I recently did an upgrade of a server which involved upgrading the existing HP Smart Array controller card and hard drives.  We have an HP ML350G5 server that was using an E200i integrated smart array controller and 4 5.4k SATA drives in a RAID 5 array (I know, 5.4k drives…   it was actually a misconfigured order from HP).  At any rate, I upgrade to an P400 controller with 512MB of Battery Backed Write Cache (BBWC) and 7 15k SAS drives.

We did a full backup of the system using Acronis True Image server, upgrade the hardware, rebuilt the array and restored the backup (again using Acronis).  One option I noticed during the restore was the option to create a new disk signature or extract the existing signature from the backup file.  The default is to create a new disk signature, so we went with that a performed the restore.  An hour and a half later, the restore finished and everything looked good.  Everything except the Microsoft Office applications.  They for some reason wanted to reinstall and activate.  I let it run for about 10 minutes while it looked like it was trying to install, but it was hanging so we killed the process and looked around for some articles on what the issue might be. (more…)

Take a moment and imagine a world without computers, a world without applications. Its hard isn’t it? In today’s day and age it has become impossible to get certain things done without the help of a computer. And of course computer alone can’t do much if there aren’t proper application to assist you in what you are doing.

Web applications have come and gone. Some have stayed on top for years and have provided utmost value to the users and some have been dumped after their first use.

Today we bring you 29 Web Applications that are intended for students, businesses and webmasters. In this post you will find 29 web apps altogether divided in 3 groups – Students, Businesses and Webmasters. Under each link you will find a brief excerpt from their about us page which will give you a better idea as to how they might help you achieve what you are trying to do.

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If you are the IT manager for a small or medium sized business, school or non-profit (or even just a parent trying to keep your children from coming across inappropriate content), chances are you’ve toiled with cost effective ways to make your network more secure while increasing your users’s browsing speed and reliability.

You’ve also more than likely searched for a way to do all this while blocking access to various categories of websites (i.e. pornography, video streaming, etc) without having to constantly monitor, update and tweak.

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If you’re like me, you’ve been using Firefox for awhile, and you love when a new version comes out.  At the same time however, you’re dreading it because you know there’s a good chance some of your favorite plug-ins won’t work (at least not right away).

As an example, I use a Firefox extension “Signature” all the time for posting repetitive things like signatures, but also sometimes for complete responses to frequently asked questions.  I might have 3 or 4 paragraphs of text saved that I could easily drop in with this plug-in.

Unfortunately, the signature plug-in isn’t compatible with version 3.0 of Firefox (as of this writing).  Does this mean you just have to do without?  Well if it did, there wouldn’t be much need to right this article now would there? 

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Lots of websites collect personal information – some are just more obvious when doing it.

There are those sites that ask for personal information up front before granting the user access. Often, site visitors are asked for their name and e-mail address before gaining access. The Internet is a public place, so how anonymous are you? When you visit any web page, you leave traces of where you’ve been. Worse, if you share a computer, someone can see what you’ve been up to online in just a few clicks.

But there is a way to maintain your privacy through erasing the digital footprints that remain after you close your browser.

What’s important? When you want to cover your online tracks, consider removing the following: browser histories, cookies, cache files, AutoComplete information, e-mail trash, and log files created by chat programs and your internet connection. You can delete these items yourself, or install a program to do it for you.

Here are the 8 best ways to cover your online tracks:

1. Remove Most Recently Used (MRU) list

Most programs keep an MRU list showing the last used items. The most recently opened documents list is one of the ones you might be interested in, as it shows the last documents you’ve opened. You can remove or clear the list in one of several ways.

In Windows XP, you can right-click on the Start Menu, choose Properties > Start Menu > Customize > Advanced > Clear List. You can then uncheck “List my most recently opened documents” to prevent it from keeping a list in the future. Another method would be to manually remove it from the registry. Any time you tweak the registry, you run the risk of damaging your system so do so at your own risk.

If you want to remove the MRU from the registry, the key is found at HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer and then remove the key for “Recent Docs”. Again, back up your registry before you make any changes, there is always the risk of damage to your system.

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Overwhelmed and disorganized? Are you fumbling through your day, buried under a mountain of sticky notes and scribbled reminders? It seems like there’s too many tasks and not enough time to get it all done.

As we all try to get to the Four Hour Work Week, we’re always running to catch up on responsibilities and squeeze in that little bit extra to stay ahead of the game.

Everyone is looking for the perfect solution in self-organization. A key ingredient to getting it all done is to maximize and use your time efficiently, allowing you to maximize your productivity.

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No program is a substitute for parental supervision, but some monitoring tools help you control where your children go online.

It’s great to have a tool that complements your shrewd set of eyes, but you still need to teach your children to be cautious when surfing the internet.

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Whether it’s tools in mapping, security, DVD burning etc. we are always on the lookout for the latest and greatest features out there. Below are what we felt made the top of the list in 15 different software categories.

1. Tops in parental control

The new version of the web filtering program, Net Nanny, is great for parents who want to monitor their children’s activities but aren’t very technically savvy.

Its filters allow you to block material on the Web and manage what parents want their children to see. Parents can also get a monthly list of inappropriate websites and edit block lists so they’re always in control of what their children can and cannot see.

A white list can also be created so that only the websites on the list can be visited or viewed. Keyword lists can be created to filter out vulgar or inappropriate terms on web pages and on emails.

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Anti-virus programs are pretty much an essential component of every Windows PC these days. 

Unless you logged out of Prodigy and went to sleep for the last 20 years, you are more than likely aware of just how prevalent, and how dangerous computer viruses can be.  On the low end they can be annoying either flashing a silly message or slowing your computer down.  On the high side, they could completely destroy your system and its data, or open holes for identity thieves and hackers.

Surfing online without an updated anti-virus  program is like crossing the Grand Canyon on a tight rope.  It’s not a matter of if you’re going to run into to trouble, it’s a matter of when.

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Elephantware. That’s what download.com calls them: programs that, like tanks, pull you down with the undertow and slow your PC to a crawl, causing it to freeze up while you’re in mid-sentence.

You don’t want them, you don’t need them, and you can get rid of them and replace them with friendlier less bulky counterparts. So what are they?

Here’s a list of the top five most annoying elephantware programs:

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