Dougy Mak’s Blog

When you start your Counter-Strike and if it’s always a black screen, then you’re most likely stuck in Direct 3D mode. To fix this, you would have to set it back to OpenGL for renderer. However, you’re most likely unable to due to the black screen.

To fix this:

1. Go to your Steam (not the game, just Steam) and go to the My Games tab.
2. Right click on Counter-Strike and go click Properties.
3. A new box should pop up. Now click Set launch options…
4. In the following box that pops up, type -dxlevel 9.0 and click Ok when you’re done.
5. Launch Counter-Strike normally, and enjoy!

Today, I was trying to declutter my Firefox. Since you can search using your address bar (the bar where you type the web address), then I decided to take away the dedicated search bar on the right of the address bar. However, when I typed in a keyword and hit enter, it would use Yahoo has the default search engine, but I wanted Google instead. With no further delays, here’s how to change your Firefox’s address bar’s default search.

1. Type about:config in Firefox location bar and press Enter
2. Type keyword.URL in Filter textbox to find keyword.URL.
3. Double-click on keyword.URL and change the value to: http://www.google.com/search?q=

Also, you can change it to Google’s I’m Feeling Lucky search- just use: http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky&q=

That’s it! Now give it a test drive!

Recently, Digsby decided to add a bunch of crapware into their installation. It’s very understandable considering they need to make a living too, but don’t let the crapware turn you off. Digsby is still an excellent program and it’s the best IM (instant messaging) client out there. It’s so robust, fast, and easy to use. Having Digsby handle all your social internet communications in one place is an absolute ease! It just simplifies life and even speeds up your computer since you wouldn’t have to load 5 different instant message programs. Digsby can handle instant messaging (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, and Facebook Chat), e-mail (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, IMAP, and POP ), and even social networks (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn accounts)! Anyways, without further ado! I shall show you the way of the crapless install of Digsby. Read more

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Today, I was trying to figure out which media player can play .mts files, since VLC couldn’t handle it . I found this program called Oxygen AVCHD Player. It’s a really nice player- it’s small, it’s optimized, and it has a nice interface. There’s a lot of video estate, meaning the player isn’t cluttered with all these features that takes up all the space for the video. The interface (play, rewind, forward, etc…) only shows up when the mouse moves. Try it! You can download here: clickyy

edit: you can now use the latest Windows Media Player to play MTS and also VLC Media Player.

THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO ALL CAMERAS! but it does for mine. I have a Sony DSC-N2 andd I was kind of annoyed how it takes picture so slow. If you lower your ISO then the camera will take pictures faster at the cost of lower quality (Didn’t notice any quality difference on my camera).

This is how you lower ISO specifically for my camera (Sony DSC-N2).
Put it in camera mode
Press the button to review more options (the one with a little hand pointing)
You will notice a camera icon button in the top left corner, press it
Set the mode to program, then click back
Now press menu, and VWALLAH! you will see ISO and I am pretty sure you can take it from here.