Posted by Dustin on June 16, 2009 under Off-Topic, PC | 
So very recently I had a need for a partition editing tool, and being the tightwad that I am I was looking for a free util that would handle such a task. I decided to give GParted a shot, not because I’ve been successful with it before but because it seems to be everyone’s favorite free partition tool. So I downloaded the ISO and burned the image to a cd, and rebooted to the cd and nothing happened. So I burned the image to a cd with a different image burning util and rebooted the system to the cd… again nothing. So I decided, there has got to be something else that will do this.
Hence I went to my old friend Google, which in a round about way came up with this little pearl, it’s called EASEUS Partition Master and it’s free for home use. I decided I’d give it a shot figuring I have nothing left to lose (‘specially since it was my moms computer not mine 
. Turns out the tool works fantastically. It’s been a while since I’ve used Partition Magic (Magik?) but the interface is much like I remember Partion Magi_ being.
So far I haven’t seen any side effects but it’s only been 15 min. if any come up I’ll post them. If you didn’t get that link the first few times here it is again
Posted by Phil on June 2, 2009 under LinkPost, Web Development |
Yep, I’m a few days late, but this month is full of more tasty linked goodness! Plenty of image links, multimedia, jQuery, generic web dev, some WordPress, a couple of iPhone links, plenty of ‘other’, and of course what a LinkPost be without tons and tons of fonts (now that I’ve said that, next month watch there not be any )?
Read more of this article »
Posted by Phil on under PC |
Within the last week or two Yahoo pushed out a new update to Yahoo! Messenger. Now I didn’t mind the old version, (it had a much better color scheme) but it would swallow tons of memory to display ads etc. To get around that I had used the reg-hack and xml hack to remove the ads (which make the messenger take up far less memory and I didn’t have to see ads). So Version 9 comes out in all of it’s shiny, candy-coated metro-bletch theme-age, and boom, none of my ad removal fixes work. Then I stumbled upon a true gem on the interweb, how to remove the ads by using your hosts file.
After I tried it and found that it worked like a champ for my Yahoo! Messenger, one of my MSN-using friends wondered if the MSN messenger could be hacked the same way… and wouldn’t you know it? it can. So crack open your hosts file (/windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts) in notepad++ (or equivalent text editor) and add the entries below to get rid of the ads in your messenger (of course here’s where I make a plug for pidgin and how awesome it is, it doesn’t have ads, it works with msn, yahoo, aim, google, etc, blah blah. But of course our work proxy hates pidgin and denies us it’s awesomeness, and so we are reduced to fixing the programs that will make it through the proxy).
To stop ads in Msn Messenger add the following to your HOSTS file:
127.0.0.1 rad.msn.com
127.0.0.1 global.msads.net
127.0.0.1 rss.video.msn.com
127.0.0.1 ads1.msn.com
127.0.0.1 rad.live.com
127.0.0.1 specials.uk.msn.com |
To stop the ads in Yahoo Messenger add the following to your HOSTS file:
127.0.0.1 insider.msg.yahoo.com |
Note: the MSN fix is not completely tested, it may cause unexpected errors. The yahoo fix will disable your IMvironments (which no one used anyway…), and something else that no one uses.
I’ve been using the yahoo fix since the update was forced onto my compy (ok, it wasn’t really forced, but I like to pretend I didn’t have a say in the matter), and I haven’t noticed any adverse effects. So have at it! You can throw questions in the comments.
Please note (small disclaimer): If you don’t know what a hosts file is, DO NOT follow this example, if you get scared while editing the hosts file STOP editing it and quit without saving your changes. Always make a back up (and then back that up too), always be prepared for adverse effects, and don’t blame me for what you do to your system.
