Welcoming back my laptop

So I'm welcoming back my laptop after a few fatal errors and I'm pleased to report that everything is working relatively smooth. That being said, lets get the ball rolling with some more of the Rainmeter/Objectdock awesomeness.




Rainmeter is a tough one to get the hang of, but once you get the basics it's enough to work with. If you want to get Rainmeter and start tweaking things yourself, click here.

That should take you straight to the Rainmeter home page and from there you can guess where the actual download is... (Hint: It's probably on the page titled Downloads)


Once you download it and get it installed you might be wondering where to go and what to do to make it personal and awesome. Well I'm getting to that... Soon... In the mean time you need the basics of how to use what you've got.

The only way to open and close different Rainmeter objects is to right click. This can be especially annoying when the object is 10pt txt without anything big to click on. Opening skins is kind of tricky too, you've gotta right click and go down to Rainmeter Menu>Configs>[skin name here]>[object name here]

That'll let you adjust which pieces you have open and which pieces you want to get rid of. I personally don't know enough about Rainmeter yet to adjust colors or anything fancy like that so my outlook is to mix and match pieces of different skins/configs to make something I can enjoy. Where do I find more skins and neat stuff like that? Right here.

Now that you know where to get them, how do you go about installing them? Some of them come in the form of a .rmskin file which is self installing and will make your life easy. More often though, they will come in the form of .zip files that need to be exctracted to My Documents>Rainmeter>Skins

Once they're in there, refresh Rainmeter by either restarting it or right clicking like the step mentioned above.

Now you're well on your way to improving your UI and an overall sense of euphoria, enjoy.

Anatomy of a WoW character

Reality is a horrible place that only those who are dead inside enjoy. Even if you're not into gaming per say there is something in everyone's life that helps them cope with the outside world by way of imagination. My current addiction, just like twelve million other people, is World of Warcraft. While basically everyone has heard of it, most don't understand it which seems like a perfect opportunity to show everyone the anatomy of a WoW character. (Not the actual physical anatomy... Let's be real here, that'd be weird.)




The first and best part about the game is probably the sweet looking gear you can collect throughout a career of questing your way around the world and battling those who'd seek to destroy it. This is my most recent character, a warrior named Hamoorabi (pun totally intended). Out of the six years playing the game and trying just about every class I decided to get back to my beginings and reroll another warrior. My old account got permabanned for credit card theft because I gave it to a friend during one of my quitting phases and so I had to rebuild at the beginning of the previous expansion. Anywho, the picture above shows off the neat visual aspect of my character's gear.





This next part is where things get a bit tricky. See generally each class has three different sets of talent tree's that help determine what role your character will play. My spec (specialization) above is built for Tanking which basically means that I stand in front of the group and cause enough threat to get baddies to attack me instead of the group. Now for most that would seem counter intuitive right? Getting hit is bad? Well normally you'd be correct except that tanks are built to withstand the hardest hits in the game and with the help of a few good teammates live through the encounters. A Tank's job is to hold the attention of enemies and mitigate as much damage as possible with stats like Block, Dodge, Parry, and Stamina but we'll get to those in a minute.




Stats are the biggest part of the game. You can't kill anything unless your stats are built the right way. That being said my warrior's stats (shown above) are relatively average or slightly above average. Stats vary from Strength and Stamina to Intellect and Spirit all the way to more intricate things like Hit Rating and Expertise. Now I won't get too technical here because this is supposed to be for people who don't know anything about WoW but I will say that this part of the game is the most intense. Boss fights? Pretty interesting. Game mechanics? Challenging. Abilities and skills? Tough to learn but simple once understood. Character stats? Nerdgasm. Imagine a gearhead tuning his car to run better on an open downpipe to make it faster. That's the general idea behind character stats. The more you understand and fine tune them the better your character will be.

Rainmeter and Objectdock create interesting visuals

There are a number of cool visual effects in just about everything except radio and to be honest, I'm a huge fan of neat looking things. The picture above is a few tweaks I made to my desktop interface which you might think "That doesn't seem too impressive..." but what you may not know is that its actually running Windows 7.

Rainmeter is responsible for all the need gadgets in the top right corner which are actually functional widgets form fit to what I want to know about my system. The big gauge looking thing is actually a clock that displays the time and date. Next to it are a few other gadgets like network traffic and ram/cpu usage along with hard drive activity.






Along with the neat visual effects of the desktop, switching between windows in full screen is subject to the classic alt tab function OR you can use the windows key + tab which is much cooler in my opinion. (Windows key + tab function shown above)




This is the interface I set up for my laptop. Same thing as the one at the top utilizing Rainmeter and Objectdock, though the dock and the icons are much cooler on this one in my opinion.

There are plenty of resources out there on the web about how to build your own Rainmeter gadgets and where to find premades. The same applies to Objectdock.

Netgear N600

Recently I came into possession of a second-hand gaming rig that used to belong to my little brother. He moved in with us a few weeks back and his spare desktop was of no use to him any more so he passed it along to me. I don't know if that means I'm keeping it but in the mean time its definitely keeping me entertained.

Of course all good things have a downside, just as all bad things have an upside. The only major problem with having a desktop is that I don't have a cat6 cable that goes to my room any more because the xbox in the living room needed a connection and I was running my laptop on its stock wireless connection.

The problem here wasn't that I couldn't get a connection, more so that I didn't have the means to make it happen. Luckily, my dad was cool enough to grab a wireless adapter for me.

Long story short, now I'm in business with a bitchin sweet wireless adapter from Netgear. Normally, I'd recommend a linksys product but I have to say Netgear really nailed it with the N600.

Unlike most wireless adapters the N600 doesn't have the standard issue flaws commonly found with wireless products. Setup is really made idiot proof in the software that comes with the device. Really the only hard part about setting this up is finding a spot to put the Velcro to position the device. It's only a little bigger than a thumb drive which is nice because having a giant 56k looking thing on your desk is almost taboo with things like the N600 on the market not to mention it makes it that much easier to attach to a wall, desk or secret compartment.

There is one small problem I've found though. It likes to share IP settings with my laptop and sometimes that gets a little on the irritating side but usually all it needs is a quick reboot and its golden, not that I should be using my laptop and my desktop that the same time, it was just something I noticed.

Photshop Hell

So in the past couple of weeks I've been attempting to use photoshop and lets just say it hasn't been easy.

After sitting in the production room long after class is over, I finally figured out how to do what I wanted. Then after I figured out how to do it, I had issues doing it correctly. A few attempts later I finally got to a draft I felt comfortable sending to print.

You may have also noticed the new graphics on my blog here.... An extension of photoshop hell.

Guess who's watching you

I talk a lot about security and protecting yourself on the internet, which most people may see as excessive. I understand that it might seem that way but I was wandering the vast landscape of the internet and to my surprise/disgust I found another service that helps people look at you and what you're doing around the web.

It's bad enough that social networks create a privacy risk, but what's worse is that now more than ever people are seeking to exploit that risk. Some people seek to make the exploitation easier by gathering all the information they can from these networks and wrapping it complete with a bow just to send it off to some unknown person who's intent might be to steal your identity or at the very least check in on you (i.e. government agencies, employers, classmates, etc.).

The service I'm talking about specifically is http://www.peekyou.com/.

Now don't get me wrong, this service does serve a legitimate purpose in helping people find old friends or what have you but the risk involved is not worth the headache.

As much as I hate to admit it, there are those in the nerdish community that use things like this to stalk people, steal their information, and do generally malicious things. Not all hackers are evil and seek to do these things, but there are those employed by nefarious data mining companies that will. It's bad enough that people can't get anywhere on the internet without signing up for some kind of service that requires a lot of personal information, which often times gets sold to research/data mining companies but now we have the issue of people collecting all of our contact/social information.

Do this at least once in your life if you happen to get bored or if you're just generally concerned about your privacy...

Go to Google
Type in your name (First, middle initial, Last)
Hit search and see what comes up.

If by some off chance you don't see your information anywhere, add your date of birth or the city you live in to the search. I can almost guarantee that your facebook/myspace/linked in/twitter profiles will be among the results. Unless of course you've taken the advice to give out false information for things of that nature which by the way is the safest option unless you're doing some kind of banking in which case you need to make sure your information is accurate because not only is it important, generally all banks take security very seriously and won't sell your information.

So what's the 'to long; didn't read' of all this? Go get yourself taken off of these sites because the proverbial 'they' are watching.

Safety not stupidity

Last week I mentioned that the best way to keep your pc safe is to PAY ATTENTION to what you're doing. This week I'm going to explain a bit about what I meant.

In the sea of data we call the internet, there are perils just like in the real world. Scavengers seeking to steal your information, people looking into what you're doing, and even tiny bytes of programming that seek to crash your computer for no other reason than to piss you off.

First up let's talk about phishing scams. Phishing is a practice commonly used to steal credit card information, facebook accounts, service accounts etc. The easiest way to avoid phishing scams is to pay close attention to the way they're delivered. Most of the time it's done through e-mail which will either have strange wording, threats, or "security" concerns which prompt the recipient to do something like log into a bogus website or reply with sensitive information like a bank account number or something along those lines. Most of the time these e-mails look legitimate enough to cause some concern which is how most people get tricked into doing what the message tells them. So how can you avoid these kind of attacks? Simply by instead of clicking links, or sending secure information to some random e-mail account, go directly to the services website. Sometimes you'll still end up on a bogus website so the easiest way to double check is click on a secondary link in the page itself. If it goes through, you're probably in the right place and you're ok to log in. If the link doesn't work its probably a scam and you need to check your address bar for the correct url.


The next most horrible thing people fall victim to is advertising on web pages. The only thing I can really say is that most of these are totally fake and should be ignored. You most likely will NOT get a free Xbox or a diamond ring or points for your Facebook game. Just avoid these things entirely even if they seem legitimate. If you're genuinely interest in a product go Google it and see what comes up. Be very cautious though, many website impersonate legitimate companies.


Third, STAY AWAY FROM PORN. Most viruses are spread through porn sites because they're generally the most used and easily corrupted. Go out to a bar or something and try to get laid by a physical being for a change.

Lastly make sure you never give out more information than you have to. E-mail addresses and names are usually enough to get you set up with an account on a legitimate website, some require more but usually its better to give fake information than your physical address, phone number or sometimes even your gender.

Free and easy things you can do to help protect your PC

The number one problem people have with their computers seems to be malicious software infecting their system, right? Right.

Good news! There are free solutions to help you stay protected from unwanted jackassery in your system.

Solution number one is a feature built into Windows 7 called Malicious Software Removal Tool but we'll call it MRT for short.

The simplest way to find it is cruising on down to your start button (the little blue one with the windows flag on it... yeah that one.)



Once you get through this part of it, the rest is simple (Which if you consider that difficult, perhaps you should just step away from the keyboard).



As the above screenshot shows, THIS IS NOT MEANT TO REPLACE ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE. It's mostly to give you an extra piece of armor. The more you scan the safer you'll be with or without antivirus software.

Two clicks later you're scanning!




The next thing you can do to help build your almost impenetrable fortress of solitude is check out Malwarebytes Anti-Malware or MBAM. There are a couple of crap websites out there impersonating the actual website so here's a screenshot that shows the legit website so you know where you're going.



Mbam is a pretty decent program and its free! Well kind of. Its free for its basic functions like scanning but you have to pay for it to get all the fancy stuff like real time protection.

Short of having legitimate antivirus software (good luck finding some)these solutions should at least help prevent computer meltdowns. The best solution however is to PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU'RE DOING, while you're on your computer.

Upgrades that don't require more than plug and play

I'll be honest with you folks, I'm a World of Warcraft player. I play on and off, but even when I'm not playing WoW I'm usually playing something else like Counter-Strike: Source, or Killing Floor. That being said I almost never play solo which means I'm either using in game chat, Ventrilo, or Mumble.

Last December shortly after Christmas I decided it was time to change a few things to make my laptop a little more gaming friendly.

I thought to myself "How can I make this better without spending a bunch of money on internals?" and the answer I came up with was simple: new external parts.

Most people when they hear gaming upgrades think graphics cards, motherboards, RAM etc. when really unless you're trying to build a gaming rig all you need are a couple simple tweaks to make your average PC more gaming friendly.

First on my list was a headset. I cannot stress enough how hard it is to find a decent one that will last more than a couple months. Walmart used to carry some cheaply made ones that worked for a while but would end up losing a connection somewhere in the cord rendering them completely useless. At $20 a pop it wasn't so horrible every couple months to go get a new pair but over time it adds up so instead I decided to go with a higher quality pair made by Plantronics. The Plantronics GameCom 367 Closed-Ear Gaming Headset is a BEASTLY set of headphones let me just say. I was so excited when I cracked these monkey's open I couldn't wait to turn the volume all the way up and listen to some Parkway Drive. The 40mm speakers make for ridiculously amazing volume along with the noise canceling foam around the ear pieces. The mic is hidden in the left side of the connecting band and flips down when you need it. One thing that makes these headphones special is that they're stereo headphones but they have a unique balancing property that lets you hear different things in each speaker depending on how the music is mixed or whats going on in your game of choice.






Second thing on my list was a new mouse. A simple three button mouse is cool... if you like getting your face torn off by zombies or smashed in by some 10 year old kid playing a Paladin. For this reason it was imperative I found something with a few extra buttons and better response. I really didn't want to go with a Logitech or Microsoft mouse because often times they're products while good, are over priced. I went with a relatively cheap solution to my problem, the Gear Head Wireless Optical Tilt-Wheel Mouse. This mouse is good for what it is but I found a couple problems with it. The software that comes with it wouldn't load in windows 7 under compatibility mode or just in general. Tech support on the Gear Head website was practically non-responsive and when they did finally get back to me, they referred me to 1 of 3 posts on their website I had already read to no avail. Another problem I found with it was that when the batteries got low the buttons randomly assigned themselves to opening Firefox and MS Outlook making them entirely useless for the purpose intended when I bought it. A simple change of batteries oddly enough fixed that problem. All in all it's a decent product if you're not concerned with assigning buttons outside of a game.





Outside of those two things I bought a USB hub which has nothing to do with gaming but makes it easier to turn my two port laptop into a 5 port beast. I don't really want to talk about that because to be honest, the thing was kind of a piece of junk.

The good news however is that now my laptop is much more gaming friendly and I'm a much more sane person because of it. Remember kids, kill zombies not real people.

I'm Back!

Winter vacation is over and its time to get back to finding neat stuff in the tech world to bring back to all three of you reading this!So lets start with a neat gadget you might find useful for accessing all of your media on your phone remotely, even if you have a stupid phone(non-smartphone).

Most people now have Droid or iPhones, but what about the rest of us who are stuck with phones who are more closely related to our grandparents? Well the solution isn't entirely simple but if you can bring your self to focus your attention span we'll see about getting you set up with a program called Orb.

First up you'll need to visit the Orb home page to download the orb software and install it. Then it will open a wizard to help you set everything up, just follow the directions.

Now once you have the software installed and set up you still have a few tweaks to make. Go down to the system tray and double click the little green orb icon. This brings up the Orb control panel where you'll need to go to the 'Users' tab to add your media folders and enable your remote access aspect of it. Once you check the box it should bring up a menu that will let you set up your login for this next byte.

Once you have everything set up that way you can now go to any phone or pc and access all of the folders you selected through the wizard. Just go to mycast.orb.com to browse through and stream your media

Log in> browse > stream > enjoy!