How to edit hosts file on Windows Vista

Editing the hosts file on Windows Vista is not as easy as on Windows XP, since editing requires the administrator account. TechFigure has a great article about editing the hosts file on Windows Vista. I found it useful, I hope it helps you too.

More at the source: How to edit hosts file on Windows Vista

Google Hot Trends: A new way to trap web spamming sites

Google Hot Trends (www.google.com/trends) is a utility that shows in almost real time what most people are searching right now on the Web.

While it is a great tool for learning what happens around the world, many webmasters have been abusing it, by posting keywords from Google Hot Trends on their site, in order to get high ranks in Search Engine Results (SERP).

However, it appears that such abuse has made angry the Google team (and it is logical) because is considered as web spamming. The result is that sites that abuse the Google Hot Trends tool are de-indexed from Google very soon or get a -30 to -950 penalty, eliminating the 90% of their visitors.

I don’t blame Google about this. It is the correct thing they do. Many sites where posting an article having a title with keywords from Google Hot Trends and its text contained just nonsense. This catched high results in search engine ranks, but it was completely useless for the visitors trying to get info about the specific keywords.

Google doesn’t like web spamming sites and tries to display only useful results, by filtering spamming sites. And I find it logical because none of the Internet users like them too.

So… stop abusing Google Hot Trends by posting keywords from it on your site, without any useful content. Your site will get soon de-indexed or penalized and you will loose all your visitors.

Post useful, unique and rich content. This will give you much visitors within a long period but they will remain forever. Getting 10.000 unique visitors within 2 weeks you create your site (eg. by abusing Google Hot Trends) will set off the web spamming alarms and your site will be de-indexed.

HP UMPC coming this spring?

Over a seafood dinner with HP management last Friday, the PC maker offered more than just aorta-clogging cuisine. In an informal chit-chat session, we learned that HP is readying its first UMPC which may hit the market in late spring.

Spec-wise, it disclosed… absolutely nothing. But digging deeper between the lines, we suspect the company’s maiden voyage into this niche segment is likely to be competitively priced, much like the ASUS Eee PC. In fact, according to one HP staff, “you won’t even need to consider this purchase. You’ll buy it like a handphone without a thought”. At this price range, we reckon it is unlikely to be a convertible tablet PC like the LifeBook U1010. Claiming that its UMPC will address several issues plaguing the current crop of pocketable portables, we were told that one of the key areas of improvement will be in battery life, though again no specific numbers were mentioned.

HP staffers also mentioned that this product has great potential as a lifestyle accessory, catering to professionals as well as youths. Again, we read between the lines that it is likely to be exceptionally portable and no larger than 10 inches. In the personalization department, the Palo Alto company mentioned laptop skins, so it may be possible that HP may offer custom skins for its first UMPC.

The only thing for certain is that HP is gearing for an official launch within the next few months. So for those of you contemplating a UMPC, you may want to wait just a little longer.

Thanks to CNet Asia

Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP

This article describes how to use the Disk Cleanup tool in Windows XP.

The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk by searching your disk for files that you can safely delete. You can choose to delete some or all of the files. Use Disk Cleanup to perform any of the following tasks to free up space on your hard disk:
• Remove temporary Internet files.
• Remove downloaded program files. For example, ActiveX controls and Java applets that are downloaded from the Internet.
• Empty the Recycle Bin.
• Remove Windows temporary files.
• Remove optional Windows components that you are not using.
• Remove installed programs that you no longer use.
You can start Disk Cleanup, by doing any of the following:

Microsoft and Yahoo restart talks

erh? Finally let someone buy something…

Yes, you read right, Microsoft and Yahoo restart talks.

Read the full article: Microsoft and Yahoo restart talks

How to deal with the Stop 0×0000007E and endless reboots after Windows XP SP3 installation

SYMPTOMS
After you upgrade a computer that uses a processor other than an Intel processor to Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), you may receive the following error message after you restart the computer:
A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer…

I had this issue but after following the instructions of this article everything is back to normal! I hope this helps lot of people too.

Error message about file dhtml.ocx missing

In some cases you may receive by an application, the error message that dhtml.ocx is missing.

If so, follow the instructions provided by NGI news:

File dhtmled.ocx missing - Error message: How to resolve

Firefox 3 RC1 ready for download

What better way to start off a Saturday than to feel the R.E.A.L.
browsing vibe with the help of the Foxxy One 3.0? You don’t need to
answer that, just know that the Release Candidate 1 of Mozilla’s
Firefox 3 is now up for grabs.

View full story: Firefox 3 RC1

Google Overtakes Yahoo in Web Traffic

The bad news just doesn’t seem to end for Yahoo. As the Internet portal
prepares to fend off a proxy fight by billionaire investor Carl Icahn,
new research from comScore concludes that for the first time, Google
has overtaken Yahoo as the most-visited Web site in the U.S. Google
reached the pinnacle of the Top 50 U.S. Properties in April.

Read full story @ Techteam

Asus Eee PC 901 is just 15 days away…

Revealed just yesterday,
the Intel Atom-powered Asus Eee PC 901 is expected to be launched at
Computex on June 3rd, on the same day MSI is set to release its Wind
low-cost notebooks. Featuring a little bit of bling courtesy of some
metal inserts and Bluetooth support, but basically the same hardware
specs (Atom excluded), the Eee PC 901 is said to retail at about $650
or $649 in its Windows XP version. The 901’s cost is $100 higher than
that of the Celeron M-boasting Eee PC 900 so the “low-cost”
characteristic is already dead and gone. Hopefully the Eee PC 901 with
Linux pre-installed will be cheaper.

News source: Asus Eee PC 901