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About Tekzilla

Embrace digital technology. Join the Tekzilla crew and make your tech work better for you. Or you can go live in the woods with an axe. Every Saturday, Patrick Norton and Veronica Belmont deliver product reviews, computer help, tech tips on everything from iPods to camcorders, HD to the Internet, plus do it yourself projects. Read more

The latest from Tekzilla: Episode 47 - Tuning Vista for Gaming, Belkin GoStudio, Gaming PC Winner!

Your fave free tools for remote access, Asus Eee PC 900 = big improvements, Veronica Reviews the Belkin GoStudio, RegToy, What goes in an ExpressCard Slot? Tips for shopping online overseas with ChannelFlip's Wil Harris, PassiveAggressiveNotes.com, Who won our Badass Gaming PC???

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Dailies Weeklies

Tekzilla Daily Tip - Episode 167 - Internet Explorer: Locking Down IE
August 27th, 2008 - 3 secret ways to secure malicious changes to IE.

Tekzilla Daily Tip - Episode 166 - Windows: Fatten Up Your Cursor
August 26th, 2008 - Getting eye strain from staring at that skinny text cursor all day? We'll show you how to fatten it up so that you'll never have to squint to see it again.

Tekzilla Daily Tip - Episode 165 - Firefox: Browse in High Fidelity
August 25th, 2008 - Firefox dulls the appearance of webpages to give you faster performance. But if you have speed to spare, we've got a tip for you to get the most out of those flickr pages.

Tekzilla Daily Tip - Episode 164 - Vista: Secret Right Click Commands
August 22nd, 2008 - Don't let Vista pull one over on you. Veronica will reveal the secrets hidden in the right-click menu in today's helpful tip.

Tekzilla Daily Tip - Episode 163 - Firefox: Cram More Words in The Search Window
August 21st, 2008 - Need more room to type in those long search terms in Firefox? Resizing that text field might just be the answer and we'll show you how it's done, in today's Tekzilla Daily.

Tekzilla Daily Tip - Episode 162 - OS X: Resize the Dock in Just One Step
August 20th, 2008 - OS X Dock too small? Too big? No need to open the system preferences just watch to today's episode for an easier and faster way.

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Help! Hard Drive’s Dead! S.O.S.

Posted by Juniper Monkeys on 08/27/2008 at 09:35:42 pm in Tekzilla

I did this to fix a Seagate that got fried in an electrical storm a few years ago. Worked just fine. The exactness of the match necessary isn't something that's going to be consistent, though. Since a 30gb 4200RPM drive can't cost more than a few bucks, you could at least try picking up one of the variants of your drive, and just comparing the boards. Maybe Toshiba customer support can tell you if one works with the other for sure - I dunno how cool they are.

Downgrading cable internet service

Posted by samureye on 08/27/2008 at 05:54:11 pm in Tekzilla

See if you can get something a tad bit higher, say 2Mbps down 512 up. If you like to watch you vids streaming right away they may not always stream as you want, so an option is to have your podcasts come down with iTunes or Miro to download when you are not there.

The 256 will do your video conferencing, but if you're surfing while you do it, there may be some noticeable hiccups compared to the 9Mbps you have now. I especially think you should go for the slight bump since you have the 2 computers sharing the connection, so if you know someone else will be on there while you're doing your stuff that might compromise bandwidth then consider a slight bump, if available.

Good program for converting .avi to mpeg4

Posted by tehBoris on 08/26/2008 at 04:13:16 am in Tekzilla

To clear some thing up:

A avi file could contain MPEG4 video.

How to download flash-based tv shows online?

Posted by TheWheat on 08/27/2008 at 08:18:16 pm in Tekzilla

Try Orbit Downloader *link*
As quoted on the main page
The Grab++ module will scan for anything that is being played in your browser, whether it is an audio, video, or flash, and autodetect the download link (only caveat: Grab++ has to be run before the media file is played). This is (a) unbelievably cool, and (b) reason enough for me to switch from Flashget, hitherto my favorite downloader, to Orbit Downloader. Will download WMV and RM streaming video.

Why can't you touch the circuit board?

Posted by tossayo on 08/24/2008 at 05:56:35 pm in Tekzilla

those were all nice answers!

thank you :)

Multiple harddrive enclosure?

Posted by Dark_Shroud on 08/24/2008 at 03:11:08 pm in Tekzilla

Firewire would be better, you can daisy the chain them together and not have it impact your CPU & power the way USB would. Right now you have the choice between Firewire 400 & 800 while 1600 & 3200 have both been approved and will be out soon. When they come out just get yourself a Firewire 800 card if you want to go this route.

Speaking of keyboards and touch typing

Posted by davmoo on 08/24/2008 at 03:45:28 pm in Tekzilla

I've played with the Apple keyboards in the stores and actually like them. I just figured if I plugged one in to a PC that lightning would strike me or Steve Jobs would show up at my house and punch me or something of that nature.

Oh, left out this part...

All joking aside, I have in fact looked at some of the kid's keyboards with larger keys. If they'd arrange them like an "adult" keyboard, some of them would be perfect. But instead they arrange them in a square block, and that's just not comfortable and doesn't feel right.

Monitor problem

Posted by burkhartmj on 08/23/2008 at 06:21:29 pm in Tekzilla

Would the monitor status lights come on, just not the screen, or is it completely dark when turning on? Is the squelching noise a POST error code or just a noise that shouldn't be occurring? Is it coming from the monitor directly or from the computer?

I second everything davmoo said, and also check the seating of the memory if everything he suggested doesn't work. Assuming the monitor is working, if that doesn't lead anywhere, you have a dead part getting in the way, and you've just gotta figure out what it is. After transporting to college this wouldn't be all that surprising.

Reg Toy, Stolen Software?

Posted by davmoo on 08/23/2008 at 05:43:35 pm in Tekzilla

If it was illegal or against copyright to duplicate a GUI, 75 percent of free software could not exist.

Episode 47 - Tuning Vista for Gaming, Belkin GoStudio, Gaming PC Winner! [Discussion]

Posted by Milnoc on 08/27/2008 at 09:14:23 am in Tekzilla

"
Along with the OS' efficiency, w2k was the only OS that not only fit on the tiny 4 GB primary SSD, it also was the only one that left me enough room on the primary drive for my entire essential software suite with room to spare. For me to even try w2k8 on the Eee PC 900, it'll have to demonstrate the same level of efficiency as w2k has already clearly demonstrated.

Enough with the bloatware already! Just give us an OS that has minimal bells & whistles, and which was NOT designed by an egotistical marketing team with delusions of grandeur! :)

Wednesday, 08/27
Internet Explorer: Locking Down IE
Tuesday, 08/26
Windows: Fatten Up Your Cursor
Monday, 08/25
Firefox: Browse in High Fidelity

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The latest from Tekzilla: Episode 47 - Tuning Vista for Gaming, Belkin GoStudio, Gaming PC Winner!

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