Peace Test Podcasts

The Geekcast #124

The Geekcast

The Geekcast #124 Show Notes: Contact info: Feed: feeds.feedburner.com/geekcast TheGeekcast.com geekcast@gmail.com Skype & Gizmo: Geekcast Show notes: send blank e-mail to geekcastpodcast-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Frappr Map: Frappr.com/thegeekcast ************** Items of Note: ************** Tech news: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast ************** Test A Geek: Enjoy a new edition of Test A Geek ************** How To: Opt out of unsolicited mail, calls and cookies The New York Times a while back rounded up ways to opt out of solicitations online, from junk snail mail, to telemarketing calls, to Doubleclick web site ad cookies. Here's a quick list of each type of opt-out: Phone solicitations: donotcall.gov Junk snail mail: Direct Marketing Association: http://www.the-dma.org/consumers/offmailinglist.html Email: "Whatever you do, do not respond to an unsolicited e-mail message when it gives you the option to opt out of receiving more e-mail. That is a trick used by spammers to confirm they hit a live address." Credit card offers: OptOutPrescreen.com Doubleclick ad cookies: Ad Cookie Opt-out Lexis Nexis public database: Opt Out of Lexis Nexis: http://www.lexisnexis.com/terms/privacy/data/remove.asp ************** Ask A Geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast ************** Hack: Hide user accounts from the Windows XP Welcome screen The Windows XP Welcome screen. Pretty pictures for each user account. What a nice thought on Microsoft's part. The only trouble is - I want to create an administrator account, and not have others tempted to try getting into it while they are on my computer. When windows XP is not joined to a domain, it displays a welcome screen when it first boots: The welcome screen displays all of the local users on the system, except the built-in administrator account that was created during setup. If we want to hide a specific user from the list, we need to create a special value under this registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList Under this key you simply create a new DWORD value - the name matches the users name exactly, and the value is one of the following (Decimal format) 0 - Hides the user just from the welcome screen 1 - The user is shown Before you start putting values in this key, I want to warn you. This tip is particularly dangerous. If you make the wrong move, you could make it nearly impossible to get back into your system. Don't blame me if you hose your system! To disable the users I want, I browse to the registry key on my system. Now I want to hide all of the accounts except one, so I add each of the accounts shown on the welcome screen, and give them a value of zero. That's all we need to do. I log off, and now I only see the one remaining account. Here's the big question. How do you log on as a hidden user? If you are running windows XP Professional you simply need to press CTRL-ALT-DEL twice, and the standard logon screen will be displayed. This has one pitfall - it will fail to work if a user is still currently logged in. If you are having trouble getting it to show, then reboot and press it twice before any users have logged in. Secondly, if you are running Windows XP Home, you will need to boot in safe mode to use the hidden account. The CTRL-ALT-DEL trick does not work for XP Home. ************** The geek's view: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast. ************** read less

Latest Episodes for this Channel

The Geekcast #124

Wed July 25 2007

The Geekcast #124 Show Notes: Contact info: Feed: feeds.feedburner.com/geekcast TheGeekcast.com geekcast@gmail.com Skype & Gizmo: Geekcast ... read more

The Geekcast #123

Wed June 20 2007

The Geekcast #123 Show Notes: Contact info: Feed: feeds.feedburner.com/geekcast TheGeekcast.com geekcast@gmail.com Skype & Gizmo: Geekcast ... read more

The Geekcast #122

Thu May 31 2007

The Geekcast #122 Show Notes: Contact info: Feed: feeds.feedburner.com/geekcast TheGeekcast.com geekcast@gmail.com Skype & Gizmo: Geekcast ... read more

The Geekcast #122 Show Notes: Contact info: Feed: feeds.feedburner.com/geekcast TheGeekcast.com geekcast@gmail.com Skype & Gizmo: Geekcast Show notes: send blank e-mail to geekcastpodcast-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Frappr Map: Frappr.com/thegeekcast ************** Items of Note: There are currently no items of note. ************** Tech news: Microsoft announces Microsoft Surface. Microsoft on Wednesday introduced Microsoft Surface, code-named "Milan," more than five years in the making and the first in what the company hopes will be a long line of "surface computers." The Microsoft Surface tabletop PC, for which the company has created both the hardware and software, is controlled entirely through touch with no mouse or keyboard. To paint, people can pick up a paint brush or just dip their fingers in virtual paint cups. Sharing photos is similarly intuitive. A stack of pictures can be easily sorted through and shared. To resize a photo, just stretch two fingers apart. Pivot the fingers and the image rotates. More than one person can be interacting with the computer at a time. Although consumers will be able to touch it later this year, most won't be able to buy a surface computer any time soon. The expensive components required to allow multiple users to touch the device simultaneously give it a price tag approaching $10,000. As a result, Microsoft isn't targeting homes initially, though it hopes consumers can own their own Milan within three to five years. For now, Microsoft is focusing on getting the products into public spaces in the hospitality arena--hotel lobbies, restaurants, and casinos, to name a few. Apple Introduces 160GB Apple TV for $399. In a press release announcing YouTube videos for Apple TV, Apple also reveals that they will be introducing a 160GB Apple TV for $399. Apple TV, which includes the Apple Remote, is available through the Apple with a 160GB hard drive will be available now for a suggested retail price of $399. The YouTube feature for Apple TV will be available as a free software update in mid-June. Dell laying off 10% of its workforce. Today Dell announced that they're planning to layoff nearly ten percent of the company's workforce according to the BBC. The BBC doesn't get specific about where they'll be job cuts, but we all hope that the cuts don't come from tech support and customer service departments, as they are already looking bad in public opinion. ************** Test A Geek: Enjoy 3 more trivia questions. ************** How To: How to Add Music To Your Ipod Without Itunes Many people I know who are thinking about buying iPod's love the unit but aren't too keen on working with iTunes. While it is a fantastic program, it does use more memory than we would like and the interface takes a little bit of getting used to; especially if you're not a mac user. Many people also believe that it's only for buying music and they have no idea that it's also a jukebox. For anyone looking to go a different route than using iTunes, these programs are for you. What you’ll need: First, if you haven’t already, you’ll need to enable your iPod as a portable hard drive. You can do this via startup key commands. Check your manual for more information. Once you’ve got that done, you’re ready to soup up your iPod. Sync music and movies with Floola. Floola is a freeware, cross platform application that lets you copy music and videos to and from your iPod from and to any computer. Floola lets you sync both audio and video to your iPod, which is a must for anyone with a video-capable iPod. Floola is actually capable of doing a lot more - like managing your music, playlists, and artwork, finding and removing duplicate songs, integrating with Last.fm, and playing your iPod’s music on a computer. However, the important thing is that with Floola you can add music and videos to your iPod from any computer, and all it takes is a simple drag-and-drop. That means you’re no longer locked into any one computer or iTun read less

The Geekcast #121 - Corrected

Tue May 22 2007

The Geekcast #121 Show Notes: Contact info: Feed: feeds.feedburner.com/geekcast TheGeekcast.com geekcast@gmail.com Skype & Gizmo: Geekcast ... read more

The Geekcast #121 Show Notes: Contact info: Feed: feeds.feedburner.com/geekcast TheGeekcast.com geekcast@gmail.com Skype & Gizmo: Geekcast Show notes: send blank e-mail to geekcastpodcast-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Frappr Map: Frappr.com/thegeekcast ************** Items of Note: Please note this is a corrected version of the episode. The original had minor audio issues. ************** Tech news: iPhone Pre-paid may be available. BoyGeniusReport.com has posted screenshots from AT&T's accounting system revealing new account codes for three versions of iPhone sales: PostPaid, "Pay As You Go", and "Pick Your Plan". While most phones are more expensive without contracts, Apple's iPhone is rumored to have tossed this business model out by not allowing the phone to be subsidized. This remains unconfirmed, but this means the $499 & $599 price should be the same with or without contract. This would mean that iPhones would be sold without contracts and it would be easier to allow users to buy and unlock their iPhones for use on other networks. Music industry offers deal to small Webcasters. News.com reports that while facing an outcry over imminent royalty fee increases for Internet radio operators, the music industry has attempted a peace offering. SoundExchange, the nonprofit group that collects fees, said it would give "small" Webcasters the option of paying "below market" royalty rates on the songs they play. These rates are essentially the same as they are under a 2002 law called the Small Webcaster Settlement Act. "The net result of this proposal is that small Webcasters would be guaranteed no increase in royalty payments for 13 years, from 1998 to 2010," SoundExchange general counsel Michael Huppe said in a statement. Webcasters that fall in the "small" category would be required to pay 10 percent of all gross revenue up to $250,000 and 12 percent for all gross revenue above that amount. Those rates would hold until 2010 and be retroactive to 2006, SoundExchange said. ************** Test A Geek: Enjoy 3 more trivia questions. ************** How To: Remove your phone number from Google Search Concerned about your privacy? One proactive step you can take is to remove your phone number from Google PhoneBook. As you may know, typing a residential phone number into a Google Search bar (though not the Google Toolbar) performs a reverse lookup that lists your name, address and even a link to a Google Map of your address. Fortunately, Google gives you the option of removing all your residential listing information. All you have to do is fill out a short form and wait 48 hours. Google Phonebook Name Removal: http://www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html ************** Ask A Geek: Frank asks: Is there a program to "fix" youre computer? I'm running windows XP and the problem started when i could not hibernate my computer. Then then i get an error with the explorer that keeps telling me to send or dont send an error to Microsoft. I already tried defrag and recovering but that doesn't seem to help. Answer: To go through these types of errors is usually difficult. On XP you can try the following: 1. Attempt a System Restore to a time before the problem happened. 2. Think back to when it began and try to see if you installed any new programs or hardware around that time. 3. Fully update your virus scanner and spyware scanners. Run full scans on your machine. 4. Scan and clean your registry with a fantastic little tool called TweakNow! You can get it at tweaknow.com/RegCleaner.html 5. You can use Hijack This! to try to restore settings on your computer back to factory. 6. I'm sure you did this but run Windows Update. 7. Try disabling hibernate mode and re-enabling it. Sometimes toggling it could work. 8. Verify your sleep settings to be sure that they're set correctly to allow your computer to hibernate. ************** Hack: Top 10 Tweaks, Tips, and Tricks for Windows Vista 1. If you’re annoyed by Internet Explorer’s incessant barking tha read less