ten mov.es

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how to do technology in ten moves. (or less.) A Loose Wire production

January 20, 2012 • 5:41 pm 0

Fixing a Mac Typing Lag

    My MacBook Air 2010, running OSX Lion, has been very sluggish of late, with typing in a new window often lagging by a second or so. I’ve had plenty of other problems with the unit too, but I think I’ve fixed the lag through a process suggested here:

    • Shut down your computer.

    • Hold the Option key while turning it on (hold the Option key down for a little longer than the power key.)

    • From the top options, select Recovery HD.

    • Select Disk Utility.

    • Select your hard drive.

    • You can try all the repair and verify options, but the one that seemed to be the problem for me (and the author of the solution) was Repair Disk Permissions. It found a number of issues.

    • Once it’s finished—assuming it’s found and repaired something—restart your computer.

    Thanks xraydoug.

    Filed under: medium , , , , ,

    September 4, 2011 • 10:35 am 1

    Disabling Skype Home Window

    Skype is a dog’s dinner of an app and has been for a while, and I feel slightly guilty I may have contributed to the rot when I suggested that Skype was a social network, not a telephone service.

    But one of the most annoying features of the software for Windows users is the ridiculous Skype Home popup window that can’t be disabled when running in compact view. There are workarounds but they’re ugly.

    Thanks to a guy called Andrew Worcester it is not possible to kill Skype Home through a small system tray app he’s written called, logically enough, Kill Skype Home, or KSH for short.

    It does exactly what it’s supposed to:

    Download the app.

    Install it.

    You’ll see a little circle in the system tray.

    Right click on it and select "Start with Windows" (assuming you want the app to run automatically on startup.

    Restart Windows.

    Check Skype Home doesn’t appear.

    Make donation to Andrew for his excellent work.

    Filed under: easy , , ,

    February 5, 2011 • 11:59 am 0

    Freeing up Space on Your Android Phone

    Android phones may be great but they’re not kind to anyone wanting to install more than a few apps or more than a hundred or so contacts. Here are some tips to freeing up space.

    Install DiskUsage to see what’s taking up most space (or go to Settings/Applications/Manage applications/Running and then Menu/Sort by size)

    Install App 2 SD to move any app that will work off your phone’s memory to the SD card.

    If contacts seem to be taking up the bulk of your space, try the following:

    • Go to Settings/Applications/Manage applications/Running
    • Open Contacts Storage
    • Clear data
    • Go to Contacts/Menu/Display options/Choose contacts to display
    • Select only those groups to sync that you need on your phone (go to google.com/contacts on your PC to manage your groups. It’s easier)

    To keep an eye on how much memory and SD card space you have, install Mini Info

    Filed under: medium , , ,

    May 31, 2010 • 8:43 am 0

    Can’t Access Gmail

    If you have problems logging in to Gmail, don’t panic. You might get a message in your browser saying something like “Gmail timed out” even when you’re able to access other pages (and ping your Gmail account via GoogleTalk, for example.) You may find you get this error even in different browsers, indicating it’s not a cache error.

    The best way to resolve this is to try rebooting. That fixed it for me, and it should for you.

    Filed under: easy , ,

    April 11, 2010 • 7:37 pm 1

    Recover Delicious Bookmarks in Firefox Sidebar

    The Delicious extension for Firefox makes it hugely useful as a place to store stuff. But in recent months I’ve found that the sidebar is not updating itself to reflect bookmarks I’m adding through the add bookmark widget—even though they’re updating on the website. (If you follow me.)

    In other words: If you don’t see new bookmarks in your delicious Firefox sidebar, then you may want to try the below.

    Anyway, I couldn’t find anything useful explaining how to do this, so here we go.

    Close Firefox.

    Go to the Firefox profile directory.

    That’s going to be:
    Windows Vista/Seven: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\
    WinXP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\
    Mac OS: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default/
    http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Profiles

    Rename ybookmarks.sqlite file to something like ybookmarks.old.

    Restart Firefox.

    Close the delicious sidebar if it’s open.

    Reopen it. You should see your bookmarks appear, and, eventually, all your tags.

    Filed under: medium , , , ,

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