Iconsoft, PhonEx dialer and contct management makes your windows mobile device operate as easy as the iPhone. Check it out at www.iconsoft.com

Now dialing is easy fast and completely done by hand, no stylus needed.

jk (Mobile Tech Expert) posted 9/2/2005 | Comments (917)
One of the failings of iTunes is the inability to copy music files from the iPod to your iTunes library without third party utilities. I suspect Apple did this by design to keep we iTunes customers from copying our DRMed music. I recently rebuilt my Tablet PC and wanted to copy my 18 GB of music residing on my iPod over to the Tablet so my library would be filled again. A gotcha lurks when you install iTunes and your iPod onto a new computer because iTunes is set by default to replace your iPod library with the desktop library the first time they are partnered. Of course since your iTunes library is empty it promptly wipes out your precious music on the iPod leaving you with no library anywhere. Ouch. There is a simple way to prevent this and also copy your iPod library to the desktop without any third party software.

iTunes won’t let you configure the iPod to prevent the auto-syncing until AFTER the iPod is connected to iTunes. It is imperative you do not partner the two libraries when asked by iTunes, tell it no so the auto-sync doesn’t wipe your iPod clean leaving you a blubbering idiot in the process. Once the iPod is connected and set to operate as a hard disk on your PC exit iTunes. Go to the iTunes directory on the Windows machine (My Music/ iTunes by default) and delete the XML file and the ITL file which is the library database installed when you hooked up the iPod.

With those files deleted the iTunes library is now empty as it should be for this process. Navigate over to the iPod in My Computer and make sure you set the folder options to show hidden files. Find the hidden folder called iPod Control and even though it’s filled with many files with nonsensical names this is in fact the music library on the iPod. Copy that folder to anywhere on the PC which will take a while if you have a lot of songs. When this copy is complete open iTunes and in the Files menu tell iTunes to Add a Folder and select the iPod Control folder you just copied over. You could actually do this straight from the iPod without copying them all over but I was nervous something might happen to the library on the iPod so I copied them first.

Before you do the Add a Folder mentioned above make sure iTunes is set to manage your library and to copy files when adding to iTunes. This is important to get iTunes to organize the songs using the ID3 tags in the song files you just copied over. That’s it- you have all your iPod songs now properly copied to the desktop and nicely organized and in the iTunes database. Note that when you first connect the iPod to the computer after you set iTunes to auto-sync it will wipe the iPod clean and sync the new iTunes library back to the iPod. It seems like a silly step but since the two libraries are the same anyway it doesn’t hurt anything, it just takes time. It is necessary to make sure the databases are identical. Once it’s done you can delete the iPod Control folder you copied on the desktop since iTunes has copied the songs into it’s own directory tree.

Users must be careful to read the agreements when surfing around Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. Many of the polls and games and things that require you to intall something, also install a toolbar or other item that can, after a while, start to slow your computer considerably. If you decide to install anything from these sites it is sometimes wise to remove any additional items installed once you are finished with the poll or game.

Now, for all you Google Calendar users, you can have all you appointments sent to your Blackberry, Pocket PC, iPhone or almost any other PDA Phone.  This service is free and is easy to set up.

 If you currently use Outlook, you can upload your data to Google and then sync it wirelessly to your device.  For those of you with ACT or Outlook, you can make this upload happen automatically with the addition of a very inexpensive piece of software.

 This useful tool has always been available for a monthly fee but, now with Google, it can be accomplished for free.  There are still limitations to what Google offers but, for the small, one person office, it is a fantastic solution.  As little as 2 years ago, the only way to offer this solution meant  deploying an exchange server and administering the whole thing.  The cost of such an endeavor was far out of the reach of most small businesses.

 If this is something that sounds of interest to your business, contact FAST for a free consultation to see what solutions are available to your business.

Well, I’m sure that you have all heard and read about the terrible virus that was going to infect millions of PC based computers.  While the virus is exceptionally tricky, a properly “patched” computer is relatively safe.  Proper patching comes from installing windows updates when your computer prompts you to do so.

This virus originated somewhere in the Ukraine and came about in October of 2008.  Symantec was the first to raise red flags about it and Microsoft released the patch soon afterward.  The virus attempts to exploit a file sharing process in all Windows 200, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Server 2003 computers.  If the ptch has been applied, it can attempt to gain access by forcing passwords but this method has a much smaller risk.

If you machine gets infected, simply turn of you system restore, download and run the latest malicious software removal tool from Microsoft and then apply the patch from Microsoft to prevent future intrusions by the virus.  In its basic form, Conflicker is more of a Malware than it is a virus.  It usually prevents your computer from getting Windows Updates and Virus Updates.  If left unattended, it can attempt to install a more dangerous variant which is believed to read passwords and transmit back to malicious parties.

If you are experiencing problems with this virus, contact Fast.

I saw the ad on TV for the Windows Live Photo Gallery last night.  Decided to download it and give it a try.  The photo stitch part of the program is pretty cool.  I don’t like how it organizes pictures as my photos are all organized into folders and it wants to organize by dates and things like that.  I can see it will be a nice addition to my photo software.  Here’s where to get it:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8897EE16-0ECB-46A5-8918-E26D84B91214&displaylang=en

These are the latest ways attackers have found to infect your computer.  You will browse to a site and a window will pop up and look as though it is scanning the files on your computer.  It will then tell you that your computer is infected with any number of viruses and to click a button to remove these infections.  Once you click the button, it installs itself on your computer.  After that point, any number of things can happen.  Your desktop my be replaced by a logo, your browser may be hijacked and only go to a certain page, certain settings on your computer may be grayed out and not available for selection and, most of all, there is no uninstall for the malware program that has been installed on your computer.  The software will tell you that, for $49.99 you can purchase the full version that will remove the false viruses and will also offer an uninstaller.  This is not true.  Once you purchase the activation code and use it, it will install even more malware on your PC.  Also, since you initiated the install, your anti-virus program does not recognize it as a threat.

There is a solution.  If you see the pop-up regarding either of these malwares, use your device manager to shut down your browser by hitting the Ctrl, Alt, Del keys simultaneously.  If you find yourself infected with the malware, most PC tech’s will tell you to reformat your hard drive, reinstall all your apps and then use your most recent back-up to solve the problem.  This is the hard way.  There is a manual removal method that works great and saves hours of work.

If you find yourself infected with the Anti Virus 360 or Anti Virus 2009 bug, give Fast a call and we will take care of the problem FAST.