How to remove duplicate icon from Launchpad

Well, it was pretty annoying to find two Skype icons in my Launchpad after I’ve upgraded to the latest version. When I click and hold on one of those icons, the icons become wiggle, but there are no delete signs on the top left corner (because Skype is not from Mac App Store).

After a few googling, I’ve found out this simple solution. Thanks to Baryon from MacRumors Forums.

• Go to Applications folder, Right click on Skype, Choose Move to Trash.
• In my case, both Skype icons are gone from Launchpad. If you still see Skype icon in your Launchpad, click on it (Choose Yes when it ask you if you want to remove it).
• Go to Trash, right click on Skype, Choose Put Back.

That’s it, only one Skype icon show up in my Launchpad now. Your mileage may vary, feel free to post it in comments.

How long your PC has been running

Do you want to know how long your PC has been up since last reboot or shutdown? Well, in Mac or Unix variant, you can use uptime command.

How about Windows users? There is similar command too.

Go to Start Menu –> Run –> cmd

Then type : systeminfo

As in above image, you can see your system up time. Easy peasy!

Source : Technet

How to make the game faster in TinyTower

Well, I’ve been playing TinyTower, a free iOS game in which players build up a tower from just a Lobby and a basic elevator to 145 fully stocked floors. The game is very addicted, so much so that I have to start looking for cheats to stop myself from playing.

Here is my favorite method, which is very simple and works in most games. I called it, Time Machine. Basically, you just change the clock of your device, so that you don’t have to wait for a few hours as requested by the game.

I will show you step by step, however please note that I’m not responsible for any side effects you may have on your device by following the methods here.

If you are new to the game, please follow the built-in tutorial from game and play without cheats until you feel the need to do so.

• First you just build new floor, re-stock items for your shops. You will see like the screenshot below. You’ll have to wait 13H 29M to complete a floor and 6H 37 M to restock items in cyber cafe.

• Press Home button, Go to Settings and put your device into Airplane mode.

• Then go to General –> Date & Time

• If you have selected Set Automatically switch in ON position, move it to OFF. Then Choose Set Date & Time

• From current date, move it to next day.

• Then Go back to TinyTower. Bingo! (You’ll be greeted with your new shop has been completed message).

This is not the end of the story. You’ll need to know how to put back your clock to normal time. One important thing to take note here is you’ll have to make sure there is no new floor or re-stocking in progress, otherwise you game will lose track of time.

• Go back to Date & Time setting Settings –> General –> Date & Time –> Set Date & Time (if you just recall Settings icon from iOS multitask bar, it should bring you straight where you’ve left off)

Then move back the date to original date.

That’s it! Quite straightforward, isn’t it?

Source : TinyTower Wiki

Hide Recycle Bin icon from Desktop in Windows XP

Even though there is options to hide and display My Computer, My Documents from Destkop, for some reason, Microsoft don’t provide any option to hide Recycle Bin icon from Desktop in Windows XP.

What if that little innocence Recycle Bin icon irritate you much? Do you want to get rid of it? Well, it’s easy! Just follow these steps:

• 1. Go to Start Menu –> Run
• 2. Type regedit.exe
• 3. Navigate to the following path from the left column: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Explorer \HideDesktopIcons \ClassicStartMenu
• 4. In the right column, right click –> New –> DWORD

• 5. Then enter the following string without quotes “{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}”

• 6. After that double-click on that Name and set the Value to 1.

• 7. You should see something similar to the following screenshot.

After that repeat the steps 1-7 except in step 3, navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Explorer \HideDesktopIcons \NewStartPanel

Once you’ve done the above, you can go to Desktop, right-click and refresh. Recycle Bin icon will be gone. What if you want it back? Well, just set the above two Reg values to 0.

Source : Microsoft KB

Firefox about:config settings in GUI

Firefox provides access to ton of settings under about:config. However, some users will find it not too user-friendly.

If you want to access those extra settings without having to deal with text based config, there is Firefox addons called, Configuration Mania. Here are a few screenshots of that plugin.

As long as you have Firefox version 4 and above, you’ll be able to install this plugin.

How to check which programs from your PC are connecting to which servers on the internet

Have you ever wonder which program on your PC are currently connected to the internet? Well, you don’t even need to install any new program to figure that out.

Windows XP and above have already got the built-in command line program called netstat, which can give you a lot of useful network related information. Just follow these steps:

• Start Menu –> Run –> cmd
• Type : netstat –b, for me I got the output like :

TCP LT-SV505:4661 65.55.57.252:http ESTABLISHED 4760
[chrome.exe]

TCP LT-SV505:3091 ip-167-34-219-155.ip.secureserver.net:23396 ESTABLISHED 4388
[Skype.exe]

From the output, I can know that currently Skype and Chrome are connecting to the internet from my PC. But remember, netstat command will give you a lot of other system processes that are connected to the internet as well. Make sure you Google each process name before ringing any alarm bell.

Source : Microsoft Product Documentation

Simple ls command to list only files

I’ve been looking for ls option to hide directory. After a few googling, most people suggested quite complicated commands. Finally, I’ve found the really very simple command for this simple task from Devshed forums.

Here it is. You just need to ignore “/” from ls output.

ls | grep -v "/"

Source : Devshed forums

First over-the-air update from Apple, iOS 5.0.1 available

Today is historic day for iPhone/iOS users as Apple release first ever OTA update, iOS 5.0.1. It may sound funny for Android/WebOS/Blackberry users as they’ve been used to OTA update for years.

Anyway, if you own the compatible iDevices (such as iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S or iPad or iPod touch 3rd, 4th gen), you should update it to see how’s the OTA thingy works.
I’ve already updated mine and here is the step by step screenshots.

• Firstly, go to Settings –> General –> Software Update. You should see the screen like following after you’ve pressed Download and Install button.

• After that, just sit back, relax and enjoy the show. The process will take about 10 mins depending on your internet connection speed.

• When you get the prompt like this, just click Install. Your iDevice will restart soon.

That’s it! Sorry to disappoint you, there’s no further step. Once your iPhone or iDevice has been rebooted, it is up and running with iOS 5.0.1.

Source : AllthingsD

Google Reader, new design and plus integration

Google has started rolling out brand new design in Google Reader. The design is part of new Google uniform look that they’ve been rolling out across all their product. It seems cleaner and user-friendly. Since I’m quite a fan of Google Reader, I’m really welcome this new changes.

If yours haven’t reflected the new design yet, just wait for a while as Google is rolling out in batches.

Source : Google Reader Blog

How to install sshd and config for authentication with private key only

Once the system is up and running, the first thing for most linux system admin to do is to install sshd and configure authentication. Nowadays, most IT companies will not allow password based authentication anymore. Most coporate environment favours ssh key based authentication. Of course, there are hundreds of different methods to do this. Here is one of my favourite and simplest guide.

I’ve assumed you use Debian based linux and logon under root. If you are using other linux, change the command to yum or whatever package management system you used.

• First install ssh server.

~$apt-get install openssh-server

• Edit sshdconfig file

~$vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

• Disable password authentication by putting the following line

PasswordAuthentication no

• For keys file location, I prefer to put in file by user name

AuthorizedKeysFile /etc/ssh/keys/%u

• Save the file

• Copy the public key of the users and put in /etc/ssh/keys/

• Restart the ssh demon by entering the following command

/etc/init.d/ssh restart

That’s it! Your users need to use their private key to login to the server from now on.

Source : OpenBSD