Software

MS Access 2007 Compact and Repair Database

January 9, 2009, by No comments yet

I’ve recently been cleaning out the log files of one of my old sites which are stored in an access database which was touching on the 150mb mark. As I’ve recently upgraded to MS Office 2007 (Thanks Work!) I’ve been scratching my head to find where the Compact and Repair option is in the new ribbon interface… Well I’ve finally found it.

Compact and Repair is now located under Office (Big round button top left) > Manage > Compact and Repair.

WARNING! – It’s temperamental and randomly deletes your database – so save as a backup before you do this (It’s a known bug by all accounts but very annoying).

Hope that helps you if you’re stuck with MS Access 2007!

L8R, Mark.

Help Firefox Break Records with Download Day

May 29, 2008, by No comments yet

We all know that Internet Explorer is the devils own child and without a doubt one of the worst web browsers on the planet. So lets bring some additional publicity to FireFox, a champion of easy to use, feature-full, secure and fast web browser by joining in on Download Day.

Download Day is a campaign where you pledge to download the new version of FireFox (Version 3) later in June this year and on that day, you visit the site and by downloading the app, you become one of the many people to propel FireFox into the record books as software the most downloads in one day.

Learn more

Firefox 3 Beta 4 First Look

March 12, 2008, by No comments yet

The new Beta of Firefox 3 is out and new in this revision is a cool UI re-design.

beta1 300x231 Firefox 3 Beta 4 First Look

Post Install Home Page for Firefox 3 Beta 4

The re-design in full. Click to enlarge.

beta2 300x225 Firefox 3 Beta 4 First Look

Firefox 3 Beta 4 Download Panel

New downloads window

beta3 300x225 Firefox 3 Beta 4 First Look

Firefox 3 Beta 4 Plugin Panel

New plugins window

beta4 300x225 Firefox 3 Beta 4 First Look

Firefox 3 Beta 4 Bookmarks Modal Window

New bookmark dialogue

beta5 300x225 Firefox 3 Beta 4 First Look

Firefox 3 Beta 4 Bookmarks Admin UI

New bookmarks management window

beta61 300x231 Firefox 3 Beta 4 First Look

Firefox 3 Beta 4 Text Maginfication

Zooming now operates like IE’s and not just font scaling (not sure if this is beneficial?)

beta7 300x225 Firefox 3 Beta 4 First Look

Firefox 3 Beta 4 Superbar

When you type in URL’s it comes up with suggestions automatically.

beta8 300x225 Firefox 3 Beta 4 First Look

Firefox 3 Beta 4 Text Issues

Weird font discrepancies on some websites :(

Windows Vista Sp1 Beta – Broken My PC

December 21, 2007, by No comments yet

So I thought ‘why not install the new SP for Windows Vista… It says you should uninstall it to install the legitimate release so whats the harm?’
Quite a lot, as it turns out.

  • I can no longer surf in Firefox, IE or Safari (tho Opera works?)
  • I cant get email using Thunderbird
  • I cant FTP
  • I cant uninstall it!
  • System restore hasnt worked either
  • I can still use IRC
  • I can still use Trillian

I’m not impressed. If anyone knows how to fix this then PLEASE email markrush@gmail.com and let me know! I’m gonna give it until Boxing Day and then try and find my windows restore disks that came from Dell!

Firefox 3 Beta First Look

November 20, 2007, by No comments yet

Just spied on Digg that there’s a new official version of Firefox out (Firefox 3 Beta).

Get Firefox 3 Beta

Here are a few of my first impressions and some issues I’ve found.

The tab scrolling is nice and smooth with some acceleration

When you open multiple tabs in Firefox 2.x you could quickly jump to loaded tabs. This feature seems a little slow in Firefox 3 Beta.

Sites like Brainfuel.tv render in some weird hieroglyph? Don’t quite know what’s going on there – I’ve noticed it on several websites now.

The contents of some pop-up windows is not displayed.

Firefox 3 hates FCK editor (what I’m currently editing in) and doesn’t show the karat :(

Bookmarks management looks great and is intuitive, but adding a bookmark reveals a clunky dialogue.

No inline spell checking

So whats my verdict? Have a play but don’t kill Firefox 2.x just yet.

Safari for Windows not Working? Try This

June 12, 2007, by 1 comment

OK now I’ve been surfing the forums and have found the following snippets which may help sort some of the issues with Safari beta 3.

Firstly make sure youve installed the Apple fonts.

Next navigate to program files / safari and rename the safari.resources folder i.e. "safari.resourcesx"…

Start Safari (it wont work).

Rename the safari.resourcesx back to its original state.

Go into the safari.resources folder and rename/delete the 2 font files to something else.

Now run Safari.

Windows Safari Browser

June 11, 2007, by No comments yet

Now this has to be some of the best news ive heard in a long time… not the new apple.com website… but the mac only web browser, Safari on Windows… I’m downloading it now and will update this article with my findings…

Oh and heres where to get Safari For Windows

Safari on Windows: Installation (Vista)

Just click I accept, next…next… etc

Asked me about something called bonjour… as a safari n00b I said yes to everything!

…now got a nice desktop icon (Note to self: must remember to add this to my Quicklaunch toolbar)

Safari for Windows: Interface

Well its minimal to say the least… no title bar as I can see and some weirdness in the presentation of the site (lots of missing images)… I might need to reset or something.

…right reset and no it still doesn’t work… roll on the next beta (I’ll try it on my XP machine at work tomorrow and post an update.

Internet Security: Browzar – the portable web browser that secures your privacy

September 1, 2006, by No comments yet

There’s (yet another) web browser in town, this time, instead of being feature packed, it has most popular features stripped out of it. Why? Because its main function is to allow you to surf the net when you’re out and about without leaving tracks on the host computer. So theres no cookies, no history, no auto fill, no… well pretty much anything apart from bare bones web surfing.

So whats the use?

Well, for a starter, its portable, contained in one small downloadable file that leaves more than enough space on your USB Pen-drive for whatever, and because its portable, it doesn’t need installing, meaning it can be run straight from the pen-drive (or whatever).

It also means that whilst your over at work/mums/girlfriends house/cybercafe you can quickly check your private email, log into your online bank or whatever else without leaving data on the computer.

What it doesn’t do is hide your tracks online, so if you’re up to no good, then the authoraties can still trace back to you.

If you’re interested download it for free, its spyware free and all the other usual assurances from browzar.com

AOL’s Free Anti-Virus Software

August 8, 2006, by No comments yet

Everyone likes it when you get something for nothing. Well AOL (man I cant believe it I’m actually praising AOL for something) is giving away a free anti virus software backed by well known software provider Kaspersky.

It is said to update its self every hour which means that the chances of you obtaining a new virus and it not being found until you next do a thorough scan have been massively reduced (see my other post about buying the illusion of security).

Download it from the AOL website

UPDATE!

This free anti virus software solution has been independently rated as being one of the best in the market see tech.cybernetnews.com

Anti-Virus Software – Buying the Illusion of Security

July 3, 2006, by No comments yet

Do you own a virus killer? Has it ever let you down? Chances are that both are true so if you’ve bought some anti virus software, why do you still get viruses? The answer is that the anti virus software is always out of date with new viruses popping into existence continually… so if you’re not buying virus protection what are you buying? The answer is simple: The illusion of security. It is true that if you dont have virus protection then you run the risk of getting older viruses, but is it really worth the £40 because you’re going to have to scan and remove new viruses anyway!

My advice is simple, don’t use Internet Explorer, Outlook or Outlook Express because they make it easy for viruses to install themselves on your PC, instead get the free software Firefox (Browser) and Thunderbird (Email) which don’t have the gaping security holes found in Microsofts software. Then, on a weekly basis, drop into Safe Mode and scan your PC with Sysclean (having first downloaded the latest definitions) – by doing this you’re being proactive in defence against viruses, instead of having purchased software idling away on your PC letting in new viruses and spyware with no action.