The Lady Programmer

Today, I decided to see how I can put back the old task manager that comes with every Windows XP system. I could not see the task manager each time I wanted to kill some process that hanged up on me.

So I searched for the Internet to find a solution, the first one that I’ve seen is the Remove Restrictions Tool (RRT). A good tool, but I need to pay for it. I don’t want to, since I can go around modifying the registry itself without getting a heart attack.

The next thing I did was to search Google to find out which part of the Windows registry I should look to. Google did not give me the results I was looking for.

Then I suddenly remembered Maddy, the guy behind Great Registry Hacks. Sometime last year, he was a constant EC dropper and visitor of my blogs, so I decided to search his blog. I decided to contact him after trying to search for that thing that I need to find.

Maddy was fast! He emailed me back with two solutions: a free software he wrote to enable/disable the task manager, and a direct hack to the Windows registry.

But it was not enough to make the task manager appear. His next suggestion was to install Process Explorer instead. It worked! Thanks to Maddy!

Process Explorer: a lightweight replacement to default Windows Task Manager

I’ve met Process Explorer in my previous work, so this software is not news to me. It just did not occur to me to use this instead of figuring out how to make the Task Manager work.

As I exchanged conversations with Maddy over YM, it looked like my Task Manager was corrupted. I tried to open the file then returned an error message indicating that the file cannot be found. (UPDATE: I got the Task Manager back after installing Process Manager then clicking “restore Process Manager” command on the menu.

Here’s the download link: download Process Manager from Microsoft.

If you need some help with the Windows registry, then go to Maddy’s Great Registry Hacks and ask him.

I am saddened by the recent turn of events that is a result of the global recession:

• A number of Filipino workers in Taiwan had been laid off and are now on the way back to the Philippines.
• TI Philippines, a US company right here in my hometown, has just laid off almost 200 workers and is expected to further reduce their workforce this year.
• Accenture Philippines had also reduced its workforce by 500 workers a few days ago.
• Today, Intel Philippines announced its intention of shutting down their two-decades old plant. This company employs 3,000 workers right now who will all be affected by the shutdown.

Aside from this I’ve ran across a few bloggers and some friends who had confessed about losing their jobs.

photo credit: Erik Charlton

Are we Filipinos too dependent on getting employed?

I believe we do. I have experienced that myself. After I got my degree, the next “good” thing is to get the first job related to my degree. I had been able to do that. I had a good job, but still, is not enough to meet my needs. It’s true, it can answer my personal needs but it does not come to the extent that I am able to save a significant portion of it for emergencies.

I was not alone. I saw my peers give up their jobs in favor of those higher paying overseas jobs. I saw people living a better life and enjoying an upgraded lifestyle. For those who are not keen on saving much, it would last them until the day when they decide to retire.

But workplaces change and the 80s is a decade when company retrenchments had happened. It becomes worse as crisis happens. The global economic crisis is one reminder that there is no such thing as a secure job anymore.

I just wish that the government would focus more on creating individuals who can build big businesses and companies. I think the government puts more emphasis on putting people to work overseas because the government relies on foreign remittances from these workers. Now that the recession is in, overseas workers are now losing their jobs – with the latest batch of workers ending up as the most unfortunate.

I got hold of a copy of the software at Computer FileExtensions.com today but I was not able to install it successfully. I have a 64-bit Windows XP system and that software prompted me that it is not designed to work with my existing system.

With so many hardware already ready to run 64-bit system, I find it strange that Computer FileExtensions still issue an application that will still only run on 32-bit operating systems.

Computer FileExtensions is supposed to fix the registry. At first glance, the website boasts of a huge database of file extensions that the software can fix – it is practically from A to Z, zero to 9 and those extensions that begin with the @. Almost every extension that you can think of are covered by this software: file extension BIN, file extension TMP and file extension TORRENT are some that are included in the list.

With so many 64-bit systems sold in the mainstream computer market, I think it is worthy to wait for the 64-bit version. If you happen to have a 32-bit system, then maybe you can give this software a try.

Do you just love it when someone blogs and links back to you?

I do, and I found this neat surprise over at oDesk which really got me too excited! The image is taken at one of the oConomy pages section of the site. Pretty neat huh!

I know a handful of bloggers who work with oDesk and had written their own version of blog posts, but I did not think that this blog post about getting paid by the hour in oDesk would make it as one of the helpful resources in their Articles section.

encircled link pointing to one of my blog posts

So far their reward is to give me two awesome free T-shirts that I got from their oDesk store, as a token of appreciation for putting up a good word about them.

oDesk gave me two T-shirts free!

Visit the actual link: Outsourcing to Philippines in oDesk’s oConomy

One of the sites that I had gone today is Drivers Software. This is another software resource to hunt for drivers. I had been able to bookmark this one as another site to find drivers whenever I perform preventive maintenance on my PC.

Out-of-Date Driver Detection

There is this one particular thing that I like on this site: the site offers two big buttons that offers options to either choose UPDATE DRIVERS or conduct FREE SCAN. Either way these buttons lead to download a software to use for both functions.

scan or update?

I did click one of the buttons to download and install the software. Like other typical software this one starts out with a helpful wizard-like interface. Eventually, this software informed me that I need to update my Nvidia drivers as well as my Realtek sound drivers too.

those two drivers that need to be upgraded

The scanning was really free, but updating those two drivers are not. When I hit the NEXT button, it lead me to the page where I had to pay for the upgrade feature. The scanning feature really saves me a lot of time in checking whether all of my drivers are upgraded.

The Website

The site lists down all the drivers that Drivers Software keeps track of. Initially, I mistook that for free downloadable links, but I noticed that each one of this links points out to the same software file that I had to install to detect and upgrade outdated software.

The search feature also needs more work. I tried entering “Epson C41UX” but that returned zero results. I had to enter “Epson” on the search box instead to see the link going to all Epson drivers. I clicked on that single link and I found the particular driver that I am looking for.