Posts regarding stuff related to technology, productivity and music

Seems like us normal people can download XP Service Pack 3 by clicking here straight from Microsoft. This is the regular 32-bit English version. I got this tip from Lifehacker this morning. Download now and will update how it goes. Wish me luck!

UPDATE: Well so far so good. I haven’t received any errors in terms of usage as of yet. The update process to Service Pack 3 took a good 45mins. I don’t see any drastic changes yet but time will tell.

Here is something cool to add to your wish list for mobility by Belkin. Its a portable surge protector click here to get more info about it. I have added this to my wish list.

I was just reading on nin.com that they will be offering Nine Inch Nail fans exclusive access to pre-sale tickets having the best seats available to us. Which sounds great and hopefully the website is not going to go down like it always does. According to the post info on the site fans need to register with remix.nin.com to be able to access the pre-sales. Head on over to nin.com to get all the info and the step by step process of purchasing the tickets when they become available.

This is not new anymore but NINE INCH NAILS latest track with words as its being referred to as is out and can be download for FREE right here.

I personally love the new track like any other track. Obviously I am a huge NIN fan. And as it can be seen Trent Reznor is continuing to show the world that you don’t need to have record companies to continue being a successful artist.

The 1&1 Exchange server has been down for over 24hrs now. I wish I realized it before I reflashed my AT&T TIlt with a new rom as I can’t restore my PIM database and contacts. I guess next time I am gonna delve into dashwire and have another way of restoring my contacts whenever this happens. I am sure it will happen again. I contacted 1&1 support about this issue and they told me the following:

“Below is the work around if you are using a desktop
with windows OS.

1. In the command line of your desktop, please run
this command
ipconfig /flushdns
also make sure you have administrative right to
that PC. Also,
temporarily deactivate spyware.
2. then add the 74.208.4.72 exchange.1and1.com
to the host
file.
You can locate the file thru the example below.
eg. C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc then look for the hosts file

Open the host file using a notepad and then add the line

74.208.4.72 exchange.1and1.com“

Now I was unable to try this option because its really for Microsoft Outlook users and I don’t use Microsoft Outlook on my computer to sync with Exchange I only use it on my Pocket PC. Will be good to know it this trick works for some people. Hopefully the server will be back soon.

I thought 1&1 was much more reliable than this.

UPDATE: The server apparently came back online on Sunday around later afternoon. Well, at least it came back.

Found this really cool website called TYPO Buddy and it basically lets you search for items on ebay and Craiglist by also searching for possible typos of what you are looking for. I tried it out a few times and it does work as I saw a lot of items with typos that can be bought for cheaper price as they are the least likely to be the first to come up when searching.

A lot of people always wonder how long certain documents need to be kept for Tax purposes and I found this post at Consumerist by Ben Popken very helpful for this purpose. Very helpful to reduce clutter and keep what you need for the future.

Over at XDA Developers a lot of discussions have been on going about the missing video drivers for quite a few HTC devices and specifically the HTC Tytn II/Kaiser/Tilt which I also use. The video,2D,3D and the camera performance on this device is very crippled and disappointing. This is one of the best devices HTC has come out with so far and it will be perfect once this issue is resolved. For more info please join the on going discussion at XDA. Also visit HTCClassAction.org for detailed info about this issue and the on going updates recived from HTC.

So far it seems that HTC is supposedly doing something about this issue finally, considering all the media attention its been receiving since Chainfire started the HTCClassAction.org site. But there hasn’t been any official response yet. Hopefully a solution will come forward soon.

Lifehacker Gina Trapani has a very nice write up of Practicing Simplified GTD which is something I am currently in the process of implementing myself. It’s very detailed but not long enough to be boring. The article is to the point and basically offers a simplified version of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” productivity bible. It tells you to make three lists which include a To-do List, Projects list and a Someday/Maybe list. If you need help creating the perfect to-do list here is an article to help you do just that. It also points out that you need to perform daily and weekly revisions to keep everything updated and productive. It also has tip on how to organize you email inbox and here you take advantage of Gina’s three folder “Trusted Trio” system. In the end as you keep practicing these techniques or any other ones at that you will eventually develop your own customized version of GTD that suits your needs.

I am personally applying the above mentioned GTD system to increase my productivity and so far it has been working great.

On another note over at Keener Living you can download an ebook based on the website articles themselves which help you use technology to your advantage when organizing your lifestyle.

I came across this website a little while ago called “Find Internet Tv” which basically as the name implies helps you find TV shows available online easily in one place. It comes in real handy when you have missed an episode of a show that you also forgot to record on your DVR like I do sometimes. It’s very comprehensive and includes pretty much all shows available online on different US channels but also includes some UK, Canadian, and a few Global shows.

Another website worth mentioning is “Tape It Off The Internet” which lets you search for shows on its website and provides you with multiple of options of viewing them which can include downloading them via Torrents or streaming them directly.