What do you think of the Motorola Backflip?

I just got a Motorola Backflip. it wasn’t my first choice in phones but i was in the 1.5 years into my 2 year contract when my Samsung Epix died. It couldn’t even charge and the battery died. 😦
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The thing is that if I had waited a few more months, I could get the phone for free from Amazon and renew for a new 2 year contract. However, since my other Samsung died and they couldn’t offer me any immediate replacement, I had to buy this new phone for $200from the local ATT store. I still have 30 days to evaluate it.

 The cons about this phone is

1- The batttery life is kinda short. Had to keep recharging it every 1.5 days

2- The dial pad (touch screen) is too sensitive and the keys are too close. I keep misdialing – maybe because I’m using my thumb.

3- The more apps you open, the faster the battery drains. I had to download an ‘app killer’ to kill the open services.

Do let me know what you think?

How to keep printing (in black) on your Brother printer when your ink runs dry

I kept getting empty cartridge messages on the LCD of my Brother 440CN inkjet printer. Even though my black ink was full, it kept prompting my to change my cyan cartridge. I hardly print in color and everything I print is in black. So annoying. When you start getting those messages, you can’t get past it or do anything on your printer.

Anyway, I read somewhere on the internet that you can fake the printer into thinking that the cartridge is full by putting a black electrical tape over the ‘ink window’ of the cartridge. I tried it and it worked !!

Advanced Subnet Calculator

If you are like me and can’t remember which IP ranges goes with which subnet or if it takes too long to divide sunbets into smaller ones, then you need this app.

I ‘ve been using this for a couple of years now and it never failed me.

It’s FREE on the Solarwinds site.

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This is funny – check it out !

This site is funny. Video clip was funny. I had a good laugh. Only for techies.

http://www.thewebsiteisdown.com/

WOW – Microsoft XP is still available on Amazon !

Amazon is one of the last places still selling Microsoft Windows XP

XP Professional Full Version with SP2 = $279.99

 

 

XP Home Full Version with SP2 = $179.99

How to delete cached autocomplete email addresses in outlook

Outlook has an automatic completion for any email address that you try to type into the To or CC fields. This feature does not pull from the contacts or address book, because you may have tried to email somebody that wasn’t in your contact list, and it will still add that to the auto complete list.

The problem comes in when you put in a bad address, and then every time you go to type in the email address, the incorrect one appears in the auto complete list.

To fix this problem, there are two ways around this. The easiest way is this:

+ Start typing in the address that shows up incorrectly.
+ Hit the Down arrow key to select the auto completed address.
+ Hit the Delete key to delete the auto complete address

SanDisk 4GB SDHC card and MicroMate card reader.

I purchased the SanDisk 4GB SDHC card and found that my Dell laptop with Windows XP Sevice Pack 2 did not recognize SD cards more that 2GB (or SD ver 2 cards). To get it to work, you need to be running WinXP Service Pack 3. Once I downloaded the latest Windows Update, it recognized the card+reader when I plugged it into the USB slot.

 

Old versions of software – oldversion.com

Here’s a site where you can find old versions of software that you can’t find anymore or hard to find.

For example, I was looking to 3Com 3CDaemon but it’s nowhere to be found on the web…but I finally found it here !!

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How to playback G729 audio streams

After you captured the audio stream using Wireshark, you want to playback the RTP stream.  Unfortunately, Wireshark can only decode G711 streams but the stream that you captured is G729. Follow the steps below to playback G729 streams

1- Open the capture in Wireshark, 

2- If you do not see the RTP packets (G729) , you might need to select the UDP packets -> right click and select Decode As… -> RTP (in the scrolling menu)

3- The rtp packets should now show up as G729.

4- Go to “Statistics -> RTP -> Show All Streams”. Select the desired stream and press “Analyze”.

5- Select “Save Payload…”. Save options are Format = .raw and Channel = forward. Name file sample.raw. The file should now be saved on your PC in RAW format.

6- Convert the .raw file to .pcm format using the Open G.729 decoder.

Syntax: va_g729_decoder.exe sample.raw sample.pcm.raw

Or for Linux: wine va_g729_decoder.exe sample.raw sample.pcm.raw

7- Open Audacity and select “Project -> Import Raw File…”.

8- Select the sample.pcm.raw file and choose 

• Signed 16-bit pc
• No endianness
• 1 channel (mono)
• Start offset: 0
• Amount to import: 100%
• Sample rate: 8000

 

 

 

Interesting site for your computing questions – How-To-Geek

If you are looking for tips on tweaking Microsoft Office, XP or Vista or just need help with a question, here is an interesting site that I just stumbled upon.

 

 

Outlook 2007 tip : Delay that Send now button

Ever wanted to recall an email that you accidently sent? Sometimes you reliaze that you sent it to the wrong person (especially with the Auto-Complete feature when typing the persons name in the To: field) or that there are grammatical errors / spelling mistakes in the email you just sent? . I’ve had that happen to me many times.

Well, here’s a good tip that I found on the Microsoft Outlook 2007 blog.

“Delayed send is a simple idea: When you hit Send, Outlook automatically retains the message in your Outbox folder for a short length of time (for instance, one minute) before sending. Most times you won’t notice the delay. And if you hit Send and then realize you made a mistake, you can go to your Outbox, open up the message, modify it, and then re-send it – and the recipients never see the mistake.”

 

Do you know what your PC is doing ? You need Wireshark !

This is a  useful tool that I use almost everyday – for work and at home, and it’s free.

I can run WireShark and analyze packets and see what the problem is or what my PC is doing. It’s not for the everyday user and you have to be pretty technical. There are a lot of tutorials and web sites that teach you how to use it. I highly recommend it if you think you are having problems with your PC or might have a virus.

Below is a link to Wireshark.