First of all, you have to prepare your new background. Crop your image to 1:1 to your screen resolution. The catch is you should save your image not to be larger than 256kB. You might think it turns to crap one, but believe me that’s good enough =)

After getting an image you want, rename it to “backgroundDefault.jpg”. Then copy to the folder

%windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds

in case it doesn’t exist, create your own.

Secondly, enable the background in Registry, by getting into “regedit”

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background

Create new key DWORD 32-bit, value 1 (1 as enable, 0 as disable) Also, if any of these doesn’t exist, create your own =)

That is it!, you may lock the computer and appreciate your personal login screen. Make your PC personal again!! lol

Also, it has a lot of interesting wallpapers which, of course, are nice. It’s like looking through Flickr with rotating desktop wallpaper, a feature which Microsoft eventually get after Apple has for many years

Check it out @ Personalized Gallery

As far as I remembered, Hotmail was such a bloated webmail fully loaded with ads, esp. on the top—around 100px height. That is about 15% waste in vertical space. Now, they are gone—and of course, it has changed to as right column instead which is much better considering new screen is wider and wider.Not only eliminating ad at the most disturbing place, but also add supporting for POP3 server for free as well. FYI, it will work with your hotmail, live and msn account too.

POP3 server: pop3.live.com:995 (SSL)
Username: Your Live ID
Password: That’s the one only you know
SMTP server: smtp.live.com:25 (SSL)
Authentication required: Yes

Nevertheless, Hotmail always provides such a nice alternative for e-mail client anyway and today it’s Windows Live Mail—using HTTP to fetch all stuffs in a secret way. It works flawlessly if you ask me. Is there anyone care about standard {protocol bla bla bla} if what they use work?

I, myself, prefer to use off-line e-mail client any day with any e-mail, but sometimes without my own computer, webmail is required. Thus, with this update, I see myself accessing more ‘used to be abandoned’ Hotmail account more often I guess.

Again, few days ago I got an unauthorized transaction from Square Enix, playonline.com, as shown below.

I never heard of this merchant before, so I dag for more info a bit. As a result, it was game online website. Some of kids in there probably needed $$ so badly since I’m not the only one who had the issue #1 #2 (same day & amount as mine too!), and a lot more. Thus they have to find the illegal way to satisfy their need. I honestly have no clue how my info was leak yet, but at least, this should be a good warn for everyone—check your transaction thoroughly before you will be the next victim.

With the period of US economy collapsing, many companies are gone. Customers spend less, things get more expensive. What the heck we can do about that? Nothing =) Just be alert for cheap deal, spend money as efficient as we can. Most of good deal online or in store come with rebate, it usually has only a question that how long we will get our money back. Nonetheless, now you might have to ask whether we will ever get our money back!! Surely, you are not likely to get rebate from store that use this rebate processor since it filed for bankruptcy!! The answer is uncertainty that you will get or not. If lucky, everything will work out well. If not, no one could help you either. Sue? yes, you can but for $40, $80, or $100? will you?

Anyway, in case you are in the US and you have tons of waiting MIR list. You may like to know this–the companies that use this rebate processor:-

ABBOTT LABORATORIES (FREESTYLE METERS)
ACRONIS SOFTWARE (TRUE IMAGE)
ACTIVISION
AD-AWARE
ADOBE
ADVANCE AUTO PARTS (Parts America?)
ANTEC – Called Antec and they are having problems. Said not to cash ! Antec CSR number 1-800-222-6832, Press 1
ArchBrook Laguna (Magellan Refurbished Rebate from Pep Boys)
ATDEC
AVG
BED BATH & BEYOND
BIC CORPORATION US – Shaver Division
BFG Tech – Told me to Call Rebate Status. Will re-email on Monday
BRIDGEVINE
CANON says DO NOT CASH http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=StandardDisplayAct&fcategoryid=2587&keycode=important_rebate_info edit atene
CHECKER / SCHUCK’S / KRAGEN Auto Parts
CITIBANK
CORE
COSTCO (COSTCO email says don’t cash at bank, take it to a COSTCO and they will CASH it. If you prefer to receive by mail call 1-866-355-3137)
DELORME
FUJITSU
HOME DEPOT
JOE’S SPORTS
KENSINGTON
LOGITECH (Called toll-free number Nov. 14, spoke with CSR. CSR said my check was good to cash. Not sure of others.)
MOTOROLA (SURFBOARD MODEM)
MURRAY’S DISCOUNT AUTO PARTS (oil)
NATURE’S EARTH (cat litter)
NERO
NEWEGG (certain products have rebates from newegg directly e.g. TATUNG, ROSEWILL)
PANDA DISTRIBUTION
PANDIGITAL
PC TOOLS –> Phone: (866) 431-5087
PRICEGRABBER – Don’t Cash Check (Even older ones you haven’t cashed in yet)! Will Send out New Rebate Check Directly
ROSEWILL (NEWEGG)
RUSTOLEUM – Menard’s July $4 Door Paint Rebate (Contact Rustoleum directly @ 1-800-323-3584)
SAMSUNG
SMITH MICRO SOFTWARE (ANONYMIZER)
SPOT (Satellite beacon)
TABLETOPS UNLIMITED
TRENDNET – Don’t cash check; make a copy and mail the original check to TRENDnet headquarters (can be found at trendnet.com along with a printout of email regarding this issue. ) New check will be issued.
WESTINGHOUSE
XFX
XM SATELLITE RADIO
ZEROTHERM
ZYXEL

Well, that’s a long list. Some companies are kind enough to take this responsibility, but some are just quiet about this. Who know the future? Just keep avoiding getting all rebate deals from the company listed above until things are clear.

This holiday season is just starting… be careful…..

Note: More information and progression at SlickDeals.net forum

I never ever see that in person though and I don’t think I will ever see that too However, that doesn’t mean that we couldn’t use Envy 133 wallpaper!

Here you go, at first I think this could be super cool wallpaper but when I got it, it’s kind of so-so, disappointed a bit, but someone might want to have it.

If you guys have this very good looking machine and have extra more wallpaper from it, please share I would love to see that.

Theme of this set is seasons; first 4 wallpapers are Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Very nice indeed. As usual, you may click on the thumbnail for original size (1920px*1200px.) These are all wide screen version. Believe it or not, Lenovo are so kind to give us full screen version also. If you guys like it, just let me know. I just think that most of you guys all have wide screen monitor, so these are all you need. Unlike me, with my 4:3 screen on the great X61T.

Click them to see the original size (1920px*1200px)

What really differ from Wikipedia is Google needs you to use your real name instead of "anonymous" you found in Wikipedia. In my point of view, it’s just better to put your real name in order to make you feel more responsible for what you write. However, I don’t know how Knol will go since it’s going to have a tough fight with a very large existed Wikipedia community. By the way, there will be only positive things come up after this fight–a lot more stuffs to make people more knowledgeable. Keep reading!

Due to lots of request from previous post about the rest of (PRODUCT) RED set. So you will be satisfied with this post thoroughly. The complete set include:-

• Wallpapers – all of them are in this post.
• 2 gadgets – to make it clear, it’s only 1 new gadget–just only a link. For the red clock, you already have it with your Vista; all you have to do is find options and change it. That’s my bad; that I think they are the same; however, the RED clock one is a bit different. No a second hand available is a disadvantage to me though.
• Screensaver – this is nothing interesting at all. If you don’t believe me, try it. But I recommend you to turn off screen, it’s way lots better than opening screensaver.
• DreamScene – this is what you see above; you may like it though.
• What else? – theme? no more! you could do on your own as your preference.

Happy with (PRODUCT) RED stuffs.

Added: March 9, 2008

Thanks to fediafedia, I realized that’s based on the same code as well. Thus, If you want to have a second hand. You just go tweaking the code directly. Here is a simple way to do; get into this directory; just paste this in Windows Explorer

%userprofile%\appdata\local\microsoft\windows sidebar\gadgets\clockr.gadget\en-US\js

Then you will see the file “settings.js”, just edit by Notepad or your choice of editor. Find the function ClockSettings() [line:120] then edit

this.secondsEnabled = true;

Then you got the RED clock with a second hand, Horay!