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Cost Less Auto Parts – An Awesome Auto Parts StorePosted on February 28th, 2011

I was talking about how awesome Rain-X windshield wiper blades are in one of my earlier posts. I mentioned in that post that I bought my latest Rain-X windshield wipers at Cost Less Auto Parts in Orchards, Washington, which is a suburb of Vancouver, Washington.

Talk about an awesome store, in every way.

I walked into the store and the first thing I noticed was how clean and organized the store was. Soon after that I discovered how knowledgeable the staff was. Last, and most important for most people, is their low prices. I bought 3 Rain-x wiper blades, for my car. Two for the front and one for the back, in case you couldn’t figure that out. (By the way, Rain-X wiper blades are the bomb! I wrote about them here.) The most expensive one was $7.99. I really didn’t think about the pricing at the time, but my dad and I were doing some do-it-yourself auto repairs that required us to make another trip to another auto parts store closer to home that allowed me to do some price comparisons. I was pretty shocked to find that the same exact Rain-X wiper blades were $5 more. That wasn’t altogether. That was $5 more for each wiper blade. I would have spent $15 more if I had bought my wiper blades at this other store. That’s pretty damn significant.

In case you’re wondering if this was just a difference between two stores, I ended up at a third auto parts store and found that they too had the Rain-X wiper blades at $5 more each. Their prices matched the expense of the other “expensive store” exactly.

Cost Less Auto Parts is a local store with two stores located in Vancouver, Washington, but it’s definitely worth a goodstuffblog post because it is such an awesome store. If you’re reading this and live in the Vancouver, Washington area make sure you keep Cost Less Auto Parts in mind next time you need to make a trip to the auto parts store. You won’t be disappointed.

Use PdaNet to Connect Your Computer to the Internet With Your Cell PhonePosted on February 27th, 2011

I was out of town this weekend and when I was at the motel I was attempting to use their wireless internet. I found the signal strength to be really slow and decided to see if there was a way to hook up my laptop to my cell phone and use my cell phone as a wireless connection for my laptop. I came across Pdanet and after tinkering with it I have to say I’m pretty impressed with it. It’s a great android app that allows my phone to provide wireless service to my laptop and it doesn’t cost me anything more than what I’m already paying for my cell phone service. In other words, it’s pretty much free. You’re just using the data plan that you purchased with your cell phone to access the internet on your laptop. (There are versions of PdaNet for the Windows Mobile phones, Palm phones, and iphones.)

As I was researching Pdanet and seeing what others thought of it I did find that many people thought it was too complicated to get set up. I’ll admit it does take some patience, but once its set up you are good to go.

You do need to get it installed on your phone and there is a desktop program that you will also need to download and install on your laptop or computer. There are a number of ways to get it on your android phone, but I found the easiest way is simply to go to the “Market” and search for Pdanet. You’ll find it in the Android Market.

Pdanet is created by June Fabrics Technology Inc. and it has a free version and a paid version. The free version doesn’t allow you to go to encrypted sites, so it will have its limitations. Even considering that, this is an awesome app.

As you go through the installation of pdanet onto your android phone you’ll need to have a google username and password. The first time I saw this I’ll admit I had concerns about using my google username and password, however after some research and looking at the site itself I was comfortable supplying this information. It says right there on the site that google only sends your username to the app. It does not send your password. This isn’t anything new for Android apps and it’s something that we’ll be seeing more and more. So don’t worry about plugging in your google username and password. It only asks for it the one time during installation and from what I could gather it is safe.

Once Pdanet is on your Android phone you will need to make sure USB debugging is turned on. To turn USB debugging on go to “Settings” >> “Applications” >> “Development” and check the box next to “USB debugging”.

After PdaNet is installed on your Android phone go and get the pdanet program for your computer you are going to be using and install it. Once it is installed you can go to “Start” >> “All Programs” >> “PdaNet for Android”. There is a drop down with options to “Install Legacy Network Driver”, “Install Legacy USB Driver”, “PdaNet Desktop”, and a couple of others. If it didn’t already install the USB Driver during the installation you can do it here. If you have it installed already you can select the PdaNet Desktop option to open up and start using PdaNet on your computer. The icon for PdaNet will be in your notification area or tray (the icons next to the clock in the lower right-hand corner). Simply right-click and select “Connect to internet”.

Of course you will need your android phone connected to a usb port on your computer and you should have PdaNet opened and running on your cell phone. It’s pretty self explanatory at this point in the process.

It may seem complicated, but once the installation and initial setup is done it’s pretty easy to use. It’s probably not going to be a speed demon, but at least you will have a tool you can use when you are out and about to get onto the internet without having to pay for it. It’s really a cool app. I’m using it right now and I can see myself using it a lot more.

Next time you are on a road trip or out and about and need to get online PdaNet is the app you’ll want.

Rain-X Windshield Wiper Blades Are The BestPosted on February 24th, 2011

Rain-X windshield wiper blades are the best – Just going to say it as simple and straight to the point as that.

I’ve been using Rain-X wiper blades now for years and anytime I’ve had to replace my old windshield wiper blades I go out of my way to make sure I replace them every time with Rain-X wiper blades.

You can sometimes get to a point when you have used a brand for so long that you forget why you use that brand. It’s not until there is a time when, for whatever reason, you have to use another brand that you all of the sudden realize why it is you have always used the brand you use.

Many times when I’m getting my car serviced the repair shop will suggest that I replace my windshield wiper blades and ask me if I’d like them to replace the wiper blades for me. My standard answer to this is thank you for letting me know, but no thank you. I then take a trip to the auto parts store, in this case it’s the Cost Less Auto Parts Store (I blog about this awesome store later) where I buy my Rain-X windshield wiper blades that I’m told I needed.

That’s typically the routine I go through each time I replace my wiper blades. However, one of those times when another brand got onto my car recently occurred. I had my car serviced and the repair shop took the initiative to replace my windshield wiper blades, at no charge of course, for me without checking with me. Being down in Southern California at the time where it doesn’t rain so much doesn’t give one the opportunity to realize very quickly what a mistake that was. I appreciate the auto repair shop trying to be cool, but what I’ve found with auto repair shops is they typically don’t know the difference between a quality auto part and one that is not so good.

When it finally does rain it’s obvious that the windshield wiper blades, that are not

Rain-X, aren’t going to cut it. Sure they do what they are supposed to, but they make a whole lot of noise while they are doing the job. Me being lazy I just stick with the not-so-good non-Rain-X blades until I get to a point where I need to replace them.

That was until I relocated to the Pacific Northwest where one typically user their car’s windshield wipers much more than they would be needed in the desert of California. The constant noise from my windshield wiper blades was driving me nuts and I finally headed over to Cost Less Auto Parts and bought some new Rain-X windshield wiper blades to replace the loud and annoying ones I currently had on my car.

After I installed my new Rain-X wiper blades I was like “Oh Sweet Heaven”. The sound of my silent Rain-X wiper blades was so welcomed. After using the Rain-X brand for so long without ever straying away to another brand I had taken them for granted. I had forgotten why I always buy Rain-X and it took this “episode” where I ended up with a different brand to remind me just how much I appreciate Rain-X windshield wiper blades and why they are the only brand I will ever buy.

Do yourself a favor the next time you have to purchase windshield wiper blades and buy Rain-X windshield wiper blades. You won’t be disappointed. If you’ve never used them before you’ll be glad you decided to make the switch.

If you happen to live in the Vancouver, Washington area you can purchase them at Cost Less Auto Parts or you can go and purchase them at Amazon.

Matter of fact, if you want to be smart you can simply go to Amazon right now and get them. Rain-X Windshield Wiper Blades at Amazon. Why keep using low quality windshield wiper blades.

Replace them right away!

It’s worth it.

Deliver Us From Evil by David BaldacciPosted on February 22nd, 2011

“Deliver Us from Evil” is another great novel by David Baldacci. I give it 4 out of 5 stars, and wouldn’t hesitate to read it again.

In David Baldacci’s “Deliver Us from Evil” we once again meet Shaw who we first saw in The Whole Truth. This time Shaw and his secret agency are in a race to stop a man who’s set out to sell nuclear materials to known terrorists.

If stopping the proliferation of nuclear materials isn’t enough things become even more challenging as another secret organization also goes after the same target that Shaw is after, but for completely different reasons.

During the story the two secret teams end up “bumping” into each other and have the challenge of figuring out what the other is doing while also carrying out their missions.

Mr. Baldacci keeps the book moving and interesting with very few boring parts. There was just one slow part in particular that kept me from giving it 5 stars when he goes into a little too much background on the geography of an area. I understand wanting to give some background, but sometimes authors go too far and just seem to put a lot of history or background on something because they think they should. There’s a fine line between giving some background to make something interesting and giving so much that it detracts from the story. The only other part that I felt was a little over-done was some of the reactions Shaw has at the end of the book. Again, I felt the dramatization of Shaw’s reaction to the mission was a little too much.

Other than those two caveats this was a great book and I would highly recommend it. It’s definitely “good stuff”. I highly respect David Baldacci and his talent as a writer. If I find something in his works that I find could use improvement, it’s by no means an indication that I think less of him. I’ve never written a book before and I would be ecstatic if I was as good of an author as he is.

If you’re looking for a good book to read you can’t go wrong with David Baldacci’s “Deliver Us from Evil.”

How to Have TrueCrypt Ask For Password AutomaticallyPosted on February 13th, 2011

In this video on TrueCrypt I discuss how to set it up so that you will be prompted for your password automatically when you plug in your TrueCrypt encrypted jump drive or portable hard drive.

TrueCrypt is great regardless of how you use it, however there are certain settings you can use that will make it a lot more user friendly than it is with the default settings. For instance, to actually mount an encrypted container or volume on your hard drive, portable hard drive, or flash drive, it takes a number of steps that can be annoying to have to do each time. If you dig into some of the settings you can set up TrueCrypt to ask you for your password automatically when you plug a TrueCrypt encrypted external device into your computer.

To do this you’ll have to go through the “manual” process of mounting your encrypted drive first. Once you’ve mounted it to another drive letter and you see the encrypted volume or container you can right-click on the mounted drive and select “Add To Favorites”.

When you select “Add to Favorites” a window will open up that will have a number of options you can select for your favorite volume or container you just set up. One of these options or check boxes that you can select says “Mount selected volume when its host device gets connected”. This is the option you want to select so that you will automatically be prompted for the password when your TrueCrypt encrypted drive or container is plugged in.

There is one more setting you’ll want to change to make this work smoothly. Unless TrueCrypt is already running when you plug your flash drive or portable hard drive in it will not ask you for the password. TrueCrypt has to be running in the background for it to ask for the password. To set TrueCrypt up to run in the background automatically when your computer is booted you’ll want to go to “Settings” >> “Preferences” and select the checkbox next to “Start TrueCrypt Background Task” under the heading of “Actions to perform upon logon to Windows”. Once this is done you are good to go and any time you plug in your TrueCrypt encrypted flash drive or portable hard drive you will be prompted for the password. No more manually mounting the drive. Definitely good stuff.

TrueCrypt Format Disk ErrorPosted on February 12th, 2011

Ever see the prompt on a TrueCrypt Encrypted portable hard drive or jump drive that says “You need to format the disk in drive (drive letter): before you can use it.” when you plug the drive in?

I’ve seen it a few times and the video above goes over how to fix it so that you don’t see that prompt every time you plug in your encrypted flash drive or hard drive. I’ll also give you a walk through here.

On my last post I went over how to encrypt a portable hard drive with TrueCrypt by encrypting the “volume” rather than creating an encrypted container. The reason being the encrypted container seemed to me too easy to delete. The process to encrypt the hard drive wasn’t that difficult, and I actually think it was even easier to do than creating an encrypted container. (On one of my earlier posts I did go over how to create an encrypted container with TrueCrypt if you would like to check it out.)

One of the issues I ran into after encrypting my portable hard drive was this prompt every time I plugged the hard drive in that says “You need to format the disk in drive (drive letter): before you can use it.”. I did some research and found it’s a pretty common error.

What you need to do to fix it is go into your “Computer Management” >> “Disk Management” and then right click on the drive letter for your device. Select “Change Drive  Letters and Paths…”. Then click on “Remove”. You will get a “Disk Management” information box that states “Some programs that rely on drive letters might not run correctly. Are you sure you want to remove this drive letter?”. Select “Yes”. This will take care of the prompt asking you to format the drive and you will not ever see it again on that particular computer.

Create a TrueCrypt Volume on Portable Hard DrivePosted on January 27th, 2011

Here’s a video on how to create an encrypted volume on your portable flash drive or hard drive. I cover how to set up an encrypted container with TrueCrypt on a flash drive or portable hard drive in one of my other videos, however I feel the encrypted volume is a better solution. It’s a better solution for two main reasons.

1. It’s very easy to delete an encrypted container so if you aren’t paying attention you could really screw yourself bad.
2. The encrypted volume is supposed to be faster when you are working with it. And, I found that it almost seems easier to set up than the encrypted container.

Installing TrueCrypt Encryption on A Flash Drive or Hard DrivePosted on January 26th, 2011

This video goes over how to install a TrueCrypt Encrypted container on your flash/jump drive or a portable hard drive. It’s typically the easiest and most straight forward way of using true crypt and it allows you to use your encrypted jump drive or portable hard drive on any computer, even if it doesn’t have TrueCrypt installed.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind with this method of using TrueCrypt.

• It’s an encrypted file that can be accidentally deleted.
• It may not be as fast when using the encrypted container as it would be if you were using an encrypted volume.

I’ll be going over how to encrypt a volume in the next video.

Installing and Using Spyware BlasterPosted on December 28th, 2010

It seems as though computer viruses are becoming more and more common. It got me thinking why I haven’t ended up with a computer virus on any of my machines. One of the free software security applications that I have installed on all of my computers is Java Cools SpywareBlaster, and it’s probably one of the factors why I’ve been able to prevent an infection with any these viruses and malware.

I’ve been using SpywareBlaster for years and I install it on every computer I use. It’s not the only thing I use, but it’s a main component. Do yourself a favor and go on over to http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html to download and install it.

For those that would like the basics on how to use this spywareblaster the rest of this post will give you the details you need to get going. I’m including a how to video as well.

Here’s the steps to installing and using SpywareBlaster.
1. Go to ttp://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html to download and install Spywareblaster.

2. Click on the green “Free Download” button on the right side. You can’t miss it (see image to the left).

3. The next page is going to give you an option to continue to the download or get Spywareblaster with Automatic Updates. If you are the type of person that would like things done automatically you can go with the automatic updates option, however you do have to pay for it. It’s not super expensive at $10/yr which may be worth it. I’m ok with updating my computers myself each week so I’ve always used the free version. If your going with the free version simply select the gray “Continue Download” button (see image below).

Spywareblaster Continue to Download Page Screenshot

4. On the “downloads” page click on any of the links for the download (See image below). If downloads.com is an option I typically go with that one.

Spywareblaster Downloads Page

5. After the program is downloaded to your computer click on the spywareblastersetup file. It will be an .exe file.

6. Go through the steps to install Spywareblaster. Just stick to the defaults and click on the next option each time.

7. After Spywareblaster is installed it will open up to the updating options page. Again, click on “Manual Updating” if you want to continue using the free version (See Image Below).

SpywareBlaster Updating Options

8. On the next page (SpywareBlaster Protection Status) click on the “Updates” option on the left. It has the icon that looks like the world (See Image Below).

SpywareBlaster Updating Options

9. On the SpywareBlaster Updates page click on the “Check for Updates” option. This is what you will want to do every week or so to make sure that SpywareBlaster is updated. It will check for updates and then you will be presented with a screen letting you know whether there were updates or not. In this case there were updates and it is showing that there are now 25 unprotected items. Click on the “Enable Protection for all Unprotected Items”. It’s not a button. It’s underlined text (see image).

SpywareBlaster Update Screen Shot

10. You now have SpywareBlaster installed and updated. Simply close it down now and you are good to go. It will work in the background without any further action on your part. Just make sure to update it every week or so.