RejZoR's little secrets

Yesterday i got my new soundcard, the famous ASUS Xonar Essence STX. However first thing that cought my eye was butt ugly tray icon. Blue and black mother of all uglyness. Yuck. So i've made my own in 10 seconds with Paint.NET, IcoFX and ResHacker. It's nothing fancy but still light years better than original one. Anyone who wants to swap it for my new one, here is how you can do it.

First and most important is to exit the Xonar tray icon. Right click it and select "Exit"!
Now download ResHacker, unpack it somewhere and run ResHacker.exe (Run as Administrator if using Vista/Win7), click "File" in toolbar menu and then "Open..."
Navigate to:
C:\Program Files\ASUS Xonar Essence STX Audio\Customapp

...select AsusAudioCenter.exe and click "Open".

Download this icon file and save it somewhere.

Now go to ResHacker again and select "Action" and then "Replace Icon..."
Select "Open file with new icon..." and select the stx.ico (the one you've downloaded few seconds ago).
Now click "Replace" button below.

Final step is to save the changes, so click "File" menu button again and then "Save".
Reshacker will modify the file and automatically create a backup file in the same folder where original is located. Thats why it's very important to run ResHacker with "Run as Administrator", otherwise it will probably fail to patch the file and make a backup.

And now the results (first icon in traybar is from Xonar Essence)...

Old icon:


New icon:


Looks much better doesn't it? Enjoy!

Well, you may like Internet Explorer 8 or not, this might be a thing worth checking.
If you are using Internet Explorer browser 6 or 7, it's time to update to faster and more secure version 8 anyway. If you're using Safari, Chrome, Opera or Firefox, well, then you might want to download Internet Explorer 8 anyway. Why? Because Microsoft is donating 8 meals for each complete download of IE8 to help decrease hunger problems in USA. We all hear about food problems in Africa, but ppl down there aren't the only one facing this problem. It's sad that even ppl in already developed and rich countries suffer from this problem. Besides, it's good to have browser component up to date even if you're not using it. I do it just to be sure some malware won't be able to exploit it.

How can i help? Just head to this web page: http://www.browserforthebetter.com and download IE8 now (downloads from Microsoft web page don't count!). It doesn't matter from where you are, it doesn't cost you anything except few seconds or minutes to download and you can help those who are less fortune to survive another tough day with at least some help.

Microsoft will be donating $1,15 for each successful download to organization Feed America up to a maximum value of $1.000.000 (1 mio dollars).

I've donated my small part by downloading IE8 from the web page above (even though i'm not from USA).
It's time for you to do the same! And don't forget to spread the word to your friends and other online buddies!

LINK: http://www.browserforthebetter.com

When you think things couldn't have gotten any wrong, think again. European Commission (EC) has decided that Microsoft has to bundle competitors browsers with Windows because of the monopoly position of Internet Explorer browser. Now the one and only question from my side is: "WTF!?"
Because the other way around, when Microsoft just decided not to include IE for European market, the EC was not pleased again. They want users to give "choice". Sorry, I'm from Europe, but this is just load of bollocks. Why on our freakin' Earth would anyone want a crippled OS for the same price as the one that's not crippled? If i want Windows, i want it in full feature, not in full lack of everything.
If i don't want to use IE (which i don't, I'm using Firefox), i can just do that since um forever. IE is there somewhere, i just don't use it. Big deal. Besides, this decision by EC makes no sense at all. It's like expecting Apple to bundle IE, Chrome, Firefox and Opera. They only bundle Safari with their OS and as such, it has a full monopoly position. Why no one complains over that? They are just as guilty as Microsoft if they want it this way.
EC can't be serious and expect Microsoft to actually do that. I mean it's like expecting Hyundai car manufacturer to give you option to chose from a full spectrum of engines. If i want Hyundai Coupe with Volkswagen engine, they'd have to provide it to me. Wait, what!? Well, that's what EC is expecting from Microsoft. I don't see this ever happening. If i buy OS, i want it to contain basic image editor, basic calculator, basic text editor, basic media player and basic browser. That's what Apple is doing, that's what KDE/Gnome (Linux community) are doing and that's what Microsoft has been doing for decades. Why the hell they have to change that now? And for what? There is loads of info on alternate browsers everywhere, people recommend alternate browsers to friends so there is seriously no need to do something this stupid just because EC wants to prove something.

I guess there is a way users can complain over this matter here:
http://ec.europa.eu/contact/index_en.htm

If you're from Europe, let them know that you don't agree with this stupid idea and that you want a full blown operating system. Because expecting some company to bundle competitors products just makes no sense and will never happen. No browser idea also doesn't work. How will you get Firefox or Opera if you can't access internet lol?

EC should be working on more important things, than constantly poking at Microsoft for every dumb thing they come up with.