Fix XP Boot (MBR) From Vista Disk

I did a very silly thing this morning. I deleted my Ubuntu, and Vista partitions without fixing XP’s MBR. This basically leaves grub in rescue mode because there is no boot partition. I have the Vista disk but it was unable to fix the MBR or so I thought.

To fix the XP MBR (from a vista downgrade or whatnot) do the following:

  1. Boot from the Vista DVD
  2. Select repair install when the screen shows up after the language settings.
  3. Then open the command prompt aka restore counsel:

 Type the following: X:\Boot\Bootsect.exe /NT52 All

Note: X:/ is the drive letter where the Windows Vista media is located (the command prompt will show the letter).

After the computer restarts it should load XP’s MBR again :) .

If it doesn’t still work or you use Vista and have the Vista dvd then just use the repair startup tool 2-3 times.

Fix No Auto Scroll in Linux/Mac For Firefox/Chrome

One annoying thing you may miss from Windows is that Chrome/Firefox seem to do not support middle wheel auto scrolling.

Well there thankfully is a fix.

Firefox: Edit –> Preferences. Go to the advanced tab and select “Use Auto-scrolling”. Restart Firefox and boom it now works :) .

You can also do it via Auto:Config. In the address bar type auto:config. Accept the warning. Type in the box; scroll. Look for the phrase general.autoScroll. Under value set it to true. Restart Firefox.

Chrome: Chrome has yet to have this feature at all!!! There is thankfully an extension. Download AutoScroll from the Chrome Extensions page. Restart chrome and AutoScroll should work.

That is how you fix a “feature” in both Linux, and Mac. Enjoy :) .

How To Install A Hard Drive [Video]

Installing (or replacing) a hard drive can be intimidating for new users. Computer TV has a video (11 mins long) that shows you step by step on how to install, and replace a hard drive/SSD.

How To: Skip Those Annoying DVD Trailers

Being a legal purchaser (or renter) of DVD’s, or Blu-Ray can be annoying.

You have to deal with all those warnings, then you are forced to wait for the trailers to pass.

While you can speed them up there is a much easier way.

The technique is press: stop, stop, play.

This will have you show up at the DVD menu like you wanted!

Watch the video here.

How To: Use Any Client With Facebook Chat

Nothing is more annoying then your favorite custom messenger not supporting Facebook chat.

Well there is a fix!

Facebook supports jabber, so you can use almost any client that supports the service.

CNET TV has more info and how to set it up.

Dear United States: The Rest Of The World Wants To Watch TV Shows Free Online

Being in the U.S. is great…you can get all your TV shows online for FREE.

Live outside the U.S? Good luck, almost everything is blocked.

Living in Canada sucks because of U.S. Copyright law…and/or tv networks that just won’t budge.

I have plenty of examples too.

So many show I can’t watch online.

But there is somewhat of a fix.

For FOX/CBS/NBC/ABC there is CTV/CBC/Global/Access so most shows are able to be watched.

DNR: Does not Restrict

So lets see:

  • Cops? Nope :( !
  • V?  CTV
  • Simpsons? Global
  • House? Global
  • American Dad? Global
  • Family Guy? Global
  • Cleveland show? Global
  • Heroes? Global
  • 24? Global
  • NCIS? Global
  • NCIS: LA? Global
  • Glee? Global
  • Kitchen Nightmares? Global
  • The Nature Of Things? CBC
  • Human Target? CTV
  • CSI (All versions)? CTV
  • 1000 Ways to die? Spike (DNR)
  • Colbert Report? CTV
  • Daily Show? CTV
  • TMZ? CTV
  • Whale Wars? Nope! (No free version online – iTunes only)
  • AETV? (DNR)
  • Discovery Channel (DNR)
  • History Channel? (DNR)
  • Discovery Channel? (DNR)
  • Comedy? (Redirect)

So most of my shows are online if I choose…but I have to hunt and peck since Hulu does not want to work with Canadian Networks.

Note: Canadian Networks that “host” the American TV shows are actually just bought for $2-3 million ea for usage, so technically it’s not a loophole but rather a make peace payment.

The unfortunate thing is most online steaming boxes (Boxee, Tivo, etc) while work in Canada, they do not know about the Canadian Networks so usually there nothing to watch.

Windows Media Center Online TV has no Canadian/Outside access AT ALL.

So while I can do some work a round’s I wonder how many shows Australians/Europeans watch online shows since well…there not Canada.

The real bad thing is though the Canadian ISP’s…NONE of them offer unlimited bandwidth (except for Yak but it’s limited to a few Providences ((AB/BC)).

I can get unlimited internet that way but 3MB/s its too slow.

So ya, in Canada it’s not easy, so I am envious of Americans who have high (I.E over 40GB/month) bandwidth caps.

While I don’t expect anything to change, I hope this will show just how uneasy it is incase you travel.

How To: Push Gmail On Your iPhone

The default Gmail setup on the iPhone does not support push (email is auto sent to your device).

But CNET TV has an easy way to get around that.

Watch the video to learn more.

Top 5 Tools To Track Visits To Your WordPress/Blogspot Blog

Tracking how many visits you get is a direct reflection of how successful your blog is.

So being able to watch/keep track is key to monitoring your blog.

So here is my favorite 5 blog tracking tools.

1. Woopra

Woopra is a real-time website/blog tracking tool.

I absolutely love it because I can watch live visitors arriving to my blog, and from where.

I can also launch a chat session if I need to.

It is free for blogs that get under 30,000 page views per month.

It supports PHP Forums, Wikimedia, WordPress, Blogspot or anything that accepts script based HTML. Note: Does not work with wordpress.com blogs.

They have pricing plans for larger blogs.

Demo Video:

2. WordPress Stats

WordPress stats is a free visitor tracking tool.

Naturally its only for wordpress.com/wordpress hosted blogs.

It is a simplistic version of Google analytics.

Screenshots can be seen here.

Included for .com blogs, wordpress.org users download the plugin here.

3. Crawl Track

Crawl track is a radically different approach to the stat tracking.

Crawl track is .php based so it can also monitor search engine robot visits as explained in an earlier post of mine.

It can also protect against hacking attempts.

While it’s not the best looking it does have the most function, and doesn’t leave tracking cookies behind.

Since it needs a mysql database, and php it does not work with blogspot nor wordpress.com blogs.

It’s free.

4. Google Analytics

Google analytics is pretty much used by every blog and or website known.

In-fact 85/100 top 100 websites use it.

It shows visitors, time visited, location, can email you .pdf/excel data reports…which is very handy.

It’s also free.

5. Whos.Amung.Us

I’ve used Whos.Amung.Us ever since I started blogging fore a very good reason.

It’s free (paid features available), it’s visible to website visitors, its customizable. has a firefox/chrome plugin, and its a live counter.

While it doesn’t track the stats, nor keep cookies, or really do much it is useful.

It shows the live amount of users online your blog at one time.

The firefox/chrome plugins are useful for viewing stats without having much open.

It’s nice as it allows your blog visitors see how many people are visiting, and from where.

Unlike most of the others the classic button does work with wordpress.com blogs.

So that’s the Top 5 tools to track your website visits, most I use or have used at some time.

Google Buzz Essentials

Yes while I may not be the only one calling Google Buzz a turn off, it isn’t completely useless.

Although let’s be honest Google did not in any way launch the service correctly…they just shoved it in our faces.

CNET TV has an excellent video on how to disable it (temporally or otherwise), hide your followers, make your profile private, change your profile name, filter the messages.

7 Essential Free Mac Apps

CNET TV has a great video on 7 essential free Mac applications.

Check the video out for more info.

Included apps are Adium (chat), Open Office (Microsoft Office Clone), VLC Media Player, Hand Brake (Rip DvD’s), Double Twist (iTunes Clone), Quicksliver, and Carbon Copy Cloner.