I was reading through Slashdot the other day and came across a link to this article: Linux Stop Holding Our Kids Back

It is about a school teacher who confiscated HeliOS disks that a student was distributing during class and claimed that their is no way software could be free.  As an avid user of Firefox and a fairly recent user of Ubuntu Linux, I must say that this is definitely a very cruel thing to say to the society of people who has work extremely hard toward the open source community.  She even claimed to have used Linux in college and that she knows nothing is better than Windows and that free software must be some sort of copyright violation.  This article shocked me and made me realize just how powerful the computer monopoly mostly held by Microsoft really is.   Just to let everyone else know, yes there is a free Operating System called Linux and it is available in many shapes and forms all over the internet.

The followup to that article is here

Well I am finishing up my last week here this semester at Virginia Tech and my week has been busy.  Tomorrow I have Physics and Linear Algebra finals, but then I am free to go home.

So for all of you amateur webmasters, I would like to provide some free web hosting links so that you can get building a website as soon as possible without worrying about who to get hosting from.

Free Web Hosting

-Places where you can get free web hosting for hosting a site of your own.  The following I have personally used.

-Places where you can get free web hosting for hosting a site of your own. The following I have NOT personally used.

These are only suggestions. If you happen to find something better, please feel free to comment.

Today I am going to show four ways to make Windows XP do just that little more that you wish it could, while still using less memory and CPU than Windows Vista, while acheiving a much more user friendly system.  We will start off with my favourite, the famous UXTheme Patch.

UXTheme Patch

The object of this patch is to patch your uxtheme.dll file that resides in this directory: “C:\WINDOWS\system32″

Uxtheme.dll is a file that controls the visual styles that are enabled in Windows XP. From microsoft.com:

New run-time libraries—ComCtl32.dll version 6 and UxTheme.dll—are provided in Windows XP and later operating systems to enable visual styles. UxTheme.dll is used by the common controls to take advantage of system visual styles. ComCtl32.dll queries UxTheme.dll for appropriate dimensions and other pertinent information for a control, and calls UxTheme.dll to render the parts of a control or surface.

Taken from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb773187(VS.85).aspx

There are multiple ways to patch this file including UXTheme Multi-patcher and manually patching it, but there are also programs that will manage skins for you such as Windowblinds.  However, my favourite is the UXTheme Manager because it automatically patches the dll file and it is completely free.  There are two versions, 4 and 6 and sometimes one works and the other does not depending on the system and if you have 32 or 64 bits. Below are both versions for download, however you may need to try both to see which works.  I currently am using version 6.

Version 4

Version 6

To install simply extract the zip file and click the exe.  Follow the directions at this url: http://customize.org/xpthemes/help/How_To_Install_UX_Theme_Multi_Patcher

Once you have finished installing, you can scour the internet for .msstyle based themes.  A site to avoid is http://www.themexp.org/.  They used to have good themes, but now their themes tend to be bloated with spyware, adware etc.  I personally recommend Sentinel as it looks very nice.

An example of my Desktop theme (even though I am currently using a patched uxtheme, but am using a windowblinds theme):

(click to enlarge)

Docking

I have found one of my greatest computer friends in the last few weeks, the dock. Although originally designed for the Mac, the dock has become a great tool across all three major operating systems: MacOS, Windows, and Linux.  For Windows and Linux you must download separate programs in order to take advantage of the great offerings the Dock has to offer.  For the Windows there are multiple programs, but two famous ones are Rocketdock and Objectdock. Between the two there is a lot of competition though many people have found that the Rocketdock tends to run faster with the animations.  I prefer Rocketdock personally, but both have much to offer and are free.  To get Rocketdock go to http://rocketdock.com/ and to get Objectdock go to http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/.  For Linux there are Kiba Dock, Cairo Dock, and Avant Window Navigator.  I use Kiba Dock since it is the only one I have got to work in Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10.

Change Recycling Bin Name

Alright, time for a fun tweak I know it has always been your dream to change the name of your Recycling Bin and as you can see in my desktop picture above, mine is called “Trash Compactor.”   Unlike a folder where you could just right click and hit rename, the Recycling Bin does not have this feature.  Instead if you wish to perform this neat trick follow the instructions below.

1. Open Start Menu and click Run…
2. Type regedit into the input prompt and click OK
3. Now you are presented with the Registry Editor, the database of most settings on the Windows machine. NOTE: Do not stray from my explicit instructions.  The registry is a powerful tool and if you mess up a setting you may damage your computer permanently.  I do not take responsibility for you actions in any way when you mess with the Registry.
4. Navigate through the folder icons in this order: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
5. Once in this folder you should see the key named “LocalizedString” with a really strange data.  Double click on this key and clear the data in the “Value data” field and type whatever you want your Recycling Bin to be called.
6. Click OK when you are done and go to the Desktop then press F5 to refresh the Desktop and you should now have your new Recycling Bin name showing.

Showing Date in Taskbar

As you can also see from my Desktop picture, I have made my taskbar show the Date and Day of week in my Taskbar because I was getting tired of having to constantly put my mouse over the taskbar to see the date when typing letters or whenever.  I also did not feel like making my computer look completely awful by expanding the taskbar vertically.  So instead I turned to Google and discovered the program called TClock.  It can be downloaded from http://homepage1.nifty.com/kazubon/tclocklight/tclocklight-040702-3.zip.  This frees up my time by allowing me to see the date always just like I can do by default in Ubuntu Linux (which is what inspired to find this solution).

Well, that is all for today and good luck with tweaking your system

~roboguyspacedude

I’d say it is about time I get back to the receipt of my inquiry to Western Digital about my hard drive.

First, as far as I know, this new drive I was sent has been working okay (I stress okay since it definitely isn’t perfect or even near).  I haven’t lost any major files as of yet, though I have been careful not to put anything of value on it.

While I was away in Germany, I awaited the return of the hard drive (as well as my college acceptance letter which turned into a rejection  letter.  I’ll post about that in another post)  and upon my return from Germany, I hadn’t yet received the hard drive, but it came within a few days. I unpacked it installed it as before and have left it thus.

Now I will explain the process you should take in case you need to return your hard drive:

1. Go to the site I posted on my last entry.  Here it is.
2. You need to prepare your hard drive.  If not they may return the drive without consideration.  To do so follow this:
   • Find a box large enough to put the hard drive in and make sure it is corrugated.
   • Wrap the hard drive in the electrostatic bag you got it in or find another.
   • Register an RMA at that site.
   • Either you can pay for tyhe postage or you can use WD’s postal service which allows you to print a label form their site.  It is slightly cheaper.
   • Put the RMA number on the outside of the box if you don’t purchase one of their labels.
   • Send through the post and hope they send you a new one.

The one thing that annoys me most about the WDs is that they turn off to0 safe electricity and make a really loud noise when turning back on which not only delays their activity, but also disrupts watching movies or listening to music.