Truths in Dating and Why most men need to read this book!

Truths In Dating (Amazon Affiliate Link)

The simple truths that people rarely ask themselves or others.  Truth In Dating which captivates me to the extreme.

Some of the common questions that I have asked while reading this resolves around a certain young lady that I have been talking with the last few weeks:

• Is it wrong that I think your Cute?
• Is it wrong that I simply enjoy seeing your texts or you when you call? 
• Is it wrong that when your sick, I just want to wrap my arms around you and try to help.
• Is it wrong that I See a picture of you and the first thing I see is your eyes and that makes me smile? 
• Is it wrong to want you to be happy? 
• Is it wrong to ask God to bless you as much as he blessed me with just having you as a friend? 
• Is it wrong that I enjoy listening to the sound of your voice when we talk on the phone? 
• Is it wrong that you have been my muse the last few weeks with writing? 
• Is it wrong that I just want to hold you and never let go? 
• Is it wrong that I’m over joyed when you do something fantastic? 
• Is it wrong that I want to help you get the best job possible?

Not that it matters what people think about what I am writing because this blog has always been a way to put my thoughts in words and possibly help a few people if at all possible.   This book has already had an almost immediant impact in what I am doing in search for the right person.   I expect nothing to change in the next week or months but I am finally giving up the control of how to find a date.   I am going to be an open book to everyone who is my friend and hopefully I find that special someone.

When I started my journey on understanding about Singleness, I found that I needed to learn about being single and thus, I became single in one aspect and my heart grew even better because I started to see all these possiblities.   

Telling the truth

As with anything in life, something I have already gleemed from just a few chapters of this book is that you must start honestly with any relationship you have rather it is a friend or the love of your life.   Most people hide behind some reason why they do not want to be honest with someone.   Most of the time it is because they fear rejection and not wanting to loss this sense of control in how they approach this certain relationship.  I’ve learned through God that I have no control what so ever, he’s the only one that has all the control.   I am just doing his will.   

I’ve started reading this book “Truth In Dating (Amazon Affiliate Link) By Susan Campbell” last night and I have yet to finish but it has started me thinking of everything that I could do to make a lasting connection with that one person that I know God has for my life.  I strongly encourage you to read this book and decide for yourself.   You sure not going to regret the insights you learn from reading this book.   It will guide you on how you should be and why it is so important to be honest!

5 Ways to protect yourself on Kik Messenger!

Understanding the Kik Messenger!

The Kik Messenger is just a little app that allows people to chat without the need to share you phone number.   It has several things that help make people want to use Kik, and I am going to share some of them with you and hope that it helps you protect yourself from scammers.  With any messaging app, you will always have bots and scammers who only purpose in life is to steal your money or your identity.   It seems that I found a few that times when I wondered how they figure out my username.   it really wasn’t hard to find me on Kik, I seem to keep Something the same and you could find me to if your really wanted to.  

Don’t give out your Phone Number — It seems it is the easiest thing to do but if you give out your phone number to a complete stranger, you are just asking for trouble from people who are going to stalk you or harass you.  
Don’t give out specifics — until you really start to be friends it is something that should be in your head at all times.   Don’t tell them your personal stuff like where you actually work, or the exact model of your car.   If you have to answer them, just generalize it to the point that it would make it really hard for them to find you after that.   I wouldn’t say Lie to them but don’t speak the whole truth, until you are sure they are trustworthy.
Quick Repliers — If you find yourself getting almost instant replies from the sender, you can bet that it isn’t truely a person because even I can’t type that fast.   It does not mean people who reply with yes or no answer are bots because most people are quick with those.  if it is long text in under a minute, you can bet it is a bot!
Don’t share Pictures or Videos —  If you don’t want your friends to see the picture or video, you really shouldn’t share it to some unknown bot or person on the messenger app.   You really do not know who or What they will do with that stuff.   It could cause your embarrassment in the future.
Don’t click links — Unsolicited links are just going to probably get your infected and thus you shouldn’t click on any links or go to sites that that the person says unless you know about that site personally.   Just be careful what you do online and you are far better off!

If you use these tips, you are better off than before.   Just remember that you do not really know the person unless you meet them in person.   HOpe this helps!

How to Remove / Replace a Acer 5739(g) Keyboard!

Carefull not to break those wires!

So I did it!

I removed the keyboard.   The Acer 5739g Series, has been really durable for the past  few years and I still recommend them.  I searched all over the internet for directions and then I just decided to do it without looking around.   It was quite easy, and I thought it would be high time to do a post on how to remove that silly keyboard.   The Acer 5739G keyboard isn’t a big problem but it did take about 10 minutes to do.  

How to:

• Start by removing the battery!

There are a Total of 8 or 9 Screws you need to remove!

• Once you take the screws out on the back, which are the ones that are the top only where the power cover is.   You will not need to remove any of the screws on the bottom of the laptop only the 8 or 9 screws on the top.  2 of the screws are underneath the battery.

See Picture at the top of the post!

Once you have removed the screws and turned the laptop back over.   You should grab the the cover that is closest to the screen which is the cover that is towards the back it should be really easy to remove and not to difficult to remove.   If it seems to not want to budge, check again for any screws you might have missed.

If you still have difficulty figuring out how to pull that top cover off, you can use your thumbs and and forefinger to peel it up like I did with the picture.  

• Once you have the top of the cover off,  grab the keyboard and peel it back towards you carefully.   Making sure to disconnect the one little cord that tells the motherboard what your typing.   There should be a small latch that you just have to pull up to remove disconnect the cable.

When you plug in your cords you should not see this! You will should see the normal line indicating that the cords are secure!

• Replace with a brand new Acer 5739g Keyboard, I found mine on Amazon US for about 10$ to 15$ and you should have no problem installing it.  All you will need to do  is reverse the steps I just given you to secure the new keyboard to the laptop.  You can check Ebay for a cheaper keyboard if you are wanting to try to save even more money but it depends on who has them and how well you trust that vendor!

If you pull the cords off by accidents!

You’ll have two small cords that are the power signal cord and the wifi, media player cords.   When I first did this, I actually did this and it wasn’t a big problem.  You will just need to connect them back to their spots and before you screw in the top cover you should plug in your power cord and see lights.   if you see this, then unplug the cord and reposition the cords and making sure those snaps are push down.   Don’t push to hard but do it gently!

That’s it, after you do this you have a new keyboard for your laptop that should keep that laptop running to days to come.   I will also talk about how to remove the Mouse and installing a new hard drive in the coming weeks.   What you may want to consider when you need to fix some of the most common problems of a laptop. 

The Kyocera Rise Falling Apart Problem: How to fix it!

The Rise Falling Apart!

When I first wrote about My Kyocera Rise from Virgin Mobile.  I got a lot of people asking about if there was a fix for this without calling VM!  If yours is just coming apart from and you wondering how to fix it.  I am here to help.  I went back and got my VM phone before I mailed it off and looked it over.   I found the six screws that were supposed to hold it in place, most of them were missing.   I don’t know if it was the dropping of the phone that caused this or it being in my back pocket.  Some how those screws came loose and just came off the phone.   You will need to pop off the back cover of the phone to verify that it doesn’t have the four screws like you see in the picture above.   If it doesn’t have those screws then you can easily fix this without calling VM!

Found Screws!

I have Glasses and I am always having to repair and fix them.   So I had a 250pc Micro-Screw Assortment for Eyeglasses & watches.   I started looking around for the right size.   You basically start with the biggest and work your way to the smallest.   I don’t recall which ones I used but you will find the ones that will fit those four holes.   Once that is done just make sure to tighten those suckers, don’t break the head off the screw.  Just enough to keep it tight, if it seems to feel like it is loosening from time to time, just pop the back off  and tighten them some more.

What you will need:

• 250pc Micro-Screw Assortment for Eyeglasses, Watch & Jewelry Repair
• TEKTON 2987 Precision Screwdriver Set, 16-Piece

Save time and effort from calling Virgin Mobile about sending a replacement phone.   You can just fix it yourself.   Just make sure the Phone is put together before you start screwing in those screws and your phone should last much longer.

Paul Sylvester

How to Succeed in Blogging Without Even Trying! [Guest Post]

There are tons of people trying to make an easy income by blogging. From niche subjects to multi-level marketing gurus, it seems like everyone has an angle or a tactic that they hope will grab readers' attention and catapult them to success. So what can you do to stand out from the crowd? These tricks offer some secrets to bringing your blog to peoples' attention and building a steady audience.

Find What Works

One way to learn the strategies that will drive your blog to the top is to find what's already worked for others. Take a minute to write down your top 10 blogging heroes, the ones who have set the bar for you or blazed the trail you want to walk. (If you don't have blogging role models, find some. If you never read blogs, you can't expect to succeed in writing them.) Figure out what worked for them and then translate it into strategies you can apply.

Eye-Catching Real Estate

There are three critical factors in real estate: Location, location and location. It's the same in blogging. A domain name that people will remember will give you a massive advantage over your competitors. Think about it. If you want to learn about jogging, are you more likely to check out i-can-teach-youhow-to-jogbetter23.net or JogBlog.com? Registering a fantastic domain name is easy using the tool on Name.com that lets you check to see what domain names are available. Choosing the right one can turbocharge your efforts by making it easy for readers to find you. Think short and catchy. (And avoid dashes like the...well, like underscores.)

Build Your Networks

Sad as it may be, nobody cares that you really want them to read your blog. They care about what adds value to their lives, and the biggest way most people find blogs to read is through their friends' recommendations. What does that mean for you? Get busy on social networking sites like Google+ and ask your readers to spread the word. The more you can engage with your readers and give them tips or tidbits or jokes worth passing on, the more they'll become evangelists for your blog and your personal platform.

Publish a Book (In Weeks or Less!)

Becoming a published author is a fantastic way to build your personal platform and get your message out to new readers. You say you haven't written a manuscript yet? No problem! Thanks to recent fusions between the publishing industry and the Internet, you might be able to turn your blog into a physical book in a matter of weeks. An exciting new trend is for bloggers to publish their blogs in book form, using a series of strategically chosen and arranged posts to form the content of the book. Reusing the work you've put into your blog is a great way to break into new markets and keep building your through personal platform.

See The Big Picture

Having a plan is the first and best trick to making money blogging. As you explore these tactics, you'll find what does and doesn't work for you. Take note of what you find. Massage it into a personalized strategy. Set high goals and run after them with abandon. With the right combination of work, luck, strategy and platform you might be the one to strike blogger gold.

Zach Buckley is a freelance writer who is interested in exploring the intersection of culture, science and education.  He lives in the Midwest and enjoys music, literature and good food.

Get Thunderbird to launch Firefox/Chrome browsers in Linux!

This isn't like Windows!

If your like me you probably clicked a link in Thunderbird and thought you would be taken to your favorite browser but that isn't the case with Linux. The pop up screen asking you which application to launch is quite similar to Windows but there is a problem. If you have had no experience with Linux then you might ask yourself "Where's the program files?" It seems that Windows and Linux differs from each other in that aspect. I did have to do some things to get Thunderbird to get it to launch a browser. This quick tutorial will help those new to Linux to do what they have always done on Windows. I will warn people that clicking on links in your emails is the first way to get a virus or a credit card stolen but that is for another topic and discussion!

Some Preparations are in order!

For some of use this is something that should already be included, but it seems that Mozilla didn't add some important config scripts into the Thunderbird application for Linux. Thanks to Google, I found the answers and I thought I would also share them with people so it would be much easier for others to enable launching the browser in Thunderbird.

You will need to add these strings in Thunderbird:

In Thunderbird: edit > Preferences > Advanced > Config Editor

Right click anywhere in the list and click ADD > String. Then add these strings with values!

• String: network.protocol-handler.app.http Value: x-www-browser


• String: network.protocol-handler.app.https Value: x-www-browser


• String: network.protocol-handler.app.ftps Value: x-www-browser

Once that is done, your ready for the next step of the process.

Where Do I find these files?

Most cases you will find these files in only one place and that is almost like a C: Drive. In order to find the right program, you first need to go:

1. /usr/bin/firefox.sh (shell script)


2. /usr/bin/chromium-browser.sh (shell script)


3. /usr/bin/rekonq.ex (Executable)

These are the two files you will need to tell Thunderbird to launch the right application when you click on a link. You should only need to do this once for each type of link from http, https, and the last one is the file transfer protocol but if you do this, I see no reason why you would be able to launch your favorite browser. Depending on which browser you have installed, it should be easily found in the the bin directory and you should be able to launch your browser even if it is not a well known browser. .

Let's Rock Linux

Paul Sylvester

List of Malware Sites for Aug 14, 2009

• secure-spyware-scannerv3.com ([intlink id="3607" type="post"]Personal Antivirus Scareware Site[/intlink])


• secure-antispyware-scanv3.com ([intlink id="3607" type="post"]Personal Antivirus Scareware Site[/intlink])


• best-virus-scanner.com ([intlink id="3607" type="post"]Personal Antivirus Scareware Site[/intlink])


• homeantispywarescan.com ([intlink id="3607" type="post"]Personal Antivirus Scareware Site[/intlink])


• livetimeprotectionscan.com ([intlink id="3607" type="post"]Personal Antivirus Scareware Site[/intlink])


• beeves.info ([intlink id="4217" type="post"]Internet Antivirus Pro Scareware[/intlink])


• securitytoolworks.com (New Rogue Total Security Antivirus)

These sites gets installed in unsuspecting computers by way of exploits, backdoors, Trojans, or unsafe downloading practices. This usually means that if you have it you should remove it by any means necessary because this software has been know to cause more and more trouble as time goes by. This software is fake ware, it tries to tell you have a virus and that they can get rid of it. In fact, this software is not designed with Antivirus engine in it but to illicit pop ups and warning to raise the users security concerns about the computer in question. Downloading programs from bit torrents or other unsafe ways can and most likely will have these types of programs installed alongside the program you wanted.

Threat to System : Moderate

[rating:4/5]

Advice : Do a Complete system scan and make sure you don't have any more hidden malware.

I recommend :

Do a Full System with One of these Free Antivirus Software:

[ad#SUPERAntiSpyware]

PDF Exploits and how to prevent them

Now we know that there are PDF Exploits being used more and more to fake anti virus software. I am here to discuss how to make it harder for these exploits to happen in the first. So I will be walking you through using Firefox as the browser, so if you haven't downloaded Firefox. I would recommend downloading it, it is much safer than using Internet Explorer.

In Firefox, Click Tools, and then Options:



You will look for anything that says Adobe in the Applications tab and select either Always ask or Save file.   I recommend setting it to "Always Ask" for the one reason you will know if you have visited a site that uses PDF's, it gives you a warning of when some website tries to uses Adobes PDF reader.

I also go into Adobe Reader:

Click Edit>Preferences

Disabling Javascript will help prevent some of the more common exploits in Adobe, and anyway I do not need Javascript enabled to read a PDF because I hate flashing stuff while I am trying to read.

This will prevent it from using your web browser you will have to use Adobe Reader to read this.   From my understanding if you use Adobe Reader in your browser they can put redirects in internet explorer and have some control over what you browser does when you load it up.   This prevents any exploit from taking over IE, or Firefox because now they work alone and not together.   While you at it with Firefox, I would go into the Addons Section.   Click Tools>Addons and Disable the Adobe Reader Addon to be even more safer on the internet.

Now this won't protect you a 100% but will greatly make it harder for those invisible Iframes to infect your system.   I also have Free AVG running and [intlink id="3884" type="post"]SUPERAntiSpyware Pro[/intlink] running all the time to better protect my system.   You may need to download the PDF to be able to read it.  You can change the Firefox options above to save it instead of asking what you want to do.

Securing Your Wordpress blog

In the last few blog post we talked about:

• How to Setup your Own Blog, The Easy Way


• Picking the Hosting Provider & Setting up your Domain


• Setting Up Wordpress

This post we discuss securing your Wordpress blog and creating even more of a Wordpress Firewall, as I call it.   You don't know what bot or person might be lurking around your blog to get access to installing malware or worse off taking control over your blog for there own nefarious reasons.

Photo by: Terry Mun

Now since you have installed Wordpress and have it working now what do you want to do blog?  Blogging will be coming later in this series but for right now we want to take a good look at removing your Default Admin user.   Like the default routers admin profiles and password this makes it even easier for a hacker to try to find out the password.  Although You should never use a simple password.   You should always use numbers and letters in random order to make a really strong password and have it at least 8 characters long.  The longer it is the better off you at preventing unauthorized access to your blog and your blog posts.

Prevent access to Wp-admin and or image directory from bots.  This can be good you can also use this in combination to disallowing every IP but yours to help prevent people from gaining access to your pictures or you admin login page.   This is all preference and how secure you want to control access to admin page.   I feel if you have good security in place you should be in good shape.   If you don't have a permenant or static IP and have a rotating IP you can however increase your security by password protect the wp-admin directory from unauthorized people.

I've also been using a few plugins to help protect your admin page from hackers, they can help prevent unauthorized access by limiting how many times you can attempt an a login:

• Login Logger - keeps track of recent logins to Wordpress for all users, as well as all failed logins. It records username, time, IP address and how long since each login attempt as well as time since last active for each user.


• Limit Login Attempts - Limit the number of login attempts possible both through normal login as well as (WordPress 2.7+) using auth cookies.  By default Wordpress allows unlimited login attempts either through the login page or by sending special cookies. This allows passwords (or hashes) to be brute-force cracked with relative ease.

I have talked about [intlink id="3698" type="post"]Wordpress security plugins and other things[/intlink] you can do to better protect our Wordpress blog.   I would suggest looking at that and make sure you harden your security for Wordpress so that you don't have a problem with hackers.   Although these are just a few you should go check out the Wordpress article from the creators of Wordpress and also consider using some of those recommendations to keep your Wordpress blog secure.

On the next blog post we will talk about Blog themes and how they help your audience.   We are almost done but do stay tuned.

Setting up Wordpress

In the last few blog post we talked about:

• How to Setup your Own Blog, The Easy Way


• Picking the Hosting Provider & Setting up your Domain

Now we can talk about setting up Wordpress, although this probably won't be a long topic.  I feel it is necessary to help people feel less stressed in setting up a blog.   Most of my family don't have a clue how I set mine up, and I am thinking they are uncomfortable because this is foreign to them.   I intend to try to easy everyone's stress levels by explaining it in a more relax atmosphere.

As most people will know I started my blog 3 Years ago, and haven't stop blogging sense.   Some would call this what a blogger does.   I call this an experience, because what I've learned over the last three years is priceless.  As you can tell when I started my blog I was clueless about how to blog.   Over the 3 years I've learned a lot and a glad to be part of the blogging community.   It's been a long process but a really fruitful one.

Photo by: Terry Mun

Now I am wanting to pass the experience onto new users on.  Most people will expect a website management to be hard.   Creating a website even harder, here I will talk about installing it.

One way to install Wordpress is through some Hosting providers website tools they offer to install Wordpress for free.   They basically use a script to install Wordpress.   Usually they are a version behind the last release of Wordpress, now since Wordpress has also integrated upgrades you can easily upgrade after your install the older version.

The other way is just as simple, You can install it using an FTP upload.  Now I am so glad Wordpress has a tutorial for this.  I had to use it at least once in the three years to install Wordpress.  You would however have to download the Wordpress zip file and make a sub directory, calling it WORDPRESS and extract into that then upload that whole directory to either your main or sub directory.   If you'd think it is hard, I would argue it isn't.    This way only took me 10 minutes at best to upload and install.

Anyway you choice is a quite a simple setup, If you follow the instructions and tutorial step by step.   There should be no problems.   Although no matter how good you are there have been problems in the past with installation and that might need to be dealt  by the hosting provider technical support.   Each hosting provider should have a way to contact them to resolve and you should not hesitate to call them for technical support they are there to make you succeed.

In the next blog post we will talk about Securing You Wordpress Blog and why.

Picking The Hosting Provider & Setting your Domain

In my Previous Post we talk about the process I am going to use to guide you through it. So we already see what we need to do. In this Post we need to talk about Hosting and Domains.

When it comes to hosting a website it all depends on who you want to go through. Here are a few Hosting Providers that I recommend:

• Hostgator ($4.95 a Month)


• FatCow (Yes that is a Hosting Provider. Starting as Low as $5.50 a month)


• IxWebhosting (Starting as Low as $3.95 a month)

These three hosting providers have programs to help you install Wordpress.   For those who want to understand what a Hosting provider does, these are basically servers who host your blog content. They all have their own way of helping the customers.

They each will have a different way of setting up Wordpress so you may have to look around their site for the specific details, but that is coming up in a future blog post. I will be walking you through using Godaddy.

Photo By: Terry Mun

Now you've picked and bought who your hosting provider is. Now we need to pick your domain. Most all hosting providers I have recommend can also buy domains for there customers. So depending on the Hosting Provider you pick can help speed up the process.

Once you have a hosting provider with a server, you now have to buy a domain or I like to call it a brand-name. You should have a list but if not you can still make the list. This process of trying to find the right domain name can take the longest because some of the domains or all of the domain name on your list could be taken by another person. So you will need to go through the list on your web browser and put each one in at a time. For this example, I would recommend just using a [Listname]”.com”, working your way down to the bottom. See if it is taken if not this domain may be bought creating a new list of available domains that you might want to use. Just remember the domain might not be there much longer so You will have really short period of time before it could be taken by some other person.

Once you eliminated the ones that are used you can now figure out if your want to use one of the unused domains for your brand-name or if you want to start another and see if you can't find a better one. This step is can usually be the ones that take the longest because there is a high chance the first list is usually no good but not always it just depends on what your brand-name is going to be.

Once you've picked the domain that you want use, it is time to go back to the hosting provider you choice and go about buying the domain. Each Provider is different some will charge you a setup fee for the domain others will be free.

Lastly You'll want to make sure the domain is linked to your hosting server. The way you'd do that is go to login into your hosting account and checking the DNS Settings, or some host providers call it CNAME Records. This tells the Domain name that if you type it into the browser to go to a certain IP. This is where your hosting your provider provides and will most likely be part of registration confirmation.

On the Next Post I will talking about Setting up Wordpress.

How to Setup your own Blog, The Easy way

Over the weekend I had a chance to talk to my sister who was interested in having setting up her own blog. She didn't know a thing about setting up her own blog and asked me to walk her step by step. So I thought I would also walk my readers through this whole process and help you set up your own blog to.

This process will take approximately an hour to two hours, each step will be talked about in detail through a series of blog post. This shouldn't not take long for anyone to do, depending on the speed of your internet. In fact if you follow my directions, it should be really quick and easy. No mess or fuss.

• How to Setup your Own Blog, The Easy Way


• Picking the Hosting Provider & Setting up your Domain


• [intlink id="4118" type="post"] Setting up Wordpress[/intlink]


• [intlink id="4122" type="post"]Securing Wordpess[/intlink]


• [intlink id="4135" type="post"]Picking your Blog Theme[/intlink]

So now with that being said, I would like to talk about domain names. If you want to have your own domain you have to make it unique. It should be something personal and go with what your looking for. Do you know your domain is almost like a brand-name? Just like Nike, Adidas, and McDonald's people who hear that come back with the knowing that no matter where you are in the world. This also goes for your Domain, before you start this think of a what you will be blogging about and make a list possible domains. This is always the first step into creating a blog. Now I must warn you this process may take long or it might be short. Some or All of those domain names you come up with may be taken or they may not. The Most common name extensions can be seen through Wikipedia.
Now with that said on my next post we will talk about Picking your hosting provider and Setting up your Domain.

Some more Malware Sites July 29, 2009

I've done my usual looking around and found some Rogue Antivirus sites that I call scareware:

• tb2car.com


• rundaqimao.com


• shuncheng2car.com


• dakbesy.cn


• befynru.cn


• scanworldwideweb.com

All these sites are scaring users into installing software that does nothing but bothers the users into registering this software. You should not visit these sites are active right now and are spreading the malware and getting people to install malware. If you have installed this scareware software, I would recommend removing with really Antimalware software and not pay for these fake products.

Threat to System : Moderate

[rating:4/5]

Advice : Do a Complete system scan and make sure you don't have any more hidden malware.

I recommend :

[ad#SUPERAntiSpyware]

Why you can't run Antivirus or Taskmanager!

Photo by : Kristi Evans

As you know there has been more and more virus writers and scammers who don't want you to interfere with the ultimate plan.   You see the two major plans these people have are:

1. [intlink id="2811" type="post"]To use your computer as a Botnet[/intlink] --  This is most common because the Command and Control server is where they tell these other computers what to do weather send spam or do a denial of Service attack on a website.  Although this is the most common it isn't however the easiest to get rid of rid.   Far be it from being easy these virus writers want to keep a foot hold on your system.   This is like the SG-1 the "Foothold" Situation, they try to look like there is nothing wrong.


2. [intlink id="3805" type="post"]Fake Antivirus software[/intlink] -- This is the other common reason why you can't load up Taskmanager or SUPERantispyware/Malwarebytes.   It could even prevent AVG,  Norton Antivirus, and Other Antivirus software from being loaded at boot up.  Because most Antivirus software can detect this type of scareware.   The scammers want to make as much money as they can so they don't want the End user to be able to stop the program from scaring you into buying the fake product.  It could also have a [intlink id="3872" type="post"]Scareware Adviser[/intlink] trying to get you to buy the fake product!

As you can see these are what I call the Prime "2" reasons why you can't run your Antivirus software, although there is a way around this.   I have found loading up in Safe Mode to be the easiest way to run antivirus scans on an infected system.   Although this can be difficult to do it, however it helps prevent these programs from loading up in more ways then one.  If you can go download the Antivirus programs from another computer and have them to install once you load up in safe mode.   You should also think about installing other software like a [intlink id="2205" type="page"]Firewall even the Free firewalls[/intlink] are the better than Microsoft's Firewall.

[ad]The other options for those tech savy people who know what a hard drive is and how to remove it, is to mount it onto another system as a slave and then run your antivirus software on the hard drive in question.   This however shouldn't be done unless two conditions are met:

1. You Know what you doing --  Again if you don't know what your doing please don't try this.  It could hurt your system far more than you can know.   If you don't know how to do this you should take it to a professional and let them do the work for you.


2. Out of Warranty -- Yep that is right if this has a 2 year or longer warranty and you open up the hardware you automatically void the warranty on anything to do with your system.  So it is best to have someone who is qualified warranty specialist to open it up.  This way you still have your warranty on the system and if something does go wrong in the shop, they can fix it easier than a novice.

If you know what your doing this can be an easy process or it can be a hard process it only depends on how knowledgeable you are and how far you are willing to go.   Although there are [intlink id="2955" type="post"]some viruses that require you to just start over[/intlink].  This is because they have embedded so deeplyinto the system that removing them will ruin your Windows system and prevent it from booting in the first place.  This is the last option, if you have a system who has been overrun with virus and spyware it might be time to reinstall the Operating system.  This is what I call the end all way to get rid of the Virus, Trojan, Or spyware on your system.   If you do this you will need to make sure to install all the Microsoft updates before you do anything else.  Also you will need to [intlink id="2205" type="page"]re-install any Firewalls and Antivirus[/intlink] software to better protect your system from having the virus in the first place.

Setting up Email Filters for Twitter Phish -- Getting Phishing out of the way

Ok So we've all had the problem of having to deal with this twitter phish, and you can see there are more and more twitter spam.

So how do you start Filtering out the Bad twitter spam?

I'm using Mozilla Thunderbird so this will not be a complete way for people who use other email software.

Once You find your way to this menu you would click new and then you do this:

Now once you've named your twitter filter, I named it "Twitter Spam" but you may name it whatever you would like.   I then selected to "Match all of the Following", if you don't do this it will send all direct messages to your spam folder.  You'd get no direct message from anyone about anything.   I told the filter if it was from "*@postmaster.twitter.com".   Once you done that you would click the plus sign to add [ad#ad2-right]another row and then I selected the "Subject".  I selected that to filter whatever is in the subject body of the message and filtered for "http://*.access-logins.com".  Then I clicked Move Message to Spam Folder.  You can move it to your own twitter spam folder, it is just nice to move it away from the important stuff.   You also if you like can Mark it as read also by clicking the Plus sign and selecting "Mark as read" so that you don't have to worry about reading each and every one.   For people who are wondering the Asterisk is a Wild Card which means it does not matter what is in there that is import to prevent getting spam from people you know or from sites you know are phishing.

Some people might like to do this for Google Mail and I see no problem in people doing this before you even get the email but if you're not using Google mail and would like to do this for your email hosting account by all means follow these steps and you shouldn't get much phish direct messages.  I will say if they us another Free hosting account you'll get it for the time but it won't be constant.   I hope this helps people get this out of there way.  Soon this will be in the past.

If you suspect you will get more blogspot.com links also you can set up a seperate filter to filter for "http://*.blogspot.com" just follow the instructions just like you did but use that instead of the other internet address.  I'd also tell people to not Direct message you about a site  if it is important to look at to reply to you but don't direct message you. 

Disaster preparation -- 103 Hidden Partition

What is an OEM?

Many laptops or Desktops now a days have this hidden partition that is used for OEMS.  An OEM or original equipment manufacturer for those who don't know is a company that sells a system with it's own branding or services.  It varies from company to company just what they sell to the consumer.   Having Said that, let's talk about this Hidden Partition.

Why do I have a Hidden Partition on my drive?

[ad]To simply put it, most likely it is there for a emergency backup for your Operating System.   It can be accessed through your boot up.  Most of the time if you press f11 or f12, some key combination to go to this hidden partition and restore the system to the  factory settings.   Now I tell you this to warn you that you don't ever want to delete this partition because you need it to verify that in case you need a driver it might be there.     Now a days, most laptop and desktop sellers don't want to include a backup CD or DVD in the box so they expect you do make one.   This is where the hidden partition comes to play.   This also used to make DVD or CD of operating system.

How big is the Partition?

That isn't a simple question because most OEM's like to vary partition to prevent them from being used in other OEM systems.   Now not saying it is hard to find out.  There are several tools used to backup this hidden partition but can cost to get to it.  Like my system, it takes up around 8 gigabytes of space on mine.   Others, I've seen, only take up 4 gigabytes.   It varies from branding to branding.   Also keep in mind that you want to backup this important partition just in case there is a problem with the Hard Drive.   This is really IMPORTANT: the Hidden Partition is only good for the hardware you have right now so it can only be used with that particular system.   Should you try it on another system, may have trouble or not work at all.

How do I back up this Hidden Partition or Even transfer it to another Hard drive?

If you wanted to change out your old laptop or desktop hard drive and put in a bigger and better hard drive.  You'd need to copy the old partition of the drive first to put in the new drive.    How do you do that?   Most laptops only have room for one Hard Drive so you might need to buy a cable for that laptop.   It's call a USB to Sata Adapter and it allows you to hook up a second hard drive so you can copy from the original source.   This one I am showing you is good for both Laptop and Desktop it's got all you need to make a back up or even copy the data off.

• Laptop Hard Drives


• Desktop Hard Drives

What software do I need to copy this Hidden partition?

There are several programs that will help you do this.   Each of them have there own look and feel to them.   These companies will support people who are wanting to backup there important Operating system.   Yes the operating system is important if you didn't have that the hardware would just sit there.   Although there are free operating systems they do come with there own problems and solutions.  So let's begin talking about the commercial backup software:

• Acronis True Image -- Backup your entire PC: Acronis True Image includes our patented disk-imaging backup technology. You can copy your entire PC, including the operating system, applications, user settings, and all data. In the event of a system or disk crash, virus attack, or other fatal failures, you can restore the entire disk contents in minutes--no reinstallations required!


• Norton Ghost 14.0 -- Protects your computer with advanced backup and recovery: creates full system and file backups, restore from system failures, and back up based on schedules and events


• Paragon Partition Manager 9.0 Personal -- Partitioning, Manage disk partitions, Optimization and Defragmentation, Boot Manager, and Simple Backup Wizard

[ad#ad2-right]I will add more to my store when I find others that work well with doing the hidden partition.   You will also not that these are are the best to use when you want copy the hidden partition because they know about the hidden partition.  Other software might only copy the visible partition and ignore the hidden.  So that is why I talk about commercial software because there's a person on the other end who could help you out.

These are just a few that will work for you, if you want to go find the free software by all means but I must warn you the free software doesn't come with any warranties or someone who could help most of the time.  It is a pot shot with free software, some work well and others just make a mess.  There are some free back up software but most of the time they only copy the visible and not the hidden, so if you must go looking.  Go looking for the ones who say they can copy the hidden partition.   These are the ones you need use to back up your operating system.

Fix Shutdown Problems in Vista!

[ad]
In the Patch Tuesday update, Microsoft quietly released the patch to fix Windows Vista machine shut problems. This patch should of came sooner.

KB957388

Update for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista

Install this update to resolve a set of known application compatibility issues with Windows Server 2008. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

This was not a critical update and it seems to resolve so many issues with compatibility.  One thing it seemed to fix on my system has been the shutdown time.  It is now quite fast, it would normally take me 2 to 3 mins to shutdown, now it does it in less than a Minute.   So if you've not installed this update please install it soon.   I would like to know if people are seeing the same thing I am.   I've found a great resource on fixing it if you are still having problem, it talks about how to check your system performance. Although this is been doing it lately with these programs not loaded or even running, they still seem to cause problems so now I get the feeling it has to do with legacy programs.  This should fix most of the problem with older programs.

Are you patched, Secunia Says NO

Think you've got nothing to worry about, according to Secunia 98% of computers are not fully patched and are vulnerable to some kinda of attack. [ad#digg-right]So I wanted to talk about this a little and give you a few good ways to make sure you are patched.  There are several ways to get your system up to almost 100%.



[ad#ad2-left]Some things to do is make sure you have your Windows systems updated.  This is easy to make sure, if you have an internet connection you can just check for updates.  If you don't know how to do it, it is quite simple, Just go here.    If you have Windows Vista all you have to do is hit Start and type in the search box "Windows Update" and hit Enter and you will be taken to the update page.




If you have a system that is off of the Net you could use the Clone of Autopatcher Program to do it for you.   You also need to update all your secondary programs such as Audacity, Open Office, and other programs that you use weekly.



[ad#ad2-right]If you don't know what you need to update sometimes just having a program check for you can make a really good difference.   The one that I like to use is Appsnap and it actually searches you computer to see what might need to be updated.   I also suggest for the final suggestion is check out my Anti-Virus and Anit-Spyware Resources and make sure you have a firewall and anti-virus software.  This will greatly reduce your chances of getting a virus but that isn't all you have to be careful on what you click on read this article on Some Important programs to prevent yourself from having viruses and Malware!! Read that carefully to better understand how you can protect yourself in the future.

sinowal.trojan Problems.

Trojan-PSW:W32/Sinowal.CP drops and loads a password stealing component on the infected system and tries to steal account information from it. It also tries to steal information that is required to access certain online banks' and online payment systems' websites.

[via F-secure]

[ad#ad2-right]It seems to be a very hard virus to remove but there are ways to get rid of this virus.   Some tips and tricks to get rid are:

• Check out my Anti-Virus Page


• Computing.net


• The Geek Police


• How to Detect Sinowal

This are the beginning steps to get rid of a Virus but it will be a really hard virus because it wants to stay in your system.  You should also Restart in Safe mode and Try to remove that virus that one.   You will also want to disable your system restore due to the fact that it will be in there and might come back if you restore your system.  Just some simple tips to help keep you safe on the net.

GTA 4 Causes fatal error mma10, how to fix it!!

[ad#ad2-left]After seeing all this happened I thought I would help people out on how to fix it.   This seems to be a DRM problem according to some reports.  Others are thinking it is the Securerom.  Anyways the problem seems to be with the Rockstar Social Club and not to log in to that.  That will fix the problem, you will at least be able to play the single player game.  This is a temporary fix till the developers fix in the update.  This will also fix the Steam version of the game.