Windows security is sad. Although most of you have probably already read my article about using strong passwords, even the strongest passwords won’t keep your Windows login account from being penetrated. In fact, it takes only a couple of minutes to gain complete access to a Windows system using nothing more than a free CD ROM.

Now, if there is any good news - people are constantly locking themselves out of their personal laptops and home computers by forgetting the password. And recently I’ve had two different friends do this within a period of a couple of days. So you guys know how this works… when I start getting requests, I document the solution.
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I’ve previously written about how to access your PC from anywhere for free, and my favorite tool for this purpose is LogMeIn.com. The only problem with LogMeIn is, you need to have previously installed, and have running, the LogMeIn application in order to access the machine remotely.

But what if your buddy / relative / coworker calls you out of the blue wanting you to diagnose some computer issue and you know it would be 100 times easier if you could just remote control the computer? Well, no problem! CrossLoop is the fastest, easiest method of accomplishing this.
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Folks, I just wanted to pass along a tip for a free PDF Printer Driver in case anyone was ever looking for one, or in case you don’t know what this even is!

A PDF Printer Driver is a little piece of software that installs just like a printer would, but instead of converting your printed output it saves the exact printed format as a PDF file. You might want to do this for any of the following reasons:

• To e-mail a document in a universal format which preserves the exact page layout. For example, if you create a form using MS Word, you can convert it to PDF.
• To preview exactly what a document is going to look like when printed before wasting paper and ink.
• To post a printable version of a document on a Web site that people can access using any computing platform.
• If you want to print something, but you aren’t near a printer you can print it to a PDF and then later print a hard copy. VERY useful for offline work on a laptop while traveling.

The only problem is that up until relatively recently the only way to accomplish this was to own a very expensive piece of Adobe software. But now there are a few free alternatives on the market, and I wanted to recommend Bullzip PDF Printer.
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I keep wondering two things, why does the RIAA continue to persecute people, and more importantly why do people do stupid enough things to keep getting prosecuted?

That organization exists for the sole purpose of suing the pants off of people, but they can only do so when people leave plenty of evidence about their activity - namely hosting content on their computers and allowing others to download it. Most of the time it seems these foolish people aren’t even aware that what they are doing by running Kazaa, eMule, Gnutella, or some other file sharing application puts them at risk.

But why in the world would anyone share their music, movie or software collections via open, anonymous connections? Especially when there are other virtually risk-free alternatives? (By the way, know your rights if RIAA comes calling.)
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Six months ago I published a guide to the complete disassembly of the Creative Zen Vision W personal media player. At the end of that post I theorized as to how one could upgrade the hard drive when larger ones came available.

Well now, thanks to the generosity of Aaron Vronko and RapidRepair.com for supplying a 100GB drive; and Dan, one of my loyal readers, for playing guinea pig using my previous post to repair his Zen, I now have the largest drive in any Zen W in the world - and the theory is now a reality!

Here is how it was done.
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Some people remember, and some seem to have forgotten, but Microsoft has driven many companies out of business. There are those who have argued that Microsoft did this simply because they were the better competitor, but that is not the only reason.

Microsoft gained an early monopoly in the PC operating system arena, then abused that monopoly to damage competitors ability to compete. The Netscape browser was a perfect example.

Anyway, here is a leaked document from a court case in which Bill Gates is suggesting that Microsoft manipulate an open industry standard in such a way as to hurt Linux. This kind of predatory practice is unbelievable - especially when aimed at a free software movement where all of the development has been voluntary!

While creating a couple of plugins and themes for Wordpress I became confused, disillusioned and disenchanted with the various copyright licenses found around the net. I didn’t want anything so “legal-y” because, well frankly I’m not going to have the time, energy or patience to actually enforce it. Plus, I’m giving these things away for free!

So I decided to create my own licence as follows. Feel free to use / link to it if you feel it meets your needs, and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
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My buddy Hrafn over at Inkblot Earth found this incredibly cool screen saver called Twingly. In a nutshell it does the following things:

• A visual representation shows blog postings from around the world in real time.
• You can zoom in and out with your mouse’s scroll wheel, and you can rotate and spin the globe by clicking and dragging.
• It’s possible to tell where the most articles are coming from because bars get taller as more posts come in from certain places.

Read on to see a video of it in action!
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Ever wished you could become a touch typist rather than hunting and pecking at the keyboard? Or, curious how fast you actually are? Well, have I got a few options for you!

From freeware to a full blown touch typing Web application, if it ain’t here it just doesn’t exist.
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After my previous review of the Zen Vision W I had a reader Ask the Man the following question:

Hi,

I just got myself a Zen W last X-mas. I think it’s fantastic as well. I bought the 30gb instead of the 60gb thinking I could probably upgrade the hard drive to a higher capacity eventually.

Do you think it’s possible or know what kind of hard disk format they have in those machines?

Thanks One Man!

No, thank YOU for the question! As far as the answer is concerned, there’s only one way to find out… crack that puppy open!
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For those of you in the “Mac Camp” who are forced to work on a PC everyday (you know who you are) here is a little program you can use to make your PC feel more like home…
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People routinely ask about my favorite software so, I’ve decided to gather all my top picks in one place to make every one’s life a little easier.

All of the software listed here is free for personal use, meaning:

1. Any of this software can be installed and used at absolutely no charge, forever. There is no nagging, spyware, or anything else nasty.
2. Because it’s totally free, sometimes there is very little support. You either figure out how to use it, or just get rid of it.

So, without further ado, here is the list categorized by type of application:
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