Windows Live Messenger 2009 sign in problems Error Code: 80040154

The latest Windows Live Messenger 2009 seems to have problems right after installing, I downloaded and installed the offline installer package and it just wouldn't sign in.

If you get the Error Code: 80040154 it probably means that you have the same problem and you need to download this file called Contacts-ship-neutral.cab [Link is Broken, please see download links below] from microsoft and install it.

I think this is a part of Windows Live Communications and it was not included with the standalone messenger installer.

Download Link 1
Download Link 2

FireFox 3.5 release adds safe and faster browsing

Mozilla Firefox version 3.5 has been officially released after a number of beta's and release candidates. The last stable release was 3.0.11.

The new version adds a new tool called "Private Browsing" which is the same as Google Chrome's Incognito mode which basically does not leave any traces of your browsing history.
The new version is clearly much faster than the previous versions, I noticed immediately the startup times were faster when I launched the new firefox, previously it used to take more than 10 seconds and now its like around 5 seconds. And mozilla claims that it is more than two times faster than Firefox 3 and ten times faster than Firefox 2 on complex websites.

The first new thing I noticed was the new tab button right on the tab bar and I immediately removed the add-on which does the same thing, the Mozilla guys are quite learning from the third-party addons. I had a deja-vu and thought firefox already had this but it was Internet Explorer 7 which reminded me of the similarity or am I wrong?. Firefox should incorporate mouse gestures also which Opera started and is having since ages. Another new feature includes location-aware browsing which I am not so bothered to test.

The new version is faster and improved and worth the upgrade, but many of my addons are not working now, waiting for their latest updates!
Get the latest firefox from here.

Start Tweeting in the Twitter Sphere

Twitter is currently the fastest growing social media sites out there. You may not have heard of it, but I don't think so! Almost all would have heard of it and many have even joined, but the question is do you use it? There are many inactive users with only a single tweet (message). If you are new to the twitter world this post might help you to get started.

This FAQ will help to get you started with Twitter:
What is a tweet?
A 140 characters or less message to tell the world what you are doing? or whatever you like!

Who can see my tweet?
People who follow you will see it in their "stream". While everyone can see it in your homepage you can protect your profile to allow only your followers to see.

Who can follow me?
Anyone can follow you unless you have protected your profile in this case you will have to allow people who want to follow you.

How can I send a message to a user?
Use the "@username" notation followed by the message to reply to not just your followers but anyone.

How can I send a personal message to a user?
Use the "d username" notation followed by the message to send a direct message to a user

Can I repeat someone else's tweet?
Yes, use the "RT @username" notation followed by the message to repeat or requote someone else's tweet

How can I discuss about a specific topic?
Just add the "#TopicName" notation to your message to let others know you are tweeting about a specific topic

What else I need to know?
There is a lot more in the twitter world, the best way to learn is to start using it. You can follow me here

Happy Tweeting!

Migrating to new Template - Minyx 2.0 Lite

After many months I am changing my template to a new blogger version template of Minyx 2.0 Lite, the reason for this change is primarily due to the break up of images which occured on the WPPremiumBlack template. I could have fixed this by hosting the images myself but that was not what I did due to the reason being that I was looking for a better template since a couple of months. A screenshot of my old WPPremiumBlack template below in its default look:

The new Minyx template has a simple white look, neat 3-column arrangement and with good use of colors. And above all it has high compatibility with blogger, without any errors or break of html/widgets encountered so far. The code for the template is neatly written making editing easy which was a real "hard-chore" in my last templete. A screenshot of the new template on my blog:

Now I still need to modify certain aspects of the template like the colors, size and placement of widgets. Any suggestions or comments are always welcome. And also thanks to the maker of this template which has included their link at the absolute bottom of the template.

Uninstall IE8 and Rollback to IE7

I recently installed the new Internet Explorer 8 to try some of its new features but was soon disappointed. There were many bugs causing many sites to not work and some sites were not being displayed properly. The browser would just crash at times, so I decided to go back to Internet Explorer 7.

I uninstalled IE8 from Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs>Add/Remove Windows components. After that when I tried to install IE7 I was faced with the following message
"Setup cannot continue because a more recent version of Internet Explorer has been detected on this computer".

It turns out IE8 does not get completely unistalled and to completely remove it you need to run the spuninst.exe found at this location: "C:\WINDOWS\ie8\spuninst\spuninst.exe". Once complete it will ask to restart and after that you can install IE7 once again.