Archive for the ‘Tips’ Category
Aug
23
I wanted to post a followup to an earlier post about Windows and disabling the Hibernation feature. The original power was useful because in many circumstances (like most desktops) you don’t need to or want to hibernate your system. So, you can save some disk space (upwards of the amount of RAM in your PC) and some performance overhead of managing that hibernation file, by disabling the hibernation function or feature. You can read that one here.
Next thing I thought about was, what if you do need that hibernation function? Well, naturally you can do the opposite of that earlier article to enable hibernation if it isn’t already, although usually it is by default. But also, you can specific how big the hibernation file (hiberfil.sys) is compared to how much memory you have in your machine. I would imagine if the file is set to less than your memory it must do some compression and maybe leave some non-essential stuff out, but I don’t know for sure and I am not sure if it’s worth digging into too deeply. However, if you have some binary real estate (disk space) to spare, and you don’t have too much memory in your machine (you guys with 16GB or something need to ditch Windows and run Linux), set it to 100% and rock out.
Just like the enable and disable, you use the powercfg.exe command, and interestingly enough, still use the -H switch. But instead of just On or Off, you add another switch ‘-Size’ and a number between 50 and 100 to equate to anywhere between 50 and 100 percent of your memory. According to what I read, you can’t choose less than 50% or, obviously, more than 100%. So, I set mine to 100% (it was at 75% by default) and am going to see how well it works. If I see anything that warrants it, I’ll post a follow up as to whether or not it’s a good idea.
OK, the command to set you hiberfil.sys size to 100% would be:
powercfg.exe -H -Size 100
And there you have it, it’s just that easy! Hope it helps 
Aug
2
Anyone who has developed a website hoping to quickly achieve a high ranking in the search engines, especially Google, has probably discovered that the task is much more daunting than they originally thought. That is because new websites and even existing websites must prove to Google, Yahoo, MSN and the other search engines that they are worthy of being ranked high.
There are many factors involved in getting a website ranked high in the search engines, including good, relevant content that gives visitors the information they are searching for along with strong link popularity.
What Exactly is Link Popularity?
Many people think link popularity equates to the number of incoming links a website has linking to it. In other words, how many other websites are linking to your website.
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Aug
1
Linux web hosting refers to web hosting services that are based on a server that is running the Linux operating system. It is probably the most widely used type of web hosting, especially for individuals and small to medium sized businesses, simply because Linux web hosting is cheaper than other options like Windows based hosting. The reason for this is that Linux is an open source software product and as such does not incur the high licensing fees that other operating systems do; you can freely download and use it at no cost. On the other hand, a web hosting service that offers Windows based hosting has to pay for the software and maintenance fees.
Some of the advantages of Linux web hosting are: cheaper than Windows, support for PHP scripts and MySQL databases and some hosts may offer telnet accounts at no or little additional cost. In many circles Linux is believed to be more secure than Windows, and for that reason it is also the more popular choice for web designers and programmers. Linux web hosting also offers users many configuration and customization options.
The Linux operating system is also very stable, so you can expect high uptime from a Linux web hosting service. Linux supports most scripting languages and types of web files, and you can use files with all the following extensions: .html, .htm, .pl, .php, .shtml, .asp, .xml and others. The biggest disadvantage of a Linux based web hosting solution is that it is not compatible with Microsoft technologies, like ASP scripts.
On the other side of the coin is Windows based hosting, which is generally more expensive, but it does support ASP and, usually for an extra fee, can support Cold Fusion, Access databases and SQL Server databases.
In conclusion, if you are new to building websites and web design, Linux web hosting is the better, and cheaper, option. However, if you need specialized services that are Windows specific, then you will have to use a Windows web hosting service.
Aug
1
Here is a helpful tidbit for anyone that might need it. It’s something I used now and then, often enough that I remember the command, but not often enough to remember the exact syntax LOL At least if I post it here it will be easy to find. What am I talking about you ask? Well, enabling and disabling hibernation in Windows. If you are running a desktop, you most likely don’t need to hibernate your machine. You can if you want, but I for one don’t want to lose the extra few gigs of disk space taken up by the ‘hiberfile.sys’ hibernation file. Not to mention the system resource usage and overhead of keeping it updated.
OK, getting down to business, on Windows Vista and Windows 7, you can enable or disable the hibernation function easily by using the ‘powercfg’ command with the ‘-H’ (hibernation) option. Here are a couple of examples:
This turns hibernation off naturally, and:
Will turn it on, and just that easily too!
I hope this little trinket of wisdom comes in handy for you. Enjoy!
Jul
10
Recently I have been having trouble with my NetFlix instant watch service. On several occasions I get odd DRM errors telling me that the date on my PC is set to (insert current date here) and to check and make sure it’s correct, which it is. I don’t think I am the only person having this problem because when I fired up trusty ol’ Google, I found lots of other folks complaining about and seeking solutions for NetFlix DRM errors as well. Not all of them shared my exact error number, but they all sounded faily similar in what was happening.
As I searched, I found a few things to try and although none helped me, some helped other folk so I will list them here anyway. Finally, the explanation and solution that worked for me actually made a lot of sense once I digested it, and I bet it will help some of you out there as well.
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Oct
18
At least this worked really well for me, and a few other folk that tried it. I don’t know if this is a Windows 7 thing since it seems that most folks experiencing this problem were running Win7, but not everyone. Either way, I culled this from bits and pieces of other suggested solutions I found and thought I would share it. You never know, it might help someone else like it helped me, and that’s what this site is all about, eh?
OK, on with the goodness! Quick summary, I had Notepad++ (one badass text editor for Windows if you don’t already know about it) installed on my main machine, the Mothership running Windows 7. I had a context menu entry so that I could write click on darn near anything and have the option to “Edit with Notepadd++”. This has been a real handy option living in my context menu for years, and when it started flaking out I wasn’t happy about it. At first I figured it was just Windoze being Windoh’s and it would be OK after the next time I rebooted. However, as time went on, after the next reboot or two, it was still messed up.
Messed up how you ask? Well, I could open the program with the standard shortcut, no problem. Once open I could open files, no problem. I could drag and drop files and Notepad++ would open them fine. It was only when I tried to fire up Notepad++ with a file argument after the executable’s path (like the context menu) that I would get the following error message:
Error in CreateProcess (740): Is this command correct?
“C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe”
“D:\path\to\the\file_I_was\opening.txt”
That was it, no joy after that. Nothing. Nada. Irritating. Well, to make a longer story shorter, I did some research and found that it came down to two problems. Maybe only one, but I think it really had to do with both. These were/are:
- Windows 7 (and maybe Windows in general, regardless of the version) doesn’t like the “++” in the path. The theory goes that Windows doesn’t have a publicly reported problem, like by Microsoft, but nonetheless it sometimes just lets special characters get on its bad side, and starts throwing some errors.
- Windows 7 (and maybe Windows in general, regardless of the version) does not like the Notepad++ option during setup that says don’t use %AppData% for storing config settings. This allows you to override Windows default behavior and store your config data in the program directory like in the old days. Well, Windows 7 especially (maybe others) really hates this, and will fight with you over it.
So, what was the fix? The fix should be pretty obvious after reading the two items above, but I’ll lay it out for you anyway, cause that’s what I do!
- First, uninstall Notepad++, make sure to completely remove it.
- Next, re-install Notepad++, you might as well snag the latest version from their site (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) while you are at it.
- During the re-install, make sure you change the installation path so as to remove the “++” from the install directory. As a suggestion, I used “C:\Program Files\NotepadPP\”, substituting a capital P for each +.
- Also, as you are installing, make sure you do not check the option that says to not use %AppData%, go ahead and let the installer put the config files where it wants.
- Now, once the install is done, test it out. For me, this fixed my problems, Notepad++ runs faster and smoother than ever before, which is a great thing.
I sure hope this helps you fix the problems you are having with Notepad++ and opening files from a context menu. If not, drop a comment and share some details, maybe we can get folk to chime in and help you out! Enjoy
