I am sure some geeks will be laughing their heads off, rolling on the floor by now. Pick yourself up!
This write up is dedicated to my wife, she who can not uninstall an app from an android phone. We all have to start from somewhere, you know.
The video below shows two ways of uninstalling an app;
Aha! bet some of you wise guys didn’t know this.
Watch the video below and learn!
Fancy having your own US mobile number to receive and make calls with, even here within Nigeria? Or to send and receive SMS with?
NextPlus is a mobile phone service that provides unique virtual 10-digit mobile phone numbers with every android (and iOS) app install, thanks to its partnership with Level 3. Calls and texts to any U.S. number is free, while it charges discount rates for international calls and messages.
Perhaps what sealed the deal for me on this app is that it allows you to subscribe to Gmail’s 2 step verification, a service not available in Nigeria.
You do not pay any amount to acquire the number, though you are required to play a call or send a SMS with the app at least once a month.
Nextplus also assigns local mobile numbers for two other countries; the UK and Canada.
Not yet uhuru about the app though. Services like Whatsapp and a string of others do not permit virtual numbers on their platform.
Security experts have always warned that files deleted from your Computer can still be recovered.
This could either be a good thing or otherwise. If you have files on your computer that you really, really do not want anyone to see, merely deleting them is not good enough.
But for me, it was a good thing.
I have these bunch of files in a folder on my laptop, about 3GB in all, that i use for my web design projects. I mistakenly deleted the folder off my desktop, and like the Digital Neat Freak that i was, i also flushed it from my Recycle Bin. It was not until late evening that i realized what i had done, and the loss that stared me in the face if i failed to recover those files.
There are a slew of File Recovery softwares out there on the internet with varying levels of efficiency. My choice is the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Professional 9.5. The download size is about 12 MB for the trial version. A two minute scan of my laptop with it showed the ghost of the deleted folder in my recycle bin but could not recover it with my trial version license. $69.99 later, i recovered the whole folder in a few minutes.
A costly mistake but all is well that ends well.
However, you need to take the following precautions if you find yourself in this situation;
– Immediately you realize you have deleted a file that you would want recovered, shut down your computer immediately.
– While your Operating system no longer points to that file as still residing on your PC, it actually still is.
– Problem is, the space being used by the file can be used by any file you copy to your system or application you install, thereby permanently overwriting the file.
I have since upgraded to the Technician version of this application, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Professional 9.5, giving me the license to provide technical services to clients. That is, You! If you are faint-hearted, i just might be of help to you in recovering your files.
Got a pair of Dr. Dre Beats headphones that got broken after only a few weeks of use. While the quality of the speakers are well above average, the plastic band and particularly the hinges seems quite cheap. Mine snapped right at the hinges.
These headphones are not cheap, so having it breakup can be very be heart breaking. While it is possible to to get a replacement band, this will probably cost you close to US$100, not including shipping costs to Nigeria.
My quick fix was to grab one of my wife’s black Headbands – a plain one – and using black tapes to blend with the colour of the headphones, taped the band to its inside, creating a sort of splint for the broken hinge of the headphone.
Smart ehn?
The most unexpected award, an award like no other.
The text of the award certificate read;
Congratulations Wale!
You did it! You’ve made it to the Top 5% of readers in Pocket.
This year, you read so many words in Pocket that you nearly outread everyone else. Give yourself a pat on the back!
Wale read 1,128,138 words in Pocket this year. That’s like reading the Great Gatsby 24times
And if the pages from those books were stacked end to end, they’d make it past the top of the Empire State Building.
Wale and over 10 million people use Pocket to save articles, videos, and more for later.
For those that do not know, Pocket is regarded as a “bookmark and read later” service. It comes in very handy if you frequently come across things on the Internet that you’d like to read but unable to do so at that time. With the requisite bookmarks, apps and extensions, it helps you to save stuff to check out these articles whenever you like.
Very unexpected, i must confess, but well deserved. Never knew i was that much of a book, sorry, gadget worm.
Congratulations to me, Nerd!
A couple of weeks ago, i decided to upgrade my Windows OS from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1. Ordinarily, it does not sound like a big deal but it was.
Firstly, you will have to initiate the upgrade from within the Windows store. Perhaps due to the large number of early adopters it was almost an impossible task. It was even worse in regions were Internet speed is very slow.
Secondly, the upgrade requires at least 3.5GB of download data. That is about half my monthly data allocation. For an incremental upgrade, it is definitely a whole lot of data!
Additional problems i also identified are;
1. I do a lot of Operating Systems installations (and reinstallation). Would i be going through the time and data wasting routine of an online upgrade, the only official route provided by Microsoft?
2. The finacial implication of the Internet data download for the OS download and setup is at least N4000 based on the rates from my ISP. It adds up quickly when you do a lot of installations like i do.
The ideal solution that would work for me would be;
1. Look for a “Once and for all” solution. By this, i would need to find a way to download an ISO image of Windows 8.1 which i can burn on a DVD and use repeatedly without a need for internet access to download a fresh install for every machine i need to install Windows 8.1 OS on. Also, I could easily share the DVD and save others the costly internet access and the stress of slow data downloads.
2. To save myself even the estimated N4000 for the Windows 8.1 OS download, i could wait till 12 midnight. My ISP gives its subscribers free internet access with no download restrictions from 12am – 6am daily. That way i could do a whole lot of post installation downloads. Very nice option that comes at a cost – your sleep!
A quick search on the Internet brought up this link here. With it i was able to generate an ISO image of Windows 8.1. Took me almost 5 hours to download the data for the 3.5GB ISO image but, like they say, all is well that ends well.
Please note that if you follow the process in the link above closely, it will only generate the ISO image and should not install the OS yet. You can easily install the ISO image on a DVD.
For the OS installation proper from the DVD, you may encounter a problem whereby the product key may be rejected. Thing is, your license only qualifies you for an upgrade installation via the Windows Store and not a Clean Install. To get around this, pick up a temporary relevant product key from here for your installation, depending on the Windows OS type you purchased a license for. Note that you will still need to use your Windows 8 key to activate your installation online.
Good luck!
In this part of the world, Nigeria, it is very safe to say that power from the National grid is almost non-existent. Most homes generate their own power supply from petrol or diesel generating sets.
I pride myself as the “Director of Technical Operations” for my home. This in simple terms mean that everything – aside from kitchen and domestic chores – fall under my jurisdiction. Mechanic, system administrator, electrician, handyman, etc are all my responsibility – or at least i try to do my part before i call in the professionals to undo all what i must have turned upside down.
Perhaps the chore i hate the most, and which needs to be done about every 2 days, is filling the tank of the power generator with petrol. I hate it. Apart from the health risk from the fumes, it so happens that mosquitoes seem to love dwelling where generators are. Well, perhaps i am just being paranoid but i can swear it is true. I always have to tolerate these fumes and the mosquito bites for as long as it takes me to fill up my generator tank. I do this by pouring the fuel into a bowl from the keg, then fill the petrol tank with the bowl. Yes, very labourious.
I had always noticed it in the Lekki Expressway traffic on my way to work, an apparatus consisting of a pump shaped like that of a petrol pump with about a meter of hose hanging from its end. Seeing it, i guessed immediately what it was meant to do, siphoning fuel from kegs. But i was very skeptical about how efficient or durable the product is.
During one of these bumper to bumper sessions going to work, i decided to have a closer look at this device. The street vendor asked for about N3000 (US$18) for it which i immediately halved. I bought it grudgingly for about N1500 (US$9), expecting that i had wasted good money.
It was a DALVOLTA brand. And yes, it did deliver as was boldly boasted by the street vendor. Perhaps the feature i loved the most is that you can even work it unattended. Just prime the pump, and once the petrol starts coming out (somewhere between gush out and trickle out), you can leave it unattended. Just make sure you keep watch from afar so that it does not overflow. It took between 10-15 minutes to fill up the 25 Litre tank of my generator. Oh, did i mention that the keg needs to be in an elevated position?
In all, i think it is a N1500 well spent.
Normally, once you have more than one user account on your PC, Windows no longer take you to your desktop directly when you boot up. Instead, you are stopped at a login screen where you are made to select and click on the account you wish to log into.
This can be a pain at times.
What if i show you how you can bypass this login screen and still boot directly to your desktop? Okay, here goes;
You may view my Youtube video below to guide you.
You hit the power on button on your PC, wait for minutes for the Microsoft boot up logo to even appear, before finally hitting your desktop. In all, it took you about 10 minutes. Sounds familiar to anyone? It is a fact that about everyone at sometime would have had this hair-pulling experience of slow Windows PC boot up.
While the geeks blame the slow boot up of Windows PC on its design architecture, however, how fast your PC boots is usually dependent on your PC processor speed, RAM, viruses, and installed program that load during boot up. Using fairly recent PC hardware with decent specifications, the average boot up time for fresh installations of various Windows OSes should not take up to 30 seconds, even with the dreadful Windows Vista. Windows 8 has actually put Microsoft haters to shame by greatly improving on its bootup time by saving the system state and memory contents to a file on disk, and simply reload it on reboot, rather than initiating everything all over again. You can actually boot up a new installation of Windows 8 in less than 10 secs!
Okay, that seems like a tall tale as most never get to experience these speeds mainly because right from when your PC slides out of the production line, manufacturers already have them stuffed with bloatwares – softwares you never asked for and you will never need. Thing is, for every single softwares that you install, chances are that it will negatively impact on your boot up speed.
I will take you through a routine that can help to reduce the time it takes to boot up your PC.
You should notice an improvement in the boot up speed of your PC.
If you are confused about any step, check out my video on Youtube here.
I stumbled on this information in the book “Twitter for Dummies” and I thought I should share. Apparently, Twitter has a trove of commands and shortcuts to make your experiences on this social media platform more pleasurable. The shorthand codes work within the Twitter interface (Web or Mobile) or over text messaging. These commands are not case sensitive, which is especially useful when you are using Twitter on your cell phone.
[ws_table id=”4″]