1. The data is stored in the windows registry. Navigate to:
2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\PersistentRoutes
3. Export this key and save the .reg file.
4. Copy this file over to the new computer.
5. Double-click on the .reg file on the new computer and it will enter the data into the registry.
6. Open up a command prompt and type “route print”, and you will see your persistent routes are all there.

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Then all you need to do is type start -> run and type “hosts.vbs” and it will fire up your windows hosts file inside notepad

Set Sh = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
On Error Resume Next
sOStype = Sh.RegRead(_
"HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ProductOptions\ProductType")
If Err.Number<>0 Then
Wscript.Echo " This doesn't appear to be an NT-like operating system;" _
& vbcrlf & "on Win9x use sysedit or msconfig."
Else
Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
dirConfPath = "%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\"
On Error Resume Next
Sh.Run "Notepad " & dirConfPath & "drivers\etc\hosts"
End If

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A computer in the Kitchen? Lets face it…for many of us the internet is now one of the basic food groups. We need some each and every day to stay healthy.

Finally made the plunge and put a PC in the kitchen. I liked the idea, but I don’t want it to look cluttered. Look at all the cords on the average desktop, stunning really.

A refurbished Dell came up with everything I wanted on it.

• 4 GB Ram
• TV Tuner Card
• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
• 64 bit Vista

I figured I saved about $200 by going refurbished, and with the 1 year warranty, I didn’t really have any worried about the refurbished status. Downside is you don’t get to pick exactly what you want on it, but I thought it was a fair trade off. Total shipped price for it was $571.33

Picked up a separate Dell 19″ wide screen for $100, and added a wireless keyboard and mouse and I was ready to roll.

So far I am happy with it, I find we are watching TV on it a lot, even though on the other side of the room  is a 42″ screen…but its more convenient to flip it on in the morning while in the kitchen. The media center features are very nice to have, we’ve never had any kind of DVR before, so it is quite fun to pause and record things. My kids think its amazing!

Please leave a comment if you have a PC in the kitchen, and how you use it and how you might keep your cords to a minimum.

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Here is what the batch file looks like:

defrag C:
regedit /e c:\regbackup.reg
shutdown -s

Save the file as myshutdown.cmd (or anything you want), save it somewhere on your drive, then you can make a shortcut to the file on the desktop.

Then right click on the new shortcut on your desktop and change the icon to look like the shutdown icon.

So now at the end of the day, activate your new shutdown command and it will  defrag your drive, create a registry backup and shutdown your computer.

If you can think of any other maintenance tasks to add to the shutdown script, leave a comment and maybe it can be added in to make the ultimate shutdown command.

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Another reason to get rid of you Acrobat Reader… SECURITY!

The Foxit Reader can be downloaded for free from Foxit Software

Also, in case you are wondering. Foxit reader will look similar to your old friend Adobe Reader, see the screen shot below.

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I think I even said out loud…wow Google is hacked! I had to look closer for a second, then I realized it was their Valentines day logo, but it looks a bit menancing to me…

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network setup before

I’ve been meaning to move around my basement “network” setup for sometime. All my equipment has just been sitting on a table in the back room. I used to actually sit at the table and work at the server, but I rarely ever need to be “on” the server. (love remote desktop!)

So finally changed it up. I think the new setup creates more space, makes for easier access, and probably a little better cooling too.

Setup: Cable comes into the house, and into the Linksys cable modem (a very old cable modem, running software 1.1.5 r2) . From there it goes into my Linksys N router. The router goes to a network printer (Brother HL-2070), and into my 2004 “Server”, which is a Dell Dimension 2400 Celeron 2.4 Ghz  (I just upgraded the RAM to 1GB from 512!). There is also a Fantom external USB drive connected to the server.

Another network cable goes up to the Kitchen PC. And the rest of the home feeds from the wireless signal, this includes 3 laptops, a Wii, and a Dell Axim.

network setup after

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You’ll get the Amish mantel for just $298, and the heater is FREE

Say again? Yes over and over during the infomercial they mention the free heaters. They say the offer is SO good, they are limiting it to 2 orders per family. Do people actually fall for this?

I love the video showing the Amish making the cabinets.

screen shot of video showing Amish hard at work

“…The wood is made from solid pieces including solid wood, plywood and poplar as well as solid trim components…”

Yes, it is a nice looking heater, but please don’t say over and over on the TV ad (which is different from the YouTube version above) that you are giving away free heaters!

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There are 2 options, export all orders with the status of “processing”, or export all orders for a certain date.

I am looking for a few people to test before I release, please contact me if this is something you would be interested in trying.

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I hate to use the cliche, but this is the video converter swiss army knife. I am truely amazed at how often I find myself opening up this program.  Any video converter has been able to convert everything I have thrown at it. Here are the conversions that it supports. Ten different types of media! Very impressive.

• DVD Video NTSC (mpg)
• DVD Video PAL (mpg)
• MPEG-I (mpg)
• MPED-II (mpg)
• Flash Video Movie (flv)
• Mobile Phone MPEG-4 (mp4)
• AVI Movie (avi)
• Windows Media WMV (wmv)
• MP4 Movie (mp4)
• Wave Audio (wav)

The most important one to me is the FLV conversion. Just about any video you wish to put on the web works great in FLV.  Or if you have an FLV and want to edit the file in Windows Movie Maker, just convert it to AVI, or WMV, bingo.

Look at the screen shot below to see all the options you have when converting. (this is the flash file options)

There is a free version and a paid version of the Any Video Converter software. So far the free version has been able to do everything I need without any problems. I would highly recommend this program for your video conversion needs.

Also did I mention that you can pull out video directly from You Tube? Yes, it will do that as well.

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Click on that and you will bring up the simple window. Here you can choose your address group, and it will extract them all into a nice format that can be copied to the clipboard, and used for whatever you wish. Perfect for exporting into an external email list tool, or newsletter software.

You can get the free Outlookemail extractor/exporter utility here.

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Your e-commerce shopping cart may come with a newsletter module, but chances it might get the job done. So what do you do if you want a little more out of it?

There are plenty of pay for email newsletters services out there, one of the better ones being Aweber. But of course this comes at a price. In the case of Aweber, it will cost you $19 a month for the service for up to 500 customers.

Many of us fall in between, not yet ready to commit to the monthly charge, but still wanting an easy, and reliable way to get out a newsletter.

In comes phplist to save the day. This free script is loaded with features. It was very easy to install, it took me about 30 minutes of playing around with the program. I set up a few small test lists with a handful of personal email addresses (yahoo, gmail, etc…), and soon I had a good feel for the program.

I would certainly recommend you make sure that you fully understand the program, because sending out a newsletter to hundreds of customers in NOT something to be taken lightly. While it won’t make your business, it could break your business. Again, I would not import you live list until you are pretty sure you know what you are doing in the program.

phplist is a very flexible program. You can create your own questions associated with a newsletter signup, and it can all be done from the web-based interface. (this part took me the longest to figure out, but I was glad I could remove the “sample” questions).

Once I was ready I imported my emails from my shopping cart, (during the import be sure you mark your users as confirmed, as you may end up having a confirmation email go out to all your already confirmed users.), you can also mark all your imported users as “html” users. Meaning they prefer to receive HTML based newsletters.

Once all my users were imported, you simply go to “send a message”, enter your message, set a few options and off it goes.

Now, since I am using the list just to import, setup and send. I will be flushing and reloading my user list each time. There isn’t an obvious way to do this in the program, but it can be easily done following these steps I found in the forum.

Go to your lists and ‘view members’
At the bottom of the page it says:
‘What to do with all users
This will process all users on this list
Delete (from this list)’
Do that.
Do that for all your lists.
Now all the users in the database are not connected to any list.

Now go to:
Manage users
Reconcile Users
‘delete all users who are not subscribed to any list’
and they will all be removed.

from http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=43905#43905

I will admit it took me a little while to fully understand the program, but don’t give up, after just a little while you will find that it is a pretty simple, yet flexible program to use. phplist has many more features than those I’ve touched here, that is only because I already had my list, and I only need to import emails. phplist can be a beginning to end email marketing solution, and will actually manage your list for you.  phplist also has fantastic online documentation.

Not bad for a free program!

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You just want to see a calendar, and clicking on the time in the tray is cumbersome, and there is the possibility you may accidentally change your system date and time. So here is a free windows calendar app that could not be more simple and easy. A 16k file, that just opens up a calendar.

Download Windows Calendar

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You want to specify which one is used to surf the internet.

Here is how you do it on Windows.

It’s comes down to an “Interface Metric”.

First, right click on the network card/item that you wish to use for the internet. In this case it is the “wireless network connection 2″

Here I left click once on the connection to select it, then right click to get the dialog box below. Choose properties.

Then scroll down until you see Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), select it (make it blue), then click on the Properties button.

Then you will see the screen below, click on the Advanced button.

On the bottom of the next screen as shown below, you will uncheck the Automatic Metric check box and place a 1 in the metric box.

Now your first Network Card is setup with a Metric of 1. Repeat the exact same process with your other network card, except give it an Interface Metric of 2.

That should do it, now when you surf the internet you should see the IP of the network card with a interface metric of 1. (visit here to see your IP). And all your other network activities should work as normal.

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We all hear a lot about fuel cells on the news, but what exactly is a fuel cell? Simply, a fuel cell is a device that takes stored chemical energy and converts it into electrical energy. A fuel cell is an electrochemical conversion device. It is a kind of a device that produces electricity from the fuel that acts as the anode and is the positive part in a cell and it is an oxidant that acts as a cathode, which is the negative part in a cell. Now, the oxidizer and fuel react in the presence of an electrolyte, which acts as the medium. Now, a reactant flows into the cell reagents and products flow out, and electrolyte remain within the cell.

The principle on which the fuel cell works is the principle of catalysis. According to this principle, the reagent fuel is separated into two components electrons and protons, electrons are forced to go through a path that is pre-specified and, hence, the electrons are converted into electricity. Today, the catalyst that is used in this reaction of fuel and oxidizer used is generally composed of a metal of the platinum group or alloy. There is now another catalytic process in which electrons are taken and these electrons combine with the protons and oxidants which ultimately develop waste products. These wastes are simple compounds such as water and carbon dioxide.

There is a classic hydrogen-oxygen design of fuel cells which is also known as proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) design. A proton-conducting polymer membrane (electrolyte), separates the anode and cathode sides.

At the anode, there is a diffusion of hydrogen to diffuse the anode and catalyst later; it dissociates itself into protons and electrons. The protons are conducted through the membrane to the cathode; on the other hand, the electrons are forced to move in an external circuit (energy supply) because there is an electrically insulating membrane. At the cathode catalyst there are oxygen molecules that react with electrons. These electrons are those who have traveled through the external circuit and protons to form water – for example, waste products that are generated, are either liquid or steam.

Other than the type of pure hydrogen, hydrocarbons for fuel cells can also be used. These are fuels such as diesel or methanol and chemical hydrides can also be used as fuel in fuel cells. The waste produced in these types of fuel is carbon dioxide and water.

There are many combinations of fuel cells, because there are many possible combinations of fuels and oxidants. To name a few we have “a metal hydride fuel cell”. The electrolyte used in this fuel cell is an alkaline aqueous solution such as potassium hydroxide. Then there is a merger of carbonate fuel cell. The electrolyte used in this cell is alkaline, molten carbonate, such as sodium bicarbonate.

There is a difference in behavior of fuel cells. It is due to the electrochemical batteries in use for some reasons. The first reason is that fuel cells consume reagents and it is necessary to rebuild these reagents from time to time. The second reason is that the electrodes of fuel cells are a catalyst and it is therefore relatively more stable than the electrochemical batteries.

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