color, the more you have going on that day.

Top 10 Secret Features in Mac OS X Lion

5. Share the Screen of an Inactive User

Screen sharing is great when you want to take control of whatever’s currently on the screen, but what happens when someone’s logged in to another account and you want to access yours remotely? Screen sharing now lets you share the screen of any user, even when their account is running in the background.

Bonus Screen Sharing feature: If you want to allow people to share your screen but you don’t want to create a new account for them, you can just add their Apple ID as an authorized user in the Screen Sharing section of the Sharing pane in System Preferences.

Top 10 Secret Features in Mac OS X Lion

4. Manage Privacy Settings for Any App

Lion now includes some privacy settings, letting you control which apps are allowed to use your location and collect usage data. To access it, just go to the top row in System Preferences and select Security & Privacy. From there, click the Privacy tab and you can make any changes you want.

Top 10 Secret Features in Mac OS X Lion

3. Automatically Restart When the Computer Freezes

Sometimes your computer freezes only to become unfrozen seconds later. Other times you stare at the screen for several minutes, wondering if that’s going to happen, and then eventually restart when you’re convinced you’re wasting your time. With resuming capabilities it isn’t so awful if a freeze does take place and requires a restart, but you no longer have to decide in Lion. HIdden away in the Energy Saver pane in System Preferences is a little checkbox called “Restart automatically if the computer freezes.” Check it and you won’t ever have to worry about it again.

Top 10 Secret Features in Mac OS X Lion

2. Fully Migrate from Windows to Mac OS X Automatically

If you’re moving from a Windows PC to a Mac, Lion can help ease that transition by migrating all your files to the proper places in OS X. This means everything from documents to mail accounts in Outlook to even your photos in Picasa (not sure why they picked Picasa, but they did). The transfer happens over the network, either wirelessly or wired—totally up to you. You need to first download a copy of Migration Assistant for Windows and then open the copy that’s already on your Mac (Hard Drive -> Utilities -> Migration Assistant). From there you can select the information you want to transfer and let the fun begin. It’ll probably take awhile, but when it finishes your Mac will now have the same data as your old Windows machine.

Top 10 Secret Features in Mac OS X Lion

1. Easily Add a Signature to a PDF Document in Preview

Preview has a lot of neat new features, but one of the best is its ability to digitally sign a document. You might think this happens with your finger and trackpad, but you’d be wrong—that wouldn’t include everybody. Instead, you sign a piece of paper and hold it up to your iSight/Facetime camera while Preview snaps a photo. It’ll then detect the signature and allow you to add it to your document. To do this, just open the PDF document you want to sign, click “Annotate” in the toolbar (if the annotations bar isn’t already showing), and then click the Signature drop-down menu. That will display two options. The first will let you take a photo of your signature with your Mac’s built-in camera and the second will allow you to manage the signatures you’ve already saved using this process. Pretty awesome.

Copied from: http://lifehacker.com/5817644/top-10-secret-features-in-mac-os-x-lion

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