Out of the box, the HTC Touch Pro is really an amazing device.  However, it still brings the infamous Windows Mobile lag with it.  While the lag is not as bad as previous Windows Mobile smartphones, it still is present and may bug people who notice the lag.

Slow tab scrolling in TouchFlo 3d, laggy scrolling in windows,  slow opening programs, slow opening menus, etc are all typical lag indicators.

The good thing is, there are a few things tweaks you can perform to make the Touch Pro more responsive.  First off, you will need to install Advanced Configuration Tool on your phone.  Before you can install Advanced Config, you need to install .NetCF 3.5 which can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=E3821449-3C6B-42F1-9FD9-0041345B3385&displaylang=en

Once you’ve installed .NetCF 3.5, download and install Advanced Config here:

http://www.touchxperience.com/en/advanced-configuration-tool/downloads.html

After you have installed the program on your phone, launch the program and make the following changes:

Under the “Perfomances” category:

• Change file system cache to 8MB
• Change file system filter cache to 131072
• Change Glyph cache to 32KB

Here’s what the configuration should look like:

After you’ve made the changes above, soft-reset your device for the changes to take effect.  Once the phone is booted up, enjoy the increased speed and performance from your Touch Pro!

To all you coffee drinkers out there, you’re going to love this.  Vietnamese style single cup filtered coffee is extremely flavorful that packs an extreme kick.  Think of this type of coffee as espresso, but instead of a shot, you’ll have a whole cupful of delicious, strong iced coffee at a fraction of the price you would pay at Starbucks for a “gourmet” cup.

You will need the following items and ingredients:

• Glass cup
• Single cup filter
• Coffee grounds - it is best to get dark roasted, coarse grounds.  Trung Nguyen and Cafe’ Du Monde make excellent choices
• Sweetened condensed milk - DO NOT get evaporated milk, they are not the same.
• Additional cup with ice
• Hot water (near boiling temperature)

First, pour about 1-2oz.  of condensed milk into the glass cup.  The condensed milk adds sweetness to the coffee to offset the bitterness.  You can use more/less condensed milk based on your preference.

Then, measure out your coffee and insert it into the bottom of the single cup filter.  Typically, I use 2 heaping spoonfuls, but this can be adjusted based on how you like your coffee.  More grounds for a stronger brew, less grounds for a weaker brew.

Here’s a picture of the coffee grounds in the filter.  Try to get the grounds as even as possible, but you don’t need to be perfect.  Note, the stainless steel filter is not inserted at this point.

Insert the stainless steel filter over the coffee grounds.  How much you screw the filter down will also determine the strength of your coffee.  Screw it tightly for stronger coffee or lightly for weaker coffee.  However, if you screw it down too tight, the coffee will take a long time to brew (over 10 minutes).

If you cannot screw the metal filter down because you used too much coffee grounds, then just set the filter in and give it a firm push.  This will compress the grounds and keep the filter in place while brewing.

Now, place the filter over your cup.  Add a small amount of hot water (near boiling temperature) to the filter.  About a 1/4 inch of water would be good.  Let the water seep through the filter until there is no water left.

Here’s what the brewing would look like in the initial stage.  After the initial 1/4 inch of hot water is finished brewing, you’ll have a small amount of brewed coffee as shown in the picture.  You’ll then want to fill up the filter to the brim with hot water, then put the top cover on.

Now, just sit back and wait for your coffee to brew.  This should take 4-5 minutes.  If your coffee is brewing faster, then you either need to add more coffee grounds or adjust the tighten down the filter.   If the coffee is taking longer than 4-5 minutes to brew, then you’ve probably screwed down the filter a little too tight.

Here’s what the process will look like after the coffee has finished brewing.

Stir the coffee and condensed milk until the condensed milk is completely dissolved.

Then, pour the coffee into a separate cup with ice.  You don’t want to use the same cup you used to brew the coffee because the overall temperature of the cup will be hot, which will melt the ice quickly.

You can either enjoy the coffee hot or cold.  I prefer cold because the coffee tastes smoother and the melting of the ice helps even out the bitterness.

Enjoy your full flavored, espresso strong coffee!  The key to getting the brew you like is to experiment.  Adjust the amount of condensed milk to adjust the sweetness.  Adjust the amount of coffee grounds to adjust the strength of the coffee to suit your tastes.  In my opinion, this coffee is more like a cold treat than a cold drink.  It is very, very tasty with a huge caffeine kick!

If the boot loader to your Windows Server 2008 machine gets corrupted or deleted for whatever reason, it really is a painstaking process to get it fixed.  The boot loader to my machine got deleted somehow while I was resizing partitions.  After scouring the web, I could not find anything on rebuilding the boot loader for Windows Server 2008.  All I could find were instructions to restore a Windows Vista boot loader, but luckily, the process for Server 2008 is similar.

Due to the lack of recovery tools on the Server 2008 installation CD, the boot loader must be rebuilt manually.

For this guide, I’m going to assume your installation has a drive letter of C:.

Insert the Server 2008 installation CD into your DVD-ROM.  Restart your computer and boot from the CD.

Choose to repair your computer, then open the command prompt.

At the command prompt, use the following commands:

c:
cd boot
bootsect /nt60 c: /force /mbr
bootrec /rebuildbcd

After using the “bootrec /rebuldbcd” command, you will be prompted to accept a Windows installation.  Accept the installation, then wait for the process to finish.  Once it’s done, reboot your comptuer and you should have a boot loader ready to go.

If you do not have a “boot” folder in the system C: drive, then copy the “boot” folder form the Windows installation CD to the C: drive.  Use the following command which assumes E: is your DVD-ROM

mkdir c:\boot
copy e:\boot\* c:\boot\

Afterwards, just use the boot restore commands to rebuild the bootloader.

Back in February, eBay decided to raise fees for all auctions. They didn’t outright tell us they were raising fees, they left that to fancy tables with percentages. What eBay did do, however; was convey the image that eBay was lowering insertion fees attempting to blind us from the obvious final value fee increase. See my post from January for more background information on this controversy.

Beginning on September 16, 2008, eBay is raising fees in the same manner, yet again! They attempt to blind you by first telling you that insertion fees are being lowered to $.35 and $.15 (depending on the category), but they left out the fact that final value fees are rising in the email they sent out to all sellers today. Nowhere in the email notification does it tell you that final value fees are rising. You have to do some digging to get to the charts. Here they are below:

You’ll notice that these fee changes are different from the changes in the past.  While eBay has somewhat decreased the final value fees by .5% for some categories, most categories are having their fees hiked up.  For example, look at the last row in the second table.  From 3.5% to 9% for the initial $50.01- $1,000!  That’s more than a 200% increase!

To dig even deeper, let’s take a look at exactly how much this will impact sellers.  For example, say I sell a digital camera on eBay with a price of $500.  Under the current fee scheme, the fees would be:

50 * .0875 = 4.375

450 * .0375 = 16.875

Total = $21.25

Now, if we sell the same $500 camera, the fees under the new scheme would be:

50 * .08 = 4

450 * .045 = 20.25

Total = $24.25

That’s a $3 increase between the new and old fee scheme.  $3 may not sound like a lot, but over time it all adds up.  Not only does it all add up, it adds up in eBay’s favor.  Even though they are losing a maximum of ~$.38 (cents) per auction closing under $50, they are making up for it with all of the higher priced listings.  Not only that, eBay also gets a second cut of the pie from Paypal, which is owned by eBay.  After Paypal and eBay fees, you’re looking at almost a 10% overhead just for fees!  When will the madness stop?

It’s only sometime until Google comes out with their own auction site and hopefully it is soon.  They already have Google Checkout, so hopefully they’re well on their way.  For now, I’m sticking to Craigslist and local social networking sites to get my stuff sold.  That way, I get cash in my hand and don’t have to worry about the outrageous fees from Paypal and eBay!

After seeing the unusually high price tag of a Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter, I almost had a heart attack. $99.99 retail. Let me say it again, FREAKING $99.99; is Microsoft out of their mind? I mean, routers and wireless adapters cost much less than that! Luckily, there is a way to create an adapter with a La Fonera wireless router.

Basically, the La Fonera is loaded with a third party firmware called DD-WRT. The firmware allows you to put the Fonera into client bridge mode. This basically lets the Fonera connect to your home wireless network and pass that data through the ethernet port to your Xbox. Its kind of like one of these Linksys gaming adapters, but cheaper and with more capabilities.

Here’s the full guide:
http://fonerahacks.com/index.php/Tutorials-and-Guides/Xbox-360-Wireless-Adapter-Using-the-La-Fonera.html

NOTE: You must have a La Fonera with DD-WRT firmware loaded onto it before this will work. If you need help installing DD-WRT to the Fonera, see the guides here

If you have ever paid MSRP or full retail price on an expensive item at a local store, you know how much it can hurt your wallet. Unknown to the general population, there are many techniques that you can use to ensure that you won’t be ripped off again. Below are some tips that I personally use on a daily basis.

1. Buy online! Retail stores often mark prices upwards of 50-100% higher than what you would find online. This is to make up for the costs associated with actually selling them item. 
2. Visit the Slickdeals.net homepage and Hot Deals forum. This is a very active site with new deals posted every minute. 
3. Visit the Fatwallet.com Hot Deals forum. This site is very similar to Slickdeals.net; just another place for more options and opinions. 
4. Use Craigslist.org. Craigslist is a classified ads site which includes all popular cities within the US and then some. These classified listings are posted by other individuals hoping to sell their goods. Usually, you can find good deals somewhat similar to eBay. The upside is, you don’t have to wait for shipping and you have the opportunity to check the item before you buy. 
5. Utilize eBay for hard to find goods. Say you are looking for a car part and the Autozone charges and arm and a leg. Short of going to the junk yard, try searching for the part on eBay. You may be able to find the part used in good condition, which will drive the price down even further. 
6. Use online, printable coupons. Many people do not know about online coupons. These coupons can be printed off from your personal printer and can then be used at your local store. Wow-Coupons is a great start and has many coupons for many popular stores. Also, Slickdeals and Fatwallet users often post when there are good coupons floating around on the internet. For example, it is not rare to find a $10 off $25 printable coupon for Office Depot or Staples. That’s just one example, but there are many more. Also, if you are looking for big coupons 
7. Excercise the use of competitor’s coupons. A $20 off $75 coupon for Staples can also be used at Office Depot and Office Max. This is because of their “competitor coupon” policy which states that they will recognize other big name store coupons. You can also do this at different stores not limited to the above. People have reported being able to use a 10% off Circuit City coupon at Best Buy and vice versa. 
8. Price Match! If you buy an LCD monitor for $200 from Best Buy and 2 weeks later, the price drops to $150, or a competitor (like Circuity City) has the same monitor on sale for $150. All you have to do is take your reciept to Best Buy and tell them that the price has dropped while presenting proof (like an advertisement). Best Buy will then refund 110% of the difference. The difference between the two prices ($200 - $150) is $50. 110% of $50 is $52.50, which is what you will be refunded. Most online and local retailers have a price match policy in place, but they differ from store to store so be sure to check. 

Examples of deals I have recently found:

Circuit City (Jan 08) - 50″ Plasma - $700 out the door, no rebates needed (see my post here)
Foot Locker (May 08) - Puma Boston Kids Shoes - $7 a pair out the door, retails at $44.99
Target (June 08) - Target PAID me (that’s right, PAID ME) $8.30 to take away 10 Gillette Fusion Razors. (see thread on Slickdeals)

Reputable Online Retailers

Amazon.com
Buy.com
Newegg.com

While looking for another newsgroup provider, I found out that Newsdemon has a promotion where they are giving you one month free in return for writing about them in your blog. I said, eh, what the heck, why not? After using usenetserver.com for a few excruciating months, I needed something better. Usenetserver.com was horrible; I could never connect on the first try, lots of timeouts, and lots of incomplete files. I came from using Giganews, so I guess I was a bit spoiled, but the $30/month price swayed me from renewing.

I ended up doing a Google search for “best usenet provider” and ran into Newsdemon. Their prices are reasonable and their reviews were good. There’s a 20% off coupon code for life floating around on the internet to make the prices even better! I’m hoping to try this provider and see if they really provide what they say. After a bad experience with usenetserver.com, I really need something new.

Check them out at:
http://www.newsdemon.com/

Since I’m a full time college student with a part-time job, I’m naturally almost always needing some extra cash. However, I don’t fancy low level retail jobs and I wanted to work when I wanted so I looked towards working at home. We’ve all seen the scams advertising $1,000+ a day or $20,000+ a month, but they’re all scams. As a rule of thumb, if a work at home site asks you to pay any type of fee, they are a scam.

However, I’ve found a GREAT job working for SupportSpace. Basically, you are a work at home consultant for a variety of desktop tech support issues. You can charge your own rates per session or per minute and are free to work whenever you want. People needing help will contact you through SupportSpace and connect to you via a chat window. You can then troubleshoot over chat or call the customer. There’s also a desktop sharing tool which makes troubleshooting MUCH easier since you can see what they are doing and fix the problem yourself. Currently, I’m making about $20 a call after SupportSpace gets their cut (25% of what you charge). It’s not bad since most calls can be taken care of in about 20-30 minutes! My profile is here:
http://www.supportspace.com/home/expert/profile/ericnguyen0

Another option for some quick cash is to do referral offers. Yeah, I’m talking about the websites where you must complete a certain amount of offers/referrals in order to earn something cool like an iPhone or Xbox 360. YES, there are legit sites that do this. Trainn.org is among the most reputable with a large number of sites to sign up for. But how do you make cash instantly? Folks over at the Anything4Free Forums sign up for these offers. They then will need a certain number of referrals for them to reach their goal of an iPod, Xbox 360, PS3, or whatnot. Knowing this, the members will pay people for completing referrals. Usually it’s in the area of $25-30 per credit (some offers are half a credit, some are a quarter credit). Some offers are free to complete and some require a small payment so you’ll have to hunt for the easiest and cheapest offers to complete. As soon as you finish the offer and are given credit, the referrer will be notified who will then pay you, usually through Paypal. It’s not a full time job, but it is an easy way to make a few bucks quickly.

A third option, reserved for the extremely desperate, are surveys. Like the offer sites, there are tons of scam survey sites. DO NOT SIGN UP IF THEY ASK YOU TO PAY! Typically, surveys usually pay anywhere from $.50 to $5 per survey. Catch is, even the short $.50 surveys seemingly take FOREVER to complete. Not only that, you must be within a certain audience, which can severely limit the amount of surveys available to you. However, if you have the patience, I’ve heard of people making hundreds of dollars a month, enough to pay the rent for me. Here are some proven, researched, and legitimate sites that I have tried in the past:

Survey Spot
Zoom Panel
Opinion Outpost
Inbox Dollars

Soon after buying a new TV or any other expensive electronic item, the cashier will almost immediately ask you to purchase an extended warranty plan for a few hundred dollars. I know many people who always get warranties regardless. The thing you need to ask yourself is:

1. How likely is it for the item to fail?
2. How long is the manufacturer’s warranty?
3. Do any of your credit cards add warranty to the manufacturer’s original warranty?
4. Will you actually need the additional years of service?

Here’s my explanation of why I always deny extended warranties.

• I do my research. Some manufacturers have a notoriously high return rate while others don’t. Depending on the item, do your research, read reviews, and then determine if the likeliness of failure exceeds your threshold.
• The manufacturer’s warranty is adequate. Most warranties for electronics items are one year, which is more than enough time to determine if the product will last. Many electronics break within their first year, thus it is safe to say if it didn’t break in the first year, it probably won’t in the following year.
• It is simply too expensive and does not pay off. For my $700 TV, the extended warranty was $300, almost half the cost. Say my TV somehow breaks in three years. Since I didn’t buy the warranty, I’m up $300. I can then sell my broken TV for about $300 and recoup $600 of the $700 original dollars. Note, this is in the minute likelihood of the TV actually failing.
• This isn’t the ’90s anymore. With improvements in the manufacturing process, electronic failures are getting increasingly rarer. In my years of IT, I’ve never seen an LCD monitor break, but CRTs are a different story.
• Instead of buying the warranty, save your money for when you might need it. In the event that your item does break, you may be able to get it repaired for less than what the warranty would have cost you.
• And finally, to be blunt, I simply don’t buy extended warranties because my electronics don’t break. Take care of them and they will take care of you.

Here is a great article that covers some points I’ve mentioned. It’s a good read as they go into more detail on a broader array of items.

I just received an email from eBay saying that they are reducing listing fees.

You asked, we listened. We’re reducing Insertion Fees and adjusting Final Value Fees to lower your up-front cost to sell on eBay. You wanted free Gallery, now you’ve got it–plus more feature discounts.

To any normal person, this sounds like good news. Less up front cost to sell your item along with free gallery pictures. Good? Wrong. Take a look at the new “Final Value Fees” on eBay’s website.

As you can see, eBay cut the listing price by a measly $.05 for auctions starting at $.01 to $24.99. Seeing as most of my auctions (and many others) start with a list price of $.99 to motivate bidding, this $.05 saves me nada. On the flip side, final value fees (eBay’s commission from your auction) have increased. Take a look at the new fees below to see what I mean.

From the email, they make it seem like ALL costs are going to decrease, but they fail to mention in any part of the email, that final value fees are increasing. Good work on part of their marketing department from their perspective, but from my perspective, this move by eBay will piss off even more people who are already pissed at the high fees in place today.

As many people know, eBay owns Paypal. Many sellers (including myself) are fed up with the fees from Paypal, let alone eBay. Now eBay has an even bigger chance to double dip and screw sellers out of their money.

These questionable ethics don’t fly with me. Personally I’m going to be moving more and more of my merchandise to Craigslist and I’m going to hope and pray that Google Checkout makes it big and takes a huge chunk of the market share away from Paypal.