i must admit that I was looking at free themes – I have used some good ones but was never 100% happy with them, and yes I could of created one myself but I won’t show you my efforts there. They are quite embarassing to say the least.

Next was to check the themes that you have to pay for. What was so good about the paid ones that publishers were selling? Mmm not really sure, although I did found a couple that were targetted at particular niches such as a pet website or an automotive enthusiaists website. Do you think I could find an IT related theme that I was happy with? Ironically not. Mind you I think I’m just a bit picky too.

Then I came across Socrates.

How’s this for a list of features:

* Built in Header Generator
* 200+ Niche Header Designs
* Upload Your Own Headers
* 4 Custom Nav Bars with New Window and No Follow Links!
* Optional Built In Adsense, Affiliate and Clickbank Ad Bar
* Social Media Slider – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,YouTube, RSS
* Choose from Dozens of Backgrounds On The Fly
* Custom Styling and Color Options
* Affiliate Program Integration
* 728×90 Banner Custom HTML Rotator
* Multiple Sidebar Layouts
* Internet Marketing and WordPress Training
* Monetize With Any Affiliate Program or Network
* Sales Page Templates
* No Side Bar Template
* Squeeze Page Template
* Advanced SEO Layout
* In Post Ad Units – Can be Disabled on Per Post Basis!

Sounds good. The video was even better. I was thinking of giving the Socrates team a testimonial before even trying it!

Price? $47 for a single domain license or $77 for an unlimited license. I went with the unlimted as i could deploy this on a few of my sites, and what I’ve found is that you need only change a few things to make them look all completely different.

I must say, I’m very happy with the way things are panning out. I still have a bit of work to do on this site, but the changes are easy to implement.

For example, in the control panel of the Socrates theme there is provision to put in your Adsense code, Google analytics code and sponsored ad code. The theme does all the rest by placing the ads in the right places.

Site banner or background too hard to design? Well you don’t really have to worry as you can use the ones that come with the theme. In the relevant menu, your WP install will download the latest banners/backgrounds from the Socrates website for you to use. Such a simple solution, and allows your site to have a decent lookbefore you design whatgraphics to use – mind you they are good enough to keep forever.

Look at the old theme of this website:

Please at least check out the video and features of the Scocrates them to see for yourself:

Fortunately, after a bit of research I found a solution that did actually work, and the PC hasn’t missed a beat since.

The error message can indicate a IRPStackSize bug, and looking at the event log of the machine for an error with ID 2011, is further eveidence of this particular bug.

What is the IRPStackSize? Well, straight from the Microsoft website:

The IRPStackSize parameter specifies the number of stack locations in I/O request packets (IRPs) that are used by Windows 2000 Server, by Windows Server 2003, and by Windows XP. You may have to increase this number for certain transports, for media access control (MAC) drivers, or for file system drivers. Each stack uses 36 bytes of memory for each receive buffer.

I don’t know about you , but I’m still none the wiser

Anyway, let’s get around fixing it…..

Before I go on, my disclaimer: Trying the below is done so at you own risk. I take no responsibility for any problems that may occur. The fix involves a registry change, so if you are not comfortable playing with the registry, get someone that is.

Open up the registry (regedit from the run box), and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet
\Services
\LanmanServer
\Parameters

Look for a parameter called IRPStackSize. Whatever the value is, we need to increase it. From what I’ve read on other sites, a value of between 15 and 25 will work. I tried 16 and it didn’t. 20 did.

if you don’t have a IRPStackSize entry, create one by right clicking in the right hand window, and select new>DWORD value. Call it IRPStackSize (note: case sensitive).

Once done, click on it and enter a value (as a decimel). As you can see, I entered 20 – shown here as 14 in hex:

Once done, close the window and restart the computer and then you should be able to access the share.

What causes the bug? Well I read that programs like Acronis True Image, Seagate Disc Wizard and Symtec Endpoint protection can be the culprits. In my case, I had a fresh install of XP Pro, with Acronis True Image. Fairly easy fix, and as I said earlier, all has been fine since.

I would be interested in other people’s experiences. Please share them below.

Why did I want to do this? A friend bought a new laptop which had a trial version of Outlook 2007 – Once the trial had run out, they had to move to something else, and WLM is only found on Windows 7. Outlook Express is no more.

Let’s start …..

Note: I did all of the below on my friend’s PC while Outlook was still installed. Once I ahd imported all my email into WLM, I then uninstalled Outlook.

* Download a program called Mailstore from here. This free program is for archiving of mail, but also is perfect for achieving what we want to do.

* Run Mailstore. The first thing you need to run the archive process. Follow your nose and (obviusly) select Outlook as your email program. Here is a screenshot of the archive window:

* You will now need to export your email into a format that WLM will recognise:

With the options for Export, select “file system” and the message format will be “EML”:

Browse to any folder on your hard drive or thumb drive and kick off the process.

* OK, Now you are ready to import into WLM. From the File menu, select import>messages and then select the ‘Windows mail’ format. Browse to your folder where you exported all the mail and start importing.

Once finished you should be ready to go!

When I did the above on an another PC, I got a message to say that there was no files in the folder or another program has locked the folders. When i worked out which ones had not been imported, I just click and dragged them over to my WLM inbox from Window Explorer. End result still the same.

Well, worry no more. There is a program called ISObuddy that will burn most (if not all of those obscure image formats). From their website, the list of supported images is as follows:

- Roxio Global Image (gi)
- Nero Image (nrg)
- Padus Discjuggler Image (cdi)
- Alcohol 120% Image (mdf)
- IMG Image (img)
- Blindwrite (Old) Image (b5i, b6i)
- Macintosh Image (dmg)
- Pinnacle Instant CD/DVD Image (pdi)
- CDRWin Image (bin)
- CloneCD Image (ccd)

Or if you would like a step by step graphical guide, go here.

The only thing I don’t like is that you cannot select which individual apps you want to multitask – a pain becuase you are some I wouldn’t want running all the time. Other than that it works OK.

* Wallpapers for the home screen – yeah nothing new for most other phones on the market but great on the iPhone (now)

* Multitasking – great innovation but I would prefer to be able to select what apps I want running in the background (not just all)

* Better mail interface – You can separate the viewing of different email accounts, or have them together

* Systemwide spell checker

* Sorting of apps into folders – awesome idea as I have a LOT of apps on my phone

* Create playlists ON your iPod

* Message app improvements – for example you can search through your messages

* iBooks – so you can read books from the iTunes digital bookstore

* Digital zoom on your camera – yeah, still no replacement for a ‘real camera’ . Note: There is no optical zoom on these cameras. Google what the diff is if you don’t know

* Change your default search engine in Safari

Well, they are the major changes to the OS. For a more graphical view, go here.

I have read that the upgrade takes 30 mins, but for me it took closer to 2 hhours when you take into consideration the downloading of the new OS, restore backup and a couple of PC (required) reboots. Oh, and make sure your iTunes is up to date before you start too.

I’ve only had it running for about 24 hours, but the phone performs quite well, and the new features I’m certainly taking advantage of on my 3GS iPhone. Well done, Apple.

Well, here’s a fix:

Type “gpedit.msc” into the run box, go to Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Windows Update and enable the options “No auto-restart for logged in users…” and “Re-Prompt for restart with scheduled installations”.

Pretty easy all up, and you have some flexibility in how you want to configure those options. Note: you may have to run it as administrator if using Vista.

At the end of this article, have a think about whether you have changed your mind in response to my question.

Wireless security consists of two main elements: authentication and encryption. Authentication controls access to the network and encryption ensures that malicious users cannot determine the contents of wireless data frames. Although having users manually configure the SSID of a wireless network in order to connect to it creates the illusion of providing an additional layer of security, it does not substitute for either authentication or encryption.

A non-broadcast network is not undetectable. Non-broadcast networks are advertised in the probe requests sent out by wireless clients and in the responses to the probe requests sent by wireless APs. Unlike broadcast networks, wireless clients running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Server® 2003 with Service Pack 1 that are configured to connect to non-broadcast networks are constantly disclosing the SSID of those networks, even when those networks are not in range.

Therefore, using non-broadcast networks compromises the privacy of the wireless network configuration of a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003-based wireless client because it is periodically disclosing its set of preferred non-broadcast wireless networks. When non-broadcast networks are used to hide a vulnerable wireless network—such as one that uses open authentication and Wired Equivalent Privacy—a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003-based wireless client can inadvertently aid malicious users, who can detect the wireless network SSID from the wireless client that is attempting to connect. Software that can be downloaded for free from the Internet leverages these information disclosures and targets non-broadcast networks.

This behavior is worse for enterprise wireless networks because of the number of wireless clients that are periodically advertising the non-broadcast network name. For example, an enterprise wireless network consists of 20 wireless APs and 500 wireless laptops. If the wireless APs are configured to broadcast, each wireless AP would periodically advertise the enterprise’s wireless network name, but only within the range of the wireless APs. If the wireless APs are configured as non-broadcast, each of the 500 Windows XP or Windows Server 2003-based laptops would periodically advertise the enterprise’s wireless network name, regardless of their location (in the office, at a wireless hotspot, or at home).

For these reasons, it is highly recommended that you do not use non-broadcast wireless networks. Instead, configure your wireless networks as broadcast and use the authentication and encryption security features of your wireless network hardware and Windows to protect your wireless network, rather than relying on non-broadcast behavior.

( Source of article )

1. Press win+r key and Type Regedit at run prompt

2. Locate following registry key

HK Local Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background

3. Now in right-side pane, change value of OEMBackground to 1.

4. Now place your custom image in %windir%\system32\oobe

5. Create a new folder info and background within newly created info folder

Folder path should look like this %windir%\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds

6. Now place your desired logon wallpaper within this background folder with file
name as backgroundDefault.jpg

Images Name with resolutions

backgroundDefault.jpg

background768×1280.jpg

background900×1440.jpg

background960×1280.jpg

background1024×1280.jpg

background1280×1024.jpg

background1024×768.jpg

background1280×960.jpg

background1600×1200.jpg

background1440×900.jpg

background1920×1200.jpg

background1280×768.jpg

background1360×768.jpg

NOTE: Images must be less than 256kb in size

The backgroundDefault.jpg image is loaded and stretched-to-fit when a resolution/ratio specific background cannot be found.

Best part is that you can play it too!

Click on insert coin and see what score you can get ……