racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

What’s a better way to make Windows XP boot up faster than doing a fresh install?

Yes, it’s as simple as that–or complicated if you have a lot of apps to reinstall.

I recently made fresh installs of XP on my desktop and laptop, and got quite a performance boost.

In fact, many techies would recommend reverting to fresh installs every so often (about once every six months) to declog your system of all that unneeded junk you tend to collect in the course of your everyday computing and Internet browsing.  I’m not sure about the case of Linux users, since it’s either their systems are stable enough even after months of heavy use, or because it may be too tedious to do that reinstall after all the kernel and app modifications.

Of course, part of the fresh Windows installs include the requisite AVG antivirus and Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D anti-spyware.  And make sure you update your Windows XP with Service Pack 2, if not already embedded in the installation (older copies are likely to have only SP1 or none at all).

If you’re frustrated that your browser’s search function can’t search across text areas and fields, despair not.  The local search function of Firefox can actually search within these areas not normally searchable by Internet Explorer’s own search tool.  By default, you will not be able to search within text areas, form and whatnot, but if you use the “Highlight all” button, you actually extend the search across all the content in the page.

So for instance, you press Ctrl-F and type in a keyword, the live search will automatically lead you to the first instance (even without pressing Enter).  But if your text is inside a text form, the browser will not be able to find it.  But if you toggle on “Highlight all,” and scroll across the text content, you will notice that matching words/phrases are now highlighted!  You can try it in the comment area below!

I was hooked with Firefox from day one. I ’d been following Mozilla’s releases since they came up with their first beta releases. I actually switched from the full Mozilla suite to Firefox when I heard about how fast, light and secure it was.

Mozilla has more or less perfected version 1.0x; they’re now at stable release 1.07. Now version 1.5 is under development–in fact, Mozilla has recently released 1.5 beta 2 for public use and testing.

I recently downloaded version 1.5 beta 2.  Read my initial revew at Pinoy.tech.blog.

The BSA’s
“Great Raid” on establishments using unlicensed proprietary software,
dubbed Oplan Crackdown, is just another wake-up call to end-users,
business or individual alike, that it does pay to use properly-licensed
software.

But with software prices still at astronomical levels, especially in
the local retail market, the ordinary Filipino computing public may
still feel disccouraged from buying the real McCoy.

Read more at Pinoy.tech.blog.

Here’s an article written mid-2004 comparing Dashboard and Konfabulator.  From Daring Fireballs:

A sliding puzzle. A calculator. A clock. A little notepad. Tiny
little applets — little pieces of software that are something less
than full applications themselves, but which run alongside real apps
and are easily accessed at any time.

Obviously, Apple ripped off the idea for Dashboard. Stolen
wholesale, without even the decency to mention where they took the
original idea.

Which, of course, would be the desk accessories from the original
1984 Macintosh — conceived by Bud Tribble and engineered (mostly) by
Andy Hertzfeld.

Notwithstanding these debates, I’m enjoying the use of both!