Peter Staack Product Testimonials & Reviews

I've previously posted about how much I like Chuck Baker's Firefox Environment Backup Extension (a.k.a. FEBE)... It's a great Firefox add-on, that allows you to quickly and easily backup and restore your Firefox profiles, settings, passwords, configurations, plug-ins, and add-ons. However, since upgrading Firefox to version 3.6, FEBE hasn't been working for me. I would activate it, and it would start up, but after some time it cycles the animation but never completes the backup. When I abort the operation, I see a window stating an "unresponsive script" has become an issue, and asks me to continue or quit. Either answer results in FEBE backup failing.

I suspected this could be fixed by configuring the time-out, and a little online research yielded the necessary setting changes. One only has to open a new window or tab in Firefox, and put about:config into the address bar (this allows you access to the full Firefox configuration, so be careful). Once you get past the initial warning, search for the entry "dom.max_chrome_script_run_time". When it comes up, you'll see a string of text and a number. The default seems to be 20. Change this to 60. Close this tab or window, and it'll save the settings.

With this setting change, Firefox is instructed to wait for 60 seconds, before it issues a warning about an unresponsive script. Apparently FEBE sometimes requires more than a 20 second pause, which leads to the error, and breaks functionality. After making this change, FEBE worked like a charm. In some cases, a few more seconds were necessary, so it might take a few changes. Chuck goes into greater detail on his forum (link).

Cross-posted on my LiveJournal: Fix For FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) "Unresponsive Script" Problem in Firefox 3.6

For about a year, I've been using 2BrightSparks' SyncBack Freeware, and have grown quite fond of it. I've employed quite a few different freeware and paid synchronization apps over the last few decades, and none have ever really thrilled me. Most were bloated with useless features, unstable, or lacked features I needed for automated or manual synchronization and backups. But SyncBack Freeware has the perfect balance of simplicity and features for my needs.

The installer is under 2MB, and the program folder (with all of my profiles and months of log files) is under 10MB. Idle, it's only using 3MB of RAM. Even when it's running, it doesn't drag your system down too much, other than the HDD is working. Since it's pretty lightweight, it runs fine on some of my older Windows 2000 workstations, and even a 9 year old NT4 workstation.

It's easy to set up various synchronization and backup profiles for folders, files and so-on. You can set rules for overwrites, copies, and incremental copies. My particular favorite features is using Boolean operators to create filters, based on file names, dates and even some meta info. It has options for safe-writing, verifications, saving to FTP or network devices, ZIP compression with password protection & encryption, scheduling & automation, hot-key activation, system priority, can auto-close an application before running a profile, can run applications or scripts before running a profile, and a whole host of features. There's a button the quickly switches between simple mode, and advanced mode, and the help files are pretty good. I have several profiles configured to incrementally backup vital data on a local disk and FTP, using compression & encryption, generate PAR2 parity files, and email errors to several address. But, for simple jobs, often it just takes a few clicks to set up a basic profile, and get going.

2BrightSparks has earned industry recognition for the quality of their SyncBack programs, which include a $30 advanced version and a $50 professional version. I for one am a big fan of SyncBack Freeware for my own uses, and will likely be switching clients over to their professional edition, once our current solution (below) has changes version (unless they have free upgrades). To-date, it's my favorite synchronization and backup solution, and recommend it to anyone IT-minded, who requires a competent app with a clean spartan interface.

A fairly-close second place, for favorite sync/backup app, would be GFI Backup, which is also packed with features - compression, encryption, FTP/network, filters, etc. - but just doesn't run as well on some of the older sub-1GHz CPU workstations I manage. It's a bit heftier than the very lightweight SyncBack, but will run fine on any PC built within the last few years. I've been using their Business Edition, for several of my clients, but they also have a free Home Edition which works very well. The interface for both, are beginner-friendly; which actually makes it a little bit cumbersome for advanced users, who don't require having their hands held at every step. GFI Backup is the program I recommend for people who need a backup solution, who aren't super tech-savvy.

Cross-posted to my LiveJournal - 2BrightSparks SyncBack Freeware File & Folder Synchronization Software

The first completed chapter of Metal Gear Solid Philanthropy, The Overnight Nation, is available to watch streaming or for download (total run time 1 hour, 10 minutes including extra features after the credits). Although you can watch the stream, below, the visual effects and audio are good enough to warrant downloading the higher-fidelity versions.

Click For Download Options
This non-profit fan movie, by Giacomo Talamin and presented by Hive Division, is better than many theatrical releases. The story is engrossing, while staying reasonably true to the source material (with events taking place largely in 2007, after the founding of the anti-Metal Gear group, Philanthropy, presumibly before the tanker incident). The acting is pretty competent, with a few moments seeming a little quirky and forced - but actually very-well emulating the style of Hideo Kojima, which has similar moments. As stated, the effects are very good, considering its grassroots origin. The 3D, matting, lighting, environmental and special effects are all a step above many direct-to-DVD films, and even some lower-budget theatrical releases. The audio is exceptional, except for the levels on a few bits of dialogue - again, emulating a few quirks native to the Metal Gear Solid games. The score is very good, suiting the movie very well. The costumes and makeup are on par with many direct-to-DVD films, and low-budget theatrical releases. The props and weaponry are good, though some of the tactics are a little strange... But - again - fit perfectly within Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear world.

In all, I thought it was really good, and I heartily recommend it to any Metal Gear fan, who is willing to give it a chance. I look forward to additional chapters. It's very apparent a lot of care and work has gone into its production. I hope as much, or more, care and consideration for the source material is taken by the official theatrical production, due out in a year or so.
Screen Captures (click each to see full version):

Cross-posted to my LiveJournal, TV/Movie Blog, and even my little Anime Blog.

Between my 3 biggest clients, I've inherited most of the day-to-day packing and shipping responsibilities - right on top of my dozens of other duties. When we were exclusively using UPS and FedEx, it took a real dent in my daily schedule because the system was so arduous. We started using their webpage to print labels, which was quicker, but still really time consuming. As well, they weren't as inexpensive as DHL - which we started using exclusively, right until they discontinued their United States domestic service. Bummer. Reluctant to go back to using UPS or FedEx, we gave the United States Postal Service a try, and have been pleased ever since.

For a while, we used their desktop app for everything, but recently they've overhauled their online Click-n-Ship service, on the USPS.com webpage. After working out a few small bugs in the first month, I think USPS online shipping has been GREAT! The interface was easy, and everyone at the office could use the same login. We use USPS Priority Mail and Express Mail on a daily basis, and one of my clients uses Media Mail and Parcel Post regularly. With very-rare exception, packages are delivered quickly and in exceptional shape (though I do take some credit for being a very efficient packer) right to our clients' doors or mailboxes. The few insurance claims we've had to make were painless. Package tracking works reasonably well for Priority Mail, and a little better for Express. If you print online, you get free delivery confirmation, and a small discount. For instance, USPS Priority Mail flat-rate envelope is normally $4.95 delivered anywhere in the US... but if you print the label online, it's only $4.80. And, the postage for packages and express mail is regularly less than UPS or FedEx, including extra services like signature confirmation and insurance. For international delivery, the savings are often more significant, especially if we don't have to pay an overseas brokerage fee like with UPS.

After 6 months of printing USPS labels online, exclusively, my biggest volume client has saved around $1900 in shipping compared to similar service from UPS and FedEx, with fewer lost or damaged packages. Flat rate boxes have been a real money saver, when shipping small heavy items. I estimate, they've also saved about $50 ~ $60 on packing supplies, since we frequently use the free boxes provided by the USPS. With the free daily carrier pickup, which is easy to schedule online, that's another $200 ~ $300 savings. Awesome!

Cross-posted on my Livejournal - USPS.com - Print Shipping Labels & Postage Online - Free Pickup!

Now that I've gotten my monthly "how the hell my client screwed up ANOTHER computer" rant out of my system, I just wanted to list my usual computer rescue kit.

First is BartPE, which enables you to make a Windows XP base preinstalled environment, which you can boot into from a CD. When a Windows system isn't working, I can boot it up with this CD, and run apps to clean it up or rescue data. I usually rely on a generic USB drive loaded with such great portable apps (they run right off of the USB drive, without having to install on the hard drive) as...

• ClamWin Portable - ClamWin antivirus scanner, in a neat tidy little package that's easy to keep up-to-date.


• Dr.WEB CureIt Portable - Another full antivirus & malware scanner, made portable.


• Norton Security Scan Portable - Scans for a broad array of malware and security gaps.


• Multi Virus Cleaner '09 - Also scans for malware and infections.


• Kaspersky Removal Tools - A whole bunch of virus-specific removal tools, from Afcore to XCP.


• Avast Virus Cleaner - Detects and cleans a select list of common viruses and malware.


• McAfee AVERT Stinger - Another virus and malware remover.


• Avira AntiVir Removal Tool - Removes a wider array of malware.


• Sophos Anti Rootkit - Scans for rootkits on your drives.


• TestDisk - Scans and mounts damaged partitions, and recovers boot sectors, MFTs and other data


• SoftPerfect File Recovery, ADRC, Roadkils Undelete & Undelete Plus - Recovers data from hard drives and removable media.


• CCleaner Portable - My favorite junk-file and registry cleaner, in a portable format.


• Revo Uninstaller Portable - The best uninstaller, which also removes orphaned files, in a portable format.


• DriverGrabber & Driver Backup - Backs up your system and 3rd party drivers, if you need to restore.


• Explorer++ - A powerful multi-window file explorer with optional thumbnails.
  
• 7Zip Portable - Top-quality compression and decompression, including RAR.


• Eraser - Completely erases & overwrites files, including DOD/NSA approved and Gutmann methods, free space wipe, secure file moving, and disk nuking and creating a nuke boot disk.


• CheckDisk - Freeware portable version of CheckDisk.


• Auslogics Disk Defrag - Great disk defrag app, portable.


• System Explorer - Portable version of the task manager.


• ShowMyPC - A good VNC remote control server and client.


• Sumatra PDF - Portable PDF viewer.


• HoverSnap & AVI SCreen - Take screen captures and record Windows.


• Infra Recorder - Portable CD/DVD burning app.


• Opera Portable - Awesome internet browser, portable.

If you hunt around, there are also a ton of password recovery tools, Windows key extractors, registry editors, notepads, file editors, FTP clients & servers, and utilities for just about any job. You can load a ton of them on a 1+ GB USB drive, in case you need 'em. I periodically update the antivirus and browsers, to the latest versions, and I keep the drive and boot CDs in a safe spot. They've rescued many computers, on the brink of death, with very little muss or fuss. There's only a few rare cases when these fail, and I have to I roll up my sleeves, break out a Linux PE and get my hands dirty.
Cross-posted on my LiveJournal - BartPE & Portable Apps - Computer Life Raft

Lyoto Machida UFC Light Heavyweight Champ All Photos, Courtesy of ZUFFA, LLC. Click For UFC98 Streaming Video

      UFC 98 was a pretty good show, with several interesting fights. The bad blood between former UFC Welterweight Champs Matt Serra and Matt Hughes culminated in a great back-and-forth battle, with both fighters displaying their strengths, and Hughes walking away with a unanimous decision victory. But, the big thrill - even though I honestly saw it coming months in advance - was the undefeated Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida beating the previously-undefeated "Sugar" Rashad Evans for the UFC Light-Heavyweight title. Although I was rooting for Machida, the truth is that Evans is VERY capable of knocking any fighter out in the blink of an eye, and was on the edge of my seat the entire fight. To the untrained eye, there wasn't much action, but you could see them feeling each other out and trying to find any flaw they could exploit. Both quick and seemingly-unorthodox strikers, with knockout power, you could see them switch up stances, feigning, and reading each other for minutes at a time. After some quick encounters, Machida managed to drop Evans with an expertly-timed low-kick, straight-right combination, and press him until Rashad regained his balance. Into the second round, Machida caught Evans in an exchange with a stiff left, and kept on top of him with a Chuck Liddell-like flurry of punches, before putting Rashad to sleep with another left on the button

"Oh shi..."

.

      I admit, I was a little late to jump on the Lyoto Machida bandwagon. While he held early victories over future champions Rich Franklin and "The Prodigy" B.J. Penn, they occurred early in each fighters' careers, so you could accept them being flukes. As well, being associated with Antonio Inoki, who always seems to inspire rumors of fight fixing and shady-doings, didn't help his credibility. But, after seeing more and more footage, and reading about his style, I was intrigued. Here was an elusive fighter, with very precise Karate striking - which is very hard to predict, since kicks aren't telegraphed as much, and even harder to counter since strikes are often thrown with the head back and out of range. He's pretty much been training in street-modified Shotokan Karate, with his father Master Yoshizo Machida, since he was a baby. To add to it, Lyoto has trained in Sumo (effective takedown defense), and recently earned his BJJ black belt from the legendary Nogueira brothers. That's a hell of a skill-set, and he's put it to good use by earning an increasingly-impressive string of victories over some serious competition - including a dominant performance against another former champ, Tito Ortiz. To date, nobody has really even caught Machida and done any kind of damage to him. Taking the title from a still-evolving Rashad Evans further showcases how his relatively unique style, on top of his great physical and mental conditioning, is proving to be effective in MMA.

Click here to see UFC98, streaming at 300k, 700k, and 1200k high quality, in case you missed it!
      The current list of UFC champs seems like the most dynamic bunch of fighters to date, all being considered among the very best in their respective specialized styles, while continuing to build on top of it. UFC Lightweight Champ B.J. Penn's moniker, "The Prodigy," describes him to a tee - he's a world-renowned BJJ expert, with just about as many wins from strikes as submissions. UFC Welterweight Champ, Georges "Rush" St-Pierre, is another Karate-inspired fighter, with swift and lethal circular-style Kyokushin striking and movement, who is also expertly versed in wrestling and submissions. UFC Middleweight Champ, Anderson "The Spider" Silva (left), is one of the most skilled and lightning-fast Muay Thai kickboxers in MMA history, who is also a Nogueira BJJ black belt and argued to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world today. The interim UFC Heavyweight Champ, Frank Mir, is and extremely-dangerous Ricardo Pires BJJ black belt, with expanding Kenpo and Muay Thai skills, who managed to be the first person in the history of MMA to stop Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira while on the comeback trail from a heinous motorcycle accident that would have killed of permanently crippled most people. The current UFC Heavyweight Champ, Brock Lesnar, is a freestyle wrestling monster and NCAA Division I Champ so physically gifted, he managed to defeat the legendary Randy Couture to earn the belt after only 3 professional fights. And, the sick thing is, despite this eclectic collection of supermen holding UFC gold, there always seems to be new fighters showing up in each respective division who - with some time and the proper guidance - could be even more monstrous. The level of competition, even on the smallest shows, has leaped up at a tremendous rate in just the last 2 or 3 years. MMA, as a sport, is just exploding with new talent, and ever-evolving dangerous skill-sets making their way to the top. I for one welcome our future rulers.
Cross-posted to my TV Blog and LiveJournal.

      Look at how happy that scale is! Honestly, I'm pretty happy with it, too. I only paid a measly $10 for it, expecting to get a novelty scale that's only so-so... But, I've been using it all day, and it's a GREAT multi-purpose scale!

      I weighed several different things we had around the office, compared the results to our recently-calibrated postage scale, and it was SPOT-FREAKIN'-ON. It's exactly as well-calibrated as our $75 postage scale, in several different units - whole lbs. & oz., lbs. (down to 1/100th), oz (down to 1/10th), kg, and Chinese jīn. Since it's a hanging scale, it's better suited for irregular items, which often don't easily fit on our platform scale. As well, it has a higher capacity than our postage scales - up to 88 lbs. (though I've only tested it up to 46.5 lbs.). It's battery operated, using two "AA" style batteries, making it even more versatile than our other scales. It's simple to zero, so I can use several harness rigs with it. And, personally, I like how happy it looks, with it's smiling face buttons. Considering how crazy I get answering stupid didn't RTFM customer questions all day long, every little thing that cheers my grumpy ass up is much appreciated.

      This scale gets pretty good reviews, too, on DealExtreme. If anyone needs a good multi-purpose or mailing scale, this oughtta do the trick. I've already let a bunch of my pals, who make a living on eBay, know about it. It's a really nice scale, for so cheap.

        One of the more-curious skills I acquired over the years is lock picking and locksmithing. I picked it up while hanging out with a guy whose parents ran a repossessions & foreclosure agency, while taking classes at CLC in Grayslake. Honestly, it doesn't have much practical use for me. I don't foresee becoming a professional locksmith, or engaging in advanced locksport. As well, if I needed to enter a locked room, in an emergency situation, I'd find a simpler or quicker means. Still, I think it's at least somewhat handy in the event I, or someone I know, gets locked out, and don't want to risk damaging anything. As well, it's a fun craft, and something neat to show-off to comrades.

        I had a really simple hand-made tension wrench, half diamond pick, and a snake rake that I made from metal bristles from railway sweepers I found along the local tracks. They were OK, at best, but at least they were free. A decent lock picking set was too expensive for my blood, and any of the trigger and battery lock picks were even more expensive. I made a few bump keys, which were cheap, but reasonably effective for years (in recent years, more and more locks are becoming bump-resistant).

        With very amateur tools, no real practical applications, and a loaded work schedule, it's been years since I've practiced lock picking. But, now, I've found several places to order professional locksmith tools for exceptional prices. They have column lock picks, padlock picks, manual pick guns, electronic pick guns, tool kits and more for a fraction of the cost they were years ago. I picked up a simple lock pick set for only $7 and a few extra tension wrenches. Hopefully I've still got a feel for it, but I'm thrilled that there's no shortage of videos and guides for lock picking.

Hah, I remember playing with my friends with a pair of crummy walkie talkies that were like 6 or 7 lbs, had terrible range, and had even poorer sound-quality than a McDonald's Drive-thru speaker. Still, they were tons of fun, and we eventually rigged them into sound-activated perimeter alarms before we screwed them up (I think we overloaded the transmitter).

Check THESE out - wrist watch walkie talkies! Man, I would have loved to have these when I was a kid. Even though they're considered toys, at only $42 for the pair (free shipping), they're so totally cooler than any walkie talkie I had as a kid or the first professional two-way radios I used. Even if the specs are half of what they claim (1.5 mile range, 22 FRS/GMRS channels), they're pretty sweet for so cheap. And, they have an even smaller pair of wrist watch walkies, for around the same price.

Something I've always thought should have been integrated into Microsoft Windows, since the addition of the Windows Taskbar, was the ability to organize items in the taskbar. I tend to like to have my most common or useful apps and windows on the left. Over the years, I've adapted by open items in a specific order to keep maintain this layout, and groan whenever something messes the order up. I've tried several 3rd party apps that enable you to organize the taskbar, but they always added in other features I didn't want, or used more system resources than I felt was necessary for something so seemingly simple.

For the last few weeks, I've been running Taskix 2.0 Beta, by Robust IT, on my Windows Vista, XP, and one of my 2000 systems. It's a freeware app that lets you organize the taskbar, and offers a few other simple features that you can easily enable or disable with just a few clicks of the mouse. Taskix has been rock-solid, works exactly as one would expect, and - best of all - uses very little system resources.

Visit Taskix.RobustIT.com to get Taskix! If you find it useful, be sure to send them a donation to support their effort!

      TigerDirect.com has a sweet deal on a monster barebones PC kit - Quad-Core 2.66GHz Intel i7 920 CPU, Asus P6T LGA 1366 motherboard (with 1 PCIeX1, 3 PCIeX16 slots, and 6 SATA 3.0Gb/s hookups), 12GB (2x6GB) PC12800 triple-channel DDR3-1600MHz, Seagate 7200.11 1.5TB hard drive with 32MB buffer memory, in a spacious high-airflow black case with a goof 650-watt power supply - for only $900, after a $10 rebate. Pieced together from other suppliers, the same components would cost around $1100~$1200. Toss in a good PCIe 2.0 video card, a 64-bit OS that supports 12GB RAM (I'm partial to Windows Vista Ultimate or Windows 7), and that's a pretty boss system for just over a grand.

      On the low-end, you can get a dual-core 3.73GHz Intel Pentium D, a decent PCIe 2.0 motherboard with onboard NVIDIA GeForce 7050/610i graphics, and 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-800MHz PC6400 in a fairly-nice ATX mid-tower with 300 watt power supply - for only $199, after a small rebate. Heck... Shopping around, the Pentium D 965 chip alone is $100 ~ $175 at other places. They also have lots of cheap SATA drives, and entry-to-mid-level graphics cards on sale. Not a bad little system, for a pretty sweet price, IMO. If you don't already have an OS, you can get Vista Home Premium fairly cheap, right now. Vista Home Basic and XP are also good deals, if you can find 'em and don't need Premium. As well, several Linux builds might do the trick, and save even more loot.

      If you're willing to devote an hour or two to putting a barebones system together, and load the OS, TigerDirect.com always has these sweet deals on barebones systems. So far, we've also gotten a number of recertified systems, at awesome prices ($300~$600 systems for between $90~$230), that have operated flawlessly 5~10 hours a day, 5+ days a week. The only two times we got a faulty component, their customer service was quick to ship out a replacement for exchange. Yeah, it's not as easy as going to a store, but the savings make up for it. And, it's really not that difficult these days. The last fully-loaded PC I put together was WAY less complicated than putting together the IKEA chair my boss got for his office.

        For the past few years, all of my footwear (save for a pair of cheap sandals) have come from LAPoliceGear.com. They regularly have fantastic sales on top-quality tactical boots and duty shoes, that just boggle the mind. Today, we happen to have just such a deal... 8" side-zip Altama LiteSpeed tactical boots (right) are 60% off their regular price! They have a sweet multi-direction lug style tread, which is good for most all surfaces, molded reinforced midsole and ankle protection, zipper silencer, and breathable antimicrobial fabric. Most of these style boots are designed for heavy-duty use, comfort, stability, stealth on most hard surfaces, and just plain look nice whether on the trails or dressed up for the office.

        LA Police Gear has excellent customer service, and lighting fast fulfillment. I just recently got an awesome pair of magnum boots at 60% off, but I otherwise wouldn't hesitate to jump on this deal FAST - especially since size 13 sells out quickly. LA Police Gear also has everyday good deals on other duty gear and wearables, and periodic super-sales. Sign up for their email list on their webpage, to get the latest deals forwarded to your attention, because they usually sell out quick!

      One of my clients wanted me to build a pretty nice gaming PC for him and his kids, and my rep at TigerDirect.com was happy to help me pick out the components. When it was all in the shopping cart, the total was just under $1000 (after two rebates) for what should be a $1800 ~ $2000 system.

• Asus P6T LGA 1366 Board • Core i7 920 / 2.66GHz • 12GB 1600MHz PC12800 DDR3 • 1GB PCIe2 GeForce 9500 GT SLI

• 7200RPM SATA-G3 1.5TB HDD • Sony DVD±RW / BluRay Drive • CoolerMaster ATX Case • 750 Watt Power Supply

      I slapped it together, yesterday, in less than an hour, and booted it up with a Slax Linux Live CD as a sanity test. Today, I installed Windows Vista Ultimate 64 on it, which was a breeze - all the hardware was detected and drivers were installed automatically. With 12GB of RAM, and no pagefile, the disk activity was almost nil - even when running OpenOffice Suite, Gimp Image Manipulation, and playing music with GOM Media Player. They left me their HL2 CDs, so tonight I'll try it out and see how it plays. I've also gotta set up SyncBack so they can easily back up their files onto a big slow portable hard drive. After that, it's in their hands.

      Luckily, this guy is a pretty sensible computer user. Compared to several other local clients, who can mysteriously reformat entire systems by accident despite my best efforts to safeguard the system, I've never had any major "WTF" calls from them. Even his kids are pretty good users, and know what not to click. He knows how to do basic hardware installation, so if he gets a duplicate SLI video card to run in parallel, or another hard drive, I'd have faith in him installing it on his own.

      I've gotta say, this is a pretty sweet rig, but I'm still pretty happy with the new system I have at work, and my other PCs. None of my own systems are nearly as fast, especially since I'm underclocking the processor and RAM in my notebook (dynamic frequency scaling) and two desktops (manual), but they're all rock-friggin-solid - not a single freeze-up or crash, since I got 'em. Microsoft Vista gets a bum rap... IMO it's a great operating system, if you're willing to configure it to suit your needs. It's not even hard to configure Vista. Just Google around for Vista tweaks, and you'll find a number of guides that practically do all the work for you.

Over the near-10 years I've had my Ford Escort, I've taken my car to a handful of different places for service. I've taken it to the local dealer once, and regretted it - They tried to charge us for work that wasn't done (we mark all our belts, hoses, and cables with UV markers). I've had break work done at a break specialist (Midas) and regretted it - rear breaks seized up at 65MPH on the Edens, due to faulty installation. I've gotten oil changes at two different oil change specialists, and have regretted it - both forgot to reattach the front-end cowl, which ended up being scraped to hell under my car after hitting a bump. I've had mixed results from the local tire shop, who did a good job installing a set of tires and changing my oil a few times, but twice the screwed up a front-end alignment - once resulting in my car nearly flipping over while turning on the expressway.

To date, the only place that has ever done a satisfactory job, each and every time, has been D&R Autoworks in Highland Park. They fixed my car up real nice after I was rear-ended, they've fixed every screw-up that other service stations did, and are now the only place I ever take my car for service. Same holds true for my parents' cars. Even though I can get an oil change and tire rotations cheaper at other places, I just don't trust my car (and my ass, since I'm the one driving it) anywhere else. After all the other close calls and screw-ups, I can't even imagine what disaster would result, if I took my car to some another hack shop.

It's also cool that D&R is pretty conveniently located, have after-hours drop off (since my work schedule is pretty full), and have a pretty nice waiting room with free WiFi, big screen TV, coffee, and they occasionally set up a putting green. Not that I've ever had to wait very long. Their staff, particularly Dan and Brian, know their stuff and are always willing to answer my numerous questions. Any time I describe an odd noise, strange feeling, or other irregularity with my car (which happens often, since the Ford Escort's front end is so damned fragile) they pinpoint it right away and figure out how to fix it right away, since they seem to stock plenty of Ford OEM and compatible parts.

D&R Autoworks is located on 2366 Skokie Hwy., in Highland Park, IL. Call 847-433-4343 of visit drautoworks.com to schedule an appointment.

Cross-posted on my Personal LiveJournal - D&R Autoworks, Highland Park - The Only Place I Take My Car

I've set up all my non-Mac using clients with 3-button (or more) mice, for their computers, so I often remove the [X] close button from tabs in Mozilla Firefox. They've all learned to close tabs with the middle-click, so the close button becomes just a nuisance when one accidentally clicks on it when trying to access a tab. Luckily, it's a breeze to remove them from Firefox.

First step should ALWAYS be to back up your Firefox profile using MozBackup or Firefox Environment Backup Extension (FEBE) - or both. Then type about:config in the Firefox address bar. In the search bar that comes up, look for browser.tabs.closeButtons. Once it comes up, you can click on it and change the integer value to 2 to deactivate the close button on all tabs (1 seems to be the default, with all tabs showing the close button, and 0 sets it so only the active tabs has the close button).

Well, it's about time... While it's never been a huge problem for me, having only owned 5 cellular phones (3 of which sharing the same charger), I know it's been and endless source of aggravation for many other cellphone owners to try and match up chargers. When it comes to computers and machinery, I know the pains of proprietary parts, so I can at least relate to those who have struggled to figure out what charger goes with what phone or grabbing the wrong one and not realizing until it's too late to go look for the other. So, it's cool that the GSM Association and Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) group have finally agreed to implement a universal cellphone charger, among the major handset manufacturers.

And, the winner is... MicroUSB! Half the thickness of MiniUSB, featuring a stronger connection between plug and receptacle, and rated for 10,000 connect-disconnect cycles, I really like the MicroUSB over MiniUSB. Already, many phones - my Virgin Mobile TNT (Kyocera Adreno S2400), included - use MicroUSB to recharge or for data transfer. By 2012, most handsets should then feature the MicroUSB port for recharging. I can now recharge my phone from my computer or surge protectors with USB power, using a MicroUSB cable, or share a charger with 3 other people at the office (with one lone iPhone user, which will likely remain with a proprietary hookup).

Here's a gameplay trailer from the very-good game Tomb Raider Underground. I've played the PS3 version for a little more than an hour, and the Xbox 360 version for only a half hour. The 360 version was actually a lot smoother and better looking, but the PS3 was certainly no slouch and I still like the DualShock 3 more than the 360 controller, in general. The game plays really well, and I enjoy the degree of interaction with the very VERY expansive levels (at least the ones I've played and seen so far). It definitely brings back the fond memories I have of the first Tomb Raider games, and excuses the poor attempts that came later. Definitely a game I want to play more of, when (if) I ever get a 7th generation console.

I've personalized my Firefox 3 browser pretty heavily, to suit my needs at work and at home... That's why I use Firefox more than any other browser (I still use Opera fairly regularly, and IE only when absolutely necessary). However, it took a lot of work to configure each of my Firefox profiles the way I like it, and it would be a royal pain if I had to do it over from scratch. Fortunately, I'm very VERY good at backing up settings, files and directories at work and at home. Just about any important file, I back up on a weekly to hourly basis on a second slower hard drive. I have monthly archives, compressed with WinRAR with PAR2 parity files. Depending on the importance of the archives, I save the data on DVDs, portable hard drives, across other systems on a network, and/or even off-site on my FTP. As such, I always appreciate when a tool comes along that makes it easier. For backing up my Mozilla Firefox profiles, my personal favorite tool is MozBackup, by Pavel Cvrcek.

MozBackup is VERY simple to use, and thoroughly backs up bookmarks, settings, about:config tweaks, extensions, themes, history, saved passwords, auto-complete data, sidebars, cache files and other files essential to customizing Mozilla Firefox. It saves them in compressed archives, which you can easily make PAR2 parity files for, and save - no need to dig through Windows Users directories, and copying multiple profile directories. It does all the dirty work for you, when backing up your profiles. Should you need to revert to a previous configuration, or you have to reinstall, it's easy to restore from saved profiles with just a few button clicks.

This has come in real handy when migrating Mozilla Firefox to certain workstations on a network. I was able to configure one system for general browsing, for everyone at the office, and then migrate the profile to each system using MozBackup. As well, if I install an extension that is difficult to remove, or irreparably damages the browser, I was able to jump back to a clean profile in minutes. In all, MozBackup has probably saved me 4 or 5 hours, to-date - and MozBackup was totally free. What a deal!

MozBackup also works with the Thunderbird mail client, Sunbird, Flock, SeaMonkey, Netscape and portable installs of Firefox. Visit the official MozBackup webpage for more details, or for a free download.

Cross-posted to my Livejournal - MozBackup - Backup & Restore Firefox Profile Settings, Bookmarks & Extensions

I wrapped up another quick infomercial spot for a client, and was grabbing snippets for my portfolio. While looking over other clips, it occurred to me... Over half of them feature royalty free music and sound effects from Bjorn Lynne and Tommy Tallarico.

Whenever foundries have sales, I like to pick up assorted royalty free fonts, clip art, photographs, sound effects and music. Often times, I get bulk packages for $20 ~ $100, of which I'll eventually use here and there. I've never singled out a modern composer/designer before, with the sole exception of Bjorn Lynne and Tommy Tallarico (and a few loops and stingers by Emmett Cooke).

Tommy Tallarico should need no introduction to anyone who's been involved in the game industry in the last decade - He's composed music for many acclaimed games, IMO his best being Wild 9 and Earthworm Jim 1 & 2, and has had plenty of face time on G4 TV. His studio produces an invaluable volume of around 20,000 sound effects and musical stingers, for something like $400 with a discount - The SFX Kit - and was worth every penny. Unlike many other collections, this was better suited for user interfaces, web design, games, animations and videos. They're fairly unique in most fields, so you won't likely have many overlaps with other projects, unlike the BBC and DeWolfe collections whose effects I hear all the time (I hear their shotgun blast and camel sounds effect all the time).

Bjørn Lynne is fairly popular amongst us Amiga gamers, or fans of electronic dance/trance music. I bought one of my favorite CD's from him, Chris Huelsbeck's epic Turrican 1 & 2 soundtrack (back when it was still hard to get game soundtracks). I use a lot of his loops and stingers for presentations, webpages, live product demonstrations and more. Almost any good music and sound effect foundry has Bjorn Lynne's work on it.

Since I'm really REALLY not a musician... In all honesty, I don't even listen to much music. All my music comes from $5 PC speakers, or a cheap-o MP3 player. As such, I depend on high-quality royalty free composers to cover my butt. Audio is often a big, if under appreciated, part of presentation, so I depend on great composers like these.

Cross-posted on my Livejournal - Bjorn Lynne & Tommy Tallrico Royalty Free Music and Sound Effects