M.A.S. Electronics' Blog

Before I begin… This article is intended solely as an introduction to some useful troubleshooting commands. Many of them offer numerous optional switches, which I won’t cover here due to space limitations. You can find out more about each command by checking out TechNet’s command-line reference. The command line is often the best place to resolve Windows 7 desktop problems. These basic commands will help speed your troubleshooting tasks. PC troubleshooting is becoming less common in larger organizations, but consultants…

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These days, most developers work inside an integrated development environment (IDE). But, there are still times when you need a text editor. Here is a list of five free (or open source) text editors that he feels are worth checking out. First on his list is, Notepad++ quite possibly the most popular open source text editor for Windows.  It has several developer-friendly features, like syntax highlighting and regular expression search and replace.  It recognizes all the major programming languages and…

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We often look at our Web sites and know that they need to be overhauled, but we just do not have the time to do it. A major Web site redesign project can takes weeks or months (depending on the size of your site and the technology underneath it) to complete. Meanwhile, your site is turning away visitors right now. Here are 10 easy things that you can do to improve your site. 1: Make your contact information more prominent…

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A year or two ago, HTML5 seemed like a vague idea that only a few Internet wonks cared about. Now, it feels like HTML5 is everywhere. Thanks to rapid releases from Mozilla and Chrome, and the deployment of IE9 from Microsoft (and IE10 already in “tech preview” status), browser support for HTML5 is available to nearly everyone in a limited (or better than limited) amount. Developers are starting to take advantage of the widely implemented features. With full HTML5 support…

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Computer lovers are always looking to get more speed out of their computers. Unfortunately, a number of incorrect or outdated performance tips have been around long enough to become myths. Here are 10 of these myths — and the truth about them. 1: Vista and Windows 7 require many times more RAM than XP When people first move from Windows XP to Windows Vista or Windows 7 and bring up a RAM usage meter, they often panic. What they see…

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Ever wonder how Windows knows whether the computer is connected locally or not, and if it has an Internet connection? It’s because of Network Awareness, specifically NCSI.  That’s right NCSI and it doesn’t mean Naval Criminal Investigative Service because that would be NCIS. NCSI is hard at work providing information on: Connectivity to an intranet. Connectivity to the Internet (Including the ability to send a DNS query and obtain the correct resolution of a DNS name). NCSI stands for Network…

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These are the Google Apps shortcuts you should start getting comfortable with because they can really save you time. You’ll still need a mouse to use Google’s web-apps in full, but using keyboard shortcuts allows you to use the mouse less. That’s particularly handy when you’re typing out emails in Gmail or flowing through text in Docs. Plus, when you’re mercilessly cleaning out your inbox, banging the “y” key to archive is remarkably therapeutic. When you’re ready to move on…

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Whether you’re installing a wireless access-point in a home, small office, or large building, following a few best practices can make the difference between a reasonably secure network and one that screams “hack me now!” Here are the five blatant security mistakes to avoid when deploying a new wireless-access point. Wireless hardware manufacturers have made installing and configuring new access points pretty simple, for both consumer and enterprise devices. But this ease of installation can lull the inexperienced tech into…

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If you’re encountering application failures, operating system faults, or Stop errors, you could have defective or failing RAM. The Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool in Windows can help you test the RAM chips in your system. Launching Windows Memory Diagnostic There are actually several ways that you can launch the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool. The method that you will use will depend on your situation. You can launch Windows Memory Diagnostic from the System Recovery Options menu. However, if you are…

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