Thursday, November 12, 2009
Microsoft recently banned all modded Xbox 360 consoles from their Xbox Live network, and as a result cheap consoles have been showing up for sale online in droves. If you are in the market for a used Xbox 360, be very careful and know exactly what you are buying.
These modified Xbox 360 consoles have been altered by their owners in order to play unauthorized games. Some 360 owners make backup copies of their games as a security precaution, while others download games they do not own from the Internet and burn them to discs which are then playable on modded Xbox 360 consoles.
Microsoft considers all of this to be piracy, and has subsequently detected and banned all of these consoles from playing multiplayer games on the Xbox Live network. The modded consoles are showing up on sites like Craigslist in huge numbers for low prices, so you should be aware that if you purchase one of these cheap systems you may not be able to play multiplayer games online. Microsoft will not extend warranties for these consoles, even if the owner acquired it accidentally.
permalink
So here we are watching some prime time comedy on the evening of Windows 7’s launch, and a commercial for the operating system comes on the television. I’m half listening to the TV while browsing the web when I suddenly look up, surprised, pretty sure that the girl in the commercial just dropped an f-bomb. Here is the commercial:
The consensus around the blogosphere seems to be that she says something close like “abso-freakin-lutely” or “abso-friggin-lutely”, but whatever she says combined with her accent sure makes it sound like “fuck”, especially the first time around.
Oh, and congratulations to the clever marketing firm who with one syllable got us talking… even got me to pick up my laptop and write a blog post the moment I saw the “Windows 7 was my idea” spot.
permalink
Adobe has updated their online F.A.Q. with information about installing and using Windows 7 with Adobe applications. Here are a few things to note:
- CS3 and CS4 have been tested with Windows 7. Earlier versions of Adobe’s software may have issues since they were released prior to the availability of Windows 7.
- If you do a fresh install of Win 7, you’ll need to reinstall your Adobe apps but reactivation is not necessary. You’ll need to back up your personal information before the install.
- You may need to obtain and install updated drivers from your video card manufacturer.
Read the Adobe FAQ for further information, including a detailed table describing when upgrades supported and when fresh installs are required.
Link via “Adobe Windows 7 FAQ” by John Nack on Adobe.
permalink
The Photo Fakeouts category of the Oyster Hotel Reviews blog is an ingenious service to anyone who’s planning a vacation. Oyster strikes a blow to deceptive marketing practices by posting the hotels’ official, professional, and sometimes doctored photographs alongside pictures taken by actual visitors in real world conditions. Here are a few samples:
In the professional photo, a couple strolls down a beach bathed in warm glow towards a hotel that sits among tropical foliage. In the real-world photo, cranes tower over the sand.
In the professional photo, happy guests are served food by a grinning chef at an appetizing buffet. In the real-world photo the buffet is an absolute mess.
In this particularly egregious example, the professional photo shows an intimate and joyful beach wedding while the real-world image reveals wrinkled and bronze beach-goers gawking at the ceremony from an uncomfortably close distance.
In all fairness
Many of these photos are truly deceptive, and if I were the traveler I would surely be infuriated. However, you should also consider that in some cases a poorly composed photograph by an amateur can be just as much a lie as a doctored professional image. Just as shooting people sitting on the beach at sunset creates a warm, pleasing photograph, snapping out-of-shape bathers on an overcast beach can create a sorrowful image that is just as much a lie.
Make your own decisions
The lesson here is that when you are researching a vacation to a place you have never personally visited, you should never trust the hotel or resort as your only source of information — seek out real-world advice from as many different independent third parties as you can find and come to your own informed conclusions. The “Hotel Photo Fakeout” blog is a fine example of the Internet’s power to level the playing field.
Link via “Oyster Hotel Reviews – Hotel Photo Fakeout” by A Photo Editor.
permalink
By default, new documents in Windows Paint have a canvas size of about 800×400 pixels, but you can changes this through the Properties menu. Here’s how to change the canvas size in Paint through the “Ribbon” UI introduced to this application in Windows 7:
- Pull down the file menu from the dark blue button on the top left, next to Home.
- Click Properties to bring up the Image Properties window.
- Change the Width and Height boxes to your desired canvas size.
- Press the OK button.
Going forward, new Microsoft Paint documents will use the size you’ve set in the Image Properties window. If you want to change it again, just repeat this procedure.
If you want to reset your options to Paint’s default size, press the Default button.
permalink
Open the Backup and Restore Center
Click Start → Control Panel → Back up your computer to open the Backup and Restore Center.
Select where you want to save your backup
Windows 7 will display all of the available backup devices, and your external drive should appear in this list. You can choose to back up to another hard drive, an external hard drive, a DVD or a network storage location. Click on the volume where your backup files should be saved.
What do you want to back up?
You can let Windows choose what to back up, in which case the OS will make a backup that includes files saved in the “Pictures”, “Music” and other such folders (which are called Libraries in Windows 7), as well as other default Windows folders. In the case that your system crashes, you can restore your computer from this backup file.
The other option is to choose your own files in which case you’ll be asked to browse a directory listing and check off which items/folders should be included in the backup. You can also choose to include a system image, which is a backup of the drives, system files and settings required for Windows to run. If you choose to make a system image, you can restore your computer in addition to retrieving your files in the event of data loss or a crash.
How often do you want to back up?
The next step is to configure a schedule for your backups — you can choose how often, on which day and at what time to run the backup. Consider how often you change or add new files when deciding how often to back up. As for the time of day, choose a time when you don’t expect anyone to be using the computer since running a backup will probably slow things down until the process completes. For example, I run my backup nightly at 1 AM.
Run your backup for the first time
The first time your backup operation kicks into gear, it’s going to have to copy all of the selected files and folders over to the external hard drive. If you have a large amount of data this can take a very long time, so think about configuring your backup and letting it run while you do something else. Once the first backup is complete, subsequent backup operations will go much quicker.
permalink
One very useful feature of the new Windows 7 taskbar is the capability to “pin” applications — keep an application’s icon in the taskbar at all times for easy access. Instead of cluttering your desktop, browsing your “Program Files” folder or clicking through the Start menu, you can launch apps from the taskbar with one click.
Pinning applications to the taskbar can be accomplished via drag & drop or right-click.
Pin applications to the Windows 7 Taskbar with drag & drop
- Click Start.
- Click Computer.
- Browse to the location where your application’s files are stored… usually C:\Program Files\.
- Drag the application’s icon and drop it onto the taskbar.
Pin applications to the Windows 7 Taskbar via right-click
- Click Start.
- Click Computer.
- Browse to the location where your application’s files are stored… again, this is usually C:\Program Files\.
- Right-click on the application’s icon.
- Choose “Pin to taskbar”.
You can also right-click on shortcuts and choose “Pin to taskbar”, such as the shortcut icons you may have on your desktop.
permalink
A .tar.gz file is an archive file that contains one or more compressed files. These are similar to .zip files, and many of the file compression applications you are used to using work with Windows 7.
The Free Option: 7-Zip
7-Zip is free open-source file compression software. It costs nothing to download, and is able to work with a variety of file compression algorithms including those used to make .tar.gz files.
After installing 7-Zip, right-click on your .tar.gz file and choose one of 7-Zip’s extraction options. This will extract the .tar file — after that’s done, right click on the .tar file to extract its contents. After you’ve extracted the contents of the .tar file, you will have access to all of the files that were compressed inside the .tar.gz archive.
The non-free options
WinZip and WinRAR can also decompress .tar.gz files, however they are shareware and must be purchased after their trial periods expire. WinZip will ask if you want to extract the .tar file to a temporary folder and then extract its contents (answer “Yes”), while WinRAR will extract the contents of your .tar.gz file without any additional prompts.
permalink
I can’t find a few programs that used to be included in Windows – where do I find Windows Photo Gallery, Calendar and all those other applications in Windows 7?
Once of the changes in Windows 7 is that a handful of applications that were previously installed by default no longer ship with the operating system. You can still get these applications for free – they are available as part of a package called Windows Live Essentials.
- Windows Live Family Safety — Parental control software for limiting and monitoring children’s activities on your computer.
- Windows Live Mail — A desktop e-mail client that is compatible with many popular e-mail services such as Gmail and Hotmail. Includes a calendar.
- Windows Live Messenger — An instant messaging client.
- Windows Live Movie Maker — An application for composing movies from videos, picture slideshows and other content.
- Windows Live Photo Gallery — Photo management software that lets you import, organize and edit your digital pictures and videos.
- Windows Live Toolbar — An Internet Explorer toolbar add-on that connects to Windows Live and Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
- Windows Live Writer — Desktop blogging
software compatible with popular blog engines such as WordPress, Blogger and TypePad.
Each of these web pages contains a link to download and install the software.
permalink
Facebook FarmVille players usually move through stages, and one of them usually happens to be the this-is-taking-forever-how-do-I-farm-faster stage. As you progress through the game your farm grows, and it takes longer and longer to plow your land, plant your seeds and harvest your crops. You can spend money on vehicles and fuel that allow you to farm faster, but there’s a free and much simpler way of getting things done quicker.
Trap your farmer
If you trap your farmer in a spot that prevents him or her from moving about your farm, you can eliminate the time it takes to walk from plot to plot from your farming time. Put two bales of hay in a corner of your farm like so:
Walk your farmer over to the corner, then move the bales of hay as close to him as possible, so that he or she cannot walk around them.
Once your farmer is trapped in the corner, start plowing/planting/harvesting. You will be able to accomplish these tasks much faster now that you do not have to wait for your farmer to walk from plot to plot. This should save you a lot of time, especially if you have a large farm!
permalink
