How to Manually Uninstall Office 2010 to Fix Failed or Rollback Installation

Installation of Office 2010 should be an easy and problem-free process for most new users and upgraders. However, some Office 2010 users may encounter installation issue where installation process of Office 2010 halts unexpected before completion, and then stuck forever and indefinitely despite hitting “Cancel” button or rollback the installation.

To make matter worse, it’s impossible to start the installation of Office 2010 again, as install wizard won’t start. There is no entry of Office 2010 in Add and Remove Programs or Programs and Features list too, so end-user cannot uninstall or rollback the failed Office 2010 install attempt. It’s also impossible to install any other version of Office (such as Office 2007) to supersede, overwrite or replace the corrupted Office 2010 installation, the installation wizard cannot continue as another setup was not completed.

It’s also possible that users who messed around with the registry keys and/or license files of Office 2010 will render the Office 2010 installation not working, and any attempt to reinstall with have installer rolls back with error message of “License cannot be verified”.

To fix the Office 2010 installation issue so that Office 2010 can be installed properly, follow these steps as suggested by Microsoft:

1. Download and install the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility.
2. Run Windows Install Clean Up.
3. Highlight Microsoft Office 2010 entry in the list and then click Remove.
   Note: If there is any other old or redundant office entries such as Office 2007 or other Office standalone products such as Visio in the list, do highlight and remove them together.
4. Quit the Windows Install Clean Up when cleanup process finished.
5. Close all applications.
6. Click Start, in the Search box, type regedit and press Enter to run Registry Editor.
7. Expand the registry tree on the left pane and locate the following two registry subkeys:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office
8. Right-click on the registry subkeys and click Delete to delete those keys.
9. Open Windows Explorer, and then browse to the C:\Program Filesand/or C:\Program Files (x86) folder.
10. Perform the following actions:
    If it exists, rename Microsoft Office to “Microsoft Office OLD”
    If it exists, rename OfficeUpdate to “OfficeUpdateOLD”
    If it exists, rename OfficeUpdate14 to “OfficeUpdate14OLD”
11. Click Start, in the Search box, type %Temp% and press Enter.
12. Empty (delete all files and folders inside) the Temp folder.
    Note: If some files can’t be deleted, just skip them.
13. Empty the Recycle Bin.
14. Restart your computer. Try to install Office 2010 again.

For those who want the security of access to the Facebook site more secure.

HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox extension produced as a collaboration between The Tor Project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It encrypts your communications with a number of major websites.
Many sites on the web offer some limited support for encryption over HTTPS, but make it difficult to use. For instance, they may default to unencrypted HTTP, or fill encrypted pages with links that go back to the unencrypted site.

The HTTPS Everywhere extension fixes these problems by rewriting all requests to these sites to HTTPS.

The plugin currently works for:

• Google Search
• Wikipedia
• Twitter
• Facebook
• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• Paypal
• EFF
• Tor
• Ixquick

(and many other sites)

HTTPS Everywhere

 From : https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

Text, don't talk! To reduce cellphone radiation, also buy low-emitting phone

"Listen more, talk less"  isn't just a Dale Carnegie-like way to win friends and influence people. It, along with "text, don't talk," is also a way to reduce radiation exposure from cellphones. Another way: buy a low-emitting phone.

Apple's iPhone scores in the middle range for radiation exposure on the Environmental Working Group's updated cellphone guide.

CAPTION

By Sean Gallup, Getty Images

Cellphones emit radiation to send voice and text messages, and some studies of frequent users suggest  increased risks for brain and mouth tumors as well as children's behavior problems, according to the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit government watchdog group.

"Until scientists know much more about cellphone radiation, it's smart for consumers to buy phones with the lowest emissions," the Washington-based group says. It recently updated its online consumer guide, covering more than 1,000 phones on the market, to include 2010 models.
The popular iPhone scores in the middle range, as noted on a list of new phones most recommended by tech experts. If you're not sure what model your phone is, take out the battery. Model numbers are often listed there.

The guide lists the best and worst phones. Among the lowest-emitters are Sanyo Katana II, Samsung Rugby and Blackberry Storm 9530. The highest include Blackberry 8820, Motorola i880 and Palm Pixi.
When the Environmental Working Group released a report last year on cellphone radiation, the wireless industry's lobbying association CTIA issued a statement saying wireless devices do not pose a health hazard, according to a USA TODAY story.

The Federal Communications Commission sets standards for cellphone radiation, requiring they be rated at 1.6 watts per kilogram or less. It doesn't require device makers to reveal radiation levels.
 The Environmental  Working Group offers tips for reducing exposure, such as texting and listening rather than talking.  Aside from buying a low-emitting phone, it recommends:

• USE A HEADSET OR SPEAKER
  Headsets emit much less radiation than phones. Choose either wired or wireless (experts are split on which version is safer) using our cellphone headset guide. Some wireless headsets emit continuous, low-level radiation, so take yours off your ear when you're not on a call. Using your phone in speaker mode also reduces radiation to the head.

•  LISTEN MORE, TALK LESS
  Your phone emits radiation when you talk or text, but not when you're receiving messages. Listening more and talking less reduces your exposures.

• HOLD PHONE AWAY FROM YOUR BODY
  Hold the phone away from your torso when you're talking (with headset or speaker), not against your ear, in a pocket, or on your belt where soft body tissues absorb radiation.

• CHOOSE TEXTING OVER TALKING
  Phones use less power (less radiation) to send text than voice. And unlike when you speak with the phone at your ear, texting keeps radiation away from your head.

• POOR SIGNAL? STAY OFF THE PHONE
  Fewer signal bars on your phone means that it emits more radiation to get the signal to the tower. Make and take calls when your phone has a strong signal.

• LIMIT CHILDREN'S PHONE USE
  Young children's brains absorb twice the cellphone radiation as an adult's. EWG joins health agencies in at least six countries in recommending limits for children's phone use, such as for emergency situations only.

• SKIP THE "RADIATION SHIELD"
  Radiation shields such as antenna caps or keypad covers reduce the connection quality and force the phone to transmit at a higher power with higher radiation.

From : http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/03/iphone-and-other-cell-users-beware-radiation-dangers-may-lurk/1?csp=obinsite

Talking Out Loud Improves Memory Retention

Libraries are quiet places because people are often concentrating intensely, but according to a recent paper, muttering to yourself and talking about things out loud helps improve your memory and the knowledge that you retain.

You may look a little odd talking to yourself, but studying out loud improves information retention by differentiating bits of knowledge. According to the article:

In this paper, these researchers document what they call the production effect. They looked at people's memory for items like a list of words. They found that if people studied the list by reading half of the words silently and the other half by saying the words out loud, that he words spoken aloud were remembered much better than those that were read silently.
The production effect works because it makes part of the list of items more distinctive. The words you speak aloud are now translated into speech and you have knowledge of producing the items as well as a memory of hearing them. All of this information makes your memory for the spoken items more distinct from the rest of the items that were read silently.

From : http://lifehacker.com/5552556/talking-out-loud-improves-memory-retention

30,000 Quit Facebook In Protest

A group protesting Facebook's privacy policies said Monday more than 30,000 people had heeded its call to quit the social networking giant.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - – A group protesting Facebook's privacy policies said Monday more than 30,000 people had heeded its call to quit the social networking giant.

"For us it comes down to two things: fair choices and best intentions. In our view, Facebook doesn't do a good job in either department," the organizers, who did not identify themselves, said on their website for Monday's "Quit Facebook Day."

"Facebook gives you choices about how to manage your data, but they aren't fair choices."

The group said at 2300 GMT that 32,749 had dropped out of the Facebook universe.

Facebook.com is visited monthly by 540 million people, or slightly more than 35 percent of the Internet population, according to Google data.

Facebook is overhauling privacy controls in the face of a barrage of criticism that it is betraying the trust which has made it the world's biggest social network.

Facebook redesigned its privacy settings page to provide a single control for content and "significantly reduce" the amount of information that is always visible to everyone.

Facebook also said it is giving users more control over how outside applications or websites access information at the service.

Critics continue to call for Facebook to make all user information private by default and then let people designate what they want to share case-by-case in an "opt-in" model.

From : http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100601/ttc-us-it-company-privacy-internet-faceb-0de2eff.html