ChrisTheFeral.com

I personally didn’t follow Michael Jackson, didn’t really have an opinion, I know that he made great music though and I know how the media portrayed him over recent times. I have to agree with this song.

Waazzaa!?

Alright, I finally have decided on what I want to do with my YouTube channels and websites, so here’s what you’ll see over the next few weeks – months:

ChrisTheFeral – vlog, random comedy, rants etc videos
ChrisTheFeral.com will be dedicated to my youtube channel’s

Tutorial youtube channel (which will not be named yet) will contain all of my tutorials along with it’s website

Tech youtube channel (which will not be named yet) will contain reviews, unboxings and more, along with it’s website.

“The Mother Site” (which has yet to be nammed) will contain a one database that all of my websites and services run off, so you only have to register once

Finally, I’ll be moving my blog and everything about me to a new website, which I registered a while back but won’t tell you, muhaha!

Eventually I’ll be moving AussieFeral (old time readers would remember that site) to a new site with a redesign and AussieFeral.com will redirect to the new site.

Anyway, that’s all I’m saying at the moment – I honestly don’t know if I will be able to do it in the time frame that I want to do it in, but we’ll see how it goes!

Well, wasn’t really sure what to title this other than it’s an update, so meh.

Not sure if I ever blogged about it or not, can’t remember (kinda got bored with the whole “blogging” idea) but I am doing a course in school that allows me to work one day a week (though I work two) and then go to school 3 other days a week plus one day I go to TAFE, which happens to be a night, allowing me to work a second day a week. Anyway, I want to keep my options open for the future so I’m going to be quitting my job unfortunately, which means no Mac Pro now, lol.

So, I’m switching back to “mainstream” which is 5 days a week at school, plus I keep my TAFE course in Multimedia, which is good. I’m going to be doing four electives now, which include Science because I really want to get into Physics, also Commerce (business) and Psychology. I also chose a second maths class which sucks but I need it to keep my options open, hopefully I get a good teacher.

I won’t be working any more so this will hopefully allow me to work on my websites again because I’ve found that it drains a bit from me when I do work as well as my own website projects at home. Also, thinking of redoing my YouTube channel again – got some awesome videos coming up (hopefully).

Probably within the next 14 days, I’m going to be getting pieces of pine cut up and going to build my own desk, probably grab a few mates over and might make a video of it – I’m also hoping to wire some LEDs into it.

Think that’s about it, so until I can be bothered updating again, ciao for now!

OH, by the way, my current blog is really un-organised and I was wondering if I should archive and start fresh, whadda all you 2 you readers think?

Okay, don’t lie, if you’re reading this you’re probably a geek and one of the geekiest things a good geek can do is press a keyboard combination to do an action rather than using their mouse. Why? Because it’s a LOT faster to hit a couple of keys than it is to use your mouse! Plus, if you’re chatting to a client, it looks very professional when things are moving around the screen without the need for a mouse. The people who do this already are called “Power Users” and today I’m going to tell you all the new “windows key” key combinations, and some old ones, in the upcoming release of Windows 7! Check back soon for “control key” shortcuts and more!

Never fear, if you are a visual geek, I’ve attached my video tutorial below, but for those who prefer reading, let’s get stuck into it!

Opening the First 10 Taskbar Apps

So as you have probably realised, Windows 7 features a new “taskbar” now icon based rather than text/icon (though you can easily revert this.) Well, here is a cool little time saver, simply hold down the “windows key” and tap “1” to open up your first application from the left, press “2” to open up the second application from the left. All the way up to 9, which will obviously open up the ninth application from the left. Hitting “0” will open up the tenth.

Now, say that you already had application “1” already open, hitting the windows + 1 combination will take you to that applications window, if you are already focused, it will minimize/maximize the widow. However, if you have more than one window open for this application, hold down the “windows key” and tap the respective number, in this case “1” to cycle through which window you want to select. Again, there is a video attached at the bottom.

That’s all great but I can hear you saying, how do I open up a NEW instance of this application in my taskbar? Well, hold the windows AND shift keys then tap on the respective number. Pretty nice shortcut, eh?

Cool Miscellaneous Combinations

So there are four different combinations that I thought I’d pop in here, all REALLY handy shortcuts that even a basic user should be aware of.

The first one is Flip3D, you all know this one. Hold the “windows key” and tap “TAB” to cycle through your windows graphically. Alt + TAB FTW!

Something that you may not know is that Windows 7 introduces a NEW magnification tool. Just hold the “windows key” and tap “+” to open up the magnification application (tongue twister much?). From here you can hold the “windows key” and tap “+” and “-“ to zoom in and out. Keep in mind that you’ll want Aero enabled; otherwise this will work just like the older versions, in split screen.

The following keyboard shortcut has to be one of the BEST ones made. Ever. Hold down the “windows key” and tap on the “HOME” key, it will minimise all your other windows except for the one that’s in focus. INGENIOUS!

Finally, if you’re ever on the phone to tech support and they need to know your basic system specs or what OS you’re running, just hold the “windows key” and tap PAUSE (or PAUSE/BREAK) and it will open up your “System” window.

Generic Alpha-shortcuts

Holding down the “windows key” and hitting a letter may actually speed up your use! Keep in mind that I’m holding the “Windows key” while taping these letters.

-Tapping E will open up an Explorer window (it will open a new instance every time).
-Tapping R will bring up the Run command.
-Tapping T will take you to your taskbar, from here you can use the arrow keys to select an icon in your task bar. If you select an application that’s open, simply press up and then continue to use the left and right arrow keys to cycle through the open windows.
- Tapping Y will bring Yahoo Messenger to the foreground (if installed AND running).
-Tapping U will bring up the “Ease of Access” window.
-Tapping P will bring up your multiple display settings panel, from there you can use the arrows keys and enter to select an option.
- Tapping D will take you to your desktop.
- Tapping will eventually start hurting your fingers. No, seriously, try tapping w-i-l while holding the windows key, it’s difficult!
- Tapping F will bring up your “Find” or “Search” window.
- Tapping G will bring your “Gadgets” to the foreground.
- Tapping L will lock the current user account out, requiring the user to type in a password to unlock.
- Tapping B will take you down town next to the clock where you can select the icons in your tray and also access the hidden ones.
- Tapping M will minimise all windows.

So those are all of the “windows key” keyboard shortcuts that I could find simply by experimenting around with the keyboard. I’m going to be posting more articles on keyboard shortcuts soon. Hope you enjoyed key-stroking, I know I did

Feel free to leave a comment and if you know another shortcut related to the “windows key”, I’ll edit this post and give you a shout out. Because knowledge is power and we are power users.

Want to learn more about Windows 7? Check out these two playlists on my YouTube channel!
Quick Tips – Windows 7
Power User Series

Well, Sanoem is almost complete!

Sanoem is my first ever custom build PC, I made up the name because “san” means “without” or “no” and “oem” means “OEM” which stands for “Original Equipment Manufacturer” for example HP, Dell, Apple, Alienware, Asus… So in other words, “no HP”.

I thought it was an apt name because, as much as I hate to admit it, my Dragon (the laptop I won) has caused me nothing but problems, from the issues with Vista to Adobe. ALL just happen to have problems on my Dragon but not my custom build. I’ve finally decided that I won’t be buying another OEM machine when it comes to Windows, Apple’s are okay because the OS is made for their hardware and they don’t come with bloatware installed (worth the extra couple of hundred in my opinion.)

Anyway, I’ll be posting some pics soon and maybe doing some hardware tutorials etc, it’s a pretty sweet system, I’d say rendering is around 70% faster on this one for a few reasons.

1) I have the scratch disks setup correctly, so boom, right there, 2x increase in speed.
2) Discs are 7200rpm, not 5400rpm (although they are 3.5 inch not 2.5 inch, still an increase in speed)
3) Ram is faster, weighing in at 1066mhz vs 800mhz (BIG increase)
4) Tri-core processor, DESKTOP grade, not laptop grade. However, in terms of frequency, it’s around 820mhz faster, though, it really depends on a lot of things other than frequency.
5)9600GTX 512mb on Sanoem VS 8800M GT 512MB.

It’s also running Win7 RC1 – EPIC WIN! I LOVE Windows 7, Microsoft are really trying their best, the proof is in the product.

So, I’m back. From hiatus I suppose. Whatever..

Point is, I’m back and I’ll be fixing up the blog soon, ignore the last posts, they were simply April fools jokes, might fill you all in soon!

Hope to write a blog in a few days!

About the title – I thought sounding narcissistic would give you a laugh, it obviously failed – unlike I, Chris ever done wit englush…

The following occurred on the 24th on March 2009. Click here to read my favourite tweets – they include the tweets posted on that night.

Alright, so I come home with my brand new $186 Logitech keyboard and mouse (using them now to type, SOOO NICE!) and I thought I’d do a video for the tubes, which is what I call YouTube. Anyway, I come home, have to wait an anxious 20 minutes during dinner to unbox this keyboard and mouse.

I finally get to my computer, my Dragon – the one that I won. I decided that now that I have those two 1TB HDD’s in my custom build, I should backup tonight so I can send my Dragon into repair tomorrow – if you’ve been following my twitter updates past the last weeks, you will have seen me tweet along the lines of “I have a bad feeling that my HDD on my Dragon is going to die, I need to get those HDD’s ASAP so I can backup” – tonight was the night that I was going to backup!

I open the computer, it’s lagging like heck as usual – think it’s a windows thing, not sure if it’s HP or M$. Anyway, I turn it off, turn it back on and I’m greeted with this lovely message “Your computer was incorrectly shut down, would you like to start in safe mode?” – or something along those lines – we’ve all seen it before. Anywho, I just selected “Start Normally” waited about 3-4 minutes, nothing was happening (no seriously, that wasn’t just Vistas slow speed, it WASN’T BOOTING!)

I restarted again and this time was greeted with only two options. Launch Startup Repair Utility (or something along those lines) or Start Windows Normally. No, the idiots didn’t put in a freaking “SAFE MODE” option. Seriously, what kind of idiots don’t allow you to boot in safe mode when you’re having troubles. WHAT THE FARK!

I choose to start normally, hopefully it works this time. Four minutes pass, my HDD light isn’t blinking. Nothing is going on. I restart again, this time getting worried that something bad had happened. I get the same message. I chose to launch the repair utility as I’m obviously not going to get anywhere starting normally (why no safe mode? GAH!)

Then…. I remember…. weeks ago, I installed Windows 7, accidentally overwriting the HP recovery partition on the Vista drive. OHHHH CRAP!!!!
Why is it that companies like HP give you a partition for you to create your own backup DVD? Well great, I’ve got no backup and I can’t launch the repair utility. Thanks a bunch HP – I know, I was told to make the DVD, but why should I customer have to do this stuff. SERIOUSLY, it’s not the users responsibility to do this, what a crappy user-experience.

Anyway… I turn on my custom build, running Windows 7 beta (yuck.) “Laadeedaa.. booting.. aahh crap, I didn’t plugin my mouse and keyboard” were the thoughts going through my head. Why is it such a big deal? Well, for some odd reason, my copy of Windows 7 beta crashes when I insert/remove a usb device. I turn off the computer, plugin the mouse and keyboard and boot it up again.

Yay! The keyboards numlock key lit up. AAAHH CRAP! It doesn’t work! For some odd reason, the keyboard and mouse wouldn’t do anything on the computer, nor would pressing numlock turn on/off the light indicating whether numlock is turned on or off.

Okay, I thought, hmm, maybe the drivers are set to a certain USB array. I move the mouse and keyboard to the back USB ports and boot again. Woohoo! They’re working!

I login to windows 7, yay. So far so good. Then I remembered. The other night, I was installing Gears of War and there is this bug with it. If your date is set past the 27th of January 2009, the game doesn’t load. I remember, I had set my time to an old date. Crap.

Windows 7 prompts me to activate, it says it has expired. What struck me as REALLY odd is that it gave me the option NOT to activate – what the FARK! Oh well, good for me.

So, I’m logged in, yay.. AHHH CRAP! BLUE SCREEN OF DEATTHHHH!

Okay, that’s it, I need a moments break. I take my mums phone off the charger so that I could use twitter and tweet about this, I turn on the phone and… the screen fades to black. THE PHONE CRASHED – WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!!!! Hmph, this happens occasionally, I turned it back on and got it working, by which time Win7 had restarted itself.

Finally I’m in and I record the unboxing (having a lot of troubles getting my webcam software installed.)

So… why do I rock?

Well. I thought about it, and I wondered. Remember how I installed Win7 on the SAME HDD as Vista, accidentally overwriting my recovery partition? Well, I decided to boot Windows 7 and shut it down properly, to see if that would trick my computer into thinking it had been shut down correctly and whaddaya know, it DID!

So, after that, I booted into Vista and tweeted about it. Funny hey? Even though, if I HAD had the recovery partition, it woulda been solved a lot earlier, I was still impressed by what I had discovered.

I did this in reply to David, thecreativeone’s video about Microsoft’s latest advertising campaign, trying to show people that macs are overpriced.

David’s video can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuMA4EUmObo

What do you think, macs are overpriced or just too expensive. What about the prices in your local area?

A recent video I uploaded to youtube! You can respond in the comments section answering the 40 questions if you like.

1.Which do you enjoy more, music or video?
2.What size and resolution screen is best for your needs and why? (eg, 1920 x 1200, 24 inch)
3.What size TV screen do you prefer? (in inches)
4.When listening to music, do you like a lot of bass, a little more bass, more treble, a lot of treble or about even.
5.When listening to music from a device that has speakers and an audio jack, do you worry that your headphones will come loose of the jack and start playing the music on the speakers?
6.What is most important to you? In order from most to least: functionality, design, thinnest profile, battery life, interface, quality of features/functions, ease of use, interaction (eg, touch screen)
7.What is your CURRENT screen resolution AND size?
8.Can you see the pixels on your current screen?
9.If you can see the pixels, does it annoy you, or do you use them to measure things in applications for graphic design etc?
10.If a screen had the BLACKEST blacks and the WHITEST whites, would you STILL want a glossy overlay to make it look slick?
11.Did you realise that glare in the screen causes strain on your eyes?
12.If you said you do want a glossy display, do you still now that you know that glare causes eye strain?
13.What do YOU THINK is a reasonable price for the BEST 50 inch TV on the market?
14.Is syncing all your devices extremely important to you, or do you take devices such as iPods & memory cards and use them to carry your content?
15.Which do you prefer? Easy to understand, but requires more steps OR less steps but may be confusing if you are new to the operation you are trying to do?
16.On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being REALLY HATE, do you hate cords?
17.How much more would you pay to get a COMPLETELY wireless device vs a wired one?
18.If you were considering buying a product and you knew a new version is coming out in X amount of months, how many months would you hold off?
19.Do you prefer bonuses for becoming a new member of a group or bonuses for STAYING with that group?
20.What do you prefer, getting black bars at the bottom and top of a video or the left and the right?
21.Do you prefer Blu-ray or HD downloads?
22.If you download a movie, do you prefer to rent or buy the movie?
23.What are the 5 most annoying things that you find with technology with the current products out? (dont say something like it always evolves, something specific to a device out now.)
24.What are your favourite 5 things about technology with the current products out?
25.How big is your music library? MB/GB/TB
26.How big is your movie/video library? MB/GB/TB
27.How big is your photo and other libraries? MB/GB/TB
28.Do you hate it when you have related files, such as music, spread across hard drives?
29.What do you prefer for fast typing, touch screen or a physical keyboard?
30.Would you sacrifice a physical keyboard in return for a thinner device?
31.What is your favourite device out now and why?
32.What is your least favourite device out now and why?
33.What is your favourite software out now and why?
34.What is your least favourite software out now and why?
35.Why do you use the operating system you use right now?
36.Are you against stealing software and why?
37.Do you know what mpeg-7 is and does?
38.Do you like having two bars on your OS, eg one at the bottom and one at the top that do two different things?
39.Curved monitor, single flat monitor or multiple flat monitor set up?
40.Have you gone over 10 minutes yet?

Sorry folks, there won’t be many updates for a while – I’m simply too busy.