Toying with microsoft virtual pc

I am still unable to find the canonscan lide20 drivers for my windows 7 64-bit system. Finally, I tried to create a virtual pc to install the driver meant for Windows XP.

I went to www.microsoft.com to look for the update file (.msu) to install the Virtual PC. After a few experiments I was able to install WinXP in this Virtual PC. The snag is I did not know how to access files in my host drive to install the said driver for the above scanner.

When I click on Microsoft Virtual PC, my Windows XP looks exactly as it should be run but with a smaller window. I managed to install a free AVG anti-virus software in it. That's it. I have yet to know to access files in my real drive to do more installation of software.

Toying with Microsoft Virtual PC will occupy much of my free time these few days.

How to set up a default email

In surfing the Internet, we sometimes need to click to direct some articles, photos and so on to be sent to our email. However, when you click it, it will go to Outlook which you have not configured and you miss having the material sent to your email.

In this post, I will introduce one freeware that will direct the material sent when 'mailto' command in the highlighted word is clicked. The address to download this freeware is

http://gmaildefault.codeplex.com/releases/view/55413

Download this gmail default maker and install it.

The next time you click on any line that bears 'mailto', it will be directed to gmail, yahoo or hotmail as is preferred when you run the software.

Chap Goh Meh and the lasses

Come this evening, and you will hear the splashing sound of mandarin oranges falling into the rivers or sea. Why? It's Chap Goh Mei or literally the 15th night of the Lunar New Year. On this day, unmarried girls will throw mandarin oranges into the river in the hope of gettingn good husbands, as is the general belief among the Chinese.

Nowadays, the girls will write down their mobile phone numbers on the oranges, hoping that those who pick them up will call to strike up friendship which is hoped to develop into love, leading to marriage. Hence Chap Goh Mei is also considered the equivalent of Valentine's Day.

I hope all single girls will find their life-partners after Chap Goh Mei having done the necessary customarily.

How to create a shortcut on the desktop

Many a time, we need to launch a program quicky. The best place will be to place it on the desktop.
In this post, I will share my knowledge of how to create a shortcut on the desktop. Here are the steps:
1 Right click the desktop.
2 Go to New.
3 Click Shortcut
4 If you know the location of the program, type it in the box provided.
5 If not, click browse and search for it and click it.
6 Click Next
7 Give a name to your shortcut.
8 Click Finish

I hope this tip is useful to readers of this blog.

Thumbs up for Windows backup

I had a busy week retrieving some of my important documents since my Windows crashed because of my 'cleverness' in resizing Drive C, resulting in my Drive G completely wiped out when my earlier Windows back up restored my PC to the Dell fresh environment as bought. Imaging my heartbreak when many of my 'masterpieces' cannot be revived. I have two unformat software to get back the files in Drive G of my hard disk and I had to wait for 4 hours for each of them to prepare the environment because restoration work can be donw. Alas, after that I could still not get back a single file because the preview showed 'rubbish' rather than the text I wanted to see.

From now on, I will stick to the principle of saving any single word document in Drive C, Drive G and my USB in order not to suffer the same fate as I did just a week ago. From my experience, the Windows back up is still the best solution. The rescue disk can boot up your computer and you can have it look for the back up file saved on another external hard disk.

I hope all readers will do the same to safeguard their system by having Windows back up your system, files if needed and have it create your rescue disk too. As for the backup image file, it is better to have two copies in case one should fail you. Likewise, prepare two rescue disks too should it fail to boot up your computer.

How I do ocr in Windows 7 64-bit environment

When I purchased my Dell desktop last, it came with preinstalled Windows 7 64-bit. While 64-bit environment runs faster, it inconveniences me as my FineReader 6 OCR software cannot access my Canon LiDE 20 scanner.

After some searching in the Internet, I downloaded VueScan and it can be run under Windows 7 64-bit environment. Then I thought of an idea to do OCR with the scanned files.

First, I will scan the text using VueScan and save under jpeg file. Then I will start FineReader 6 to read the scan file. It works and that is how I am able to use my old dear FineReader to scan text through the image done by VueScan earlier.

I suppose sometimes we have to do things in a roundbout way to achiever our aim.

At Midnight today is Thnee Kong Seh

The Hokkiens will pray to the Jade Emperor (Thnee Kong) tonight at midnight. It is to commemorate the event of them being save from extermination in ancient time when they took shelter in a sugarcane plantation. Hence the compulsory item for tonight's praying session is the sugarcane. Other praying items include ang koo (red glutinous rice cake), mee koo (red coloured buns), huat kuih (prosperous cake), bit chien (skewered sweets), bee koe (swee glutinous rice) and nogr siew th'ng (pink padoda-shaped candies).

Although firecrackers are banned, you will never miss the sound of firecrackers the moment midnight arrives. The din can be quite deafening at times.

Happy praying to the Jade Emperor on His birthday today.

How to use 'some time', 'sometime' and 'sometimes'

In order to use 'some time', 'sometime' and 'sometimes' correctly, we must first of all know their meanings. 'Some time' means 'a period of time', 'sometime' carries the meaning of 'at an unstated time in future' and 'sometimes' is the equivalent of 'occasionally'.

Let us try to make sentences out of them to show how to use them correctly.

1 I will need some time to tidy up my messy room.'
2 Krishnan remembered seeing the man sometime last week.'
3 Sometimes we have to try our luck in doing something new.

Now try to make sentences yourself with these three words.

Email saved my day

I was meddling with my C drive when I resized it so that I could have another drive but alas I did the wrong thing when I formatted the new drive resulting in it being unable to boot. As I did not have my rescue disk which I should have created very much earlier.

The above situation rendered my computer dead as I could not restore the system at all. Then out of desperation, I used a downloaded Windows 7 to reinstall my system. After having done that, I made a rescue disk. With this disk, I was able to restore my Windows 7 Home Premium - the preinstalled system by Dell. However, in the restoration process, it wipe out all my data in Drive G. My precious data of my lessons are gone. I had intended to back it up later but now I really regretted not doing it.

As I emailed my lessons to the tuition centre every month for publication, I was looking for a place where I might retriever. Fortunately, in the Sent folder, I could see all the files I sent earlier. Hence, I downloaded all these and kept them in two places - one in the hard disk and one in my USB drive.

Email really saved my day.

Welcome back, God of Kitchen

Today the Chinese will pray to welcome back the Zhao Shen or God of Kitchen after having left the Earth on the 24th day of first moon according to the Lunar Calendar. Hopefully He had made a good report about one's household.

Shop owners and vendors also start to do their business as is the norm. Business is really good as not all businessmen want to start working today.

I visited my usual coffee shop and was happy to note that there was no increase in the price of coffee and tea sold to regular customers like us.

Tomorrow most office-workers will start their routine again.

I hope the Rabbit Year will be a very good one for every body.

How to enable file name extension in Windows 7

Many a time, I wanted to rename a file in Windows 7, only to finding myself having filenames such as happy.tif.jpg just because the file extension of happy.tif , that is tif cannot be seen. In the processing of renaming the jpg extension is appended at its end.

I have learnt of how to enable file extension in Windows 7 and would like to share it with readers. Here it goes:

1 Click the Start button, then click Control Panel.

2 When Appearance and Personalization is seen, click the Folder option

3 Then Click View and under Advanced Settings, clear the Hide file extension by clicking the tick sign to clear it.

4 Click OK.

Happy computing.

Second day of Xin Nian

The second of Xin Nian is meant fora daughter-in-law to go back to her family's house. As for the first day, she and her husband will go to the hubby's house to give red packets to the parents and her husband's unmarried siblings.

For this year, the first day of Chinese New Year is not a good day to receive the God of Money but today is. The direction is North-east. Hence it is a good idea to place a bowl full of 168 0ne-cent or 10-cent coins on a table at the North-eastern corner of the house. This act will bring in luck and a lot of money to the owner of the house.

I am now enjoying myself watching variety shows over the telesion and surfing the net at the same time. This post was done while I was doing multitasking in this way.

Happy receiving the Dewa of Money today.

It is Xin Nian today

The year of the Rabbit is here today. The Chinese call their New Year, Xin Nian.

On this day, the children will be the happiest because they will be getting Hong Bao or red packet containing money from their parents and relatives who are married. Only those who are married can have the privilege to hand out hong bao.

As parents the Chinese have to part with their money in the form of hong bao to their children and offspring of their relatives. The very purpose of giving out this red packets is to wish the young a safe year. It is also called ya sui qian which means 'money for longevity'.

One of the taboos during Xin Nian are sweeping the rubbish in the house. Rubbish is thought to be money. Hence by throwing away rubbish, you are literally throwing away your dough. Another taboo is saying bad things or something not auspicious. They should greet each other 'Xin Nian Kuan Le' or 'Happy New Year', 'Gong Xi Fa Cai' or ''Congratulations for striking it rich' and so on. The Cantonese will not say 'San Nin Fai Lok' which is meant to say ' Happy New Year' because 'Fai Lok' can also mean 'Falling fast' as 'fai' is 'quick' and 'lok' is 'fall' in the Cantonese dialect.

Xin Nian Kuai Le to all Chinese readers of this blog.

It is reunion dinner time again

Today is the eve of Xin Nian or Chinese New Year. On this day, members of the family will come together for Tuan Yuan Fan or Reunion Dinner. To me it is a good practice and should be sustained because it stresses family unity as no matter how far you are you will come back to meet your father, mother, brothers and sisters. Each of you will be able to exchange news of the happenings throughout the year.

I still remember how I rushed back from Pahang, 500 kilometres away from home just to be in time for this occastion. My principal, Encik Yaakub Isa allowed us off earlier so that I could reached Penang before Chinese New Year Eve.

It is always wonderful to be home. Hence the saying 'Home Sweet Home'. The Malay proverb always says 'Hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu di negeri batu di negeri sendiri, baik juga di negeri sendiri' which can be translated literally as ' Golden rain in other people's country, stone rain in our own country, it is better to be in one's own country.'

I wish all Chinese enjoy this family togetherness today.

A free software to backup system and files

In this today's post, I would like to share with readers a free software for us to backup our system and files. My past experience taught me to be double safe when it comes to restoring our OS, that is Windows. Although Windows 7 comes with a back and restore system, it is still OK to have another backup software.

The software in question is EASEUS TODO Backup Home. It helps you to backup your system or files. The beautiful part of this gem is you can create a bootup disk to do the discovery job. I tried the boot disk and it worked. Just for your information, you can download it from the following URL or link:

http://www.todo-backup.com/download/

Happy backing up your system and files.