Tag: Data

AT&T smacks the gauntlet at you!

Paul

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According to Cnet News:
The test, which began being applied in the Reno, Nev., area on Saturday, limits customers of AT&T’s slowest DSL service to 20 gigabytes of monthly data transfers, while users of the fastest service will be limited to 150 gigabytes. Customers will have access to an online tool to track their usage and will receive notification when they reach 80 percent. Those who exceed their limits will be charged $1 per gigabyte.

[Via Cnet News]


So you just received the information that AT&T is doing this. How do you want to keep track of your online usage. I’ve got some good tools to help you. Although they will only help to a certain point you must remember a few tips and these tips are:[ad#ad2-left]

With these steps you would greatly increase stoping unnecessary use of your bandwidth.  Most people don’t understand that any program you use on your network will be counted on the total bill.  If you know of any good ways to help stop bandwidth by all means tell people and if you find any good programs that might help, please leave a comment.

Sony recalls 340,000 batteries.

Paul

Sony Recalls Notebook Computer Batteries Due to Previous Fires

The following product safety recall was voluntarily conducted by the firm in cooperation with the CPSC. Consumers should stop using the product immediately unless otherwise instructed.

[ad#ad2-right]Name of Product: Rechargeable, lithium ion batteries containing Sony cells used in Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation, Gateway Inc., Sony Electronics Inc., and Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. notebook computers.

Units: About 340,000 batteries (an additional 3,080,000 battery packs were sold worldwide)

Battery Cell Manufacturer: Sony Energy Devices Corp., of Japan

Hazard: These lithium ion batteries can overheat, posing a fire hazard to consumers.

Incidents/Injuries: There have been 16 reports of notebook computer batteries overheating, causing minor property damage and two minor burns. All of these reported incidents and injuries have been associated with earlier recalls of notebook computer batteries containing these Sony cells. There have been no incidents involving batteries sold by the notebook manufacturers participating in this announcement.


[via U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission]

[ad#ad2-left]This is something that is going to hit Sony hard. The recall affects some Fujitsu, Gateway Toshiba, and Sony Laptops. If your worried about your laptop go to the site and see if your have the right laptop. It only effects people who bought there laptop from Oct 2004 to Oct 2006, before or after that date you will not have to worry. If in Doubt call your manufacture and find out.

Some other things to do is also remember to back up your data and if your not using your laptop battery if at all possible just take the battery out.

Backup your Mozzila Thunderbird profiles

Paul

So you have all this mail you want to back up in case something terrible happens to your hard drive.  So here is ways to backup your email and other programs in Vista.  I think Vista has a new way of keeping program profiles in an hierarchical setup.  So what is the HIDDEN directory it is:

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C:\Users\[USER]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

Now as you can see your Thunderbird profile is in a hidden directory in the AppData Directory.  You can easily get to the hidden directory by typing %appdata% {enter} in the search bar of Vista.  Now How do you backup and restore.   The program I use to backup is GoodSync.  I send the data to the cloud and when I need it I can restore it back to the directory. Now what about restoring, if you have to do a complete re-install of Thunderbird you can always copy over the back up to the Thunderbird Profiles directory and install Mozilla Thunder bird and it should see it.   If by chance you load up Thunderbird and you have to re add everything you would have to delete everything in that directory and then restore from the back up.

It is also a good idea to backup all the roaming directory from time to time.  This way you have every important program needed in case of a problem with your drive.    These are just a few tips and tricks to keep your data safe from having problems in the long run.

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Getting Spaz to work with the Twit Army:

Paul

I having successfully installed Spaz and use it with the Twit Army. I’d figure I would talk about how to get Spaz to work like Twirl. It’s a very simple way but some people seem to having trouble. This will only work with Vista or XP and I am not sure about Linux or Mac. I’ve been successful doing this with a Vista Premium Machine. It seems to be really easy to use and not take up to much of your desk space.

  • Download and Install Adobe Air — (You will need this to installed first.)

  • Download and Install Spaz — (This is the main program)

  • Once install you will need to go to:

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  1. Go to the [ Preferences ]


  2. Go to [ Other Services ]

  3. Put this in exactly as shown (see example)


  4. Go to [ Networking ] (optional)

  5. Put this in exactly as sown (see example)


    >

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Doing this should get you connected to the Twit Army. I am not sure why it says “ERROR : Server returned invalid data” When you first start the program but if you wait a couple seconds you will see that it will eventually loads up. If you have any suggestions or comments please feel free to leave a comment.

Bandwidth Tools For Monitoring your bandwidth

Paul

<<See Previous Post

So I’ve done some looking around for bandwidth programs.  So here’s what I found so far.  The programs I’ve got listed are not test and are therefore your responsible for any and all use of the programs.

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  • FreeMeter Bandwidth Monitor For Windows – Monitor network bandwidth (C#.NET 2k/XP+). Desktop and Systray graph. Configurable connection speed, update interval, color, transparency. Monitor any or all network interfaces. Ping/Trace/UPnP utilities. Email notifier (POP/IMAP). Requires .NET 2.0.

  • Pipelog – Windows Bandwidth Meter — Pipelog is a Windows bandwidth meter that gives live statistics of accumulated bandwidth usage. It is written in C# and runs on the .NET Framework.

  • Windows Service Monitor — Monitor and automatically restart Windows Services with this small Win32 command line utility. Windows Service Monitor (WinSMon) can monitor several services, restart services that stop/fail and limit the number of restart times.

  • iptotal — iptotal is an IP traffic monitor. It listens to a network interface in non-promiscuous mode, and measures IP bandwidth usage. After the specified number of seconds, the average throughput is printed at total, input and output usage.

  • Bandwidth Vista 1.0.0.8 — Bandwidth Vista is modern, informative and intuitive to use. Whether you are looking for network problems or simply want to check the speed of your Internet connection Bandwidth Vista is for you. Bandwidth Vista monitors all your connected interfaces at once and holds a history of transfers, which can be viewed down to the minute. This dynamic application also indicates the countries of remote computers con.

  • Bandwidth Monitor 2 — An ideal tool for the bandwidth conscious, Bandwidth Monitor enables you to keep a close eye on the amount of bandwidth accumulated over the current hour, day, week, month, or even year! Advanced logging tools make it easy to view your bandwidth usage and make alterations to bandwidth logs. Clean up old data at the touch of a button, and import your bandwidth data from our predecessor Bandwidth Monitor 1.0. Version 2 adds Vista compatibility.

  • Axence NetTools 3.2 — NetWatch – network monitoring with e-mail alerting, real-time & historical charts of response time & packet lost. WinTools lists exhaustive system information from Windows computers: running processes & services, registry, event log, disk, memory & CPU information. Port scanner checks for all open ports and running services.

  • BitMeter 3.5.7 — BitMeter 2 is a bandwidth meter, it allows you to visually monitor your Internet connection by displaying a scrolling graph that shows your upload and download speed over time. Features include: Graphical and numerical displays of historical data, Web interface, alerts, stopwatch, calculator, transparent/float/click-through modes, 36-page help file, audio notifications, configurable color-schemes and many other options. Version 3.5.7 offers minor fixes and feature enhancements.

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These are just a few that I could find to better keep track of your bandwidth.  These haven’t been tested but should get your started in the right directions.  If you have any good suggestions by all means let me know!!