PeerGuardian 2 and history.db

If you don't know what PeerGuardian 2, the possibilities of your PC making an unwanted connections to P-2-P or other sites on the last 24 hours is close to 99.99%!

PeerGuardian 2 is premier IP blocker for Windows that protects your privacy and make tracking you back specially when you're using P-2-P difficult if not impossible.

File	Description	Size
pg2-9x.exe	PeerGuardian 2 for Windows 98/ME	0.82MiB
pg2-nt.exe	PeerGuardian 2 for Windows 2000/XP/2003	0.84MiB
pg2-x64.exe	PeerGuardian 2 for Windows XP/2003 x64 Edition	1.07MiB
pg2-src.zip	PeerGuardian 2 source code (for programmers)	1.33MiB

The only drawbacks of PeerGuardian 2 is, it keeps log of your blocked connections and the problem is even worse if you are logging the allowed connections. What that means is, with time your history.db size could take up some Gigabytes of your hard drive.

In my situation, I'm pretty comfortable with the connections I make and I don't want any history logging. The best way to solve this is

1. Disable PeerGuardian 2
2. Go to C:\Program Files\PeerGuardian2\
3. Delete the history.db
4. Enable PeerGuardian 2

CHM Viewers For Apple Mac

If you're like me reading a lot of eBooks, Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft CHM engine are great tool if you are working under windows. However, under Apple Mac, For PDF, we have (Preview) which I think is even better than Adobe Acrobat as well as we have Adobe Acrobat for Macs.

The challenge is what about those Microsoft compiled HTML files or CHM? Well, we have a couple of choices:

• Chmox - No Search function
• xCHM - Slow and bad rendering of HTML
• Chimp - Discontinued & It's the best

luckily, Chimp 1.1 can be downloaded from here: Chimp 1.1

War Of The Launchers

1. Slickrun <- Small, light, and powerful.
2. SmartStartMenu <- Powerful and I recommend it since it does auto-indexing of your start menu.
3. slimKEYS <- Not Free. AppRocket is better choice.
4. Colibri <- Failed to launch some of my applications.
5. Launchy <- Terrible, word completion is not working properly.
6. AppRocket <- Not Free. Looks good and works well but uses .NET Technology.
7. ActiveWords <- Don't even look at it.
8. Dave’s Quick Search Bar <- See the above
9. Google Desktop <- Google, the name says it all! Too big on system resources.
10. Find and Run Robot <-Failed to launch some of my applications.

Literally, I have tried all of these applications. Non of them come close to QuickSilver except one that is not mentioned above here. The reason is you have to spend some extra $$$ to get it. It is called Dash Command and you can download it from here. (Download). Dash is the latest attempt for the Microsoft Windows platforms to emulate the power, flexibility, and usefulness of QuickSilver. Dash Command seems to be a great step in the right direction unlike many of the above listed applications. It’s elegant, and very light of system resources, and the functionality is even fairly fluid.

You can try use it for free and it will do everything from launching your applications on the start menu, except you can't define your own actions nor launch system commands. You have to buy a license for that, but if launching applications on the tip of your finger is all what you're seeking, Dash Command is your friend!

Read the full review here Replacing Start Run - The Quest Continues.

How To Enable Root Account on Mac OSX

Some of us need to have the root account enabled, in my case I need it to run Dynamips for labs.

1. Login using the Admin account
2. Open up a the Terminal application by selecting -
• Macintosh HD
• Applications
• Utilities
• Terminal
3. Type this command
1. sudo passwd root
2. You will then get the following prompts.
1. Enter Password:
• The password of the admin account for verification
2. New password:
• Enter your new password for root
3. Verify password:
• Verify the password from step2
4. The root account is now enabled, with your chosen password

Tweak Leopard's Hidden Features with Secrets

There are a lot of web sites that carries Mac secrets and code to improve your OS X. The truth is, non of them come close to this web site:
secrets.textdriven.com

Here is what you need to do:

• Download and install Secrets
• Un-zip it and double click on (Secrets.prefPane)
• Run System Preferences
• On the bottom under (Other) section, you should see secrets icon. Click it
• If you are connected to the internet, secrets should automatically download secrets file
• Tweak Leopard to your liking!

For more reading about this: lifehacker.com

Clone Your Hard Drive

BartPE is a great program, but the truth is you only need SysLinux with some free cloning program. So how do you clone your hard drive for future recovery?

The hard part is done for you! Download and Burn on CD

Speed Up FireFox!

Firefox is fast but can be faster! Depending on your situation, do the following:

1. If FireFox is running, you need to close it. Copy the instructions into WordPad then close FireFox
2. Run Notepad
3. Click File->Open and change the (Files of type) to (All files)
4. Navigate to:
   C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER NAME\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\SPECIAL NUMBER.default
5. Select the file prefs.js
6. Click Save As, and Save it as prefs.js_Backup
7. Re-open prefs.js
8. Paste the following code at the end of the file:
   • IF YOU HAVE FAST COMPUTER AND FAST INTERNET CONNECTION:
     1. user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
     2. user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
     3. user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
     4. user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
     5. user_pref("plugin.expose_full_path", true);
     6. user_pref("ui.submenuDelay", 0);
     7. user_pref("content.interrupt.parsing", true);
     8. user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 2250000);
     9. user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
     10. user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
     11. user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
     12. user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
     13. user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 48);
     14. user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 16);
     15. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 16);
     16. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 8);
     17. user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);
   • IF YOU HAVE FAST COMPUTER, SLOWER CONNECTION:
     1. user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
     2. user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
     3. user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
     4. user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
     5. user_pref("plugin.expose_full_path", true);
     6. user_pref("ui.submenuDelay", 0);
     7. user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 2250000);
     8. user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
     9. user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
     10. user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
     11. user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 48);
     12. user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 16);
     13. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 16);
     14. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 8);
     15. user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
     16. user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);
   • IF YOU HAVE FAST COMPUTER, SLOW CONNECTION:
     1. user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
     2. user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
     3. user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
     4. user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
     5. user_pref("plugin.expose_full_path", true);
     6. user_pref("ui.submenuDelay", 0);
     7. user_pref("browser.xul.error_pages.enabled", true);
     8. user_pref("content.interrupt.parsing", true);
     9. user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 3000000);
     10. user_pref("content.maxtextrun" 8191);
     11. user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
     12. user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
     13. user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
     14. user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 32);
     15. user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 8);
     16. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 8);
     17. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 4);
     18. user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
     19. user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);
   • IF YOU HAVE SLOW COMPUTER, FAST CONNECTION:
     1. user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
     2. user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
     3. user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
     4. user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
     5. user_pref("plugin.expose_full_path", true);
     6. user_pref("ui.submenuDelay", 0);
     7. user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 3000000);
     8. user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
     9. user_pref("content.notify.interval", 1000000);
     10. user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
     11. user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 1000000);
     12. user_pref("content.maxtextrun", 4095);
     13. user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 1000);
     14. user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 48);
     15. user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 16);
     16. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 16);
     17. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 8);
     18. user_pref("dom.disable_window_status_change", true);

Microsoft Windows Luna/Zune/Royale Themes

The original Microsoft Windows Luna/Zune/Royale themes.
Download

Windows Live (Mail/Messenger/Writer/Photo) Installers

When you want to install one of the following:

1. Windows Live Messenger
2. Windows Live Mail
3. Windows Live Writer
4. Windows Live Photo

You have to download a small online installation file (WLinstaller.exe), but where are the standalone installers?
Download and save the below original installation files, next time you want to install any of the above on another machine or reinstall them, you don't need to be under the mercy of Microsoft Online Installer (WLinstaller.exe).

Download The Standalone Installers - Originals from download.microsoft.com:

1. Windows Live Messenger - 8.5.1302.1018 (Download)
2. Windows Live Mail - (Download)
3. Windows Live Writer - (Download)
4. Windows Live Sign-in Assistant - (Download)
5. Windows Live Photo Gallery - (Download)

Check Hotmail using Outlook Without Subscription

For people who have Microsoft Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007, Microsoft has released a free utility for Microsoft Outlook called "Microsoft Office Outlook Connector" that allows you to Read/Write emails from your Windows Live Hotmail account using Microsoft Office Outlook WITHOUT Live Hotmail Plus subscription
Download Outlook Connector
OR
Click Here
Microsoft Office Outlook Connector only works with Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007. Earlier version of Microsoft Outlook and also Outlook Express won't work.

Configuring:

Install soft Office Outlook Connector


After soft Office Outlook Connector has been installed, a menu option (Outlook Connector) is added in Outlook:


Click on Outlook Connector menu option , choose "Add a new Account..." and just fill up the email information - user name and password.