MP4 or M4V

If you’ve ever used Handbrake to rip a video, one of the options in the iTouch/iPhone format is MP4 or M4V. Which should you use?

In my experience, the files are exactly the same except that the iTouch needs the .M4V extension, while my WD Media Player needs the MP4 extension if you want to Fast Forward through a video. To play videos in my iTouch I use Better File Rename to rename all my videos with a M4V extension. If I want to play them on my TV using my WD Media Player, I change the files extensions back to MP4.  Weird – but it works.

Is This Site Down?

I’m sure you’ve had the experience (like yesterday), where you’ve gone to a website and nothing works. You start getting panicky and try other sites and they seem to be ok. Now what the heck is going on?

There’s a site which can give you an answer.
Down For Everyone or Just Me gives you the opportunity to check out your site and see just what the heck is going on. Type in the site name in the box and it will come back with an answer. Hallelujah!

Free Screen Capture

BB Flashback Express has a free screen and audio capture utility which sure beats having to pay $100’s to use Camtasia. I haven’t given it a try (I have Camtasia),but for free what have you got to lose?

Remote Access Any Computer

Many times I’ll get a phone call wanting some computer help and I try to help as best as I can, but it’s always aggravating since I can’t see the other person’s computer screen. Here’s a solution – LogMeIn.com.

If you have them setup a LogMeIn account and download and install the software, you can then view their computer screen and see exactly what they’re doing. This is FREE for the basic version while the Pro version is $200. There are similar products, but no other free versions of similar software.

Here’s a nice YouTube video explaining the process:

Free Software – 173 Possibilities

PCMAG.com has a great list of 173 Free applications which might just be all you need for your computing needs. (click here)

AllMyFaves – A Site of Sites

Instead of using Google to find specific sites, AllMyFaves.com puts many of them together with a pleasing appearance and easy interface. Thanks to MarkP for this tip.

Your Computer Information

If you’d ever like to know what hardware and software (including serial numbers) are on your computer, you have two nice options. Belarc or System Information. Both are free and will tell you everything you need to know about what is on your computer.

Vista – Auto Logon

If you’d like to automatically logon to your account in Vista, here’s how to do it. At the Search box, type
control userpasswords2 and press Enter.
The User Accounts screen will appear.
Highlight the account that you want to automatically log on with, then uncheck the box next to Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer. Click OK. The Automatically Log On dialog box appears. Type in the password for the account that you want to log on automatically. Click OK.
From now on, you’ll automatically log in using that account. To get to another account, Click the Start button, click the arrow in the lower-right corner of the Start menu, and select Switch User and follow the prompts.

Vista – Not Too Safe

A friend recently brought over a VISTA computer that was unusable because they had forgotten the password for the startup logon. Within 5 minutes a found a Linux ISO file which allowed me to boot from a CD and remove the Administrators password.What I also learned in the process was that, VISTA is not that safe if you’re trying to hide your data.

I also learned that by adding this command in the Search bar:
Net user administrator /active:yes
You can activate and show the Administrators logon when Windows starts. This is also nice since the  administrator doesn’t have the annoying UAC popup screens. Note – this account doesn’t have a password initially, so make sure you assign a password to this account.

You can hide the Administrator logon by using the command:
Net user administrator /active:no

I like to have at least two Administrator accounts so that if I have a problem with one, I can still logon and make changes.

Computer on a Thumb Drive

Here’s a relatively easy way to put an entire computer on a thumb drive. OK, it uses Linux, but the interface is great and you can do most tasks that you’d normally do in Windows. Here are the steps.

1. Go to http://www.ubuntu.com/ and download their latest version 8.1. That is an ISO file.

2. Use Nero or something comparable to take that ISO file and burn it to a CD.

3. Setup your comptuer to boot from the CD – usually you have to hit F2 or Space or some other keyboard key to stop the normal boot process and get into your BIOS. When you’re their, set it up so that the computer will boot from the CD first.

4. Reboot using the CD you created

5. From the new menu go to System – Administration – Create a USB Startup disk.

6. Follow the prompts and at the bottom you’ll see “Stored in Reserved extra space.” That’sthe area for your stored files. On a 4 GB USB drive, I gave it 3 GB of space.

7. Go back to the computer Bios and change it so that it can boot from the thumb drive. You may have to have a newer computer to do this. Some older computers don’t have this option.