Making no SENSe again

The System Event Notification Service stopped working again late last night. K asked me to sleep and work on it today when I got back to the office.

I had a bad experience with this problem in the past. No network, no System Restore, no anything. I worked until I felt tired. This morning, I was awaken by the honking of dad'd Mercedes.

I saw people gathering outside the office and I decided to skip breakfast and open the door. I forgot the alarm code and the alarm sounded. Ms. Ng who just arrived entered the correct code to disable the alarm.

I bought some buns for breakfast. No the best choice for breakfast but the nasi lemak stall was not open (mental note: it is not open on Monday.)

Then I did some digging. I found this. I wonder how I missed this in the past?

So, no need to format. I am connected to the internet. I am back in business. As I told my KPY, Google and me make a powerful combination.

Praise God!

Not Being God’s Friend/Fan on Facebook | Think Christian

Not Being God’s Friend/Fan on Facebook | Think Christian

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Do not take things for granted - Drag and Drop

Do you Drag and Drop? I do. And I do it very often too. I Drag and Drop files from one folder to another. I Drag and Drop mails from one folder to another. I Drag and Drop many times a day.

Some times, I lose the Drag and Drop functionality. The mouse still works. Of course, I can still right click to Copy or Move, right click on the destination and then select Paste. But it's very frustrating when something you do in one cool mouse gesture now requires so many clicks.

Today, it happens two times. I logged off and logged in again and it didn't work. I restarted the machine to regain the D&D ability. Then it is gone again!

I have checked many websites with many different opinions on this. Some suggested spyware, worms, etc. I don't think I have any. I trust Kaspersky and Advanced System Care very much. In this aspect, I adhere to the adage that you use what you trust and trust what you use. Otherwise, don't use. Same with people. If you 'use' ('use' here means delegate, ask for help, depend, etc. Not the commonly used 'used' when it comes to people) someone, don't doubt. If you doubt, don't use. But I digress.

Some people also suggest re-registration of the DDE DLL. Some suggested to reinstall Windows. No way.

Then I found this Tech Arp article. My Escape key was stuck! I pressed it once to release it and I am back to may all powerful able to Drag and Drop self.

Thanks. I didn't have to pull out any of my already scarce hair.

Praise God!

Comparison Chart of Free Online Storage and Backup Software

Comparison Chart of Free Online Storage and Backup Software

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Porn on your PC?

Pastor Richard Toh spoke about how easy porn can get into one's PC even when one is not looking for it. He said we would read our mails and an embarrassing image could appear on our screen before we got a chance to delete it.

Consider the case of Ms. Amero, who suffered a miscarriage and the shame of having her teaching license revoked because a malware caused a PC to show unbecoming images to a class of students. And oh, she has to pay a USD 100 fine. She originally faced 40 years in jail.

The IT Manager claimed the virus protection was updated weekly even though the product was discontinued by the developer 6 months before. It is this kind of people that brings shame to the profession.

Read more about the tragedy here.

I could use one of these emergency chargers

Check out this nifty little thing. It charges major phones, smart phones (mini USB), iPhones and portable gaming consoles. And it can double as a bright source of light for 5 hours!

It sells for USD32.

Free shipping! Ask for my address if you want to buy it for me. Or you can just receive it and pass it to me.

The original post is here.

What The Church Should Learn from Google

What The Church Should Learn from Google

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Having no SENSe

On the fateful day in June, I gave my consent for Vista to apply the latest security patches like I always do. I set Windows Update to download automatically but ask me before doing any updates. Normally, I just want to know what's being updated before I ok it.

It was a different experience that day. After the update, the machine restarted (again, with my permission) but it could not start properly. There is no network and lots of things are NOT working.

I did a lot of digging in the web. I went down to the server to Google for a solution since my notebook could not connect to anywhere. I was appalled to find that many share the same fate. Some even reverted / downgraded back to Windows XP out of frustration.

I kinda like Windows Vista even thought it's sluggish with 2 GB. After trying some suggestions to no avail, I formatted my C:\ drive and reinstalled every thing. My data in in D:\ so no major problems with data loss.

Due to the problem arising during the upgrade, SENS (the System Event Notification Service) could not start anymore. A lot of other services are dependent on SENS. If SENS is not running, they don't run. These services include Event Log (I could not find out what went wrong), the System Restore (I could not undo the damage), DHCP (I could not connect to the network and hence dropped 90% in my resourceful index), among others.

It was the first time I had such painful experience stemming from an innocent Windows Update from Microsoft. Who woulda thunk it?

With no SENS(e), I had time to think while re-installing the notebook.

1. Communication is key. A notebook that cannot connect to a network is pretty useless to me.
2. It's not nice to be isolated.
3. Do not take things for granted. I must have applied Windows Updates hundreds of times. I never expected it to cause any problems, much less a problem of this magnitude.
4. Do on depend on our own ability (or notebook) for it can and will fail us. (Refer to Murphy's Law.)
5. Only God can be trusted.

I pride myself as an IT-savvy person. People turn to me for help and advice (these are the poor folks who don't know anyone better, hehe.) But I was stumped then.

Today, my Dell notebook is running along fine (albeit jogging would be a better fit to the speed it's moving along.) I hope I will not get another such episode. But I will not be surprised anymore.

Jeff Han's amazing multitouch interface

This is just amazing. Did I say it's amazing? It is amazing.

Jeff Han presented a computer interface which can do away with the keyboard and mouse.

Taka a look here.

I can't wait for it.

10 Biggest Flops of the Computer Industry

Check it out here.



Yes, they were failures. But they paved the way for some of the most significant innovations in the computing world.

It's funny to see OS/2 Warp and Windows ME side by side. One is a superior product failed because of inept marketing. The other a lousy product helped by marketing hype.

California suing carmakers over global warming

I kid you not. The state of California sued six of the biggest car manufacturers in the world, charging that greenhouse gases from their vehicles have caused billions of dollars in damages.

The car manufacturers named include General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Daimler Chrysler (US), Honda (North America) and Nissan (North America).

This is the first lawsuit of its kind. It may not amount to much. But it may and can get the car manufacturers to be more considerate of the environment.

Many of them are already investing in R&D to develop 'greener' cars. Honda has a Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) model called the FCX which emits nothing but water vapour.

I have here the list of the 10 greenest cars of 2006:

Make and Model	Specifications a	Green Score
HONDA INSIGHT	1.0L 3, auto CVT	57
HONDA CIVIC GX	1.7L 4, auto CVT [CNG] c	57
TOYOTA PRIUS	1.5L 4, auto CVT	55
HONDA CIVIC HYBRID	1.3L 4, auto CVT	53
TOYOTA COROLLA	1.8L 4, manual	46
HYUNDAI ACCENT	1.6L 4, manual	45
KIA RIO / RIO 5	1.6L 4, manual	45
HONDA CIVIC	1.8L 4, auto	44
MAZDA 3	2.0L 4, manual	44
PONTIAC VIBE / TOYOTA MATRIX d	1.8L 4, manual	44
CHEVROLET COBALT	2.2L 4, manual	43
SATURN ION	2.2L 4, manual	43

and the top 10 cars that damages the environment the most in 2006:

Make and Model	Specifications	Green Score
DODGE RAM SRT10	8.3L 10, auto [P]	12
LAMBORGHINI MURCIELAGO	6.2L 12, manual 4wd [P]	16
BENTLEY ARNAGE	6.8L 8, auto [P]	17
DODGE DURANGO	4.7L 8, auto 4wd c	17
DODGE RAM 1500	4.7L 8, auto 4wd c	17
MAYBACH 57S	6.0L 12, auto [P]	17
HUMMER H2 b	6.0L 8, auto 4wd	18
FERRARI F141	5.9L 12, manual [P]	18
FORD F-250 b	5.4L 8, auto 4wd	18
GMC YUKON XL K2500 b	6.0L 8, auto 4wd	18
VOLKSWAGEN TOUAREG	4.2L 8, auto stk 4wd [P]	18
CHEVROLET SUBURBAN K2500 b	6.0L 8, auto 4wd	19

8.3L?

Are all these too little too late?

USB Cell?

Since the introduction of Universal Serial Bus (USB) in 1995, connecting devices to our PCs (or Apples) have become so simple. We need not worry about the type of ports (9-pin or 25? Serial or Parallel?). It's all one uniform port - the USB. In 2000, USB 2.0 improves the transfer speed a lot. Beginning from Windows 2000 and Windows XP, most USB devices require NO installation! Wow. We can now easily connect mice, keyboards, printers, cameras, thumb drives, MP3 players and use them without any hassle.

Just when we think we have everything we need in USB, this came in USB Cell! Wow!

Sneak peak of the new Microsoft.com

Take a look at the future website. It only works with Internet Explorer.

He will lead us into the new era!

Read this blog.

I have it here in its entirety. What will we do without Senator Ted Stevens?

Thursday, 29 June 2006

Your Own Personal Internet

The Senate Commerce Committee deadlocked 11 to 11 on an amendment inserting some very basic net neutrality provisions into a moving telecommunications bill. The provisions didn't prohibit an ISP from handling VOIP faster than emails, but would have made it illegal to handle its own VOIP packets faster than a competitor's.

Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) explained why he voted against the amendment and gave an amazing primer on how the internet works.

There's one company now you can sign up and you can get a movie delivered to your house daily by delivery service. Okay. And currently it comes to your house, it gets put in the mail box when you get home and you change your order but you pay for that, right.

But this service isn't going to go through the interent and what you do is you just go to a place on the internet and you order your movie and guess what you can order ten of them delivered to you and the delivery charge is free.

Ten of them streaming across that internet and what happens to your own personal internet?

I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?

Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially.

So you want to talk about the consumer? Let's talk about you and me. We use this internet to communicate and we aren't using it for commercial purposes.

We aren't earning anything by going on that internet. Now I'm not saying you have to or you want to discrimnate against those people [...]

The regulatory approach is wrong. Your approach is regulatory in the sense that it says "No one can charge anyone for massively invading this world of the internet". No, I'm not finished. I want people to understand my position, I'm not going to take a lot of time. [?]

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.

It's a series of tubes.

And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Now we have a separate Department of Defense internet now, did you know that?

Do you know why?

Because they have to have theirs delivered immediately. They can't afford getting delayed by other people.

[...]

Now I think these people are arguing whether they should be able to dump all that stuff on the internet ought to consider if they should develop a system themselves.

Maybe there is a place for a commercial net but it's not using what consumers use every day.

It's not using the messaging service that is essential to small businesses, to our operation of families.

The whole concept is that we should not go into this until someone shows that there is something that has been done that really is a viloation of net neutraility that hits you and me.

The full audio can be found here.

(Hat Tip: Art Brodsky)

I love Google too

Alex, 12 year-old girl from US wrote this. Apparently, she got 106/100 for her effort.

Google has been such an integral part of my internet experience, which in turn has been such an integral part of my life, I understand what Alex tried to say in the closing of her essay.

You can see it in her blog. I am keeping the original colour.

Nine out of ten times when I use my computer I find myself interacting with Google’s products including Search, Froogle, Google News, Gmail, Google Earth, and the Google Toolbar. What do I like about these products? They make finding different types of information extremely easy. Google has different search engines that I use to find all the information I need, whether it’s a website, new article or an item for sale. I also use Google to communicate with my friends, answer simple questions, and find locations. It’s not just I like these products; I also find them extremely useful, making Google the center of my internet world!

Google’s user interface (human computer interactions) is clear, easy to use and understandable. Search boxes are located at the top and bottom of every page making a constant and reliable interface. Changing search phrases is common for me, so I like knowing where the closest box is going to be. I love Google because when I do a search, the advertisements are clearly marked. Advertisements are consistently displayed on the right hand side, don’t take up too much room. I think Google’s simplistic, non-cluttered look makes it easier to use than other search engines.

In addition to searching websites, Google also has news and product search. Google News makes finding articles extremely easy. Articles from all the popular news websites are gathered together and then made searchable. This puts all the news you could ever want in one place, at Google News. I use Google News mostly for current events homework and other research. Similar to Google News, Froogle gathers products for sale into one searchable place, providing “smart shopping”. I like Froogle because after you type in a product name you can narrow your search by categories. The categories range from price, to seller ratings, to brands. I really think the categories are useful and they help me filter the merchandise correctly to find what I’m looking for. I use Froogle a lot during the holiday season to make gift lists. Google News and Froogle both return multiple pages of perfect results. I find all of Google’s search engines to be simple, efficient, and to have ultimate speed.

Sometimes what I’m looking for is the answer to a short question. Google Search has the perfect features for me. When I want to know what the weather will be like, I simply type “weather Seattle” into the search box. Google answers my question by giving me the forecast in Seattle for the next four days, the current temperature, and the humidity. Another common question I have is “What is someone’s phone number?” Google does a terrific job answering this question. All I have to do is type in “Jen, Brawn, Wa” into Google Search to get her phone number and address. To learn the definition of a word I type, “define: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia” and Google gives me the meaning of that word. These are three of my favorite short answer questions out of a list of over 20 that Google provides

Not all of Google’s products are directly related to searching. Some of them are internet tools like Gmail, and others are free downloads, like Google Toolbar and Google Earth. These are some of my favorite products. Google Toolbar lets you search the internet without first going to Google’s homepage. Other toolbar features that I use a lot are spell check and pop-up blocker. When I’m looking for a picture of my house, a map of my neighborhood, or a nearby park, I use Google Earth. I zoom in and out easily always getting clear pictures. The Google product that I use multiple times a day to check my email is Gmail. I like it because I have over 2,733.812316 megabytes of storage space. This way I will never have to delete another email message! Since I can have so much email, being able to search my emails makes it a lot easier to find an old message that I’m looking for.

Now you know how important Google is to me when I’m online or using my computer! Whether I’m finding a friend’s phone number or just checking my email, Google covers it all. Google has a product for everything and they’re so easy to use! I’m not sure if I could survive without Google and all of its products, they are just way to useful!

What if civil engineers build bridges the way developers write codes?

Chief Security Officer Mary Ann Davidson has hit out at an industry in which "most software people are not trained to think in terms of safety, security and reliability." Instead, they are wedded to a culture of "patch, patch, patch," at a cost to businesses of $59 billion, she said.

"What if civil engineers built bridges the way developers write code?" she asked. "What would happen is that you would get the blue bridge of death appearing on your highway in the morning."

She was speaking in the WWW2006 Conference in Edinburg, Scotland. She also thought that software developers will never build a plane.

See the whole news article here.

Top 10 Strangest Gadgets of the future (from TechEBlog)

Check this out!

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/top-10-strangest-gadgets-of-the-future

Who wouldn't want a transparent toaster? Or a foldable DVD player (see picture above)?

the Learner's Blog ranks 2/10

The Learner's Blog ranks 2 out of 10 in the Google PageRank Checker. Haha.

The higher the rank, the more significant or imporant the page is.

Picked this up from tehtarik.kurangmanis.net. It's ranked 3.