Pinguy's Blog
How To Change a Keyboard Layout
START >
CONTROL PANEL (CLASSIC VIEW ) > REGIONAL AND LANGUAGE OPTIONS >
CLICK ON THE LANGUAGES TAB (AT THE TOP) >
CLICK DETAILS >
CLICK ADD >
INPUT LANGUAGE = ENGLISH ( UNITED KINGDOM) > KEYBOARD LAYOUT = UNITED KINGDOM EXTENDED >
CLICK OK
CLICK OK AGAIN
CLICK OK AGAIN
What to Install After a Fresh XP Install
This post is more of a note to me so I know what to do whenI need to install XP again, as I have just un-installed Vista after a months use and gone back to XP.
The honest truth is Vista is a very poor OS, even Microsoft admits that Vista is broken, Microsoft own vice president Mike Nash couldn't get things done in Vista.
You, personally, may never have encountered a piece of hardware or an app that didn’t work on Vista, and you might be perfectly happy with it, but many people including me have had problems with Vista and thats why I went back to XP.
I did like the look of Vista and some of the new features, like the Sidebar the fast search results and the start menu, so I found away to get these features in XP without losing performance and stability.
How to give XP some of the features Vista has.
Themes.
Install royale-noir first then Royale-Remixed, when "Display Properties" window opens after installing Royale-Remixed choose the "Media Center Edition 2006" theme then open "Appearance tab" and choose "Royale" then under "Color Scheme" choose "Royale Noir".
The Royale-Noir theme uses the same resources as the default XP theme so it won't bog down the system, this is the best theme to use if you would like to use a dark UI. The Royale-Noir theme was actually developed by the Microsoft design team and that's why you don't need to use the Uxtheme patch to use this, you can read more about the theme here.
Programs.
- Alky for Applications 1.1, needed for Vista Sidebar.
- Vista Sidebar This is the same sidebar as used in Vista and only uses 10mb of ram.
- Windows Search 4.0 Give you very fast search results
- Vista Drive Icon Shows you the drive's free space with a smooth colored horizontal bar.
- QTAddressBar Vista address bar clone for XP.
- ViStart a Vista start menu clone but can cause explore.exe to crash, so use at your own risk.
- Windows Live Photo Gallery This is the same Photo Gallery as used in Vista
To add additional gadgets to the Vista Sidebar you need to add them manually, download the gadget that you want from Windows Live and use a program like WinRAR/7-Zip to extract the contents to a folder, then name the folder to what ever the gadget is called then put .Gadget to the end of the name e.g. BBCRadio.Gadget
Then all you need to do is place that folder to C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Shared Gadgets
If you are using SP3 and don't mind playing about with the system files, you can replace the Uxtheme.dll file with this patch and use this theme to give you a better Vista look.
Free
programs for a complete OS after XP is installed.
These are the programs I install, you may not need to install all of them so check out the program first to see if its a program you would use.
- Adobe AIR not needed if you don't use AIR apps.
- Avast! Best free antivirus, IMHO, with screensaver mode, or you could use AntiVir. (Comparative tests of antivirus)
- Advanced WindowsCare Personal 3 A good program to maintain a PCs health, with a ram optimizing program.
- AutoPatcher Windows updates, add-ons and programs. Make sure you tick the add-ons to download them.
- Alt.Binz Needed to download NZB files.
- CCleaner A good PC cleaner.
- Comodo Firewall Best free firewall, IMHO.
- DAMN NFO Viewer Needed to view info in NFO.
- DivX Web Player Needed for web content.
- DVD Shrink A good program to rip DVD-9s to DVDs.
- FileHippo.com Update Checker Checks online for update's for installed programs.
- Firefox Best web browser, or you could use Opera.
- Windows Media Player Firefox Plugin Needed for Firefox.
- (IE) Flash Player Needed for web content.
- (Non-IE) Flash Player Needed for web content.
- Foxit Reader Best lightweight PDF reader, or you could use Adobe Reader Lite.
- FastStone Screen capture program. This is version 5.3 as the newer versions are not freeware anymore.
- Free Download Manager Download manager.
- Frostwire Open Source P2P program, or you could use Cabos.
- HandBrake Rip DVDs to MPEG-4.
- DVD43 Needed for HandBrake.
- Hotspot Shield Lets you view US only sites outside the US, ie. Hulu.
- IrfanView Photo viewer/editor.
- JkDefragGUI A very good Defrag program with screensaver mode.
- Java Runtime Environment Needed for web content and programs.
- K-Lite Mega Codec Pack Needed for video and sound. I replace Media Player Classic with the Home Cinema edition.
- KompoZer A great program for web authoring.
- MediaCoder Good program to convert videos for mobile phones, PSP and iPods.
- MediaPortal with the TVSeries plug-in and the Aeon Wide skin. Needed for TV tuner cards.
- Notepad++ Not needed, but a better program then the default installed notepad.
- OpenOffice.org Needed for office docs.
- PC WIZARD Reports on virtually every aspect of computer inventory and configuration, with benchmark tools.
- Pidgin Needed for IM.
- QuickTime Alternative Needed for web content and video.
- RadarSync Checks online for update's for installed programs and drivers.
- Revo Uninstaller A proper uninstaller program.
- Shockwave Player Needed for web content.
- Silverlight Needed for web content.
- Skype Best VOIP program.
- SMPlayer Good video player that's better then VLC, IMHO. If you like VLC you may want to check out Kantaris
- Songbird A great music manager that works with iPods and media device's.
- Spybot Search & Destroy Needed to scan and remove spyware.
- Spyware Terminator Needed to guard against spyware.
- ted: torrent episode downloader Good program to automatically download TV torrents.
- Thunderbird Good email program.
- TVersity is a UPNP media server that can stream media from a PC to a PS3, Xbox360, Wii and mobile phones
- Unlocker Shows you why you can't delete/move a file.
- Vuze using the Classic Interface. Needed for torrent files. µTorrent is also a great bittorrent client but I prefer Vuze.
- WinRAR Needed for compressed files, or you could use 7-Zip, but I prefer Winrar.
Not free but worth the money.
If there is a program you still need that isn't listed have a
look at
my list of free
software, there maybe something there that might help.
Setting Up and Installing XP
First thing you should do before doing a fresh XP install is to download all the software that is needed and to make sure that you have all of your drivers. A great program that will save you a lot of time and headaches is DriverMax, it will backup all of the drivers that are installed on your PC for easy reinstalling.
Once you have backed up all of your drivers just check that you have got all the software that you will be installing and make sure they are saved on a partition that is use for storage or a CD/DVD.
Now we need to back up your program settings, copy this folder. C:\Documents and Settings\"user name"\Application Data to a storage partition or a CD/DVD. Make sure that you can see hidden files or you won’t be able to do this.
Open a window then go to Tools > Folder
Options > View > Show hidden files and folders.
Now its time to install XP, If you have never install XP before Lifehacker have a guide over on there site, the only thing I would add that isn't in that post is to install XP without being connected to the net and if you only have one hard drive I would partition it so you can keep your documents and the OS on different partitions, I normally give XP 20GB (20480) but you may want to use more depending on what programs you use.
Once XP is installed, install these programs in this order without being connected to the net:
- Drivers using DriverMax
- Firefox
- AutoPatcher with all the Windows Addons, Updated Components and some Registry Tweaks.
- Windows Media Player Firefox Plugin
- Java
- DivX Web Player
- (IE) Flash Player
- (Non-IE) Flash Player
- Shockwave Player
- Silverlight
- WinRAR/7-Zip
- Foxit
- DAMN NFO Viewer
- CCleaner
- JkDefrag GUI
- Advanced WindowsCare Personal 3
- Unlocker
- Nero
- K-Lite Mega Codec Pack
- QuickTime Alternative
- OpenOffice
- Comodo Firewall
- Avast! Home
- Spybot
- Spyware Terminator
Now that everything is installed lets change the location of “My Documents” so its not stored on the same partition as windows, you can change this by going to:
Start button > Right click “My Documents” > Properties > then change the Target > Move.
Once you have done that fire up JK Defrag and make sure the screen saver mode has been installed.
Now lets make the text look better.
Right click on the desktop > Properties > Appearance > Effects > second drop down menu change to ClearType.
While still in Display Properties setup the screen Saver.
select “avast! antivirus” then Settings > Screen saver > JkDefragScreenSaver, now every time the screen saver starts it will scan your PC for virus and defrag it.
Once that's done go into safe mode (Hit F8 as the PC starts up) then copy the Application Data folder back into windows.
That's pretty much it, you still need to setup some of the programs that are installed and to sort out what program start with Windows (you can use CCleaner to stop programs starting with Window) but this setup should give you a good starting point.
Once you have everything installed and setup how you want it you may want to do a back up, Macrium Reflect is a great FREE tool for doing this if you don't own a copy of Norton Ghost.
Easy Guide To An Up To Date Usable Ubuntu 7.10
Ubuntu 7.10 has come on a long way since I have last used it (longterm
support (LTS) 6.06), but even with all the improvements
it has made its still not very usable from a fresh install for the
average home user.
The
problem with Ubuntu is it doesn't come with any restricted codecs or
software and if you are new to Linux you are probably not even going to
know how to get mp3 and DVD play back working.
I have tried to
make this guide as easy as possible to follow, and once you have
finished the guide you will have a very up to date usable system that
will be able to do everything an average home user will need to do.
List of Programs That will be Installed on top of the ones you get with
Ubuntu:
Accessories
Graphics
Internet
Office
Programing
Sound and Video
System Tools
Other
- Webilder (to get working right-click on the GNOME panel, choose "Add to panel", and select "Webilder Webshots Applet")
Plus lots of plugins, programs and codecs so everything will just work.
To start off go and grab a copy of Ubuntu 7.10 from here
and burn the .iso to a CD.
If you are not sure how to burn an .iso follow this guide.
You can also request free CDs from the Ubuntu site if
you don't mind waiting for them to be delivered.
Once you have a copy of Ubuntu 7.10 on a CD go to this site
and follow the first page of the guide then come back here.
Now
that you have a fresh install of Ubuntu the first thing we are going to
do is to update the kernel to the most up to date one, as this is a
huge update to the
one that is being used in Ubuntu 7.10.
To see a list of all the changes to the kernel click here.
1.
First you need to add the Hardy repository (this is only temporary to
pull the new kernel) by going into the Terminal (Applications >
Accessories > Terminal) and copying and pasting
this:
-
echo 'deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main
restricted' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hardy.list
2. Now that you've added the repository you need to update:
-
sudo apt-get update
3. Next you need to install the new kernel:
-
sudo apt-get -y install linux linux-generic
linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic
linux-restricted-modules-generic
4. It will ask you to restart the PC once installed but don't do that
yet as you need to download and install Envy first, go here
and download the most up to date version.
To install just simply double click on the file.
5. Now that you've pulled the kernel and got the packets Envy needed
you need to remove the Hardy repository:
-
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hardy.list
6. Once again you need to update so that you'll stop pulling updates
from the Hardy repository:
-
sudo apt-get update
Alright.
If you've done all of the above without errors, you've successfully
installed updated the kernel. Now you need to reboot into the new
kernel:
-
sudo reboot
Once you are back into the Ubuntu desktop you now need to download and
extract this file
to your home folder.
Inside the archive there should be files called:
-
installed-software.log
sources.list
trusted.gpg
Double click on sources.list
then select Display, this will add more software sources to your
repository. Next you will need to import the Authentication key, just
click the tab that says "Authentication"
and click on the "Import
Key File..." button and find the trusted.gpg
file that you downloaded earlier.
Now all you need to do is to open the Terminal and copy and past each
part of this:
-
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dselect
sudo dpkg --set-selections < ~/Pinguy_Ubuntu7.10/installed-software.log
sudo dselect
Then choose i.
This
will take awhile to download and install all the software so go off and
make a cup of coffee and watch a bit of TV then come back.
Once
everything is installed go to
System > Administration >
Users and
Groups > Manage Groups, scroll down to the bottom
and find
vboxusers, select it then properties and tick all the boxes then
restart the PC.
Next install your graphics driver using Envy (Application
> System Tools > Envy)
When
envy asks you to restart hit "No" then go to System >
Administration
> Restricted Driver Manger then enable 3D graphics,
then restart
the
PC.
Thats it you should now have a very up to date and usable PC.
Couple of links you may also want to have a look at:
How
to Disable Services and Reduce Power Consumption
Make
Your Linux Desktop Look Like A Mac (Also a good way to learn
how to change the look of Ubuntu)
Ubuntu Themes
Getdeb (a place
to download .deb programs)
CNR
Client (program to download and install programs from the CNR website)
PlayOnLinux
(the easiest way I have found to install Office 2003 and many Windows
only games)
AcetoneISO2
(the best .iso mounting program for Linux)
Ubuntu Tutorials Sites
Ubuntu Geek
Debian Admin
Howto
Forge
Free Firewall for XP and Vista
Sure, Windows comes with a basic firewall, but when it comes to protecting your computer from malicious attacks, you can never be too careful. PC Tools Firewall Plus is a powerful firewall from the makers of Spyware Doctor. And it also happens to be free and works with vista.
PC Tools Firewall Plus gives you much more control over your firewall than the built in Windows Firewall application. There's an expert mode for advanced users, and a normal mode for umm.. normal users. The first time you run the firewall you'll get a bunch of pop-ups asking if you want to allow any programs you're currently running to access the internet.
But once you get past that, you can leave the firewall running in the background and pretty much ignore it. If you want to edit advanced permissions, view your history, or see the packets that have been blocked, you can do that. There's also a new stealth mode that lets your system hide from other computers on the network. In other words, you can connect to other computers, but they cannot connect to you.
Guide to Blackjack Doubling
- Minimal bet 5 if you are playing with 100, minimal bet 10 if you are playing with 200.
- Always place a minimal bet every time you win a hand.
- Double your bet every time you lose a hand.
- Always split Aces and Eights.
- Always Double if you are dealt 11
- Never take risky hits if the dealer is showing 6 or below.
- Take risky hits if the dealer is showing between a 7 to an Ace and if that card and a 10 would beat your hand.
- Never take insurance.
If you have set out to play with 100 dollars/pounds your minimal bet a hand should be 5, other wise your bets could get way to high if you loose a few hands in a row, what I mean by this is you always place the minimal bet when you win a hand but you double your bet every time you loose a hand and if you loose 5 hands in a row the bet would be 80.
How it works is if you loose a hand you would loose 5 but if you had won that hand you would of got 10, so on the next hand you double your bet to 10 and if you win that hand you would get 20 back, meaning you just won your winnings back that you would of lost in the previous hand if you was still placing a minimal bet.
So how it goes is if you loose the first hand and you placed the minimal bet of 5 the next hand you would put down 10, if you loose that hand you put down 20 and keep doubling the bet until you win a hand, and once you win a hand you go back to placing the minimal bet of 5 and keep placing the minimal bet every time you win and only doubling when you loose a hand.
This way isn't card counting where you are guaranteed to win there is still an element of chance and you could loose, but its very rare to loose more than 6 hands in a row that's why this technique does very well.
To help you win more often there are a few golden rules that will help you win more hands.
Always split Aces and Eights
Two eights are 16 and thats a horrible hand but if you split them there is a good chance you will get a face card or a 10 making it 18 same as Aces, two Aces are 12/2 but splitting them you could get 21.
Always Double if you are dealt 11
There's a good chance you will get a face card or a 10
Hitting and Standing
You should stand if the dealer is showing 6 or below and hit if the dealer is showing between 7 and Ace and if that card and a 10 would beat your hand.
Never Take Insurance.
Never take insurance there is a huge house advantage at the odds paid out, and it is not worth taking under any circumstances.
Thats it and have fun, to have a practice without paying here are some places you can play online Blackjack for free.
Blackjack Facebook App (my fav)
#Edit to answer some of the questions asked on digg
The
odds are some what high for losing 6 hands in a row but it doesn't
matter, as long as you don't lose to many hands in a row so the bet
goes over the maximum bet this technique works well because you win
your losses back every time you win a hand and make money every time
you win more than two hands in a row.
Where this technique fells
is when you lose to many hands in a row and the bet goes over the
maximum bet, thats why I say there is still an element of chance.
Here's an example of a very bad game of black Jack to show you how
you keep making money.
bet 5 = 95
lost 0 = 95
bet 10 = 85
lost 0 = 85
bet 20 = 65
lost 0 = 65
bet 40 = 25
win 80 = 95
You just won
your losses back
bet 5 = 90
win 10 = 100
bet 5 = 95
win 10 = 105
Won two hands in
a row making money
bet 5 = 100
lost 0 = 100
bet 10 = 95
lost 0 = 95
bet 20 = 75
lost 0 = 75
bet 40 = 35
win 80 = 105
You just won
your losses back
bet 5 = 100
win 10 = 110
bet 5 = 115
win 10 = 125
Where you win money is when you win two hands in a row or more, and if you get 21,
you win larger amounts when you double on 11 and split Aces and 8's. You will never
make huge amounts of money doing it this way and its not fast.
Get StarOffice for free
StarOffice cost $70 but Google has just added StarOffice to Google Pack for free.
The move is slightly perplexing, as OpenOffice.org is absolutely free, and it's built on StarOffice source code. The main difference between the two office suites is that StarOffice includes some proprietary graphics, fonts, and templates.
South Park’s Warcraft Episode Up For Emmy
Dwarven champions and South Park fans are united in general glee this week after South Park’s ‘Make Love, Not Warcraft’ was nominated for an Emmy TV award.
The hilarious – yet affectionate – send-up of World of Warcraft, its crack-like addiction qualities and the repercussions are brilliantly brought to cartoon life.
If Cartman taking a dump into a bedpan held by his mother because he can’t be arsed [sorry] to stop playing WoW doesn’t bring a tear of mirth to your eye, you’re already dead.
You can watch the whole episode online by going to 4spark.com, clicking on Season 10 and choosing episode 1008. Have a good weekend.
PS3 Firmware 1.9 Details Announced
The new firmware 1.9 update just hit in Japan. Here are the complete changes:
- Ability to rearrange games on the XMB
- Option menu now includes "eject disk"
- Press triangle to eject games/CDs/movies in the XMB
- XMB backgrounds
- Change the folder classification
- Emoticons
- Change CD output to 44.1/88.2/176.4kHz
- Force 24Hz output for Blu-ray over HDMI
- Change PS3 video settings in-game
- "Bit Mapping" in the "Music Setting"
- Save AVCHD type animations from a Memory Stick
- Change settings like upscaling while playing PS and PS2 games
- Add bookmarks
- Web browser security function in the browser's tool section
- Avatar moves during audio visual chat
Custom iGoogle Skins
If you're looking for a few more customization options for iGoogle, check out this new Google gadget.
£44,000 PS2
A 16 year old lad from Norfolk, England, bought a Playstation 2 on eBay for £95. But when It arrived, he got a bit more then a PS2 the contain had £44,000 cash money. Unlucky for him his parents has handed the whole lot over to the police.
EU pirate's have it easy
If you're a file pirate living in the EU, you may have reason to celebrate. Juliane Kokott, Advocate General to the European Court of Justice declared today that European ISPs cannot be forced to reveal the identity behind accounts identified for sharing copyright protected material.
The statement was directed to a panel of judges mulling over the legality of a Spanish file-sharing case, and could be a harbinger of things to come in the EU. Kokott's declaration essentially asserts that although ISPs can be required to turn over identities in criminal matters, file-sharing is a civil issue and therefor doesn't enjoy the same legal privileges.
Kancho WTF??? [Game]
This is funny as hell. I just came across this game that just baffled me, (go have a look at it now and come back.)
So after I played it I did a bit of Google and came across this site and just about keeled over and died of laughter.
From the site:
Let me introduce you to a game Japanese kids like to play called "Kancho."Actually, it's not so much a "game" as it is kids clasping their hands together, sticking out their first fingers, and shoving them up your butt. I'm really not joking.
You know, before we come to Japan, they tell us a lot of ultimately useless stuff. What kind of computer to bring, if our DVD's will work, clothing sizes, that kind of nonsense. Nowhere, and I mean nowhere, in the 3-4 months of orientations did anyone ever mention that at some point, a Japanese kid may try to stick their fingers up our butt. That's something I would have liked to know, personally.
It's called Kancho, and just about any kid can be a Kancho Assassin. Even the sweetest little girl may be prone to jam her fingers up your ass the second you turn around. This happened to one of my friends, which just goes to show - don't trust anyone. I'd say the little girls are the most dangerous cause they have natural ways of lowering your defenses.
I was pretty lucky. Before I came, I bought a really big, really baggy pair of pants. The kids try to Kancho...but they just have no idea where my ass is! It's beautiful! I had one kid try and find his fingers hit nothing but jean fabric and air. Yes! But I've actually gotten pretty good at dodging it, much like Spider-man I have developed a Kancho Sense that tells me where and when it's coming before it comes. I parry fingers like a pro. My record is still 100% Kancho Free. Ha! America 2, Japan 0.
All in a day's work I suppose.
So after reading that you have decided you want to become a Kancho Master, well you can, all you have to do is enroll at Kancho University.
Lily Allen whips out her third nipple on tv [Video]
This is from a British television show called The Friday Night Project
Free WiFi in London but with a catch
Online-4-free.com uses an already live network running along the River Thames. The service uses advertising to pay the bills so you have to watch a short commercial every 15 minutes to use the service, but at the end of the day its free.
To get wifi in London without the ads the pay options are pretty reasonable, ranging up to £10 for a month, allowing 2GB of downloads at up to 500 kbps. As more and more cell phones support WiFi, city wide networks start to get very useful.
A Bold ManBearPig [Image]
Zack roommate Ed recently took a photo of this . . . thing. They have no idea what animal this is but it was seemingly deaf and/or dumb as Ed said he got extremely close to it before it slunk away. There are two tufts of hair on it but, otherwise, it was completely bald.
Singing Tesla Coil [Video]
Super Mario Brothers
These are a solid-state Tesla coil's. They primary runs at its resonant frequency in the 41 KHz range, and is modulated from the control unit in order to generate the tones you hear.
So just to explain a little further, yes, it is the actual high voltage sparks that are making the noise. Every cycle of the music is a burst of sparks at 41 KHz, triggered by digital circuitry at the end of a piece of fiber optics.
Drunk-O-Vision [Image]
Get an invite to private beta services with InviteShare
Do you want to get invited to all the cool private beta projects going on at the moment but never get invited? Well InviteShare is here to help.
InviteShare is a web2.0 where people with beta invites share them with those who don't have them.
E-mail addresses are displayed publicly but they're in image form, which means no spam bot attacks.
Project Blue Book Online
footnote an online archive of all sorts of original source documents has recently added Project Blue Book to there archive that has detailing government investigations of UFOs from 1947 to 1969.
New Gran Turismo 5 trailer with Ferrari's [Video]
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has been reported that the game will include Ferrari's for the first time in its history.
Who needs Surface? [Video]
Want a multi-touch computing platform but don't have $10,000 lying around? No problem. The Multi-Pointer X Server has just added multi-touch support to the X server windowing system used in Linux.
Transformer's Bumblebee for sale
The original Bumblebee '77 Chevy Camaro from the new Transformers movie is up for sale on eBay. It started at $14.98 but has already climbed to $60,101.00.
Looking at today's internet using yesterday's browser
Have you ever wondered what today's internet would look like if you were using a 12 year old browser?
Well, wonder no more. You don't have to install Mosaic, Netscape 1.0 or Internet Explorer 2.0. Just pop on over to the Deja Vu Browser Emulator, choose your poison, and watch as all the things that make today's web beautiful are stripped away. The virtual browser will pop up inside of a browser window, giving you the surreal experience of surfing the web using the granddaddies of Firefox or Internet Explorer from within IE7 or Firefox 2.0.
E3 2007: First Soul Calibur IV trailer [Video]
