Author Archives: Mahmoud Al-Qudsi

Windows Recovery Discs Updated, Reinstated

Posted on by Mahmoud Al-Qudsi
56

Download Now

Windows Recovery Disk Screen

Almost four years ago, NeoSmart Technologies published a Windows Vista repair and recovery CD that could be used to treat common boot issues and recover from catastrophic system failure in case you didn’t have a Windows setup CD handy.

Windows XP Logo Over the years, we’ve added more recovery CDs to the collection, ending up with a complete portfolio of repair CDs for Windows Vista and Windows 7 in both 32- and 64-bit flavors. We’ve had the good fortune of being able to host these CDs on our site in one form or the other for free download to millions of users around the globe.

Three months ago, we were contacted by the legal department at Microsoft Corporation asking us to discontinue hosting these files. Until this point, we were not aware that Microsoft was displeased with our hosting of the CDs and in fact enjoyed a rather healthy relationship with the Microsoft support forums where victims of PC crashes would be directed to our site to download a copy of the repair CDs.

Since then, we have been in talks and negotiations with the Microsoft legal and licensing divisions, trying to work out a method whereby we could provide our users and visitors with access to these CDs once again. Today we’re excited to announce that these CDs are once more available for download!

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Irony from Google Plus…

Posted on by Mahmoud Al-Qudsi
14

I think we’re on a roll here with picture blogging, but here’s another. This one is from Google+, the newly-launched social network hoping to take a chunk out of Facebook’s dominance in this market.


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TEDx Talk: This is stupid, there has to be a better way!

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A copy of my talk at TEDxDeadSea last month is now available on the TEDxTalks channel at YouTube.

The premise is finding new ideas for startups and “entrepreneurships” based on the concept of “this is stupid, there has to be a better way.”

HP Running the ATi QA Show?

Posted on by Mahmoud Al-Qudsi
7

ATi's RubyFrom the day I built my PC a few years ago until just last week, it’s been impossible for me to play a game (pretty much *any* full-screen DirectX/OpenGL game) without the ATi drivers crashing. (For reference, stock ATi HD3870 on an ASUS RoG Maximus Formula II motherboard). I’ve tracked down each and every possible lead, and solved a number of crash-inducing issues in the process, but haven’t been able to completely prevent the display driver crashes from the days Vista or now on Windows 7.

There were issues pertaining to dual-displays in a mixed VGA/DVI environment (one display DVI, the second VGA) which were never resolved by ATi (to the best of my knowledge) and were worked around by initially downgrading the DVI to a VGA connection and later replacing the older monitor with a new DVI-based display. There were issues related to the refresh rate. There were issues related to the resolution. There were issues related to the games. There were issues related to the OS. Basically, wherever you look, there were problems caused by poor development practices and crappy QA all around.

There were issues that Microsoft/Windows’ new WDM model caught, triggering a restart of the graphics subsystem without causing a BSoD. And there were (unfortunately the majority) of the ATi display driver crashes that caused BSoDs left, right, and center.

Today, my Windows 7 PC surprised me with an interesting question:

Send info to HP?

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TEDxDeadSea 2011

Posted on by Mahmoud Al-Qudsi
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Just a quick note: TED is coming to Jordan in the form of TEDxDeadSea this Saturday (April 30, 2011), at the Kempinski Hotel in (cue tautology) the Dead Sea, Jordan.

I’ve been honored with the opportunity to speak at this event, and will be discussing my take on entrepreneurship and some of the obstacles of running an international company from the Middle East.

I’m looking forward to all the exciting speakers and performers that will be at TEDxDeadSea and would love to meet anyone interested in engaging in some quality, thought-provoking talk! In the meantime, you can follow me @mqudsi, NeoSmart Technologies at @neosmart, and TEDxDeadSea at @TEDxDeadSea…

Never Buy Domains from 1&1

Posted on by Mahmoud Al-Qudsi
32

Never, ever buy domains from 1&1. Why? Let’s just put it this way: if a domain was a physical good that had to be shipped from one end of the USA to the other, or even imported from Europe to the States, it wouldn’t take as long for you to get it as it does when you buy from 1and1.

I’ve bought my fair share of domains via 1and1, and to be honest, on the few times in the past when I’ve needed the domain name ASAP, generally got the domain I bought within 24 hours. But now it’s been 4 days and 1and1 still hasn’t handed over the domain name that I bought and paid for. Instead, the domain shows up in the list of purchases with the status “The domain has been requested” – as if I care! I just want my domain name, and I want it now! The clients are waiting!

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Happy Pi Day 2011, Everyone!

Posted on by Mahmoud Al-Qudsi
1

It’s that time of the year again – our favorite holiday for the past decade. Pi Day. A reminder of the math geeks that have brought wisdom and light on our planet for centuries past.

Depending on who you ask, they all have different terms for Pi. Transcendental, irrational, easy, hard… but we prefer the term ‘magical.’

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OS X 10.7 Lion Adds TRIM Support, But Not For All

Posted on by Mahmoud Al-Qudsi
9

I just happened to upgrade the firmware on my Crucial C300 256GB SSD drive in my MacBook Pro (13″ Unibody, Late 2008) on the same day that I upgraded to OS X 10.7 Lion. In my previous post, I touched briefly on the fact that 10.7 in the renamed “System Information” app under the “Serial-ATA” section does not detect my SSD as having TRIM support.

This is one of the very top SSD models out there in terms of performance and size, and it’s been proven in multiple benchmarks (though with the C400 coming out, things are set to change once more); and has proven to be a popular choice for MacBook owners due to the large size and incredible performance even without TRIM in previous versions of OS X.

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