To my amazement, I picked up at least 20 different devices. I had setup my mom’s phone to be discoverable for 2 minutes only. I could not believe how many people had their devices on discoverable, seeing as there were about 50 people in the restaurant at the time.

Having your Bluetooth set to ‘discoverable’ isn’t all that bad per se, but it can leave your device vulnerable. For one, once discovered, someone could theoretically track you if he/she stays in range of your device. Secondly, your phone or device could get bluejackedBluejacking is the sending of unsolicited messages over Bluetooth to Bluetooth-enabled devices. or bluesnarfedBluesnarfing is the unauthorized access of information from a wireless device through a Bluetooth connection.. The former is harmless, but irritating, as someone could potentially send text messages to your phone via Bluetooth. The latter however, can be quite harmful. Bluesnarfing is basically hacking someone else’s device over Bluetooth. They could theoretically get access to the information on your device.

There have been television shows that have shown how hackers can make money or steal information from devices over Bluetooth in public locations. So the threat is very real.

The safest option is to keep your Bluetooth off. However, nowadays with handsfree devices and OTA (over-the-air) syncronization, Bluetooth has become a requirement for many environments. The safer option is to keep your device non-discoverable, and only to make it discoverable when needed, ideally using a temporarily discoverable option (usually for a couple of minutes).

Now, my first thought was to purchase an online gift certificate for iTunes and have it sent to my friend’s email address. I figured it would be the cleanest and fastest way. Alas, it was not. After browsing the Apple site and finding the electronic gift certificate options, I decided to buy. To my disappointment, I could not buy this online as there was a message displayed on the screen saying “Download iTunes Free”. Given the situation, I figured “Why not? I can just install it, order and remove it.” So after downloading iTunes, waiting a remarkably long time for it to install, I finally start it up and create an account for myself. I then proceed to put in my credit card details, and go off to the iTunes Store to find the electronic gift certificates. To my dismay, after pressing the “Buy Now” button, I was informed that my account is not able to send electronic gift cards, and that I should visit a local store to purchase one. Some swearing occurred, followed by a swift uninstall iTunes and its components.

Later that day, we discovered that we ran out of beer. So I decide to take a trip to the corner store to get some. While there, I noticed the stand of gift cards, and decide to look for an iTunes one. Once again, I found myself rather disgruntled to find out that they only had the ones for iTunes music and movies, but not the ones for the App Store. This is another thing I heard about from a friend, and I do not understand it. I cannot see why Apple decided to split up their gift cards into two categories and making the end-user have to choose.

Upon returning to my friend’s place, I chose to simply put my credit card information in his iTunes account, and we then proceeded to purchasing the app we wanted.

Like so many things, I feel like iTunes chose to follow the “Why make it simple when you can make it complicated.” approach.

Since the budget for this was negligible, I searched around for free solutions that could support this type of setup.  I decided to set it up using the new Windows Live Mesh program that comes with Windows Live Essentials, and that works with the Windows Cloud.

The setup in itself was very easy and straightforward.  I downloaded the client on the main computer, installed the Live Mesh application whilst ignoring the other application options, and setup the login with a new Windows Live account.

Once the application was installed, all I had to do was a simple folder synchronization by choosing the folder with the documents, and setting up the sync with SkyDrive, Microsoft’s free online storage.  The program then proceeded to upload all the documents in the folder to the SkyDrive, therefore providing the backup functionality that was needed.  Once completed, I setup the Live Mesh client on the other two computers, then saw the shared Documents folder from the main computer, and setup the synchronization with a local folder on the computer, the client downloaded all the files to the respective folders.

Additionally, there was also a feature to synchronize the Internet Explorer favourites; as well as a Microsoft Office synchronization feature that allowed styles, templates, custom dictionary and email signatures to be transferred to the other computers.

The installation, configuration and synchronization of roughly 5,000 files, taking up roughly 400 megabytes of data, took less than an hour.

In the end, I was quite pleased with the simplicity of the new Live Mesh application, and I then decided to setup it up on my own computer to sync documents to my laptop.

You are typing away in Microsoft Outlook, PowerPoint or Word, and midway through your text you realize that your CAPS LOCK is on.  Standard reflex is to erase all the CAPS and retype.

Fortunately, there is a feature to convert capitalized text.

Let’s say you type the following sentence with CAPS LOCK on:

• I AM A LEAF ON THE WIND. WATCH HOW I SOAR.

To correct, select the text, and press “Shift & F3″.

Using it once will give you:

• i am a leaf on the wind. watch how i soar.

Using it twice will give you:

• I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how i soar.

Hopefully this prevents you from having to retype long sentences…

Method 1

1. Start Windows Explorer
2. Go into “Tools”, “Folder Options”
3. Go to the “View” tab
4. Unselect “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)”
5. Click “Apply” and “OK”

Method 2

1. Start Registry Editor (regedit)
2. For Windows Server:
   Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer
   For Windows Workstation:
   Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
3. Set value of “ShowSuperHidden” to 1
4. Click “OK”
5. Exit Registry Editor

Note: You should always backup your registry before making any changes.

This will sound strange, but it works!!!

Important!!
Since we will deliberately corrupting the PST file, I strongly suggest that you make a copy of it first!

Step 1
Download a free ‘HEX Editor’. I’ve used the HDD HEX Editor.

Step 2
After making a copy of your PST file, open it with the HEX Editor. Delete the positions (using the space bar) 7 through 13.
(00007 – 00008 – 00009 – 0000a – 0000b – 0000c – 0000d – 0000e – 0000f – 00010 – 00011 – 00012 – 00013)

The HEX Editor will display the code “20″ for each position deleted.

Once done, save your PST file. It is now corrupted.

Step 3
Now, open up the ‘Inbox Repair Tool’ (scanpst.exe). The program is usually stored here:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033\NT

The program will scan the PST, then make a backup. After the backup is done, it will repair the PST file.

For more information about this program, see: Microsoft Knowledge Base article 287497.

Step 4
Once complete, you can open the PST file with Outlook, and you will find your deleted emails have been restored!