I am positive that you know what I’m talking about just after reading the title. After a while, your Windows practically refuses to shut down as fast as it used to, even though you successfully closed all of the running applications.

Microsoft says the issue is caused by a problem it experiences while trying to unload the current user’s profile, and they have published a HOTFIX for this.

Basically, you’re installing a new service, a service to help with slow log off and unreconciled profile problems. The User Profile Hive Cleanup service helps to ensure user sessions are completely terminated when a user logs off. System processes and applications occasionally maintain connections to registry keys in the user profile after a user logs off. In those cases the user session is prevented from completely ending. This can result in problems when using Roaming User Profiles in a server environment or when using locked profiles as implemented through the Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP.

On Windows 2000 you can benefit from this service if the application event log shows event id 1000 where the message text indicates that the profile is not unloading and that the error is “Access is denied”. On Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 either event ids 1517 and 1524 indicate the same profile unload problem.

To accomplish this the service monitors for logged off users that still have registry hives loaded. When that happens the service determines which application have handles opened to the hives and releases them. It logs the application name and what registry keys were left open. After this the system finishes unloading the profile.

It practically reclaims the resources of the ended tasks. I tried this myself on a XP test system, and it worked like a charm.

The other day I stumbled upon midomi, a website that’s based on a brilliant idea. You know the times when you know a song by it’s rhythm, but not by its name? The website allows you to search through tunes by humming a part of the song, or directly by typing its name. I’ve tried out midomi and, honestly, I found no replies that matched the song I was singing. Well, to be entirely honest, I have no singing voice whatsoever, so that must be the reason for my bad search. But the website has its vulnerabilities, which I’m going to point out next:

1. The human factor
As it is the case in every project that relies on people, this website is no exception, and is exposed to human error. I’ve encountered several renditions that were far from perfect. Songs that are interpreted awful, or that are interpreted good but the background noise is too loud that it will disrupt any search. Plus, I’ve found songs by Eminem sung by girls, songs by Madonna and Fergie sung by men, and so on.

2. The machine factor
As it is the case with mobile phones, where, in order to access a Voice Tag, you have to repeat yourself several times, this type of search isn’t a hundred percent perfect. Even if you have tried your best to make the song sound as close as possible to the real thing, chances are that, even if the right search is displayed, it might be behind a dozen other bad results.

3. The spam factor
This is a constant threat to every person that runs a website nowadays. YouTube has plenty of spam (may it be in its videos, or in the users’ mailboxes, as I’ve come to know when I received a couple these past few weeks), and it is a much larger company. I haven’t found any spam messages, but I’m sure that, as the website will gain in popularity, they will appear. I’ve also run a small “experiment”, I’ve recorded a piece of a song (with my bad voice and all), and submitted it. No moderation, it went directly into the archives, waiting to be found by the next person. With this in mind, it would be fairly easy for somebody to add a piece of recording that can be described as spam.

With this in mind, I think that midomi.com will spend some time in Beta, as they have plenty to work on.

You might have seen these pictures before, but if you didn’t, I guess I can tell you that they perfectly reflect the truth. We trust Google with everything. Our agenda, our personal or confidential e-mails, our wanted information, our browsing privacy, and many many more.
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Now that we all know the hidden pages in Firefox, it’s time to go a bit deeper into tweaking your browser for optimal use. All of the operations will be made in the about:config page, so save your important stuff, open up a new tab, write about:config in the address bar and be prepared. I have gathered four tricks that will improve your Firefox experience, and here they are.

1. Fetch only pages that you click
Firefox mostly resembles to Google from this point of view. It has a built-in feature (enabled by default) that will pre-download the pages behind the links it thinks you MIGHT click. Google anticipates you might click the first result from the page, but how in the world can Firefox anticipate the link you’re going to click? Anyway, in my opinion this is just useless bandwidth usage, CPU power and HDD space. You’re practically downloading and storing pages you are not viewing. Here’s how you stop that in three simple steps.

In the about:config list, filter up your search after ‘network’ so it would be easier for you. Then, find through the remaining list options the key that says network.prefetch-next. It should be set to TRUE. Double click it, and it will turn to false. There we go, now Firefox will stop acting creepy and will only fetch what you click ;)
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Converting files from one format to another is a necessity and you don’t need me to tell you that. A few years ago, software programs that were converting WAVs to MP3s, AVIs to MPEGs,were pretty much popular, although their abilities were limited to just a few features and not to mention the low format support.

Today, they do have some serious competition, and I am going to present you the most reliable options. The main advantage of what I’m going to present is that you do not need to download nor buy any software. They’re mostly free and accessible via your web browser. Some projects may be still in the beta stage of development, but I can assure you that everything goes safe and sound. Try them out yourself, and feel free to share opinions.
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Yahoo has started developing a brand new version of Yahoo! Messenger, specially created for Windows Vista. They say the new software is built from scratch and it aims to combine the reliable and easy-to-use features of Messenger with the cutting-edge experience of Vista.

The new version is not available just yet, but they have published a set of 4 screenshots, and they simply look amazing. You may check them out below. Click the thumbnails to enlarge.

Left to right: Sports widget, tabbed conversations, chat window, contact list.

We’ve all seen the PC vs Mac ads by Apple, there are plenty of them. But now it’s time for the PC to counterattack, with the help of director Laurie McGuinness, who created four small hilarious clips, with the same character personalities (the PC being older, “boring”, and the Mac being younger and cooler), but this time the Mac doesn’t get the spotlight. What I liked about the clips is that they’re not made in order to harm the Mac, and they don’t deny the qualities portraied in the Mac ads, but they observe the PC’s own qualities, without denying the Mac’s. So, without more description, here are the clips:

At work