I found this really neat Flash Animation that shows you the scale of the universe and multiple things in it from the size of an atom to the size of deep space nebula.

Click here to check it out.

How To Sync Multiple Google Calendars or Sub Calendars on Blackberry Playbook is a post from: Stuffworks.com

I recently purchased a new Blackberry playbook and have loved its simplicity of use and it ability to connect with multiple email and calendar accounts easily however I did notice one tiny problem when I tried to add my Google Calendars, only the primary calendar was added and none of the sub calendars or shared calendars showed up.

I spent a couple of hours looking into how to make my other calendars work on the playbook with little useful information until I finally figured it out and now have all of my personal, business and shared calendars in all of their multi-colored splendor.

To get started you are going to have to do a little research!

Open your google calendar and look at the left side and you will see this screen where you will want to click on the little arrow beside the calendar you are adding to your Blackberry and click on “Calendar settings“.

Next, near the bottom of the settings page you will see something that looks kind of like the following screen where you will need to find the ID of the calendar you are adding to your Blackberry:

Take note of the Calendar ID: cause you will need it when you are adding the calendar to your Blackberry Playbook.  To make it easier for me to add I emailed the Calendar ID to myself so that I could copy and paste it from the Blackberry Playbook.

The next steps require us to go to the Blackberry Playbooks Settings now and click on the accounts tab, Click on Add New Account in the lower right and you will see the screen pictured below where you will want to click on the Email, Calendar and Contacts account type:

On this screen you will need to click on Advanced Setup in the lower left:

Next you will be presented with multiple account types, you will need to scroll all the way to the bottom and choose the CalDAV account type.

Finally this is the tricky part and it requires telling a few white lies to your Blackberry Playbook to get your calendar to work correctly.

What you need to know about the settings is as follows:

Description:  Whatever you want to call the calendar.
Username:  This is the primary email address you use to login to your google calendar.
Email Address:  For this you have to use a different email address than any of your other accounts, I used a fake email address for this.
Password:  This is your password for your google calendar.
Server Address:  https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/Your Google Calendar ID@group.calendar.google.com/events
Sync Interval:  Choose your sync interval from 5 Min  to 24 hours or Manual Syncing if you want to preserve your battery life.

If everything is entered correctly you will now have your calendar added and available for use on your Blackberry Playbook.

If this guide has helped you or if you have any questions about how to get this working please post a comment.

If you are like one of the many people who has forgotten your password and need help getting it reset, we have put together a small tutorial to show you the 2 easiest methods.  First for the method that does not require a CD.

Reset Mac Password – without a CD

On Max OSX 10.4 – 10.6 you can reset a forgotten Mac password without a Mac OS X installer CD/DVD. The steps may seem a little intimidating at first but I assure you it’s easy if you follow them exactly, here is exactly how to do it in three steps:

Step 1) Boot into Single User Mode and remove a setup file

• Restart the Mac holding down the Command+S keys, this will take you into Single User Mode and it’s Terminal interface
• You’ll need to check the filesystem first:

fsck -fy

• Next, you must mount the root drive as writeable so that changes will save:

mount -uw /

• Now, type the following command exactly, followed by the enter key:

rm /var/db/.applesetupdone

• After removing the applesetupdone file, you need to reboot, type ‘reboot’ and hit enter

Step 2) Create a New User Account upon System Boot
You aren’t finished, but the hard part is now over – no more command lines, you’ll now be in the familiar Mac OS X GUI to finish the password reset process. In this step we just create a new user account as if you just got a new Mac:

• Upon reboot, you will be presented with the traditional “Welcome Wizard” startup screen just like when you first get a Mac
• Follow the welcome wizard and create a new user account – making the account name different from the account whose password you want to recover
• Continue on and boot into Mac OS X with this newly created user account, this new user account is an Administrator and has administrative access

Step 3) Reset the Forgot Password via System Preferences
You are almost done, now you just need to reset the forgotten user account password using the Accounts control panel:

• Once you are booted into Mac OS X, click on the Apple logo and then navigate down to “System Preferences”
• Click on the “Accounts” icon in System Preferences
• Click on the Lock icon in the lower left corner of the “Accounts” preference window and enter the newly created user credentials, this enables you to change other user accounts and reset other users passwords
• On the left side user panel, select the user account containing the forgotten password
• With the user of the forgotten password account selected, click on the “Reset Password” button
• Enter a new password for that user, be sure to include a meaningful hint so you don’t forget it again!
• Close System Preferences and reboot the Mac
• You can now login to the previously inaccessible user account using the newly reset password! All user files and settings are maintained as before the password was forgotten

Optional: If you’d like, you can delete the temporary account you created to reset the users password. This is wise for security purposes.

Here’s how this works: by deleting the .applesetupdone file, you are telling Mac OS X to re-run the setup wizard, which by default creates a new user account with Administrative abilities, which can then reset the forgotten password of any other user on the Mac. This is a great trick and excellent troubleshooting technique if you don’t have a Mac OS X installer CD/DVD laying around, which is pretty much the norm as many people tend to lose or misplace the installer disks that come with their computers. I have used this exact method multiple times to restore various Macs with forgotten/lost passwords.

Reset Mac Password – with the installer CD/DVD

Resetting a forgotten Mac password is easier if you have an installer disk handy, we have covered this tip before on it’s own:

• Boot from the Mac OS X installer disk by inserting it into the Mac and holding down the “C” key on boot
• Select your language preferences and then under the “Utilities” menu select “Password Reset” (it may say “Reset Password” instead, depends on the version of Mac OS X)
• Select the hard disk that the forgotten password is on, then select the username of the forgotten password, you’ll then be asked to select a new password
• Reboot as usual from the hard drive, using your newly reset password as the login!

This is obviously the easier method but it’s of no help if you own a MacBook Air with no DVD drive, or if you just don’t have the installer Mac OS CD laying around. If you’re in that situation, the best alternative is to use the first method that does not require a CD to reset the password.

Due to current browser limitations, this script does not work on Internet Explorer 8, please try Google Chrome or Firefox if you do not see the rest of the content.

All programs ask, what program do you want to use to open this file

This issue is caused when the registry subkey for the file association of the .exe is modified or deleted from the registry preventing windows from being able to open programs correctly or opening different programs.

Windows Vista and Windows 7:

1.) To open the Task Manager, press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC.

2.) Click File , press CTRL and click New Task (Run…) at the same time. A command prompt opens.

 

3.) Type notepad, and then press ENTER.

5.) On the File menu, click Save as.

7.) Select Unicode in the Encoding list. Save it and remember the file location.

Note [filepath] is a placeholder which is to input your Exe.reg file location (e.g. C:\Exe.reg).

9.) Click Yes, and then click OK in response to the registry prompts.

10.) Restart your computer.

Note After the problem is resolved, delete the Exe.reg file so that it is not mistakenly added back to the registry at a later date.

Windows XP

1. Click Start, then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type explorer and then click OK.
3. Navigate to the Windows directory (e.g. a typical path may be C:\Windows) and locate regedit.exe.
4. Right-click on regedit.exe and select Run as. Uncheck “Protect my computer and data from unauthorized program activity” and click OK.
5. Using Regedit, locate and then click on the following registry key:
   HKeyCurrentUser\Software\Classes
6. On the left panel, right-click on the following registry subkey: ‘.exe’
7. Select Delete and then click OK.
8. On the left panel, right-click on the following registry subkey:
   ‘secfile‘
9. Select Delete and then click OK.
10. Close Registry Editor.

The Fatal Error c0000034 or 0xc0000034 error occurs when Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2 are attempting to install Service pack 1 and something goes wrong such as the power goes out or it gets restarted or shutdown before the install finishes, etc.

When you see the c0000034 error it is because of the fact that the SP1 update was trying to replace multiple important windows files and was interrupted before it could properly finish so there are missing or damaged files or a mix and match of new and old windows files together.

The computer may freeze or restart as a result. If the computer restarts, you receive an error message something like the following:

Delete the POQ entries from Pending.xml

This method is intended to resolve the issue by creating and running a .vbs script. After you successfully create and run the .vbs script, Windows 7 Service Pack 1 installation should complete successfully.

Notes

Before getting started

Before getting started you will need the following:

• Locate a second computer with access to the internet. You will use the second computer to create a script (.vbs) file. To create the script (.vbs) file you will copy the text for the script from this knowledge base article.
• Locate a removable media device such as a USB thumb drive. You will copy the script (.vbs) file that you create to the removable media device. You will then transfer the script (.vbs) file to the computer that is experiencing the issue.

Note If you do not have access to a second computer and a removable media device you can create the script (.vbs) file on the computer that is experiencing the issue. To do this you would go to System Recovery Options, open a command prompt, and then start Notepad from the command prompt. You would then manually create the script (.vbs) file by typing the text for the script from this knowledge base article. You would then save the script (.vbs) file to your local hard drive. You would then be able to run the script to complete the steps.

Part 1:Create the script (.vbs) file

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Locate a second computer with access to the internet.
2. Open Notepad.

Copy and paste the following text into Notepad.

Dim xmlDoc, node, nodeList, fileName, backupFileName, numberOfPOQNodes

Set xmlDoc = CreateObject(“Microsoft.XMLDOM”)

If Wscript.Arguments.Count = 0 Then 

WScript.echo(“Error! No XML file specified.”)

Wscript.quit

End If

fileName = WScript.Arguments(0)

backupFileName = Left(fileName, InStrRev(fileName, “.”) – 1) & “_backup.xml”

If Not xmlDoc.load(fileName) Then

WScript.echo(“Failure loading XML file ” & fileName & “.”)

Wscript.quit

End If

xmlDoc.save(backupFileName)

Set nodeList = xmlDoc.documentElement.selectNodes(“POQ”)

numberOfPOQNodes = nodeList.Length

For Each node in nodeList

xmlDoc.documentElement.removeChild(node)

Next

xmlDoc.save(fileName)

Set xmlDoc = Nothing

WScript.echo(numberOfPOQNodes & ” POQ nodes removed. Script completed.”)

1. Click File, and then click Save as.
2. Name the file Script.vbs and save the file to a removable media device such as a USB thumb drive.
3. Alternately you can download the script here.

Part 2: Run the script (.vbs) file

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Restart your computer and start pressing the F8 key on your keyboard. You have to press F8 before the Windows logo appears. If the Windows logo appears, you have to try again by waiting until the Windows logon prompt appears and then shutting down and restarting your computer.
   Note: On a computer that is configured to boot to multiple operating systems, you can press the F8 key when the Boot Menu appears.
2. Use the arrow keys to select Repair your Computer in the Advanced Boot Options area, and then press Enter. If you are prompted, select the Windows 7 installation to be repaired, and then click Next.
3. Select the language and a keyboard input method, and then click Next.
4. Select a user name, type your password, and then click OK.
5. Under System Recovery Options, make a note of the Windows 7 drive letter listed on the line below Choose a recovery tool.For example, you may see something similar to the following.

   Operating system: Windows 7 on (C:) <VolumeName>

   Note In this example, the drive letter for Windows 7 would be C.

6. Under System Recovery Options, click Command Prompt.
7. Insert the removable media with the script (.vbs) file that you previously created into the PC.
8. At the command prompt, navigate to the drive, and the directory, that contains the script (.vbs) file that you previously created.For example, if you previously saved the script.vbs file that you created to the root of a USB thumb drive, and the drive letter associated with the USB thumb drive is the “E” drive, you would simply type the following at the command prompt, and then press Enter.

   E:

   Note If you are not sure which drive contains the removable media you can use Diskpart to display a list of drives. To run Diskpart, follow these steps.

   1. Type Diskpart, and then press Enter.
   2. Type List volume, and then press Enter.
   3. Make a note of the drive that contains the removable media with the script (.vbs) file that you previously created. Assuming you used a USB thumb drive, the drive type will be listed as “Removable”.
   4. To exit Diskpart type Exit, and then press Enter.
9. At the command prompt, type the following command and press Enter:

Cscript Script.vbs :\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml.

1. To exit the command prompt type Exit, and then press Enter.
2. Restart your computer. Service Pack 1 installation should now complete successfully.

Everyone who has played games on PC for any length of time has heard of our used God Mode on at least one game, you know what I mean, the setting that makes the game play by your rules and lets you do almost anything.  Well now you can do the same thing to your Windows machine by following this really simple how to guide.

At first glance this might look fake but it is real and NOT A JOKE. God mode makes you true Windows Master allowing you to get access to all Windows settings in one single place without having to click or hop between different control panels or dialog windows. You can open God Mode in upcoming Windows8 and existing Windows 7, Vista 32 bit and Windows Server 2008 (32 bit) operating systems.

Enable & Open God Mode on Windows

1. On your Windows computer, right click on desktop to create a new Folder. Then rename the newly created folder as:
GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

You can name the folder something other than GodMode if you want to, the folder itself will have whatever name you put before the .{ such as  ”Admin Controls.{” or “Master Control.{”

2. The folder icon will change to the Control Panel icon with the name ‘GodMode’ on the desktop. Double click it to open window as seen below.

Removing the folder in Vista 64

If you have accidently created the GodMode Control Panel on a Vista 64 machine and it won’t allow you to boot properly anymore, here is what you can do to remove it.

Have you ever wanted to write a letter in your own handwriting but with the convenience of having Spell check and being able to edit your letter, now you can!  You can create your own custom font using your handwriting.  MyScriptFont.com enables you to use your own handwriting just like every other font installed on your computer.
With MyScriptFont.com you can give your digital produced documents a personal touch again.

1. Fill out the template

To create your own font is a fairly simple process.  Download the template provided by MyScriptFont.com and print it out!

2. Scan the Template and then Upload it to MyScriptFont.com

You get to name the Font and choose one of 3 font formats, TTF is the most popular font type.

Visit MyScriptFont.com now and start creating your own custom font now.

Microsoft has produced many great programs over the years and most of them cost a pretty penny however some of their software is release free of charge to help enhance your computing experience! Here are some real good ‘gems’ that we found at Microsoft.com, all of which are  downloadable for free. We are sure you will definitely find a few on this list, you never knew Microsoft made.

ActiveSync
ActiveSync keeps your Outlook, Videos, Music and Office documents in sync with Smartphones and Windows Pocket PC’s.

Windows Movie Maker
Windows Movie Maker is a full fledged movie editing tool designed for easy use. Features compression, special effects and burning to a CD. Not as user-friendly as ‘iMovie’ for the Mac, but very powerful nevertheless.

Virtual PC
Emulates a PC inside a PC, so you can run multiple operating systems in one PC at the same time. No need for dual boot. Great for  testing Linux or installing testing multiple operating systems without crashing or formatting your existing OS.

Taskswitch Power Toy - For Windows XP
The Taskswitch Power Toy is really cool ‘Alt-tab’ replacement that shows the preview of the application you are swtiching too. Works great when you have two sessions of one applicaiton open.

Location Finder
Microsoft Location Finder is a client-side application that turns a regular WiFi enabled laptop, Tablet or PC into a location determining device without the addition of any separate hardware.

Virtual Desktop Manager
Runs upto 4 virtual desktop screens on a Windows machine.

eBook Reader
Microsoft eBook reader with ClearType for flicker free ebook reading.

My Font Tool
Converts your handwriting into a TrueType font.

Diagnostic Tools
Microsoft offers a variety of ‘free’ tools for diagnosing and trouble shooting problems. Here are a few of the best we found:

1. Memory Diaganostic for RAM,
2. Network Diagnostic Tool,
3. Port reporter,
4. Fiddler for HTTP diagnosis.

Photo Story
Build virtual stories (slideshows) with  pictures, digital images, sound tracks and special effects.

Conference XP
Virtual Collaboration tool for Windows XP. Collaborate on Powerpoint presentations and electronic whiteboard.  Currently a research project at Microsoft .

Progmgry
Detects if network sniffers are running on your network. Network administrators will love this.

Group Shot
Group Shot can make composite group photo from a series of photos and images.

Baseline Security Analyzer
Make remote and local security scans on Windows machines. Reports missing security updates and service packs.

Media Capture
Video and Audio capturing tool with un-compressed AVI and Surround sound capturing ability.

Windows Defender
Formerly called Windows Antispyware, the Windows Defender protects against spyware and website pop-ups.

Windows Media Encoder
Windows Media Encoder is a powerful tool for capturing audio and video content with  high-quality multichannel sound, high-definition video quality and support for mixed-mode voice and music content.  There is also a studio edition for power users available free.

Virtual ISO mounter
Mounts ISO files as virtual CD/DVD drives. Works great for games and other  type of applications, which require original CD’s in the drive.

Virtual WiFi
Simultaneously connect to different Wi-Fi networks at the same time. This is an amazing tool. Highly recommended.

Fingerprint Logon
Why type when you can use your finger. All you need is a fingerprint reader and this software to logon to Windows.

Calculator Plus
The Power calculator with mathematical and scientific functions.

Producer 2003
Powertool for Microsoft PowerPoint users.

ClearType Tuner
Tweaks the fonts to give better resolution and easy-readability  on laptop’s and LCD screens.

Tweak Media Player
The Powertool for Windows Media player. Tweak the Windows Media player for automatic volume levelling when burning audio CD’s and full screen videos.

Wireless is considered commonplace today and routers are the force that makes it happen, so why not supercharge yours to take proper advantage of it? DD-WRT will let you boost your router’s range, add features, and more.

DD-WRT has a ton of features—more than we can cover in this guide, which is focused on helping you get your router upgraded. Stay tuned, as we’ll go into more depth in a couple more days on all the great things you can do with it, but even if you don’t use any of the additional features, DD-WRT is worth installing to make your router work better.

What Is DD-WRT?

DD-WRT is an open-source alternative firmware  for routers. Its software unlocks features that aren’t present on all routers: static routing, VPN, repeating functions, the list goes on. It also unlocks settings that aren’t accessible normally, like antenna power and overclocking.

For our demonstration purposes, we are going to use the rather inexpensive ($49.99 at Best Buy) Netgear WNR2000, revision 2 wireless router. It’s not the best but will work perfectly for our purposes. Why, exactly? Your router is only as good as its firmware , the software that makes it tick. When you buy a router from Linksys/Cisco, Netgear, D-Link, or others, you’re bound to their software. It’s a nice arrangement; you respect their limitations, and they promise to help with your problems. But what if your warranty’s expired, or you want to shuck their limitations? Maybe you want to take your hardware and push it to its most extreme limits. That’s where DD-WRT steps in. 

Turning your home router into an almost professional-level tool is a great project that has one major caveat: support. Not all routers are built or designed the same way. Even two of the same model can have different revision numbers with very different internal components. Because of this, the first step is doing plenty of research. It’s best to have a router that’s fully supported, so if you end up buying one, be sure to check the DD-WRT Supported Routers page first. Also make use of their Router Database, which will help you find particular instructions for your model and revision. Most devices have model and revision numbers on the back panel, and if there’s no revision number, it’s safe to assume that it’s 1.0.

For our purposes, the important spec to consider is NVROM, or ROM. This is where the firmware is kept, so even if your router has 16MB of RAM, it won’t work with a 4MB image of DD-WRT without at least that much ROM. Because of this, there are a few different versions of DD-WRT available at varying file sizes. Some are trimmed down to fit in smaller ROM configurations. Others are built with specific features in mind, like VPN, SD card support, or a Samba client. For more information, check out the File Versions table.

Preparation

The most important thing in any project is research. Do all of your homework for this one, because (here it comes):

As mentioned above, start with the Supported Devices page to see if you’ve got a DD-WRT-friendly router. If you don’t see anything specific, or even if you do, check into theRouter Database. Here, you’ll find links to forum pages of those who’ve completed the process for specific models/revisions, as well as the setbacks and workarounds they’ve found. Most importantly, you’ll find links to compatible versions of firmware.

The friendly forum gave us some useful info for our particular model. Our router, the Netgear WNR2000 is revision 2, which means it’s compatible (revision 1 is not). It’s only got 4MB of ROM, so we had to stick to the mini version. We followed the download links and read up on what to do to complete the procedure in full detail.

Almost all sources unanimously recommend three specific things:

1. Do a hard reset on your router before you update. This usually requires a 30/30/30 procedure.
2. Hard wire your router when you update the firmware. NEVER over wireless.
3. Use Internet Explorer (or Safari) unless specifically stated that other browsers are okay.

There’s a ton of reasons which the documentation will show to you, but the first two are written in stone, and the last has held true for almost any router, and it won’t hurt either.

Most routers have a pinhole on their back with you need to push and hold to do a hard reset. The 30/30/30 procedure is primarily directed for devices with DD-WRT already on them, but it’s also required for some other models and won’t hurt to do anyway. It deletes the Non-Volatile RAM. From the DD-WRT website, the procedure is as follows:

The Process

Hard reset, as outlined above, or per the instructions for your specific router.

So after our hard reset, we waited for the lights to return to normal, and we hard-wired the router to our laptop. During this phase, we turned off the wireless connection so that just the wired connection to our WRN2000 was active. This prevents any mishaps and makes it simple to connect to the web-interface through the defaults.

Next, fire up Internet Explorer and go to your router’s default page, and log in,  normally located at http://192.168.1.1  The netgear router has a default username of (admin) and password of (password).

Next! Click on the Router Upgrade link.

Browse to the correct firmware image and click Upload, and wait patiently. Very patiently. You’ll see the loading screen tell you to wait while the router reboots, and you’ll see the lights flash on and off for a while. Wait about five minutes, and err on the longer side. When you’re ready, log in to your router. DD-WRT’s IP address is 192.168.1.1, the username is (root), and the password is (admin).

You’ll be greeted with your brand new interface.

At this point, it would be a great idea to do another hard reset/restore to factory default settings. This will solidify your DD-WRT installation and will prevent any issues that would come up otherwise. It’s mentioned in the quote above, but to reiterate: perform another hard reset NOW.

If things didn’t work out, you may have had a “bad” flash. Your router may be bricked, but odds are you can recover from it in some fashion. The first place to check out is How to Recover From a Bad Flash, and the second is the DD-WRT Forum. As long as your do your homework and be precise with the instructions, you’ll be fine.