Consumed Consumer . org

After my RAID-0 has recently failed catastrophically, the time has come to set up another pair of HDDs in my DNS-323. I figured a step-by-step howto on what I've done would not be useful only for me if I had to do it again, but to any other owner of this extremely popular unit. This is a rather long article, as it contains several smaller articles, but it is hopefully complete and suitable for a reinstall, cuz that’s the way I roll.

One of the most annoying "features" in Windows is the "Compressed Folders" feature, where Zip files are displayed as folders. While this may be nice for some, most users accumulate a large number of zip files in a folder, making it unviewable in Windows Explorer. We look at how to get rid of it.

There was a time when having a “media center” involved building an HTPC, which was a difficult project to undertake, wrought with frustrations and hardware/software incompatibilities. OTA HDTV came along and many felt left behind just when they had gotten things working. Some experimented with Popcorn while others played with NZBs/NNTP/Usenet downloads. After all these years, one media interface has emerged dominant: XBMC / Boxi / Kodi.

After discussing options in choosing a cheap, low-end, learning VPS , we take a look here at how to set it up for secure use, for when you get a so much for so little, you want to make sure it’s only yours!

I have recently unearthed a computer I haven't touched in a while and together with it the problems that frustrated me initially. Not only that the problems did not go away, but now the computer seems to suffer abandonment issues. This is a multiboot machine and it seems that the CD-ROM / DVD burner is identified by all OSs but it is unusable in only one of them. I'm showing you how to fix this problem.

In response to numerous requests, we are publishing a no non-sense guide to backing up your encrypted or unencrypted DVD with the use of high-quality, ad/spyware-free gratis programs on Windows XP (it might work on Vista as well).

Over the years, I tried many hardware solutions to bring “convergence” to the PC desktop, but I found most implementations to be flawed one way or another. The new contender from Silicon Dust seems to be the perfect solution.

I recently noticed this question asked and started to wonder myself. Having had to make subtitles for one of my foreign language movies, I was surprised to learn that there is a vibrant community of people making subtitles out of scratch for movies they trade online.

One of the most annoying "features" of windows is undoubtedly the zip folder feature - for those of us who prefer to use a full featured archiver program.

Maybe you have run into your current webhost limitations or you discovered that running your own server is cheaper than whatever piecemeal services a dedicated provider might sell you. Or maybe you want to run a service that is either not offered or too expensive for your requirements. Or you consider a VPS an essential part of a mobile lifestyle. Either way, we shall quickly review how to accomplish that.

After a few attempts which ended in failure, I managed to format my 2 x 2TB 4k Western Digital drives . Now that it’s done, it seems incredibly simple. It is also “sticky”, meaning it does not need to be performed on each reboot (DUH!).

For a long time I’ve been toying with the idea of running a TOR relay for my own privacy reasons and to give back to the community as well. Though my router and NAS (and possibly even my WD Live box) have enough chutzpah to run it, I prefer to use a very old computer instead for reasons of separation (security). For a while, I even considered buying a Raspberry Pi or some other similar cheap gizmo, then I remember I have a bunch of old computers I've never used..

We recently needed an older computer and discovered we had forgotten a login password. Our development server for designing and testing a website will most likely reside on an older laptop running in dual boot with Windows XP SP 3 and Backtrack Linux 5.

I recently had to play a bit with a new installation of Ubuntu and again, old unnerving ghosts came back to haunt me. Since these ghosts have a habit of tormenting indiscriminately, I am sharing my solutions with you.

Although I have purchased my WRT-610n router (pretty much the same as the newer E3000 ) many months ago, only recently was I forced to install the Linux firmware on it – mostly due to lack of time and procrastinating. This is primarily due to some issues with my Internet connectivity, which I am hoping could be solved with a better router.

When working on the CLI (command line interface) or, as it is widely known, "the prompt", most people prefer to set certain shortcuts as typing the same thing over and over is not something anyone enjoys. In Linux, such shortcuts are called aliases. This is a continuation from choosing and then setting up your first VPS .

Blogger has come a long way since its humble beginnings. Quite a few improvements have been introduced –first in draft- since Google took over, but the pressure to innovate has been diluted partially through the rising profile of the Wordpress self-hosted platform, where most serious bloggers reside. Yet lately, Blogger has been giving signs that some improvements may be coming. We are looking at the latest and best tips we could find for this platform:

BcS is the target of numerous demands and criticism. As no major overhaul is in the books, numerous hacks have mushroomed to respond to its users’ desires. We’ll be looking at: A. Embedding the comment form, B. Numbering comments, C. Show Author Photo in Comments, D. Highlight owner’s comments, E. Recent comments, F. Top commentators, G. Add Reactions

Now that we recovered passwords and we're in, it's time to do a little clean up of this older Win XP / BT5r1 box.

A while back (2006, most likely), I purchased several D-link Vonage locked ATAs, with the intention to try VOIP. They were cheap ($9.99) and figured that if I find that I do not like Vonage, I will unlock them somehow and use them with another provider. Though I have decided that I do not like Vonage, I was unable to unlock and abandoned the project. Now that I have a working VOIP setup, I decided to give unlocking one more try .