Since I began using Wordpress in my site, I was very annoyed when using Code Tags formatting in my posts because sometimes I copy and paste text to the Wordpress visual editor and it always makes a mess with the formatting.

I had to write all the text I wanted to post instead of just pasting it. But now i found a great little program called Wordpress Code Marker-Upper in this site.

You just paste the code you want to post and it does the formatting and copies the code back to the clipboard. Now you can paste the code in Wordpress and it works great. What a time saver.

I hope Wordpress developers get this right in the next versions because it really is annoying.

A few weeks ago, it happened to me that after doing some unattended installations, when i first ran IE7 (all installations were Windows Vista) the Runonce page didn’t show up as usual. Instead it was giving out an error like this:

An HTTP error occurred while getting:

http://runonce.msn.com/runonce2.aspx

Details: “connect timed out”.

The reason is yet to be known but apparently the site is having problems, as i read on some sites yesterday that the problems is growing and it is intermittent, meaning that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

I have a quick fix if you are running new installations or running Internet Explorer for the first time.

Simply copy this text and save it as somename.reg and double click on the newly created file to merge its contents to the registry.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
“RunOnceHasShown”=dword:00000001
“RunOnceComplete”=dword:00000001

If you use Outlook 2007, maybe you will like this gadgets which shows the Upcoming Appointments and Tasks in the Windows Sidebar so you can take a look at your schedule without opening Outlook.

Check them out.

Outlook Upcoming Appointments

Outlook Tasks

As many of you know, the 2.0 and 3.0 versions are installed as OS components on Windows Vista and do not appear in the Programs and Features (formerly known as Add/Remove Programs) control panel.

If you run into problems using .NET Framework applications on Windows Vista, and you suspect that files or registry entries that are a part of the .NET Framework 2.0 or 3.0 are corrupt, you can use the instructions listed below to attempt to repair them.

Repairing .NET Framework 2.0/3.0 files on Windows Vista

1. Click on the Start menu, choose All Programs, then Accessories, then right-click on the Command Prompt item and select Run as administrator
2. Click Continue to authorize opening a command prompt with administrative privileges
3. Run this command in the cmd prompt: sfc /scannow
4. The cmd prompt should list text stating “Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.”
5. Wait for the scan to complete (this can take several minutes so be patient)
6. When the scan completes, the SFC tool will indicate whether or not it found any integrity violations and offer you the chance to fix any that are found

Unfortunately, there is not an easy way of repairing the registry keys/values that are installed by Windows Vista like there is for files. If you want to try to repair the registry keys/values that are a part of the .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.0, you will need to run Windows Vista OS setup again and repair the OS.

Source: Aaron Stebner’s WebLog

Since the introduction of ICHR8 Intel made some core improvements to the new AHCI interface for SATA devices.

If you don’t know what AHCI is, it provides better power managements features, hot-plug functionality and other enhancements to SATA devides such as hard drives and optical drives. Even some sites claim that AHCI provides more performance over standard controllers.

Intel has more information about AHCI.

If your BIOS supports it, you can turn on AHCI mode, but if you are currently running windows you can get into trouble and your current installation won’t boot.

So, if you want to turn on AHCI mode, you first need to enable the AHCI driver in Windows Vista before changing it in the BIOS. Read how to enable it here.

Basically, you just need to change a registry key in order to avoid a BSOD with the message STOP 0×0000007B INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE when enabling AHCI.

I will enable it as soon as i get another HDD to use a RAID 0 for Vista.

If you use the Quick Launch bar for storing your most frequent programs, you can have large icons displayed instead of the smaller ones that it have by default.

To make it possible just follow this easy instructions:

• Unlock the taskbar by right-clicking on it and unchecking Lock the Taskbar.
• Go to an empty space in the taskbar and right-click on it to select View - Show Large Icons.
• Lock the taskbar by right-clicking on it and checking Lock the Taskbar.

Now it will show 32×32 pixels icons instead of the default size, which is 16×16.

This is an easy tip, but many people doesn’t know this already.

This is an interesting read about a teenager who broke into Media Defender’s servers and stole information. Media Defender is a company that monitors p2p traffic looking for ways to stop sharing of particular files, be it movies, songs, etc. Recording and Motion Picture companies hires them.

It shows that every effort made by the industry is frustrated by hackers and pirates around the world.

I think that instead of suing users and trying to fill the network with bogus files of their products, they need to rethink their strategy when it comes to online stores, digital rights management and so on.

Read Article

If you are looking for or need a software firewall, there a few choices when it comes to freeware.

Comodo Firewall Pro is the best free firewall i have tested. I has a nice set of features, the interface is good and has options for averyone. I read also that it has passed some standard tests before so it can protect you against know network attacks.

Download