Archos Tablet Surgery

Recently I had to fix my Archos tablet DC jack connector and thought I might share some of the internal components of the Archos 101.Anyway finally my Archos charges.

I actually ended up opening the dc jack and reseating the pin 3 which seems to have poor contact with pin 2 when you plugin the power adapter.Soldered everything back and we are good to go.

Yes its now charging, no wiggling of cable to get it to charge

Long Long Time - Free Software You Should Have

Sorry guys it took a long time to get some new post.I have had some new changes in my life and been so busy.But anyway I wanted to show you some of the free software I recommend you try.

Google Chrome - if you haven't please try this browser, its becoming very popular for its speed and security.So far its my favorite browser.

CD Burner XP - This is one of the free cd burner software out there.It can virtually burn all kinds of cd's and dvd's with the exception of blu-ray dvd.

VLC - This is a very popular media player, that can play all kinds of media formats.To this is way better than microsoft media player.The interface looks very simple but do not be fooled this program packs several advance features

Threatfire - I love this program, it works with your current anti-virus/anti-malware, firewall to increase added protection to your computer

Dropbox - Oh I love dropbox! its like your portable flash drive.Basically you signed up for dropbox, download the software and it sits on your desktop or my computer like a folder.So if you need to save some files that you might need to access somewhere else without the need to carry a flash drive, simply drop the files into the folder and instantly its ready online for you to access anywhere.There are more crerative things you can do with dropbox this is the basic.

Picasa  - This is my favorite photo manager from google.This product keeps getting better with time and makes it a lot easier to manager your photos.

Watch out for more free software recommendations.

Adios

How Safe is Your Thumb Drive?

Most likely you may say no.Thumb drives or a.k.a. USB drives are becoming so popular that very soon there will be no need for cd.As convenient as they are for carrying our personal data, they can also be easily misplaced, lost or stolen.So guess what? Someone can easily get your data, even recover them as we discussed earlier.

So that brings us to the topic of encryption - the art of scrambling data so that its actual message or content is unreadable or undetectable.Encrypting your data is so important nowadays.I think very soon any usb drive you buy will have an encryption program on it to secure your data, it is that important.

A while back ago I misplaced my 8gig usb drive, but I still had peace of mind knowing that I had encrypted my data and whoever tried  to view it will not be unsuccessful.However let me remind you that any encryption can be broken, its all about time.The stronger your encryption the longer, harder it would become to unencrypt you data.This might even require a very determine, overly zealous individual and sophisticated tools to do so yet it will take a really long time, long time to do so, which will deter most people from even attempting to try.

So here is what I use to encrypt my usb drive, again as you all know I like legitimate free programs, so I use a program called USB Safeguard, here is the link http://usbsafeguard.altervista.org/ Its encryption method (AES 256 bit) is secure enough to protect even classified information up to the TOP SECRET level according to the government.

Download it to the thumb drive you want to encrypt
Now double click to run it and you should get this screen

Type in a password you want, the stronger the password the better, combine it with numbers, upper case, lower case etc.This is the password you would use to decrypt your data, so make sure you can remember it.

Next after typing in your password it would ask you to save it to a text file on your computer, that way if you forget it you can go to the text file on your computer to retrieve your password.If you opt to do so make sure you save the text file on your computer not your thumb drive, or simply select not to use that option by clicking no if prompted.

Now finally you should get this screen, which is where you can now drag and drop the files from your usb onto that window.When you are done click encrypt all to start the encryption process

When its done exit the program and you will notice the files you encrypted on your thumb drive are gone.Next time you want to view them, simply run the program again and then type in your password to decrypt your files.

You can also customize your thumb drive so that the good Samaritan who finds it can contact you.Click on the question mark, then click on click here or the link next to it.It will open a window, simply type in your phone number or email address so that whoever finds it can reach you.

 

Another cool feature of this program, is that it allows you to browse the web privately.So if you are at the library or you are using a public computer to say do online banking you will not leave traces behind for praying eyes to pickup.Simply click on the "e" button and another window will open

Check Activate Safe Internet Browsing, then click Start Safe Internet Browsing or if you want to clear your traces, go to Delete traces from USB Pen, select all and click Delete traces.

Also I forgot to mention, this program has a built-in file shredder, remember we spoke about the importance of shredding your files.There is also a YouTube tutorial video if you want to view it.Adios

How to Watch Netflix on your TV

Many have asked me how can they watch the Netflix instant watch on their tv. I understand sometimes you just want to put the laptop down and lay back on the couch while you watch a movie.Well you can do the same with Netflix instant streaming movie feature.I will show you the different ways starting with the easiest to the most difficult method.

• Roku - The Roku is a netflix device you can buy for $79 bucks and its specifically designed to work with netflix, simply hook it up via the ethernet cable or connect it wireless to your wireless router and depending on your tv, connect the output to your tv's component, s-video, composite or HDMI and start streaming.
• Wii, Xbox, PS3 - Do you own any of these? Especially the Wii? Well then you are good to go.I am not sure how to set it up on the Xbox but I know its easy to do.I personally own a Wii and  all you need is request an installation CD from Netflix, its free.Load the CD into your Wii, then follow the instructions and you are done, enjoy.You should be able to do the same for the PS3.There are other devices that also allows you to watch Netflix, from blu-ray players to some HDTV's check out this link 

           http://www.netflix.com/NetflixReadyDevices?lnktrk=dvl_nrd

• Laptop - Do not undermine your laptop yet, if its fairly new like 3 years old or newer, there is a good chance it might be equiped with an HDMI (Fig 1) output which should look like the picture below, its from my laptop.This method requires you own a flat screen TV or you can use an adapter.The advantage of HDMI is that with one cable you can get both audio and video with great quality.So check if your laptop has this output, most likely located on sides or back of your laptop.

Fig 1- To the right of this image is what a HDMI output looks like

• VGA with a RCA Y-cable - this method is difficult because you have to connect the VGA output of your laptop (Fig 2) then connect a RCA Y-cable (Fig 3) with the pin plugging into the earphone plug on your laptop and the other end (white and red plugs) going into the audio input of your TV.Change the source input on your TV to PC or whatever name they call the VGA output for your TV and start watching Netflix.

  

               Fig 2 - A VGA output  

                                                                     

                                  

                                    Fig 3 - RCA Y-Cable

Again there are so many many ways to watch Netflix through your TV but this is just a brief explanation on how to do it on your own.Adios

Shred Them Files

This month has been a busy one for me, sorry if you had to visit numerous times only to find out there was no new post.Things are slowing down so I can now post more.Anyway last time you learn how to recover your deleted files, but what if you had to donate or give your computer to your friend as a gift.Well lets pretend your friend is nosey, guess what? He can recover those bank statements you had deleted, you might easily reason that you just reformatted your computer or reinstalled windows etc... still buddy there is good chance those files can be recovered.So that leads to my post for today......SHRED THEM FILES! There are so many programs out there to help you shred your files to prevent others from recovering them.One of my favorite is you guessed it file shredder, here is the link http://www.fileshredder.org/ Download and install it

When you start file shredder your screen should look like this

You want to click on the Shredder Settings, go to the Algorithms tab and select whatever erasing method you want to use.By default file shredder uses the Department of Defense recommended method (DoD220.22M) which is good enough unless you are paranoid you can select the 7 passes or 35 passes which take a long time depending on your computer speed and file size

Next all you do is drag and drop the file you want to shred into file shredder, and click on Shred Files Now (its that big button below,you cannot miss it) and watch it shred it

Also you can use File Shredder to shred your files by simply right clicking on the file and select file shredder to delete it.Have a good day!

How to Recover a Deleted File

There are times when you accidentally delete a file that is so dear to your heart either from a hard drive, a flash drive, photos on a memory card or even your ipod or mp3 player.Whatever your reason is for deleting the file, do not panic there is ray of hope.
       Here is what you need to know about how files are stored on your computer.Think of your hard drive or flash drive as a parking lot, whenever you store data your computer puts it in an empty parking space, let us call that empty space, space1.When you delete a file, the computer says well I am going to pretend that space1 is empty even though its not and when I need to park new data I will call a tow truck to tow that data from space1 to make way for the new data.
       So in a nut shell when you delete a file its not gone, your computer simply hides it from you and when it needs a new space to store data it puts in that location where you had the file you deleted.So if you have not completely fill your hard drive data with new data, chances are you will be able to recover the data.
       There are so many programs out there, some so expensive to purchase.But there is a free one....by now all of you know I like free things, well we all do.Anyway there is a free program called Recuva, here is the link http://www.piriform.com/recuva.Download it and install it like any other program.Now follow the screen shots below to see how to use it to do file recovery.

The first time you run Recuva you should get a screen like this

 Click next to bring you to this screen and as you can, its self explanatory.Select the kind of file you are looking for

The next screen will ask you where did you delete the data, flash drive, hard drive, ipod, memory card etc..

This is is very important, it will ask you what kind of search do you want, if you want a quick search just click start, but if you want a deep search check the box then click start.Use quick search if the data you deleted was not too long ago, if you get nothing use the deep search which I normally use to increase your chances of finding even really really old data you deleted.

When it finish data recovery you should get a screen like this.Unfortunately I have nothing to recover so that is why you see no files in this picture.But in your case you will see files, simply either highlight the file you want to recover, or check the box next to it and click recover in the lower right corner.Tell it where you want the recover files stored.If you tell it to store the recovered file on the same hard drive that you did the recovery it might give you a warning, simply ignore it.

 And here you go, you just save your self some money by doing your own data recovery.Take care.

My Slow Komputer Part 1

So your computer works like a car sometimes.When you buy a new car, oh how smooth it rides and the performance is amazing, but overtime the performance starts to trend down.Same with the computer, it starts acting slow.There are so many reasons why your computer is slow, one factor is spyware, malware and viruses.These can cause your computer to act slow, sometimes making them useless.Well you may say but I have Norton anti-virus.However I have seen Norton sit in so many computers without having any idea that the computer is infected.So why wait for your geek friend or the geek squad or whatever squad is there to clean your pc for you.

    Try one of the software I use it is called Microsoft Security Essential, its free but make sure you have a legal copy of windows.It will remove both viruses, malware and spyware.Good thing is its very light on your system and does not use many resources.Its also been rated one of the best anti-virus out there.Here is the link http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

    What if your computer is so slow you cannot install anything but you can browse the net.Well we have free online anti-virus scanners that can do the same thing.Two of my favorates are
Eset Online Scanner and Microsoft Live OneCare. For Microsoft Live OneCare make sure you access it using internet explorer, because Microsoft does not like other browsers like firefox.Most of these online scanners will ask you to install a small program on your computer so that it can execute the scan, make sure you do that else more power to the viruses.Anyway check back for more.
Happy downloading.