Blogger exporting draft now

Just created a new blog to combined the Ratology Reloaded public blog and the Ratology at Heal private blog.

I was sort of worried about the drafts since they were not exported back a few months ago.

Yes, thank God, blogger has it corrected and, now, when you export your blog, the drafts are also exported and can be imported into the new blog.

Dead Fantom back to life

I had thought that my Fantom drive was mostly dead because it simply made the clicking sound of death-- not wanting to wake up.

Then, before I came back to Taiwan, a friend of mine found out that it was the enclosure that went bad.

Today, I got a new enclosure for the drive and-- the drive is no longer naked and is back alive!

Miracle!

The enclosure I got was made by Philips.  The whole process was simple and straightforward. 

There was only a minor glitch... the first time I plugged it in to the laptop running Windows 7, I was shown an installation failure error message.  So I turned the drive off and plug it in to another USB slot.  This time, it took a minute or two getting things set up and has been working perfectly since... (So far so good)

Interestingly, it seems like enclosures of this brand are not sold in the US.  At least I can't find it on the web.

The moral of the lesson, though God forbids, next time your external drive does the same thing, check and see whether it is the problem of the enclosure before sentence the hard drive to... adios. 

One more thing I learned was-- the 3.5 enclosure could actually be cheaper in the US while the 2.5 could be cheaper in Taiwan. $$$$$

Update: Drafts still not exported by Blogger

It's been almost a week since I found out that draft posts (unpublished posts) are not exported by blogger.

I looked all over the places.  Some other people reported it but the only responses they received so far... well... the respondents such as me also have similar problems.

Regardless, since there is no other way to contact blogger and backing up the drafts, all that I can do is to practice the KISS principle-- copy the drafts (e.g., title, texts, time) one by one and paste them to a private blog... publish them so that I can have them texts backed up.

If I keep it going for a month and at the pace of 10 drafts a day, I guess I will be able to get all things backed up in my Ratology Reloaded blog in one month.

Come to think about it... ain't it a bit stupid. 8-X

Drafts not exported in Blogger

Decided to do a backup for all my blogs earlier.

Since there are almost 300 draft posts in my Ratology Reloaded blog, I decided to create a new private blog, populate it with the data captured in the exported file for Ratology Reloaded and publish these drafts.

It was then did I realize that the drafts (the writings that are not posted to the public) can not be found in the new blog that I had just created.

After checking out the XML file (the export file) briefly, I came up with the conclusion that the problem is in the exporting process rather than in the importing process (though I might be wrong).

Interestingly, drafts were exported as well before... at least back on Sept. 26th, 2010... as indicated by the screenshot of the backup blog I created then.

Haven't found a solution yet and I don't think there is really anything I can do on my end.

Just want to alert you with this issue that just came to my attention.

And, it surely is very annoying to me because now I have to go back making my posts in the internal blog rather than simply share them as drafts when I don't feel like making thoughts public.

1 TB=931 GB: What I learned from my first portable Hard drive

Got Western Digital® My Passport® Essential™ SE 1TB Portable Hard Drive-USB 3.0 as my very first portable hard drive because my backup Fantom Drive decided to die when I was away from NYC.

After this portable Hard drive, I might have to consider getting a secondary backup drive since what went with the death of the Fantom was my life between 2007 and 2010... (Thank God that I didn't really get too much done during these 3 years and, speaking of memory dump. 8-O lol sigh)

I decided to not install the WD Smartware backup software because a lot of people out there seem to have complaints about how this software slows their computer down.

The problem I have with the drive is that, although it claims to be a 1 TB drive, you only have 931 GB available to store your files.  Ended up, this is something that gets many people really confused--- not only me.

So said them smart people... 1 TB can be 931 GB. 8-O

It all depends on how you classify TB.

Essentially, the Hard drive vendors use decimal numbering system while that used by the operating systems, binary.

1 TB in decimal numbering system = 1,000,000,000,000 (10^12) (Base 10)
1 TB in binary numbering system = 1,099,511,627,776 (2^40) (Base 2)

Since the operating system counts in binary, 10^12 equates to around 931GB.

1TB = 1,000,000,000,000B

931.32*1024*1024*1024 =931.32*(2^10)*(2^10)*(2^10)=1,000,000,000,000B

Thus, 1 TB=931 GB

Tricky and guess this is why they teach us math in school... 8-O lol

How do I like this hard drive so far?

Well, it's been trying to back up my system containing 120 something gb of data... and only up to 30%... for the past 3-4 hours or so while my mom and I are busy packing...

Don't know who I should blame--- Windows 7 backup or the drive..... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

--unless simply the fact that no USB 3 port available on this hard working machine...

Canon PowerShot A570 IS: A camera with personalities

I am coming to this belief that... the longer my camera hangs around with me, the longer it becomes like me...

Earlier in the day, the camera showed me the message that the batteries needed to be replaced and it refused to turn on.

So I did one my usual tricks... I took the batteries out and put them back in.

It solved the problem and allowed me to take two pictures. (As long as you don't ask me why it works, and, amazingly, it works many a time so far.)

Hours later, I came across this red-tailed hawk by the park and thought... "Man... the batteries might have run out of juice again."

Interestingly, this round, the camera had no problem starting up and allowed me to take some video clips of the big bird and a picture as well... till the big bird flew away...

So I thought... maybe the camera only like to start up for the red-tailed hawk? 8-O lol

Blogger in Draft

Just realize there is such thing called "Blogger in Draft."

The new blogger interface, I guess...

The first problem I identified seconds into my trial...  there is no scrolling bar next to the text box when composing using this interface and I have to use them wheels on the mouse to edit contents in my posting.

How on earth would they have missed that?  8-O 

Decided, as a result, to switch back to the ordinary blogger app.

Gotta say, though, at least it gives me something new to play with...

Burn ISO image on Mac

I have never tried to burn ISO image on Mac before and tired it out for the first time today.

It is a simple process.

When you put the DVD or CD in, this window might pop up asking for your input on what to do next.  Under Action, select Open Disk Utility and click "OK."

Otherwise, simply launch the Disk Utility program on your Mac.

Once the Disk Utility program is launched, click on "File" and select "Open Disk Image" from the drop-down menu.

The "Select Image to Attach" window will open.  Locate your image file (e.g., xxxx.dmg) and click "Open".

The image file can now be located in the lower left side of the Disk Utility program.  Select the image file of your interest and click on the "Burn" icon.  This should start the image burning process.

In this scenario, the SnagIt.dmg is the image file newly attached to the Disk Utility program, which will be burned to the DVD.

Once you click on the "Burn" icon, a small window will pop up- informing your of the progression of the image burning process.

When the process is done, the small pop up window will tell you so and the DVD, theoretically, should get ejected by the machine.

C'est ça.

Something new I learned to do today and did it successfully .

Nice.

gmail server error screenshot

Just when I thought there is something new on this planet... I see for the first time this gmail email error....

One thing I did, though, right after seeing this error message was to back up all my blogs for fear that this turns into a more global inaccessibility for a time frame longer than temporal.

Though it did come back.

Blogger error 503

The thing about Technologies in Ratology is that...

You don't get to play with new things all the times and tech issues to be troubleshooted-- however we want want them to avoid-- don't come easy either...

The contribution of Blogger to my life today... intermittent service unavailability... something new, at least, though nothing I can do on my end...

Adobe Connect on iPad 2 and Acer Android tablet

So happy today because I finally got to use Adobe Connect on Ipad 2.

I have intended to try this out for the past two weeks.

Yes... although Apple doesn't allow for flash on Ipad, it is now possible to attend Adobe Connect web conferencing using the Adobe Connect Mobile web conferencing app.

It is a simple and straightforward process. You download and install the app from iTune store for free and click on the icon of the app on your desktop to run it.

Since I was unable to find someone else to conference with me at the time, I signed in as a guest to "connect" with myself.  In retrospective, I should have log on using the android tablet as well...  8-O lol

Played with Adobe Connect on Android tablet back 2-3 weeks ago with another friend and I found the experiences to be fairly similar.

The only problem I have with the mobile app is that... you can't do much with it other than attending the web conference.

Sure, you can talk or share your video captured by the webcam.

Yet, you can not share screen, share apps or share any other thing on your mobile device even if you are the host of the conference.

In addition, sometimes the app allows you to switch from the rear-facing camera to the camera facing the front.  Other times, it simply ignores all your commands.

Regardless, the app does make it possible for people to attend Adobe Connect web conferences.... and... I had fun!

SPSS 19 on Windows 7

Ran SPSS 19 for the first time on this Windows 7 x64 machine...

Didn't nothing fancy... I imported a dataset from a text file and ran some simple stats to test the software out... frequency, descriptive, correlation, ANOVA.... and even got some graphics generated!

Everything seems to be smooth and fine.

So far-- so good... based on the trial run.

Will let you know how I like this version after I run it a few more time with real datasets.... for the purpose of data analyses...

The best thing about SPSS 19 is that... it is back to be called SPSS.  lol

Apparently, there are some new features that I have not played with before... and would like to test them out in the near future.

Reformatting IPad 2 for the first time

I just reformatted an IPad 2 on my own for the first time.

My friend showed me how to do it last week and I just got it done on my own!

Essentially, what I did was...

1- I launched iTunes
2- I connected the iPad to computer
3- In the left panel of iTune window, I selected the iPad
4- Under the Set Up your iPad window, I choose to "Set up as a new iPad"

5- I assigned a name to the iPad and specified what I want to sync to the iPad

And... I clicked Done!

Solution for my "Skype video disconnect itself" issue

This has been happening... though... don't quote me... it might have started after I upgraded to the newest version of Skype 5.x.  But, don't quite me for this aging rat's memory ain't so good-- especially when I have only the brain size of a peanut.

Skype voice seems to work fine.  Yet, if I try to use Skype video, I will see the signal strength to decrease gradually until finally the connection is lost.

Yet, the only connection lost is that of Skype because I will be able to send emails and browser internet without any problem.

After googling around, I found that it seems to be a fairly well-known problem amongst Skype users and some of them suspected that this problem might have something to do with the Internet connection. (e.g., http://getsatisfaction.com/skype/topics/slow_connection_speeds_on_skype_despite_high_speed_connection)

Funny enough, it was not after I decide to seek out for a solution for the disconnection problem did I realize that... oops... I thought I had broadband connection while, in reality, the service I subscribed to only gives me up to 1.5 mb/s upload and .25 mb/s download rate... (check your connection speed)

Don't know what skype video think... ain't quite broad enough a bandwidth for myself... lol

That was when I started my whole journal toward a broaderband...

After I contacted Timewarner (my internet service provider) back a couple days ago, one of the customer representatives seemed to have helped me done something to boost the speed up a bit-- though my connection speed was still much within the Road runner range.  Interestingly, from then on, though the signal could drop gradually to having only 2 bars, it doesn't go below it and neither would it show me the "connection lost" screen--- however hard I try--- for the purpose of a screenshot.

Now that my internet service upgrade is completed and my speed is up to faster than 91% of US on average, the skype video seems to work OK after I tried it for the first time today.

A few things I have to say is that:

First, I might have to make a few more skype calls to make sure whether this problem is really resolved.  This is why I say the upgrading of my bandwidth might be a "plausible solution."

Second, there is no telling whether it is the upgrade that did the magic or skype did something on their end to get something fixed.

And, third, if 128Kbps upload and 500Kbps download should be sufficient, and, the problem I have been experiencing with skype video these past few months is really associated with bandwidth, why would I need to upgrade my internet service to a connection speed faster than 91% of US in order to use the free service of video skype?  Unless... Microsoft is gonna turn itself into an internet service provider as well?  8-O

Thank God that, due to the promotional offer I subscribe, I am actually paying less for my Internet services now than before.

P.S. Specs of the machine with Skype video problem

1. Thinkpad Sl410
2. Win 7 x64
3. McAfee
4. Internal webcam
5. Road runner basic before: up to 1.5 mp/s download and .25 mp/s upload
6. Symptoms: The signal strength gets weaker and weaker before it loses connection after skype video gets started

(July 30, 2011 update: Yes... the upgrade in internet connection solved the problem.)

Google talk volume really low

I posted a question days back about my intent to port my land line to Google talk... though no one else responded... a few days later, I now have some answers to my own question.  lol oops...

Good thing I didn't jump right in because, after testing google talk for the past week or so, I have come to the conclusion that GV might not yet be a product with good enough quality of services (QOS).... at least for calls that are made to landlines since I have not tried it out doing computer-to-computer kinda gtalk.

The biggest obstacle I have encountered so far is that, although I tune the volume to the highest level, the outcome is still very low.

Since I am using the speaker built-in to the ThinkPad laptop and do not have a headset, a lot of times, when speaking on the phone, it would look as if I were resting my head on the keyboard because the speaker is located right at the base of the screen.

Although it is a common problem experienced by many GV users, well documented in GV-related forums and a known issue to Google, it remains to be an issue unresolved to many.

Someone in one of the forums suggested that she fixed her problem by always allowing mail.google.com to access the camera and/or microphone, which could be done through this link.

Unfortunately, it didn't do it for me.

Hope it might solve your issue, though.

Good luck!

(7/17/2011 UPDATE: Something seems to have happened on Google's end.  The volume of calls through google talk seems to have gone up in recent days while nothing extraordinary was done on my end at all.)

Embedding audio files in Blogger

Tried to embed an audio file in a blogger post earlier.

Unfortunately, it took me quite a few trials to finally get the seemingly brainless task right... namely... getting a player shown inside of the post and give the users the controls.



What is the modified code I used?


<embed src="URL for the audio file" type="audio/mpeg" loop="false" autoplay="False" volume="30" height="14" width="275"></embed>

Of course, yours truly did not work so hard as to cook the codes out herself... got the original code from the following blog: http://iscocoons.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-to-upload-mp3-files-to-play-in-your.html.

--with the only thing I changed... autoplay="False".. meaning... I will let the users decide whether they want the audio files be played or not.

Potential death of a fantom

I think my Fantom is dead.... just don't know how dead it is...

I would have prefer it to be less dead than to be completely dead... meaning... still able to get some data out of it... particularly the part of data after 2007... though... ain't like I've got so much produced after 2007.... 8-O lol 8-X

A question for users of Google Voice

Because I would like to keep this old number of mine, I am seriously considering about porting this number to Google Voice... for the sake of keeping this line up and running when in need.

Anyone out there with a reason why I shouldn't do so?

Taking screenshots when running Windows 7 on a Mac without third party software programs

A whole lot of things I do in life is absolutely useless and meaningless.

Yet, it is amazing how lessons learned might emerge through the unbearable uselessness in life... 8-O lol 8-X

So, I decided to break my 152-day streak in Cafe world about 2-3 days ago and wanted to take a screenshot to show you my record.

That's when I was confronted with this question... a question that I might have encountered before though the exact solution I used then already forgotten....

 "How do I take a screenshot when using Windows 7 on a Mac?"

....provided... not intention to install any third party screen capturing software programs on this machine...

For those of you who don't quite understand why this is a question...

While there is no "PrtScn" or Print Screen key on the Mac keyboard, the commands of "command+shift+4" alike do not work on windows 7 running on a Mac.

Just when I was about to give up, I discovered a solution, or, to be more exact, a solution someone else discovered and shared through the Internet... 8-O lol

There is a way to take a screenshot without using a third party software while running windows 7 on a Mac.  

Essentially, you can use the On-Screen Keyboard, which gives you the "PrtScn" key to press on.

The second question would be... How do you enable the On-Screen- Keyboard?

One way of doing it would be to click on "Start" and do a search for "on screen keyboard," or, you can simply copy and past the path "Control Panel\Ease of Access\Ease of Access Center" into the location bar for one of the explorer windows to get to the Ease of Access Center.

When in the Ease of Access Center, click on "Start On-Screen Keyboard," the Keyboard will pop up, and, voila, now you have the "Print Screen" Key to press on to take that screenshot of your heart's desire.... 8-O lol

Hope this helps!

P.S., Just found out how I had the problem resolved before with the solution then as a simple combination of  Shift+fn+F11... Didn't know that the solution was already within myself though the exploration did give me an alternative path towards Rome... while, en route, I learned that there exist a thing called the Ease of Access Center inside of the Control Panel... 8-O lol

zip or compress your file on a mac

This is a strange posting coming out here... someone with access to mac once in a blue moon nowadays... typing this thing out on a thinkpad.

Yet, my friend asked me this question today... "How do you zip or compress a file on a mac?"

Compress a single file

Mac OS 10.3 and later has the built-in capability to perform file compression tasks.

If you press down the "ctrl" key and click on the file (e.g., ratology.docx), you will see in the drop-down menu an item stating 'Compress "ratology.docx".' Select this option and a copy of the file with .zip extension will be created (i.e.g, ratology.docx.zip).


On the other hand, if multiple files are selected, you will be able to add them all into the same archive, assigned with a default filename "Archive.zip."

Compress multiple files

At the same time, when attempting to zip an entire folder, for instance, a folder titled "ratology,"  get to the drop-down menu by either right-clicking on the folder, or, by clicking on the folder while the "Control" key is pressed down.   

Compress a folder

Select the item 'Compress "ratology"' (or replace ratology with the name of your folder).  A zip file with your folder name will be created (e.g., ratology.zip).

Hope this posting is helpful somehow.

What Princess luddite think of IPad II so far

It took me less than 4 minutes to complete the second IPad II related posting while almost 2 hours for the 1st one.

Don't know about what it might be for any other ordinary Joe and Jane.  Yet, if you ask this modern luddite, I would say... as a productivity device, IPad II seems to be trailing behind the good old computers in the efficiency, effectiveness and luddite-ly user satisfaction department.

The novelty effects were there, though, when my eyes opened wide at the sight of the beautifully dressed IPad II.

Surely, it is small, light and portable.... excellent for a handicapped like me having problems with weights.

In addition, if your focus is mainly on information foraging and the sharing of info through methods such as emails, once an account is set up, it is simple.

Still...

It is much slower to type on an IPad II keyboard for me and it is more cumbersome to perform simple tasks that are required in the creation of digital contents.

Of course, there must be something out there...

A cable that I could use to connect to my camera or USB drives....

An app available to perform simple multimedia editing tasks (for God's Sake... it is Apple... lol)

Except for...

The belief that da cable and da App is as useful as Da belief that there is a prince somewhere out there for yours princess luddite....  Wonderful belief except for pretty "unusable" for the present especially when people always say that you have to live in the present.  8-O lol

Still need to play around with it more though... yet, looking forward to a more utility-oriented version of IPad...

How many times do you have to kiss them frogs... Perhaps, da III might be what I have been looking for?  8-O lol

Keep my fingers crossed!

Smart Cover for IPad II

Trying out this IPad 2 for the first time earlier today (though, sorry, a bit of an old technology today since it is already a couple months old now)... with the coolest thing I see so far as the magnetic smart cover.

Called me an old dog that can't learn the new tricks... following is the clip I took to show you how this smart cover works.

Ipad 2 4 the 1st time

Trying out this IPad 2 for the first time. The coolest thing I see so far is the clothes this babe has on... the magnetic smart cover.

So I used my camera to take a video clip of this cool clothes da IPad has on... That was when I discovered the dumbest thing I encountered so far...

Since I cannot take a video of the iPad itself with the internal camera, I had to outsource my camera to do the recording. Unfortunately, after searching all around, I simply could not figure a way out to simply dump the video clip from my camera to this IPad so that I can have the clip uploaded to YouTube and embedded in this post.

Well, a simple USB port might be nice.. Except for... Oops... Not available..

As a result, I have to dump the clip onto a computer to upload it to YouTube and, in order for me to locate the clip, I had to set up my email info with the iPad email client in order to get the following URL...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFrezBpTVN

Although I would really Like to properly have the clip nicely embedded in this post... After struggling for almost, 2 hours to have this writing composed... I decided... This is as far as this post will go

--- tbc on a computer


Sent from my iPad

Adsense?

Officially testing out the Adsense thing...

Strangely, I had this expectation that the ads are supposed to sync up with the contents of the posting.  Yet, I found ads for cosmetics on appearing on this blog...

Am I not supposed to see tech related ads? 8-O

Don't know whether it is only me seeing things not supposed to be there... 8-O lol

Where on earth is self-timer in Canon Powershot A570 IS?

I got this Canon PowerShot A570 IS back in 2007.  Remains to be a functional camera despite of its propensity to give out that battery low signal.

For years, I tried to find the self-timer feature common to all cameras even those came out before the digital age.  Yet, either it was because I didn't know "self-timer" was the key word to look for or else, I never found it and eventually came to assume such feature, somehow, doesn't exist in this model.

Then, today, my friend with a broken foot wants to take a picture of yours hardly can walk on a cane with my camera in her House of Disability.

I told her... "I don't think this feature exists in this model unless you can find it."

Her obsessive compulsive propensity played out fine!

Voila...

After all these years and after all the fits my father has thrown over not able to take family reunion pictures using the self-timer feature, we finally discovered where on earth this self-timer feature is in Canon Powershot A570 IS.

To use the self-timer feature, you need to be in one of the photo-shooting mode (e.g., Auto, portrait, landscape).  After pressing the Function/Set key on the camera, a set of interactive menu will appear on your LCD screen.

If you select the icon looking like a square in the horizontal menu on the left hand side, the sub-menu of Drive Mode will appear at the bottom.

The camera has a pre-set timer of 10 seconds or 2 seconds; they are indicated by the icon with the number 10 and 2, perspectively.

The last icon in the Drive Mode sub-menu has a letter "c", which stands for "customize" or "customizable."  If you select this function, you will be able to specify length of delay and the number of pictures to take after the delay.

Now that I got it figured out... it seems to be so simple and straightforward.

Yet, don't know about you... both my friend and I agree that... this is one of the worse example of design usability because why don't they simply call it the self-timer?

Might simply be me stupid.  I personally have come to the sub-menu of "Drive Mode" a million and a time but never had it occurred to me- the association between the self-timer needed to take a family reunion picture.

Hope this helps shall someone else having similar problem

Blogger problem

I think it started today…

When you try to compose a message on blogger, you will see the textbooks to input your content keep on loading and loading while going no where…

Not only can you no new message compose, neither could you edit old postings.

If you are really desperate in getting something posted to your blog, try Mail2Blogger  instead.

No sound on youtube

This must have been happening for a while.  Every time I tried to play a song or two on youtube, the video would play but no sound would come out.

I had though that something might have corrupted in the sound department but was too lazy to get it fixed.

So, it might have went on for weeks if not months.

Finally, today, after checking out a movie on tudou.com, which played just fine, I decided to see whether the same clip is available on youtube.  That was when did it came to my attention...

Oops... it seems like this is youtube specific, though, bowser-independent (e.g., Chrome, Firefox) on a win 7 x64.

I had intended to get the issue resolved methodologically so that I could identify what might have caused the issue.  Unfortunately, after too many rounds of unsuccessful attempts, I lost patience and stopped checking... though... at some point, abracadabra... youtube found its voice back and the red cross no longer appears next to the volume control icon! 8-O lol

Though I don't know what I did exactly that work, one thing I am sort of sure is that the solution provided by google didn't really do it... because that was one of the rounds that I did check... though, computers have their own mind and never say never.

At the same time, it doesn't mean you should not try it out either since, many a time, although the symptoms are the same, the causes might be different.

Following are some of the things I did.  Please be noted that installations and uninstallations are involved, always try to follow it with the reboot thing:

1. I uninstalled google talk
2. I checked to see whether the sound settings are correct
3. I downloaded the uninstaller from Adobe website to uninstall the existing flash player and installed the current version.\
4. I checked to see whether third party flash contents were allowed on my machine through the Global Storage Setting Panel and they have always been set to be allowed.

5. I got rid of all cookies, browser history and the internet temp files on Chrome but not on Firefox (yet, it is working on Firefox as well. as a result, judge the relevance of this step yourself. lol) 
6. I deleted the following 2 folders where flash stores its temporary files:

• C:\Documents and Settings\%UserName%\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player
• C:\Documents and Settings\%UserName%\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player

Please be reminded that, after a few rounds, I stopped check real youtube movies but used the commercial movie at the upper right side of youtube home page as the "visual guide."  Unfortunately, it was not a good indicator since, up to now, the red cross is still appearing next to the volume control icon.

  

Up to the last step or step 6, I was really tempted to play with the regedit thing despite my reluctance to play with the registry.  Then, I clicked on to check on one of the movies again... and that was when I found my abracadabra moment!

Again, good luck with your troubleshooting and wish your youtube find its voice back soon! :-)

omg hahah have u seen this photo u got tagged in LOL ------> bit ly/hcLxO0

I can't believe that I fell for it...

Got this chat message from a trusted friend of mine on facebook, ended up... a virus kinda thing ...

1 out of 1 million times, I click on "Allow" and... voila... friends started sending me messages asking me why I tag their pictures and whether I did... as well as informing me that it is a hack... 8-X

The only thing I was able to do was to post a status update to tell people not to click on the link.... simply an attempt to bring the plausible damages down...

When trying to block the application from my facebook account, unfortunately, the application PicMe, with the application ID of 187987754579053, was not listed.

I had reported this App to facebook but don't know how long it might take for FB to act on it.

The take home message today.... your friend didn't send the following message through chat messages and don't click on it... and report to FB...

"omg hahah have u seen this photo u got tagged in LOL -----> bit.ly/hcLxO0"

skype screen sharing problem on windows 7 x64

I thought there is nothing new under the sun and you can always google up a solution except for...

I have been unable to find a solution for this screen sharing problem with the skype 5.1.0.112.

The symptoms... you click to share screen sharing, the options come up asking you whether you want to share a specific window or the whole screen, after you make a selection... regardless what the selection might be...

Nothing happened... other than showing you a blurb stating the people on the other side should be able to see the screen now...

I tried to contact the tech support of skype but still haven't heard back from them...

Hope this could get resolved soon... otherwise, I will simply have to downgrade skype back to version 4...

Any suggestion?

My solution to facebook Zynga game viewing problem

Some of you might have experienced this problem I have experienced with zynga games via facebook... it might be cafe world, Farmville etc.

Essentially, the right side of the screen is cut off... leaving you only a partial view of the gaming environment...

Farmville

Cafe World

When it started to happen back weeks if not months ago, it happened when I was using Chrome.

After googling around, I found out that it is a known issue and the official remedy provided by Zynga was to "use a different browser."

Then, when I was in Shanghai, it also occurred when using Firefox with Farmville.

I did try to change the screen resolution for the computer in general but it didn't do a thing to resolve the issue.

Ended up, out of desperation, I discovered a simple resolution to resolve the viewing problem for both Chome and Firefox..... naming... change the zooming of the browser back to default or to 100%.

Firefox

Chrome

I don't know when the zooming parameters got changed and I surely don't know whether this solution might work on your end....

Yet, it solved the problem on my end and I hope it will help you, too...

RSS Feed

Testing out what would happen in the RSS Feed if I cancel a posting right after I publish it....


Like email... once sent... no recall function... 8-O lol

Ratology

Got bored with the groundhog day of recovering all over again, I decided to try something new out...

I created yet another blog... Ratology... pulling postings from Ratology Reloaded, Down with meds recovered and my private blog Ratology at heal in one place.

The process is simple.  You expert the blogs and save them onto your computer.  You create a new blog... populating it with data from the other blogs by importing those files you just downloaded through blogger (check here for more detailed on this simple process).

Voila...

One thing I like best about this importing and exporting thing is that, if you had assigned labels consistently, blogger automatically consolidates postings from all sources under the same label... On a second thought, if you want to differentiate postings by original sources as well, you might have to make sure the labels in the original sources are different and do the consolidation manually afterward.

Speaking of old wine in the new bottle... The story of my life...sort of like... so very same old same old that I will die of boredem before pain or anything else already specified gazillion a time. 8-O lol 8-X

A screenshot of the Ratology private blog.

(This is cross-posted in Ratology Reloaded.)