Thursday, January 29, 2009

Death by PowerPoint (SlideShare)

Not that I agree with everything said (e.g. suits visual learners - of which I am one), but gives you something to think about/discuss.

[slideshare id=85551&doc=death-by-powerpoint4344]

SkyDrive (25GB free online storage)

Microsoft promised at the last presentation I went to lots of new stuff, particularly based on their "Cloud computing" framework.

So, here is another tool that will be useful, 25GB free online storage!

go to http://www.microsoft.com and if it doesn't show its called skydrive 

If you have a live account (msn or hotmail) go to http://home.live.com/ and look for skydrive or if you dont have a microsoft passport go to the same url and create one. As far as I can tell you dont need a microsoft email (hotmail) account. I using my work one fine.

It allows others to access your folder. I am having trouble receiving zip files via email so this may be a way to get them to me.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Change removable storage icon

Was just playing around with my new USB Drive and realised you can create your own icon for Windows explorer.

1. Create an icon (duh!) - use Google to find an icon creator if you dont have one (e.g. GIMP or Paint.net with an addin) , and place in the root folder of your removable drive.

2. Create a text file (using notepad) called Autorun.inf (if there is already one it is likely to have an ico file setting already so all you need to do is change the ico file name).

The Autorun file only needs

Autorun.inf--------------------

[autorun]
icon = .\NameofIconFile.ico

-----------------------------

Monday, January 12, 2009

Vista Lost Password

My daughter decided to add another user to her HP laptop and at the same time change her admin password. Somehow the computer decided that the new password would be randomly generated and the computer locked her out!! So after trying a zillion passwords (and fear that we would have to rebuild the computer, I logged into my top tech support Google and after the first few telling me I needed to buy a package came across a blog from Mike Kelly ( http://blogs.msdn.com/mikekelly/archive/2007/11/25/lost-vista-password.aspx )

Basically, Mikes solution involved using System Restore ( ...and we also did not know you can create a Password Recovery Disk in Vista)

Simply 

1. Reboot and press F11

2. Select Advanced Options > Microsoft System Restore (Make sure it is NOT the one that restores to the Factory setting or you will wipe out your computer!)

3. .. this leaves recovery manager and shows the latest restore points. Choose one before you changed the password (Luckily a Windows update had occurred a couple of days earlier and after about 10 minutes Vista was reset.) .. MAGIC

For a heavy weight password recovery check out.. 

Offline NT Password and Registry Editor

Note Bill Detwiler (2009) has a video demo of how to do this online. Note  Bills warning about quitting the program or the changes are not written to the computer.

Detwiler, B. (2009) Video: Reset Windows passwords with the Offline NT Password and Registry Editor. IT Dojo. Retrieved May 21, 2009 from http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/itdojo/?p=140

Sunday, January 4, 2009

virtualMV and wiki: ICT Teaching content (http://www.virtualmv.com)

Hi everyone,

2009 has started and I have all but completed my PhD. As such it is time to have a look at my virtualMV web site and the many systems I have developed to support my research. The opening page of http://www.virtualMV.com has changed ( not very flash.. but that's for later) as I move content from my custom system to the wiki. Am in two minds as to wheter I will be building a new wiki based custom solution in PHP/MySQL or adding some extensions to MediaWiki. Upgrading myu current version of Media Wiki has not proved to be easy.

So, keep an eye out for changes..  

Michael