Category Archives: Tips and Tutorials

UltraVNC SC

A few weekends ago,  I went to my hometown to see my parents and dog. And being the good son I am, spent some time working on my parents’ computer, a Dell running some sort of XP Home Media center or whatever. “Working on” their computer usually means patching, defragmenting, and uninstalling whatever crap the FiOS installers or my sister put on there. This time, I replaced the AVG Home Firewall/Anti-virus monstrosity with Microsoft Security Essentials, and installed XP service pack 3. I also deleted the Verizon and Google toolbars, and some icons off the desktop.

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Google DNS

A few weeks ago, Google announced that they are making available public DNS servers. They claim that it “provides many benefits, including improved security, fast performance, and more valid results.” And for some people, that might be true. They also claim that they are adhering to DNS standards, unlike many ISP and OpenDNS implementations, by not redirecting you to some crappy ad-filled search page when you fat-finger a URL. And as for privacy concerns:

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How to Give Your Cellular Provider the Gift You’ve Always Wanted!

Howdy loyal 930 readers! Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings to all! Charlie here, the undercover redneck, about to tell you how to give your cellular provider the gift you’ve always wanted: free unlimited SMS text messaging! I’m talking 100% free (as in beer).

“That’s impossible!” you’re must be saying. “Not in this country!”

Folks, behold the power of Google! Some may argue that Google is becoming the new Microsoft, or worse, an even more powerful entity with access to unfathomable terabytes of the world’s personal information. But who cares, with a corporate motto like “don’t be evil,” how can you not trust them? Especially when they offer free text messaging!

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Getting the Most Out of Apple TV: A Handy 930 How-To! (Part One of Three)

With all of the various options for starting/maintaining a home media server, the lowly Apple TV is widely disregarded by “power-nerds” as a viable (or particularly useful) home media solution.  I may not have the technical expertise, prowess, or, frankly, patience to create an amazing home-grown media server, like Edwin, but I am quite the Apple geek, I enjoy pre-fabricated gadgetry, and I have employee discounts to use.*

And no, you can’t have any.

What you can have, however, is a practical guide to getting the most out of Apple TV, which you can get for free, right here, on the Sector!  What a deal!

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Setting up POP3 for Google Apps from GMail

So, you’ve got a few secondary GMail accounts as part of the Google Apps suite and you want a way to consolidate your email under one account. Currently, there are only 2 ways to do this with GMail: forwarding and POP3. Forwarding is the easiest way to solve this problem, but requires you to log into each of your accounts and configure them so that they forward all their emails to your primary account. It’s not a bad solution, but what happens on the off chance you change your primary address. Well, you’d have to log back in and change all of the forwarding addresses. A much better way would be to configure your primary GMail address to periodically check each of the accounts and download any mail directly. This is where POP3 comes in.

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