JustinActon.com

Get $100 From DIRECTV Referral Program

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:02:00 GMT

I was hesitant to make the switch from cable, but I'm glad I did. Main reasons being that it's cheaper and it has NFL Sunday Ticket. I was worried that I would have issues with it going out during bad weather, but have yet to have any problems. It's not that I didn't like the cable service I had, I was just looking to cut my bill a bit while keeping basically the same channels, and Directv provided me with that.

With that being said, they offer a referral program, where each person (referrer and referee) both get a $100 bonus (paid as $10 off your bill for 10 months). To sign up for the best service @ the best price simply go to DIRECTV.COM and sign up and use the referral code 64192734 or simply shoot me and email (jacton at this domain) and request a referral.

ING Direct Savings - $25 Promo Code

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:00:00 GMT

Interested in a high yield savings account? I just signed up for an ING orange savings account getting 1.3% and received $25 with a starting balance of $250. This isn't a gimmick, there is no minimum balance and no service fees for this account. You simply link it to an existing checking account and you can transfer money back and forth between the two.

Another thing I really like about ING is you can create "sub" accounts and easily categorize your money for certain things. The great thing about it is you still only login with a single account number and you can do it in a matter of seconds. Once they're created you can setup automatic savings plans(ASP) to transfer money whenever you want.

In order to receive the $25 offer you must have an initial deposit of $250 and use one of the following promo links below:

ATTENTION!
If the links below don't work,try and clear your cookies first. If you try the link and it is still expired, go back, clear your cookies again and try another. If that sounds like to much work, you can simply email me (admin at justinacton dot com)and I will email a link to you.

ORANGE SAVINGS
$25 referral link
$25 referral link
$25 referral link
$25 referral link
$25 referral link
$25 referral link
$25 referral link
$25 referral link
$25 referral link
$25 referral link

If you receive an error message stating that the link is invalid, just try another link...that link has already been used.

After your initial deposit clears you will receive your $25 bonus. Please only use these links if you plan on depositing the $250 in order to receive the bonus. If you want to signup and not deposit at least $250, then please use this link.

FREE Fonts

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:53:00 GMT

Here lately I've been doing some logo designs and found myself in need of some new fonts. Out of all the searches I did for free fonts, by far the best site available is dafont.com.

Depending on what you are using the font for, you can find boat loads of fonts for both personal and business use. Pretty much any style you're looking for can be found here, and while some of it isn't free, most of it is.

You can search their site by font type, or do a word search for a particular name. So if you find yourself in need of some new fonts, I highly recommend dafont.com

FREE stock images

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:42:00 GMT

If you're in need of truly free (meaning royalty free and you don't have to pay for it) images here is a good site to check out.

Photos8.com

This site has a nice collection of photos ranging from animals, people, places, and money. The thing that's different about this site is that everything truly is free, even for business use. That's different from a lot of advertisements you see for free images, which turn out to be just royalty free, and you have to pay and upfront price.

If you find yourself in need for some images for your site, make sure you check this website out.

File Syncing and Backup with Dropbox

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

If you haven't heard of dropbox yet you should check it out.

Dropbox is an easy way to securely share files with other people, sync them across multiple computers, access them from anywhere, and keep them safe. The way it works is, you download and install dropbox. It then puts a "MyDropBox" folder in your "MyDocuments" folder that will sync everything you put within it. You can then access those files anywhere via the dropbox website, or from any computer that has dropbox installed and linked to your account.

Here's a good example of how it works. I have dropbox setup on my home and work computer. I put any files that I work on from both locations in my dropbox folder that way when I do a change at work, I don't have to worry about emailing it to myself to get the latest version. Instead dropbox automatically syncs them for me. When I need a file and I'm not on a computer that has dropbox installed I just hit their website and login to retrieve my files. The thing I really like about this is that it provides another means of backup in case one of my systems were to crash.

Dropbox comes in 3 different flavors:

Basic - free version which allows up to 2GB of storage
Pro 50 - $9.99 per month or $99.00 per year and gives you 50GB of storage
Pro 100 - $19.99 per month or $199.00 per year and gives you 100GB of storage

Currently the basic package works just fine for me, but I could see Pro 50 in my future.

Where to get Windows Drivers

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 03:09:00 GMT

After reformatting a hard drive for my parents and loading Windows XP Home on it, I came across a problem. There were no drivers installed for the video card, ethernet controller, and several other things.

This was a problem. The screen resolution was stuck @ 800x600 and I couldn't get on the internet to download the drivers. Luckily I brought my laptop with me so I could begin the grueling search for drivers.

What I thought would be a tough task ended up not being tough at all thanks to NoDevice.com. NoDevice.com is a very useful site for finding drivers by either category (motherboard, usb, camcorder, etc.) or company (dell, 3com, NEC, etc.). It was as simple as clicking on dell, then finding which dell I had and there was a list off all the drivers I needed. Thank you NoDevice for saving me the time of hunting all of them down.

FREE Star-burst Background

Thu, 28 May 2009 01:48:00 GMT

Yet again another photoshop creation for your pleasure...what's known as the "starburst".

Available in 1680x1050

This is free for personal use, though I do ask to please mention, or link back to my site. For business use, please contact me.

If you would like a custom color, please email me jacton [at] justin acton dot com.

Backup and Schedule SQLExpress 2008 Database for FREE

Fri, 22 May 2009 01:40:00 GMT

There are plenty of programs you can purchase that will allow you to schedule backups for SQLExpress 2008. Only issue with those is that they often set you back $50 - $100. However, there are FREE alternatives...

If you only have 1 or 2 DBs to backup and don't mind backing them up daily then there is a free program called SQL backup and FTP. As I mentioned above, there are limitations with this. It only allows a maximum of 2 DBs to be backed up and you don't have any scheduling flexibility, it's daily or it's nothing. Those factors made this unsuitable for my needs.

Enter the 2nd FREE option...Automating a T-SQL script with windows task scheduler.

This is a simple 5 step process to scheduled backups whenever you want.

Run the T-SQL stored procedure against your DB
Create a folder to store the scripts on the computer running the database. (i.e. BackupScripts)
Create a file called "db_backup.sql" in the "BackupScripts" folder containing the following sql:
exec expressmaint @database = '$(DB)', @optype = 'DB', @backupfldr = '$(BACKUPFOLDER)', @reportfldr = 'C:\DB_Backups\Reports', @verify = 1, @dbretainunit = '$(DBRETAINUNIT)', @dbretainval = '$(DBRETAINVAL)', @rptretainunit = 'copies', @rptretainval = 2, @report = 1

Where 'C:\DB_Backups\Reports' is equal to the folder you want the report stored in
The fourth step is to create another file called "db_backup.bat" that will be scheduled to run the script file above.
sqlcmd -S .\SQLExpress -i"C:\Scripts\db_backup.sql" -v DB="Blog" -v BACKUPFOLDER="C:\DB_Backups" -v DBRETAINUNIT="days" -v DBRETAINVAL="1"

Where "C:\Scripts\db_backup.sql" is the located of your script file and "Blog" is the db name, and "C:\DB_Backups" is where the backups will be stored.
The fifth and final step is to simply setup a scheduled task for the "db_backup.bat" file

The great thing about this option is that it's free and you can schedule it to run when ever you want unlike the free program. I tested this using SQLExpress 2008 but this should also work on SQLExpress 2005.

FREE Mac Style Backgrounds Download

Fri, 15 May 2009 00:33:00 GMT

Here lately I've had the urge to mess around with photoshop again while creating a custom skin for DotNetNuke. While doing that I came across some inspiration for these sweet mac style backgrounds and figured I'd share my creations.

You can download the zip file which contains all the colors (grey, blue, green, yellow, red, pink) in 1280x1024 size. If you prefer just one of the colors click the link below and save the image.

All Images

These are free for personal use, though I do ask to please mention, or link back to my site. For business use, please contact me.

If you would like a custom color, please email me jacton [at] justin acton dot com.

Windows 7 Release Candidate Download Available

Tue, 05 May 2009 01:03:00 GMT

Newly release Windows 7 release candidate is now available for download. You can download it here from microsoft.

The release candidate will be available for download until at least July 2009. It will expire on June 1, 2010 so you've got about a year to play with it.