Bridge to Nova

Well, we are very curious with our competitions. Sometimes, we really want to know how much of the subscribers do they have too? For me, I haven't publicly shown my feed subscriber counts yet even though I am having a quite impressive number for me.

Well, anyway, if you want to view the feedburner counts of the blogs that don't display, you might be able to see it if you're lucky. In fact, lucky here means those blog owners should have got change of mind and should be stupid too.

Here's how to achieve this.

This is my feed address.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/BridgeToNova

If you want to see my subscriber, you should type in the address bar as follow.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/BridgeToNova

What do you see now?



I'm not lying to you. You can't see my counts because I know this trick and I've already prevented from it by deactivating in my feedburner dashboard. But hey, there are a lot of bloggers out there who don't know this and you can check their feed counts.

Microsoft Outlook display the Outlook Today page when you first start up since very earlier versions, but for me, it's a quite useless page since I just want to read my email.

I always change Outlook default setting by digging into Advanced Options via Tools -->> Options and then change the default folder. Hey but there's an easier way to do this.

Just click on the Customize Outlook today button on the upper right corner of your Outlook as in the following pic.

After that you will see the following screen.

Be sure to uncheck, "When starting, go directly to Outlook Today" checkbox. The default for these would make Outlook to go directly to your inbox. If you prefer to go Outlook to any other folder than your inbox, you can choose any folder you want by click on Choose Folders button.

Hope this tip would help you make more productivity.

Microsoft has introduced new file formats in Office 2007. I've already told you guys about how to open docx files for those who still don't have Office 2007.

But for me, as a Office 2007 user, sometimes I forget to save the file in Word97-2003 compatible mode and save it in 2007 new format and then send to my friends and coworkers, who are still using Office 2003 or older. After a couple of times happened, I've got to find a way to change Office 2007 default save file format. After a dozen times of accidentally sending a Word 2007 document to co-workers still stuck on Office 2003, I've decided to make Word save in the Word 2003 format by default.

Here is the procedure:

1. First click on the Office button and then choose Word Options as in the following picture.



2. After that Choose the save on the left column. And then from Save files in this format drop-down menu, choose Word97-2003 Document (.doc) as in the following pic.



After that click save. From now on, Word 2007 will always save file in Word 97-2003 format. No more incompatible format saving any more. As you can guess, even though I told you only about Word 2007, you can apply this tip in Excel 2007, Powerpoint 2007 and any other Office 2007 applications.

If you've ever tried to insert the Google Adsense code directly into your Blogger XML Template as you want ads between post (not in the widget sidebar or anywhere else), you'll be stunned like me when you get the following error message.

Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure all XML elements are closed properly. XML error message: The processing instruction target matching "[xX][mM][lL]" is not allowed.

This is because Blogger uses more strict and standardized XML. The above error simply mean the Adsense code is not standardized XML. To solve this, we need to replace all the html character such as '<' with '>' '"' with '"'. Check the example below: This is original code.

This is XML standardized code:

You can use your text editor to replace all the HTML manually. Hey why don't you check out Blogcrowds HTML parser. It is very easy and convenient. Be warned that changing the ads might violate the TOS of your specific ads company. So be sure to check with them to play safe.

For the users of Windows XP, you may get the pop-up windows that appears every time some of programs crashes. You have the option to choose whether you want to report the error to Microsoft or not. We usually click No and the message disappears, and we get on with our work.

Well, I have always just clicked NO, and moved on. I never even bother to click YES. I just wanted to get on with my work, so that I find a way to stop the computer to avoid showing that popup. Well, now I've got the tip to fix the problem. It is a simple fix.

• Just right click on the My Computer and click Properties.
• Once the System dialog box is open, click the Advanced tab
• And then click the Error Reporting tab at the bottom.
• Check the box that disables Error Reporting.

That's it. I never have to look at that annoying popup again!

Windows services run in the background when you start the computer no matter who's logged in.

I'll tell you the services which I think can be harmful for a system especially if your computer is over a network such as Internet/ University/ Office as bad boys can be anywhere.

To start the services management console, Go to Start Menu -->> Run and then type services.msc

After that disable any of the following services.

• 1. Stopping Windows Messenger Spam



Have you ever see a popup with a "Messenger Service" in the title bar while you're surfing the net. If you did, that means someone is using the Messenger for sending adware to your system.

To stop it, disable the "Messenger" service from the Service Manager.




• 2. Disable NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing




It allows for someone to remotely access to your computer through NetMeeting. Unless, you're regularly NetMeeting often, you should disable this.

Disable the "NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing" service from the Service Manager.




• 3. Disable Protected Storage




This service stores the passwords and the auto complete function with Internet Explorer. Unless, you want to use it, I recommend you disable it.

Disable "Protected Storage" service from the Service Manager.




• 4. Remote Desktop Help Session Manager




This service provides supports for Remote Assistance. If you use this service rarely or not at all, it is recommended to be disabled.

Disable "Remote Desktop Help Session Manager" service from the Service Manager.




• 5. Remote Registry Service




This service allows for your system registry to be accessible remotely. If you don’t require the assistance of someone to remotely have access to editing your registry settings, then disable this service.

Disable "Remote Registry" service from the Service Manager.

There you have it, 5 simple services which you can disable to improve not only security but also startup speed for your system.

What I wanted to do is that, after my computer has been idle for 3 minutes, it should lock itself. How to achieve this is one of the trouble for me for almost two days. I have been digging around the net, but no answer. I tried to find myself in GPO (Group Policy Editor), but I don't find the option directly.

But many articles I read on the net pointed me that I can changed four options in GPO. But that is for screensaver. I tweak a bit to achieve what I want. Remember I have told you guys about how to create shortcut to lock computer. Well, I used that tweak.

Here are the steps that I took:

• First go to Start -->> gpedit.msc
• Go to User Configuration -->> Administrative Templates -->> Control Panel -->> Display

There are many options there, but you just need to change four of them as follow.

• For screen saver option, just choose Enabled.
• For screen saver executable, choose Enabled and then type "rundll32 user32.dll,LockWorkStation"
• For password protect the screen saver, choose Enabled.
• For screen saver timeout, choose Enabled and then type the amount of time you want to lock your computer in seconds. (For example, if you want to lock your computer after three minutes of idle time, type 180)

That's it. Next time if you're away, you don't have to worry about some other would invade your computer.

BtoN's Tips : I have tested this on Vista and should work on Windows XP too. For screen saver timeout, if I set value less than 60, it won't work.

If you're a Windows XP user, you might have seen Thumbs.db file in some folders. It is a hidden file.

What is Thumbs.db file?

Thumbs.db is a file used by versions of Microsoft Windows that stores a cache for Windows Explorer's thumbnail view. Thumbs.db is saved in each directory that contains pictures or photos.

In which Windows versions you can find it?

You can find it in Windows XP Pro and Home. I'm not sure about Windows 9x (Who would've used it anyway nowadays?)

In Windows Vista, Microsoft replaced thumbs.db files with a centralized thumbnail database thumbcache_xxxx.db located in \Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer.

How much space could it take?

You may not believe it, but it could take a few hundred MBs.

How can you get rid of it?

• Go to Start -->> Control Panel -->> Folder Options
• Go to the View tab
• Remove the check box from Do not cache thumbnails
• Click the Ok

What is the advantages and disadvantages of removing it?

• Advantages are that you can save a few hundreds of your hard disk space and you'll never see those annoying little hidden file here and there.
• Disadvantage is that if you browse a folder that contains many image files with moderate file size, it will take a long time for that folder to load because the thumbnail images have not been cached in Thumbs.db.

So next time if you see one of your friends is wondering about thumbs.db file, you can easily bossy him/her with enough confident.

Source : Wikipedia

Yesterday, I've tried to install Windows XP in VMware 6.0. I've tried to use physical hard disk in VMware. But every time I create, VMware won't let me choose the option of IDE or SCSI. Instead, it only let me select in SCSI whether I want Bus logic or LSI logic.

So I googled around and found out that I've to edit VMware hard disk configuration file manually as follows.

ddb.adapterType = "ide"
ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"
ddb.geometry.heads = "16"
ddb.geometry.cylinders = "16383"

And I delete these lines in VMware config file .vmx.

scsi0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"
scsi0:1.present = "TRUE"
scsi0:1.fileName = "disk-2.vmdk"
scsi0:1.deviceType = "rawDisk"

Your config file might not look exactly as mine. But you know what to look and how to change. Any question? You can contact me via contact form or leave a comment.


Reference : VMware forum

You love some blog post on blogger platform and you've just commented it, but what if you forgot the url of that blog? You should subscribe to the comments of that post to receive followups from other users or the blog authors.

Now blogger.com have just introduced this very useful feature. They announced it on blogger buzz.


Even though I love this feature, I'm still eagerly waiting for Google to introduce us to be able to schedule blog posts, just like many of wordpress users normally do.

I love MS Paint for its simplicity. Even though it is such a small program, it could have done a lot of jobs. Of course, don't compare it with Photoshop or any other premium photo editing standard software.

Most of my screenshots editing have been done with Paint. What's more? You can create trailing effect with Paint too.

First you need to hold select the part of the image
And then hold down Shift key
Then drag the way you want to trail it.

Here is the sample trailing pic I have made.

Many new bloggers are now enjoying the green indicators of Google PR. Obviously, Google updates many new sites yesterday. I've got PR 3!!!!



So that Bridge to Nova is no longer a newbie in the world wide web anymore. We are grown-up now. You may have read that many pro bloggers are talking about you shouldn't care PR. But I'll tell you that you really really should. At least, it is a pride and my bragging right. Trust me, all those probloggers would blog and brag about their PR if they've got +1 or +2 increases. Cashquests have got a great article why you should care about PR. Have a nice weekend all.
Excuse me, I'm going to open champagne now.

I really love the Windows Remote Desktop Connection. No matter what critics are saying, Microsoft usually deliver the best in the software business.

When I remote to the server, sometimes I want to leave for a while and I want that computer to be locked. I've tried Windows+L, but it's not working anymore.

So I googled about it. Now I've got the solution. It is quite easy to do that. Simply create shortcut as follow.

• Right click on the Desktop
• Choose New -->> Shortcuts
• And then in the dialog box type the following

rundll32 user32.dll,LockWorkStation

After that give the shortcut whatever name you like. Next time, when you want to lock your computer, simply double click on that shortcut and it's all set!!!

Reference : mydigitallife.info

I have been trying to run Mac on my PC. I have been reading about Mac good news here and there. Many people suggest that Mac is very superior to Windows, blah, blah, blah. So I thought I should give it a try.

But I don't want to invest that much money for Mac hardware. That's why now I'm into Hackatonish, which kernel has been patched to run Mac on non-Apple hardware. As of now, I have installed Jas MacOSX 10.4.8 in VMware. I have found out that Mac is quite suck though.

No, I'm not talking about performance, I know VMware is slow for every OS. But when I try to download Google Talk, with Mac version, I can't talk, I can only type. What's the point of having Google talk without having ability to talk? After that, I have downloaded attachment from my friend email and then when I tried to download Winrar, there's no GUI support for Mac version. Geez!!

I pray it won't end up like my linux experience.

Stay tuned for my updated Mac experience. I may install it on real pc soon.

If you are my regular reader, you may notice that I didn't post for last three days. I was a bit busy with my personal life. And I haven't got the mood to blog lately. But from now on, I'll try my best not to have that gap again.

After I have used feedburner for my feeds, I have setup feed redirect in the Settings -->> Site feed as follow.


After two or three days, when I login to my Google Webmaster account, I have got the following warnings in my sitemap error.


When I click to view the warnings in details, I saw this:

Line: 2 Invalid XML: too many tags - Too many tags describing this tag.
Line: 2 Incorrect namespace - Your Sitemap or Sitemap index file doesn't properly declare the namespace.

It made me very frustrated. Feedburner isn't compatible with Google's Blogger services? After talking with my geek friends and emailing to Google, I have got the following solution.

• 1. I have to delete the old sitemap.
• 2. After that, I add new sitemap with ?redirect=false

That's it! Since then, I can see my sitemap with errors or warnings free as below.

Well, I don't use adsense here. So I don't have to scare of one day getting email about I'm getting banned due to fraudulent click. But for one of my friend, who depends on Google adsense, it's life and death situation.

One day, he accidentally click one of adsense and send email to customer support informing about the accident. (Yeah! he's that honest) After two days of nightmare, he got the following reply from Google.

Thanks for letting us know about the clicks on your ads. We appreciate your honesty and your efforts to keep your account in good standing.

Although publishers are not permitted to click on their own ads for any reason, we do understand that accidental clicks may occur, so we don't require that you contact us every time you click on your ads.

If you were clicking your ads out of interest or to see who was advertising on your site, we suggest the AdSense preview tool as an alternative. This tool will allow you to check the destination of ads on your page without the risk of generating invalid clicks.

Because we closely monitor all account activity using engineering systems and thorough human analysis, chances are we've already detected your clicks on your ads and discounted them. While these clicks still show in your reports, we filter out their associated earnings so that advertisers aren't charged.

Whew!! He can relax now. So I just want you guys you know that if you accidentally click one of your adsense ads, don't panic. It's not the end of the world.

Last month I share with you guys about the Firefox shortcuts that I frequently use. But right now, I found out this new, very nice shortcut again. I used to accidentally close tab in Firefox, sometimes in my favourite website or sometimes in totally first time new interesting site. To reopen, I have to dig down in my history list.

I don't have to do that anymore. I can press Ctrl+Shift+T to reopen the tab I have just closed. More interestingly, you can press Ctrl+Shift+T as many times as you want to reopen many closed tabs. It's quite handy for me indeed.

I love Firefox. It's fast, sleek and secure. Right now, my main browser is Firefox. I can't use IE to browse internet anymore. It's too noisy. The reason Firefox keeps quiet is due to Adblock plus.

• Home Page Alt + Home
• Full Screen View F11
• Refresh Page F5
• Find / Find Again F3
• Add Bookmarks Ctrl + D
• Bookmarks Ctrl + B
• History Ctrl + H
• Page Source Ctrl + U
• Tab New Ctrl + T
• Tab Close Ctrl + W
• Window New Ctrl + N
• Window Close Alt + F4

This list is ordered by the frequency of my usage. Of course, I don't have any statistics about my usage. So it's just a guess.

In Windows 2003, I've created an ordinary user account and then I've add that account in to Remote Desktop Users group already as in the following picture.



But when I login remotely, I've got the following error.

To log on to this remote computer, you must be granted the Allow log on through Terminal Services right. By default, members of the Remote Desktop Users group have this right. If you are not a member of the remote desktop users gruop or another group that has this right, or if the remote desktop user group does not have this right, you must be granted this right manually.

I'm sure if you got this error you'll feel frustrated like I did. How can you manually grant this user right to remote desktop? Okay, it's not that difficult.

• First Go to -->> Administrative Tools -->> Terminal Services Configuration
• And then Choose Connection and in the right panel right click on RDP-tcp
• And then choose Properties. In the Permissions tab, add the users you want.

That's it! Now enjoy your server remotely.