Ryan J.com

Like most techno savy individuals I find myself frequently needing to help family and friends to fix their computer problems.  Most of the time the  issue is something I would be able to fix within a few minutes if I were physically at the location.  Since that can't always be the case I have taken to remotely connect whenever possible in order to be as efficient as possible.  Previously I used Window's Remote Desktop feature to do this but recently something changed with my mom's router/computer configuration that kept me from making a connection to her machine.  After multiple failed attempts I was about to give up when I stumbled across an application called CrossLoop.  CrossLoop is a "simple, secure" and FREE method of connecting remotely.  All that is necessary is for both parties involved to download and install the CrossLoop application and create an account.  Once everything is set up you will see a screen like below... allowing you to either share (give access) or access (gain access) to a machine remotely.

Access

Share

That is all there is to it. The application takes care of the rest and you can be on your way to fixing problems in less than 2 minutes! So far I have had no issues and connected at least 4-5 times to someone's PC to help out.

Give it a try!

There is a new version of Live Messenger out and it is pretty amazing.  One of the coolest features is the ability to have a client running on more than one machine and access the conversation on both.  Say you've got two boxes running in different rooms and want to be able to respond wherever you are, now you can.  You can also customize the appearance a great deal.

On to our next topic.  You know those extremely annoying advertisement features packed into Live Messenger?  Well, the new version is no exception.  Today while talking to someone at the office he mentioned finding a tool that removes these advertisements.  I had to check it out!  It is called A-Patch and is currently being distributed at http://apatch.org.  So what all can it do?  Right now, it is still in the works, since Messenger 2009 is still fairly new... but here is a list of the current features:

1. Remove Advertisement (contact list)
2. Remove What's Hot Section
3. Remove Nudge Delay
4. Disable Nudge Shake
5. Accept more than 3 file transfers at a time
6. Polygamy (Multi-MSN)
7. Shorten Status Info in Info Bar
8. Remove Advertisement (message window)
9. Remove "says" Text (english only)
10. Remove Billing Info Menus

Enjoy!

Here is a quote as of this writing taken directly from the Comcast Help & Support page:

"Comcast initiated the 250 GB monthly data usage threshold on October 1, 2008."

So, you see that? I'm lucky enough to not be forced into using their service (yet), however, my parents aren't as lucky. I have been looking since around May at different pieces of software that allow you to monitor your bandwidth to keep below this limit.  Either through the router or by making an educated guess by monitoring the machine being used most on a network.  Granted, you may think this is a lot of usage... but my mom happens to work as a transcriptionist pulling down large files pretty frequently during her work day.

I ran across a Lifehacker article talking about a piece of software called Networx created by a company called Softperfect.  I installed this app and I've been watching it's footprint for a while now.  The actual download is less than 1Mb in size and it seems to be averaging 7Mb of memory usage - pretty good if you ask me!

DiffMerge

I've used DiffMerge for about a year now when I need to check multiple versions of code against each other. I'd say what I love most about this application is the ability to easily move code between files and also to be able to do a folder comparison, both in a very timely fashion. Best of all... it is FREE. So if you are in need of a quick text comparison tool I would highly recommend this to you.

That it is. I ran across this application about a year ago from a coworker while trying to find a simple way to back up the music library from my 40Gb iPod. I would have to say that it is the easiest to use "backup" application I have ran across. A few previous pieces of software I tried out causes my iPod file system to become corrupt and I ended up having to format the damn thing and reload all the data in order to use my iPod again... not cool. So how does it work? Well, it is freeware but if you really like it you should pay for it... just download it, install it and go. It will find your iPod for you, showing a list of your library with all files preselected for you. Choose a folder where you would like to back everything up to and it will generate folders for each artist (Artist becomes folder name) with subfolders containing individual albums seperated into mp3 files (Song title becomes filename.mp3). That's it. Easy mode to backing up your iPod!