This is a common error generated by Windows Defender when the Windows Defender Service cannot be started. The fix is rather straight forward…

Go to Start -> Run Type in services.msc

Make sure Windows Defender Services is running, if it is not, manually start it.

If that doesn’t fix the problem, download and install Windows Defender from Microsoft.

If you are trying to Disable Windows Defender, follow this URL below…

Popularity: 5% [?]

Windows Defender can be easily disabled and here is how it’s done… It is NOT recommended to be disabled and I hope you know what you’re doing.

Here is how it’s done…

Go to Start -> Control Panel and click on Security Centre or go to Start -> Run and type in wscui.cpl and It will bring up Security Centre.

Click Tools, and then click Options.

Under Administrator options, select or clear the Use Windows Defender check box, and then click Save. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Looks like Microsoft has decided to bounce all the YouTube URLs sent via Live Messenger. It is rather pathetic to see such measure been taken in direct competition with Google.

Microsoft has its own version of Video sharing site called MSN Video and I guess it’s their way of competing against YouTube just because Microsoft has the upper hand when it comes to Instant Messenger.

Here is an example…

The following message could not be delivered to all recipients:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVjzd320gew

There are two solutions for it, one being straight forward where you just modify the URL by changing the HTTP into HXXP so it will not trigger their system and bounce back to you. But the only disadvantage is, the receiving party will not be able to click on the link, instead they have to copy and paste the link on their favourite web browser (Firefox in my case :-))

Here is how to get pass it…

hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVjzd320gew

Having said that, there is another way to do it…

It is by encrypting the msn conversation you have with people. I have written a small article on Encrypting IM Conversations a while back and that way, it is possible to send and receive YouTube URLs through Windows Live Message.

The only downside of that is, both parties needs to have the Encryption Software Installed.

You can find the Encryption Software on the following URL…
http://www.secway.fr/us/products/simplite_msn/

Popularity: 16% [?]

Vodafone, one of the world’s largest mobile phone operators has finally got their hands on the 2G version of the iPhone.

This means countries like Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will all be able get a feel of the Apple iPhone.

Even though it is the 2G version of the iPhone, users from most of the above countries won’t have the need to upgrade to the 3G version because it is not supported there; but Eventually people wants to get their hands on the 3G version of the iPhone which is supposed to be out in this summer.

The question is, what other features is the 3G version going to have…? GPS?

Popularity: 17% [?]

The price of the iPhone has dropped dramatically last week but somehow I am still not convinced whether to get one or not. I have been talking to many people who think iPhone is the best phone they ever hard, and at the same time I have even talked to some people who hates the device.

When it comes to phone, I go for something out of the ordinary. Well, that’s what people say… but when you look at it, it is not the case. When I chose a phone, I don’t look at the price of the phone, but I always go for one with multiple features spanning from GPS to HSDPA with a QWERTY keyboard.

That is why I have never considered on getting an iPhone because it doesn’t have all 3 above features I look for in a phone.

There are a few more reasons why I don’t like an iPhone, and I could go on and on; here is a short list…

No GPS

GPS is tuning into a must have on every single phone (mainly high end phones / PDAs) and Apple decided to go for cell tower triangulation… I can’t think of any reason why they would go for such thing, when you can easily equip the phone with a GPS chip… Only explanation I could think of is, Apple were so behind on developing the iPhone software, they didn’t have time to write software to work with a GPS chip… Even that sounds lame!

No 3G / HSDPA

I mean, who would have a phone without 3G / HSDPA, Going from 3G to EDGE is like going from DSL Broadband to dialup. If you are one of those people who would use the iPhone just for phone calls and a replacement for an iPod, that’s fine but since Apple is marketing that the iPhone is the ultimate web surfing phone, they should have thought about equipping it 3G than yesteryear EDGE technology.

No Keyboard

Apple is advertising about surfing the net and they didn’t think of putting a keyboard in… It is not a big factor because I do think people would get used to using the iPhone keyboard with a lot of practice.

No Push E-mail

This phone does not support Push E-Mail facility, unless you are on an unlimited data plan with your phone carrier (provider), you are going to have pay a LOT of money for the E-Mail traffic. It all depends on how many mails you get a day and how often you check the mail. If it is me, I definitely will be paying over £100/Month on Data alone!

Cannot change Battery

This is the only phone that I know which doesn’t let you change the battery. When there is something wrong with the battery, you will have to send it to Apple for them to take a look at… And if it’s out of the warranty period, you pretty much have to throw the phone away!

Pathetic Camera

iPhone Camera! Is a Joke, the only word I would describe the iPhone Camera is “Pathetic”. At least they could have put a 3MP camera in it… But No! the mighty Apple wants to save it for the next generation of iPhone…

Since they have dropped the price of an iPhone, I am somewhat tempted to get one, even though I don’t like the phone and currently have one of the best phones in the market (HTC Kaiser) I guess just want to play around with… Or I can go ahead pick up a nice 2611XM Cisco Router from eBay for that money… I got 2 weeks to decide and I would most likely go for the latter.

Popularity: 26% [?]

This is a controversial question among people whether UK should monitor all Internet and communication activates like the USA. When this subject is brought up, people automatically go on the defensive and starts to argue the fact about privacy and human rights; Granted, privacy is a major issue, and when it involves national security, it will spark some inimitable questions among us.

I am not in favour of the Government breaching privacy and human rights issues; on the contrary, in my opinion, national security should be given priority among other things.

This is a very sensitive issue and when this subject is brought up, people seem to think that all their internet activities are going to be watched, including their internet shopping. This is not the case here, and if the government goes ahead and do such monitoring system, it will cost billions.

I think the word monitoring should be redefined when it comes to this topic and should be balanced in a way that it does not interfere with people’s privacy issues, thus a flagging system to use for such monitoring would an ideal choice. This way, people’s privacy won’t be compromised and at the same time it would allow the government to monitor the internet.

All we see in the news lately is terrorist activities directly linked to the internet and how they used the net to communicate with each other. So, if such system was in place, in theory the chances of stopping such thing would be extremely high.

I think it’s safe to say, UK should monitor all Internet and communication activities so they can rule out terrorism in their home soil.

Popularity: 21% [?]

I have always wanted a portable terminal emulator on my phone, so I could do some quick changes on UNIX Servers / Routers by using my phone than login to the PC and load SecureCRT every single time…

I have come across PockeTTY which pretty much support everything I need and I am rather impressed with this software.

http://www.dejavusoftware.com/pocketty/

Everything is on their website and it is rather self explanatory.

I have tested PockeTTY on HTC Kaiser / TyTN II and it works without any problems so far…

Popularity: 24% [?]

Photos Around The World: View of Perth, seen through Goolagong Bridge - Over the Swan River.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Tiscali, once a small ISP in UK has started to take over a number of UK ISPs and now it has become one of the largest ISP in Europe. Taking over popular ISPs like Pipex, Nildrum Freedom2Surf has not only made a lot customer unhappy but moving the customers to their own LLU has been questioned as an illegal move by many.

After the takeover, Tiscali couldn’t handle the enormous data flow generated by their customers so they are now forced to implement bandwidth / port throttling on the connections.

What does this mean?

Even if you have a fully burstable 8 Mbps downstream, the connection will be throttled on specific ports and streaming sites like YouTube. Even though you can download at the speed of 8 Mbps, the routers at Tiscali will only allow you to download at the speed it is set to pass through. If you are a Tiscali customer, you can see why YouTube takes too long to load…

It is not surprising because, Tiscali is offering Unlimited download speed to their customers as a marketing scam and it is certainly not equipped to handle that amount of traffic; so the answer is bandwidth throttling!

Since Tiscali users are on their own LLU, migrating away from Tiscali can be a costly and currently it cost around £40 for the LLU switch to BT IPstream.

If you are a Tiscali customer do yourselves a favour, your MAC code and migrate away to a real ISP!

Popularity: 25% [?]

What is BBC iPlayer? It is an on demand streaming service by BBC to watch the programs Aired over the television in the last 7 days. It is an Adobe Flash based streaming service which is pretty much available to all computer users including iPhone and other mobile devices.

iPlayer launch has been a huge success and this is causing rows between BBC and the UK based ISPs over the increase in network traffic caused by this streaming service. The ISPs are complaining the specific streaming service is causing strain on their networks and thus it needs to be upgraded to cope with the high network traffic.

One of the UK’s biggest ISP Tiscali who went onto take over a few ISPs over the last few months is now complaining the fact it needs to upgrade the network and saying BBC should contribute to the cost.

If this is a US based streaming website, the ISPs wouldn’t have said anything but to upgrade their infrastructure to handle the load or they would blacklist the streaming service.

Just because iPlayer is UK based service and been streamed by the BBC, the ISPs has decided to complain so they can get BBC to contribute to the cost.

The networks are in need of an upgrade regardless because of the enormous traffic generated by the popular streaming service like YouTube and it is rather amusing to see one of the largest ISP trying to put the upgrade cost on a public funded body like the BBC.

Popularity: 24% [?]