Jul 26th, 2007 by Jared Schwager invites, pownce
I’ve been using Pownce for a couple weeks now and I really like it. I just received an email that 6 more invites have been added to my account so I thought I’d share them with you, the readers. I’ve have a limited amount of invites at the moment, so you’re going to have to be quick if you want one.
Make a comment on this post stating that you’d like an invitation to Pownce and I’ll send one as soon as possible. Make sure the email address you enter is correct otherwise you won’t receive an invite and I’ll have wasted one. I will update this post with the current number of invites available.
24 invites left
Update:
Reader Ankesh is offering his 6 Pownce invitations to the readers of Grupenet if I run out of them. Thanks Ankesh!
Jul 25th, 2007 by Jared Schwager guest post, hamachi, networking
Hamachi is a program which lets you interact with friends through the internet on a virtual network. It’s main feature let’s you interact in ways on the internet which you normally only can do on a private LAN. For example, you should be able to play an older PC game that only supports LAN through the internet with friends.
You can create a private network of your own for free. If you’re friends are everywhere in the world, you can use Hamachi so it’s as if they’re right next to you on your local area network!
I think that this program’s great, but isn’t perfect yet. You can instant message on it to individuals, but you cannot have a chat room, or a lobby like in IRC. I sometimes experience problems when I use it with Vista, but it does the job on XP. These are simple updates that work on for their newer versions.
Nonetheless, this program can also be a major problem solver for some as well. Hamachi is freeware, but a paid premium version is also available.
This is a guest post by Charles Leclerc of soniccagedome.com
Jul 21st, 2007 by Jared Schwager ad blocking, windows live messenger
Updated Jan 11th, 2011
Windows Live Messenger is a great instant message client and is very feature-rich. This may be all fine and dandy, but there’s just one problem with Live Messenger: the advertisements! Thankfully there’s a quick and easy way to remove the ads by blocking access to rad.msn.com, which is the server hosting all the ads. This can be done by editing your hosts file.
First of all, you will need to find your hosts file. This can be found in the folder %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc. Just copy and paste that into your address bar in Windows Explorer and you’ll automatically be taken to the correct directory.
Once you’ve found your hosts file, right-click on it and select “Properties”. Now uncheck the box next to “Read-only” and click OK. Open this file in a text editor such as Notepad (we prefer Notepad++). Whatever floats your boat.
Add the following to a new line at the end of the file: 0.0.0.0 rad.msn.com
Save the file and restart Windows Live Messenger. There should be no advertisements in either the main window or message windows.
Jul 14th, 2007 by Jared Schwager itunes, taskbar
Updated Jan 11th, 2011
If you’ve used Windows Media Player before you may have noticed that when you minimize it a mini-player in your Windows taskbar will appear. Believe it or not, similar functionality exists in iTunes. I’ll show you how to enable the taskbar player for iTunes.
Firstly, open up the iTunes Preferences under the “Edit” menu. In the preferences window that appears go to the “Advanced” tab. Find the option Minimize iTunes window to system tray and make sure it is unchecked.
Make your way down to the Windows taskbar. Right-click the taskbar, go to “Toolbars” and click on iTunes. Now whenever you minimize iTunes the taskbar player will appear, giving you limited control of your music without having to maximize iTunes.
NOTE: Using the iTunes taskbar player in Windows Vista will disable the taskbar transparency.
