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Thanks for the heads up, I vaguely remember reading that awhile back but was miffed that Firefox was forcing you to choose it's service only and not provide another external secure source method (https, webdav, sftp, etc.) to a location of your choosing.

Just miss not being able to sync my own data to my own device (pogoplug, or my own web server).

I hope the external sync devs will someday start making compatible extensions again.

What happened to all the extensions (firefox) that would allow you to sync your bookmarks and settings to your own server?

It seems there are plenty of extensions that are happy to *host* and sync to their servers but are pretty vague on privacy.

Makes me wonder if  I am beating a dead horse especially after doing a few google searches.. grumble gumbrle..

The 21 worst tech habits ...

My Favorite:

10. One account, multiple users

[attach=1]

umm.. WTF!?

Now where did I put my box for the Charity for One [Me]...

My sentiments about "ads":

Quote from reddit user:
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I'm not him but I'll be happy to list why its f*cked up..1.- A VERY large portion of the viruses out there end up through infected ads, block ads? Virus infections drop off the map. 2.- Destructoid does NOT sere the ads, like everybody else that pass it off to third parties. See #1 as to why that is a problem, it lets you pass the buck and you end up giving your users infections. 3.- The advertisers have gone from simple txt and jpgs to shitting out ads that take over the sound and maxes out the volume, its like inviting someone into your home and on the second or third visit they scream in your face..would you invite them back? 4.- They have taken ad revenues to the extreme, an article that would be 3 paragraphs is now shit all over a dozen pages...why should I care about you when you are trying to milk me for more revenue while making things worse for me?

I'll be happy to unblock a site if they ask nicely...IF they ONLY use txt ads, no risky Flash or Java ads, NO taking over my speakers, NO blasting commercials..they do that? I have NO problem with unblocking. The problem is all these sites are frankly lazy bastards that just want to make money without having to do the work so they just sell their ad space to any company that offers them cash without giving a f*ck if its ads are rude, if they assault our senses, hell they don't even seem to give a f*ck if they end up serving malware to their users, just as long as they get paid. Well I have to clean up their messes so f*ck them, I install adblock as SOP to ALL PCs that come through my door.
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From experience, windows loves a fresh install.

New computer/laptop?

If new then you might be better off doing a fresh install (check bios to set HD to AHCI) and install Win7.

Not sure if there is a painless way aside from creating an image and hope it will work properly (when restored back). I think Win7 has a built in image creation tool.

hm.. good thing I have license to use thinapp.. hello thinapp office2013! 

Interesting.. I recently had a similar problem, in my case the issue turned out to be that my "prefs.js" file in my firefox profile folder, had ballooned to 250+ MB. My assumption is that somehow it was corrupted. I restored a backed copy of it (150KB) and now Firefox is zippy again, no high cpu/mem usage.

[guess]

My guess as to why Ad muncher hasn't done it yet is possibly because ad muncher tries to remove (intercepts) any ad code before an application or browser can render the page, where as majority of the other ad blockers/removers allow the browser to download it the complete page then remove any ads.

My assumption is that once the page has been downloaded (http, https) then it is easy to remove any ads. Ad muncher (vaguely recall) works before the page is downloaded.

Still hoping that one day Ad muncher will some how figure out how to filter https or as a stop gap measure, fix it like the current batch of no ads apps/scripts etc.

@Renegade

I will attempt another strategy with Foxit, dowgrade rights. Hopefully they will allow me downgrade rights and provide me with their last version of PDF editor. The price better be cheaper since it is "obsolete" and non-supported software.

@eleman

Yes, I am leaning towards obtaining the software from alternate means if Foxit is unable to provide a working solution.

*Update*

Long story short, Foxit email support wasn't very helpful so I decided to call their tech support and explained my situation. Even though the software was obsolete, they were kind enough to provide another key for the obsolete software since I owned the software and the update was a minor revision (my assumption).

Kudos to Foxit! Wonder if it because 'tis the season to share and be nice (Santa is watching) or was Foxit actually caring for their customers? Whatever the reason, I am glad things worked out and I didn't have to obtain it from other means.
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First off, I do own a license for an older version of the software and have the means to purchase an "upgrade". I wish I could stay with the version I have but it doesn't supports newer pdfs made by various free pdf printers.

The problem is that the company no longer offers the version I want. They want you to purchase the "latest" version which isn't to my liking (bloated and no longer portable). They "upgraded" the version to an "Advanced" edition and no longer offer the basic.

Only pirate sites offer the older version (but newer than the one I own) of the software that I need.

The software in question is Foxit PDF Editor. It's a nice simple portable editor that allows me to do basic functions edit/deleting/modifying pdf pages.

What to do?

Remap Ctrl+Y key to act like Ctrl+Z?

ReMap keys W7

Haven't tested it but it looks promising.

[ctrl+z]

My favorite one is ctrl+z. Basically it's a an undo for last text block/word/selection.  

Interesting.. DOE wants 5x battery boost..

Even more interesting... wiki -Patent encumbrance of large automotive NiMH batteries

@Deozaan

Thanks for the link. I will give it a try once I get my Nexus 7.

Easy Jail break/root Nexus 7 and other android based devices:

WugFresh

*UPDATE*

Ok, I have had my Nexus 7 for a couple days. It is currently rooted and installed Adaway (free and opensource).

Rooting it with WugFresh was relatively easy but time consuming since I was learning what it was doing and how.

Once rooted, I download Adaway from Google's store. Figuring it out was really easy. It auto downloads a couple lists from well known hosts file sites. What I found impressive was that I was able to use my custom list (uploaded it to the download folder via usb from my computer). A reboot later and ad sites were blocked, faster browsing and snappier web pages.

Using Straight Talk with it, seems to be working well. Still playing with it, one thing I noticed about the screen, it gets oily pretty quickly compared to an iPad.

Now I am off to find and play with widgets!

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Having "borrowed" a Nexus 7 recently, I am considering purchasing one.

I am also considering jail breaking it so that I can upload/use a hosts file for global ad blocking and general browser "speed up" (not having to wait/download ads especially flash based).

If my thinking is correct, app that tries to call any of the listed ad sites, wouldn't just show blank space something similar. Basically save a little bandwidth and possibly faster page render.

Is it possible to update the hosts file without jail breaking?

I know a hosts file isn't an ideal method, but is there another option?

Thoughts and ideas would be appreciated.

thanks!

@40hz

The reason I said blah blah was because there are quite a few tech magazines that talk about downgrading but never quite give any detailed info in how to do it. They seem to gloss over the subject. You would think some of those mags would explain it in layman terms.

To be honest, I am still confused how I would explain to someone the downgrade procedure and how to obtain win7 without some sort of payment.

Regardless, you did answer some my questions. thanks. 

So I guess my question is how does one get a copy of Windows 7 and serial if you have downgrade rights from Win 8 Pro, without paying for cd and piece of paper (serial#)?

I hear all this talk about downgrade blah blah.. but nothing about how to obtain downgrade disc and serial. 

True, but I am more inclined to believe that a laptop/notebook is probably more economical and versatile than an ipad or like tablet could every be.

A tablet/ipad has it's place for doing light tasks and consuming media, but to think that it will replace a laptop in an education environment.. seems somewhat foolish.

@Josh: Though I think you hit the nail on the head with "trendy".

*Linky*

Seriously.. ipad.. laptop.. I think one is better for consuming and the other is bit better at being productive and all purpose.

Well if Office 365 is any indication.. MS will probably start doing the monthly rent a game thing.

Hrm.. dang those are huge.. uhm pixels!

When one of the major new features in a new version of The Bat! was skinning and movable toolbars, I moved to Thunderbird... and haven't looked back since.

Just as long as they stay away from the ribbon interface...

[VLC crashes.]

@MilesAhead

What version of VLC are you using? I can't remember what version I had awhile back vlc use to freeze and lock up. I updated my video and audio drivers and vlc has worked fine since.

You may want to uncheck use GPU accelerated decoding especially if you have an AMD/ATI video card.

From VLC FAQ:

VLC crashes.

Increase the verbosity level (either in the preferences or with a -vv command line option) and look at the debug messages (in the terminal or in the Messages window).

If you are convinced that it is a bug in VLC, have a look at the bug reporting page.