Increasing the size of text on your screen

A very good idea to do this on your Windows XP machine, to ease up a little bit on your eyes.
Follow the instructions here:

1.	Open Display in Control Panel.
2.	On the Settings tab, click Advanced.
3.	On the General tab, in the DPI setting list, click the dots per inch (dpi) setting you want to use.

I used 120 DPI and it is pretty fine for my 19'' monitor, although the icons are a bit rough now.

It is a good idea to do the same thing on your browser. For Firefox: just tools/options then select content and change the font size to larger: for example 18 or 20 for ultra portable laptops.

Stupid problems running Windows as "limited user"

Well, I tried to get rid of this bad habit of logging in as root in my windows machine and numerous annoyances came up.
For instance, my TV viewer software, AverMedia, bailed out on me. See the STUPID explanation of this problem by FAQ of AverMedia.
AND
here is Windows statement: "Some programs might not work properly for users with limited accounts. If so, change the user's account type to computer administrator, either temporarily or permanently." Could not believe this!

Linux vs. Windows Viruses

See here this very interesting article about viruses.

Lesson: if you like XP as much as unix and want to use it (like this humble writer), always log in as a limited user not as an administrator.

I agree with the above article %100, but well windows machines have a lot of advantages that make us buy them.
In comparison to Mac: 1) PCs are a lot less expensive (buck to buck of course not just being cheap) 2) you have freedom of selection, you are not tied up to the same monopolizing Apple company.
And in comparison to all Unix-based computers: you have a huge number of software available to choose when using PCs.

I just recently opted to buy a Windows laptop, after a lot of research and consideration. Although I seriously wanted a have a Macbook.

Cranberry Sauce

Yummy home made cranberry sauce (just add a bit more sugar and that would be cranberry jam!).

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 12-oz package fresh cranberries

Wash and pick over cranberries. In a saucepan bring to a boil water and sugar, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add cranberries, return to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer for 10 minutes or until cranberries burst.

Season's Greetings!

BEST WISHES to all for a happy holiday season!!
Merry Christmas and Happy Yalda!

How wonderful is Vancouver! A truly multicultural city. I just sent out Christmas wishes in 4 different languages to my closed friends and loved ones:

Buon Natale!
Merry Christmas!
Frohe Weihnachten!
Feliz Navidad!

Compacting Thunderbird Folders

Ever wondered what exactly is done when you instruct Thunderbird or outlook express to compact folders. Here is a good article about this (or this one.)

Summary:
"When you delete or move e-mails from a folder, Thunderbird and other e-mail programs simply hide them (and mark them as ready for physical deletion later on), and these hidden e-mails still actually remain in the folder. Even emptying the Trash does not physically delete them. These hidden e-mails are physically removed only when the folder is compacted. If you don't compact your mail folders periodically then they can grow very large and erratic program behavior may occur.

E-mail users have often never heard of compacting folders (not to be confused with compressing files). However, this approach to email storage and deletion is common to most e-mail clients. Its a way to improve performance by avoiding rewriting the entire file every time you delete a single message. The difference is that most other email clients by default automatically compact the folder when a certain amount of space is wasted; Thunderbird does not do this."

Selma Blair

Lyrics: Dash dash

تیروم تیروم آخ جون مخوام برم آخ جون

بیا جلو آخ جون تو باغ نو آخ جون

عدس پلو آخ جون بخور و برو آخ جون

داش داش داش داش داشم من

نشئه خشخاشم من تو چمنا آبپاشم من

عاشق دنبکم من صیاد اردکم من

وای وای وای

مامانم حالت چطوره حال و احوالت چطوره

جون من حالت چوره حال امسالت چطوره

تو که همچین نبودی مامان چرا دیر اومدی

تو که غمگین نبودی از عمر خد سیر نبودی

وای وای وای

تیروم تیروم آخ جون مخوام برم آخ جون

بیا جلو آخ جون نرو نرو وای جون

تو پنجدری آخ جون قر کمری آخ جون

شراب میخوام یالا عذاب میخوام یالا

شراب میخوام یالا کباب میخوام یالا

عجب دنیای وانفساییه وای

آدم چیچی بگه نمیدونه والا

Pocket PC Applications

http://www.pocketgear.com/
http://www.download.com/Pocket-PC-Windows-Mobile/2001-2009_4-0.html
Kevtris cool Tetris for Pocket PC

XPS versus PDF

I just downloaded the XPS package from Microsoft download centre (Download page). This is a new format to compete with Adobe's PDF for electronic documentations. XPS stands for XML Paper Specification.

My experience:
XPS is really cool and keeps the final electronic copy very much like the original. It also seems to be designed as a modern alternative with ease of sharing, printing and archiving in mind.
However, the compression rate is a lot worse. Comparably, XPS of an elaborate two-page word document was 2 times bigger than PDF of the same file, and XPS of a technical article in Framemaker turned out to be 4 times of its PDF.
Also the XPS viewer looks nicer and easier to navigate and zoom in or out, but it is like a turtle when it comes to scrolling down a page.

I am going to just keep it installed, in case I need to view a document of this type. For now though, I stick to PDF.

Advanced Salsa Patterns

By good chance, I found these great video clips off YouTube of Vancouver's very own Diego Sanchez's classes at Atlantis Salsa Tuesdays 911. A generous philanthropist uploaded the clips, Thank you very much.
Truely some very fantastic Salsa moves. Just go to YouTube.com and search for "diego sanchez dance" you will see quite plenty recent patterns from August to Oct 2006.

Note 1: If you wish you can download the flash videos to your computer. The easiest way is to use Firefox's DownloadHelper extension. It simply finds the clip file for you to download.
Note 2: The above file is in .flv format. You can download this free player or Flvplayer for playing this type of video format.

Upgrading Pocket PC 2002

Here is the deal. I wanted to upgrade my Dell Axim X5 300MHz Pocket PC which I bought back then when Dell offered its first generation Pocket PCs. I never updated or upgraded it and it was still in manufacturer's setting all the way. Since it took me quite a while to figure out this how-to, I decided to write a few words about it.

Some facts (as of today):

1. Don't use Google to search for it, you go almost nowhere.
2. Microsoft does not provide the upgrade. You need to get it from the manufacturer or a third party.
3. Dell does provide upgrades but only for X5 400MHz and apparently it is just a partial upgrade not a full upgrade to Pocket PC 2003. Just go to Dell.ca (or .com) then support and search for drivers& downloads under "Dell Axim X5 ROM Update for Pocket PC 2002."
   Note: I run into a very interesting fact, I just quote: "Dell created several updates for Pocket PC 2002. They are A00, A01, A02, A03 and A04. Dell also created two ROMs for Windows Mobile 2003.They are A04 and A05 updates. When Dell released A04 it didn't go well consumers were having trouble with there Syncing and in rare cases the Axim did boot right. After this mistake Dell released the A05 patch called R64365. If you already had the A04 Pocket PC 2003 ROM, you could update to A05.
   What Dell soon realized is with the A03 or A04 patch for 2002, you could install Windows Mobile 2003 from that A05 update. That is why the A05 update and the A03/A04 for 2002 updates have been removed from Dell's webpage."
4. To find out which Dell you have go to "start/settings/system/ system information" which shows the model, processor type and speed, ROM version, language ... and go to start/settings/system/about which shows which Pocket PC version you have.
   Note that from a Microsoft's website: "Pocket PC Version 3 represents Pocket PC 2002 and Pocket PC Version 4 represents Pocket PC 2003."

Some warnings:

1. It deletes all you programs and data on your ROM and RAM (obviously not the data on your flash or SD ...). It is quite risky to use ActiveSync's full backup as you most likely cannot use the same programs on the new OS version. You need to manually backup your data, something that you should always do anyway. The programs need to be reinstalled manually later as well.
   
2. If it goes wrong in the process, it would be quite a mess. It is not reversible, so you have to keep on trying to either make this one work or get an image of your original ROM image somehow (probably from the Dell Support).
   

How to do it: Finally after a lot of search and research I found this website which gives a complete image for upgrading the ROM of Dell Axim X5 from Pocket PC 2002 (any update less than A05) to Pocket PC 2003 A05. I just followed the instructions of the website almost as is. I summarize: just copy the image file (I had to use the second one P25_NK_L_07170300EN.img, the file the website mentions did not work for me) using my cradle to an empty flash card (I used a 64M). Then do what it says about the batteries and the key combinations (the most awkward section, as it is really hard to click three bottons (RESS SCROLL IN BUTTON + CONTACTS BUTTON + POWER) while trying to push the stylus into the reset button).


I would recommend this upgrade for many reasons, for example: the internet and network connectivity is a lot better and MSN messenger is much cleaner (After another upgrade from Microsoft website). However, the Switcher bar does not include the light and battery life with it any more by default.

Bingo. Now I have Pocket PC 2003 ROM version A05 on my device. I am quite happy that nothing went wrong. Not too shabby, Not too shabby at all, ey!