I’ve been “swamped” with work lately and therefore I’ve not been able to post original material. But as always, here are fifteen great tech links that will transport you to some of the most up-to-date tech information available. Enjoy!
Professor Randy quotes Madam Marie Curie: “Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.”
The other day I decided to install Skype on my Windows Vista Computer. I assumed that it was going to be a “snap”, but two hours later I was still at it and still no Skype. Windows Vista would not allow Skype to install into the folder: C:\Program Data\Microsoft\Windows\StartMenu\Programs\Skype.
Vista security permissions were telling me that I didn’t have the rights to access this folder. Even though I was logged on as administrator, Vista kept giving me the following error: “Log on as administrator or contact your system administrator”. The whole thing was driving me crazy and I tried a variety of supposed solutions all to no avail. After a couple of hours of trial and error and research, I finally “got it”. Here is the “the problem” and here is the “solution”:
PROBLEM:
In order to access a file or folder in Vista that you do not have rights to, you must take ownership of that file or folder. Vista will tell you that you don’t have permissions (even though you’re logged in as Administrator) and you will see an Access Denied error. It’s a Vista security thing that can drive you crazy!
SOLUTION:
You must take ownership of the file or folderin order to make it do what you want it to do!
You can do this manually which is somewhat complicated and requires many steps (see here). Or…..
You can do it the easy way: There is a great registry hack that will automatically do everything for you. This registry hack will add a “Take Ownership” item to your Windows Explorer right-click menu. It will look like this:
Just right click on the file or folder in question and then select “Take Ownership”. You can now do anything you darn well please with that file or folder! How cool is that! Take that Vista!!
Download, unzip, double-click the InstallTakeOwnership.reg file and follow the prompts. You don’t even have to reboot! Enjoy!!
Professor Randy says:You are the owner of your computer! Don’t let Windows tell you otherwise! Take Ownership away from Windows by using the above procedure.
I was at a clients house today and he was bemoaning the fact that because of poor reception in the area, he could only listen to one lousy, local radio station. He then told me how much his wife missed her favorite talk radio station (Chicago’s legendary WLS 890 AM).
I told him about streaming radio over the Internet and he got really happy! I told him that there are thousands of Internet radio sites out there and that most radio stations now broadcast on the Internet, plus there are many Internet only stations (non terrestrial stations).
Then I told him that he didn’t have to lug his laptop and speakers all over the house in order to listen, he could simply buy an actual WiFi Internet Radio! These radios look just like the tabletop radios of yesteryear but are ethernet and wifi capable. By now he was really, really happy!
If you’re going to buy an Internet Radio, make sure that it is Reciva capable. Reciva is a company that creates a directory of Internet radio stations that you can browse by genre and location. You can create a list of your favorite radio stations and this list will be automatically downloaded to your WiFi Internet Radio which makes tuning into your favorite station a “snap.”
One of the problems of streaming Internet radio is choice – there’s too much of it! So a good Internet Radio that works with Reciva will allow you to create your favorite stations on the web and then download the list to your radio for easy tuning!
Professor Randy says:Don’t be at the mercy of your local terrestrial radio stations! Tune in any station that you want, and be anywhere that you want with a WiFi Internet Radio!
Microsoft has once again come up with some great Windows 7 related advertisements. A while back I talked about and showed one of their original Windows 7 adverts here.
Now Microsoft has come out with a great Windows 7 + Windows Live advertisement that is very clever and causes one to change perspective. Windows Live contains many of Microsoft’s newly emphasized “cloud” services.
Take a look and see for yourself!
Professor Randy says:The “cloud” is a big part of Microsoft’s future and it behooves us to understand it. This video may help you to see the “cloud” in a different light!
Professor Randy quotes Leo Rosten:“I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.”
Like 90% of the users out there, I have always been a Windows guy. I have used Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Even though the various Windows Operating Systems have had their ups and downs, I really never considered using anything else because like I said, I’m a Windows guy.
But last week I installed Ubuntu and it’s beautiful! Ubuntu is a distribution of the free and open source Linux Operating System, and the latest version is 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat). It’s absolutely awesome!
Ubuntu has just continued to get better and better and version 10.10 is as easy to use as Windows and as always is free! All you have to do is go to Ubuntu.com and download Ubuntu 10.10. Burn the iso (image) download onto a CD and boot your computer from this live CD. Since you’re booting from a CD, the Operating System will be a bit slow but you can try Ubuntu to see what you think.
Since Ubuntu 10.10 is so fabulous, you’ll probably want to install it (instead of running it from a CD):
You’ll see an Install icon on your desktop>double click the install icon>Ubuntu will begin to install and will ask you if you want to multi-boot with your current Operating System>say yes>Ubuntu will make a partition on your Hard Drive, install alongside your original Operating System, install a boot manager, and you will be able to dual boot at startup!! It’s that easy!
Ubuntu runs great on any modern system but also runs great on older systems because it doesn’t require as many resources to run as the Windows and Mac OS. It runs every bit as good as Windows, you won’t have to worry about viruses, malware, etc., it’s free, and it’s getting so good that it will soon be taking over desktops everywhere!
From a lifelong Windows user: I Ubuntu! Do You?
Professor Randy says:Ubuntu 10.10 is a great Operating System and you owe it to yourself to check it out!
Professor Randy quotes Teddy Roosevelt:“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
Professor Randy says “Take Time To Enjoy Life”:Professional violinist Joshua Bell played six of the world’s best classical pieces, standing at a subway station. Of 1,097 people who passed him that rush-hour morning, only seven stopped for a moment to listen!
