Much Ado About Everything

The other big problem I was having with my new PC is actually much worse than the first one (eSATA hotplug issue). Unlike that one, here I have no idea what was causing the problem. Basically, every time you plug in an external USB drive, no matter which one, the results are unpredictable. It may [...]

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I have had serious issues with hard drives on my main PC for months now. First was the issue when using hard drive dock. The way it worked on my old PC was like this: with the dock turned off and eSATA cable plugged into it and the PC, you plug the hard drive into [...]

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There are many articles on how to get  non-Windows machines to access Windows 7 shared files but I found it the hard way that there’s always something amiss. So here’s my take on it. First, if you have the ability to use Homegroups – then use them. While right now this is limited to networking [...]

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If you are serious about music, you are probably storing it in a lossless format. Most popular choices are FLAC, Apple lossless (M4A) and Windows Media Lossless (WMA); there is also Monkey’s Audio which isn’t as popular. All of these choices have advantages and drawbacks. Both WMA and M4A are proprietary and the only tool [...]

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In case someone does a google search and ends up here: I was able to flash firmware of my Vaio Z VGN-Z555DN laptop w/OCZ Agility SSD firmware to 1.4 using this convoluted procedure. First you must flash laptop BIOS to R2168M3 (if using Vaio series 5); prior version might work too. Then use the hack [...]

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Surprisingly enough, while Monoprice usually supplies great stuff at even better prices, they seem to have stumbled on this one.  So, their flat cables – of which I got two 3 feet and one 6 feet – do not work for me at 1080p or higher resolution.  I tried them from my laptop to a [...]

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Believe it or not, TVs have firmware too.  I owned my Sharp for close to 2 years now but just last week I decided to look up whether some of the issues I had were resolved.  Namely a missing line (I was able to see only 1079 instead of 1080) and an annoying issue with [...]

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It’s well known that only Vista Ultimate and Business have the Windows Remote Desktop server so that they can be remotely controlled.  Fair enough.  Just use VNC for a free alternative, right? Wrong.  But of course.  You should have expected that from Vista, no? Due to change in the security model, software like this does [...]

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Install the following updates – released on April 9 – only if you feel brave.  The KB948590 causes BSOD upon boot (OS will not boot).  And the KB938371 (the same one causing trouble some two months ago, in a slightly different edition probably!) will cause your mouse to stop working if you let the OS [...]

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Thank you AsRock!  I cannot claim to be the reason they came out with the BIOS update – can’t be the only person who sent a ticket to their support – but regardless it’s a good day, or rather a nice addition to a good day.  You can find the update on this page.

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