A cd image is an entire cd’s contents in a single file. Mounting a cd image will allow you to access the contents of the cd as would any other drive in windows. Why would you want to create a cd image? Certain software, including a lot of games, require that you insert their cd into your cdrom drive before you can use the software. Creating a cd image allows you to use this software without having to repeatedly insert and remove cds. In this post I look at how to create and mount a cd image in Windows. Continue reading
computer tips
Essential serendipity plugins
I have 3 serendipity powered weblogs now and on each one I install certain key plugins that help me promote my site and add useful functionality to it.
First up is spartacus. Spartacus is an event plugin that gives me access to serendipity’s online plugin and themes repository. With spartacus I can install additional plugins or change my blog design easily. Spartacus is one of the best features of serendipity and a similar plugin is not available in any of the blog or cms systems I have tried. Users of other blog systems have to first download plugins or themes from their author’s sites and then upload them to their own server for installation. Spartacus lets you install plugins and themes straight from your admin panel.
Dialup prepaid card comes with FREE ads
Stuck as I am on an ancient slow as molasses dialup connection, I find myself rather annoyed by the new practice by some Pakistani ISPs of redirecting scrath/prepaid card user’s requested pages to their own ad filled pages. Cybernet and gerrys are the two biggest culprits. Both of them randomly redirect you to a page filled with their ads and a continue link. The people at Gerrys advertise their stupid dsl service. Fortunately I am smart enought to use firefox and adblock plus which prevents the fat ads from squeezing my bandwidth. Nevertheless its damn annoying to have to refresh a page multiple times just to see a website.
I have however discovered a few solutions to preventing these redirects. For cybernet you either use any of thier dial in numbers NOT ending in 65 or you configure a proxy server. Often their other numbers don’t work so you have to use the one ending in 65. Using a proxy always works. You can find many online lists of proxy servers by googling for them. In the case of gerrys you have to use their proxy server proxy.gerrys.net. Of course you should still use FF and adblock plus because cybernet is fond of pop ups as well. Sigh….
A few common windows shortcut keys
Here are a few useful windows shortcuts
- Double click on a windows title bar to maximize it. Repeat to restore it. This is easier to do because the title bar is a wider area than the little square maximize button in the top right corner of a window.
- windows key + m to minimize all windows. Functions sort of like the show desktop shortcut
- select a file or shortcut icon and press alt-enter to view its properties window.
- windows key + L to do a quick log out. Useful if want to quickly zip away from your computer but don’t want to leave yourself logged in.
- windows key + e will display my computer.