I recently created a VM for Windows 7 and proceeded to waste hours trying to figure out why the Ethernet controller was missing from the Device Manager.  Installing VMWare Tools didn't fix the issue, tracking down the correct Ethernet driver didn't help; other people that created the same Virtual Machine were not having problems (of course), just me.  Fixing the problem is easier than you may think...

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There are various ways you can secure your WordPress installation, some of them are true security measures and some of them are just concealers.  One thing I have been looking to do with my WordPress installations was to change the URL for user login and registration.  I feel as though having wp-login.php in the url is not necessary, this should me modifiable by default, and getting rid of it would make me very happy.  Luckily for us, there is an easy way to do this; just a simple theme and .htaccess modification will get the job done.

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In my household, netbooks fly around like curse words.  I have had more Acer's come through my home office than I would like and for some reason, they either come with Windows XP or Windows 7 Starter; both are worthless in my opinion.  So when my friend asked me help him install Ubuntu on his Aspire One, I obliged.  Remember, netbooks do not come equipped with CDROM/DVD drives and unless you have an external drive or converter, your only option is to use USB.

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For many of us, engaging our readers is what we ultimately want to do, and how readers interact with our site is what we want to know.  If you are a user of WordPress and you actively use the WordPress.com Stats plugin, you already have all the tools you need to display your most popular posts (by page views) for your readers.  Until recently, I have been using the WordPress.com Popular Posts plugin to accomplish this, but I already had everything I needed without using another plugin; and the fewer plugins, the better!

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Facebook has introduced a new feature, called Instant Personalization, that aims to personalize your web experience.  The idea behind this is that Facebook's affiliate sites will have access to your profile information and use this to target you with things you are interested in.  The question is... how much information do you want people to have, and do you want them to know this by default?

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In a previous article here on C.O.D. (Essential Windows 7 Tweaks: Part 1), I mentioned it's my opinion that users should disable the system restore features in Windows 7.  Outside of the resources associated with running the task, I feel as though it provides a false sense of security for Windows Users and does nothing for users plagued by things worse than failed updates.  So what is the answer? Windows 7 comes with Backup and Restore... (more...)

In my career, yes there is a life outside of C.O.D., I am faced with many obstacles; usually regarding printing or scanning.  Recently, it was requested by a customer that printer output be preceded by a separator page.  Luckily, this is not restricted by devices (in most cases) and is rather easy to setup.  This is very helpful in environments that have more than one user printing to a device.  With a separator page, a user can differentiate their print from another person's print.

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I love when things go wrong!  It gives me an opportunity to, perhaps, enlighten people with solutions that may find themselves in a familiar situation.  Recently, I have been toying with some comments systems on the site, namely Intense Debate and DISQUS.  In the process of experimenting with both of these services I noticed that there had been no comments since disabling them.  Upon further investigation I had realized that after disabling Intense Debate all comments and trackbacks / pingbacks had been disabled. (more...)

In a blog post, by Jamie Odell, on Netflix.com yesterday, it was announced that Netflix was making some changes to its services; members would no longer be able to add DVD's to their queues on devices they can use to stream movies. The idea is born from another that the "Add to DVD Queue" option ties up valuable resources and would still be supported directly and only from the Netflix.com website. (more...)

Every person has different tastes when it comes to their installation of Windows.  Through the years that have been many things that I do right off the bat when getting my install "just right".  In the XP days, the first thing I would do was to stretch the taskbar, enable Quick Launch, add an address bar, unlock it, then move those around a bit.  If my taskbar wasn't set up this way, I HATED IT... in fact, I would move other people's around when I worked on their computers!  Windows 7 is no different for me, however, the list isn't as exhaustive yet. We covered Part 1 earlier and this is part 2 of a multipart series. (more...)