So I’ve now got BT Infinity at home..
Speed Tests below
Cabled into router
Wifi
Wired Vpn to my Office
Archive for PC
Computer Locked by Police Center e-crime Unit Virus
So a family member phoned me up at work, saying there computer had been locked and they couldnt get out of it. I remoted in using teamviewer, and this was the screen that awaited me.
I rebooted into safemode and reconnected, logged in as both users and i had the same thing happen. I worked out that if you log off and log back on again, There is just enough time to call up task manager and terminate explorer.exe.
This then left me free to update malwarebytes and run it. After a reboot and another full scan just to make sure, the problem was gone!
Error Code 0×80070017 Error installing Windows 7 or Vista
When you install Windows 7 (or Vista) you may get the following message:
Error 0×80070017 Windows cannot copy files required for installation. These files may be corrupt or missing. Make sure all files required for installtion are available, and restart the installation Error code: 0×80070017
This can be displayed with error code 0×80070017 or error code 0×80070570 in Windows 7 or Vista
Cause
The cause is very simple and you can probably guess from the error code in the screenshot above. The cause is that Windows cannot verify the files.
Simple Solution
Burn or get a new copy of the disk (Burn at a slow Speed 2x and use quality media.
_____________________________________________________
This was replicated from a Google archive here
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://benosullivan.co.uk/windows/are-you-getting-error-code-0×80070017-error-installing-windows-7-or-vista/
Looks like the original authour Ben O’Sullivan is no longer online
Axis Camera Station
Lost the media for your Axis Camera Station and need to do a reinstall?
There older versions of the software are available on the site through a small pretty well hidden link.
Needless to say i found it, and its here http://www.axis.com/ftp/pub_soft/cam_srv/cam_station/
O2 Joggler
I bought a Joggler off a guy I found selling one on gumtree. I had been after a Joggler since they were first announced by O2 but only just managed to get my hands on one due to O2 discontinuing them.
After first setting it up with the default o2 firmware. I was bored, so I did some googling and came across the Joggler Wiki (http://jogglerwiki.com/) I downloaded a few different flavours of Linux, but only managed to get Ubuntu (maverick 10.10) working. Although it worked, it wasn’t great with the touchscreen. When you plug in a keyboard and mouse it worked far better, I decided to use it as a small TV loading tvcatchup.com in Firefox but it couldn’t cope; it jumps, stutters and is generally unwatchable.
I’ve considered a few options for the Joggler such as:
An interactive alarm clock.
As part of an ICE (In Car Entertainment System) install.
Or using it as a Network Monitor system.
So now I’m not sure what to do with it, it can’t be used for what I was going to use it for.
I do like the idea of using it as part of an ICE system, however this would mean cutting into the dash board to mount the touch screen, removing the back stand which also acts as the heatsink as well as finding a suitable way of powering it in car! So for the meantime it shall remain boxed up waiting for a suitable use.
If anyone spots any cool uses for the Joggler please do tweet me or comment on here to let me know.
Top Five – Problem Solving Applications
I’ve decided I’m going to try and do a weekly top five. It could be anything from top five pubs to top five cars, to top five CPU coolers (or something equally techie) This week I am starting it off with:
The top Five problem solving Applications I couldn’t live without.
1) Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware Free Edition
I’ve not found many bits of malware that this software doesn’t get rid of on a full scan. Sometimes it can be made difficult to get it to run if the malware is that good at its job (or bad depending how you look at it) However if you do have difficulty getting it to run number four on this list may well help you out!
This needs to be installed on the machine with the problem, but takes twenty seconds to install, and then another twenty to download the latest updates
2) Firefox + AdBlockPlus + xMarks
Not a problem solving tool as such, but I’ve listed this app plus two extensions as one app, as for me I don’t have FireFox without the other two. It makes life so much easier to have all your bookmarks and passwords synced from all my other machines. It means I have the guides for those not so familiar problems that I have seen and forgotten about in the past in the “how to” bookmark folder. It also means you can Google anything wherever you have an Internet connection!
I have it installed on my laptop, as I’m not sure how stable the extensions are in portable FireFox.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/
http://adblockplus.org/en/
http://www.xmarks.com/
3) AngryIp Scanner
This IP scanner helps you scan a range of IP addresses that you define, Its amazingly helpful at tracking down routers, printers and other network kit that comes with DHCP setup by default. It lists the IP with the hostname next to it.
Can be run off a USB stick or installed. I generally have it on a USB stick. However keep in mind that overzealous Antivirus software may flag this up as a problem due to its nature.
4) HijackThis
HijackThis alongside http://www.hijackthis.de/ The website is a log file analyser, this will tell you from the log file that HJT creates what is good, bad and unknown files, registry keys and startup items. The app scans your hard disk and the website compares the log against the default options as well as what has been rated by users.
HijackThis can also be installed or run off of a usb stick. Which makes it very handy if the spyware stops you running from certain programs, you can just re-name the exe file and away you go!
http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/
5) NetStumbler
Is a wireless network sniffer, It helps establish the things that are causing your wireless problems. It tells you how many other networks in range are on the same channel, its signal strength, its encryption type as well as the signal degradation. Awesome bit of software, Never leave home without it when you don’t know where or what the problems you are going to be facing are!
There is a NetStumbler portable, however I do not think it is as up to date as the installable and I have never had much luck with the portable version.
So that brings an end to the first top five, if you think there are other apps that should be on here or that I have missed let me know your thoughts!
Internet Browsing
I use Firefox as my main browser, as do many other people in the world. However I have 3 Google email accounts that I use – My personal account, my work account and my own business account. Now these all play along nicely most of the time, until you need to login to the admin panel of one of the domains, or I need to login to one of the other Google domain accounts that I administer for other people and companies.
This then causes Firefox to throw a massive wobbly and the only way around it is to completely clear the cache, cookies and logins. Then you need to re-login in the correct order of accounts so that you get your iGoogle (which is only setup on one account) back.
I tried to use Internet Explorer (spit) as the browser that I used to login to the domain admin panels, however even with “delete browsing history on exit” button ticked, with all the options also ticked. For some reason it still kept me logged into accounts, which was a major pain when I needed to login to another account on another domain.
I tried Google Chrome however this didn’t have an option to clear the cache etc. on exit. Until I discovered the Click&Clean extension. This enables you to clear the browsing history and cache on exit. With the massive added benefit that it actually works!
So fair play to google (or actually www.hotcleaner.com) although unless something dramatically changes chrome will not become my main browser, but (for now) it is installed on both my machines.
Rants
*Warning* my first post for a month and it’s going to be a big long and full of rant’s! *Warning*
PART1 – Fucking Vodafone Rant
#1 – Vodafone – Where on earth do I start? After posting this http://www.richardhickson.com/2010/06/08/vodafone-sure-signal/ and then following it up with a post here http://www.richardhickson.com/2010/12/04/mobiles/ how much can things change in the space of six months?
My sure signal stopped working almost as I hit submit on the latest post. I contacted Vodafone about this first of all via twitter; they told me to log the problem on the support forum. Which I did, the support forum asked me a few questions, and then they told me to email support using the contact form on the website. This I also co-operated with and did.
I was expecting a quick turn around on this bearing in mind I have been passed from pillow to post. But no! I am now receiving an email from Vodafone about once a week asking me either some more questions or just fobbing me off.
Adding the shit service I’ve received personally to the awkwardness Vodafone gave us at work in moving 150 numbers from Vodafone to o2. I will not be renewing my contract with Vodafone when it finishes in July.
PART2 – IT Rants
Now I am meticulously tidy with my computer, some may even say a *slight/massive case of OCD (as posted here http://www.richardhickson.com/2010/10/23/window-sizes-in-window-7/) However a few things are really pissing me off lately.
#2 – iTunes – Thee most annoying heap of shit software on the planet. Really fucks me off that you have to manage an iPhone using this software. When you update iTunes it changes your shortcuts (for example try pinning it to the start menu) Once you run the update its gone, now I don’t have only a few apps installed on my machine so to try and find the application again is a complete pain in the arse! Pinning a program to the start menu is just another fucking shortcut. Why not leave it there?
#3 – Adobe – This includes Reader and Acrobat! They are both a complete c*nt. Why on earth would you create programs that automatically create a shortcut on your desktop? Who on earth loads up adobe reader and then opens a pdf? Next to nobody I bet! That’s not to mention all the start-up entries and services they put into MsConfig.
#4 – Microsoft Word 2010 – Now this is one that is driving me mad when writing this post especially (I write all posts in MS word for spell checking.) The zoom, if you have word maximised and want the zoom at 100% it shows you two pages at once side by side, which I find very distracting. To get one page on its own at 100% you need to shrink the word window down. This is equally distracting if you have something open in the background that changes on its own accord – For instance TweetDeck, Facebook or even the windows 7 Wallpapers set to change of their own accord!
Now I know the first two may only be small rants, but when you’re so meticulously tidy with your computer, they need to be sorted out before I can carry on using it!
*Delete where appropriate
Ever had a “J” at the end of an email?
Today a Lady was emailing me, An at the end of every email there was a “J”. Her name did not start with a J. So i was a bit confused…..
It turns out that “J” is displayed when a Smiley gets lost in different email systems.
I thought I had it figured out, and so I went looking to see & I was right. Have you ever typed a smiley 
, and whatever program you were in automatically made it into a smiley? Well, sometimes the code that makes that happen gets lost as it goes through the various email programs and ends up as just a "J"
Update for precision:
- Office use MS Word as HTML e-mail editor
- The "smiley" is replaced by a Winding font character.
- The uppercase "J" is a smiley in the Winding character set.
- The "J" will appear each time the text is kept but the font info is lost.
Source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_people_put_a_J_at_the_end_of_email
So there you have it. Its a smiley face, lost in translation!
