Matt Refghi

As much as I currently enjoy Facebook, I’ve been known to disable my account every now and then. I never considered this a big deal, as I knew it would remain dormant until I decided I wanted to return. Right now, I’m in one of my active phases, and don’t plan on leaving anytime soon. Despite this fact, I recently found myself visiting the deactivate page, purely out of boredom. In doing so, I unexpectedly came face-to-face with an amusing attempt at manipulation: Instead of just telling how the deactivation will affect the data I’ve shared, they go as far as saying that my friends will miss me. They don’t have a true sense of how significant Facebook is in my life, … Read more

I’ve been using Google+ for about two days now, and I have to say – I’m impressed. While they certainly still need to iron out a few things, I’m happy to see they’ve put some serious thought into polishing the social experience. While testing out some of their features, I noticed a “Feedback” button that appeared on the bottom right of all their pages. When I clicked it, I expected to see a fairly standard feedback form, where I could describe the problem, and then submit. Boy, was I wrong.   Sure, the feedback form was there – but they also added the ability to highlight or black out elements of the page. With the highlighting controls, you can easily … Read more

I recently returned from a whopping two month stay in Atlanta, Georgia, where I lived with my sister. The trip, as a whole, proved extremely valuable – I had a lot of fun, and benefited from a refreshing change of atmosphere. I returned feeling better than I had in years, and that gave me a great boost towards beginning work as a freelance web developer. In fact, I am currently working full time on my own for-profit web application, one that I aim to release by the end of July. I’ll likely write more about this project and my Atlanta experiences in a later post, but today, I have one negative (but amusing) Atlanta experience that I’d like to share. … Read more

For a while, the concept of a spoiler was fairly new to me. I knew exactly what it meant, but had never really seen what damage they could do firsthand. Then, in college, I once accidentally revealed a critical plot twist in the Max Payne 2 storyline. My friend’s disappointed reaction was enough to burn the moment in my mind, ensuring that I would never slip up again. I began to be extremely conscious about what I said, knowing that any information revealed on my part might impede the person’s ability to fully enjoy the media. Currently, there are numerous solutions to help people deal with spoilers online – but the one I’d like to share today tailors specifically to YouTube … Read more

Historically, I’ve always used RetailMeNot for my coupon code needs, as I knew of no viable alternatives. When Coupon Chief contacted me to know if I would review their site, I was glad to agree – after all, competition always tends to produce better products, overall. Before I continue, I want to be clear about the fact that Coupon Chief is paying me to write the review below. Despite their sponsorship, rest assured – the review represents my own honest, unbiased opinion. Presentation My first impression of their website was a positive one, thanks to a very clean design, and no visible ads. The content featured on the main page is well placed, and represents what I think will be the … Read more

As part of my regular use of Gmail, I often find myself pasting text from web into my e-mails. Since the Gmail editor supports rich-text, pasting generally includes the formating, which, most of the time, simply does not make sense within the e-mail. For years, I have been using a trick to get around this – one which involved using the almighty Windows Notepad. By simply pasting the text into Notepad, and then copying it from there, I make sure the formating is not brought over. This works because Notepad itself does not support formating. As useful as this trick is, I often found myself wondering whether there were better options available. A few days ago, as I was writing an e-mail … Read more

Description WinRAR: http://rarlabs.com B/MB/GB/TB Converter http://egret.net/kb__mb.htm Additional Info: ZIP files RAR files Data Compression Transcript In this video, I’ll be demonstrating how to use compression to overcome attachment size limits in emails. As an example, I’ll be using Gmail, which has a maximum attachment size of 25 megabytes. I’ve prepared two scenarios where the size of the attachments exceed the limits enforced by Gmail. In the first scenario, I’m looking to send pictures through email; however, I have exactly 25.1 megabytes of pictures, which is slightly over the Gmail limit. To get around this, I’m going to combine all the pictures into a special compressed file, which will be smaller in size. File compression is included in Windows and requires … Read more

When my Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 3000 stopped working, I initially thought the batteries were dead. After switching them out, and noticing that the problem persisted, I started searching for a solution. I tried a few-software level suggestions with no success, but then realized that even the red light under the mouse wasn’t working. Clicking on the “Connect” buttons on the receiver and the mouse didn’t help, either. Solution I then discovered a forum post that revealed that my problem was actually hardware based: I discovered that a small black springloaded piece comes out of the side of the area where the usb connector rests to turn it off. The small black piece is pushed back when the USB connector (notebook receiver) is … Read more

When a friend of my mine started blogging, I found myself offering him tips by e-mail. I realized that with 2+ years of blogging experience came some new knowledge, so I decided I should probably share what I’d accumulated. I normally avoid blogging about blogging at all costs – but I felt this would be a good moment to make an exception. The tips I’m sharing below are not meant to be seen as the true, all-powerful top 10 laws that a blogger must abide by. They are merely guidelines that I have deemed important for my own blog, and felt might be useful to others as well. 10 Avoid Bandwidth Theft It is important to remember that anything found … Read more