Notification Icons in Vista's System Task bar are gone (Fix)

You have tried to:

1. Right-Click on bottom bar
2. Properties > Notification Icons
3. BUT couldn't re-check them because they were greyed out?

Then try this link, it has nicely detailed instructions BUT they are recommended for advanced users only because they require editing of the registry, although if your a novice and are looking at becoming an IT student like I, then don't worry about what I said, back up all your important data and have a plat around and see how badly you can screw up Vista, its a good way to learn, and Oh, please don't sue, if you played and lost. :)

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/fix-for-when-clock-volume-power-or-network-icons-are-missing-and-grayed-out-in-windows-vista/

Problems with playing games on Facebook

Many Facebook games allow you to compare and compete against your Facebook friends. Most reward you with extra life, weapons etc. in the game if you can get enough friends or team-mates in the game by having your friends play this game too.

Now this is not a major issues, until or unless you or your children starts to add strangers just for the incentives in the game. By adding a stranger you will allow them access to all the personal information on your Facebook, including other contact details such as e-mails and MSN addresses which can be a danger for your kids against Internet paedophiles and other malicious people on the Internet.

When I was a kid, the Internet and gaming magazines was the place for cheats, but I am not too sure, kids these days might be smart enough to work out that adding lots of random as friends can help them.

So the main thing to remember is to educate kids about the dangers of the Internet and adding randoms as friends but not to scare them off too much, as the Internet can be a good play for entertainment and education. Dependent on how old they are you should probably check up on them every now and then, maybe convertly or overtly but in a nice friendly manner like asking them how do you play this game? wow you got a nice high score and dress it up a bit.

Toshiba Laptop Speakers Drop Out (Going Mono)

Toshiba Laptop Speakers Drop Out. the only solution I can see for fixing this so far is turning up the volume from the volume wheel and then decreasing the volume from the media player or whatever your using.

anyone else have a more permanent fix?

Unzipping the file turns into a fodler or more zip/rar files.

You have these files right:

Gec Living.part1.rar
Gec Living.part2.rar
Gec Living.part3.rar
etc.

you unzip/unrar it and you get this:

Gec Living 001.zip
Gec Living 002.zip
Gec Living 003.zip
Gec Living 004.zip
Gec Living 00*.zip
...... etc.

But there is no .exe or any dos programs to compile or uncompress all the zip files. What you should do now is select all the Gec Living 00X.zip files and then extract all the contents of each zip file into the same folder, do not use the option to unzip all the zip files into separate folders, dividing/splitting the contents of all the zip files will make it hard to combine all the files together.

I use IZArc, here are the steps:

Select one of the 3 files, and then extract (for example):

Gec Living.part1.rar
Gec Living.part2.rar
Gec Living.part3.rar

Now, select all and extract here (for example):

Gec Living 001.zip
Gec Living 002.zip
Gec Living 003.zip
Gec Living 004.zip
Gec Living 00*.zip
...... etc.

You should now have your files. this is an example though so it might not work for all cases but this is just one known way that people use to compress files.

Other simpler cases might be as easy as unzipping the 3 parts of the rar file, and then running an .exe or dos command program to uncompress the Gec Living 00X.zip files and re-create the desired contents of the rar file.

Making free mobile calls from your mobile

Is that possible? to make a phone call or even video call from your mobile phone for free?
Yes it is, is it going to become wide spread? well it depends on how telecommunication companies decide to restrict things, if you can make calls for free what do they feed off?

Its called VOIP (voy-p) or Voice Over Internet Protocol. You can only make free calls over VOIP if:

1. Your mobile phone supports Wi-fi as that is how VOIP works, over the Internet
   
2. Your local WI-FI connection is free, such as at Mcdonalds.
3. Your recipient has similar phone and set up, or you call their computer instead of their phone
   
   

This post is not intended to explain everything for you but rather introduce a new concept so you can go and research it yourself. Commenting with new or more information is always welcomed.

First research phones with built-it WI-FI, then the software to use in order to do this, and lastly if the places you visit often have free WI-FI, if you have to pay for access you'll most likely find that its $2 an hour but if you do the maths its still cheaper than making a call through the mobile network (Provided you are not on a capped plan)*

The most important thing to research is to see if you have the WI-Fi set up but your friends and family use the mobile network, if there is a charge from the software to send your WI-FI data to the mobile network to go to your recipient.

Looking at MSN chat only, it is currently possible for you to use your mobile to chat using a free WI-FI hotspot. Chatting is possible from your mobile to another WI-FI enabled mobile phone and also to computers running MSN.
Please keep in mind that these WI-FI enabled mobiles are usually in the high end range of your mobile phones. you may want to weight the cost of calls to a more expensive mobile phone.


* Statements are generalisations and information may not be correct as they can vary from country to country according to their telecommunication infrastructure, cost and competition between network carriers etc.

If you have FaceBook anyone can see your display picture

You think as long as you have your privacy settings set high and not accept random people as friends on Facebook you will be fine and no one can see your picture albums.

This is true, but everyone can see your display picture on Facebook or sometimes known as the Facebook picture. To find yourself (very easy to find if you have an uncommon name, flick a few more pages if you have a common name)

Google images: "[your full name] @ Facebook" and hit enter. Wall lar!

[your full name] = your full name (without brackets)

So is Facebook safe?

If do love and need that feature, it it is possible to use a picture maybe taken in a public location, or a cartoon filtered picture of you, if you are not too sceptic on privacy or would risk it for the beauty and convenience of your Facebook.

Firefox 3.5.2 can't save image as

I recently updated Mozilla Firefox to the latest version and noticed that I can't save images no more, for starters the Right-click Save Image As option was missing and when I got it sometimes, it didn't actually do anything or show any save as dialogue.

I did some Googling but did not find anyone having the same problem so I figured it must be me then and I disabled some add-ons as some of them are not compatible and some I don't use any more, so I un-installed some too.

I restarted and it seems to work a treat so maybe you can try disabling some add-ons and see if it will fix your problem if you are having a similar case to mine. i think because mozilla firefox has so amny add-ons and variatiosn possible much like PC based desktops its hard for Mozilla to test and debug all errors for users who have installed all different pieces of code (add-ons).

So for today Mozilla can still be > IE in my books.

P.S. My suspicions was my problem was caused by the "Hide Unvisited" add-on maybe Firefox has soemthing that does what it does? not too sure haven't looked into it but I have noticed that Firefox will integrate some popular add-on features in its upgrades.