About me

Picture

Hello, I'm theymos (Michael). I specialize in computer questions. I will usually not answer other types of questions.Over 2000 questions answered, for great justice. I am very experienced with Windows XP and Vista, I know enough about Linux to use it well, and I've never used a Mac in my life.

While I am not nearly as active on Advicenators as I once was, feel free to send me private questions or links to interesting public questions.

I currently dual-boot XP and Vista. I use Vista primarily, with XP for games. If your problem is particularly interesting, I am able to boot into XP or even install an operating system on a spare computer.

Feel free to contact me by IM (at right) rather than or in addition to asking me questions on Advicenators. With that method, I am able to better diagnose your problem, and I can also use a special tool to take control of your computer and fix the problem for you.

My computer is nearly always on, so be aware that when my IM status is "away", it could mean "away for 10+ hours".

Join CashCrate to make money on offers. I've made $30 already! Many offers(but not CashCrate itself) send loads of spam. Use a spamgourmet email to avoid it. A lot of offers don't require credit cards! Please use my link to sign up so I get the referral.

Here's my forum, where I keep some FAQs; I won't notice your posts on my forum for a long time. If you need something, email me.

Add me on myspace!

You might like my Free antivirus comparison, free browser comparison, and my free firewall comparison.

The picture at the top of my bio is from Ryan Terry's Portrait machine. It matches my layout well.

HTML is erased from my answers, click [view] to see it. Sometimes I use special characters like bullets and arrows, these will show here as strange letters, [view] to see the original.

----------------------------
Copyright, theymos.
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in any format with or without modification, are permitted provided that the above copyright notice, this paragraph and the following disclaimer are included with it.

This documentation is provided by theymos "as is" and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed. In no event shall theymos be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential damages (including, but not limited to, procurement of substitute goods or services; loss of use, data, or profits; or business interruption) however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict liability, or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of this documentation, even if advised of the possibility of such damage.
Question:
I am a victim of internet fraud and i want that website to be banned and to be shut down. to whom i will ask for help?
theymos's answer:
If you can prove that the fraud happened, you can complain to the people providing Internet service to the site. At least two different companies can shut the site down: their host and their domain registrar.

You can find out who is hosting the site here:
http://www.whoishostingthis.com/

Their domain registrar is among the information listed here:
http://whois.domaintools.com
Most of this information is supposed to be about the actual owner of the site, but this info can be easily faked. The company listed next to "registrar" or "registration service provider" is the one you want to complain to.

Additionally, both of those links above will list the site's "name servers". If these name servers are:
- Different from the fraud site itself
- Not one of the services above that you already complained to
Then you can complain to them, also. Just Google them to find their site or some contact information.

When contacting these companies, reference the parts of their terms of service and/or acceptable use policy (TOS/AUP) that the fraud website actually broke. These terms will be linked somewhere on the companies' sites. If the fraud site didn't break any part of the terms of service, then you shouldn't even bother complaining, since there is almost no chance that the companies will do anything in that case.

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Question:


Hello


I have firefox installed into my laptop but lately for the past week or so the browser hasn't been working. (I'm currently using another computer) So basically I can't use the internet at all I also can't go onto the internet to download a different browser. I have wireless connection however when I bought the laptop to my parents house whom have their own connection the browser still didn't work. I've already tried restoring the computer and I have virus protection on it and after 3 scans it said no viruses found.

Any suggestions?
theymos's answer:
You can run Internet Explorer by going to [start -> run] (or press WinKey+R) and typing this:
iexplore

If Internet Explorer is also broken, you can download another browser (Opera) like this:
- Go to "Run" (as I mentioned before).
- Run "cmd". A command prompt will open.
- Type these commands in sequence (press enter after each one):
ftp -A ftp.opera.com
cd pub/opera/win/1060/en
lcd C:\
binary
get Opera_1060_en_Setup.exe

The installer for Opera will then be downloaded to C:\. This might take a while, and FTP will *not* give you any sort of feedback until it's done downloading.

These types of problems are almost always caused by malware. Run these scans:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/index.html
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

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Question:
I was wondering if it is possible to get free downloads straight from somewhere for your iPod Nano without having to download all of these programs to convert or sign up and pay for downloads.
theymos's answer:
It's possible for a site to do that, but I don't know of any.

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Question:
hi there.

I have been unable to make a music CD with this software, because every time I move an MP3 into the bottom window, I get an error report saying that files of this type are not supported

In the ***\InfraRecorderPortable\App\InfraRecorder\Codecs folder I have installed the file irLame.irc which is 389,120 bytes, created 04 July 2010, 14:42:31 and modified 14 March 2007, 22:26:24, but this has made no difference. the MP3 file is fine (plays with all my software, and can be written to an audio CD with Nero happily)

Any advice would be gratefully received
theymos's answer:
That is a very old version. Try the newest version:
http://infrarecorder.org/?page_id=5

Did I hotlink to that version somewhere?

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Question:
hi, i dont have like any money so my plan for my best friends graduation is to a dvd of all the videos we have ever made and put them all into one or two discs, problem is, idk which program to use. Windows DVD maker takes three days to attempt to load a video, then says error, roxio burn doesnt work either. i was hoping someone could tell me of a FREE dvd burning program, thanks in advance :)
theymos's answer:
Use DVD Flick:
http://www.dvdflick.net/
If necessary, use Windows Movie Maker to join images and stuff into a video file.

If you don't need to play the DVD in a DVD player, just use ImgBurn in "write files/folders to disk" mode to burn the video file to disk. Because the compression that "playable" DVDs must use is terrible, you will be able to fit a lot more data on the disk if you do it this way.

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Question:
I have a laptop HP computer and it crashed yesterday. Well, not exactly crashed. There was a huge virus on it and so it restarted itself. My dad then bought a new virus protection program (our original was Norton Security); it works perfectly but it erased all the data on the computer. I had a lot of important documents and pictures from milestone trips with my friends and I'd hate to lose that one materialistic thing I can hold onto. So, do you know how to retrieve those lost files? Please, help!!! I think I'm going to cry T-T
theymos's answer:
Turn off your computer immediately and take it to someone who knows what they're doing. Some of the data might still be there, but using the computer increases that chance that it gets overwritten (which makes it irreparable).

GetDataBack is the best tool I know of for recovering data in this situation, but you can't run it on the same computer that you're recovering data from, so you need to find someone else who can help you.

Make sure you back up your data in the future.

[view]  


Question:
Hello, my username is ThirdQED. It has been about a year since I last visit this site. Anyhow, as I was fixing my profile layout, I run into a few problems:

-----
Problem #1: Long links breaks my column layout:
--IE doesn't support Overflow.

**Temporary Fix: Overflow replaced with word-wrap.

-----
Problem #2: Major web browsers' differences in calculating widths:
--IE calculate everything from margins to padding into the total of a property.
--Other major browsers calculate the width of div boxes by taking the width property value PLUS margins, padding and borders.

**Temporary Fix: Fixed by applying div within div.

Meaning I applied something like this example (sorry if the code fails to show up):

CSS:
.thrColFixHdr #upperbar {
font: 75% Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
float: right;
width: 760px;
background: ;
margin: 0px 0px 10px 5px;
color: ;
}
.thrColFixHdr #upperbarin {
padding: 15px 10px 15px 20px;
}


Apply:

About Me





-----
Of course both are just temporary fixes for now. Do you know of a better way to fix these problems? If you do, please do teach me. I've been trying to look for alternative fixes but not much luck :-( Also, the fixes don't have to be compatible with IE6 and FF2 or below. I am looking at anything that works with IE 7+, FF 3+, Safari 4+, and Chrome 4+.

Thanks in advanced, and my profile URL is http://www.advicenators.com/column.php?u=ThirdQED .
I wish all web browsers just use a standard rule :-)
theymos's answer:
Yeah, web development sucks. I now try to avoid it as much as possible since it frustrates me so much.

I used conditional comments on my column to fix IE's nonsense. You have to use non-standards-compliant "" tags, but the stuff that Advicenators adds gives you no hope of ever being compliant, anyway.

A disturbingly-high percentage of Advicenators users use IE6, so I'd try to support that if possible.

[view]  


Question:
Is it true that the next iPhone will have a data transfer limit of 2gb? If so, why?
theymos's answer:
**My understanding is that anyone whose contract expires in 2010 can upgrade to the iPhone 4 and keep unlimited, but you have to extend your contract by two years. You should contact AT&T for more accurate info.**

AT&T (the exclusive iPhone carrier in the US) has removed their unlimited data plan. 2GB is the highest-level plan you can get now, and this applies to all phones on AT&T. People who already have an unlimited plan can keep it, though.

Info from AT&T:
http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=30854

[view]  


Question:
so my laptop is always very slow, i never have more than 5 windows open at a time but even if i just have 1 open its just as slow, does anyone know how i can wipe my laptop clean, or just stop the slowness of it ?
theymos's answer:
Go to [Start -> Run] (or press WinKey+R). Run this:
msconfig

Go to the "startup" tab in the window that opens. Most programs that start with Windows are listed here. Uncheck as many of these entries as you can. You can't permanently break anything here. Restart when done.

If that doesn't significantly help your performance, take a look at the "processes" tab in Task Manager (ctrl+alt+del). If one process is using too many CPU and memory resources, Google its name, figure out what it is, and try to disable it. Contact me if you need help. Ignore "System Idle Process" in Task Manager.

Also:
- Run malware scans to make sure a virus/spyware isn't eating all your resources. I recommend MalwareBytes and Spybot.
- Defragment (Start->Accessories->system tools->disk defragmentor)
- Make sure you are using a modern browser: IE8, Firefox 3.6, Chrome, or Opera 10.

[view]  


Question:
Is their any websites or something that can help me with spanish? I know some spanish, but not very much. Or if you want to help me and you can speak fluently that would be great! If you want to do that just answer this question saying so and I'll comment you back with my e-mail adress! I do have friends that speak spanish and can help me with pronounciation, but they told me to go learn more spanish before they will help me. So, I am not worried about pronounciation at the moment. I do know how to sound the words and read and write in spanish so thats not a problem. If you want to help me then do as I said email me and I will email you back what I know.
theymos's answer:
http://www.livemocha.com/
(Everything important is free.)

[view]  


Question:
A few days ago I removed a virus I had on my computer. I don't know what I did, but a window popped up and I saw that my firewall was off? So I turned it on. Then the next day, I couldn't connect to AIM. and now I just realized that I can't connect to Yahoo, and Internet Explorer won't work either. :\ I have Vista, and the little weather gadget stopped working also. Everything worked fine before I tried to remove that virus. It's really frustrating me! Firefox still works though. I've tried adding the programs to the "exceptions" list in my firewall settings but it still won't work. I've tried restarting my computer too.... What's going on? Does this all have to do with Internet Explorer not working or something? I googled the Internet Explorer problem, and all I found were people saying to change the proxy/LAN settings or whatever, but I don't understand any of it. When I try to log into AIM, it says, "failed to connect to proxy server." I tried auto-configuring it but that didn't work. Yahoo says there's a problem with my internet connection, and my little weather gadget thing just says "service not available." And Internet Explorer just doesn't connect. :\
Can anyone help?
theymos's answer:
Go to [Start -> Run] (or press WinKey+R) and run this:
inetcpl.cpl

The Internet Properties window will open. Go to the "connections" tab and click the "LAN settings" button. In the window that opens, uncheck "Use a proxy server for your LAN". OK everything. It should now be fixed (a restart might be required).

[view]  


Question:
what happens when you click on cached link
theymos's answer:
Maybe this is what you're looking for:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/features_list.html#cached

[view]  


Question:
I recently bought a 250GB external hard drive to back up my new laptop I bought for college. It's an HP with Windows 7, 64-bit, if that matters.

What's a good program that will make it easy for me to back everything up to my drive? I'd like it to update things already on the drive whenever I back thigns up, for example if it backs up my music folder I just want it to add all my new files, not a copy of everything I already had.
theymos's answer:
I would use the built-in Robocopy command-line utility. Use something like this:
robocopy /MIR /R:2 /W:5 /XJ C:\Users F:\backup

This will copy everything in C:\Users to the F:\backup folder. It will also delete files in F:\backup that are not in C:\Users. Paths with spaces must be surrounded by quotes. Files are not re-copied if they already exist in the destination. Files that are in use when you run Robocopy will not be copied, so close all programs while you run it.

Most people only have valuable data in C:\Users, but if you have room in your external drive, you might also want to get "C:\program files" and "C:\ProgramData". Just run Robocopy several times with the different directories, or put the several Robocopy commands in a batch file.

If you prefer a graphical interface, SyncToy is very similar:
http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/synctoybeta.aspx

Put C:\Users on the left and F:\backup on the right (substitute your actual directories, of course). Deselect the "save overwritten files in the recycle bin" option.

You can use Cobian Backup if you want more advanced features like incremental backups:
http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

You MUST uncheck [Tools -> options -> engine -> include junction points]. Otherwise, some infinite-length paths will probably be copied, and they will be difficult to delete.

[view]  


Question:
Please help! I need to email some photos to a company who are requesting the images need to be a resolution of 72 dpi and be saved at an image size of 1024 x 768 pixels, less than 1MB per
image.

I have no idea how to do this and have no real editing software, only microsoft office and paint. I need to do this today and i would really appreciate any help!

thanks
xxxx
theymos's answer:
Use Irfanview:
http://www.irfanview.com/

Open the image in Irfanview. Go to [Image -> resize/resample]. Under "set new size", change the larger number to its target. For example, if the actual size was 4000x2000, change 4000 to 1024. Ensure that "preserve aspect ratio" is selected at the bottom (this makes the other number change automatically) and that the DPI is set to 72, and click "OK.

One of the dimensions is now exact, but the other one is probably not. The company probably doesn't require it to be exact, however. I would send it without adjusting it further.

You can make it exact by adding a border. This is done in [Image -> change canvas size]. If you modified the width, you will add a top/bottom border, and if you modified the height, you will add a left/right border. Get the correct border size by subtracting the target size by the inexact current size and dividing by two. For example, if your image is 1024x681, you need 87px of border (768-681), divided into 44px top and 43px bottom.

A better way of doing this if exact dimensions are required is to change the smaller number in "resize/resample" and then crop to the specified size.

This is difficult to explain in text, so I made you a video:
http://www.divshare.com/download/11347821-143
The crop method is shown first, followed by the border method.

Save by going to [File -> Save as]. Choose the "JPG" type with quality of 80% (in the small right window).

My contact info is on my column if you need help with this.

[view]  


Question:
I'm trying to fix a problem with a friend's computer and I'm a little stuck.

Whenever he closes Internet Explorer he is unable to click on the desktop. Both right and left click are affected. Everything works fine at first. Even after he opens Internet Explorer he can still interact with items on the desktop. The problem only seems to occur after he closes it, at which point the cursor turns into an hourglass like it's loading something. This lasts for about half a second, then the problem occurs. He can still get to the start menu. Only the desktop is affected. Internet Explorer seems to be the only program that causes this problem, other programs close without any problems.

He's running Windows 7 64 bit. Aside from that I don't know the system specs but I can get them if necessary.

I've left a virus scan running but I'm not sure that that's the problem. If it's not a virus then I'm not what it might be. Does anyone have any ideas?
theymos's answer:
If you open task manager (ctrl+alt+del) and end explorer.exe, the clicking problem will usually be fixed until it happens again.

It's probably caused by an add-on in IE. Run this (start -> run):
iexplore -extoff
If that fixes it, disable add-ons one by one in [tools -> manage add-ons] until the problem is fixed.

If it's not an add-on, you could try resetting IE in [tools -> internet options -> advanced (tab) -> reset].

[view]  


Question:
I have a webcam, and I don't want a video I just want to take a picture of myself to put on my profile.

how do you get a facebook picture on your webcam?
theymos's answer:
Webcam drivers usually support that feature, but you can also use this:
http://picanom.com/

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Question:
Dear Madam/Sir,

My both email account in hotmail has been hacked on Monday evening April 26, 2010.
My hotmail accounts are: (tapashbiswas@hotmail.com,tapas_delhi@hotmail.com)
I am using this email for so many years. So kindly retrieve my both accounts as I have so many official documents and academic papers in those accounts. I will be grateful for your kind help.
You can correspond with me in my Gmail account:tapash.jnu@gmail.com

With warm regards,

Tapash Biswas
Ph.D in Population Studies
India
tapash.jnu@gmail.com
theymos's answer:
http://windowslivehelp.com/solution.aspx?solutionid=6ea0c7b3-1473-4176-b03f-145b951dcb41

[view]  


Question:
import java.util.Scanner;
public class rectangle
{
public static void main (String[] args)
{
double int x1 = 0;
double int x2 = 0;
double int x3 = 0;
double int y1 = 0;
double int y2 = 0;
double int y3 = 0;



Scanner scan = new Scanner (System.in);

if( x1 != 0)
{
System.out.println ("enter x1: ");
x1 = scan.nextInt();
}

if(y1 != 0)
{
System.out.println ("enter y1: " );
y1 = scan.nextInt();
}

if(x2 != 0)
{
System.out.println ("enter x2: " );
x2 = scan.nextInt();
}

if(y2 != 0)
{
System.out.println ("enter y2: " );
y2 = scan.nextInt();
}

if(x3 != 0)
{
System.out.println ("enter x3: " );
x3 = scan.nextInt();
}

if(y3 != 0)
{
System.out.println ("enter y3: " );
y3 = scan.nextInt();
}

if (Distance3 > Distance 1 && Distance3 > Distance2);
{
Distance1= Math.sqrt(((x1 - x2) * (x1 - x2)) + ((y1 - y2) * (y1 - y2)));

Distance2= Math.sqrt(((x2 - x3) * (x2 - x3)) + ((y2 - y3) * (y2 - y3)));

Distance3= Math.sqrt(((x1 - x3) * (x1 - x3)) + ((y1 - y3) * (y1 - y3)));
Area = Distance1 * Distance2;


else
System.out.println ("This is anything, but a rectangle");

}
}
}


can you tell me whats wrong with this
theymos's answer:
Use "double" or "int", not "double int". Since "nextInt" presumably returns an int, you should probably use that.

You shouldn't end "if" statements with semicolons. Even without the semicolon, the distanceX variables need to be defined BEFORE the "if". And the "else" is supposed to be after the "if". Probably you want something like this (starting at line 53):

Distance1=...;
Distance2=...;
Distance3=...;
Area=...;
//You wrongly used "distance 1" instead of a variable name below.
if(distance3>distance1...)
{
System.out.println("This is a rectangle.");
}
else
{
System.out.println("This is not a rectangle.");
}

[view]  


Question:
What's a good, free program to convert FLAC files to mp3s that won't screw up my computer or give me viruses?
theymos's answer:
The best way is to use the standard command-line tools directly. Most graphical converters just deal with LAME and flac for you.

Decode the FLAC with the official tool:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/flac/files/flac-win/
Command-line:
flac -d -o out.wav input.flac

Then encode the WAV into MP3 with LAME:
http://www.rarewares.org/mp3-lame-bundle.php#lame-current
There are many command-line options, but this will give a good mix of size and quality:
lame -V2 --vbr-new input.wav out.mp3

[view]  


Question:
Ughh... I have mad adware! I use Firefox but the adware I have opens internet explorer constantly with pop ups everywhere. I have tried my deleting it with a program but it just wont go away what should I do?
theymos's answer:
Malwarebytes (free) can remove most malware.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

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