David Papp's Blog

For the benefit of my onsite computer repair customers, I am now able to reset or remove user passwords from Windows XP, whether it's for users you or someone else created, or even the administrator password. I have a 100% success rate but I have to be physically present to do it, unlike most other software issues which I can fix remotely. If you're in Melbourne's South Eastern suburbs and would like a Windows XP password removed, please contact me on 0402-475-705. It's a $40-$60 job depending on how far you are from Hampton Park.

David Papp

I ordered 1,000 business cards through vistaprint and uploaded a photo for the design. Everything looked great online, but when the cards arrived the photo was very dark. I don't just mean a little dark, but dark enough that you could barely distinguish my facial features. I'm a fair skinned person and the photo looked fine online.

So I emailed customer service and they said they recognise there was a problem and will send replacements asap, which they did. The delivery arrived a few days late, AND the photo was just as dark as the first time.

Before my second shipment arrived I ordered another 1,500 cards with a different design and about 4 hours after ordering the company I worked for went out of business because of a government policy change. I emailed customer support (Friday afternoon AUS time, which is Thursday night US time) and asked them to cancel my order because I would be throwing it straight into the bin since I was no longer in business. Three days later (US time Monday 1am) I received an email saying my order has been shipped. Interesting that my previous orders took more than 4 days before they were shipped.

I paid for 2 lots of cards I could not use. Not happy!

The Australian Government has launched a program to make it easier for people to make improvements to their homes with the goal of reducing our water and energy usage. The program is referred to as Green Loans which are a 4 year loans up to $10,000 per household for which the government pays the interest. That's right, a 4 year interest free loan to help you reduce your water and energy bills!

Here's a summary of how it works:

1. You, the home owner or tenant, book a free home assessment done by me, David Papp, or another government recognised and qualified assessor, to determine some of the ways in which your home can be improved (such as water tanks, solar power, etc.)

2. Once the assessment is complete, you approach one of the many lenders who provide the Green Loans to borrow the money to use for one or more of the suggestions given in the assessment.

3. You carry out the improvements using the borrowed funds, pay back the loan as agreed with your lender, and the government pays the interest. That's right, it's an absolutely FREE loan which allows you to save money!

For a list of Green Loan providers, see HERE

To book your FREE assessment, for those of you in Melbourne's SE suburbs, please call me (David Papp) on my mobile 0402-475-705 and we'll arrange a suitable time. Expect the assessment to take about 90 minutes including some time at the end to talk about your options and answer any questions you might have.

The assessment costs you nothing and is valid for 6 months, so you have plenty of time to get the loan after the assessment is done. I would encourage you to book sooner rather than later

If you want to ease the impact of rising water and energy costs and the environmental effect, please take up this opportunity. It really is an awesome government initiative.

David Papp
0402 475 705
www.sustainabilityassessor.info

Good news: I am now able to help customers with computer problems over the internet without having to go onsite! This is done by downloading a file, double clicking the file to run the program, and another double click to connect to my computer. From there I can control the customer's computer with my keyboard and mouse as if I were sitting in front of their computer. The customer always has full control in initiating and ending the support session.

It's very powerful, very cool, and even my mother said it was easy!

If you want my help with a computer problem, please go to this page for my phone number and a skype button.

Whether you do it for your veggie patch, fruit trees, or indoor pot plants, composting is the healthiest, most environmentally friendly, and cheapest way to make your plants grow healthy and strong. Although it's easy to do, if you've never done it before and haven't done your research, you'll probably not get the results you want, which is good quality plant food that's black and smells good.

You can buy a bin or make your own if you have some pieces of timber you can cut up and nail together. I used some old garden sleepers. I nailed together four of them to make a square, then more squares and stacked them on top of each other. I didn't nail the squares together because they sat on each other nicely enough. I did not bother to cover it because it gets better airflow this way.

If you do decide to fork out the cash for a compost bin, get one that you can turn to tumble the contents, mixing them every few days. If you don't have a tumbling bin, it's a good idea to mix the compost every week or two. I have two compost bins and I allow one to finish decomposing before I use it on my garden. If you keep adding to the same heap you'll never have ready to use compost.

There are two kinds of materials you need to put in your compost for it to produce good results: greens and browns. Greens are things like fruits, vegetables, and plant material that still has the juice in it. Browns are dry leaves, tree bark, grass clippings, and some people include newspaper but I don't like to do that. A more accurate way of referring to greens and browns are to call them nitrogen and carbon rich materials. When I started composting I only had kitchen waste in there and it had a bad smell and didn't really turn into the black humus I was hoping for. A half/half ratio works great, but you can get good results with a mostly carbon (browns) mix as well. Do not include meat and dairy because they will smell bad and possibly attract scavenging animals.

Ideally the compost should generate some heat as things decompose. Make sure it gets plenty of air but don't let it dry out. You can expect to see mould/fungus, maybe some fruit flies and other bugs, hopefully worms, and sometimes mice will nest in it especially if it's mostly carbon based compost.

The finished product is called humus and it should not smell bad, should be mostly black and look a lot like soil. You can dig it in to the soil where your plants grow, or you can just spread it on top and let the worms mix it in. It's always a good idea to mulch your soil in order to keep the soil from drying out.

If you follow these instructions your plants will look better than ever before. Happy composting!

Liver and Gall Bladder Flush

The liver is the largest organ inside the human body and is responsible for numerous vital functions. Gall stones are more or less round balls of bile and cholesterol which block the bile ducts and prevent normal discharge of bile from the liver. Stones can also reside in the gall bladder. Either way, they stop the flow of bile and prevent normal liver function.

The “flush” is a series of drinks that cause the liver and gall bladder to painlessly dislodge these stones and they get eliminated through the intestines. The process takes 14 hours and you should be warned that the epsom salt drink tastes very bitter and unpleasant. It will be a struggle for most people. I found it helpful to have a little honey ready to change the taste in my mouth after the epsom salt drink. The oil and grapefruit drink can also be a bit of a challenge but if you use good quality cold pressed extra virgin olive oil it's not as unpleasant as you might think. The grapefruit juice breaks up the oil so it's quite tolerable. The epsom salt drink will flush your bowels so you will need to stay at home and expect frequent visits to the toilet. Also you will quite likely feel a little nauseous and there is a chance you will throw up after the oil drink. If this happens, don't be alarmed because after about 20 minutes the drink has already done it's job.

The receipe and information here is taken from “The Amazing Liver & Gallbladder Flush” by Andreas Moritz and I strongly recommend you buy the book and read it. It will tell you all about the functions of the liver, what causes gall stones, the symptoms of having gall stones, and how to minimise getting them in the future. It's very informative yet not too technical to understand.

It is recommended you do the flush every three weeks until you have two consecutive flushes with no stones. After that you can do it once every six months.

The Flush

Days 1-6 You can eat and drink as normal but avoid heavy foods, fatty, or high protein foods. Also do not drink coffee or alcohol.
Drink 1L apple juice daily and on day 6 drink it before 1:30pm and do not eat or drink anything (except water) until 6pm when your first epsom salt drink is due. Do not eat or drink anything other than what's prescribed here and water as needed until after noon on day seven.

Day 6 (mix 4 tablespoons of epsom salts in 710ml filtered water then divide into 4 glasses)
6pm first epsom salt drink
8pm second epsom salt
10pm mix120ml extra virgin olive oil with 180ml pink grapefruit juice. Shake vigorously until well mixed. Drink standing next to your bed then lie down immediately and be still for 20mins on your back with 2 pillows under head, or on right side with legs tucked to your chest. Go to sleep.

Day 7 After your epsom salt drinks keep an eye on the toilet bowl and look for pea size or bigger floating green-ish gall stones. They will be coming out for the rest of today and some tomorrow.
6am third epsom salt drink
8am fourth and final epsom salt drink
10am juice of your choice, try to include greens, maybe celery, silverbeet, and a bit of fruit.
After noon a light meal is ok for rest of the day. Avoid heavy fatty or high protein foods for the next two or three days to give your liver time to readjust.

My wife and I will be running a series of detox retreats within driving distance from Melbourne Australia in the next few months. We are both experienced in fasting and detox and well read (especially Nancy who is a nurse) in all things related to health. We believe God designed our bodies in such a way that we can heal from just about any ailment if the conditions are right. By right conditions we mean:
- Away from the things in your life that cause you stress, anxiety, depression
- Minimising your body's bourden of digestion by living on juices for two weeks
- Removing all your usual toxins and irritants such as alcohol, tobacco, processed foods, additives, chemicals, etc.
- Supercharging your body with the vitamins, enzymes, amino acids, minerals, from freshly juiced vegetables and fruits
- Eliminating toxins through the body's natural methods like sweating, deep breathing, as well as the obvious outlets

The program will essentially be a juice fast (feast really) during which we will make sure you won't be hungry. We will also do a gall bladder flush to naturally and painlessly eliminate gall stones which will allow your liver to resume efficiency and improve your digestion. We will have daily morning walks or light exercise to get your lymphatic system moving and to fill your lungs with fresh air which will oxygenate your blood. We will have discussions about various health and related theological and practical issues which will inform and equip you to live joyfully and energetically when you return to your daily life. The final three days you will be breaking the fast gradually and we will teach you some fantastic gourmet raw food recipes which are quick and easy to prepare and guaranteed to impress even the harshest critics!

At this time we are asking for expressions of interest and the date will be set once we have at least 5 people committed and ready. We will do our best to make this two week program a fun, enjoyable, relaxing, and informative time during which you form lifelong friendships and gain renewed joy and love for God and the people in your life.

Some of the destinations we're currently considering are Phillip Island, Lakes Entrance, and Ballarat. The price is expected to be around $100 to $150 a day for the 14 days and it will include accommodation, cleaning, juices and foods, sauna, and most probably a swimming pool. We endeavour to keep the price absolutely minimal while maintaining a good level of comfort and enjoyable surroundings.

If you're interested please write your comments at the bottom of this article or skype me: davepapp. I'm more than happy to talk with you about the program and address any concerns or special requirements you may have. All you have to do is ask!

Do you have a computer that won't turn on or won't boot up?
Is your computer running slower than it used to?
Does your computer have virus, spyware, or other software issues?

Those are a few of my favourite kinds of jobs! I'm also VERY good at networking computers, setting up wireless networks and securing them, and anything to do with ADSL modems and routers.

My rates are very reasonable and I have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. That means if you're not completely satisfied with my work, you don't have to pay me! So there, absolutely NO RISK to you. Other technicians charge by the hour and you don't know whether they're efficient and as knowledgeable as they claim to be. You could end up with a massive bill with no advance warning! With me, you will never pay more than you're happy with, never!

But allow me to introduce myself. I'm David Papp, founder and former owner of the award winning computer retail store www.megapc.com.au. I sold the shop in order to work part time in what I love doing, which is to help people with their computer problems.

I believe your computer should be a useful and cooperative tool, NOT a cause of frustration and stress!

If you have a computer problem that needs solving, don't take a chance with the other guys, pick up the phone and call me on 0402-475-705 or skype me:



I also service other suburbs including Dandenong, Mulgrave, Narre Warren, Hallam, Cranbourne, Eumemmerring, Doveton, and Lynbrook. If you're not in one of those suburbs but would like to give me a chance to give you superb value for money service, please contact me and we'll talk about your needs.

I purchased Rick Otton's Rent to Own pack about a year ago and what follows is an explanation of the rent to buy system taught by Rick Otton and my opinions on when/how it works or doesn't work. This review is completely independent and I have absolutely nothing to gain from writing it. I do it because I would have liked to read something like this before I bought the course.

The system explained:

There are three parties involved in the system:
1. The person who owns a house and a mortgage who we will call the seller
2. The person who wants to buy a house but can't do it through traditional methods who we will call the buyer
3. The person who brings the two together and makes a profit in the process, who we will call the middleman

There are two documents involved:
1. A residential lease agreement between the seller and the middleman allowing the middleman to sub-let and another agreement between you and the tenant/buyer.
2. Option document between the middleman and the seller and another one between the middleman and the buyer.

The seller can be:
- A divorced couple who want nothing to do with each other
- Someone who borrowed more than the house is worth and can't sell it at a price high enough to pay back the bank loan
- Someone who lost his job and can't afford the repayments any more but could afford to rent a house instead
- Anyone else who wants to get rid of the property but can't simply sell it in the usual way for whatever reason

The buyer can be:
- A self employed person who cannot prove his income to the bank (more common than you think)
- Someone who has good income but only recently started working so doesn't have 2yrs or even 1yr of income history
- Someone who has low income but is also very frugal with his expenses so he can afford to pay the house repayments even though it takes more than 30% of his income (banks figure you can spend at most 30% or so of your income on loan repayments)
- Someone with bad credit rating due to divorce, injury, or unusual circumstances

Your job as the middleman is to find a seller and offer to pay his mortgage and all expenses associated with his property and possibly offer him a higher price for his house, but tell him it may take 2-3 years before you actually sell his house. You offer to give him the money he wants and since you can't do it immediately, you will take care of all expenses until you can pay him out, so the delay doesn't cost him anything. You then find the buyer and you tell him you can get him into a house sooner, with lower deposit or down payment and without having to get a loan from the bank. The buyer starts out as a tenant but pays extra rent which goes towards buying the house. His purchase price is a little higher and he has the right to walk away from the deal if he doesn't want to proceed.

Let's do an example.

Seller has a loan of $250,000 and the house is currently worth at best $255,000. Selling fees add up to more than $5,000 so he wouldn't be able to pay out his loan if he sold the house. You find a buyer who agrees to buy the house at $275,000 in two years time (the buy price). He moves in now and pays you market rent of $270/week and another $130/week for the right to buy the house (option fee). If he decides to go ahead with the purchase in 2yrs time, you will put his option fee towards the purchase price. If he backs out of the deal, he doesn't get his option fee back (or he does, up to you). He also has to pay you a deposit (option fee) of $10,000 which goes towards his purchase if he goes ahead with the transaction. This setup allows you to give the seller an initial payment if required and also allows you to service his loan and expenses. You work those variables in such a way that you make money regardless of whether the buyer ends up buying the house or not. You might simply allow the option to lapse and walk away.

So to sum up, the middleman and the seller need to agree on the following from the onset:
1. Initial option fee, kind of like a deposit but it's an option fee
2. Ongoing rent and option fee to cover his mortgage
3. Final sales price
4. Option period, which is the amount of time you have to get the buyer to find a loan and buy the house (remember he already has at least part of the option fee as his equity)

The middleman and the buyer need to agree on:
1. Initial option fee and whether it goes towards his purchase price
2. Ongoing option fee and whether it goes towards his purchase price, or what portion
3. Rent, which is usually determined by market conditions
4. Option period

There are a few more variables and components to this real estate investing methodology but this should give you a reasonably good idea of what it's all about. The pack you purchase from Rick Otton will describe the process in great detail and will give you sample forms to use. I found a few spelling and grammatical errors in the forms but you should have a solicitor write up the documents properly. Perhaps find out whether the forms are ready to use as they are before purchasing the pack. Hopefully they'll improve on them. You also get a bunch of audio CDs that teach you what to say and how to find the sellers and buyers.

In my opinion, the kind of person who can do this well is someone who is well liked by people and doesn't mind talking to strangers. You need to be able to listen to people's needs and adjust your strategy to achieve a win/win outcome. If you lack confidence or you're shy, find some other way to make money because this isn't for you. You also need to have persistence and have a positive attitude because you will encounter a lot of resistance along the way.

If you would like any more information or have questions, I'd be happy to answer them for you.

By default, when you click the power button on the Vista start menu, your computer will go into hybernate mode. If you prefer for the button to shut down the computer fully when you click it, follow the instructions below:

1. Click on the start menu (the round windows button on the bottom left) and click on "control panel"
2. Click on "Hardware and Sound"
3. Click on "Change when the computer sleeps" which is under the main heading of "Power Options"
4. Click on "Change advanced power settings"
5. Click on the + sign next to "Power buttons and lid"
6. Click on the + sign next to "Start menu power button"
7. From the drop down menu select "Shut Down" instead of "Sleep"
8. Click "OK" on the bottom of the window and you're done!

If you're like me, you grew up being taught that God is outside of time. Being the creator of time, He is not subject to it or bound by it. I think that idea dates back at least as far as Plato, but I'm no historian. I also won't attempt to refute Einstein's theory of relativity, which would have us believe some ridiculous ideas about time travel. My understanding of time is much more simple and does less violence to our brains and to the Christian Scriptures.

Time, at its essence, without any regard to how we chose to measure and quantify it, is very simply the existence of at least two "events". In other words, when we speak of time, we refer to a sequence of events, as something happening before or after another. If you struggle to understand what I'm saying, it's because you are complicating it

Consider Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning, God..." The reason it was "the beginning" is because nothing had happened. There were no events following each other. God, the originator of the universe had not yet done anything. You won't be able to understand that, just accept it and move on. Time began as soon as God initiated creation, and will continue as long as God and the created world exists. Time is not a thing in and of itself, it is the word we assign to the sequence of events that began at creation. When we use words such as "before, after, during, then, now, first, second, etc.", we speak of relative events in time.

This would imply that God is also "in time" rather than "outside of time" since He acted and continues to act. To be outside of time is to not exist or to be absolutely inactive if such a thing is possible. Many people find this idea offensive because they think it limits God in some way. The Scriptures talk of God's foreknowledge and sovereignty which are sufficient for God NOT to be limited by time or constrained in any way since He always knows everything that will happen and has complete control over every single event.

To sum up, I believe time is not a thing which God created and is transcendent to, but rather a word we use to signify a sequence of two or more events. There is no sense in talking of God being "outside of time" or "in time" because such ideas assume an understanding of time that's different from what I'm describing. There is also no sense in which God is limited by time.

One of the implications of this would be to take a more Biblical understanding of eternity as being time that never ends, rather than the "outside of time" view which none of us are capable of understanding. Time travel is impossible under this view. Not to mention that travel has to do with distance and time has to do with events. The two words are completely unrelated.

If any of you know the history of where we got our idea of time being a created thing and God being outside of it, please post an explanation. Was it Plato or someone before him?

Did you install windows on a computer with 4GB of RAM and the system BIOS recognised it as 4GB but windows only sees between 2.5GB and 3.5GB? If yes, read on.

32bit operating systems can address a maximum of 4GB of memory, but some of that is assigned to hardware so in reality, your OS will see significantly less than that. If you do a quick search on Google you will find a few suggestions for fixing this issue, but chances are none of them will work. The only solution to the 4GB limitation is to install a 64bit operating system.

Vista can recognize 4GB if Service Pack 1 or newer is installed. Microsoft seem to have figured out a solution or a workaround to the problem.

If you have a broadband ADSL or Cable connection and would like to share it with multiple computers, this article will tell you how to do it.

Assuming you already have an ADSL or Cable modem, there are two ways of sharing the connection:
1. Sharing the connection using a router.
2. Sharing the connection through a computer.

1. Sharing the connection using a router.
A. The easiest way to do this with an ADSL connection is to replace your ADSL modem with another modem that has a built in router and multiple (usually 4) ethernet ports. That way you simply configure the modem to connect to your service provider and plug your computers in to the router with network cable or through wireless.
B. For Optus cable you can use any old router you can get your hands on. Optus authenticates users through the cable modem's mac address (unique network identifying numbers and letters) so there is no username and password. You will need to connect the cable modem to the router's WAN port with network cable, and plug your computers to any of the router's other ports. The only trick is once all is connected you need to turn your cable modem off and on again and you should be online.
C. For Bigpond cable you will need a router that supports the Bigpond Heartbeat, sometimes referred to as BPA Client. Bigpond authenticates users with username and password and re-authenticates every 20 minutes or so and the router needs to be able to respond to those authentication requests. Connect the cable modem to the router's WAN port with network cable and plug your computers to any of the router's other ports. You will then need to access your router's configuration pages through your web browser by typing in the router's IP address in the address bar of your web browser. If prompted for the router's username and password, enter them in. From the menu choose the Bigpond connection method and enter in your username and password as supplied by bigpond. Unlike ADSL, your username is NOT your email address, just a username. It could take up to about 20 minutes for your router to log in to Bigpond so if you have done everything right sit back and wait for it.
D. Sharing an ADSL connection where you already have an ADSL modem and you add a router is done the same way as described for Optus cable above.
E. Sharing an ADSL connection where you haven an ADSL modem that has routing functions built in but only has one ethernet port can be done by simply adding a network switch or a router with multiple ports but NOT using the WAN port on the router with multiple ports.

2. Sharing the connection through a computer.
This is the cheapest method because your computer does the routing so you don't need any aditional hardware expect a second network card. The computer that you already have connected to your internet connection, whether cable or ADSL will need a second network card. Alternatively connect the modem by USB and add one network card. Essentially the internet connection comes in through either the ethernet or USB port directly from your modem and is made available to another computer through an ethernet port using a crossover network cable to connect the two computers directly. You will need to go through the network setup wizard to tell your operating system which network or USB interface connects to your cable or ADSL modem and which connects to another computer. This is usually called Internet Connection Sharing with most versions of Windows. The downside of configuring your network this way is the computer that's connected to the modem has to be turned on in order for the other computer to access the internet.

Another variation of the above is to have a network hub or switch between your main computer so you can share your internet connection with more than one computer.

How to improve your wireless network signal strength


If you have a wireless router and computers connected to it with wireless cards, this article will give you some inexpensive tips to improving the signal strength. It does NOT deal with dropouts, driver issues, or other faults. I'm assuming you have everything working properly, but the signal strength is not quite as strong as you would like it to be.

Tips:

Antenna orientation: Make sure your antenna points 90 degrees to where you want the signal to go. If the wireless access point (or router) and the computer(s) are on the same level and you want the signal to go horizontally, point the antenna straight up (vertically).
High gain antenna: You can increase the signal strength and distance by using a high gain antenna. For example you could buy an inexpensive 5dbi antenna such as this one. I have found the 5dbi actually works better than the 7dbi. I don't know why but it's slightly better. Also beware of antennas that stand on their own with a wire leading up to it. The wire can negate the benefit of having a higher gain antenna. The best ones are the ones that screw directly onto the access point or wireless card. Also try connecting the higher gain antenna to the wireless cards!
Position: Try to position the wireless access point in such a way that the wireless signal has the least obstructed path. That could mean putting it up on a shelf or in a hallway.
WDS: WDS allows you to connect two access points to each other, acting as one, so that the wireless cards will connect to whichever has the stronger signal.
Fix Gain Boosters: You can purchase a fix gain booster which is a device that is connected between the antenna and the modem/router and it amplifies the signal strength. If you do buy one of these, make sure you get a money back guarantee in case it doesn't help, which has been my experience with some brands.