Tech Roti

If you work extensively with layers in Photoshop, you may be suffering from layer-palette-thumnail-squintitis, a condition resulting from squinting at the tiny little thumbnails in the layer palette. Until medical treatments are available, you can just make them bigger using the steps in this short but sweet recipe.

To change your layer palette from small thumbnails to larger ones like this:

Click on the little pull down menu (a small down arrow and three horizontal lines in CS3 as pointed to in the image below) and select the Palette Options… choice:

The resulting window (shown below) has selections for three sizes of thumbnails. The default size is the top (smallest). Select the size you want and click OK to save the setting.

Tags: Graphics, Photoshop, Photoshop Tips

GreenThumb is an original, one-thumb casual game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It is easy to pick up yet challenging to master.

When you play, seeds bounce around the screen at random. You get one touch per level to drop some water. Seeds that hit the water bloom into flowers and score points. Seeds that touch a flower earn more points, so getting high scores requires building longer chains of flowers. Each level gets a little bit harder to keep you challenged. A typical game lasts a minute or two, so it’s a great game to play while waiting in line or killing some time. As you play, you’ll unlock awards to track your progress.

The game combines vibrant images of flowers and relaxing nature sounds. As seeds bloom, wind chime sounds gently clang as if powered by the wind. Here’s a video of the game in action:

The game uses the AGON leaderboard system which provides world-wide score tracking and social network integration. You can compare your score with other GreenThumb gardeners from around the world, in your region, close to home, or in your friends list. Got something to brag about in GreenThumb? You can easily share your awards and high scores on Facebook and Twitter. In addition to total game scores, GreenThumb tracks highest level scores and total seeds planted in the leaderboards.

Tags: GreenThumb, iPhone, iPhone game GreenThumb, iPhone news, iPhone tips

Based on a report from research firm OTR Global “citing sources in the Taiwan handset supply chain,” Apple plans to unveil a new iPhone, a hybrid of sorts, that utilizes a new chip from Qualcomm allowing it to function on both GSM and CDMA networks. The hybrid iPhone will be made available sometime during the third quarter of 2010, which makes sense, seeing as how AT&T’s exclusivity agreement terminates in 2010.

Furthermore, research notes indicate the new iPhone design will only feature a 2.8″ screen. When compared to the current 3.5″ screens of the current iPhone models, it seems like Apple is downsizing. Last year’s rumor of a smaller iPhone turned out to be false, though the idea could very well have just been ahead of its time. However, there is another possiblity besides a smaller iPhone, that being a “smaller” iPhone. At this point in time, what seems more likely is the development of an iPhone nano. Looking back at the iPod’s history, one can only assume it’s the latter.

Whether a major redesign of the existing model, or an entirely new iPhone, the big news here is there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing an iPhone with better 3G coverage in the coming year.

Tags: Apple, Apple Verizon iPhone, iPhone 2010

This recipe explains how to remove and delete all enrolled users and fingerprints in Wave’s Embassy Security Suite. This is very handy if you, like me, had enrolled fingerprints/users but then did a clean install of an OS without deleting the enrolled fingerprints/users. Usually you will get an error saying that the fingerprint is already enrolled but none show in the security center.

I had upgraded my XP Prof installation to Vista by doing a clean install. However, after reinstalling the Embassy Security suite i was unable to re-enroll my fingerprints. It appeared that the TPM/Biometric scanner thought my prints were already enrolled. This recipe will show how to reset all the users and prints.

1. Open windows explorer and go to the C:

2. Then go to Program Files > Wave Systems Corp > Dell Preboot Manager.

3. Double-click on the deleteusers.exe

4. This will bring up a command window and a prompt asking if you want to delete all enrolled users. Choose Yes.

5. The command box window will run and then show “users deleted”

6. You should now be able to re-enroll your fingerprint.

This was tested on a Dell D430 laptop w/Wave Embassy Security.

Tags: Windows, Windows Security, Windows security tips

One unfortunately common problem is data corruption on a hard drive and the dreaded “Unmountable Boot Volume” error. While the easiest thing to do may seem to be to format the drive and start from scratch, there is a better way of doing it, as long as you have a Windows XP installation disk handy. Read on to learn more.

Computer hardware wears out over time, it’s a fact. Your hard drive works constantly reading and writing data, and this (among other factors) may cause errors on certain parts of your system.

If you receive the “unmountable boot volume” error and have an installation disk, you still have a chance to save your system.

1. Insert your XP installation disk into an optical drive and boot up your computer.
2. When you see a welcome screen, hit the R key on your keyboard. This will enter you into recovery mode with a DOS prompt.
3. Now type chkdsk /p and hit Enter. This will launch a utility which will check for errors on your hard drive.
4. After the process is done, type fixboot and hit Enter to repair any damaged boot files which may have become corrupted. When asked to say yes or no, type the Y key on your keyboard.
5. Type exit and press the Enter key to reboot your computer.

If all went well, you should now be able to boot back into Windows without a problem!

Good luck!

Tags: Windows, Windows Installation, Windows installation tips

To configure the virtual DHCP server:

1. Open the Virtual Server Administration Website.

2. Under Virtual Networks, select Configure and then click the virtual network.

3. In Virtual Network Properties, click DHCP server.

4. Check the Enabled checkbox, then configure the necessary DHCP server options.

5. Click OK.

Tags: Windows, Windows Networking, Windows networking tips, Windows Tips

You need Windows XP version for this to work.

There are four different ways to cheat at this Window’s game.

1. To get one extra ball.
type 1max.

2. To get unlimited balls.
type bmax.

3. Activate the Gravity Well.
type gmax.

4. To get a promotion of one rank.
type rmax.

A message will confirm all of the cheats except for #2 ,but that one you will notice after you loose a few balls.

Tags: 3D Pinball, Window XP, Window XP 3D Pinball, Windows, Windows Games, Windows Games Tips

Tmobile MDA running WM5. This includes things i’ve learned from my first week of owning it (i’ve done 3 hard resets and tons of resetting but finally found and think i know what caused most of my problems!)

Some basic tips on WM5 and the MDA.

Rom Updating

The Tmobile MDA is actually made by HTC and is branded the wizard. This means that one can actually flash the onboard rom w/another manufacturers rom. For example, my tmobile mda came w/a Tmobile Rom however due to some major performance/stability problems i decided to unlock the CID and then update it with an iMate Kjam rom (AKU2). Head over to http://xda-developers.com for more info. A great site! But remember, you take the risk of bricking your phone if things do not go right, be warned!

Another thing to help with performance is to do custom ext rom loading. Basically after you hard reset your device, the system will reload itself from rom. After the main os is reloaded, the external rom will load the customizations for the rom (ie Tmobile’s ext rom will load the OZmessaging programs, Tmobile skin, and other tmobile specific things). You can prevent this by doing a soft reset after your device boots past the setup screen after a hard reset. Now your asking yourself, why would i do this? Get rid of the fluff the providers add, however somethings you will want to keep too.

Here are the cab files that i reloaded after updating to the Kjam Rom. These cabs will give you these tmobile customizations:

Silent email triggers
Tmobile email setup wizard
MMS / Internet Settings
MMS in Massaging
Phone/MMS picture settings
Camera Tweak (helps w/quality)
OZ Instant Messenger

T-Mobile_USA_Internet_UNI_SA_V2[1].0.CABRun in this order.
MT-MMS-WI19-051213-1.CAB
Shorcut-MMS1-CV-VOICE-TMO-US-10Nov05.CAB
CAB-Customization-PictureSize2Default.CAB
Signed_tmobile_email_notification_2005PPC_NET_rom_12202005.CAB
Signed_OZPocketPC.Cab (optional, if you want the IM clients)
Stability problems; Things to check.

My main stability problems i initially had were mainly due to incompatible software. While WM5 will allow you to install/use Pocket PC and Smartphone applications; they may not function properly and even cause major lockups and freezing. I noticed such problems w/my SPB Suite. However, once the suite was updated to WM5 os; my problems went away.

I also decided to stick w/a Suite vs having seperate applications for each type of command (a taskmanager, ie hacks, etc.)

Also, some Today Plug-ins can cause problems w/perf and usuability. If you have major problems, try to disable today plugins one at a time to track down the culprit.

Tags: Pocket PC, Tmobile MDA Tips, Windows, Windows Mobile, Windows Mobile 5

In Outlook 2010, you can create signatures and assign a different one to each of your Outlook accounts. You can also create multiple signatures for different uses, such as business e-mail, personal e-mail, etc.

1. Open Outlook.

2. Go to the top of the Ribbon and click the Office Button.

3. Click on the Options button.

4. In the left pane, select Mail.

5. Go to the Compose messages section and click the Signatures button.

6. Click the New button.

5. In the New Signature dialog box, enter the name of your signature, then click the OK button.

6. Go to the right side of the window and use the E-mail account dropdown to select the desired account.

7. In the Edit Signature Text box, type and style your signature.

8. Click OK.

9. Click OK again.

Tags: Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Tips, Windows