How To Boot From a USB Device

You might want to boot from a USB device, like an external hard drive or a flash drive, for many different reasons.

When you boot from a USB device, what you're actually doing is running your computer with the operating system that's installed on the USB device. When you start your computer normally, you're running with the operating system installed on your hard drive - Windows, Linux, etc.

Follow these easy steps to boot from a flash drive, an external hard drive, or some other bootable USB device.

Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: Booting from a USB device usually takes less than 10 to 20 minutes.

Here's How:

Change the BIOS boot order so the USB device option is listed first. The BIOS is rarely setup this way by default.

If the USB boot option is not first in the boot order, your PC will start "normally" (i.e. boot from your hard drive) without even looking at any boot information that might be on your USB device.

Note: After setting your USB device as the first boot device, your computer will check it for boot information each time your PC starts. Leaving your computer configured this way shouldn't cause problems unless you plan on leaving the bootable USB device attached all the time.

Attach the USB device to your computer via any available USB port.

Note: Creating a bootable flash drive or configuring an external hard drive as bootable is a task in itself. Chances are you made it to my instructions here because you know whatever USB device you have should be bootable after properly configuring BIOS.

Restart your computer.

Watch for a Press any key to boot from external device... message.

On some bootable devices, you may be prompted with a message to press a key before the computer will boot to the flash drive or other USB device.

If you do nothing, your computer will check for boot information on the next boot device in the list in BIOS (see Step 1) which will probably be your hard drive.

Note: Most of the time when trying to boot to a USB device there is no key-press prompt. The USB boot process usually starts immediately.

Your computer should now boot from the flash drive or USB based external hard drive.

Note: What happens now depends on what the bootable USB device was intended for. If you're booting to an old version of MS-DOS on a flash drive, MS-DOS will load. If you're booting to the DSL version of Linux, it will start. You get the idea.

If you tried the above steps but your computer did not boot from the USB device, check out some of the tips below.

Tips:

Recheck the boot order in BIOS (Step 1).

The number one reason a bootable flash drive or other USB device won't boot is because BIOS is not configured to check the USB port first.

Didn't find a "USB Device" boot order listing in BIOS?

If your computer was manufactured around 2001 or before, it may not have this ability. If your computer is newer, check for some other ways that the USB option might be worded. In some BIOS versions, it's called "Removable Devices" or "External Devices".
Switch to another USB port.

The BIOS on some motherboards only check the first few USB ports. Switch to another USB port and restart your computer.

Copy the files to the USB device again.
If you created the bootable flash drive or external hard drive yourself, which you probably did, repeat whatever steps you took again. You may have made a mistake during the process.

More Related to Booting from USB Devices
How To Change Your PC's Boot Order
What is a Flash Drive?
What is a USB Port?

Source : About

Google hits pause button for Nexus S Android 4.0 update

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE!

It seems that Google has hit the pause button on its rollout of Android 4.0 to the Nexus S that began last Friday. Details are still sparse, but many users are claiming that they're still getting update notifications over the air — the only difference is that when the update process is complete, the phone simply boots back into Gingerbread, so it appears that Mountain View is able to trigger some sort of rollback from afar. The exact reason for the move is unclear, but the company says that it is "monitoring feedback" — to us, that reads as though they're looking for a pattern in problems that users are reporting.

Says Google's Paul Wilcox:

If you received an update notification a little while ago but the update isn't currently available for your phone, this is likely the result of Google pausing the update in your area while we monitor feedback. The Android 4.0 update is continuing to roll out around the world so your phone will receive another update notification when it's available again in your region.

We've reached out for comment and will update the story when we have more information.

Update: Though we don't have anything official from Google, we've heard from trusted sources that this "pausing" is par for the course with Android's standard over-the-air rollout process — upgrades are paused between batches on a regular basis to be sure everything is going smoothly. We don't have anything specific on when updates for the Nexus S will resume, but we're told that as of right now, everything is still proceeding within the "in the coming month" guidance that Google had given previously.

This article originally appeared on theverge.com as Nexus S Android 4.0 update ‘paused,’ but it’s business as usual.

More tech news from Post Business:

Who are the winners of AT&T’s broken deal?

Firefox, Google renew search deal

Amazon offers free shipping on Kindle Fire

Source : Washingtonpost

PayPal Tests In-Store NFC Payments App With Swedish Retailers, Similar Mobile ‘Experiments’ To Roll Out Soon

We’ve been hearing that PayPal is going to be rolling out an in-store payments experience at a national retailer in the U.S. soon. It looks like the payments giant is testing another in-store payments experience in Sweden, using NFC technology, and partnering with two Swedish developers Accumulate and Point. You can find more information about the partnership here (in Swedish).

Waroncash originally reported the test, but we’ve spoken to PayPal to get more details on the integration.

As PayPal’s Anuj Nayar tells me, PayPal is experimenting with in-store ‘proximity’-based NFC payments in the test with two Swedish retailers, an electronic store and a sports equipment store. Users can download a PayPal in-store iOS or Android app (only available in Sweden). This app will give them access to special discounts at the retailers. When users visit the store, they will receive an NFC sticker, which will allow them to pay via NFC (with the payments deducted from their PayPal accounts) at the retailer point of sale systems.

PayPal worked with mobile payments developer Accumulate on the technology as well as with startup Point, which was acquired by VeriFone earlier this year for over $1 billion, on the point of sale integrations. It’s actually a short-test as well and will only last for five days.

Nayar says the developers involved actually reached out to PayPal to see if the integration would make sense. He adds that over the next few months PayPal will be ‘many’ different proximity-based payments technologies (including NFC) and exploring numerous partnership opportunities.

“PayPal isn’t betting the farm on NFC,” he explains. But he says that the payments giant is interested in using the technology as one option for in-store payments. As we’ve reported in the past, PayPal is dabbling in NFC but still believes mass adoption is years away.

CRUNCHBASE

• PAYPAL

Company:PayPal

Website:paypal.com

Launch Date:January 12, 1998

Funding:$197M

PayPal is an online payments and money transfer service that allows you to send money via email, phone, text message or Skype. They offer products to both individuals and businesses alike, including online vendors, auction sites and corporate users. PayPal connects effortlessly to bank accounts and credit cards. PayPal Mobile is one of PayPal’s newest products. It allows you to send payments by text message or by using PayPal’s mobile browser. PayPal created the Gausebeck-Levchin test, which is that blurry...

LEARN MORE

Source : Techcrunch

Facebook Sponsored Story Ads To Appear In The Web News Feed In 2012

Starting in January 2012, Facebook will gradually begin showing Sponsored Stories social ads in the main news feed of the web version of the site, a representative of the company tells us. Facebook hasn’t shown ads in the news feed since 2008, so this has big ramifications for advertisers and the user experience.

The ads will be marked “Sponsored” and a rate limit will ensure users see no more than 1 Sponsored Story in the news feed per day. They’ll only feature stories about friends or Pages that users already like. Users won’t be able to opt out of seeing Sponsored Stories in the news feed or having their activity used in them, but they will be able to ‘x’ out individual ads. The ads won’t immediately appear in the mobile news feed, though Facebook is considering the idea as we discussed earlier this month.

The screenshot above shows how the ads will look in the news feed. The ability to display promoted content alongside organic social content in the popular and highly addictive news feed is essentially the holy grail for advertisers. While users are attentively browsing photos and updates from friends, they’ll end up consuming ads as well. The ads look so similar to organic news feed stories and are only marked in the bottom right corner — the last place a user’s eyes will scan. That means users probably won’t notice the difference until they’ve already internalized an ad’s message.

Some users will likely be outraged by the presence of ads in the news feed, as well as by having their content so directly used to make Facebook money. Others may argue that Facebook provides a valuable service to users for free, and is therefore entitled to showing ads where it wants to.

Personally, I’d rather see Sponsored Stories that inform me about the activity of friends than traditional ads that can be much less relevant. However, the rate limit will be crucial to maintaining a high quality user experience. If too many news feed Sponsored Stories are shown a day, the feed could deteriorate into a billboard and users might not be so eager to visit Facebook anymore.

Starting in 2006, Facebook tested allowing advertisers to pay to show sponsored content in the news feed. Facebook discontinued the program in 2008, deciding that advertisers shouldn’t be able to pay to show content in the news feed unless it could appear there naturally.

For years, all ads were confined to a small sidebar on the right side of the interface. In January 2011, though, Facebook launched Sponsored Stories. They allow advertisers to pay to turn the news feed stories generated by interactions between users and businesses into ads. These actions can include a user Liking a Page, receiving a news feed update from a Page they already Like, checking in to a local business, sharing content from an external website, or using an application. Below you can see how the Sponsored Stories flow works, and at the bottom of this article is an excerpt from Facebook’s guide for advertisers that shows all the ad types.

This fall, Sponsored Stories began appearing in the Ticker, the first time it had mixed ads with social content since 2008. Users didn’t actively protest having updates of their friends adulterated with ads, possibly bolstering Facebook’s confidence that it could show ads in the main news feed without ruining the user experience. After all, the ads are only showing content that could already appear in the feed.

Starting in January, when advertisers pay for these Sponsored Stories, they’ll be eligible to appear in the main news feed in addition to the ads sidebar. By mixing them in with social content on the site’s home page they’ll be much more noticeable and therefore more valuable to advertisers. The word “Sponsored” will appear in gray in the bottom right of the ad stories. If hovered over, it reads “This was already shared with you. A sponsor paid to feature it here”. Facebook tells me it will also be educating users about how Sponsored Stories work in other ways, such as sidebar ads that link to the Help Center’s Sponsored Stories section.

Given that Facebook has roughly 400 million daily users, half of which are on the web, Facebook could boost its daily ad inventory by up to 200 million impressions. This inventory expansion could reduce ad prices, though an increase in advertiser demand for Sponsored Stories could offset this. Facebook hasn’t finalized whether advertisers will have the option to specifically request placement in the news feed. Studies have shown sidebar Sponsored Stories have a 46% higher click through rate than traditional ads, and you can expect the CTR of news feed Sponsored Stories to be even higher.

If Facebook can weather the protest of users who want an ad-free news feed, it will have managed to open a significant new revenue stream. The launch of news feed Sponsored Stories could also be a big turning point for online advertising. With prominent placement on one of the world’s most visited sites and their appeal to viewers from including the faces and activity of friends, Sponsored Stories news feed ads could help Facebook steal ad spend from paid search and traditional display such as Google AdWords and AdSense.

Update: This article originally stated that Facebook had never shown ads in the news feed before. However, Facebook tested sponsored content in the news feed in 2006 to 2008, as this article now reflects.

Source : Techcrunch

Mozilla And Google Extend Default-Search Agreement For Another Three Years

The browser wars continue to simmer, and Firefox, once the tech world’s champion against the insipid tyranny of Internet Explorer 6, has been losing ground to Chrome. In fact, just a few weeks ago, one report put Chrome in front of Firefox for the first time, with both taking up about 25% of the market but within a point of each other.

Mozilla said in October that they expected their agreement with Google, by which Google is the default search engine in Firefox, would be renewed — but the internet was all a-whisper with the idea that Google might take this tipping-point timing to alter the agreement. That’s still a possibility, but at any rate an agreement has been reached, for no less than three years of continuing partnership. Mozilla doesn’t provide many details on its blog, but their next financial statement will likely prove very informative on that front.

It makes sense, of course: Google isn’t one to antagonize an organization that has been in most respects a friendly one, and which of course commands quite a bit of an audience. Originally, the agreement was supposed to be renewed in November, which suggests (but in now way proves) that the last month has been full of negotiation. Obviously the balance of power has changed somewhat and Firefox is no longer the up-and-comer but the incumbent.

As for the merits of the browsers, that’s for another article, and the features and strengths of Firefox and Chrome (and more niche browsers like RockMelt) will continue to shift.

The next few years will be key for Mozilla, and the Google partnership (which makes up the vast majority of their income) will provide fuel for the fire while they attempt to diversify and innovate themselves out what amounts to serfdom. To speculate about what might occur after the threes years are up would be silly, but I would guess that Mozilla isn’t going to count on having Google’s help after that.

Source : Techcrunch

Modern Warfare 3: Dropzone

Modern Warfare 3 added a community playlist for the first time with the game type “Dropzone”. If you haven’t already played this game type, I’d highly recommend doing so. 

Here’s how it works; You camp on the dropzone and receive care packages as long as you remain there. 

If a certain amount of people on the same team manage to camp on the dropzone, an escort airdrop is rewarded.  This game type is good for those who wish to up their overall K/D ratio as long as you can manage to hold down the dropzone. 

The care packages are usually pretty decent in my experience and once you manage to get a few good drops, you’re basically set for the game. 

 I was extremely pleased to see a community playlist added to the game, because this leaves room for future game types which are hopefully just as good as the first. Other games have been known to do this sort of thing, such as Halo: Reach and Gears of War 3 which has a special event playlist every so often.(usually holidays or with new DLC releases) Either way it makes these games much more enjoyable.

  This game type could very well take the place of my current favorite; kill confirmed. So, if you haven’t already done so, go give dropzone a try, and let us know how you like it! Or if you’ve already played it, let us know your thoughts.

Source : Fpswin

Modern Warfare 3 Unlimited Prestige Token Glitch Gets You Banned

Last week, we reported on the 5000 day ban that one player received in Modern Warfare 3. While that player must have committed a considerable offence that resulted in a permaban, bans are being handed out to the ever popular prestige token glitch.

Basically, this glitch enables you to have an infinite supply of prestige tokens to use. The prestige token counter would display a negative number after using the exploit. Robert Bowling has warned players that you can get banned for exploiting the infinite prestige. Unfortunately, Robert didn’t reveal how many days this ban will entail, but he did explain that along with the ban, exploiters’ “stats and prestige tokens reset to zero.”

On another note, matchmaking issues have been addressed via a playlist update earlier today. Whether this update has resolved the small counteries’ matchmaking debacle is unknown, but please do let us know in the comments’ section whether you’ve been having a smoother matchmaking experience.

Source : mp1st