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Fix for Firefox Graphics Problems in Windows 8

Posted by amd on
Mar 05 2012
windows
7 Comments

Mozilla Firefox - disable hardware acceleration in Win 8If you’re using Firefox on Windows 8, particularly on an nVidea graphics card, you may have seen a lot of graphics problems, glitches where images are blurry or even completely unrecognisable.

Here’s a possible fix for that which has worked for me and quite a few folks online: disable Hardware Acceleration in Firefox.

Here’s where to find it:

  • Click the Firefox main menu, choose Options.
  • Choose Advanced.
  • Go to General tab.
  • Untick the box beside “Use hardware acceleration when available”. 
  • Restart the Firefox browser (close all windows including Downloads if it’s open, wait 10 seconds and start Firefox again).

The broken images problem should now be gone – if it’s still there then it’s another problem – please let me know in the comments if you know of any other potential cause and/or solution for that!

How to disable Metro UI in Windows 8

Posted by amd on
Mar 03 2012
windows
1 Comments

Windows 8 Metro UII’m playing around with Windows 8 on desktop PC – first impressions pretty good, but I’m not convinced of the value of Metro UI on a desktop yet (although it is beautiful). Metro would be great on a touchscreen, but that’s far from the dual monitor Dell PC I’m using here. So I might want to be able to turn off Metro – here’s how:

Quick hack

Rename X:\Windows\System32\shsxs.dll to shsxs.old or similar

or

Turn it off in the registry

  • Run regedit
  • Find HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
  • Change the RPEnabled to ’0′ instead of ’1′

To re-enable Metro UI, change the value back to ’1′

More Windows 8 thoughts later.

Book Review – Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks

Posted by amd on
Jan 27 2012
books, Currently Reading
2 Comments
Cover of "Surface Detail"

Surface Detail

I recently finished Surface Detail, a Culture novel from Iain M. Banks – entertaining but not up to his usual high standards.

The overall plot concept had great potential, but I think it suffered poor implementation and editing – in particular it has a couple of seemingly important characters who weren’t really explored in any detail and were mostly irrelevant to the story. Banks also did a bit of a Gemmell – wrapping everything up in the last 5 pages. The anti-hero felt bland and a bit stereotypical of the villains in Culture novels (e.g. Matter, The Player of Games).

The positive was Continue reading →

Solid State Drives Thoughts & Recommendations

Posted by amd on
Jan 06 2012
geek
2 Comments
Asus U36SD-A1 with OCZ Vertex 3

Asus U36SD-A1 with OCZ Vertex 3 SSD

I recently made the mistake of getting an OCZ Vertex 3 drive for my Asus U36SD laptop. The Vertex 3 is an incredible SSD, one of the fastest in existence. Unfortunately for me, other Vertex 3 owners, and the manufacturers OCZ, it’s also got one of the highest failure rates.

Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) have long been the biggest speed bottleneck in modern computer systems. Drive manufacturers have had their replacement, Solid State Drives (SSDs) on the consumer market since about 2006/7, but it was only from 2010 onward that they really become affordable.

SSD’s are awesome – the speed increase they can bring to a system has to be seen to be believed. It’s not like comparing a Lamborghini with a Toyota, it’s like comparing a Lamborghini with a bicycle. Continue reading →

Disable Facebook Picture Auto-Tagging

Posted by amd on
Jun 09 2011
security
2 Comments

Facebook have done it again:

Facebook sorry over face tagging launch

Facebook has apologised for the way it rolled-out a new system that recognises users’ faces.

The social network said that it should have done more to notify members about the global launch.

Its Tag Suggestions feature scans photos and automatically picks out existing friends.

Although users have the option to switch it off, some complained that they were not explicitly asked if they wanted it activated.

(Source: BBC News)

If, like me, you found it difficult to figure out how to disable this setting, here’s some help (with thanks to Chris) :)

In your Facebook account go to: Continue reading →

Calling SF/Fantasy Fans

Posted by amd on
Jan 11 2011
books
0 Comments

Tor are running a poll to find the best SFF books of the decade 2000-2010*. To vote, list your favourite books of the decade in a comments section on this post, before 11:59 PM EST on Friday, January.

The comments are also worth a look if you’re searching for inspiration on what to read next!

*kinda like a trilogy with four parts.