Mike's Tech Blog

How To Open a Stuck CD / DVD Drive

The other day I was asked by someone to look at their DVD drive that had a CD stuck in it. This can be frustrating when even pushing the Eject button, and the CD won't eject. Fortunately, there is an easy solution.

List of Free Microsoft Office Templates To Improve Productivity

Operating Systems - Microsoft / Windows

Microsoft Office Templates are a great way to greatly speed up document creation as well as maintain document conformity, and office productivity. These Office Templates are

Completely and Securely Erase Hard Drive Data

Operating Systems - Microsoft / Windows

Recently I was asked to completely erase a hard drive. As a lot of people know, just deleting a file, or re-formatting the hard drive doesn't do the trick. The data is still on your hard drive, and can be easily pulled off. Luckily there are

Disable Windows Needs Your Permission to Continue in Vista

Operating Systems - Microsoft / Windows

Whenever I work on someone's computer with Vista on it, I usually get the "Windows Needs Your Permission to Continue" prompts. These security alerts do serve a purpose, however

Build a 2 Meter Vertical Antenna

Ham Radio - Antennas

I needed to replace my old 2 Meter 1/4 wave vertical antenna for the 146 mHz. amateur radio band. The old one had lost its radials and I wasn't able to hit the various amateur radio repeaters around. So being one who likes to build antennas, here is what I came up with.