Dmitri's Blog (24)

Stare the Blue Screen of Death in the face and laugh

There are few things worse then plugging away at your computer only to have your application freeze up and your screen suddenly turn blue. This happens to almost every computer user, and if you've seen it, you've automatically been admitted to the Blue Screen Of Death club.

The Blue Screen Of Death, which is commonly referred to as the BSOD, is the most obvious and unnerving way your computer can tell you something has gone very wrong. The technical term for the BSOD is the "stop scr… Continue

Added by Dmitri on December 16, 2009 at 1:30am — 11 Comments

Disable the Capslock key in 7/Vista

The caps lock key is one of those remnants of another age of computers, back when people used to shout at each other more often. Since it’s not entirely useful anymore we’ll learn how to disable it. If you aren’t interested in the explanation you can skip to the bottom for the registry codes.

Windows doesn’t have a default setting to allow for disabling the key, so what we have to do is re-map the key to something non-existent so as to completely disable it.

… Continue

Added by Dmitri on December 13, 2009 at 1:00am — No Comments

Dead CDROM? Here's how to install Linux/GNU

Introduction

My notebook’s cd/dvd drive is over a year old. Anyone with experience in dvd burner drives can tell you that after about a year they stop reading a lot of disks, then they eventually fail.. for those with notebooks it’s not quite so simple to repair. Luckily if you use Linux you aren’t forced to install your OS via CD or DVD rom media.

Requirement?

1GB flash media for LiveCD distros, or 2GB+ for full blown DVD installers. Thi

… Continue

Added by Dmitri on December 12, 2009 at 9:02am — No Comments

Random Facts About Old Computers

The Apple Lisa (1983) was the first successful computer with a graphical user interface (GUI) and a mouse. It cost $10,000.
The GRiD 1101 is the grand-daddy of all modern-day laptops. It cost over $8000 in 1982.
Their new VIC-20 (1980) was so embarrassing to parent company Comm

… Continue

Added by Dmitri on December 10, 2009 at 8:40pm — 5 Comments

What I want for Christmas.

The CSIRO is expected to this week announce the launch of a new supercomputer, which uses a cluster of GPUs (graphical processing units) to gain a processing capacity that competes with supercomputers over twice its size.

The supercomputer pictured here is one of the world's first to combine traditional CPUs with the more powerful GPUs.

It features 100 Intel Xeon CPU chips and

… Continue

Added by Dmitri on November 23, 2009 at 4:00am — No Comments

Apple is voiding warranties of smoker’s computers

Now just to clarify right off the top – there is no official word out about whether or not Apple is voiding the warranties of computers owned by smokers but if the news as being reported by the Technically Incorrect even approaches fact then Apple has definitely crossed a line. Chris Matyszczyk tells of two separate people who have taken their machines in to an apple store in the case of Derek in Des Moines and an authorized Apple repair center in the case of Ruth. In both instances they were i… Continue

Added by Dmitri on November 21, 2009 at 2:42pm — 2 Comments

Microsoft Previews Internet Explorer 9

With Chrome chugging along toward version 4.0 and Firefox 3.6 just around the corner, Microsoft is in danger of falling even further behind in the browser wars. The boys in Redmond released Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) earlier this year, and while it was an improvement over IE7, we were generally disappointed with its stability. Plus, it still was far behind its competitors in raw speed. Turns out that Microsoft is already hard at work on the next version of its browser, titled, chronologically, '… Continue

Added by Dmitri on November 20, 2009 at 6:55pm — 5 Comments

Microsoft finds security flaw in Google Chrome Frame

Back in September, when Google launched the Google Chome Frame plug-in for Internet Explorer users, Microsoft immediately warned that the move would increase the attack surface and make IE users less secure. Now comes word that a security researcher in the Microsoft Vulnerability Research (MSVR) has discovered a "high risk" security vulnerability that could allow an attacker to bypass cross-origin protections. Here's the explanation from Google's Matt Larson: * Severity: High. An attacker coul… Continue

Added by Dmitri on November 20, 2009 at 3:13am — No Comments

IPv6 and IPv4

Now that irc.geekshed.net has IPv6 support... http://www.geekshed.net/2009/11/does-geekshed-have-ipv6-support/ .... I thought I would give some information on IPv4 and IPv6 Ipv4 is the fourth version of Internet protocol, but the first one to be widely deployed. It uses a 32 bit addressing and allows for 4,294,967,296 unique addresses. Ipv4 has four different class types, the class types are A, B, C, and D. An exampl… Continue

Added by Dmitri on November 18, 2009 at 1:41am — 1 Comment

Useful Windows Run Commands

Some of these will only work in XP. If you know of anymore please feel free to share them...

… Continue

Added by Dmitri on November 18, 2009 at 12:40am — No Comments

Some advice on proper textiquette

1. Put your phone on vibrate or silent mode when texting back and forth with someone. Everyone doesn't need to hear your favorite ringtone every time you get a text. 2. Check the recipient's number one last time BEFORE you hit "send." A slip of the finger could easily send a wrong person that intimate message intended for your significant other. 3. Take precautions to protect private or personal text messages since you never know who might be snooping. While a high percentage of people lower t… Continue

Added by Dmitri on November 12, 2009 at 12:03pm — 2 Comments

Master List of Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts

I thought I would share a list of keyboard shortcuts for Windows 7 RC. If there any that I missed. Please feel free to let us know. Managing Windows 1. [Win+M] - Minimize all open windows 2. [Win+Shift+M] - Undo all window minimization 3. [Win+D] :- Toggle showing the desktop 4. [Windows+Up] - Maximize window 5. [Windows+Down] - Minimize windows / Restore 6. [Windows+Left] - Dock window to the left side 7. [Windows+Right] - Dock window to the right side 8. [Windows+Shift Up] - Maximize vertica… Continue

Added by Dmitri on May 14, 2009 at 2:47pm — No Comments

I got kicked cause I can't follow rules.

OK, I know you have seen at least one or more members of Geeks posting a topic on getting kicked out of #Chris. Trying to convince people that it was unjust. I've been a member of #Chris going on 3 years now and have yet to see any of the mods unjustly kick/ban someone. In fact the mods will give people a few verbal warnings which usually gets ignored by the user and then they get kicked. And after getting kicked they still ask why they got kicked even though it's right in the kick message. Othe… Continue

Added by Dmitri on May 13, 2009 at 1:28am — 12 Comments

How To Make The Best Tasting Coffee

The perfect cup of coffee starts with ingredients. What are the ingredients in a perfect cup of coffee? The answer is obvious but yet that perfect cup of coffee seems so elusive. All you need for perfect coffee is water and coffee beans. When your cup of coffee is perfect, you do not need milk to make smooth and creamy and you do not need sugar in your coffee to cover the bitter taste. Lets get started with the perfect cup of java. You want to start with a quality coffee bean, arabica preferabl… Continue

Added by Dmitri on May 6, 2009 at 5:27pm — 2 Comments

Create a realistic moon in Photoshop.

For this tutorial you will need the following rock texture...

And this brush set for the stars... http://ladyvictoire.deviantart.com/art/Star-Brushes-3-31601676 1, Create a new document. Any size is fine, I used 1920x1080. 2. Fill the background with black with the Bucket Too… Continue

Added by Dmitri on May 6, 2009 at 1:00pm — 1 Comment

The Brown-Nose Syndrome

Is it just me or does Geeks seem to be full of Pirillo brown-nosers? Now I know some of you just read that statement and thought "He's so jealous". Which is not the case. I do think Chris knows his stuff. But, some people seem to forget that Chris' opinions on technology or whatever is just that an opinion. I read blogs and discussions on here all the time from people talking about how great this is or how bad that is with only the opinion of Chris to go by and not by their own personal experien… Continue

Added by Dmitri on May 3, 2009 at 11:38am — 3 Comments

Photoshop Shortcuts

As I am big Photoshop fan, I really love their keyboard shortcuts - it really helps to build up working speed using them in Your workflow. Keyboard shortcuts are keystrokes or keystroke combinations to quickly execute some command. If You like using Photoshop as designer, You will evaluate those keyboard shortcuts strength. However there are really huge amount of keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop, there is no way You can remember them all - and that’s really not worth it so I created my own list a… Continue

Added by Dmitri on April 29, 2009 at 5:36am — 1 Comment

From iTouch to iPhone with a Download

Competition to turn an Apple iPod Touch into an iPhone is heating up among application developers, with VOIP provider Jajah joining Truphone in blurring the difference between the wildly popular devices. Unlike the iPhone, turning the iTouch into a telephone doesn't require a two-year contract or an expensive data plan, only a Wi-Fi connection. The difference between Apple's iPhone and its iPod Touch used to be a pretty bright line: One is a telephone and the other is not. That difference, thou… Continue

Added by Dmitri on February 10, 2009 at 7:10pm — No Comments

10 Simple Graphic Tweaks

1. Get the Latest Driver No matter what type of monitor you're using, much of the quality of the image it shows depends on your computer's graphics card or chip set. Start by making sure you have the latest version of the driver for your graphics adapter; this is one of the easiest and most effective ways to optimize your graphics and avoid hardware hassles. Don't bother using Device Manager's Update Driver option, which works fine for other drivers but is useless for updating your vide… Continue

Added by Dmitri on February 8, 2009 at 7:00pm — 1 Comment

Printer uses coffeee grinds for ink

RITI Printer, Green Gadgets, Ink Cartridges, Printing with Coffee, greener gadgets, sustainable design, green design, green electronics, waste reduction