Sending messages to people I didn't add to the To list in Facebook

I've done that twice already -.-"

Sending messages to a few people so I though, but ended up being many more people.

The reason as i found afterward was that I've been sending to friends lists because I was giving them names that are mistakable as a person's name.

I fixed this problem by renaming all my friends lists to have "***# (name of list)" that way I can't accidentally send something to a list of friends when I only wanted a send to a specific person who happened to have the same starting letter as the list name.

e.g. sending a message to Friends instead of Francine.

the other advantage of renaming lists to have ***# is that if you ever want to find a list but can't remember what names you gave them just press * and it will show up all the people starting with * which should only be lists unless you have befriended people who names who start with * (rare cases)

GetCurrentImage failed, hr = 8000ffff

GetCurrentImage failed, hr = 8000ffff

Your getting this error because you are trying to save a image or a snapshot of a video in Media Player Classic (MPC), or at least I would presume, if not your reading the wrong post, lol.

You just need to tweak some settings to make it work:

1. Open up MPC
2. View > Options > Output (under Playback heading)
3. Change all the settings so the Radio button selected does not have a * next to it. * means that save as image will not work if you use that setting.
4. If you are viewing a RMVB file then you can get away with just adjusting the settings under RealMedia Video.
5. Close MPC and then open video and try saving (Important to close MPC before saving, if you're on the scene you want to save as image, it won't work as it's already rendered in the previous settings.

Hope this helps!

How to find out what mobile network your friend is on

1. Ask them duh!

3. EDIT - Refer to Edit below

2. This question has surfaced the Internet before due to mobile carriers providing free sms or calls to numbers on the same carrier, sometimes you want to know for things like Plumbers, contractors, sellers (from poster ads and notice boards etc.) for whom you don't want to ask because it makes you look stingy and cheap, LOL

The Internet reads that with new mobile numbers it is impossible to tell which provider because numbers are no longer allocated to providers specifically. I am sure there are other methods to find out the provider of a mobile phone but I thought of a method to do it by using another service (not designed to tell you what provider the mobile number belongs to but works to do just that if you know how to)

SOLUTION:

1. Go to http://www.web2msg.com/
2. Make sure you go to the web page when all the allocated SMS to all the providers are "currently unavailable", to check this look under the "Current Status" box in the top right side of the web page. You should see all yellow crossed boxes
   
3. Now fill in the form on the website and send an SMS to number you want to send to
4. All providers are unavailable and you will get a message saying that the message was not sent because all the allocated SMS quota to provider XYZABCDEFG Pty. Ltd. are exhausted.
5. That's how you determine the provider, or one of the ways, or the only way I've come up with so far without asking the person (which is sometimes not possible without calling them first).

EXCEPTION:

1. If the providers are not all unavailable your message will actually be sent, so try avoid doing this, the SMS sent will be from Web2msg's number and will be considered as spam if you send it. The quota is reset every 12 hours so if you try at the right time, or analyse the website you'll know what time the quota is always exhausted, I will post some AEST times that I have found them to be most dead.

EDIT: (More reliable as method 2. has issues with carriers using other carrier networks and numbers being transferred to new carrier?)

Just found a better, simpler way to do it, good ol Google work.

http://www.smsfun.com.au/mobile_lookup.php

Shows the previous and current provider/carrier, which can be a bit confusing but;

Current provider: provider currently with (free txt or calls goes with them)

Previous provider: the previous carrier of that number (number change over?)

* A limitation of this 3rd method is that you can check up to ~3 numebrs a day without needing to make an account with the website (who has more than 3 numebrs to check anyway?)

MSN/WLM: Flash Player Required error on start up

"To send or receive Windows Live Messenger content, you need a newer version of Adobe Flash Player. Once adobe Flash Player has been installed, you may need to exit and restart Windows Live Messenger.

To download and install the most recent version of Adobe Flash Player, click install"


SOLUTION: Feel free to post your solutions, mine is still not fixed.

SOLVED: (Special thanks to ParadoX)

ParadoX said...

Hi,

Had the same problem. Go to C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash and launch NPSWF32_FlashUtil.exe. That's it, restart MSN, the problem is gone :)

Cheers,
ParadoX

GEC LIVING now with SCREENSHOTS

Hi all!

I don't know why I am an IT student and never thought of this before but I realised I have no screenshots of the errors. I shall add them in up coming future posts as most errors described here are "local" errors or errors I am dealing with personally. I don't think I will add step-by-step pictures for the solution part though because I think my steps are easier and faster to read and follow than to click multiple pictures and guess what's happening.

Best of luck,
Patrick G Leong (Blog admin)

Mass Storage Controller Driver missing (Windows 7)

(Toshiba laptop) device manager: no drivers found for "Mass storage controller"

What it most likely is, is the SD or all-in-one card reader on your laptop. For my model, I installed the Texas-Instrument drivers. Your laptop may be different, search the laptop CD for the drivers or laptop manufacturer's website.


SOLVED

Performance Information and Tools

The Windows Experience Index for your system could not be computed.

Could not measure storage performance.
the temporary file needed to perform work could not be placed on the disk. Could not find a suitable drive for the file.

SOLUTION: tb found

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproperf/thread/466f9a99-d148-492a-8903-32c010726fa2

^ suggests that the drive letter could be the problem, chances are likely because I also have windows 7 installed on a drive with the letter B: as par the website the link leads to.

I will try to change the letter of the drive to avoid re-installing Windows 7. Will post back if it is not as risky as I am thinking right now. WEI isn't that important anyways.

Unlimited MSN/WLM nudges (Without MSN Plus)

You can use MSN plus but if you only wanted unlimited nudges every now and then, MSN Plus might be an eyesore and extra resource usage on your computer as your not using its other capabilities.

You can use a WLM alternative like emesene that has nudge plugins that do not follow the nudge limit design. They can sometimes not work though.

My discovery is if you open up your WLM window and then open the contact's window, nudge contact hit ESC click the contact again you can nudge again. It seems nudge limits are reset upon closing the chat window.

Lightweight PDF Viewer (SumatraPDF)

I got copped with a 33MB update file from Adobe Reader and that's what tipped me off to get a better PDF viewer.

SumatraPDF is my new replacement:

• At first the lacking of interface buttons compared to Adobe does put you off but then when you use it for a while you realise that you never used those buttons on Adobe anyways.
  

Goods:

• Small download file
• Opens very quickly
• Does the job
• Has the option (on by default) to remember where you last read the PDF up to, very good idea and tool if your reading Uni lecture notes or a big e-book, you'll want to not have to use bookmarks or remember page numbers. This alone is a great competitive advantage. Adobe may have had this feature, I am not sure but my Adobe certainly didn't remember pages upon closing.

DOWNLOAD: http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/index.html

Windows 7 "no connection error" - ALT + TAB not work

I am calling it the No connection error because I figured the error was caused by Windows Explorer having a box pop up above the system clock that says No Connection.

This box, being not very visible will cause your ALT-TAB to not work at all, Minimise and Maximise not work well and windows being inactive when they pop up (e.g. MSN) and cause you to type not into the chat window.

To fix it just click on the power icon, Wi-Fi icon and try to close that box that shows No connection.

Here are things that won't fix it that I have tried:

-locking computer, unlocking
-restarting explorer and then launching it again from task manager
-logging off and back on

Very strange and ANNOYING error/problem with windows 7 >=( especially as it's run pretty nicely over the weeks.

Cool and FREE WMP Visualisations From Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/visualizations.aspx#Top

A page of pretty cool visualisations, My Favorite is: Energy Bliss