Mysticgeek’s Realm

One of my favorite VST commercial plug-ins for recording guitar is the BBE Sonic Maximizer.  This plug-in emulates the actual BBE Sonic Maximizer hardware.  It adds a lot of meat and more punch to your recorded guitar tone.  I will use it a lot if I am quickly recording some ideas for riffs.  If my tone is weak during the recording (which it probably is because I just want to get the musical idea down) I will use this plug in to beef it up. You can also use it in real time if you have a properly set up computer with no latency.

The Sonic Maximizer Stomp Box.  This guy can add a lot of tone to your current set up.  A buddy of mine used one with his Peavey 5150 head because at the time his Tubes were 17 years old!  It did the trick though.

This nifty effect is also available as a rack mount unit.

Hey!  It's good enough for Scott Ian from Anthrax!  So it has to be cool!

One thing we love to show you at How-To Geek is ways to simplify your computing experience.  The Geek has several tips on becoming a Keyboard Ninja for navigating your OS.  Today I found a nifty application that should definitely speed up the computing experience for Power Users. SlickRun! Although it is in the same idea realm of a Hotkey Program, it is something quite different.

If you are always using the Run Line and get sick of navigating the Start menu to access it; SlickRun is a cool little floating command line application always at the ready on your desktop. 

  SlickRun takes up very little real estate on your desktop!

Simply type in the command you wish to execute as you would in the Window's Run Line and hit Enter.  Right click in the text area to find the SlickRun menu.  Notice the default MagicWords.  These commands will launch Web Pages, Windows applications, and search boxes.

If the default MagicWords are not adequate you can also create your own!  Just fill in the required fields and save.  You will get a message if the command is successful or not.

Another cool feature is JOT which allows you to keep notes and drag and drop text from other applications and the Internet.  You can search notes from JOT and every entry is marked with a time stamp.

Download SlickRun From Bayden Systems.

I have neglected several included features in Windows Vista.  And to be honest I have not used many of them assuming they won't work very well.  Rather than be an ignorant assuming geek, I have decided to go over some of the included features in Vista.  Today I will start with Windows DVD Maker.

Click on Start \ All Programs \ Windows DVD Maker

You then will get the default splash screen.  If you don't want to see it every time just check the box "Don't show me this page again".

The interface is relatively bland and simple.  Here I just dragged over the video files from a DVD I copied from my collection using DVD Shrink.

Next you get a preview of the DVD menu.  You can also change the menu look with other included menu themes.

When you are finished with the settings just click the Burn button.  There are not a whole lot of extra features.  You can change the burn speed, menu fonts, and screen format.  For the most part this is an extremely simple and limited DVD burning application.  I actually have a better time burning with CDburnerXP.  Also, depending upon the speed you select … even if it is maximum, it seems to take longer to burn a disc than other third party software.

Don't you hate it when you try to uninstall a program it either does not include an uninstaller or when using Add / Remove Programs in Windows, there are several traces of the software left?  It is definitely one of my bigger pet peeves … just check out my iTunes uninstall rant.  I came across a cool little program the other day that claims to do a much better job of uninstalling applications and all of the tidbits and left-overs associated with them.  Revo Uninstaller.

When first launching Revo the first thing I noticed were all of the additional features not included with Window's Add / Remove utility. 

Here I am going to show the process of uninstalling an unwanted toolbar from a Vista machine.  After double clicking the program you want to remove the familiar 'are you sure' message will pop up.

Now for the cool part!  Revo lets us choose how to uninstall the application using different mode levels.  Here I am going to choose the Advanced mode.  I don't want a single trace of this toolbar left of my hard drive.  **Keep in mind that if you are on a domain, software information will still be kept in the AppData folder under your profile.**

Progress while scanning including the steps Revo is taking.

This is what I like to see the most … Scanning for leftover information!  This is the entire reason I really dig this application.

And here we are, it turns out this toolbar did indeed decide to leave some additional information in the registry.  If there were left over files or folders associated with the program it would show those as well.

Revo Uninstaller is available in multiple languages!

Other options you can tweak to your liking.  As you can see some features are not available in Vista but I am sure updates will include more features.

This application works on both Windows Vista and XP.  Other options include deleting your Internet browsing history, and deleting certain start up programs and services.  Oh!  And I didn't even cover Hunter Mode!  I must say this is quite an impressive utility!  Download Revo Uninstaller.

Today I saw the preview of War Games: The Dead Code and I have to say that I think Hollywood is messing up another great classic movie.  I am really looking forward to your comments so post away!!!!

Here is the preview for the new flick.

For all geek's old enough to remember … here is the original!  I remember this movie is the whole reason I became a geek!  Well, that and the Atari 2600.

Again!  I look forward to your comments!

In a previous post I showed the initial screen shots for setting up Open Office on Vista.  In this post I would like to show the final finishing set up steps.

Open any of the Open Office applications.  Here I decided to launch Writer and am greeted with the Welcome Wizard which will guide me through registration.

The next screen we get to review and accept the EULA.  You will have to scroll down to the end of the EULA to be able to continue.

Now just enter your name …. I use my online alias … not that I am wearing a tinfoil hat, but I see no reason for any company to know my real info.

Now choose if you want to receive automatic updates or not.

Finally decide if you want to register with OpenOffice.org.  I have registered and am happy I did as it makes me feel more a part of the Open Office Community.  Of course the option is completely up to the user.  Now click on Finish.

There we go!  Now we are ready to start using Open Office!  

Sometimes when setting up computer workstations for company employees and / or family members, you might not want certain default XP applications to be accessible. In this tutorial I will show you how to disable the features Outlook Express, Windows Media Player, and MSN Instant Messenger.  Keep in mind that this process does not technically remove these applications but it makes them not available.

Click on Start \ Run type in Control Panel and hit enter.

Now double click on Add / Remove Programs and in the resulting screen click on Add / Remove Windows Components.

In this screen you want to scroll down through the list of available Windows Components and uncheck the items you wish to uninstall.  Another one to get rid of is MSN Explorer which is one of the first items at the top of the list.  When your finished click Next.

You will see the progress bar while the items are removed and when everything is done you will get the Completion Wizard Screen.  Just click Finish and your done.

Since it is Earth Day I thought I would include a quick post on how cool Freecycle groups are.  I doubt these groups will "save the world" or anything like that, they are pretty cool to join nonetheless.  I have found some cool tech items and other items that come in handy for everyday living.  If you are a geek who likes to hack and play around with legacy computers and video game systems then this is a great way to acquire them.  One time a home owner gave away a brand new 52″ HD TV!  I live in a rural area … and there is a lot of ground to cover so I am a member of two different groups in different nearby counties. 

Basically you might find your treasure item or supply a treasure to someone else.  I have found this is a cool way to network with folks about other things as well.  The best part is the items are free and you are certainly not harming the environment by sticking what you consider trash into the landfill.  You can locate a Freecycle group near you by clicking the Freecycle image below.  Good Luck!

Also, make sure and check out my other "Green" tech posts:

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs

LCD Flat Screen Monitors

Save Energy With Power Options In Windows

Last week i wrote about switching my main OS to Kubuntu and so far everything has been going fairly well except for a few configurations here and there. I hope to have some cool posts regarding Linux topics in the near future. One of the things I really have enjoyed so far is Open Office. We can install Open Office on a Windows machine as well.  If you have never heard of or used Open Office I thought I would take the time to show you around. This office suite is completely free and a great alternative to Microsoft Office. Below are a series of screen shots in order they appear during initial installation.  These shots are from my Vista machine.  These are fairly straight forward and I have left comments on certain ones. Please feel free to contact me with any additional questions!

Enter in your username and information. Also make sure you select if you want all users on your system to have access to it or not.

Here you can decide which features to include with the installation. Unless you're going to do development with Open Office you can probably leave everything as is. I also made sure to enable ActiveX Control for the rare situation when I use Internet Explorer.

If you already have a version of Microsoft Office installed you may want to uncheck these choices. If checked Open Office takes the default role of opening the Microsoft files.

Wait while Open Office is installed.

Success! We can now start exploring what Open Office has to offer!

You will also notice the program launch icons on the start menu.

Download Open Office

Seeing how it is the worst day of the week … working for "The Man".  I figured I would bring attention to a cool game to waste the workday on.  I have not played all of the games on Addicting Games, but Bloxorz is truly addictive.  Very cool graphics and interesting and subtle sound effects.  

This is an excellent  time waster to start off the work week right!