TrueVector Problem in latest ZoneAlarm update!

June 29, 2006 20066 6:34 am | In Tech | Comments Off

This is for any of you out there experiencing the same thing as me:

- TrueVector service shutting down by itself several times when ZoneAlarm is running
- Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) when trying to reinstall it
-etc

But thanks to SlyFox in Zonealarm forum, I found the solution. I skipped some steps and here's what I did:

1. Download a new copy of the zonealarm file –> Link

2. Goto Start Menu –> All Programs –> ZoneLabs –> Uninstall Zone Labs Security but don't left-click it! Right click instead and select Properties.

3. Now in the box that says Target: "C:Program FilesZone LabsZoneAlarmzauninst.exe" change it into this:

"C:Program FilesZone LabsZoneAlarmzauninst.exe" /clean

*Note that the /clean part is together and is one space away from the quotation mark ".

4. Double-click the Zonealarm icon in your tray. Under Overview section, click on the Preferences tab and uncheck the part that says "Load ZoneAlarm at startup". Close it once you're done. If your download has finished, disconnect your LAN cable/internet connection.

5. Now, goto Start Menu –> All Programs –> ZoneLabs –> Uninstall Zone Labs Security and left-click on it. It'll start uninstalling and click YES to all popups that come up. When finished, it'll ask for a reboot. Click Yes.

6. After you've rebooted, you'll need to check to see if the following files are deleted (if they're not delete them):

- Delete the WINDOWSInternet Logs folder
- Delete Program FilesZone Labs folder
- Delete the WINDOWSSystem32Zone Labs folder
- Empty the WINDOWSPre-Fetch folder (i.e. delete everything inside the folder)
- Empty Recycle Bin

Reboot again.

7. Now once you've rebooted, install Zonealarm again and it should all be allright now.

*Note that all your previous settings e.g. trusted zones, program permissions will be deleted! If you prefer to be safer, follow SlyFox's longer method here

Forget what I've said, go download Kerio Firewall, but i think their ad filtering needs some tweaking. Even my surfing speed increased significantly after removing Zonealarm and installing Kerio!

Demographics prediction for Boringest!

June 26, 2006 20066 5:28 pm | In Funny | 3 Comments

Found this vis Digg: It's a Microsoft adCenter webapp which predicts a customer’s age, gender, and other demographic information according to his or her online behavior—that is, from search queries and webpage views.

Guess what my blog got: Unknown (lol)

But I need more women searching for me:

And it's pretty funny to see google's results as well: probability of 1 of females using Google, 0 for males.

Anyway, if you wanna have fun with it, here's the link.

England and Portugal

June 26, 2006 20066 5:54 am | In Thoughts | 3 Comments

If England continues playing like this, I'm not sure if they'll even win against Portugal who already has Costinha and Deco missing in the next match. Besides Beckham's free kick which I think is really beautiful, I thought Carrick was hopeless, all he did when he get the ball is pump it to the front almost aimlessly when there's only 1 striker! Thought playing as holding midfielder means trying to keep possession of the ball!

4-5-1 isn't just England's cuppa tea! Most of the time, I think Lampard and Gerard are confused about whether they should stay behind and come from the deep or stay upfront. And funnily today, the normally rock-solid Terry doesn't seem too be himself, but I think this imbalance could be due to Carrick's influence.

So if Sven is really clueless about his tactics, this is my suggestion:

4-1-3-2

4 defenders at the back (left to right): A. Cole, Terry, Ferdinand, Carragher
1 holding midfielder: Hargreaves
3 midfielders (left to right): J. Cole, Lampard, Gerrard
2 strikers: Rooney, Crouch.

And although Beckham scored today, he has to be sacrificed for not contributing much to the gameplay.

No Thank Yous, Picking up Papers from the Floor and Opening the Doors, we're Malaysians!

June 24, 2006 20066 11:52 pm | In Thoughts | Comments Off

I know this topic has been blogged probably a thousand times but are we really that rude (besides on the roads) or are the tests rigged to favour Western countries? Here's the quoted Reader's Digest methodology in New York:

The routine in New York was similar to the one followed elsewhere: Two reporters — one woman and one man — fanned out across the city, homing in on neighborhoods where street life and retail shops thrive. They performed three experiments: "door tests" (would anyone hold one open for them?); "document drops" (who would help them retrieve a pile of "accidentally" dropped papers?); and "service tests" (which salesclerks would thank them for a purchase?). For consistency, the New York tests were conducted at Starbucks coffee shops, by now almost as common in the Big Apple as streetlights. In all, 60 tests (20 of each type) were done.

Source

And I'll attempt to guess why we scored so low:

1. No Thank Yous

Well, if you've read the Reader's Digest article, they only really mentioned the way they did it in New York, and they all did it in Starbucks! Wah lau, if these ppl who sell overpriced coffee and don't even say thank you, I'll be mad too, but since Starbucks is like a 'high-class' drink in Malaysia, I bet they did their test in mamak stalls since they are as common as toll booths. So, you expect mamak to say thank you and goodbye to you when you finish drinking your teh tarik and 1 piece of prata? Siaolah this angmohs, they'll be happy if you can just quickly finish your drink and cabut from the place, so more ppl can sit downlah. If you're lucky, then maybe you'll get a thank you written on the receipt but then this is probably a higher class mamak…lol

2. Picking up paper from the floor

I wonder where they did this but if the female reporter's above average looking, I bet almost every guy out there will come and help you. Anyway, nowadays with so many pickpockets around, if you drop the paper just like that without knocking into somebody or whatever, you'll be identified as a cheat rather than a clumsy person. Btw, who the hell these days carry documents around in the street? We all use email lah and if you still wanna carry your printouts put it in a bag mah…wah lau.

3. Holding doors for ppl

In the top 10 lists of the most polite cities in the world, all of them are from temperate countries. So in those countries, they still use doors which need manual opening, for insulation and all. In Malaysia these days, since it's so bloody hot, there are either no doors in shops or we use automatic doors, so I'm seriously wondering where they need to open doors. There's also a special door for the disabled normally, so if these RD reporters insist on using the doors, can they blame us for not holding the doors for them?

So, I think we need a rematch with these 3 simple tests:

1. Walking Test - saying Excuse Me/Sorry when you accidentally hit the person while walking.

2. Lift Test - see how many ppl will ask which floor you wanna goto.

3. Barber Test - goto a barber which doesn't have the same skin colour as the reporter and check out the reaction of the barbers and their regular customers. (this one might sound crazy, but just yesterday I went to an African barber and I get stares from everyone 'cos they were all wearing thick gold blings-blings with very short curly hair or dreadlocks and I was wearing like a t-shirt and shorts with very long hair, felt so uncomfortable I walked out after I finished reading the day's paper…lol)

Step-by-Step Method to disable BitTorrent in Opera?

June 24, 2006 20066 5:29 pm | In Tech | 12 Comments

Hi,

Although it's good for Opera 9 to have the bittorrent feature, for users who need more power, I think some of us here would prefer uTorrent/Azureus as the bittorrent application, but how do you disable that in Opera?

Well, here's a step-by-step method of doing it, might not be the best way but it works:

1. Type opera:config in your address bar to reach the preferences page:

You'll need to uncheck the box that says "Enable".

2. Next go to your favourite torrent site, choose the torrent file that you want by clicking on it and Opera will present you with a pop up with more options:

In the line that says Opens with "Opera" line, click the button that says "Change"

3. Another window will appear:

Click on the radio button that says "Open with other application", then find the executable file for the program you want e.g. uTorrent is utorrent.exe.

And now everytime you click on a torrent link, it'll appear right away in your utorrent list.