Use Windows long enough and you’ll recognize that bloated, sinking feeling creeping in. Spyware and viruses pile up, registries get corrupted, drivers stop working or cause conflicts — eventually reaching that point where you want to just erase everything and re-install the entire system. After swearing to pay more attention to the links you follow and the software you install, you find yourself staring at a brand-new-all-over-again Windows desktop.

Your system is fresh and untarnished. Now what? Time to tweak it to your satisfaction!

Start by running Windows Update to make sure you’re up to date with all the patches and security updates and then follow our handy guide to get the most out of Windows.

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Ok so we decided that people should have a chance to converse with us here at IG in a more direct fashion. As such we have set up a room on DALnet where we can do just that. So for all you IRC users out there the details are as follows:

irc.dal.net

#irishgeeks

For anyone unfamiliar with irc clients and the whole irc thing I would reccomend downloading a stable version of xchat as it is a solid open source irc client and has an easy to use interface. If you dont wish to do this then dont worry. In the coming days we will be adding a Java applet to the site that you can access the room from.

we look forward to hearing from you all soon. Cya in the room and remember people. Keep it geeky.

So right now the boys over at bittorrent.org are working on ways to bypass the filtering set up by Comcast. The socalled Sandvine stuff that they use that is. Now this is going to be a very tough thing for them to get done but if they succeed then things could get very interesting.

Personally I believe that theyre right to try and bypass these security measures. I think they should because I dont wanna wait longer than i have to to download the several gigs that makes up the latest Fedora Build. I salute their vigilence and their dedication to the ways of bittorrent. Now read on for details on their plans.

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These days, nothing worries an internet service provider more than peer-to-peer file trading. Depending on where you live, P2P can account for between 50 and 75% of broadband internet traffic. We mostly have the popularity of BitTorrent to thank for this crazy amount of data going to and fro.

This amount of traffic can raise the ISPs daily costs of delivering service, cause congestion either in your neighborhood or on the ISP’s network, and force the ISP to buy increased bandwidth capacity.

But if you’ve been paying close attention to your BitTorrent transfers lately (or if you’ve simply been reading the news) you’ll notice that ISPs have begun to take drastic measures to slow that flood of data currently clogging up their pipes.

Even though many of them deny it, most ISPs actively engage in traffic shaping, bandwidth throttling, connection denial or some such tactic to keep the amount of bandwidth consumed by high traffic applications on their networks to a minimum. While this does often ensure better performance for everyone in the neighborhood, it can mean painfully slow transfer speeds for those dabbling in P2P — legit or not.

While there are valid arguments for and against shaping, we’re not here to debate. We just want the fastest BitTorrent transfers possible.

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image courtesy of Apple

Ology is a suffix denoting a field of study or academic discipline. Appleologists, as mentioned in Ars Technica, would therefore be people studying the field of Apple. Contrary to logic and belief, there are many who could fit this description.

As the buzz about Macworld 2008, Apple’s annual shindig, is building to a crescendo the air is full of speculation as to what new products will be announced. After all the iPhone was born a year ago. What will it be this year?

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Arguably the best video codec available is DivX, providing much better quality than DVD and a size in an order of magnitude smaller filesize. It’s the perfect format for video on the web. Unfortunately the Apple iPod does not support the DivX video codec, which presents a problem if you want to view downloaded movies or trailers on your iPod. The iPod may not even have the horsepower to play DivX.

In this article, I’ll explain how to you can easily convert your video files into a format that Apples’ ipod video will readily accept…

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Sexual predators and online pedophiles are a growing concern among parents whose children use the internet. The FBI estimates that there are now over one million pedophiles active online. With many of them involved with child pornography. The majority are and chatting with children online daily.Here is a simple checklist that you can review in order to determine if your child’s habits online should cause you concern for the safety of your child and even your family.

Teaching your child not to reveal any personal information in chat rooms or over the internet which might lead a predator to the child can go a long way to ensuring their safety. Knowing what to look for is the first step.

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At present the IrishGeeks website has two part-time writers, producers, bloggers - whatever you want to call us, there are two of us writing the content for the website, but thats not nearly enough -we want more! IrishGeeks aims to be a portal to the world of tech news for Ireland, and such a lofty goal is unlikely to be achieved with merely the two of us on staff part time.

So we are calling out for any geeks (…or nerds) out there who live in the republic, which have a good level of english (we’re not asking for shakespear here, but dublander in written form wont suffice either), and a passion for technology to contribute and become a member of the IG family.

Whats in it for you, besides the esteem of becoming an IrishGeek? well, you’ll have your articles posted on Irelands best technology blog, in addition to which we offer a fair revenue share of the GoogleAd’s presented on any article you post.

If your interested, drop us a line via our contact page. If you do so, naturally telling us about yourself, and giving a sample of your written work will work wonders.

Ah, to start from scratch - wouldnt it be nice if we could do that with life sometimes. Sadly thats not an option, however we can often find ourselves in a position where we can start from scratch with our computers - whether its a brand spanking newbie or our trusty daily use computer after its been reinstalled; unlike the life scenario however, starting from scratch with your computer(s) can be quite frustrating, having to download an reinstall all the apps you use day-in day-out.

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Ok lets start off by simply stating that everyone who has used both windows Xp and Vista preferrs Xp right? Well Microsoft dont really like that.

Microsoft have started up a “Fat or Fiction” quiz to help you to see just how good Vista is and to help you to sell Vista to your nearest and dearest and any schmuck that walks in off the street. This little quiz comes with an offer of a free Vista polo shirt and a chance at a $15000 prize but then again its Australia only so most people wont care about it much. But wait… if its an Aussie only thing why should we at IG care? Well its just too funny not to have a look at it.

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