Pulling music off of an iPhone.

    In a previous post I told you how to use iTunes with a non apple device.  Now in the next question is how do you pull music off your iPhone if it doesn't exist on your computer.  I have found a couple of options depending on your setup.
    If your iPhone is jail-broken there is a free app called iPhonebrowser. You have to install the afc2add app from Cydia(this is for jail-broken phones only).
    The other option is a xplay. Its not a free program, but it has a 15 day trial.  This worked well for my non jail-broken iPhone.  It wouldn't let me copy the entire music folder, but I went inside the music folder and copied all those folders. 
    Now you can pull you music held hostage by Apple and put it on your Android phone...or anywhere you want it.

Bootable Windows USB Thumbdrive

    In a previous post I told you how to make a Linux bootable usb thumb drive. Ive been working with ways to use windows 7 bootdisks and found an easy way to do it with Vista and Windows 7.
    Step one format the thumbdrive you want to use to NTFS filesystem.(right click on the thumbdrive in "My Computer" and choose format.  Make sure you choose NTFS filesystem and choose ok)

    Then in the start menu right click on the "command prompt" and choose "run as administrator".

    Next in the "command prompt" type "diskpart" then enter.

    Then type "list disk".  The results will tell you which Disk the thumbdrive is(Disk X).

    Now type "select disk X" (X is the number displayed for thumbdrive)

    Type "list partition" (it will display a partition number probably 1)

    Next type "select partition 1"(or whatever partition you choose)

    Then you take all the files from a boot cd/image and put them in a folder you create, and know the path to.  (c:\windows7 in my case)

    Now in a new "command prompt" type cd \windows7\boot (this is the path to your folder for your files windows disks will have a boot folder)

    Then type bootsect /nt60 X:  (X is the partition letter of your thumbdrive)

    Now copy the contents of your boot cd/image you put in that folder directly to the thumbdrive.

This worked great for my windows 7 install image.  Now its on a bootable thumbdrive.

Using Google as a resource for computer problems.

    If you are like me you already know how great Google is, but I am finding most people don't realize how robust a tool it really is.  I start with Google as a jumping off point for any research I do.
    Computer errors you don't understand can be solved quickly by simply searching them.  I find that when an error pops up, typing it into the search word for word brings up the exact answer you need.  If the problem exists odds are someone else has had it also.
    Forums that Google crawls will pop up with solutions to your specific problems.  I find being adept with Google solves 90% of my tech problems.   Being persistent pays off if the answer doesn't present itself right away.