Typing Stats Words Per Minute (WPM): 86 Characters Per Minute (CPM): 432 Fastest Finger: Left Index Slowest Finger: Left Ring Word Accuracy: 100% Language: English Letter Casing: Mixed Keyboard Layout: QWERTY Test Duration: 30 Seconds

Stats From PAT or JK's Typing Speed Test

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Average Finger Response Time Left Pinky: 138 Milliseconds Left Ring: 343 Milliseconds Left Middle: 122 Milliseconds Left Index: 112 Milliseconds Right Index: 144 Milliseconds Right Middle: 118 Milliseconds Right Ring: 154 Milliseconds Right Pinky: 177 Milliseconds Thumb(s): 114 Milliseconds

Stats From PAT or JK's Typing Speed Test

Cables are the fountain drinks of technology sales

I just took a trip to my local MicroCenter store to purchase a 6' USB 3.0 A Male to Micro B cable. I looked at BestBuy, Target and Walmart and not being able to find anything but overpriced USB 2.0 cables.  I knew that MicroCenter would have what I was looking for at a reasonable price.  I need the cable right away.

I did search on Amazon before I got in my car and found that Amazon's Basic brand had one for $5.99.  I expected to pay a little more at MicroCenter.

After finding the isle and staring at the USB cables for a while I found that the 6' cables were $27.99.  Yikes!  As I was standing in the isle, another couple looking at some other cables said loudly, "Wow, these are expensive!"

I found a sale associate and asked if they would price match online prices (as they are also an online retailer).  He said they would.  I showed him the item on Amazon and he said would have to be the exact brand.  I searched for the brand on my phone and matched the product number.  Bingo $5.50 + $1.10 shipping for the same exact cable at Amazon.  A 424% mark up!  He said we would need to speak to a manager.  I said, "Great, let's find one"

The manager says, "Is it sold my Amazon or a third party?".  Checking my phone I informed him that it was a third party.  He said that there is no guarantee that I would actually receive the item if I ordered from Amazon.  I shouldn't have to explain this to him (but I did) that Amazon does guarantee my purchase.  He would not go for the $5.50.

I ask if he would meet me half way at a reasonable price.  The answer was "No".

I dropped the item and turned and walked out.

So just remember, do not buy computer or AV cables in any retail stores. These items are marked up as much as 500%.  Just like how restaurants make a majority of their profits on fountain drinks.

Amazon

MicroCenter

Slow Insert Hyperlink dialog in Office

When I am creating e-mails in Outlook or documents in Word and press Ctrl-K to insert a Hyperlink, the dialog would freeze for 5-10 seconds.  It was very annoying and I've been dealing with this for quite a while on my work laptop.

I turns out I had 8 shortcuts in the "My Documents" folder.  Once I deleted them, the Insert Hyperlink dialog opened with no delay.

Microsoft must have some issue with parsing shortcuts.  I hope this helps someone else if they encounter this issue.

Review your Event Logs

I was just browsing my event log and found the following entry in system:

Remote session from client name a exceeded the maximum allowed failed logon attempts. The session was forcibly terminated.

This normally would not be a concern except I've the message was logged every minute or so.  After further review I see that this has been going on for the last 3 months! (as far back as my event goes)

Clearly someone is trying to hack into my computer through the Remote Desktop Service.  I do have a forwarding rule in my ISP's router that forwards port 3389 to my desktop.  Being as 3389 is the default port for remote desktop, I guess I should not be surprised that this was happening.

So what did I do?  I changed the default RDP port.  Yes, that's right "Security by obscurity"  Not the preferred solution but it should slow down the attacks.

I updated the forwarding rule in the ISP router/firewall and updated my desktop RDP port using http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306759  The desktop computer firewall also had to modified to support the new port.  The firewall rule for RDP on port 3389 is locked  so I just created a new one for the new port.

I also changed the Local Security Policy's Account Lockout Policy to 3 attempts and 30 minutes to reset.    This should slow someone down as well.

Luckily I have a strong password according to http://www.passwordmeter.com/

Score:	79%
Complexity:	Strong

So I suggest you do take some time to review your event logs.  It's surprising what you might learn.

Some important Google Chrome Add-Ons

Google Chrome has been released more than two years ago and it's the browser of choice for many people. Despite having won hearts for its speed and elegance, Google Chrome does have some minor flaws that you might want to fix. Here are some of them:

1. No confirmation when closing multiple tabs

Google Chrome does't show a warning when you close a window with multiple tabs. If you accidentally close Chrome windows, you can install Chrome Toolbox. The next time you close many tabs, you'll at least get a warning.

2. Basic history page

Google Chrome's history page is pretty basic and you can't restrict the list to a certain time interval.
The History 2 extension comes to the rescue by allowing you to sort web pages based on the day/week you visited them. History

2 allows you to delete multiple items from your history page at the click of a button – something that's not possible by default.

3. Missing image properties

There's no way to quickly examine an image when you're in Chrome. Fortunately, you can install Image Properties Context Menu, an extension that lets you right-click on an image and find information about the image size, location, dimensions and more.

4. No support for feeds

Chrome simply doesn't recognize RSS feeds and all you get is a page with gibberish text. If you install the RSS Subscription extension developed by Google, you can quickly subscribe to any feed using Google Reader, iGoogle, Bloglines or My Yahoo.

5. You can't send a web page by email

While other popular browsers allow you to quickly send any web page you're viewing by email, such an option is nowhere to be found in Google Chrome.
Worry not, because you can create a simple Javascript bookmarklet to open your default email program with the current URL. If Gmail is what you use, you can alternatively install the Send from Gmail extension to send the web page to Gmail.

6. No session manger

Closing Google Chrome and reopening it does not restore previously opened tabs. In order to do that, go to the Options dialog and enable Reopen tabs that were open last.
If you want advanced session saving options like the ability to create multiple sessions, try the Session Buddy addon for Google Chrome.

7. You can't switch to a tab from the Omnibox

Firefox 4 lets you switch to any open tab by typing relevant words into the address bar. If you'd like to see a similar feature in Chrome, install theSwitch To Tab extension.
The next time you have too many open tabs, just type sw followed by some words from the page. Hitting Enter switches to the tab that's listed as the first match.

And as a bonus, on You Tube you can not set you’re preferred stream to HD.  Get the Auto HD for YouTube

Enjoy.