IT :: PC :: Computer :: Software :: Hardware :: Photoshop :: Themes/Templates :: Others

How to trace formula dependents in Excel

2009-10-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

Tracing Excel formula errors is tedious, if not guided by the built-in formula auditing tools. The formula bar itself is a good starting place to debug formula errors but when the formula gets longer and more complicated, a visual guide to trace the dependents is a great help.

You can use the Trace Precedents button on the Formula Auditing toolbar to trace all the generations of cells that contribute to the formula in the selected cell (something like tracing all the ancestors in your family tree). Many times, finding the original source of the formula leads you right to the source of all the error values in your spreadsheet.

To activate the tool, click Formulas on the ribbon and then Trace Precedents under the Formula Auditing panel:

In the Fibonacci sequence below, you would see the blue arrows showing the precedents of the result of the formula:

Another example is shown below where the B1 cell is a result of summing A1 and A2:

Now to see the dependents of a value, click a cell that you want to audit then click the Trace Dependents value. If the cell is used by other cells in formula, the arrows will point the to cells that depend on the cell.

To clear the arrows, click the Remove Arrows button and you should see the arrows disappear.

Use the Formula Auditing tools to trace dependents and precedents of your Excel formulas. They are very handy when the cell formulas get very complicated. As of Office 2007, the arrows don’t get automatically refreshed when you change the formula (they get cleared out) so you will need to click the trace buttons again to generate the arrows.

Supernatural Brasil XP Theme

2009-10-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

Supernatural Brasil XP Theme

5 Differences Between Used And Refurbished

2009-10-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

I make it a practice to purposely seek out refurbished tech items because I save a ton of money doing so, and the majority of the time the whatever-it-is I buy works just as well as a new item.

There are some people who believe refurbished and used mean the same thing. This is incorrect; there are several differences.

Difference 1: Warranty

All refurbished items come with a warranty. Some used items come with one but most don’t.

Difference 2: Physical condition

Refurbished items are supposed to look exactly like a new item and do most of the time. This usually involves the replacement of things, such as the chassis, faceplates, buttons/knobs, and so on. A used item has had nothing changed on it. It is the same as when it was new, worn and all.

Difference 3: Vendor

It is rare that an OEM will sell anything used. The closest match to this is "off-lease," meaning a corporate customer leased a ton of the whatever-it-is from the OEM, sent them back when the lease expired and then the OEM resells the items. But even this is a rare instance these days because if the items are too old (and therefore cannot be supported directly,) the OEM won’t bother reselling them and instead find other means of liquidating that inventory.

Third-party vendors will sell used items, do so routinely and at times label these items as refurbished when in fact they’re not.

The general rule of thumb is that if you purchase a refurb item direct from an OEM or a large third-party vendor (like NewEgg or TigerDirect,) it is truly refurbished. With smaller vendors you get used. This is especially true if a vendor is selling something labeled as refurbished but there is no warranty and/or is stated to be sold as-is.

Difference 4: Age of item

As noted in #3 above, if there is something in the inventory that is simply too old for an OEM to support, they will find a way to liquidate the inventory otherwise.

If a particular item is still available from the OEM as new, you will find legitimate refurbished versions of it, warranty and all.

If on the other hand the item is discontinued and isn’t available as new any longer, what you will usually find are used versions of that item with no warranty.

The easiest way to check if something is discontinued or not is to go to the OEM’s web site. If you see the item still sold as new, it’s obviously not discontinued. But if it’s not there, it is. Some OEMs are nice enough to tell you this information up front and give you a complete list of what’s discontinued (like Garmin for example.) Others however don’t do this, so you’ll have to go look item-by-item and see for yourself.

Special note on this: There is a period of time right after an item is discontinued where it "rides the fence" for a few months and can still be supported by the OEM, but after that it goes into used-only territory. This all depends on how the OEM handles discontinued product support for newly discontinued items.

Difference 5: Support

This directly relates to #3 and #4 above. Current-model items from the OEM are supported and therefore are available as refurbs. These refurb items have support, so if there’s any issue with it you can call the OEM for help.

Used items have third-party-only support or no support at all. Once you buy it, you’re on your own.

Are refurb items better now compared to before?

Yes. When refurbished items first appeared years ago they were admittedly pretty crappy. This soured a lot of people on the idea of buying anything other than new.

Today the OEMs understand that there is legitimate profit to be made by selling refurbished items. As such, refurb now is a whole lot better compared to yesteryear. These items are good enough to where you get the exact same warranty as you would new. This shows confidence in the refurbished product by the OEM and proves that yes, it will work.

I do recommend people to go refurb instead of new. If the refurbished item has all the features you want, comes with everything the same new product would and is supported by the OEM (which it is,) you can buy with confidence.

Obviously you should exercise common sense when shopping refurbished, because some items are still better new than refurb or "recertified" (I wouldn’t buy a recertified hard drive,) but most of the time the refurb items you buy will serve you just as well as new would.

Free photo editing software – Photoscape

2009-10-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

We have shown you a couple of cool free photo editing tools like Irfanview and Google Picasa. Let me show you another freeware that could become part of your essential photo editing toolbox. The freeware is called PhotoScape from www.photoscape.org.

Like Irfanview and Picasa, this software packs a lot of functionality: picture viewer, editor, animated gif creator, color picker, raw format converter, picture frame maker and others. The first thing a user will see on the GUI is an arranged shortcut to these functions.

The tool covers the basics of a photo editing app like the capability to zoom in/out, rotate, crop, level, contrast, midtone adjustments and others. It has auto level and auto contrast capabilities – something similar to Microsoft Office’s auto-enhance image feature.

You can also add decorative frames built-in from the tool:

The tool also makes collage frames easy to create. You can choose from a lot of frame designs and then just drag and drop pictures to each section of the frame.

Arranging pictures for printing to a single photo paper is also easy.

This tool offers a lot of goodies. For users who want to combine pictures into frames – this might be the best freeware for them.

Flowers doodle Photoshop brushes II

2009-10-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

Another set contains some Flowers doodle brushes for Photoshop.

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Flowers doodle Photoshop brushes I

2009-10-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

This set contains some Flowers doodle brushes for Photoshop.

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15 Fashion Girls Silhouettes Photoshop brushes

2009-10-01T10:07:00.001-07:00

This set contains Fashion Girls Silhouettes brushes for Photoshop with high-resolution. There are a total of 15 brushes, made in Photoshop CS3.

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Luna port to Windows 7 -Aero-

2009-10-01T10:05:00.000-07:00

Luna ported to Windows 7 Aero and Basic.

The original Luna is © Microsoft.
I claim no ownership over the original theme and I am not affiliated with Microsoft.
Also, it would be kind of nice for Win7 to have it’s own category.

*note* satukoro is branded into the preview for watermark purposes, it’s not in the actual image. Also, the startbutton will come soon if I can get it to look right.

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Windows 7 Logo Program To Go Much Better Than Vista Did

2009-10-01T10:03:00.002-07:00

Many unfortunately remember the infamous "Vista Capable" logo disaster. A whole bunch of new computers at the time Windows Vista was launched had a little logo that was supposed to indicate yes, they were capable of running Vista. But as we all found out, many of those new computers were barely "capable." Instead computer owners were treated to a less-than-pleasant computing experience – putting it very nicely.

One of the best things Microsoft ever did was release Windows 7 RC to the general public for testing. A ton of people, including myself, use this OS. I use it as my primary right now. This allowed everybody on both sides (corporate and consumer) to do the best live field testing of Windows since the product came into existence; this has served everybody very well.

Microsoft will be using a logo program again for Windows 7, so you will see those little stickers on new computers if you haven’t already. This time around the requirements to get the sticker are far more stringent compared to the Vista logo debacle.

The logo means the product must work with both 32 and 64-bit editions. This is particularly important for peripheral devices, because it means the driver disc included will have 32 and 64-bit versions included. It also means more rigorous testing has been performed to ensure that yes, it will work.

Part of this program includes "Ready. Set. 7." You can check out right now what developers are building 7-compatible items at www.readyset7.com. The list is extensive, and that’s great because it means that many of the products on store shelves will be compatible right out of the box.

In the end however, what has mattered most concerning 7’s readiness has been end-user testing from Win 7 RC use. I use 7 RC, and this OS proved its worth beyond any doubt by running nearly flawlessly on my Dell Inspiron Mini 10v netbook, which houses only a single core 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, shared video memory and a 160GB 5400rpm HDD.

As far as I’m concerned, if Win 7 can run on this smoothly (which it does,) it can run on just about any computer made in the last 5 years without the need to upgrade.

The logo program is good and is being far better managed, granted, but it’s been the users of this OS that have had the most influence on people. If I thought Win 7 sucked, I would say so without hesitation. If other people thought it sucked, they would say so as well. We’ve all been nothing but honest in our reviews of this OS. And it’s the general consensus that Win 7 doesn’t suck. Not in the slightest. In fact, we all really like it. That’s why we dare to run an RC as our primary operating system. Ordinarily that’s considered computer suicide, but the blunt honest truth is that 7 really is that good.

Free Anti-Virus From Microsoft Is Now Available

2009-10-01T10:03:00.001-07:00

You may have seen in tech news articles in the past that Microsoft was working on it’s own release of an anti-virus product to compliment Windows Defender. A couple of days ago their solution, Security Essentials, was released (from beta).

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.

If you google Security Essentials, you will see it gets a mixed bag of reviews. Although the sites I tend to frequent have given it more positive evalutations.

Download files faster using Download Accelerator Plus

2009-09-30T12:22:00.001-07:00

Is your download speed as fast as it should be? If you recall the days of the “speed demon” 56k dial-up modem, waiting on something as simple as a small digital picture file seemed to take eons. This is when you would get up from your computer and wander off to perform various other tasks to pass the time.

Now that more people have higher speed connections (Cable, DSL, Fiber), as of late, one would imagine that downloading a trial copy of Halo would be fast and steady. Well, not always. Instead of the person carefully watching their connectivity status while running their download, it is the group distributing the software, that is monitoring their bandwidth use.

Consider the possibility that greater bandwidth for the end user can mean greater amounts of requests for a target website. The chances that your download can be slowed down, or broken, increase. With larger websites, like Download.com, they take step to build infrastructure around maintaining the bandwidth necessary to support many thousands of active connections. However, for less frequented, or newer download or file sharing sites, the same environment may not be available.

To help you get the most out of your down stream speed on your Internet connection, tools like Download Accelerator Plus (found here) are available to boost your file grabbing speed and download connection quality. Download Accelerator Plus (also known as DAP) does more than simply make downloading files faster though. It also allows you to effectively pause a download and restart one, should a link set become broken.

Historically, this tool was an add-on for Internet Explorer, and now it has evolved into a suite of products. Included in Download Accelerator Plus is an FTP connection tool, a download dashboard, and a web browser. A simple tabbed interface allows the user to bounce between the three views.

The main draw behind this tool is the multiple download threads it utilizes when downloading a file. It does not simply get the download information from one site, and begin transferring the file. Download Accelerator Plus looks at other websites for the same file, and pulls from the as well. When you use DAP to get a file, it will display a multi-colored progress bar, showing several file connections.

When looking at Download tab, you can view the controls to Pause and Resume your downloads. You may select one or several streams for the purposes of stopping and starting the file transfers, or you may do all of them at once. One could see the practicality in this, because you could pause downloads that are taking longer then others, allowing DAP to focus on finishing certain transfers first.

When you pause an active download, a small icon pops up next to the selected transfer. This icon appears in the Status column and viewable while you are in the Download tab. The paused status remains until Resume is clicked.

For the purposes of downloading a file from a website, most people will navigate to the website, and locate the file on the site itself. This is tried and true method for finding file you wish to get at. That and the Google search engine covers most bases. However, if someone sends you a HTTP address link in an email, for instance, you can copy and paste the whole address into Download Accelerator Plus. All you have to do is click on the green Add icon in the Download tab, and a text box will appear for you to enter the website address of the download.

Please keep in mind that the version of Download Accelerator Plus reviewed here was the Free Version. There is a paid version of this software, and depending on what you click on within DAP, it will remind you frequently of this fact. The premium version does offer some nice privacy tools to help clean up Internet tracks with respect to downloaded files.

Is Download Accelerator Plus right for you? That is a determination that you will have to make for yourself. If you have a 265k DSL type connection, adding a tool like DAP will boost your file download time; whereas if you have a fiber connection of 20mb and upwards, DAP may not have the impact you want. Even if the speed is unattractive, the ability to effectively manage file downloads is reason enough to get this tool.

Sexy Lady Silhouettes Photoshop brushes

2009-09-30T12:21:00.001-07:00

This set contains some Sexy Lady Silhouettes brushes for Photoshop.

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30 Sunbrush Photoshop Custom Shapes

2009-09-30T12:20:00.001-07:00

This set contains 30 Sunbrush Custom Shapes for Photoshop.

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Zuney Blue

2009-09-30T12:15:00.000-07:00

This is my Zuney Blue Theme. Its basically the blue version of the Zune Final theme but the black parts are lighter, and I didn’t know about it at the time. I scratched my name out, so thats what the red is. No, I’m not crazy or paranoid. I just dont want people to see my account name, because it might offend some people.

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Broadband In The US Is Slow (And No One Is Surprised)

2009-09-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

This may offer a bit of comfort to some with slower broadband connections. For US internet users, your tax dollars have now proven that the speed of broadband is 50% slower than what it’s claimed to be.

For those that would say, "Did we need to spend a bunch of tax money to figure something out everybody already knew?" In fact, yes. The problem needed to be identified in absolute fashion so plans can be made to actually do something about it. Saying something is slow and proving it as such are two different things. And now it’s proven.

A few other things have been proven as well.

First, what ISPs claim to be "fast" really doesn’t sound believable anymore due to the fact more and more US customers are saying, "I paid for ‘fast’ internet and I’m not getting it." When you download web pages, files and so on at the same speed you did with your "slow" broadband, you feel cheated. And you are being cheated. Fast should be legitimately fast, and it isn’t.

Second, internet today is no longer a luxury. For many it’s increasingly becoming a necessity. While it’s true you can go through daily life without it, it is becoming more difficult to do so and in the long run can cost you.

A simple example of this is paying bills online instead of mailing them out. The current cost of a US stamp is 44¢, and this doesn’t include the cost of envelopes. If you mail out 10 letters a month, that costs you $4.40 each time. Sending out bill payments online is completely free, and for payments that you cannot pay electronically, the bank will cover the cost of the postage and mail it for you.

This is just a single example as there are obviously many more.

The US is grossly behind the times when it comes to our broadband speed. The last time I wrote about this, the US ranked 15th in the world, with an extremely poor last-mile average download rate of 2.3mbps.

Thank the FCC for at least identifying our slow broadband as a legitimate problem. Plans to improve the network in the US will start soon in 2010. This is very late to the party concerning other countries are beating the pants off us right now in the broadband dept., but at least the problem has been identified and steps will be taken to resolve it, hopefully in short order.

The Undo Function Works In A Lot Of Places Too

2009-09-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

In the past, I have written about how the copy-paste function works in a lot of places even though it may not be ‘advertised’ as a function. The same can be said about the undo function (Ctrl + Z).

For example, you can use this function:

in just about any application text box
in browser text boxes
in find and replace dialogs
lots of other places… try it

Unfortunately, many times the remembered undo level is only one deep (this is not always the case though) but this is still better than nothing.

So give the undo function (again, Ctrl + Z ) a try and it may come in handy.

Space Sniffer – Analyze hard disk space usage

2009-09-29T06:25:00.001-07:00

If you fear your closets, you are not alone. Many closets contain everything from shoes, clothing, sports equipment, and hangers, to jackets, forgotten winter jackets, and more hangers. The long and short of it is, behind that door lies a potential tidal wave of things that you may have no clue as to what they are.

While a little unnerving to think about, the same can be true of your hard drive. Over a period of years, you hard drive has had files added to it, some files removed, and other files tucked away, which you may not realize are still on your computer. These file are not malicious, or anything of that nature. They are just quietly, and unnecessarily, consuming hard drive space. And just like your closets, need cleaning every so often.

Of course, you are not going to fling open your closet door, and dash in, garbage bags akimbo, and get rid of most of the items. You just need to sort out what to keep and what to get rid of. In regards to your computer’s hard drive, it is in your best interest to know what you are getting rid of before you execute the plan.

In order to examine the file structure of your hard drive, a tool such as Space Sniffer is needed. Space Sniffer (found here) scans your hard drive, and sorts the results for you to review. Now, bear in mind that the results are not in the format you may expect. Space Sniffer does not bring up a Windows Explorer type window, as some other applications do. This program shows its scan results in a block type schematic on the screen.

This first screen may not look like much, but it illustrates the top level of the diagram, the C: drive. At the C: drive level, you will see blocks of what is directly underneath the C: root directory. This would include items like Windows, Program Files, Documents and Settings, and the page file.

Should you be one that desires more detail in what they are looking at, this is easily accomplished. There are two blue boxes towards the top of the Space Sniffer program. The icon on the left reduces the amount of detail on screen, where the right icon increases the level of detail.

Granted, the icon that increases detail will only go down so many levels, before you are expected to click open the container. At some point, there would just not be enough of your screen’s real estate to properly display everything.

This is a view a few folders down. This is a section of what is under the My Documents folder. You can navigate within Space Sniffer in similar fashion to Windows Explorer. Instead of jumping through folders though, the main interface stays in place, while you dig further into a particular set of files or folders.

If you want to, you can click on the green star shaped icon in the icon bar within Space Sniffer. Doing so will show the free space available on your hard drive, in Space Sniffer. Free space is represented, color wise, by green.

Though it would seem that a simple program like this does not have the need for extra options, there are some available to you. Clicking on Edit, on the menu bar, then Configure, opens up an options window. Here you may alter the geometric and coloring effects of Space Sniffer. You can also modify the initial detail level, if the first set of results was visually too much for your tastes.

Space Sniffer may not be the only program you use for file management on your computer, but it is one that is worth looking at. It is very light on system resources and does not have to recalculate something every time you go one level deeper into your file structure.

Additionally, it is not installed on your hard drive, and can be used with a portable utility set (like programs on a USB thumb drive). If nothing else, it is fun to play around with and serve as a visual interpretation of how many files you have crammed into your My Pictures of My Documents folder.

Thanks and good luck!

10 Tattoo Photoshop Brush Set II

2009-09-29T06:22:00.000-07:00

Another set contains 10 Tattoo Photoshop brushes for Design. Brushes made in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

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10 Tattoo Photoshop Brush Set I

2009-09-29T06:20:00.000-07:00

This set contains 10 Tattoo Photoshop brushes for Design. Brushes made in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

Download

TangoShiki

2009-09-29T06:19:00.001-07:00

PS: For ObjectDock - For this purpose that has turned out how at me, it is necessary to use many empty shortcut (a blank address and empty PNG)

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When Should You Update Your Firmware?

2009-09-29T06:18:00.001-07:00

Firmware, in generic terms, is "fixed software" in an electronic device. Your CD/DVD drive for example, has firmware. Your digital camera has firmware. Portable navigation devices (PND for short) has firmware. Even remote controls for televisions have firmware.

I’m the type of person that likes having the latest up-to-date firmware for whatever electronic device I use. But over the years I’ve had to train myself not to update if there isn’t any issue present with the way the device works.

Example: In one instance a few years ago I somewhat busted a CD/DVD drive I had because I updated the firmware. I found there was an update for the device, so I downloaded and applied it. After that the drive wouldn’t burn discs any longer. It would read them but not write no matter what brand of disc I used. It turned my DVD-R/W into a DVD-ROM. I tried applying a previous version of the firmware, but that didn’t work, so I had to junk it. $40 in the toilet. Lesson learned.

The only reason I bothered to update the firmware in that particular device is because it was available. Nothing was wrong with it, I didn’t need to do it, but did anyway.

Firmware updates for any electronic device serve two primary purposes. First, the update fixes a problem with the way the device works and/or second, the update adds in new features that weren’t there before.

If you spot a firmware update for whatever electronic device you use, but are not encountering any problems nor are there any features added in with the update, don’t apply it. If you do, chances are likely it will do more harm than good and in worst case scenario makes the device unusable.

As said above, I had to train myself not to apply firmware updates when I didn’t need them. I would look at the firmware version for my digital camera and it would be at 2.5a. But wait, now there’s 2.5b! My mind says, "I should really get this," but then common sense kicks in. "Hang on. There’s nothing wrong with my camera. And this update doesn’t add in anything I didn’t have before. No, I won’t do it." So I don’t.

This can be a temptation that’s tough to resist. After all, you want all your electronic stuff to have current software. Psychologically, having an old firmware version puts the message of, "I’m missing out on something" in your head. Trust me when I say that the vast majority of the time you’re not missing anything.

Whenever you see a firmware update for whatever electronic device you’re using, always read the release notes thoroughly. This documentation is always provided and is usually on the same page where the download is, or as a PDF or some other web page describing what’s in that particular version. If you see nothing in there that fixes anything or adds in features, don’t apply it, because having an update applied that breaks your stuff will ruin your day real quick. Every time it happens it’s money wasted that you have to spend all over again.

Tool To Recover Data From A Damaged CD/DVD

2009-09-29T06:17:00.001-07:00

If you have a damaged CD or DVD which you need to recover data on and trying to copy data from Windows Explorer is not yielding successful results, a tool you might want to try is IsoPuzzle.

Short Description:
The goal of this program is to recover as much as possible data of damaged, bad burned or scratched CDs or DVDs.
This version supports only data CDs and DVDs with sectorsize of 2048 byte – Audio CD, VCD and SVCD are not supported.

IsoPuzzle reads the disc in the drive and creates an ISO file with any data it can recover. This resulting ISO file can either be loaded into a virtual drive or burned to a disc to copy any recovered data.

The product’s website does look dated to say the least, but the tool may be worth a try in a disaster recovery situation. Do take note of the author’s disclaimer that this program makes no guarantee that it can recover any data from a damaged disk.

Healthy Stuff You Can Nibble On At Your Computer

2009-09-29T06:15:00.000-07:00

A long while ago, I ran a tip which basically said putting a candy dish near your computer is a bad idea because you will end up munching on it without thinking. So as an alternative to the candy dish, here are some ideas of some stuff you might want to have instead:

Nothing
Low Salt Nuts (cashews for me)
Raisins / Dried Fruit
Bananas
Peppermints (if you must have something sweet)

Of course, some of these may leave your hands sticky so having a moist cloth nearby might come in handy.

Did I miss something? If your computer snack isn’t listed, please share in the comments.

Save notes online for free using Evernote

2009-09-28T08:09:00.000-07:00

Evernote is a free online service that lets you save notes and access them from anywhere. It offers a client software in PC and mobile devices so that you can access your notes on a wide range of supported devices.

The idea behind Evernote is simple, for users to be able to save and edit notes with images, text, clips, audio, PDF and other formats online. Since the data is saved in the Cloud, users don’t have to transfer files if they need to switch computers.

It is a good free alternative to other paid solutions like Sharepoint and online MS Office services. It’s even better than other free competitors like Postica, an online note taking and file sharing tool. The client software can also import Microsoft Notes files, so compatibility seems to be not an issue.

The PC client software is a lightweight document editor that lets users create and edit notes. It lets users login to their Evernote account and then save notes online.

The free account lets users attach JPEG, PNG, GIF, MP3 and WAV files. If you want to attach other types like DOC, AVI and PPT, you will need to upgrade to a paid premium account.

The free account lets you save up to 40MB of files per month, not bad for casual note takers, but not so good for more demanding users like me (my blog drafts alone are more than 100 MB per month!). This service is for power note takers who are always on the roll.

If you think you need a cloud computing service like this, checkout their homepage at http://www.evernote.com

Good luck!

Smoke Brushes for Photoshop 7

2009-09-28T08:08:00.000-07:00

This set contains Smoke Brushes with hogh resolution for Photoshop 7 and higher.

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Windows 7 Basic Dark Blue

2009-09-28T08:06:00.000-07:00

Windows 7 (7600 RTM) Basic Theme - Dark Blue by KI5

Follow this easy steps to install my theme/style

**********************************************

1.Run ux theme patcher for your windows 7 RTM

>for 32bit edition use the UniversalThemePatcher-x86.exe
>for 64bit edition use the UniversalThemePatcher-x64.exe

(both suplied with this theme and should be run as administrator)

2.Patch all 3 files, and restart your PC

3.Open windows explorer and navigate to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\Aero

>find aero.msstyles
>right click on it and take ownership
>copy the file on your desktop, or some other folder for backup
>now take the suplied aero.msstyles and replace the original one…

THAT IS IT! now log OFF, and back ON to see the changes!

**********************************************

For questions, suggestions and general feedback contact me on

All credits for theme/style are going to KI5 / kipet

Special Thanks to UntitledGame for tips and support!

**********************************************

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Dropping Footer Ads Out Of AOL Mail; Some Words On Footer Advertising

2009-09-28T08:03:00.002-07:00

For those that use an @aol.com email address, you might have noticed an email that appeared to be spam, but it wasn’t. It came from the sender "FooterSettlement" with subject line "OFFICIAL NOTICE OF PENDENCY OF CLASS ACTION AND PROPSED SETTLEMENT", and looked like this:

This is not spam. In short, what it means is that you now have the ability to opt out of footer advertisements in the emails you send. All you have to do it login to your AOL Mail first, then go to the web address http://footer.aol.com and simply uncheck the box, like this:

..then click the Save button.

From that point, no footer ads will be sent in the mail you send from your AOL email account.

It’s about time.

If you use AIM for instant messaging, any AIM account has the ability to send email. Your email address would be your-AIM-screen-name@aim.com. This has the same ability to opt out of footer ads just like @aol.com addresses do. To access and start using mail for an AIM account, the address to go to is http://webmail.aol.com. Login using your AIM credentials.

Are footer ads in outgoing emails good revenue generators anymore?

No. In order for free email providers to keep existing users and moreover attract new ones, the content of the communication sent to and from people must be absolutely ad-free. The biggest reason for this is SMS (Short Message Service) compatibility. Many of us use our email to send in the form of a short text message to cell phones. An email system that forces footer ads on all outgoing mail literally prevents you from sending any SMS at all, due to the fact you trip the 180-character-or-less limit every time you attempt to send a message.

Yahoo! Mail hasn’t had any footer ads on outgoing mail for some time and Gmail never has. Hotmail/Windows Live Mail does but only if you use the free web-based version. However I’m certain Hotmail will eventually drop the footer ads as well; it’s only a matter of time.

Any free email provider today that uses footer ads on outgoing messages is, pun intended, shooting themselves in the foot. Ad-supported free email should show ads in the web interface only and nowhere in the body of any message. This allows the user to send mail to anybody on any device, including mobile devices, without restriction.

At present, the most SMS-friendly free email providers are Google, Yahoo! and now AOL. Hotmail isn’t SMS-friendly only for the reason their free web-based version forces footer ads on outgoing messages. You can get around this by using the Windows Live Mail email client (mail sent from the client does not include footer ads at all) or by having a Hotmail Plus account, but it would be nice if Microsoft followed the lead of Yahoo! and AOL and dropped the footer crapola altogether.

The time for footer ads in email is over. The companies who choose to remain with it will have their users abandon the service in favor of footer-free email.

Have Your Customized Priority Settings Remembered

2009-09-28T08:03:00.001-07:00

Have you ever changed the priority of a process in the Task Manager?
Do you have to do it often?
Do you want your database server or media player to know the priority it should work with?

If so, you have two choices: do it manually every time or automate/manage the process. If you prefer the latter then a tool you should check out is Prio Process Priority Saver.

Once installed, you just set the priority preferences of the processes you want to modify and then make sure the option to save is checked. Then the next time the program starts your saved settings will be applied automatically. This utility is ideal for power users or system admins who are looking to get more control over their server processes.

Search multiple torrent tracker sites using Scrapetorrent.com

2009-09-27T04:58:00.001-07:00

I often go to torrent search engines like mininova.org or isohunt.com to look for torrent files that I want to download. Sometimes the torrent files on one site are not available, but are on another site and I’ve found it necessary to visit multiple torrent sites – Google and Bing are just not that good when it comes to indexing torrents.

Lately, I discovered a great site that searches multiple torrent search engines so users can search on only one page. Before going further, also read my previous posts on how to make your own torrent and how to use uTorrent, my favorite torrent downloader.

The Scrapetorrent.com engine searches popular torrent trackers when you query a keyword. Users can also suggest trackers that they want to be added on the engine. As of this writing, there are about 280 torrent trackers added on the list and about 200 of them are active – some are probably shut down by the enemies of P2P sharing like RIA.

The site offers two types of search; the basic and TV mode. With basic mode you can search for music, software, video, and other types. You can also filter out torrents with no more seeds and duplicates:

The search results are presented with necessary torrent statistics like file size, seed and downloader counts.

The bottom of the page contains how many torrents are found on each portal:

The other mode, searching by TV episodes lets you enter a title of the show and choose a specific season and episode to search. There is also a link for the recent episode of the show.

If you love downloading content from torrents, Scrapetorrent.com is a good first place to search. Since it can search multiple torrent sites at once, you can optimize your search time and get the best torrent file with the most number of seeds.

Smiley and Pencil Illustrator brushes

2009-09-27T01:23:00.000-07:00

Smiley and Pencil brushes for illustrator CS4 (.PDF file).

Download here

Light stroke brushpack

2009-09-27T01:21:00.000-07:00

Brushpack contains Light stroke brushes for Photoshop.

Download here

Capriccio for XP

2009-09-27T01:19:00.000-07:00

Almost the same as the GTK theme except that there are no rounded menubars, because it can’t be styled in XP.

Also, don’t stare blind on how it compares to my other styles (looking too similar that is. Just look at the smaller details if you can.)

Download

Control Your Computer Remotely Via Twitter

2009-09-26T13:33:00.001-07:00

Here is an interesting and clever use of Twitter: remotely controlling your computer. In a couple of articles recently posted on Lifehacker, you can use TweetMyPC and TweetMyMac (respectively) to send commands to your computer from anywhere you have Internet access.

The commands are limited (obviously) but you are able to do useful things like send a shutdown command or create your own custom commands which can do anything you like such as launch automated tasks. Of course there are dangers with using something like this as you will want to protect your account so not just anyone can send your computer commands.

Personally, I do not use Twitter so I am curious if any of our readers out there would try something like this.

Easily Make Folders Stand Out In Windows Explorer

2009-09-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

Whenever you have a large number of folders, inevitably some will be more important than others such that you want them to stand out in the list. Typically, you accomplish this by using special characters, caps or punctuation in the folder name. An alternate way to do this would be to change the color and/or icon of the folder. A free tool to make this process simple is Folder Marker.

Folder icons can be customized using the standard Windows method, but with Folder Marker Free you can do this on the fly from the right-click menu of a folder. So there is no need to go through additional dialogs or run Folder Marker Free itself! Simply select the folder you want to mark, right-click on its icon and select a color-coded icon from the drop-down menu. The icon will be assigned to the folder at once.

This tool makes the required folder changes a simple one or two click process. A tool like this is a quick way to organize all your folders.

A Faster File Copier

2009-09-26T13:31:00.002-07:00

Windows Explorer does just about anything you would need it to with respect to file management, however one complaint you may see people have is that it lacks speed when doing file copies. If this is something you have noticed, a utility you should try is TeraCopy. TeraCopy is a program optimized for doing one thing- copying files fast.

Personally, I do a lot of work with virtual machines (copying, moving, etc.) which have a file size of at least 8 GB so this looks like something I am going to give a try. Does anyone already use TeraCopy or another similar program? If so, what is your experience?

Give Windows XP The Vista Glass Effect

2009-09-26T13:31:00.001-07:00

If you are a Windows XP user but really like the visual glass effects of Windows Vista, then Border Skin is for you.

Border Skin is a new free program that skins the windows
borders by skins composed of png images with the support
of 2 famous windows vista & 7 effects ( Blur and reflection )

Nothing much to really add here. When you run Border Skin, there is a control panel available in your system tray which allows you to control the settings. Additionally, you can set program exclusions in the event this effect causes problems on certain applications.

While this does not work 100% the way Vista does, it is an easy way to get the same eye candy effects.

Did We Lose Resolution With LCD Monitors?

2009-09-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

LCD monitors are great. No question. They’re thin, can be moved around easily, don’t use much electricity, don’t produce static when turned on or off, have a crisp picture that stays crisp, and so on.

However there is one failing of LCD monitors and a big one at that. It’s a lack of vertical resolution.

I’ll explain.

Let’s say you want a monitor that has a 2048-pixel-wide resolution. Yes, this is an insane amount of pixels. How big, as in physically big, do you have to go with an LCD to get this?

The answer is 21 inches.

However, at that size you only get 1152 pixels on the vertical within a reasonable price range – and those are 23-inchers. The monitor is really wide, but seriously short. Bear in mind that is only 72 pixels taller than a 1680×1050 resolution. Like I said, short.

Now let’s say you want something with some true vertical resolution, as in 2048×1536. That’s proper.

That will cost you $4,400 to get it with LCD. You literally pay an extra four thousand dollars for those extra 384 vertical pixels.

Now let’s compare this to the good ol’ CRT – which is really hard to come by these days.

You can get a 21-inch monitor that will support a true 2048×1536 resolution. I found one on eBay for just $600. It’s used because I could not locate a new one.

(Note: If you know of any vendor that does sell these new, please feel free to post a comment with a link as I’m sure there would be some interested parties.)

Who needs crazy resolutions like this?

Programmers love having this kind of screen real estate. You can fit so much stuff on-screen that there is no need for a secondary monitor.

If you’re wondering, "How could anyone read anything at that resolution?" Trust me, programmers can and do routinely.

You simply cannot get the vertical resolution of those old huge 21 and 22-inch CRTs on modern LCDs. Not without paying several thousand dollars for it, anyway.

To answer the question: Did we lose resolution with LCD? Unquestionably, yes.

Hopefully someday the LCD monitor manufacturers will wise up and give us some decent vertical resolution at an agreeable price.

And no, buying an LCD that turns sideways is not the answer because then you lose a ton of horizontal real estate. What the monitor manufacturers need to do is start making taller monitors and not wider. We’ve got enough wide to go around already and don’t need any more. We need height.

For those that would say, "Well, just get a 2560×1600 LCD! Problem solved!" No, problem not solved. The monitor is physically too large. You’re going to have a 26 or 30-inch behemoth on the desk. That’s not practical at all. Maybe fun and cool, but not practical.

Wide is great, but don’t you wish sometimes you had an extra 300 or so pixels at the bottom? I know I do.

Real-world monitor resolution considerations for those of us on a budget

The two best resolutions that give you the most usable vertical space within a reasonable price are:

1680×1050
1280×1024

Why is vertical resolution so important? Because you scroll less.

My advice: Don’t buy anything under 1000 pixels on the vertical. Not unless you like scrolling a lot.

Dell vs. Mac – $20,000+ PCs

2009-09-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

The best box that Apple makes is the Mac Pro.

The best box that Dell makes is the Precision Workstation, commonly abbreviated as PW. Both are business machines first and foremost.

It is very easy to configure either to run you $20,000 for final cost.

How to do it? Simple. Check off every single possible option you can throw in when configuring it.

First, the Mac Pro.

This is an 8-core system (two 2.93GHz Quad Core Intel Xeons) stuffed with 32GB of RAM, 3 1TB hard drives, two optical drives, two 30-inch flat-panel displays, wireless everything, fibre channel, a bunch of preinstalled software and of course the AppleCare Protection plan.

And now, the Big Dell, the Precision Workstation T7500.

The screen shot of this would have been too long, so here are the specs:

Windows Vista 64-bit Business Edition
Dual Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processors W5580 3.20GHz, 8M L3, 6.4GT/s,turbo
48GB, DDR3 RDIMM Memory, 1333MHz, ECC (12 DIMMS). You read correctly. 48 gigs of RAM. This is an $8,000+ option.
4 Year ProSupport for End Users and 4 Year 4HR 7×24 Onsite Service
4.0GB NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 5800, DUAL MON, 1DP & 2DVI
Microsoft™ Office® Professional 2007
McAfee® Total Protection for Small Business,15 Month Subscription,Eng
Drive 1 – 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
Drive 2 – 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
Drive 3 – 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
Drive 4 – 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
Drive 5 – 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™ Yes, this is 5 1.5TB drives for a total of 7.5 TB space.
16X DVD+/-RW w/ Cyberlink PowerDVD™ and Roxio Creator™
Monitor 1 – Dell 24 inch UltraSharp™2408WFP Widescreen, Adjustable Stand, VGA/DVI
Monitor 2 – Dell 24 inch UltraSharp™2408WFP Widescreen, Adjustable Stand, VGA/DVI
Monitor 3 – Dell 24 inch UltraSharp™2408WFP Widescreen, Adjustable Stand, VGA/DVI
Monitor 4 – Dell 24 inch UltraSharp™2408WFP Widescreen, Adjustable Stand, VGA/DVI
Chassis Intrusion Switch

There are many, many different ways I could have priced out the Dell.

Instead of the four 24-inch monitors, I could have gone with three Dell 30-inchers (which I probably would). That would be a separate purchase albeit from the same company.

In addition, the Dell costs more mainly due to the extra 16GB of RAM, the four monitors and the extra two hard drives. Mac Pros at present cannot be configured from the OEM to go beyond 3 internal hard drives or 32GB RAM, and that’s by design.

What’s the Super Dell best suited for?

AutoCAD or high resolution medical imaging. With CAD in particular, this is still PC-only world.

And not gaming, you dope.

What’s the Super Mac best suited for?

HD/Film/Video editing suite. In a separate purchase I’d tack on either Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere or Media 100. Whatever had the most local (important) support. And when I say local I mean other shops in the area you live that support what you have. Some places favor Final Cut while others Media 100, etc.

Does anybody actually buy these things?

Yes, and routinely. Neither OEM would build them if there weren’t a market to buy them.

In medical, industrial design and research facilities you will see these Dells.

In pro video houses/animation studios, you will see these Macs.

Of course, neither looks any different from their lower-cost same-model boxes, but it’s what’s on the inside that counts obviously.

Could you build a PC with the above Dell specs for cheaper?

Yes. And in fact you can go higher than 64GB RAM.

How about 256GB RAM? Sound impossible? It isn’t. You have to use a server motherboard instead of desktop, like this one.

Ridiculous for a home PC? Very. And totally unnecessary. Sure, you’ll be the coolest nerd in town, but you’ll be paying a loan off for all that RAM for the next 10 years.

On the desktop side, the most RAM supported if you bought the motherboard thru NewEgg is 24GB. This is a bit crappy because there should be 32GB RAM support options for PC builders. Alas, there isn’t. Yet. Maybe there will be come 2010?

At present you’re best off using a board that supports 8 or 16GB. And you’ll obviously have to use 64-bit Windows (or Linux) to access all of that.

Is there any way to get the cost of the Mac Pro down?

Several ways, actually.

The first rule to buying Mac is to purchase as little as possible from the Apple Store concerning the box itself.

Instead of ordering your Mac with 32GB, order with 1GB. Fill it up with RAM from another vendor. Just remember to specifically order Mac Memory.

Instead of Apple 30-inch Cinema Displays, use 30-inch Dell UltraSharps. Even Mac people know that those are awesome monitors.

Instead of ordering 3 hard drives, take 1. Like with the RAM, buy the others from another vendor and install it yourself.

This is essentially no different than configuring the Dell. You put the money into the processors more than anything else. For the rest, you go with other vendors.

The only drawback to this is that the other-vendor stuff isn’t supported under OEM warranty. This can be said for either OEM.

How To Save Cash When Buying A Netbook

2009-09-26T13:24:00.002-07:00

I just bought a Dell Inspiron mini 10v. It will be arriving either later this week or early next week.

After examining all the different ways I could purchase it, I decided to go refurb.

Why?

Because it’s nearly $100 less than new.

For a laptop that’s in the sub-$500 range, $100 is a pretty big consideration. In my situation, I paid 23% less compared to buying new, and I got more for the money besides that.

With netbooks you either love or hate them, and you certainly don’t purchase one for speed and power. You want it for the portability factor; this is why I bought one. Later on when I actually get the thing I’ll write up more about it, but for now I’m concentrating on price.

Resale value

Netbooks will not have any significant resale value because laptops of this size are meant to be disposable tech to a degree. I know that in 2 years the 10v I bought will barely be worth $100 at best – and that’s being generous.

This is going to be a cold hard fact no matter which make or model you go with, mainly due to the reason they were designed from the ground up to be inexpensive.

Those who are anti-refurb will do nothing but pay more for the same thing

I know there’s a whole lot of you out there who are decidedly anti-refurb and say, "If it’s not new, I don’t want it." You may change your tune on that when it comes to netbooks.

Refurbs today (at least with Dell) are not like they were years ago. You get all the same warranty choices including extended options with new OR refurb. In yesteryear this was not the case as refurb warranties didn’t offer the same coverage, but now they do and have for some time.

This being the case, those who choose to go new for the same model as a refurb do nothing but spend more money for the exact same thing.

By the numbers

These are the specs of my Dell Inspiron mini 10v. Items listed in bold/red are things you have to pay extra for when buying new as upgrade options.

Obsidian Black
10.1 inch WideScreen True Life Laptop Screen (1024×576)
Processor: Intel Atom Processor N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache)
1 GB DDR2 SDRAM 1 DIMM
160 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
6 Cell, 56WHr Lithium-Ion Primary Battery
Dell Wireless 1510 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam
Genuine Windows XP Home
Microsoft Works 9.0
32BIT Operating System CD
Windows Live
30W AC Adapter
Service Software
Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950

The price I paid for the refurb: $309.21. That’s with tax and shipping included.

If you were to price this new for the exact same model with same upgrade options, the price is $384 and that does not include tax and shipping (if included that would go over $400 easily).

In other words, with new I’d pay $100 more for the same thing.

With netbooks, you are so much better off concerning the pocketbook by going refurb. If interested in a Dell refurb netbook, the site is http://www.dell.com/outlet.

What about other makes and models of netbooks? How do they compare in price?

At present the best price for a netbook is in the high 200s (US Dollar).

The MSI Wind at NewEgg at the time of this writing sells for $289.99. With shipping added in, it still stays under $300 and it’s very close in specs to the Dell Inspiron mini 10v, HOWEVER.. the battery life sucks.

The best part about the refurb Dell I bought is that I specifically sought out one that came provided with a 6-cell 56WHr battery. Netbooks are supposed to be super-duper portable by design, but all that portability means nothing without a really good battery under the hood (literally).

If you are interested in a netbook, the battery should be the first thing you examine. If it’s a 3-cell/24WHr, you’re only going to realistically get 3 hours of use per charge. For a netbook, that’s terrible. Aim for the 32 and 56WHr batteries.

You should always go for the better battery. This is true for any laptop, but it’s especially true for netbooks.

What will the prices of netbooks be in the future?

They’ll most likely stick around the high 200s for a good while yet. However in a year or two it’s possible you may see low 200s for new netbooks.

The one I just bought will definitely not be the only. Future models (and this is happening very soon) will have integrated GPS and more television/tv tuner options for media center use. The existing Inspiron mini 10 already has an HDMI output for such a task.

Portable computer tech is looking really good right now, and it’s getting better. But most importantly, it’s cheap.

New Device? The Driver CD Is Probably Out Of Date

2009-09-26T13:24:00.001-07:00

The old saying goes “if it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it”. This is a good approach to existing, functional device drivers on your system. However, if you are installing a new device going with the most recent stable driver is probably the best bet.

Whenever you purchase a retail device, it almost always comes with a driver CD. Instead of using this CD, download the latest release from the manufacture’s site instead. More times than not, you will find your CD has an older version because it was packaged and shipped X months ago.

10 Things You Must Do To Get Along With A Netbook

2009-09-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

In a very short period of time I’ve found that in order to get along with a netbook properly, there’s 10 things you absolutely must do.

1. Use Google Chrome

Those who know my browser preferences find this a bit of a shock being that I’m a diehard Firefox user, because I’ve made it no secret that I can’t stand the Chrome web browser.

On a netbook however it’s a totally different story.

Chrome gives you the most usable space for your monitor with the least amount of memory munching. Being that you’re only dealing with a 1024×576 (or 600) screen, space is at a premium. Granted, you can F11 it for full screen with other browsers, but it’s better if you see your menus and tabs. Chrome allows you to do this easily.

If you’re using Firefox the tabs will munch up vertical pixels easily, and so will IE 8. Chrome gives the most vertical space because the status appears as a bar that fades in but isn’t locked – and that’s good. And when you open up new tabs, no extra vertical space is taken up either.

It’s the best browser to use on a netbook, period. And coming from me, that’s saying a lot.

2. Spend quality time with your mouse configuration program.

No matter what model of netbook you use, you will probably hate the touchpad. And I mean really hate it. That’s okay because most people do. The netbook format at this point hasn’t exact found the happy medium for a mouse design, so to speak.

Side note: I do know the perfect design for a netbook’s touchpad – no touchpad. It should be the rubber eraser-tip style thing Thinkpads have. This would work perfectly on the netbook format. Yes, you lose your mouse gestures but I’d happily give them up for the mid-point joystick and two tactile buttons below the keyboard.

Fortunately on the Dell mini 10v and all other netbooks, you can control every single thing it does. It even has sensitivity recognition, so not only does it detect touch (obviously), but also how hard or soft you touch.

It is required for you to sit with this and spend a good amount of time tweaking the settings. There is no fast n’ easy way around it. Fortunately once done, it’s done and you don’t have to do it again.

Or if you still hate it, spring for a laptop mini-mouse.

3. Spend quality time with your monitor settings.

Like with the touchpad, this will take time to set correctly as well. In my situation, the screen was just too bright and too blue. And this wasn’t fixed by putting the brightness setting down a few notches. I had to manually go into the config program for the colors/brightness and set it that way. Once I did, I said to myself, “Okay, that’s the way it’s supposed to look.”

The Dell mini 10v in particular has a really, really bright screen. This is a good feature, but it’s set to FULL-ON BRIGHT out of the box.

4. Know your keyboard.

On more or less all netbooks, certain keys on the keyboard do double duty. On the mini 10v this is seen in the function and arrow keys. This is a non-standard layout, and you won’t take it to like a fish to water. For example, I use PgUp and PgDn a lot – but these are on the arrow keys whereas I have to do Fn+Up to page up and Fn-Down to page down. Being that I’m a keystroke freak, this takes time to get used to.

It should also be noted that most netbooks do not have the faux number pad, that being where the right-side keys serve as number keys when Fn is pressed.

5. Purposely seek out lightweight apps.

Instead of using AIM, use AIM Lite.

Instead of using WinZIP, use 7Zip.

Consider using AbiWord instead of OpenOffice Writer or Microsoft Word.

It’s not that the “heavy” apps won’t work on a netbook as they’ll work fine. But whenever you can use less processing power, the better because it increases battery life and they obviously run faster.

6. Purposely seek out apps that can be installed with no media required.

This means to use apps that can be downloaded and installed rather than something that requires a CD/DVD installation method. You could get around this by purchasing a 50-dollar USB external optical drive or creating ISOs and virtually mounting disks within XP, but that’s a pain to do. You’re better off if you use apps that can be downloaded. Sourceforge will be your best friend here.

7. Spring for the 6-cell battery.

This screen shot speaks for itself:

This is not Windows XP making a mistake as to how long the battery will last for. It literally will run for over 5 hours on a single charge. And that’s with wi-fi enabled! You can easily get 6 if you decrease the screen brightness a few notches and disable wi-fi when you don’t need it.

8. Know your wi-fi hotspots.

Most people don’t bother taking their laptops with them to open wi-fi hotspots because the laptop is too big, too heavy and barely holds a charge over 2 hours and 30 minutes. The netbook gives you over 5 hours with a 6-cell battery and it’s under 3 pounds, so yeah, you’ll want to hit more wi-fi spots.

How to find them? There’s two ways:

First way: OpenWiFiSpots

Punch in your ZIP code and you’ll see the closest wi-fi spots near you.

Second way: Searching for “wifi” in Google Earth.

Use the Google Earth software and position the map close to where you live, then search for “wifi”. Both business and user-contributed wi-fi listings will appear.

Obviously both ways are dependent on where you live. If you live in a more metro area, you’ll find more spots. For example, the metro downtown area of Tampa Florida has an entire area covered for wi-fi called the S.U.R.F. Zone.

9. Get familiar with netbook specific resources for your model.

Each netbook offering has at least one independent web site that is dedicated to what you use. The Dell Inspiron mini for example has www.ubuntumini.com. If you wanted to know everything and anything about Ubuntu on the Dell mini, well, there you go. No matter which make/model you decide to go with, chances are there’s a world of informational resource available to you outside of the company’s web site who manufactured it.

This happens because there’s almost a cult-like following for netbook computers. Except this is a really good type of cult.

10. Know your operating system choices.

The most popular OS on netbooks right now is Windows XP. However Ubuntu does have a “Netbook Remix” version of their own OS. The best part? You can install the whole thing to a single 1GB USB stick and test it out if you like. I’ve done so on my Dell mini 10v and yeah, it runs great.

You can expect other Linux flavors to offer “remix” versions of their own distributions in the near future.

Made In China = Bad?

2009-09-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

For the observant, you’ll notice that a ton of computers are made in the nation of China these days. This is occurring so much that some people absolutely refuse to buy anything made from there, similar to the all-too-familiar MADE IN TAIWAN labels on so many products of the 1980s and 1990s.

On the computing front, many refer to Chinese-made computers as "those Foxconn-made pieces of sh*t".

The Mac mini, Macbook Air, Macbook, iMac and Macbook Pro are all manufactured in China. For those who have ever ordered one of the aforementioned direct from the Apple Store and had it shipped to you, you’ll notice the shipping process starts (the last I knew) from Shanghai.

The Dell mini 10v I just bought has a MADE IN CHINA sticker slapped on the back of it. Other Dell models follow suit.

It is totally possible (and this is a guess) that Dell and Apple PCs/laptops are manufactured right in the same city – and possibly even the same buildings.

Still think Apple-branded computers are better than Dell-branded now?

As to why so much of our computer stuff is made there, the answer is simple: Cost. It costs less to have electronics made there than in a Western nation (and yes, this also leads to serious e-waste problems in China).

The question however is this: Is a Chinese-manufactured computer "bad"? No, because it all boils down to design and manufacturing processes.

If a laptop has a bad design that’s been finalized and sent to production, the end result will be a crappy product no matter where it’s made.

Example 1: The Macbook (not the Macbook Pro). It is commonly called a Crackbook. Why? Because of a design flaw in the palm rest that literally causes the unit to crack even when just sitting there neatly on a table with it running – even if was never dropped, never abused, etc.

(Side note: Apple still sells this same model with the same design flaw. It can be fixed under warranty, but if your warranty runs out, you’re screwed.)

Example 2: The exploding batteries in Dell laptops that happened a few years ago which prompted a massive recall. It wasn’t the laptop that was the problem here, but guess where the battery was made?

Even with these examples, I don’t deem a product "bad" based on where it was made. I have owned several Chinese-made electronics products over the years. One company which I know has a major manufacturing plant in China that is Behringer – and I like Behringer products. A lot. That’s because they manufacture solid well-designed stuff.

If you’re going to blame anybody for poor quality computer stuff, blame the brand (like Apple, Dell and/or Foxconn). They don’t need to move their manufacturing facilities elsewhere, they just need to more thought into design for better electronics products.

Dell Inspiron Mini 10v Review (With Video)

2009-09-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Note: There is a video at the bottom of this post of my 10v, so be sure to check that out.

As I had been saying many times since 2009 started, my plan was to get a netbook as my next laptop. So I bought a refurbished Dell Inspiron Mini 10v.

My overall opinion of the unit is that it’s a decent solid build and is definitely the right size. However the one thing that I absolutely must point out is that without a 6 cell battery it’s not worth owning.

Since it’s a challenge at best to run high-powered, high-graphic apps (like many popular game titles) on one of these things, what you would use it most for is web browsing, documents and communication such as email, instant messengers and so on.

On a netbook, where one finds this most useful is not at home. Whether it’s your local coffee shop or restaurant with free wi-fi, a long flight, long car or bus ride, hotel, etc., that’s where you’re going to use this thing.

Being that’s the case, long battery life is what matters more than anything else on a netbook.

It should be absolutely mandatory that all netbooks come provided with a 6 cell battery as standard. This is not the case for any netbook currently. All of them, whether made by Dell, HP, MSI, Acer or the like all come with a 3 cell. This realistically only gets you 3 hours of battery life, and that serves absolutely no advantage over a standard-sized laptop.

On my 10v, I purposely sought out a refurb with the 6 cell battery. This was the absolute best decision I could have made because I get the most usefulness out of this netbook.

Being there are other reviews of the 10v on the internet already, I’m going to point out here (some of which will be mentioned in the video below) the points most people would be interested in learning, in Q&A format.

Does it have an optical drive?

No. What makes a netbook a netbook usually starts with having no optical drive. If you want one, you can purchase the small external USB kind. Here’s an example.

What’s the resolution?

On the 10v it’s 1024×576. Most apps will run in this resolution with no issue at all. In the browser (any web browser), you can get maximum space by pressing F11 for full screen mode, and press it again to go back to windowed. Try it right now if you like; it works on any computer.

The Dell mini 10 (the one without the v) does offer a 1366 resolution, however I know for a fact that for many people the text would just be way too small.

At the time I write this, Dell has introduced the brand new Inspiron 11z, which has, you guessed it, an 11-inch screen. Does a 1366 resolution look any more readable on that? Depends on your eyes.

1024×576 on a 10-inch screen can be read fine even for those with a “heavy” eyeglass prescription. With 1366 there’s squinting. And it is unknown at this point whether an 11-inch screen would serve any better, readability-wise.

It also should be noted that at full brightness, the 10v’s LCD screen beams, as in so bright it would literally bother you. I never have mine set at full bright. I think the only time you would have to full-bright is when sitting outside with it on a very bright sunny day.

What’s the hard drive size?

There are several sizes, starting with an 8GB SSD, then 16GB SSD, then 120GB 2.5-inch and the 160GB 2.5-inch. There’s also a 64GB SSD somewhere in the mix.

In the new 11v there is a 250GB 2.5-inch SATA drive offering. It’s overkill, but available.

The SATA drives are the purposely-chosen slower 5400rpm because they run cooler.

On my 10v, I have the 160GB. For me this is fine given the fact I don’t have anything that would munch up hard drive space.

Even if you chose to stuff your hard drive full of movies and MP3s, it would still take a while to fill this thing up. But if you gotta-gotta-gotta have the extra space, just buy an external 750GB Western Digital MyPassport (brand new at the time of this writing). Problem solved.

How does the keyboard feel?

On the 10v it feels solid and not toy-like. It is, according to Dell, 92% the size of a traditional laptop keyboard. It’s responsive, easy to type on and doesn’t require any huge learning curve.

What some may have a problem with is where the PgUp/PgDn keys are. They are shared with the arrow keys and accessible via Fn. Page Up would be Fn+Up, Page Down would be Fn+Down.

It also should be noted there are no keys which could act as a number pad via Fn. The only way to type numbers is to use the top row only.

How does the touchpad feel?

You’ll probably hate it at first. It does take a few days to get used to. Once you do it’s not bad though. It’s not great, I admit, but it’s not awful either. This is one of those things where a design had to be made to accommodate the pint-sized nature of the netbook.

What’s the performance like?

Note before continuing: The 11v is reported to have much better performance as it has a next-gen CPU in it.

The easiest way to describe the performance of a 10v is that it is about the same running speed as a upper-mid-grade laptop made 5 years ago.

Some of you may read that and say, “Bleah! That’s terrible!”

Not really. When you take away the high-powered/high-graphic apps, the 10v can basically run anything you put on it, and do so in a way where you’re not sitting around waiting for something to happen.

The OpenOffice suite for example is a chunky set of apps, but runs easily on the 10v.

I have no issues with the 10v choking and I don’t believe anybody else would.

How long does the 6 cell 56WHr battery last?

With the screen dimmed and wi-fi off, 6 hours. And no, not “about” 6 hours. I’m talking 6 hours or more.

With the screen brightness up and wi-fi on, 5 to 5.5 hours. I can confirm this as I have put the unit thru its paces.

This beats the ever-loving crap out of any standard-sized laptop. Like I said, the battery is the most important part of a netbook, no question.

The video below shows what the 6 cell battery looks like. It is significantly larger than the 3 cell, but not anything that would make you run for the hills.

Does it feel like a toy?

Some netbooks do feel like toys, I won’t deny that. But the 10v doesn’t. The overall construction is solid and it doesn’t feel like a child’s plaything. When opening the screen there are no creaks or squeaks. When typing the keyboard doesn’t feel cheap. All the ports have a nice snug fit when anything is plugged into them.

How loud is it?

The 10v is silent when running. So silent you’d think something is wrong with it. Whenever I turn it on I have to purposely look at the power light just to make sure I turned it on because I’m so used to hearing fan noise from older laptops I’ve used.

How is the audio speaker?

Terrible. Sounds chintzy. A compromise of the small design. Even at its loudest volume it’s still too quiet.

Fortunately for most things where you’d want to hear the audio (like YouTube videos or music), you just plug in headphones.

Part of the reason why the speaker sounds crappy is because I believe it’s under the keyboard, so the sound comes from the bottom of the netbook. It’s more or less the only place they could put the thing. Like I said, it’s a compromise in design because of the small size.

A video review

Below is my quick review. It touches on points I’ve mentioned above plus a few other things.

Enabling Hibernation On Windows Vista And Windows 7

2009-09-26T10:28:00.001-07:00

For some reason the hibernate function is not enabled in either Windows Vista or Windows 7 by default (even if your BIOS supports it). On top this, enabling this power saving feature isn’t as simple as marking a check box.

If you want to make use of this rather nice function then here is how to do it in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

I find this feature especially useful on laptops because it essentially allows you to snapshot your current session and resume from exactly where you left off. Additionally, the bootup time from hibernation is usually much faster than a cold boot.

Windows XP calculator missing or disappeared?

2009-09-26T05:48:00.000-07:00

You’re probably reading this article if you were going to find the calculator on your Windows XP machine to figure out some important calculation. After a bit of searching, you probably realized that your calculator is missing!

Pretty weird right? Well this can happen for a number of reasons, but basically your calculator is gone! If you recently installed a service pack to XP, such as SP2 or SP3, that could be the culprit.

Either way, here are a couple of ways you can get your calculator back in Windows XP!

Method 1 – Reinstall Calculator

The first method is pretty straight-forward as long as you have your Windows CD. Pop it into the disk drive and go to the Control Panel. Now go to Add/Remove Programs, click on Add/Remove Windows Components.

Click on Accessories and Utilities and then click the Details button below:

Now click on Accessories and click the Details button again. Now make sure to check the Calculator box.

Now click OK all the way back and XP will go ahead and reinstall the calculator! If you can’t get a hold of a Windows XP disc, then try the second method.

Method 2 – Copy over calc.exe

The second way to do it and maybe the easier method is to simply copy the calc.exe file over from another machine to your C:\Windows\System32 folder. Also, copy calc.chm to c:\Windows\Help.

Obviously, you’ll find both of these files in those two directories on another computer that has the calculator working. After that, you can just create a shortcut to the calc.exe file on your Start Menu or wherever you like.

If you have a Windows XP cd, you can also try popping the CD in and running these two commands, where X is your CD/DVD drive letter.

expand -r X:\I386\calc.ex_ c:\windows\system32
expand -r X:\I386\calc.ch_ c:\windows\help

If your calculator is still missing or gone, then post a comment here and I’ll try to help!

Fix “cannot play” MP3 files in PSP and Sony MP3 players

2009-09-26T05:47:00.000-07:00

Sometimes even when you transfer MP3 files to the right MUSIC folder on your Sony PSP or MP3 player, the Sony device won’t be able to play it. It could be a sampling rate mismatch or the bit rate of the file, so often times you need to convert the MP3 file to a bit rate supported by the Sony player.

Sony also promotes its own music player/converter software for free – the SonicStage. With this tool, you can convert the MP3 file to a compatible Sony-native format called ATRAC3.

ATRAC, according to Sony, is an audio compression technology that satisfies the demand for high sound quality and a high compression rate such as one tenth of an audio CD.

Well certainly we don’t want another music format other than MP3, but sometimes for the sake of being able to play them on Sony devices, we need to convert the files to ATRAC format.

SonicStage has an easy to grasp interface. You can add music files to it by simply dragging the files to the “My Library” section. It can automatically tag your files with its integrated Gracenote service so you won’t have to manually do it.

To convert a regular MP3 file to ATRAC3 format, right click the file then choose Convert Format…

Choose ATRAC3 or ATRAC3plus (depends on what your Sony device could support so experiment between the two formats first before doing a batch of files):

To verify if you have converted the file, right click the file, choose properties then go to the file info tab. You should see that there are two file file formats saved on different locations.

Make sure to have room for the newly converted files on your hard disk. I prefer to keep the original files just in case I need to play the files in a non-Sony device like my iPod.

If you can not play your music files on a Sony device, try to convert the file first before transferring – this will re-encode the MP3 file with format supported by your device. I have a similar Sony Network MP3 player like the one below and the steps I have shown above are what I usually do to make the files play using this player.

How to enable and send MMS messages on iPhone 3G/3GS

2009-09-26T05:46:00.000-07:00

Finally, yesterday AT&T turned on the MMS functionality for iPhones! This is really great because now you can send pictures and videos in a message. So how do you enable the new MMS feature on your iPhone?

Follow the instructions below to get MMS working on your iPhone. First, connect the iPhone to your computer and let it finish a sync or backup.

Now on the Summary screen, click on Check for Update.

You’ll get a pop up message saying that there is a carrier settings update. Go ahead and click Download and Update.

The download and update process takes just a few seconds to complete, so there’s not much waiting!

Once you get the message that the iPhone carrier settings were updated, you need to turn off your iPhone and turn it back on for the new MMS feature to be active.

Now when you go to create a new message, you’ll see a small camera icon at the bottom left (above the keyboard).

Click on the camera icon and you’ll have the option to choose an existing photo/video or to take one immediately. Note that only the 3GS will have the option for video.

That’s it! Now MMS is enabled on your iPhone and you can start sending multimedia messages to your friends and family! Enjoy!

12 Cat Silhouettes Photoshop Brushes

2009-09-26T05:44:00.002-07:00

This set contains 12 Cat Silhouettes Brushes for Photoshop, Brushset made in Photoshop CS3.

Download here

12 Dog Silhouettes Photoshop Brushes

2009-09-26T05:44:00.001-07:00

This set contains 12 Dog Silhouettes Brushes for Photoshop, Brushset made in Photoshop CS3.

Download here

Windows 7 RTM v2 for XP

2009-09-26T05:42:00.000-07:00

It’s Windows 7 RTM v2 visual style for XP

In this version
- No need to install LSPATCH!
- Small arrow in folder tree
- You can change your user account pictures!

CREDITS
- Vishal Gupta for VistaVG core work.
- Windows 7 designers!
- Wallpaper from Windows 7
- You too!

Thanks for downloading and appreciating guys..

Download

Cain & Abel 4.9.32

2009-09-26T05:41:00.001-07:00

Cain & Abel 4.9.32 free programs regain the password stored in Windows. The program is in addition to recovering passwords, tracking network packets, and the breaking of passwords and security. The program can not be used for illegal purposes.

Cain & Abel 4.9.32 is a tool designed especially for administrators d networks with which you can check the security level of a home or office LAN.

The program allows you to recover passwords for a wide variety of protocols including FTP, SMTP, POP3, HTTP, MySQL, ICQ, Telnet and others and also to retrieve the keys hidden under the typical Windows line of asterisks.

The program includes other tools designed to manage and control networks.

Size: 7.24 MB
Publisher: Visit Website
Release Date: 2009-9-26
OS: Win 9x/ME/2K/NT/XP/Vista

Download

RegRun Reanimator 6.5.6.54

2009-09-26T05:39:00.000-07:00

RegRun Reanimator 6.5.6.54 is a free program to remove trojans, Adware, Spyware, and some rootkits. The program is compatible with all known antivirus programs.

RegRun Reanimator 6.5.6.54 is a free security solution with which we can scan your computer for viruses, Trojans, spyware and other malicious code variants. The program is very simple to use and very reliable, just need to pick the team where he will run the analysis (local PC or peripheral) and follow the steps shown in the interface.

In a few minutes you will get a detailed report about the threats found and can send that report to an official testing center from a contact form (recommended for beginners) or fix the problems manually.

RegRun Reanimator 6.5.6.54 may not conform to traditional techniques implemented by today's antivirus disinfect when our computers, but is equally effective and, above all, useful for the less experienced.

Size: 5.73 MB
Publisher: Visit Website
Release Date: 2009-9-26
OS: Win 9x/ME/2K/NT/XP/Vista

Download

What’s The Best Way To Save A Web Page?

2009-09-26T04:58:00.000-07:00

People save web pages to ensure they can retrieve information later without having to load it on the internet. It also is a way of retrieving a web page just in case the original web site has an outage or goes offline for whatever reason.

There are two basic ways of saving web pages, that being via the browser or "printing it" to a PDF.

Via the browser

The browser that has the absolute best web page save feature is Internet Explorer 8, due to the fact it can save entire web pages as a "Web Archive." When you click File/Save As (if you don’t see that in your IE 8, press ALT on your keyboard to bring up that menu,) you’ll see it as a save option:

When you choose to save it will "crunch" everything into a single file:

Why is this the best? Because it’s a single file that contains everything (and that’s why it’s labeled as an archive.) All the text, all the images and everything included. If you load it afterward, it looks exactly the way it was originally. It is to the best of my knowledge the only browser that does it right.

Other browsers, such as Firefox, save as "Web page, complete" and it’s nothing but a huge mess. An HTML file will be saved which is the web page, but a subfolder will also be created with all the images, JavaScript files, etc. You can literally get 20+ files out of a single web page save.

Love or hate IE 8, it rules the roost when it comes to web page archiving.

Drawbacks:

Only one – it’s proprietary to IE 8. Otherwise it’s the best way to archive a web page.

Via PDF Creator

If you don’t use IE 8 and want a web to save web pages a single files that include images and so on, the best way to do this is to use PDF Creator to create PDF files. This is free software that will install a virtual print driver and can be used in your web browser of choice.

Once installed, go to any web page, load it, then click File/Print or press CTRL+P.

Choose PDF Creator from the window that appears:

..click OK.

The page will be crunched and made ready for PDF rendering:

You’ll see this:

Click the Save button at bottom right. You’ll be asked to name the file and where you want to save it to. Once done, the page is archived as a PDF.

Drawbacks:

Many times the PDF creator will default to a serif font (Times New Roman) instead of the font seen on the original web page.
Any links in the web page will not work in the PDF.

These drawbacks are usually acceptable being it’s the text you care about the most when it comes to a web page. Any images on the page will be embedded in the PDF; all text is searchable as well.

In addition, the PDF created even for very large web pages will be small in file size, suitable for sending in email if you want to send it off to a friend.

Via ScreenGrab

This is for Firefox only.

ScreenGrab is a FireFox plugin. It allows you to save a PNG or JPEG screen shot of any web page, but does so far better than ALT+PrintScreen. ScreenGrab will take an image of the entire page including the full length. The screen shot taken will look identical to what you see on-screen.

Drawbacks:

Since the output file is an image, none of the text can be searched and links won’t work either.
The default output file is a PNG. If the web page you save is very long, the file saved will be enormous.
On very large web pages it can cause Firefox to freeze up when attempting to take a full screen shot, particularly on slower computers.

You can make the screen shot ScreenGrab takes to be smaller by purposely not using the browser maximized, because yes, ScreenGrab captures everything – including all the white space on the sides.

To use ScreenGrab, install the add-on, then on any web page, right-click and choose ScreenGrab:

"Complete Page/Frame" will save the entire page, length and all.

"Visible portion" only captures what the browser is displaying at that moment.

"Selection" allows you to select what you want captured.

"Window" acts like ALT+PrintScreen does.

Choosing to Save will save the file. Choosing to Copy will copy the image to the clipboard buffer where you can paste into another program such as an image editor, Word, etc.

Command Line Tip: Easily Cycle Through Folder Names

2009-09-26T04:57:00.000-07:00

Personally, I am a big fan of the command line. From it I can get to just about everything I need pretty fast and I have an extensive set of utilities available at my disposal. One of the things, however, that isn’t so quick is navigating to different directories. If they have long names you have to type them exactly or they won’t take.

If this sounds familiar, here is a quick tip: pressing the TAB key will cycle through all the directory names in your current directory. For example, if you go to the command line and type “cd ” and then the tab key repeatedly, you will see the directory names are dropped in.

This shortcut can be an good time and keystroke saver, especially if you are navigating through the Windows or Program Files directory.

Web Of Trust Can Warn You About Unsafe Websites

2009-09-26T04:55:00.000-07:00

Whenever you do browsing to sites you are not familiar with, you always run some risk of the site not being “on the level”. If you do not go the route of script blockers, it is a good idea to have something watching your back. Web of Trust (WOT) is a tool that can fit this bill.

WOT is a free Internet security addon for your browser. It will keep you safe from online scams, identity theft, spyware, spam, viruses and unreliable shopping sites. WOT warns you before you interact with a risky website. It’s easy and it’s free.

When you have WOT installed, it will check websites you are visiting as well as search results/links (on popular sites) so you can see if they are rated safe before you visit. Based on what I have seen, this site gets positive reviews from several sources, so I have no reason to question it.

Are Touchscreen Digital Cameras A Good Idea?

2009-09-26T04:54:00.001-07:00

A touchscreen was something only limited to high-end electronics at one point, but now they’re available on just about anything mobile, such as Nintendo DS, all automotive GPS devices, smartphones and so on.

Something that has been very slow to adopt the touchscreen are digital cameras. Canon in particular seemingly refused to do it, however that’s no longer the case as six new PowerShot line cameras will have touchscreens in them; you’ll see these on store shelves very soon.

Part of the reason why touchscreens have been slow to show up on digital cameras is for the fact they wash out easily in bright sunlight. And if your primary menu system can’t be seen while adjusting a camera to take photos, that’s no good to the user.

Camcorders with a touchscreen (Sony has had them for years) get around this by having a screen that flips out and tilts. The tilt eliminates glare instantly so you can get down to business and see what you need to see to make adjustments. This is more or less the exact same thing that will happen on digital cameras. Being that more and more of them have HD video recording capability, this is seen as a natural progression that they act more like camcorders do.

However the question remains as to whether this is actually a good idea or not. The answer is actually yes.

Canon in particular has not always had the friendliest of menu systems in their digital camera line.
There’s nothing particularly wrong with it, but when compared to other makes you can see the differences. Certain features require the pressing of more buttons to get to depending on model, the icon legend is a bit confusing at times, and so on.

If the touchscreen menu Canon uses is on par with how other camera/camcorders are (which is a tabbed/paged layout), this will make for a far easier camera to use overall. You will be able to get to functions faster, easier, and moreover understand your camera better as to what it can actually do.

For those wondering if the PowerShot G11 will have an optical viewfinder in addition to the touchscreen, don’t worry, it does. For many this is an absolute must-have requirement. A camera of this caliber should have no less.

5 Common Sense Tips For Geo-Location Service Use

2009-09-26T04:53:00.001-07:00

Twitter, the service you either love or hate, will be offering a geo-location service soon. This is something other web sites like BrightKite have tried to get other people to start using. You go somewhere then announce where you are by means of GPS coordinates.

Consumer location-aware tech is still something that’s relatively new. There are certain things you should practice so the tech is used to your best advantage.

1. Don’t mark a location in front of your house.

Most people test the technology on a smartphone right from their own home. The tech is designed to be 100% public with the option of making it private. Most people forget about that option. When performing your test, do so at another location else everybody knows where you live – including the people you don’t want knowing this information.

2. Be wary of auto-updating features.

Several location-aware services have the option of auto-updating. This is convenient, but you may forget you have it on, thereby having it serve to your disadvantage.

Example: You’re a husband that decides to surprise your wife by going to get her flowers that day. If your wife sees that you went to the flower shop by means of a web site showing your location, the surprise is ruined.

3. If it’s public, your boss is tracking you.

Many companies today routinely scan the internet for any scrap of information about you, especially if you’re an employed by them. Heck, it almost saves them from having to do periodic background checks! If you’re on the clock and sending out location data, chances are high the boss will be following your movements.

4. Thieves can easily know when you’re not at home.

Years ago it made news that when you set your email signature to a vacation response that said, "I won’t be home from dates X to Y, but will be checking my mail as soon as I get back", thieves would purposely email people just to get this information so they knew certain homes were free and clear to rob from.

If a thief is following your movements via your location broadcasts, it can lead to the same disastrous results for you. This is especially true if you broadcasted your location from your house (see point 1 above). The thief knows where you live, knows when you’re not at home and knows exactly when to go and break into your house – even in broad daylight. In fact he can even study your location patterns to determine the best time to "do the job", so to speak.

5. Know all options for private location broadcasting.

This is the best piece of advice on the list. Don’t just start broadcasting without knowing how to protect your location information, should the need arise.

Comparison Chart For Older CPU’s

2009-09-26T04:52:00.002-07:00

If you ever have the need to compare a couple of old CPU’s to see which one is “faster”, a good resource is PassMark’s CPU Benchmarks chart.

This chart lists almost any older CPU you can think of and is compiled based on actual scores submitted by users. While certainly not definitive, this gives you a quick comparison of the relative processing power between the CPU’s in question.

Note: I put faster in quotes above because these scores are based on a particular program’s benchmark score.

Asus EeePC 1000HE And Dell Mini 10v Netbooks

2009-09-26T04:52:00.001-07:00

As mentioned before, Dave bought a netbook. I went with the Dell mini 10v, he went with the Asus EeePC 1000HE. Both are almost identical as far as specifications are concerned (CPU speed, screen size/resolution, etc.) What it really boils down to when choosing one of these are the details, such as the keyboard layout, power supply type, battery options, RAM options and so on.

For example the EeePC 1000HE does have a matte LCD display while the mini 10v has a glossy. The trackpad on the 1000HE is “taller” with actual mouse buttons while the 10v has the buttons built into the trackpad near the bottom. The 10v has more of a standardized keyboard while the 1000HE is more chiclet style (and yes that is the way it’s spelled).

Earlier in the week I stopped by with my 10v and put it side-by-side to the 1000HE. It’s not a detailed review by any means, but it gives you an idea of the small differences between makes and models. See video below for details.

Is It Still A 1024×768 World?

2009-09-26T04:51:00.000-07:00

I recently came across a thread on a random forum where it called out to the members to post a screenshot of their desktop to show off their wallpaper graphics.

What was interesting wasn’t the graphics per sé but rather the screen resolution for most of the screen shots shown, which happened to be 1024×768. It showed up so much that a few commented on it saying something to the effect of, "Why are all you people using such low resolutions?"

Want to know the real kicker? These people posting screen shots were all in their late teens, 20s and 30s. This was not 40+ territory whatsoever.

So why is it that so many people still use 1024×768?

There’s actually a few good answers.

If you’re on a netbook, the vast majority of them have screens that are a native resolution of 1024×576 or 1024×600.

A teen may be using his parent’s computer where the parent prefers the resolution at something he or she can read, and that’s usually 1024×768.

The really interesting crowd are the twenty and thirty-somethings. I fall into this crowd because I’m 34. I wear eyeglasses, but my primary 20-inch monitor is 1680×1050 and the secondary 1280×1024. What’s the deal with 1024×768 in this age group?

The answer is something you probably didn’t think of: Games.

Games run much better and faster at lower resolutions. And if you keep your Windows resolution as 1024×768, when the switch to the game happens your icons don’t get all messed up and moved around. This is common in XP when you have your Windows resolution set different than your game resolution.

In addition, not all computer gamers run the newest blazing fast PC hardware. Many run decidedly old stuff and couldn’t care less about things like anisotropic filtering as long as the game plays smooth and fast. To get any advantage in speed and smoothness possible, the resolution is lowered on purpose even if the eyesight is just fine.

If you thought 1024×768 was only for the 40+ crowd, think again. There are plenty, and I mean plenty of younger users rockin’ the 1024 resolution for daily use.

The Ultimate Guide To Proper Date Formatting In File Names

2009-09-26T03:42:00.000-07:00

This guide is for anybody that has a whole bunch of files, be they photos, MP3s, documents or any other type of file you have that needs quick-sorting by date at a glance.

There is only one right way to put the date in a file name. When I say "date in a file name" I mean that the actual title of the file has the date in it.

The format you must use for proper date formatting every time is:

Four-digit year
Dash
Two digit month or single digit month with leading zero
Dash
Two digit day of month or single digit day of month with leading zero
Underscore
Description of file in lowercase letters with words separated by underscores (optional, but more compliant)

Here’s an example:

2009-03-27_my_document.doc

Now I’m going to explain why this is the proper date formatting structure for file names.

Four-digit year

You do this so as not to confuse a year with a month. If you have a date written as 08-07-08, is that August 7, 2008 or 8 July, 2008? You can’t tell.

"That doesn’t matter, I always use month/day/year."

It does matter because not everybody uses month/day/year.

Two digit month or single digit month with leading zero

A two digit month is each enough to understand. For example, December is 12.

A single digit month, like May, is 5. But you don’t write it like that. You add in a leading zero so it’s written as 05.

Why?

Because some operating systems will not list files in proper numeric order without the leading zero. Windows XP and all previous versions prior to it do this.

Example: You have 10 DOC files from 0 to 10. The single digits have no leading zeroes on them.

This will show in XP in Windows Explorer as:

0.doc
1.doc
10.doc
2.doc
3.doc
4.doc
5.doc
6.doc
7.doc
8.doc
9.doc

Note the 1 and the 10 are right on top of each other. Why does XP do this? Because 1 comes after 0, before 2 and all other numbers. XP is only going by the first character it "sees."

Even Windows Vista and 7 still do this when listing files outside the Windows Explorer interface (such as a File/Open dialog box.)

Second example: 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10

All these numbers will be listed in proper order. 0 always comes before 1, and even with the way Windows lists files, it absolutely will not get this "wrong"; that’s why you do it.

Two digit day of month or single digit day of month with leading zero

You do this for the exact same reason as for the month.

Underscore

The underscore (this character: _) is necessary because the dates uses dashes already. Using underscores gives a clean visual cue as to what’s a descriptor and what’s a date.

In addition, you use underscores because trying to send a file over the internet with a literal space in it results in a %20, or just fails on attempt to transfer. A replacement must be used for the space to avoid this. Underscore is it.

Description of file in lowercase letters with words separated by underscores

As said above, this is optional. You use lowercase just in case you ever have to upload this from a command line via FTP. Where case of letters is involved, mistakes can be made easily – especially if it’s a long file title. If you know all the letters are lowercase, this decreases typing mistakes significantly.

Why Year/Month/Day and not Year/Day/Month?

Year/Month/Day is proper big endian formatting and follows ISO 8601 international standard. Year/Day/Month does not. You can see more info here on that if you like.

Okay, so I know a bunch of stuff about date formatting in files now. Why should I care?

You should care for three good reasons.

First and most obvious, it will make your files easier to manage no matter what OS you use. And if you plan on sticking with XP for a while longer, this is mandatory because of the way it lists files starting with digits.

Second, being that the world is getting smaller every day, chances are you’ll be trading files with someone across the pond sooner or later, if not doing so already. Using the internationally recognized big endian standard eliminates any and all confusion as to what a date format truly represents.

Third, in addition to files being sorted properly no matter the OS you use, they will also sort properly no matter what web site you use. Using Windows SkyDrive, Google Docs, plain FTP or other means of online storage? You’ll be able to sort a whole lot easier using proper date formatting in the titles of your files.

Wouldn’t it be easier just to sort by date modified or date created?

Not necessarily because it can add in many repetitive steps.

In Windows (XP/Vista/7,) two columns that can be added via Windows Explorer are Date Modified and Date Created. However in order to see these, you have to be in Details view mode when looking at files.

Date Modified is usually there by default, but Date Created isn’t, so you have to add that in by right-clicking a column to see all that are available, then choose Date Created so it can be seen.

Example from Windows XP:

To get to this point, it took five clicks just to see this stuff.

View
Details
Right-click column
Date Created
Click to sort by date created

You may have to do this over and over again – particularly in XP – because this view mode may not be "remembered" by Windows. It can get very frustrating quickly.

Adding in the date to the title of the file eliminates the need to do any of this.

Where would using date formatting like this in file titles be most useful?

Three instances comes to mind:

Photos
Documents
Dated audio or video broadcasts

Is there ANY WAY to automate the process of renaming multiple files with the date like this?

Absolutely. The tool you need is Rename Master for Windows. Here’s how to use that software to modify as many files as you want – all at once – with their creation date at the front:

1. Launch Rename Master.

2. Remove all existing steps. This is done easily by clicking Edit then Clear Renaming Options, like this:

3. In RM, navigate to the folder where the files are. Do this by using the Folder Browser on the left of the application. If you don’t see it, press CTRL+B while using Rename Master.

4. Click the New Step button, then Add to Beginning/Ending, like this:

5. Add the following in: ?dc:FYYYY-MM-DD?_

Yes, I know that looks weird, but it works. It looks like this:

Make sure to select "at the Beginning" and "to the Name" as shown above.

6. Click the New Step button again and choose to Replace Name/Phrase, like this:

7. Set the step to look like this, and follow the steps carefully:

Next to "Replace the" we select phrase. This will enable the other fields.

In the field directly to the right of phrase, click inside and press the spacebar once to add in a space. You cannot see this in the screen shot above because a space obviously cannot be seen.

In the field directly to the right of with, type in an underscore (this character: _).

8. Click the Case & Wildcards tab, check Override configuration settings and tick the option for lowercase, like this:

9. Compare the Name to the New Name column to make sure the appropriate changes will be made.

Above is exactly what we want. The best example is "New OpenDocument Text.odt."

As you can see from the New Name column, it will be changed to:

2009-09-23_new_opendocument_text.odt

The file creation date is added using the proper date formatting. All spaces are replaced with underscores and letters that were capitalized are changed to lowercase.

After that it’s a click of this button:

(Located at the bottom of Rename Master)

..and that’s all there is to it.

Always remember to proceed carefully with the renaming of files, especially for large amounts of them. Pay close attention to the New Name column in Rename Master when using the software, because whatever you see there is exactly what the files will be renamed to verbatim. So if it looks wrong, it is wrong. Correct it before hitting that rename button at the bottom.

Final notes for Vista/7 users

As you know, file permissions are needed in order to rename files in specific places. RM may not function correctly if you try to modify files it doesn’t have proper access to. To overcome this, rename files that you have located either in a specific folder you create on the desktop or a specific folder you create in My Documents. RM should work without issue when renaming files from those locations. Just remember to create a specific folder to do it so you don’t rename anything else by mistake.

10 Free Essential Programs for Windows

2009-09-23T04:46:00.000-07:00

After reading the title, you may think to yourself, “Only ten? There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of free programs for Windows.” This thought would be difficult to disprove as there are vast numbers of freeware programs available for the Windows operating system. This is simply short list of ten programs that will prove helpful when working with the Windows platform.

1. Firewall: Sunbelt Personal Firewall. This program can be found at Sunbelt’s website. It is easy to setup and does not consume too many system resources. A good firewall is an essential piece of security all computers need, and this one fits the bill for Windows. Additionally, when it asks you for permission to allow or deny a connection to something, it will remember your choice. There are other firewalls that suffer from memory problems when you instruct them to block a service, only to forget and ask you again at a later date.

2. Anti-malware: Microsoft Security Essentials. Even though it is not officially released as yet, Microsoft Security Essentials (code name: Morro) does quite well even as a beta product. Though the downloads have been cut off at the Microsoft Connect website, it can still be found at softpedia.com’s website. While some people may be apprehensive about using a Microsoft branded security product, Security Essentials has come a long way from the initial offering of Windows Defender from years past.

3. System Cleaning: CCleaner. A Windows computer builds up temporary and useless files daily with normal use. Surf the Internet, get temporary Internet files. Install and uninstall programs, your computer has leftover files that did not get removed. There are also other programs like Windows Update and Microsoft Office, which produce unneeded files periodically. CCleaner runs through Windows, and flags the excess files for removal. The user is able to select what that want to remove, or keep, and let CCleaner do the rest.

4. Search Tools: Google Desktop. Your three year old computer may not be as uncluttered as it used to be. Thousands of digital pictures, emails and other files later, it can be daunting to find things. Luckily, Google Desktop is there to help locate what you are seeking. Putting the power of the Google Search engine on your computer, and after it finished its initial indexing routine, finding files is much faster than clicking through folder after folder, or using Windows Search.

5. Image Editing: Paint.NET. When you need something better than MS Paint, balk at the price tag of Adobe products, and are overwhelmed by programs like the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), there is a third option. Paint.NET is light on system resources, but plenty of options for good image editing. The authors also have a message board and tutorials on their website for those who want to get further information on their software.

6. File Compression: TugZip. With the ability to compress to and extract from a sizeable list of compression formats, TugZip is a freeware must have for anyone needing a program for making ZIP type files. TugZip adds a list of formats to the Windows right-click menu, making the compression of a file or folder a simple two step operation. Additionally, TugZip gives the user the ability to create encrypted archives so they can safely store there computer files, without too much complexity.

7. Instant Messaging: Trillian. Having been available since 2001, and going through many updates, Trillian has place itself as an excellent tool for replacing brand specific instant messengers. By combining services like MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger, Trillian eliminated the need to run separate IM programs. It also covers the social networks of Twitter and Facebook, for posting; as well as the ability to tie into Skype.

8. Download Tool: Download Accelerator Plus. Though this software is Ad Supported, it is free. Accelerator Plus can greatly boost your file download times by attempting to get the data from multiple sources on the Internet. This program also has the ability to resume downloads if your connection experiences interruption, or the originating file location has issues.

9. Disc Burning: Ashampoo Burning Studio Free. When it comes to burning CDs and DVDs, the easier the program, the better. With a friendly graphical user interface, and a step through process for burning disc media, Ashampoo Burning Studio Free answers the call of the need for disc creation software at a practical price (free). This program can also create ISO files for those of us who need operating system discs; as well as other specialized disc formats.

10. File Restoration: Recuva. Made by the same group as CCleaner, Recuva helps people get back lost files. Whether you emptied the Recycle Bin, or pressed the Shift+Delete key combination with files highlighted, Recuva scans your hard drive(s) and looks to see what is still recoverable, and what is not. It does an excellent job of file recovery considering the price tag, free.

Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 Beta 4

2009-09-23T04:45:00.000-07:00

Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 Beta 4 mail client is being developed by the Mozilla Foundation in parallel with the popular Mozilla Firefox browser and is a wonderful complement to it. It is secure and fast, has a spam filter, supported protocols IMAP / POP, SMTP, NNTP (newsgroups); supports encryption and signing of letters. The program can be used as an RSS reader, in which articles are presented as letters in folders. Mozilla Thunderbird is a mail manager of the factory Mozilla, very well-known makers of the Firefox browser.

Among its features include its powerful mail filters, RSS reader and integrated newsgroups, message classification by tags, search history of messages

Security is also very important in Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 Beta 4, with anti-fraud protection, spam detection and automatic updates.

And like Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 Beta 4 supports themes and additions, which improve their appearance and add more functions that already exist, and can be easily customized.

Size: 7.87 MB
Publisher: Visit Website
Release Date: 2009-9-22
OS: Win 9x/ME/2K/NT/XP/Vista

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Norman Malware Cleaner 2009.09.22

2009-09-23T04:43:00.000-07:00

Norman Malware Cleaner 2009.09.22 - a program to detect and remove malicious software (malware). Programos should not be used as a substitute for normal virus protection, but rather as a tool to treat systems that are already infected.

Norman Malware Cleaner 2009.09.22 is a free application developed to detect and remove a considerable amount of specific malware on your computer.

That yes, Norman Malware Cleaner 2009.09.22 has no access protection, so you can only use it to solve problems, not preventing them.

To use Norman Malware Cleaner 2009.09.22 is entirely to do this in Safe Mode, because their effectiveness is much greater. The program can stop and delete infected processes, eliminate infections disks, system files or ActiveX components, you can find and remove rootkits, correct and restore Windows registry values, and eliminate all malware insertions no longer on our computer.

The program can:
• running and kill infected processes,
• remove an infection from the disk (including ActiveX components and Browser Helper Objects),
• to detect and remove rootkits,
• restore correct registry values changed by malicious software
• remove references created by malware in the HOSTS file
• clear rules for malicious programs from Windows Firewall.

Size: 44.55 MB
Publisher: Visit Website
Release Date: 2009-9-22
OS: Win 9x/ME/2K/NT/XP/Vista

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Is One USB Stick Better Than Another?

2009-09-23T04:42:00.002-07:00

Flash memory on a USB stick is easy enough to understand concerning the way it works. The memory is a type of EEPROM and non-volatile, which is the reason it doesn’t require a battery or external power source to retain the information stored on it.

But if you ever asked the question, "Is there a difference between brands?", the answer is yes and no.

Concerning data reliability, all USB sticks are roughly the same. It is very rare that one would absolutely fail on you unless put it through several hundred thousand erase cycles. Some can even go up to a million.

Concerning construction, yes there are differences. Some sticks have a poor casing, causing them to fall apart prematurely. It doesn’t happen often but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

Concerning data transfer rate, this is where the biggest differences lie. Some sticks are legitimately slow.

Sandisk (which everybody has owned at one point or another, I have 3 of them,) routinely has the slowest transfer speeds. Reliable, yes, but slow.

Patriot on the other hand routinely has the highest transfer rate. In particular, the Patriot Xporter series. You will pay more for these, but you will also get faster transfers, both for average and burst rate. The customer ratings speak for themselves on Patriot flash memory products.

(And if you happen to have $300+ that you want to spend, Patriot has a Magnum stick that boasts super-high speeds and has 128GB of storage. Yes, 128GB. That’s not a typo.)
Do transfer rates matter?

This all depends on how you use your USB stick.

If using the stick for:

* Bootable biz-card sized Linux
* Routinely transferring files over 25MB in size
* Routinely transferring large amounts of data

..then you will legitimately need a fast-transfer USB stick.

If using the stick for:

* Photos
* Documents
* MP3s
* Smaller files

..then a faster stick won’t really matter unless you’re transferring many small files equaling a large amount of data.

Easily Create An Icon From Any Image

2009-09-23T04:42:00.001-07:00

Have you ever had an image in a standard format (PNG, JPG, etc.) which you wanted to convert to an icon? If so, the freeware program, SimplyIcon is for you.

Simply create windows icon files (.ICO format) by drag-and-drop images on to this program. [...] This program generates down-sampled 32×32, 24×24 and 16×16 levels automatically. It will also generate the 128×128 level if your source image is equal to or larger than 128×128.

The program is ridiculously easy to use (here is a good at-a-glance review) and sure beats creating them by importing into a graphics program and converting the format. I have used this program several times to make icons (using the company logo) for programs I have developed at work and it works beautifully.

Jarte, The Ultimate Lightweight Word Processor? [Video]

2009-09-23T04:40:00.000-07:00

With word processing applications there are two types. Those that are too big and full of stuff you’ll never use, and those that are so minimal that most people can’t work with them.

In the “too much” department, Microsoft Office, OpenOffice and Lotus Symphony come to mind. These are all full suites.

In the “not enough” department there is Google Docs, Dark Room, WriteRoom, AbiWord and a few others.

Then there’s Jarte. This word processor utilizes the existing WordPad engine in Windows, yet adds a whole bunch of stuff that makes this a truly good program to write things in.

Jarte to most people will look ugly and the interface may throw you off. However once you start actually using it, you’ll find that the way things are laid out are done in a way that makes sense. For example, Jarte has tabs. Tabs? Yes! And they work great. Jarte makes it super-easy to insert special characters like ä or é. Jarte will open both DOC and DOCX (the newer MS Office 2007 format). Jarte will export HTML and/or PDF. This software has it where it counts.

Best of all, Jarte is super-light. The installation file is a tiny 5MB, launches faster than your Word or OpenOffice ever will, and has a feature set which falls into the “just right” department.

Jarte is not a replacement for MS Word or OO Writer. Not by a long shot. But heck, a 5MB feature-rich word processor that will run local or USB stick and uses an existing engine for lightning-fast operation? That’s tough to beat.

Jarte will work on versions of Windows from 95 all the way to 7. How’s that for compatibility?

See video below for details and visit www.jarte.com to download and try it for yourself.

Save Energy And Increase Battery Life With Script Blockers

2009-09-23T04:39:00.000-07:00

In recent years web browsing has become a rather CPU intensive task. The javascript used for scrolling menus, Flash based ads and other (usually) unnecessary junk running behind the scenes on certain websites, can put your CPU to the test. Of course, whenever your CPU spikes it has to pull more energy which produces more heat which, for laptop users, can drain the battery much quicker than if this stuff was not running.

You can help prevent this by taking advantage of a script blocker, such as Firefox’s NoScript add-on.

SecTheory.com took a notebook PC, a couple of browsers and measured the battery drain on the Top 100 Alexa sites. They then took the worst offenders, that is, the ones that took the most power drain, and blocked script and ads using NoScript and AdBlock Plus. The results were quite significant. On a Dell Inspiron B130 notebook, with a 1.5GHz Celeron M processor and 1 Gig of ram, running fully patched Windows XP SP2, the power consumption when browsing the worst offending sites dropped by 11W, a 20% reduction.

These are pretty impressive results. Granted, it does take a bit of time for your white list to get caught up to where you don’t even notice a script blocker is running, but investing a little time can really impact battery life if you do a lot of browsing… especially on ‘intensive’ sites.

Wedding Photoshop Brushes

2009-09-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

Nice Wedding Photoshop brushset with high resolution for Design.

Download here

Longhorn 4074 Pack for XP

2009-09-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

Version 1.0

Finally!
I finally finished my Longhorn Pack 4074!
After some delays and some minor bugs and a preview release. I did.!

The pack includes:

Longhorn Mod Explorer Version 2.2.4074
Longhorn Wallpapers included.
Longhorn Slate toolbar. (Made on base of this fediaFedia)
Longhorn 4074 R3 Logon by RaulWindows
7 Longhorn visual styles (Slate, Jade, Plex, Aero, Athens, Athens and DWM).
Internet Explorer 6 Files and Outlook Express 6. (Soon I’ll have Outlook Express 7 as it was in Longhorn.)
Windows Messenger 6.1 the real Longhorn Messenger. (6.0.4074.0)
And the system files like shell32.dll and much more!

Special Thanks and Credits.
RaulWindows Credits for the logon and thanks for permission to insert in my pack Longhorn 4074 Logon R3.
KoL Credits for the themes and thanks for permission to insert their Longhorn visual styles in my pack.
fediaFedia Credits for original styler toolbar skin and thanks for permission to modify and insert in my pack.

*To me all the rest to have extracted resources from Windows Codename Longhorn and ported to Windows XP. This includes files, programs, icons & etc…

Homepage

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Good Site For Free Website Templates

2009-09-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

In the past, I have written about the value of purchasing a professionally created website template, however if free is the way you want to go then I can certainly understand. That said, a site you might want to look at is TemplateMo.

TemplateMo offers a variety of free templates ranging from pure HTML/CSS, Flash and WordPress. There are lots to choose from so the odds are you will find something you like.

The templates on the site are free for any use you see fit and you can modify them as needed. The author only asks that you provide a link back to their site so they can receive credit for their work.

5 Must-Have CD/DVD Utilities (Windows)

2009-09-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

Optical media for computers is a form of technology that everybody uses at the present time, be it for storing data, playing games and so on.

Data on optical media can be a pain to work with at times, especially if the disc starts to wear down with age, or gets accidentally pitted or scratched. That being said, here are 5 utilities you should have.

1. nrg2iso

Site: http://www.roland-illig.de/lang.delphi.nrg2iso.html (there is an English version on that page, just scroll down)

NRG is Nero’s version of an ISO. Although the vast majority of optical disc images are ISO these days, you may run into an NRG periodically. Some disc image mounting/burning utilities will “understand” NRG but most don’t. In that case you need convert it to an ISO. nrg2iso does this easily and quickly. Works in nearly all versions of Windows, including Windows 7. Once you convert the NRG to an ISO you can easily burn it to a disc.

2. bin2iso

Site: http://www.weethet.nl/english/download.php (scroll down and the download link is there)

This is another disc image format you may run into that you can’t burn or mount – especially if the CUE file is missing from it. Bin2iso will take care of this in short order (even without the CUE file) and convert the BIN to an ISO file. This software is really old and 32-bit only, but it does work.

3. Daemon Tools / Virtual CloneDrive

Site (Daemon Tools): http://www.daemon-tools.cc/eng/home
Site (Virtual CloneDrive): http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html

When working with ISO disc images that you want data access to without burning them to disc, you mount them virtually as a drive letter.

If using Windows XP, the best tool for this is Daemon Tools. If using Vista or Windows 7, the best tool is Virtual CloneDrive.

Both are easy to use. With Daemon Tools you right-click its taskbar icon to mount ISOs as a drive letter. With Virtual CloneDrive you can right-click an ISO and mount, or simply double-click and ISO to do the same thing.

4. ImgBurn

Site: http://www.imgburn.com/

ImgBurn works on any Windows (from 95 all the way to 7) including all 64-bit editions! It also works under Linux in WINE easily as well. When you want to burn a disc image, you need not look any further than this. It always works, never fails, is light and additionally will build images as well.

5. Nero 9

Site: http://www.nero.com/enu/nero9-introduction.html

This is a paid title but worth it if you’re desperate to retrieve data off a damaged disc.

Let’s say you have a disc but it is very scratched and pitted. The disc on insert does spin up but on any attempt to read the data, it won’t work. You’ve tried over and over again copy the data off the disc but your optical drive absolutely won’t do it. You know your optical drive is fine, but the disc isn’t “playing nice” with you.

Nero Burning ROM (included with Nero 9) may be able to help.

What most optical software utilities do is try a set number of times to retrieve data off a disc at the fastest speed possible. After a few attempts it will give up, citing the disc as unreadable. Nero Burning ROM on the other hand will slow down the disc reading speed – even to below 1x if it has to – and copy any bits of data it can retrieve even if it can’t finish a full copy. During the process you will see Nero spit out a bunch of read errors, but that’s okay because it will keep going until it finds the next readable part of the disc, copy and continue as best it can.

For example, if there’s a document file on a disc that has a section of the data that’s completely corrupted from physical damage, Nero Burning ROM will copy it anyway. We’ll say the document is 50 pages long. The copy Nero creates may have corrupted data between pages 18 and 25, but at least you got something. And that’s better than nothing. That alone makes the software worth its price.

Nero 9 carries a hefty price tag of $70, and while the suite of apps you get is large, it’s the Burning ROM program that saves the day because it can mean the difference between getting data back or having it lost forever.

PicPick 2.1.2 Portable

2009-09-21T10:17:00.000-07:00

PicPick 2.1.2 Portable e free program that can "shoot" your working area, a window or just part of it. With built-in editor program you can easily and quickly edit what you've "shot". The program features an extremely easy and simple interface.

PicPick 2.1.2 Portable capture the screen image and then load into your editor to retouch. The program can capture full screen, active window, sections, a box, etc.. These operations can be made very comfortable thanks to the keyboard shortcuts that the user can configure as you like.

Once captured, the editor can improve brightness, contrast, draw with the brush, writing, rotate the image, and so on.

Size: 2.11 MB
Publisher: Visit Website
Release Date: 2009-9-21
OS: Win 9x/ME/2K/NT/XP/Vista

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PicPick 2.1.2

2009-09-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

PicPick 2.1.2 e free program that can "shoot" your working area, a window or just part of it. With built-in editor program you can easily and quickly edit what you've "shot". The program features an extremely easy and simple interface.

PicPick 2.1.2 is a digital image editing and editors focused on designers who need to make screen shots and retouch quickly and efficiently.

The program offers several capture modes, so you can choose to capture the entire screen or just a particular area. For the latter you can choose between capturing an active window, rectangular area, a free zone or Internet Explorer browser window.

Once you capture the window PicPick 2.1.2 can apply effects to retouch or conventional editing tools (brush, lines, geometric shapes, color selection tool, insert letters, etc.).. Some effects are available for focus and blur the image, apply grayscale, mirror the image horizontally or vertically, adjust the properties of brightness, saturation, contrast and color, etc..

Finally, PicPick 2.1.2 lets you work with multiple images simultaneously through an interface divided into tabs, and also has several fully configurable keyboard shortcuts with which you can shorten the screen capture process.

Size: 2.11 MB
Publisher: Visit Website
Release Date: 2009-9-21
OS: Win 9x/ME/2K/NT/XP/Vista

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Get alerted when a website changes

2009-09-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

Do you follow a website too closely enough that you want to be alerted when new posts come up or something changes? For people who monitor a lot of hosts with website activity, a tool for doing this is a necessity.

Some website owners may also want a way to see what’s being posted on their own site by visitors or contributors.

ChangeDetection.com offers a free service where you can submit a URL that you want to be monitored. Just go to their website, signup for free, then begin submitting URLs. It has a simple interface for entering URLs and monitoring changes:

You may want to get alerted only when a sizable change has occurred (i.e. you will not be alerted about a date change or something minor) or only if text has been added or removed.

This can be useful, for example, when you are monitoring a page that lists things (blogs,classified ads, etc) and you don’t want to be notified when something in that page disappears.

You may set the alert to send once per day, week or month. After you clicked the Create button, the alert will be activated and the service will start listening for changes.

The ability to see the previous version from the current is also very informative with the new text changes highlighted in yellow and the old removed texts lined-out. It’s a great tool to see the slight enhancements website make to the copy over time:

There are other services offered by the site, like comparing two URLs for differences – think of it as diff for HTML content. Another feature allows you to add a change detection panel to your own website so you can have your visitors be notified of changes.

Webmasters and casual users will benefit from this site’s free service. If you own a site that doesn’t have RSS or any other way to notify your visitors of changes, change detection.com is a good option.

Zune XP Desktop theme

2009-09-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

Homepage

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Hitman Pro 3.5.1.73

2009-09-20T12:07:00.000-07:00

This is a combined anti-spam software, which incorporates several spam-widgets: Hitman Pro Antispyware; CWShredder; Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE; Spybot Search and Destroy; SpySweeper; Spyware Doctor; Spyware Blaster, and Disc Cleanup (cleaning program the hard drive of useless files). Program itself after installing your downloaded components described above, programs that their definitions. The software also allows the installation of antivirus applications companies McAfee and Trend Micro. The program is easy to control and has the option to select the interface of the two languages, English and German.

All users usually think that our computer is clean of spyware and other malicious elements. But to think this is a big mistake, because continuously (especially via the Internet) can sneak into your computer all kinds of spyware, malware and other harmful elements that attack your security.

Because it is advisable to have a good antispyware like Hitman Pro, which protect us and prevent access by all those elements. The main attraction of Hitman Pro 3.5.1.73 is continually being updated through the Internet, so that is always abreast of the latest known spyware.

The operation of Hitman Pro 3.5.1.73 is simple: is monitoring your computer at all times, and if it detects the input files or software always informs the user to confirm if it agrees. This would not enter anything that does not verify in advance, and so will your computer a little safer from spyware attacks.

Size: 4.52 MB
Publisher: Visit Website
Release Date: 2009-9-20
OS: Win 9x/ME/2K/NT/XP/Vista

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Polyglot 3000 3.39

2009-09-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

Polyglot 3000 3.39 is automatic language identifier that quickly recognizes the language of a text, phrase or even single words. It works under Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP.

Polyglot 3000 3.39, more than a translator, is an application that recognizes the language in which you are writing a text, phrase or even a word that you specify.

Polyglot 3000 3.39 The program is able to identify no fewer than 400 languages, in any kind of coding, and also offers enough configuration options to narrow the examinations or adapt as suits you. In addition, you also said recognition reliability (based on how difficult it has proved) and the time it took.

Polyglot 3000:
- Recognizes more than 400 languages.
- Supports Unicode texts.
- Convenient user interface.
- True color icons in menu and toolbar.
- Quick and correct language identification.
- Can be set to only check for popular languages.
- Multilingual interface (English, German, French, Spanish, etc.).

Size: 2.22 MB
Publisher: Visit Website
Release Date: 2009-9-20
OS: Win 9x/ME/2K/NT/XP/Vista

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Another Fully Featured Free Firewall

2009-09-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

Alliteration aside, the most popular firewall program I see recommended on this site, outside of the one built into Windows, is Comodo Firewall. While there is certainly nothing at all wrong with it, if you are looking to explore alternatives then PC Tools Firewall Plus is worth a look.

PC Tools Firewall Plus is advanced technology designed especially for people, not just experts. Powerful prevention against attacks and known exploits is activated by default while experienced users can optionally create their own advanced packet filtering rules, including IPv6 support, to customize the network defenses. All you need to do is install it for immediate and automatic ongoing protection.

Basically, everything you would expect to find in a firewall package is there. I imagine the difference between Comodo and PC Tools Firewall Plus would be small if any, so it would boil down to personal preference.

How to shrink PDF file size

2009-09-19T14:27:00.000-07:00

I’ve previously written in-depth articles on how to reduce the size of an image file, but have never written about PDF documents. PDF files with lots of graphics and images can become very large very quickly.

In this post, I will try to show you a couple of methods to reduce the size of a PDF file. Depending on whether or not you have Adobe Acrobat (the full version), you can try one method.

Method 1 – Print file using Adobe Print driver

The easiest way to try and shrink a PDF file is to perform a little trick, which basically is printing the PDF document to a PDF file. Sounds strange? It is. Basically, you open the PDF file in Adobe Reader and print it to the Adobe PDF printer.

A lot of time this works really well and will significantly reduce the size of your PDF file. When you go to File – Print, choose Adobe PDF from the drop down list of printers:

Image Source: Adobe Blogs

Amazingly enough, I’ve been able to shrink a 20 MB PDF file down to 3 MB just by using this method. Not really sure what it does to shrink it, but it works, especially if you have a good number of images that are eating up a lot of space.

Method 2 – Use Adobe Acrobat PDF Optimizer

Since version 7 of of Adobe Acrobat, there is a new option in the Advanced menu called PDF Optimizer.

Now you’ll be brought to a screen that has a whole bunch of options to configure!

Click on the Audit space usage button in the top right to get a detailed listed of each component of the PDF file and exactly how much space it is using:

As you can see, there are six different things you can do to make a PDF file smaller including optimizing or down-scaling images, reconfiguring scanned pages, adjusting fonts, adjusting transparency, discarding objects, and cleaning up the PDF file.

Under Images, for example, you can downsample and compress the images to save space. This is really useful, especially if your images are at a really high resolution that is not needed. For view on the screen, you only need 72 pixels.

If you scanned a bunch of pages into your PDF, then click on the Scanned Pages option and mess around with the sliding bar, which goes from Small Size to High Quality. Adjust as needed.

The Discard Objects and Discard User Data are two really useful cleanup options for PDF files. You can basically get rid of all the extra junk that is normally stored in every PDF file. You can remove tags, flatten form fields, etc.

For Discard User Data, you can get rid of comments, document information, metadata, object data, file attachments, data from other applications, and more.

Finally, the Clean Up tab does a few more housekeeping tasks like compressing the entire file and optimizing the PDF for fast web view.

The best thing to do is to play around with all the settings to see what works best for your particular PDF file.

How to encrypt your USB flash drive

2009-09-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

USB flash drives are great because they are really cheap and you can conveniently move data between computers. The only problem is when you store sensitive data on a USB drive and it gets lost or stolen!

Most people are intimidated by the words “encryption” because it involves fancy algorithms and names like “WPA, EFS, SHA1, etc”. However, there’s a very easy way to encrypt a USB drive in Windows.

If you want to encrypt files on your computer, read my previous post on how to encrypt your hard drive using BitLocker. If you have lots of sensitive data on a laptop, you should read those articles on how to encrypt your computer data.

Ok, so getting back to USB drives! We will use Windows Encrypting File System to create an encrypted folder on a thumb drive that only one user account on one computer can read. Later we’ll talk about how you can view those files on another computer, but for now we’ll focus on just having a secure USB drive.

Step 1 – Format USB drive in NTFS format

Firstly, you have to make sure the USB drive is formatted in NTFS format. Most USB drives are formatted in FAT16 or FAT32 format, which does not support encryption at all.

Luckily, I have already written a post on how to format a USB drive in NTFS format, which walks you through the process step by step.

Step 3 – Create an Encrypted Folder

Ok, now that your USB drive is in NTFS format and all the data has been erased, we can setup a folder that will contain all the encrypted data.

What I like about this method is that you can store all the sensitive files in the encrypted folder, but store other files normally outside the folder. That way, you can still pop the USB drive into someone else’s computer and they can view all the files not in the encrypted folder.

Go to My Computer, open the flash drive, right-click and choose New Folder. Name the folder anything you want, but try not to make it obvious that it has sensitive data otherwise people might be more inclined to try and get in.

Now right-click on the new folder and choose Properties. Click on the Advanced button in the Attributes section.

Now check the Encrypt contents to secure data box. Click OK and click OK again to close out the dialogs.

Now you’ll see the folder is in green, which means the data is encrypted. That’s it! Now you have a folder on your USB drive that is fully encrypted and viewable only by your user account on that one computer.

Next week, I’ll talk about how you can export the EFS certificate from one computer to another, so that you can view the files on more than one PC.

Lucid VS

2009-09-19T14:24:00.000-07:00

Just doing a little housecleaning and upping the visual style I did for the original Lucid suite back in 2007, since the group I released it with has disbanded. I was pretty new to Stylebuilder when I made this, so don’t hate.

-three font schemes: arial caps 6pt, avant garde lt medium caps 6pt, and segoe ui 7pt

-four pattern wallpapers are also included

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Tema Fate Stay Night

2009-09-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

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Verizon Is More Wireless Than You Thought

2009-09-19T14:20:00.002-07:00

In a rather bold statement, the CEO of Verizon Communications basically said that the company simply doesn’t care about landline anymore.

The statement may be bold but I think we all knew in the back of our minds this was coming. Generally speaking, the only reason anybody has a landline phone today is either because a) it’s required in order to use DSL internet service, b) cell phone reception is not available for whatever reason or c) the internet connection is too slow to handle broadband VoIP properly.

If I asked how many of you out there use your wireless phone as your primary phone, chances are the majority of you would say, "I do!"

If I asked how many of you do have a landline, but it’s through your cable company and not the local Telco, chances are also good the majority of you would say, "I do!" (And in fact I’m one of them.)

Why do so many choose wireless and/or cable over Telco?

The first answer is cost.

For basic communications, a prepaid cell phone is cheaper than a POTS landline.

For business-grade phone service, VoIP offerings from your local cable company or broadband make it super-easy to setup. It also costs less and in many instances can have same-day setup.

The second answer is features.

On a basic POTS line you get absolutely nothing in the way of features – not even Caller ID. With the absolute cheapest prepaid cell phone you can buy you can at least see the incoming number of who is calling you. You also get 3-way calling, voicemail and texting besides that.

You will spend $25 a month (not including tax) in most places for a featureless POTS line. If you were to go with Vonage, that same $25 a month gets you unlimited calling anywhere. And I mean anywhere; it includes international calling to over 60 countries with no additional cost to you.

The third answer is value.

Who in their right mind would go with a POTS landline when you can get so much more stuff with wireless or VoIP that’s actually useful for the same price?

At this point the only thing keeping POTS around is the fact that broadband and wireless isn’t available everywhere in the US. In fact there is a study going on right now being paid for by the US government in an attempt to find out what our broadband reach is – because to be honest nobody knows the true answer to that at present.

A Windows Update Alternative

2009-09-19T14:20:00.001-07:00

Some people do not like using Windows Update, the default way patches and security updates are delivered to your Windows Machine, due to, among other reasons, privacy concerns with Windows Genuine Advantage. Regardless, if you choose not to use Windows Update you should still keep your Windows installation current with security releases. A site which can help you do this is The Software Patch.

The Software Patch is not just a place to easily find the latest Windows patches, but many other popular programs as well, such as Firefox, Flash Player, Java and iTunes. The usage of the site is pretty easy as you can browse by category or search for the software package you are looking for.

Overall, this site is a good way to keep tabs on the latest releases for many programs which you may be using.

Notable – Collaborate on website design and content

2009-09-17T11:18:00.000-07:00

If you’ve ever created a website before, you know how important it is to get opinions from as many people as possible on colors, layout, navigation, content, and everything else.

Even though it’s really easy to create a website, it’s really hard to make a great website. Anybody can download a template and have a flashy looking website in minutes, but then it’s not unique.

If you’re creating a new website for your business or you routinely create websites as part of your daily job, you might want to check out a cool web service that lets you get feedback on website design, content and code quickly and easily.

Notable is an online tool built for business-design teams to help create effective websites. Basically, it lets you capture screen shots of websites and then lets you annotate features such as copy, design, and even code that needs tweaking.

Currently, the service is in beta, but they will be open to the public soon. In any case, once you sign in, you can capture a webpage by either installing a Firefox plugin, uploading an image from your desktop or capturing a URL using their capture utility.

Once you capture a page, you can click the Add Notes button and begin adding annotations to the screenshot. Across the top, you’ll see three tabs: Screenshot, code and copywriting. You can add notes to any of these.

As you add notes, you’ll be able to see them by the addition of the number in a black circle. When you hover over the highlighted area like I did above, then you see the note that was added.

To add notes about the actual code, click on the Code tab and then select the code that you want to add annotations too. What’s cool is that it automatically picks up the CSS files and all JavaScript files when you capture a screenshot of a website.

When you click on Copywriting, you get just the text of the webpage and nothing else. All links, pictures, and images are removed. Here you can add notes about the actual content of the webpage.

If you have a large project that has lots of pages for the website, you can create a Workspace to help organize the project. Then you just capture more web pages like before, but now you can also add people so that they can collaborate on the feedback.

7 Jumping Silhouettes Photoshop brushes

2009-09-17T11:16:00.000-07:00

This set contains Jumping Silhouettes brushes for Photoshop. Made with Adobe Photoshop CS4.

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Trinity VS

2009-09-17T11:02:00.000-07:00

This is my first vs theme. Nothing special, but it goes with Trinity Litestep theme I created….So have fun!

All credit goes to Maximhuz b/c the vs is just a mod of his MIce vs….

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LimeWire 5.3.4 Beta

2009-09-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

With this program you can exchange files over the network Gnutella Network. Similar to the popular Napster, the program permits the sharing (sharing), search and download MP3 files. LimeWire 5.3.4 Beta allows you to search and offer other files (of any type - including. Movies, pictures, games, documents, etc.). The program included the opportunity to chat.

The LimeWire 5.3.4 Beta network is displayed after the close of P2P networks like Napster and Audiogalaxy. To prevent their disappearance does not have a central server, but all users are servers and clients simultaneously. LimeWire 5.3.4 Beta uses this protocol known.

LimeWire 5.3.4 Beta is an application, released under GPL open source, created by Lime Wire LLC, founded in 2000 with the boom of P2P networks. Thus, it is a P2P client called. Peer to Peer, which can be translated "peer" or "peer" is based on a model that is opposed to the classic client-server model. It is certainly the largest program of network client programs Gnutella (BearShare, Gnotella).

LimeWire 5.3.4 Beta allows sharing among its users all kinds of files: music, video, images, documents, etc.. Moreover, not only shares with its users, but also with users of any of the clients of the Gnutella protocol. As written in Java, LimeWire 5.3.4 Beta can be run on any computer provided you have installed Java Virtual Machine, and an Internet connection.

The most important features of LimeWire are:
- Supports both torrent as Gnutella network.
- Connect faster with "UDP Host Caches".
- It allows us to look at the net to see what new has been added.
- Allows use web proxies to hide the identity of the user.

LimeWire 5.3.4 Beta is free of spyware, ad-ware or any other malware. It also includes a comprehensive package of languages.

News of the latest version:
- Improved navigation interface.
- Elimination of chat support for Facebook accounts.
- Better download speed of files. Torrent.
- Correction of an internal error detected.

Size: 17.9 MB
Publisher: Visit Website
Release Date: 2009-9-17
OS: Win 9x/ME/2K/NT/XP/Vista

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MediaCoder 0.7.2 Build 4512

2009-09-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

Free and universal package for handling multimedia files collected together all the necessary tools for working with audio and video. With the program can be converted and compressed audio and video formats, such MediaCoder 0.7.2 Build 4512 gives you control over all parameters of the processed files. MediaCoder 0.7.2 Build 4512 package contains all necessary codecs, filters, even player.

Need to change the codec of your multimedia files to be compatible with the player? MediaCoder 0.7.2 Build 4512 is the solution.

This is a utility that lets you modify to your whim the codec of any multimedia file, either audio or video, because it includes all existing codecs audio and video that are open source.

By converting to another codec, you can get reduce the file size, or pass to another more compatible format that interests you more, etc.. The possibilities are really MediaCoder 0.7.2 Build 4512 offers spacious. And of course you can use MediaCoder 0.7.2 Build 4512 to convert your files to be compatible with any player, whether iPod, iPhone, Zune, etc.

Key applications of the program:
- Compression / reducing file size;
- Conversion of files - for implementation in portable audio / video devices, mobile phones, PDA, VCD / DVD-players and others;
- Extract audio from video files;
- Rip-ing "on CD or DVD.

Supported audio / video formats:
- MP3, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, AAC + / Parametric Stereo, AMR NB / WB, MusePack, WMA, RealAudio
- FLAC, WavPack, Monkey's Audio, OptimFrog, AAC Lossless, WMA Lossless, WAV
- H.264, Xvid, DivX, MPEG 1/2/4, H.263
- AVI, MPEG / VOB, Matroska, MP4
- CD, VCD, DVD, CUE Sheet

Size: 14.4 MB
Publisher: Visit Website
Release Date: 2009-9-17
OS: Win 9x/ME/2K/NT/XP/Vista

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5 Tips To Avoid Button Mashing Boredom [Gaming]

2009-09-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

Everybody at one point or another has experienced painful boredom when playing a video game, to where you ask yourself, "Okay, so why am I doing this?" This can happen even with the best of game titles and it can be tough sometimes to even enjoy yourself.

The term "button mashing" is when you’re playing a game that you’re absolutely bored with, playing just for the sake of doing so in a mindless way. This in my opinion kills brain cells because if you’re going to play, you might as well enjoy it, because that is the whole point, after all.

Here are my tips on how to avoid the button masher blues.

1. Don’t solely concentrate on one style of game.

One who plays nothing but one style (such as RPG, FPS, etc.) will experience an "everything is the same" scenario. This is in fact true because you’re never changing things around. Purposely try different styles so that you’re not always playing the same thing.

2. Buy an old console.

Head to your local flea market and pick up an old 8-bit or 16-bit system. There are tons of titles and you could try 3 new games every week if you wanted to for a little as 10 bucks for all three. Don’t worry about manuals because they’re all available online. Suggested systems are Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Playstation One and so on.

Considering the fact that new games are so frickin’ expensive, it’s nice to have something dirt cheap that just works.

Buying the actual console and getting the games at a flea market is far, far cheaper than purchasing "virtually", such as Virtual Console games on the Nintendo Wii. Furthermore the gaming experience is at its best with the original equipment (emulating on a PC just isn’t the same.)

If you don’t have a flea market near you, check out craigslist or eBay and specifically look for game purchases in bulk. You may be able to pick up 25 games for a dollar each! Search for "nintendo lot", "playstation lot", "sega lot" and so on to see the bulk offerings available on eBay or CL.

3. Play dopey Facebook games.

Many "apps" in Facebook are games such as FarmVille. These games are easy, fun and do not require a lot of effort to play. Anybody can play them in fact. And they’re free which is even better.

Games in Facebook can be found by clicking the "Applications" button, then "Browse More Applications" then choosing the "Games" category.

4. Play dopey Flash games.

One of the best sites I’ve found for this is Gamedesign. One game in particular that is very addictive is Dice Wars. It’s so popular that there’s a multiplayer version of it, KDice. Heck, it’s even an iPhone app!

5. MUDs

It takes a special kind of computer geek to appreciate these. MUDs (Multi User Dungeons) have been around for a very long time. Some of them have been on the internet for more than 12 years. They have everything your standard RPG has, but in text form. MUDs are very addicting and have a very dedicated fan base. Additionally, compared to other types of gaming environment, MUD users are friendly folk that are happy to help out new users who haven’t used MUDs before.

It used to be required that a MUD client was necessary to play them, but that’s no longer the case. Many popular MUDs can be played directly in-browser.

Backup, restore, and clone hard drives using Easeus Todo Backup

2009-09-16T10:54:00.000-07:00

In the past, I’ve talked a lot about backups! Backup software for servers, backing up you PC, backing up the registry, etc, etc. It’s never a bad thing to have your data backed up ten different ways.

Personally, I have local backups, remote backups, backups of just my files, backups of my entire system, and backups of my physical hardware! The amount we rely on computer these days necessitates this kind of paranoia.

And it’s always great if you can create PC backups using free software! Easeus To-do Backup 1.0 is a free software backup utility that lets you backup and restore entire hard disk or partitions.

The interface is clean and very intuitive, making it easy for anyone to use. Here are some of the good features of Todo Backup:

Backup system data, partition, or entire disk to an image and restore it quickly.
Clone a disk (copy all data from one disk to another)
Mount and browse backup images files as virtual drives
Check image files to make sure they are not corrupted
Copy using either file-by-file or sector-by-sector copying
Ability to backup the data straight to CD or DVD thereby saving time
Excellent help file with lots of information and explanations
Ability to compress and password protect image files
Supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS file formats
Supports IDE, SCSI, USB, SATA, and Firewire hard drive interfaces

There are a few scenarios where this type of program really comes in handy. Let’s say you have a computer with one hard drive which is 30 GB in size. Now let’s say you’re close to filling it up and you would like to upgrade to a much bigger hard drive without having to reinstall everything and copying data manually.

Well, with Easeus Todo Backup, you can simply clone the drive and restore it to the new hard drive. That’s it! Set the partition on the new hard drive to Active and you’re up and running on a brand new hard drive.

Also, if you ever download a virus or your system becomes unstable due to software issues or hard drive failure, you can quickly restore the backup to get back to the pre-crash state.

Restoring is a piece of cake as it lets you create the bootable recovery media in the software itself. Also, it has several bootable options, so if one boot method fails, you can restore using another method.

Overall, the software is excellent because of the number of features it has and it’s ease of use. I used to use Acronis True Image for backing up my computer, but this software has all the same options and it’s free. Enjoy!

Feather Photoshop brushes set III

2009-09-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

This set contains 16 Feather brushes for Photoshop, made in Photoshop CS.

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More sets: Feather Photoshop brushes set I
Feather Photoshop brushes set II

Feather Photoshop brushes set II

2009-09-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

This set contains 17 Feather brushes for Photoshop, made in Photoshop CS.

Download

More sets: Feather Photoshop brushes set I
Feather Photoshop brushes set III

Feather Photoshop brushes set I

2009-09-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

This set contains 18 Feather brushes for Photoshop, made in Photoshop CS.

Download

More sets: Feather Photoshop brushes set II
Feather Photoshop brushes set III

FastAero Vista effect NEW

2009-09-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

FastAero v.1.4 Vista effect for WindowsXP

To download just click DOWNLOAD!

It works perfectly. The best version ’till now.

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Seven Remix XP 2.3

2009-09-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

Seven Remix XP 2.3 program was designed to replace the graphical user interface of Windows XP on this well-known Windows 7 Overwritten is a big part of your system files, including those containing icons, images, animations, the files "learned" from Windows 7 The installer automatically carries out the replacement of files, creates adjustments in the registry, installs third, skins and add-ons such as visual sounds, styles, etc. In addition, creates a backup copy if necessary, so there is no problem with the recovery of the replaced files - in addition to this should be included System Restore service.

If we are not satisfied with the findings of Seven Remix XP is completely removable. Seven Remix XP 2.3 turns your XP operating system Windows Seven, which will come soon.

Seven Remix XP 2.3 customizes the loading screens and access, the screensaver, cursors and sounds (of Vista), fonts, desktop background (four different), and visual style.

Seven Remix XP 2.3 is installed very easy and can be uninstalled as easily. It allows to choose what you want to install and what not.

Size: 25.9 MB
Publisher: Visit Website
Release Date: 2009-9-16
OS: Win 9x/ME/2K/NT/XP/Vista

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Speed Up Hotmail In Windows Live Mail With Headers Only

2009-09-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

If you use a Windows Live email address, that being any address that ends in @hotmail.com, @msn.com or @live.com, you can access the account right now in the Windows Live Mail client.

The immediate advantages of using WL Mail:

No ads anywhere in the client
No ads sent on outgoing mail
Allows for local caching of mail for faster access and being able to read your mail offline
Easier to attach files
Faster than using the web interface

There are more but those are the biggies.

The way a Hotmail account is configured in WL Mail by default is to download a copy of every mail in your account (and no that does not mean once downloaded it deletes from the web version.) This unfortunately includes the Junk and Deleted folders, so every time your perform a mail check, anything in those folders is downloaded as well.

You can easily configure Hotmail to download only the headers by simply right-clicking on the folder and choosing the appropriate option.

It’s as simple as this:

Pictured above is done by doing the following:

Right-click the Junk e-mail folder.
Hover over Synchronization settings.
Click Headers only.

What this will do is download just the header and not the actual message. You will see the subject line but the mail will not be downloaded unless you actually open it.

I suggest doing this for both the Junk and the Deleted Items folder, because when you delete something you obviously don’t want it locally cached. Don’t worry, your deleted mail will still be there on a server level for 30 days unless you specifically choose to empty the Deleted Items folder.

Any folder in your Windows Live mail account can be set to Headers Only. This may prove to be an advantage for those that have bandwidth caps imposed by their ISP, or a slow internet connection. Headers are nothing but very small files and download almost instantly.

The WL mail client has no ads anywhere in it. Using it in combination with the headers only option makes it one of the speediest mail systems you can use.

Quick questions answered

Does the Windows Live Mail client use IMAP for Windows Live accounts?

No. Windows Live mail uses a proprietary protocol by Microsoft called DeltaSync. It allows for two-way synchronization of mail/contacts/calendar/notes, so it in fact does a whole lot more than just mail.

If I have a folder set to headers only and I delete a mail, does it get moved to the Deleted Items folder even though I don’t have to re-download it?

Yes. The way in which it works is that the WL Mail client has seamless synchronization with the web-based version. When you delete a mail and then click the Sync button (or just wait until the client performs another mail check), what you do on a local level will be reflected exactly in the web-based version, and can be loaded the same way on either platform. Even if you did not read the mail and deleted it, it will still be moved to the appropriate location.

Is there any way I can turn off the reading pane so I don’t automatically download an email when I click on it?

Yes, you can turn off the reading pane. First it should be noted that the reading pane is by design disabled whenever viewing the Junk e-mail folder. So even if you have it enabled and go inside the Junk e-mail folder, it will turn itself off when in there. However if you want it off all the time, press ALT+V to bring up the View menu, then click Layout.

You will see this:

Simply uncheck the box for Show the reading pane, then click Apply then OK.

Will adjusting synchronization settings for my Windows Live account affect any other Live or other POP/IMAP accounts I have in WL Mail?

No. Whatever you adjust for sync settings will only affect that specific account. It does not "carry over" to others.

Are headers re-downloaded every time I start the WL Mail client?

Yes. WL Mail ordinarily performs a mail check (what it called a "Sync") on startup unless you configured it otherwise. Being that headers are so small in size this will not be a cause for concern.

Will choosing headers only for specific folders affect the way I search mail in WL Mail?

Yes. Any search performed in a folder you have set to headers only will only search to/from addresses and subject line, but not the body of the message since it isn’t downloaded locally at that point. To perform full searches that include the body of the message, you will have to have full synchronization or use the web-based version.

If I currently have a folder set to full synchronization and switch to headers only, are the local copies removed for the mail in that folder?

No. If you want to configure a Live account with headers only for everything, remove the account from WL Mail and re-add it. On first check of mail, stop the process (click "Sync" twice to see the window and hit the stop button), set all folders to headers only, then perform another sync.

Winnie The Pooh Photoshop Brushes

2009-09-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

Contains some nice Pooh bear Photoshop brushes for children.
This set by myszka011.

Download here

Aero Themes Pack

2009-09-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

Aero Themes Pack

This pack contains:

Aero Ultimate
Aero Aqua Ultimate
Aero Black Ultimate
Aero Graphite Ultimate
Aero Green Ultimate
Aero Silver Ultimate
Aero White Ultimate
Aero Wood Ultimate
Windows 7 Ultimate
Windows XP Ultimate

- Fixed some bitmaps
- Normal and large icons support
- With or without icons in the start menu
- Many more!

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