comp cool

See Which Services Are Related to a Process

2010-05-21T01:59:00.000-07:00

The Windows 7 Task Manager is useful to manage processes and services, check the CPU and networking usage, and shut down stuck programs that don't want to end. While using this tool, you may have noted many svchost.exe processes that act as Host Process for Windows Services. Curious about which services are related to which processes, especially if one is running amok, taking a lot of memory and/or CPU time?

1. In the "Processes" tab of the "Windows Task Manager", right-click a svchost.exe process.

(If you don't know how to access the "Windows Task Manager", right-click an empty area of the Taskbar and select "Start Task Manager".)

2. When the pop-up menu appears, select "Go to Service(s)".

Selecting "Go to Service(s)" for a svchost.exe image

3. The "Services" tab is now selected. Related services are now highlighted.

Viewing services related to a svchost.exe image

'Free' Win 7 Upgrades Have Fee

2009-10-15T02:15:00.000-07:00

The free Windows 7 upgrades that Microsoft has promised buyers of new PCs powered by Vista are not always free, a consumer watchdog Web site says.

"To me, whether it's $12.99 or $17.03, the charges are all outrageous," said Edgar Dworsky, the editor of Consumerworld.org and Mouseprint.org. "It's just a single disc they're sending, and with media mail rates, it costs just over a dollar to mail."

Last June, Microsoft kicked off a marketing campaign dubbed "Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program" to keep PCs sales ticking. The program, a rerun of a similar deal in 2006 before Windows Vista's launch, gives people who buy a PC equipped with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate a free or nearly-free upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate once the new operating system ships Oct. 22.

Consumers who purchase an eligible PC between June 26, 2009 and Jan. 31, 2010 qualify for the upgrade.

Dworsky, however, found that while some computer makers are giving away Windows 7 upgrades, others are charging fees as high as $17 for what's characterized as "shipping, handling, and fulfillment fees."

"The problem is that a lot of this information is hidden, or impossible to find," said Dworsky today. "Disclose it, let the consumer know."

Only one major computer maker, Acer, charges nothing for the upgrade, Dworsky determined after spending hours tracking down information on vendors' Web sites and nagging public relations people to cough up numbers. Other brands -- Dell, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Sony and Toshiba -- waive the fee for some users, but not others, with total charges for the latter running from $11.25 to $14.99.

Lenovo, on the other hand, nails every buyer with a $17.03 fee for the Windows 7 upgrade.

The mystery over who pays what is frustrating, said Dworsky. "Both HP and Sony ... [said] that they negotiated with big retail chains offering them the opportunity to allow their customers to receive completely free upgrades," he said. "[But] neither would provide a list of which retailers signed up, nor what retailers had to pay or agree to. And retailers say the manufacturers decided pricing. So they are each pointing fingers at the other. Who's caught in the middle? The consumer."

Dell, which notes on its Web site that "select countries will be offering the upgrade for free," told Dworsky that it would not, in fact, charge U.S. customers.

"Someone seems to be profiting," Dworsky charged. "The fees are way beyond the actual cost to fulfill. It would be different if it's a boxed copy with a manual, but it's not."

Most computer makers have been vague about when customers will receive the Windows 7 upgrade. If history is any hint, it could be months before buyers see it. During a similar promotion in 2007 that provided Vista upgrades to people who purchased an XP PC, users grew increasingly frustrated by delays. A month after Vista's January 2007 launch, for example, Dell and HP customers slammed those vendors for failing to deliver timely upgrades.

"You would think that they'd all do this free," said Dworsky. "Consumers are really doing the computer manufacturers and retailers a favor, helping them get rid of inventory. You'd think they would bend over backwards."

PC Tools File Recover Brings Back Your Files

2009-10-15T02:11:00.000-07:00

With that $30 price tag in my mind's eye, I went into my PC Tools File Recover (limited free demo) hands-on thinking that it would be just another over-priced undelete utility. Ten minutes in, I was thinking "By Grabthar's hammer... what a savings!" Most recovery programs that will scan on the sector level, such as Active @ File Recovery and R-studio Data Recovery, will set you back more money.

PC Tools File Recover performs the same sector-level functions that more expensive recovery programs do.

PC Tools File Recover is easy to use, and it works. It recovered all of the deleted files I threw at it by bulk search, or by specific file name/file type. The program did crash once while attempting to recover a large MPG file, but I was unable to replicate the incident.

File Recover also easily recognized a USB-attached hard drive from a RAID 0/1 array that had been overwritten with two Mac OS partitions--and it found a number of files there. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the files were false positives that restored as zero length entries. To be fair, no program that I'm aware of would do any better, though some will bypass false positives.

My only real problem with PC Tools File Recover came during the recovery stage. There's a button to select all and a button to deselect all, as well as selection by folder and type, however beyond that you're stuck selecting or deselecting files one at a time. You can't hold down the shift or control key and select/deselect groups or batches. Selecting files one at a time could get annoying when you have a lot of them in single directory. Also, although you may pause a scan, there's no way to save it so that you can continue or take action on a scan after closing the program.

PC Tools File Recover looks to be a bargain in my book. As is typical for this sort of program, the demo will find files but not restore them.

Windows Vista Secret #1: Open Command Prompt Here

2009-09-29T00:57:00.000-07:00

I don't know about your workflow as a developer, but I often find myself switching back and forward between an Explorer window and the command shell. For example, sometimes I'm looking around the filesystem for a project that I created a while back and then I want to build it from the command line or rename some of the files or something.

Here's a trick that I don't think many people are aware of. Right-click on any folder on your Windows Vista machine while holding down the shift key. You'll see an extra context-sensitive menu item there: Open Command Prompt here. Just click on this menu and a command window will open with the current working directory set to the folder's actual location.

Figure: folder context-sensitive menu, with and without the shift key modifier.

In the past there was a Windows XP powertoy that did this; now it's built into the operating system (albeit hidden away to protect the unwary from themselves). What's really cool about this is that if the target folder is a network location, Windows Vista silently maps a network drive to that location before opening the folder (so that your command prompt has a valid path containing a drive letter) and then deletes the network drive once the command prompt is closed.

Windows Vista Secret #2: Copy as Path

2009-09-29T00:56:00.000-07:00

Ever wanted to copy a link from a network file share into an email, and wound up having to traverse the path, click on the address bar, copy the details out, paste it in and then type the filename itself (with the appropriate quotation marks?

With Windows Vista, there's an easier way. In the same hidden context-sensitive menu I mentioned in the first secret, there's another helpful shortcut: Copy as Path. Unlike the command prompt trick, this menu item appears both for files and folders, so you can use this anywhere you want to quickly grab a shortcut to send someone else.

Windows Vista Secret #3: Bringing Back Start / Run

2009-09-29T00:55:00.001-07:00

The Start menu got a big overhaul in Windows Vista, with a number of significant changes made as a result of usability testing and research. One of the nicest innovations to my mind is the search bar at the bottom, which searches through your programs, document files, emails and anything else for which a search provider is registered; this saves a lot of time hunting around. Want to run Powerpoint without having to browse around the "All Programs" menu? Just type "Powerpoint" in the searchbar. Can't remember which of the myriad dialog boxes and settings you have to go through to find the Device Manager? Just type "device" in the search bar.

Of course, there are times when you may still just want the fast but dumb Run dialog that Windows XP provided:

It seems that some people think we got rid of this altogether, when in fact we just removed it from the default settings since most people won't need it any longer. The quick way to get at it is to use the Win+R shortcut key combination at any time - this is what I tend to use most of the time.

If you want to restore it permanently to your Start menu, here's what you do:

Right-click on the Start menu and choose Properties;
Select the Start Menu tab and click on the Customize... button;
Ensure the "Run command" option is checked.

Now the Start / Run command will be restored to its full glory. Of course, you can swap in and out a bunch of other choices (I like the Administrative Tools to be right there, but I don't much care for Pictures, Games and Music to be top-level items on my work machine.) Here's how I have my default menu configured - you'll see it's also docked to the left-hand side of the screen:

Windows Vista Secret #4: Disabling UAC

2009-09-29T00:29:00.000-07:00

If you're a reader of this blog, I'm going to take a low-risk gamble and assert that you probably consider yourself a power user. You pride yourself in the responsibility of having full and absolute control over your machine environment and anything that comes between that perfect human-machine symbiosis is to be spurned. If only there were a way to turn User Account Control off on a Windows Vista machine, you'd upgrade immediately. Well, dear reader, I'm here to help.

Firstly, it's worth a brief digression into the benefits of this feature. Running as admin is a bad thing, as most of us know. Aaron Margosis has blogged extensively on this issue, and I won't rehash it here. But for reasons of compatibility, running as a standard user can still be a somewhat painful proposition. Windows Vista attempts to give you the benefits of both worlds by allowing administrators to execute most processes in the context of a standard user and only elevating the privileges on their user token by consent, in addition to allowing standard user accounts to perform administrative tasks by selectively elevating a process to use administrator-level credentials.

In general, UAC has turned out pretty well. It was pretty intrusive in early builds, prompting often and sometimes capturing focus at the wrong time. For the vast majority of users, UAC will offer a valuable level of security protection that will protect against malware: it simply won't have the rights to perform invasive actions like installing device drivers or services. Once a system is configured, you'll rarely see UAC prompts unless you're an inveterate settings tweaker. Incidentally, you can find out a great deal more about how UAC works, what you need to do to your own applications so that they co-operate well with UAC, and the rationale for its design at the official UAC blog.

It is possible to switch UAC off. I really don't recommend it - if you like full control over your machine, surely you want to know when something is attempting to perform an administrative-level action? Nevertheless, I'd prefer to have you run Windows Vista without UAC than having you run a different operating system.

There are two ways to disable UAC. The easy solution is through Control Panel. Type "UAC" into the search bar at the top of the screen and you'll see this task presented:

This approach is pretty brute-force, though. It just switches the whole thing off. There's a more subtle configuration choice that gives you some of the benefits of UAC without any of the prompting. You'll need to edit the local security policy to control this, as follows:

From the Start search bar, type "Local Security Policy"
Accept the elevation prompt
From the snap-in, select Security Settings -> Local Policy -> Security Options
Scroll down to the bottom, where you'll find nine different group policy settings for granular configuration of UAC.

Perhaps the best choice to select is to change the setting:
User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode
from Prompt for consent to Elevate without prompting.

What does this do? Despite the warning from the Windows Security Center, UAC isn't actually switched off. It's still there, and all your processes will still run as a standard user. To prove this, open a command prompt and try to save a file to the c:\ directory. You'll get an access denied error message. However, when a process is marked for elevation, instead of getting the secure desktop elevation prompt, the request will be silently approved. To show this in action, right click on a command prompt shortcut and choose "Run as Administrator". You'll see the command prompt open without elevation, but the window title will show that you're running with full administrative privileges.

Using this approach is better than nothing, but it's a bit like relying on everyone else having a vaccination against measles to protect yourself from infection. Read the explanations on the second page of the property sheet for each policy setting before tinkering, and be careful!

Windows Vista Secret #5: Running Quick Launch Items

2009-09-19T01:16:00.001-07:00

Saw this posted on one of the internal forums today, and I thought this was something that was worth sharing. If you're a keyboard junkie, you'll love this.

Do you have a few applications that you're always firing up? Would you like a system-wide keyboard shortcut to run them? Here's what you do. Simply add shortcuts to the Quick Launch toolbar, as shown in the screenshot below.

Now you can simply use Win+1, Win+2, Win+3 and so on to launch each application. For example, on my machine, Win+3 launches Notepad and Win+6 launches the VS command prompt. This works no matter what application has the focus.

More coolness coming your way soon, courtesy of Windows Vista!

Windows Vista Secret #6: Running a Command Prompt During Setup

2009-09-19T01:15:00.000-07:00

If you're doing a fresh install of Windows Vista, you'll probably use a bootable DVD so that you're able to reformat the system partition. But sometimes you might find yourself in a situation where you could really use a command prompt as you go through those initial configuration stages (for example, when I installed Windows Vista on my home media center machine I needed to run the diskpart command line utility to convert a dynamic disk back to a basic disk structure).

Here's the magic key sequence: simply press Shift+F10, and you'll be presented with a command prompt. This also works after Windows Vista has rebooted for the first time on an upgrade, although be very careful what you do here - there's almost no good reasons to be interacting with the system at this point in time, and you shouldn't expect us to get you out of any holes you dig yourself into if you start making invasive changes at this point in time.

Windows Vista Secret #7: The Oldest Component in Windows?

2009-09-19T01:14:00.000-07:00

We go to fairly extreme lengths to try to maintain compatibility with older applications, as Raymond Chen's blog often demonstrates in vivid fashion. As an example of this, some of you may remember seeing Jim Allchin's demonstration of Visicalc (the earliest spreadsheet) at PDC 2003 running on Windows Vista (then known as "Longhorn", of course).

So I wondered - what is the oldest component still present in Windows Vista? After a bit of digging around, I think I've finally discovered the answer.

Dear old edlin, the very first line editor in MS-DOS, is still available for your batch editing pleasure over a quarter of a century after its introduction. According to wikipedia, edlin even pre-dates MS-DOS, having been written for an even earlier operating system that was one of the company's first acquisitions. My first exposure to MS-DOS was version 3.2 on my father's office computer, and I used to remember most of the mnemonic commands by heart. It's not a user-friendly tool, but it was fast to load and more forgiving of mistakes than the alternative of copy con filename.txt.

This is one secret that has mere curiosity value, but I still have a warm spot for this venerable editor and I salute its indefatigability!

Windows Vista Secret #8: Zoom in Explorer

2009-09-19T01:13:00.001-07:00

The awesome guys from the Windows Vista Magazine revealed a great Windows Vista secret recently that I wanted to bring to a broader audience.

When you're browsing around the file system in Explorer, it's often useful to be able to quickly switch between different folder views. If you're looking at a folder with lots of long filenames, maybe the Details view works best. If you're looking at a folder with lots of photos, maybe a small thumbnail view works well; for a folder with lots of documents, maybe a larger thumbnail view works better. Now you can use the Views button on the toolbar to modify this - click the button to toggle between views or use the down arrow to get access to the slider - but it's quicker to use a shortcut. Simply hold down the Ctrl key and use your mouse scrollwheel to resize the icons from small to extra large.

What's really cool about this, as Jon points out, is that it also works on the desktop itself. If the desktop has focus, simply do Ctrl+mousewheel and you can go from the regular 48x48 icons to full 256x256 photographic-quality renditions. For those of you who have a desktop filled with documents and shortcuts, you can of course also use this feature to cram even more on your screen so that you never have to create a folder again!

Windows Vista Secret #9: Kill the Startup Monsters

2009-09-19T01:12:00.001-07:00

If there's one thing that puts me off an application, it's when it unnecessarily inserts itself into the Windows startup process so that it can have its very own system tray icon from whence it can spam me with annoying messages. Obviously it makes sense for some applications to run on startup (for example, I want Windows Live Messenger to be running without me needing to manually start it each time). The problem is that there are multiple places where an application can register itself for execution on startup, and this makes it hard to retain control over which programs are granted such esteemed status.

Of course, I wouldn't be writing this entry unless Windows Vista had a solution! From the start menu search bar, type System Configuration, and click on the link that comes up. You'll be required to provide privilege elevation unless you've disabled UAC, and then you'll see the following utility:

As you can see from the above screenshot, the Startup tab enumerates all the applications that are set to run as startup, regardless of whether they are set in the registry (either per-machine or per-user), the user profile, or simply the startup folder in the Programs entry of the start menu. You can disable any or all of them; they'll still be listed there so that you can switch them on again if you need to.

I should note in passing that this tool also allows you to do some other pretty useful things, like editing your boot configuration database (no need to master arcane bcdedit commands any longer) or accessing a variety of other system tools and utilities. It's the power user's configuration tool of choice - go check it out!

Windows Vista Secret #10: Open an Elevated Command Prompt in Six Keystrokes

2009-09-19T01:08:00.000-07:00

User Account Control is, as I mentioned in secret #4, an important part of the security protection that Windows Vista offers. For any user with administrative credentials, you can always execute a process with full admin rights by right-clicking on the executable or shortcut and choosing "Run as Administrator".

For myself, I regularly want to open an admin-level command prompt, and it's a distraction to have to move my hands off the keyboard to go through the elevation contortions. So I was delighted to find a little keyboard shortcut for launching an elevated process. Simply press Ctrl+Shift+Enter from the search bar on the start menu with a selected application, and that triggers elevation.

For example, to launch an elevated command prompt, simply press the Win key; type cmd; press Ctrl+Shift+Enter; and then hit Alt+C to confirm the elevation prompt. Six keystrokes to an elevated command prompt!

(Once I've got an elevated command prompt, I always like to execute color 4f as my first input so that this console window is visually differentiated from other non-elevated windows.)

Windows Vista Secret #11: Deleting the Undeletable

2009-09-19T01:05:00.000-07:00

As many of us move forward from Windows XP or prior beta versions of Windows Vista to the final RTM version, I thought this little tip / secret might be in order. You may be aware that Windows Vista includes a number of different ways to upgrade a computer, from a straight in-place upgrade (insert CD, run setup and choose upgrade) to Windows Easy Transfer, which allows you to copy settings, programs and data from an old setup a fresh shiny new OS environment. But I'm the purist type who hates even the thought of leaving any detritus around and insists upon a clean install to a pure, unsullied partition.

In doing this, it's not unusual to find some folders that can't be accessed, even by an administrator, because their ACLs were set for accounts with SIDs that applied to an old partition. For example, on my home machine, I switched the C: and D: drive cables around and installed Windows Vista RTM on the new drive. Having tested everything worked, I wanted to delete some old redundant directories (like the old \Program Files directory). If even an administrator can't access the file, how do you take it back?

The secret lies in two command-line utilities, one ancient, the other completely revised for this release. Respectively, these are takeown (which takes ownership of a file or directory) and icacls (which sets new ACLs on that directory). I created a small batch command on my system called itsmine.cmd, as follows:

takeown /f %1 /r /d y
icacls %1 /grant administrators:F /t

From an elevated command prompt, you can run a command such as itsmine d:\hard_to_delete and this will reset ownership and ACLs on the hard_to_delete directory such that a command like rd /s d:\hard_to_delete should work.

These two lines have saved me a lot of pain over the last week as I've gradually flattened and reinstalled the RTM version of Windows Vista on each of my machines: hopefully they'll be equally useful to you!

Monday, January 12, 2009 9:05 PM tims The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets 2

2009-09-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

The Font of All Knowledge. Long Zheng will be happy: we’ve got rid of the Add Fonts dialog that has served Windows faithfully for the last twenty years. (Of course, for most of that time, it’s been deprecated – the easy way to install a set of fonts has simply been to drag them into the Fonts folder via Control Panel.) But now font installation is really easy – we’ve added an “Install” button to the font viewer applet that takes care of the installation process:

There are lots of other new features built into Windows 7 that will satisfy those of a typographic bent, incidentally – grouping multiple weights together, the ability to hide fonts based on regional settings, a new text rendering engine built into the DirectWrite API, and support in the Font common file dialog for more than the four “standard” weights. For example:
Gabriola. As well as the other typographic features mentioned above, Windows 7 includes Gabriola, an elaborate display type from the Tiro Typeworks foundry that takes advantage of OpenType Layout to provide a variety of stylistic sets, flourishes and ornamentation ligatures:

The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets 1

2009-09-10T13:48:00.000-07:00

Cut Out The Clutter. Working on a document in a window and want to get rid of all the extraneous background noise? Simply hit Win+Home to minimize all the non-active background windows, keeping the window you’re using in its current position. When you’re ready, simply press Win+Home again to restore the background windows to their original locations.
Multi-Monitor Windows Management. The earlier tip on window management showed how you can dock windows within a monitor. One refinement of those shortcuts is that you can use Win+Shift+Left Arrow and Win+Shift+Right Arrow to move windows from one monitor to another – keeping them in the same relative location to the monitor’s top-left origin.
Command Junkies Only. One of the most popular power toys in Windows XP was “Open Command Prompt Here”, which enabled you to use the graphical shell to browse around the file system and then use the context menu to open a command prompt at the current working directory. In Windows 7 (and in Windows Vista, incidentally – although not many folk knew about it), you can simply hold the Shift key down while selecting the context menu to get exactly the same effect. If the current working directory is a network location, it will automatically map a drive letter for you.
It’s a Global Village. If you’ve tried to change your desktop wallpaper, you’ve probably noticed that there’s a set of wallpapers there that match the locale you selected when you installed Windows. (If you picked US, you’ll see beautiful views of Crater Lake in Oregon, the Arches National Park, a beach in Hawai’i, etc.) In fact, there are several sets of themed wallpapers installed based on the language you choose, but the others are in a hidden directory. If you’re feeling in an international mood, simply browse to C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT and you’ll see a series of pictures under the Wallpaper directory for each country. Just double-click on the theme file in the Theme directory to display a rotation through all the pictures for that country. (Note that some countries contain a generic set of placeholder art for now.)
The Black Box Recorder. Every developer wishes there was a way that an end-users could quickly and simply record a repro for the problem that they’re running into that is unique to their machine. Windows 7 comes to the rescue! Part of the in-built diagnostic tools that we use internally to send feedback on the product, the Problem Steps Recorder provides a simple screen capture tool that enables you to record a series of actions. Once you hit “record”, it tracks your mouse and keyboard and captures screenshots with any comments you choose to associate alongside them. Once you stop recording, it saves the whole thing to a ZIP file, containing an HTML-based “slide show” of the steps. It’s a really neat little tool and I can’t wait for it to become ubiquitous on every desktop! The program is called psr.exe; you can also search for it from Control Panel under “Record steps to reproduce a problem”.

Display Projection

2009-09-10T13:47:00.001-07:00

Display Projection. Had enough of messing around with weird and wonderful OEM display driver utilities to get your notebook display onto an external projector? In that case, you’ll be pleased to know that projection is really quick and simple with Windows 7. Just hit Win+P, and you’ll be rewarded by the following pop-up window:

Use the arrow keys (or keep hitting Win+P) to switch to “clone”, “extend” or “external only” display settings. You can also access the application as displayswitch.exe.

If you want broader control over presentation settings, you can also press Win+X to open the Windows Mobility Center, which allows you to turn on a presentation “mode” that switches IM clients to do not disturb, disables screensavers, sets a neutral wallpaper etc. (Note that this feature is also available in Windows Vista.)

The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets

2009-09-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

It’s great to see Windows 7 Beta finally released to the world! We're very proud of what has been accomplished over the last months; in many ways, it sets a new quality bar for a beta operating system release. Building on top of the Windows Vista foundation, Windows 7 adds a great deal of polish and refinement to both the user interface and the underlying architecture, while at the same time introducing many new features and improvements that support new hardware, give power users and casual users alike better tools to manage their digital lives, and enable new classes of application experience.

Over future blog entries, I’ll spend time drilling into some of those areas in more detail; of course, there are plenty of articles already out there that dissect Windows 7 in some depth, with the Windows SuperSite and Ars Technica providing notably comprehensive entries. I’d also like to draw particular attention to the series of Windows 7 interviews that Yochay Kiriaty has been posting on Channel 9, which give the inside scoop on the development of many of the most significant new features.

For now, though, I want to focus in on some of “secrets” of Windows 7: the many little tweaks and enhancements that we’ve made in this release that I’ve discovered and collated over the last few months of using Windows 7 across my home and work machines. These are the things that are too small to appear in any marketing document as “features”, but that you quickly miss when you switch to an older version of Windows. There are some who think that we’re arbitrarily hiding functionality to make Windows easy for casual users, but I’d argue that a great deal of effort has been put into this release to satisfy power users. In homage to those of us who enjoy discovering the nooks and crannies of a new operating system list, I’ve put together the longest blog post that I’ve ever written. If you’ve downloaded and installed Windows 7 Beta recently, I think you’ll enjoy this list of my thirty favorite secrets. Have fun!

Windows Management. By now, you’ve probably seen that Windows 7 does a lot to make window management easier: you can “dock” a window to the left or right half of the screen by simply dragging it to the edge; similarly, you can drag the window to the top of the screen to maximize it, and double-click the window top / bottom border to maximize it vertically with the same horizontal width. What you might not know is that all these actions are also available with keyboard shortcuts:
- Win+Left Arrow and Win+Right Arrow dock;
- Win+Up Arrow and Win+Down Arrow maximizes and restores / minimizes;
- Win+Shift+Up Arrow and Win+Shift+Down Arrow maximizes and restores the vertical size.
This side-by-side docking feature is particularly invaluable on widescreen monitors – it makes the old Windows way of shift-clicking on two items in the taskbar and then using the context menu to arrange them feel really painful.

14 Tips for Safari 4 Beta

2009-09-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

Apple released a new beta version of Safari yesterday, bringing a whole load of new features, as well as a couple of problems. Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of the new version and solve any teething problems you might have.

1. Download Safari 4 beta

As this is just a beta version, Apple doesn't include it in the automatic Software Update. To get the new version, head over to the Safari 4 beta page on the Apple web site. Bear in mind this will get rid of Safari 3, but there is an uninstaller included if you ever want to revert back.

2. Update your plugins
While most plugins for Safari should be fine with the new version, InputManagers are likely to need updating. 1Password has released an update, but you have to go to the 1Password app in your Applications folder to access it. Go to the Preferences and in the updates section, check the box that says Include Beta versions. Now when you check for updates it should download a version that works with Safari 4. Updates for Glims and Saft are already available from their respective sites, but as far as I know PithHelmet and SafariStand haven't been updated yet.

3. Safari breaks Xcode
This one is mainly for developers. If you are using the 3.0 version of Xcode, you will find that it crashes on launch once you have downloaded the Safari 4 beta. Just head over to the Apple Developer Connection to download version 3.1.2 of Xcode that works fine.

4. New keyboard shortcuts
Now Control-Tab will allow you to cycle through your tabs (as opposed to Command-Tab that cycles through applications). Don't worry if you were used to the old shortcut though, Command-Shift-Arrows still work.

5. Add the zoom button
The new zoom feature works just like Safari on the iPhone. Instead of just increasing the font size, it increases the size of images and other media too. You can access this from the View menu or with the Command-+ and Command-- shortcuts. Alternatively, choose Customize Toolbar from the View menu to add the zoom button to the toolbar.

6. Restore the old style tabs
One of the biggest changes visually is the new tabs, located along the top of the window. If you aren't a fan of this, a simple Terminal command will move them back to the old position. Just open up Terminal (in Applications/Utilities) and paste in the following line:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop -bool FALSE

To bring back the new tabs on top, just repeat the command with TRUE at the end. You will need to restart Safari for changes to take effect.

7. Disable search suggestions
Now the Google search box gives suggestions for your search as well as recent searches. To disable this, just use the following Terminal command in the same way as above:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeGoogleSuggest -bool FALSE

As before, repeat with TRUE at the end to bring back suggestions.

8. Bring back the old progress bar
Unfortunately, the new spinning progress indicator doesn't give you a good idea of how far the page has loaded. To bring back the old style, you have to use both of the following commands.

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign -bool FALSE

This changes the progress indicator to a blue pie chart. To get the blue bar, now use the following command:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle -bool FALSE

Repeat both commands with TRUE at the end to go back to the new style.

9. Disable bookmarks Cover Flow
If Cover Flow isn't your thing, you can get rid of it in the Bookmarks window by using the following Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeFlowViewInBookmarksView -bool FALSE

Repeat with TRUE at the end to bring back Cover Flow.

10. Disable dimming in Top Sites zoom
When you choose a page in Top Sites, it zooms in to take up the whole page with a neat animation effect. To stop the page dimming during this, use the following Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TopSitesZoomToPageAnimationDimsSnapshot -bool FALSE

Repeat with TRUE at the end to revert back to the original behaviour.

11. Disable Top Sites
If, for some reason, you want to completely disable the Top Sites feature, use the following command:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeTopSites -bool FALSE

Repeating with TRUE at the end will enable Top Sites again.

12. Disable "fancy" URL suggestions
This is actually one of my favourite new features in Safari 4. When you are typing in a web address, suggestions are separated into Bookmarks, History and a Top Hit. If you prefer the old window, use the following command:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeFancyURLCompletionList -bool FALSE

Repeat the command with TRUE at the end to enable the fancy completion list again.

13. Add web sites to Top Sites
If you click the Edit button in Top Sites, it is easy to use the pins to force sites to stay in Top Sites. To manually add a site that isn't already there, open it up in a separate window, then drag the favicon (next to the address) over to one of the positions in Top Sites. You can also drag sites from your bookmarks to Top Sites.

14. Fix GrowlMail
Unfortunately GrowlMail will now cause Mail to crash. There is a quick workaround that involves putting GrowlMail into summary mode. Do this by using the following Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.mail GMSummaryMode -int 2

Drag and drop onto "Choose File" buttons in Safari

2009-09-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

When a website prompts you to upload a file to the internet, it will probably use a "choose file" or "browse" button. For example when choosing an attachment in Gmail, or when uploading a photo to Facebook. In Safari, you can speed things up by simply dragging and dropping files onto this button, instead of first clicking on it and then looking around your hard drive for the file you want.

Simply drag your file from the Finder, hold it over the button and then let go.

Enable Single Window Mode in Safari

2009-09-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

In the latest version of Safari, Apple have added a new hidden preference. Using a Terminal command, you can now enable one-window browsing.

If you use Safari regularly, you may notice that certain links refuse to open in the same window. If a link is set to open in a new window, normally holding down Command while clicking it will make it open in a tab instead. However, in certain places (like Gmail messages) links open in a new window no matter what you do.

This command changes the behaviour such that links that would ordinarily open in a new window now open in a new tab instead. Start by opening up Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities), and paste in the following line:

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

Press return, and quit and reopen Safari. Now all links targeted for a new window will open in tabs instead. To change back to the normal settings, use the same command but with false at the end instead:

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool false

Don't forget there are loads of other tricks for Safari 3, such as enabling the web inspector and bookmarking all open tabs.

[via TUAW]

Tips for Safari 3

2009-09-06T13:13:00.001-07:00

The Safari 3 public beta has been out for a while now, and will be included with Leopard when it comes out. If you haven't tried it out yet, you can download it for free from the Apple site. The following tips include things that will be useful to the average user as well as some more interesting tricks for more experienced users.

Merge Windows
Safari 3 now allows you to drag and drop tabs. You can drag a tab off the bar to create a new window or drag it onto an existing window to add it. You can also use this to rearrange the order of your tabs. If you have lots of open windows each with different numbers of tabs, there is an easier way to get them all into one instead of dragging and dropping. In the Window menu you will find the "Merge All Windows" command. This will instantly combine all your open windows into one tabbed window.

Enable Web Inspector
The Web Inspector allows you to easily see how the source code creates the web page. You can inspect various elements of the web page and view their style, metrics and properties. If you select an element in the inspector window, it will briefly be outlined in red on the web page.

To enable the Web Inspector, open up Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities), type the following line and press return:

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitDeveloperExtras -bool true

Now quit and re-open Safari. Open a web page and right-click (Control-click) anywhere. You should see a new "Inspect Element" item in the list.

Pie Chart Loader
Normally Safari indicates how far a page has loaded using the address bar as a progress bar. The box gradually fills with colour from left to right. If you want, you can easily change this to the pie chart type indicator that is used in Mail. Again, open up Terminal (in Applications/Utilities), type the following command and press return:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugUsePieProgressIndicator -bool true

To switch back to the old progress bar, simply repeat the above command with false instead of true.

Bookmark all tabs
This new feature obsoletes the tip I wrote last month about bookmarking all tabs in Safari 2. Doing this is now much simpler - you just need togo to the Bookmarks menu. Here you should find an item that says something like "Add bookmark for these 4 tabs...". The default settings creates a bookmark called "Saved Tabs" in the bookmarks bar. This is actually a folder of your tabs, but it has been set to automatically open all the pages in tabs when clicked.

Others
There are loads of other new features in Safari 3 that are well known or don't really require any explanation. For example, the find command now dims the page and highlights the words you searched for, web history now indexes the text content of the page for easier searching, you can reopen the last closed window or the windows from your last session and all text fields are resizable.

5 Tricks for the Activity and Downloads Windows in Safari

2009-09-06T13:11:00.001-07:00

Both the Downloads and Activity windows are accessible from the Window menu in Safari. Most people are familiar with the Downloads window as it pops up whenever you click a link to download a file. On the other hand, the Activity window is not as well known even though it is just as useful. Both can be easily accessed using keyboard shortcuts: Command-Option-L for downloads and Command-Option-A for activity.

When you first open the Activity window, it will show a list containing the titles of every Safari window you have open. Clicking the disclosure triangle next to one of the names will expand it to list every item on the page. As well as the HTML files and scripts, this includes media such as images and movies that are on the page.

1. Investigate problems
One of the best uses of the Activity window is to check the cause of a problem. If you are browsing a page and it fails to load, or it is taking ages to open, try taking a look in the Activity window. Down the right hand side you will see the size of each item. If an item is still loading this will show you how much has loaded, and if there is a problem you will see "not found" or "timed out".

2. View movies in their own window
Some services (such as YouTube) provide a full screen button, but often you may find yourself having to watch a tiny video embedded in a web page. To get the movie in its own window, use the Activity window. Click the disclosure triangle on the left of the page with your embedded movie in to expand the list of every element in the page.

If you are watching a Quicktime movie, the item you want is probably the biggest one in the list. It may also continue loading after the rest of the page has finished. Look for a file extension of .mov or .mpg. Once you find it, simply double-click on it to open it up in its own window.

If you are watching a flash video that doesn't have a full screen button, you will need to find the .swf file. This is not necessarily the largest file.

3. Download embedded media
When a movie or music file is embedded in a page, it is not always easy to download it. If there was a link to the file, you could just hold the Option key and click it, but what do you do if there isn't?

For Quicktime movies and MP3 files, this is easy. Open up the Activity Window and locate the file. it should be a relatively large file with something like a .mov, .mpg or .mp3 file extension. Once you have found it, simply hold Option and double-click on it. Alternatively, pressing Option-Return will download whatever item is selected in the list.

For flash videos, you will want the .flv file. It's not always obvious which file this is. It should be the largest file on the page, and may still be loading. For YouTube videos, it is called get_video and doesn't have the .flv extension. Double-clicking this file will start it downloading. If the file doesn't have the .flv extension, you will have to add it on after the download has finished. To watch these movies you will need either the Perian Quicktime plugin or a player such as VLC.

4. Paste and drag into Downloads Window
A little known feature of the downloads window is that you can copy and paste an address into it. Say you want to download a movie that you have listed in the Activity window. Simply select it, choose copy (Command-C) and then click on the Downloads window. Now just choose paste (Command-V) and the movie will start downloading. This works with any kind of link or address. One of the best uses for this is if you have a long list of addresses. Simply select them all together and then copy and paste them into the Downloads window. All of the downloads will begin at the same time.

If copying and pasting isn't for you, you can either use the Option-click method, or you can simply drag things into the Downloads window. Drag links, selections, and even pictures onto the Downloads window to download them.

5. Bookmark all tabs
This is a nice trick to bookmark every page you have open at the same time. This is useful if you want to preserve all your open windows when you quit Safari so you can easily open them all up again next time you open Safari.

Start by opening up the Activity window. Collapse all the disclosure triangles so all you see is the titles of each page. Select all (Command-A) and copy the selection to the clipboard (Command-C). Now open up the Bookmarks window (Command-Option-B). Find where you want to keep these bookmarks and then paste (Command-V).

A good place to put them is in a folder on the Bookmarks Bar. Now, next time you open up Safari you can click on the folder in the bar and select "Open in Tabs" from the bottom of the menu. Alternatively, you can use the Auto-Tab method.

This trick is also great for reordering your tabs. Paste them into your bookmarks and them open them up again in the order that you want them.

Quickly Jump to Address Bar in Safari

2009-09-06T13:06:00.000-07:00

Hey... Is there anyway to keep the URL address highlighted when I start Safari? It would be so much easier rather than having to always keep clicking the address bar when I want to switch sites as soon as I run Safari... Thank you so much!

When you start Safari or open a new Safari window, normally the address bar is highlighted. This means that you can start typing an address straight away. However, if you have Safari set to automatically display your home page when opening a new window, the address bar is not highlighted.

For example, if you have Google as your home page, when you load up Safari or open a new window the Google home page will load and the search box will be highlighted instead of the address bar. If you type an address and press enter, it will Google search the address rather than just going to it.

So how do you solve this? Well the obvious answer is to stop Safari loading up your home page in new windows. You can do this from the Preferences located in the Safari menu. Under the General tab, set the "New windows open with:" menu to Empty Page.

But what do you do if you want to keep the automatic loading of your home page, or if you want to quickly jump to the address bar when you are already viewing a web page? The answer lies with keyboard shortcuts. As you only use the keyboard when typing in a web address, you don't want to have to move your hands to the mouse and click on the address bar before typing. Instead of doing this, simply hit Command-L before typing the address. You will notice that the address bar automatically highlights, ready for you to type away. The command is actually located in the File menu, as "Open Location..." and conveniently the same keyboard shortcut works in Firefox.

If you don't have any Safari windows open, Command-L will open up an empty window and highlight the address bar. This is similar to the function of Command-N for a new window, but Command-L has the added benefit of opening an empty window, even if you have Safari set to automatically open your home page.

Seven Simple Safari Shortcuts

2009-09-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

We all want to go faster. Especially when it comes to web browsing. If only there was this one feature or shortcut that could make our lives so much easier, make us work so much faster. Well, sadly there is no one simple way to do it, even with Safari. However, here's a list of lesser known features, the hidden shortcuts and the secret workarounds that will help you surf smarter and more efficiently, and get things done much more quickly.

1. Use Tabs

This feature is arguably one of Safari's most useful, but, surprisingly, it isn't turned on by default. Tabbed browsing allows you to cut clutter by opening multiple web pages in one window. A tabs bar appears below your bookmarks bar, allowing you to switch between different web pages in the same window. To enable this, Go to Safari --> Preferences, and click on Tabs. Then choose "Enable Tabbed Browsing." Now Safari has a whole world of new abilities. Command-Clicking a link or bookmark will open it in a new tab. You can use your keyboard to quickly cycle between tabs. Even dragging links onto a tab or the tab bar will open it in a different tab. Command-W will just close the tab you are on, and Command-Option-W will close all tabs but the one you are on.

2. Visit www.pimpmysafari.com/

This site has all the great plug-ins, bookmarklets and applescripts that allow you to enhance Safari. It promotes three plug-ins as the essentials: Saft, Pithhelmet and SafariStand, saying "If you only install three, make it these". Note that although much of the stuff on Pimp my Safari is free, some is shareware, which means you will have to pay to access all the features.

3. Use Snapback

The Snapback button is not very well known, but is extremely powerful. Imagine you are at a page you really like, but then you stumble off, browsing the web. Snapback allows you to instantly jump back to your original page. It works in three ways:
Firstly, when doing a google search, the results page is set as the snapback page. You can click a link in the results, navigate though a few more pages, and then hit the Snapback button to return to the search results. The snapback button for google searches is located in the google search field in the top right of each window.
Secondly, when you type a URL into the address bar, choose a bookmark or click an item in your history, it will be set as the snapback page. The snapback button to jump to this page is located at the far right of the address bar.
Finally, you can override the automatic snapback setting, and press Command-Option-K to set a page for snapback. This can also be accessed through the History menu, choosing "Mark Page for SnapBack."
Note that Snapback is a temporary thing. The page assigned for trackback will only last until you do one of the above things.

4. Autofill Passwords

Safari's autofill feature can do anything from remembering passwords to automatically filling your your name and address from your Address Book Entry. To make Safari automatically remember a password for you, enter it yourself, and click "yes" when safari offers to remember it for you. If you have already selected "Never for this Web Site" in the past, check out this tip for if you have changed your mind. You can manage all of your passwords in Keychain Access (Applications/Utilities). The way keychain access works is that all of your passwords are accessible by using just one password, by default, your login password. As a result, most web site passwords will just appear automatically on a web page, as the "login" keychain is unlocked when you log into Mac OS X. Use the search field to find the web site you want the password for, and double click its entry. Under Attributes, click show password, when you will be prompted for your login password.

5. Combine RSS feeds

I never really understood the point of RSS feeds in Safari until I watched this video on the Apple site. It's a great introduction for how to set up and use the RSS features of safari, and shows you why you would want to do so. The main thing I learnt was technique of making a folder of RSS feeds from related news sites (for example, all the mac tips sites I visit regularly) and setting it to Auto-tab. Then, when you click on the folder, Safari will combine all the RSS feeds and give you a list of the latest news from all the sites in the folder. Also check out this link for tips on making an RSS screen saver.

6. Make web Receipts

The PDF Services button in the Print dialog can be used throughout Mac OS X, but it is especially useful in Safari. This is because of the shortcut to the web receipts folder. You know those important pages, like your bank statement and the receipt from buying something online, that recommend you to print the page. Well Web receipts is an easier alternative. Press Command-P as if you were going to print the page, but then click on PDF and select "Save to Web Receipts Folder..." This will create a PDF of the page in Documents/Web Receipts, a handy place to store all your important information should you need it. Also, Branin Johnson sent in this tip regarding Web Receipts with the same name getting overwritten.

7. Use pop-up blocker

A really obvious one, and a popular one. With the pop-up blocker enabled (Go to the Safari menu, and select "Block Pop-up windows") you can almost forget that pop-ups exist. However be wary that although most pop-ups are annoying adverts, some contain useful information. If you come across a web site that doesn't seem to be working properly, or you think you might be missing some information, temporarily turn of the pop-up blocker and check to see there isn't a useful pop-up window.

And there you have it, an entire article written for the sake of an alliterative title. Hope it is of some help. Feel free to post any of your own tips.

Competition: Win a copy of Cram

2009-09-06T12:50:00.001-07:00

Mac OS X Tips has teamed up with SimpleLeap Software to give away 3 free copies of Cram, their software for studying with flash cards and multiple choice tests. See the bottom of this post for details on how to enter the competition.

Cram is an application for creating and sharing flash cards and multiple choice tests to help you study. The interface is all very intuitive, and it comes with a few pre-made tests which are great for getting you started and showing you how everything works.

The two main ways to use Cram are to either create your own tests or to browse the tests in the online test portal.

Creating your own test is pretty straightforward. For each question you write, you can enter up to five possible possible answers to choose from. You can either manually choose these for each question, or you can create an "Answer Bank" that contains all the answers for every question in the test (and also some incorrect answers if you want) and then randomly assigns them as the multiple choice answers to each question.

Drag and drop adding of images and audio to your questions is also really simple, and you have the option of setting a time limit to your test.

Once you've created your test, clicking "Study" in the toolbar will allow you to view your questions as flash cards that you can flip over to see the answer. Then as soon as you are confident enough, you can start the test. Cram also keeps a detailed test history so you can track your progress and see if you are improving.

The Test Portal is the alternative to creating your own tests, and it's probably my favourite feature. It contains over 2000 tests on all sorts of subjects submitted by other users. Unfortunately most of them don't seem to be organised into the right categories, but the search feature works well enough to overcome this. Each test has a name and description, and once you've found what you want simply clicking download test will add it to your collection. Of course you can share your own created tests just as easily by selecting them and clicking "Share Test" in the toolbar.

Overall Cram looks like a great resource for students or anyone studying for a test where they have to memorise things. It seems particularly well suited to particular tasks like learning foreign language vocabulary or dates in history.

You can download a demo for free, and purchase the full version for $34.99.

Create double-clickable dvdmedia movie bundles

2009-09-06T12:47:00.000-07:00

When you rip a DVD to your Mac you end up with a VIDEO_TS folder, which can be dragged to DVD player icon to play the DVD (you might find some stubborn DVDs will only play in VLC though).

As the DVD media is a folder, obviously you can't double-click it to open it in DVD Player. Instead you have to do the cumbersome open-the-app-then-drag-and-drop-to-icon procedure.

Video_TS to dvdmedia

The way around this is to rename the folder with the .dvdmedia extension. This will turn the folder into a bundle, and add a nice DVD icon as well. Double-clicking this will automatically open it up in DVD player, but you can easily change this to another app like VLC for example. The easiest way is to choose Get Info on the bundle, choose the new app from the "Open with" section, and click the "Change All..." button. While you are in the Get Info window you might also want to click “Hide Extension” and rename the bundle to the name of the movie. You can also change the icon to the artwork for the movie which you can get from a site like Get Video Artwork.

One annoying side effect of this is that Front Row won't recognise dvdmedia bundles, whereas it will recognise VIDEO_TS folders. Of course, to get your movies to work well in the Finder, Quicktime iTunes, Front Row and iPhone all at the same time you might prefer to run them through a tool like HandBrake. This can also save you some space depending on how you encode them.

If you want to win a copy of Cram, a great application for studying and testing, there is still time to enter our competition.

AVI File Fix in Windows XP

2009-08-26T08:04:00.000-07:00

If you have any AVI files that you saved in Windows 9x, which have interference when opened in Windows XP, there is an easy fix to get rid of the interference: Open Windows Movie Maker. Click View and then click Options. Click in the box to remove the check mark beside Automatically create clips. Now, import the movie file that has interference and drag it onto the timeline. Then save the movie, and during the re-rendering, the interference will be removed.

GooTrac >> Track over Google Earth

2009-08-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

[ track multiple vehicles at the same time over Google Earth ]

A tracking software for you to track over Google Earth real-time by your own PC; no need to pay for the maps or service charges. It can also keep history records for you to replay afterwards. As to reports, it can provide you mileage/ routes/ idle/ over-speed/ detailed activity and fleet summary reports for management purpose. Besides, GooTrac software supports "Remote Data Server" function. The data received by server can be forwarded to any PC links to the internet for data sharing. It enables you to set up a mini-control center by yourself.

Make your Folders Private

2009-08-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

•Open My Computer
•Double-click the drive where Windows is installed (usually drive (C:), unless you have more than one drive on your computer).
•If the contents of the drive are hidden, under System Tasks, click Show the contents of this drive.
•Double-click the Documents and Settings folder.
•Double-click your user folder.
•Right-click any folder in your user profile, and then click Properties.
•On the Sharing tab, select the Make this folder private so that only I have access to it check box.

Note

•To open My Computer, click Start, and then click My Computer.
•This option is only available for folders included in your user profile. Folders in your user profile include My Documents and its subfolders, Desktop, Start Menu, Cookies, and Favorites. If you do not make these folders private, they are available to everyone who uses your computer.
•When you make a folder private, all of its subfolders are private as well. For example, when you make My Documents private, you also make My Music and My Pictures private. When you share a folder, you also share all of its subfolders unless you make them private.
•You cannot make your folders private if your drive is not formatted as NTFS For information about converting your drive to NTFS

NTFS vs. FAT

2009-08-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

To NTFS or not to NTFS—that is the question. But unlike the deeper questions of life, this one isn't really all that hard to answer. For most users running Windows XP, NTFS is the obvious choice. It's more powerful and offers security advantages not found in the other file systems. But let's go over the differences among the files systems so we're all clear about the choice. There are essentially three different file systems available in Windows XP: FAT16, short for File Allocation Table, FAT32, and NTFS, short for NT File System.

FAT16
The FAT16 file system was introduced way back with MS–DOS in 1981, and it's showing its age. It was designed originally to handle files on a floppy drive, and has had minor modifications over the years so it can handle hard disks, and even file names longer than the original limitation of 8.3 characters, but it's still the lowest common denominator. The biggest advantage of FAT16 is that it is compatible across a wide variety of operating systems, including Windows 95/98/Me, OS/2, Linux, and some versions of UNIX. The biggest problem of FAT16 is that it has a fixed maximum number of clusters per partition, so as hard disks get bigger and bigger, the size of each cluster has to get larger. In a 2–GB partition, each cluster is 32 kilobytes, meaning that even the smallest file on the partition will take up 32 KB of space. FAT16 also doesn't support compression, encryption, or advanced security using access control lists.

FAT32
The FAT32 file system, originally introduced in Windows 95 Service Pack 2, is really just an extension of the original FAT16 file system that provides for a much larger number of clusters per partition. As such, it greatly improves the overall disk utilization when compared to a FAT16 file system. However, FAT32 shares all of the other limitations of FAT16, and adds an important additional limitation—many operating systems that can recognize FAT16 will not work with FAT32—most notably Windows NT, but also Linux and UNIX as well. Now this isn't a problem if you're running FAT32 on a Windows XP computer and sharing your drive out to other computers on your network—they don't need to know (and generally don't really care) what your underlying file system is.

The Advantages of NTFS
The NTFS file system, introduced with first version of Windows NT, is a completely different file system from FAT. It provides for greatly increased security, file–by–file compression, quotas, and even encryption. It is the default file system for new installations of Windows XP, and if you're doing an upgrade from a previous version of Windows, you'll be asked if you want to convert your existing file systems to NTFS. Don't worry. If you've already upgraded to Windows XP and didn't do the conversion then, it's not a problem. You can convert FAT16 or FAT32 volumes to NTFS at any point. Just remember that you can't easily go back to FAT or FAT32 (without reformatting the drive or partition), not that I think you'll want to.

The NTFS file system is generally not compatible with other operating systems installed on the same computer, nor is it available when you've booted a computer from a floppy disk. For this reason, many system administrators, myself included, used to recommend that users format at least a small partition at the beginning of their main hard disk as FAT. This partition provided a place to store emergency recovery tools or special drivers needed for reinstallation, and was a mechanism for digging yourself out of the hole you'd just dug into. But with the enhanced recovery abilities built into Windows XP (more on that in a future column), I don't think it's necessary or desirable to create that initial FAT partition.

When to Use FAT or FAT32
If you're running more than one operating system on a single computersee Dual booting in Guides, you will definitely need to format some of your volumes as FAT. Any programs or data that need to be accessed by more than one operating system on that computer should be stored on a FAT16 or possibly FAT32 volume. But keep in mind that you have no security for data on a FAT16 or FAT32 volume—any one with access to the computer can read, change, or even delete any file that is stored on a FAT16 or FAT32 partition. In many cases, this is even possible over a network. So do not store sensitive files on drives or partitions formatted with FAT file systems.

Game Factory v1.06

2009-08-12T05:50:00.000-07:00

Games Factory provides everything you need to manufacture arcade games, platform games, adventures, screen savers, and much more. It offers you fast screen scrolling and fade effects, and it can even display .fli animations, Video for Windows, and QuickTime movies. It also lets you play your favorite music tracks directly from your CD.

donwload now

its a shareware

Search For Hidden Or System Files In Windows XP

2009-08-12T05:49:00.000-07:00

The Search companion in Windows XP searches for hidden and system files differently than in earlier versions of Windows. This guide describes how to search for hidden or system files in Windows XP.

Search for Hidden or System Files By default, the Search companion does not search for hidden or system files. Because of this, you may be unable to find files, even though they exist on the drive.

To search for hidden or system files in Windows XP:
Click Start, click Search, click All files and folders, and then click More advanced options.

Click to select the Search system folders and Search hidden files and folders check boxes.

NOTE: You do not need to configure your computer to show hidden files in the Folder Options dialog box in Windows Explorer to find files with either the hidden or system attributes, but you need to configure your computer not to hide protected operating system files to find files with both the hidden and system attributes. Search Companion shares the Hide protected operating system files option (which hides files with both the system and hidden attributes) with the Folder Options dialog box Windows Explorer.

Set Permissions for Shared Files and Folders

2009-08-12T05:47:00.000-07:00

Sharing of files and folders can be managed in two ways. If you chose simplified file sharing, your folders can be shared with everyone on your network or workgroup, or you can make your folders private. (This is how folders are shared in Windows 2000.) However, in Windows XP Professional, you can also set folder permissions for specific users or groups. To do this, you must first change the default setting, which is simple file sharing. To change this setting, follow these steps:
•Open Control Panel, click Tools, and then click Folder Options.
•Click the View tab, and scroll to the bottom of the Advanced Settings list.
•Clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box.
•To manage folder permissions, browse to the folder in Windows Explorer, right–click the folder, and then click Properties. Click the Security tab, and assign permissions, such as Full Control, Modify, Read, and/or Write, to specific users.

You can set file and folder permissions only on drives formatted to use NTFS, and you must be the owner or have been granted permission to do so by the owner.

Speed up your browsing of Windows 2000 & XP machines

2009-08-12T05:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a great tip to speed up your browsing of Windows XP machines. Its actually a fix to a bug installed as default in Windows 2000 that scans shared files for Scheduled Tasks. And it turns out that you can experience a delay as long as 30 seconds when you try to view shared files across a network because Windows 2000 is using the extra time to search the remote computer for any Scheduled Tasks. Note that though the fix is originally intended for only those affected, Windows 2000 users will experience that the actual browsing speed of both the Internet & Windows Explorers improve significantly after applying it since it doesn't search for Scheduled Tasks anymore. Here's how :

Open up the Registry and go to :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace

Under that branch, select the key :

{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

and delete it.

This is key that instructs Windows to search for Scheduled Tasks. If you like you may want to export the exact branch so that you can restore the key if necessary.

This fix is so effective that it doesn't require a reboot and you can almost immediately determine yourself how much it speeds up your browsing processes.

How to make your Desktop Icons Transparent

2009-08-11T08:09:00.000-07:00

Go to ontrol Panel > System, > Advanced > Performance area > Settings button Visual Effects tab "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the Desktop"

Set the Search Screen to the Classic Look

2009-08-11T08:06:00.000-07:00

When I first saw the default search pane in Windows XP, my instinct was to return it to its classic look; that puppy had to go. Of course, I later discovered that a doggie door is built into the applet. Click "Change preferences" then "Without an animated screen character." If you'd rather give it a bare-bones "Windows 2000" look and feel, fire up your Registry editor and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ CabinetState.

You may need to create a new string value labeled "Use Search Asst" and set it to "no".

How to Remove Windows XP's Messenger

2009-08-11T08:03:00.000-07:00

Theoretically, you can get rid of it (as well as a few other things). Windows 2000 power users should already be familiar with this tweak.

Fire up the Windows Explorer and navigate your way to the %SYSTEMROOT% \ INF folder. What the heck is that thingy with the percentage signs? It's a variable. For most people, %SYSTEMROOT% is C:\Windows. For others, it may be E:\WinXP. Get it? Okay, on with the hack! In the INF folder, open sysoc.inf (but not before making a BACKUP copy first). Before your eyes glaze over, look for the line containing "msmsgs" in it. Near the end of that particular line, you'll notice that the word "hide" is not so hidden. Go ahead and delete "hide" (so that the flanking commas are left sitting next to one another). Save the file and close it. Now, open the Add and Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. Click the Add / Remove Windows Components icon. You should see "Windows Messenger" in that list. Remove the checkmark from its box, and you should be set. NOTE: there are other hidden system components in that sysoc.inf file, too. Remove "hide" and the subsequent programs at your own risk.

how to re-partition hard disk without losing data

2009-08-02T00:13:00.000-07:00

Hard disk is place where to keep all data and information within the computer, it’s good to separate and keep the data in hard disk by partition. Normally most of the users will partition their hair disk to two partitions (OS and Data), this is to ensure all their data still remain in the hard disk while their operating system partition corrupted. For those hard disk where no have partition, all the data are keep together with the operating system, and there is a risk hard to recover their data when operating system was corrupted and cannot boot-in to the windows. To prevent this happen, now users can use EASEUS Partition Manager Home Edition.

What is EASEUS Partition Manager ?
EASEUS Partition Manager Home Edition is free comprehensive hard disk partition management software to let you enjoy free with all the powerful functions: Resize and Move partitions, Create, Delete and Format partitions, Hide and Unhide partitions and much more. What’s more, the freeware works perfectly with hardware RAID and Windows 2000/XP/Vista Operating Systems. Your data is completely protected during all operations. Its great free tool that users can use to re-partition hard disk rather use other partition software where need pay for the license.

Features of EASEUS Partition Manager:

Support hardware RAID.
Resize and move partitions without losing data.
Create, delete and format partitions with simple step.
Label partitions - assigned to a partition for easier recognition.
View Disk/Partition property of each partition.
Hide and unhide partitions - protect important data from unauthorized or casual access.
Set an active partition - specify one partition to be the boot partition.
Powerful safety features protect you against system failures while partitioning.
Step-by-step wizard walks you through partitioning process.
Preview any partitioning tasks before completing it.
Change cluster size automatically and manually.
Undo feature any partition step.
Support hard disks from 2 GB to 1 TB.
User-friendly interface.

Make VLC Player Look like Windows Media Player 11

2009-07-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

The VLC Media Player is an open source, cross-platform media client that supports the vast majority of media formats. One of the great features is that it supports skins that work across different platforms. This article will cover installing on both linux and windows.

You will first need to download the skin named WMP11 from the skins page. This skin looks a lot like Windows Media Player 11. It’s not exact, but it’s a pretty good skin.

To install on Ubuntu Linux:

Hit Alt+F2 to bring up the run dialog, and type in this:

vlc -I skins2

This will bring up the player in the right mode to let you install new skins. Right click on the title bar area and choose Select Skin \ Open Skin, and choose the skin file that you have downloaded.

That’s pretty much all there is to it.

To install on Windows:

Select the “VLC media player (skins)” option from the Start menu program group. This will start VLC in the right mode to select skins.

Right click on the title bar area, and choose Select skin \ Open skin and choose the skin file that you have downloaded.

Easy stuff. Now you have a great looking media player.

Update:Changed the article to point to the newer and better looking WMP11 skin instead of the Dalin one.

How To Rip DVDs with VLC

2009-07-21T06:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took a look at the new feature in VLC 1.0 which allows you to record DVDs to your computer. There is also an overlooked feature in VLC that allows you to rip your DVDs as well. Here we will take a look at how to rip DVD movies with VLC for Windows.

Note: This feature should work with VLC versions 0.9.6 and up.

Ripping a DVD with VLC

Load up the DVD you want to rip and start up VLC. Then under Media click on Convert / Save.

The Open Media window will appear and you want to click on the Disc tab. Check DVD, make sure the disc device field points to the optical drive with the dvd, and hit Convert/Save. You can select the start position by selecting the title and only record a specific chapter on the DVD. You can also skip the DVD Menus as you will not be able to use them in the ripped file.

Next the Convert screen opens where you will want to select a location for the ripped file.

While you are browsing to the location to put the ripped file make sure to give it a name and a supported extension. For this example we ripped Lord of the Rings and gave it a MOV extension. If you don’t label it with a supported file extension it will default to .ps (postscript) file.

When everything is set up the Convert screen will look something like this where we have the source drive and destination file with appropriate extension.

While the DVD is being ripped you will see a progress count in the main UI. The amount of time it takes will depend on the file format and size of the DVD but it will take a while no matter what.

You may notice a slowdown of your system as the process takes up a lot of resources.

You should be able to play the converted file with other media players assuming you have the right codec. Of course will notice the conversion results in lower quality compared to the original.

How To Copy a DVD with VLC 1.0

2009-07-21T06:01:00.000-07:00

VLC 1.0 has gotten several cool new features, one of which is the ability to record what is playing in the screen. Here we will take a look at how easy it is to record a DVD or other video formats using VLC.

Want to rip the DVD instead of recording? We’ve got a guide for that as well.

Record Using VLC

You won’t see the record button in the default view so we need to make it available in the control panel by going to View and selecting Advanced Controls.

Now you can see the Record button along with a couple other handy controls like snapshot and looping.

Now when you start up a DVD or other video simply click on the record button and hit is a second time to end the recording.

While it is recording notice that the record button will be blue.

The recorded video is in MPEG format and stored them in the Documents folder labeled as VLC Record with the date and time.

This is a great way to save entire movies or specific scenes you want to watch later on your hard drive.

Of course VLC won’t burn the recorded MPEG file to DVD but you can certainly use other programs for that. This is a much different process than “ripping” and you will need to play the video while it records.

Download VLC 1.0 for Windows, Linux, OSX

Turn Off Auto-Play of Audio and Video CDs and DVDs in Ubuntu

2009-07-21T05:56:00.000-07:00

Ubuntu automatically starts playing audio or video discs when you put them into your computer. If you don’t want this behavior, you can easily turn this off.

Navigate to System \ Preferences \ Removable Drives and Media

Here you can just uncheck the box for the disc type you don’t want to autoplay.

You can also disable autoplaying of portable media players such as an iPod.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Bash ( Command Shell for Ubuntu, Debian, Suse, Redhat, Linux, etc)

2009-07-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

The default shell on most Linux operating systems is called Bash. There are a couple of important hotkeys that you should get familiar with if you plan to spend a lot of time at the command line. These shortcuts will save you a ton of time if you learn them.

Ctrl + A	Go to the beginning of the line you are currently typing on
Ctrl + E	Go to the end of the line you are currently typing on
Ctrl + L	Clears the Screen, similar to the clear command
Ctrl + U	Clears the line before the cursor position. If you are at the end of the line, clears the entire line.
Ctrl + H	Same as backspace
Ctrl + R	Let’s you search through previously used commands
Ctrl + C	Kill whatever you are running
Ctrl + D	Exit the current shell
Ctrl + Z	Puts whatever you are running into a suspended background process. fg restores it.
Ctrl + W	Delete the word before the cursor
Ctrl + K	Clear the line after the cursor
Ctrl + T	Swap the last two characters before the cursor
Esc + T	Swap the last two words before the cursor
Alt + F	Move cursor forward one word on the current line
Alt + B	Move cursor backward one word on the current line
Tab	Auto-complete files and folder names

Note that some of these commands may not work if you are accessing bash through a telnet/ssh session, or depending on how you have your keys mapped.

Update: Some readers from digg have pointed out that you can also switch bash to use vi style editing keys. This article covers the default bash keys, but I’ll write another one to cover vi style keys as well… great suggestions! Subscribe to the feed for updates.

Stopping Obnoxious MSN / Windows Live Messenger Spammers

2009-07-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

Have you been bombarded with spammers on Live Messenger telling you to check out some Look9683 spammer site? The good news is that you can completely block them, but sadly they won’t actually feel physical pain.

If you aren’t sure what we’re talking about… then you probably aren’t using Messenger:

The first time you receive a spammer message like this, you will be prompted with an option to block messages from unknown senders, which is exactly what you want to do. The problem is that if you don’t choose this option the first time, you won’t get the same option again.

Normally if you choose block, you’ll be notified that this blocks everybody who is not on your allow list. As far as I’m concerned, that’s just the way I like it.

If you’ve mistakenly or purposely chosen to allow on the earlier screen, you can still block all unknown users—you’ll just need to take a trip to the Options panel.

Here you’ll want to check the box for “Only people on my Allow List can see my status and send me messages”. Then you can setup your Allow list if you want, or block other people.

If you are using Pidgin to access your Windows Live / MSN Messenger / Hotmail / Whatever MS re-named it as today account, you can go to Tools \ Privacy:

Then choose the account in the “Set privacy for” drop-down, and choose “Allow only the users on my buddy list” in the lower drop-down.

This will stop those ridiculous spammers directly in their tracks.

How to Download Facebook Photo Albums

2009-07-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

FacePAD: Facebook Photo Album Downloader allows you to download your friends’ facebook albums, Events albums, and Group Albums, en masse, with the click of a button.

Screen Capture Tools: 40+ Free Tools and Techniques

2009-07-13T12:40:00.000-07:00

Screen capture, or print screen is perhaps the most efficient way to share whatever appears on your desktop. They help tech users like us to share and communicate better with friends and peers. Major operating systems today comes with basic screen capture and print screen function, but if these can’t fulfill what you need from a screen capture then you are probably looking for a screen capturing tool.

Screen capturing tools do what the basic tool don’t. What these tools could do varies, including the ability to include sketches and text, instantly upload image online, audio capturing, dimension-specific capturing and more. Make your screen capture and sharing experience more interesting, here’s a showcase of 40+ Free Screen Capturing Tools and Related Techniques. Full list after jump.

Cross Platform

We love cross platform tools. No more worries when you are all too familiar with one tool and needs to get the job done on a different operating system.

Jing Project

A project of Techsmith, Jing has the ability to do instance image and video capturing. Aside from that, you can also do sketches on the image and share them online. Speaking from functionality point of view, being free tool is definetely a steal. [Download: Windows, Mac]
Evernote

Saying Evernote has cross platform supporting ability seems to be slightly inaccurate, instead it’s multi-platform. This awesome tool not only runs on Windows and Mac, it also supports iPhone, Windows Mobile and even websites. You’ve got to check out the video to see how great it is. [Download: Windows, Mac, more]
WebKut

Capture web pages in whole or parts. And because it’s developed with Adobe AIR, you bet it’s cross-platform. It captures web screenshots, the only problem is – it’s not attached to the browser. [Download]
Websnapshot

Yet another Adobe AIR application to take website snap shots. [Downloads]

Windows Only

By default, you can only do a full page and active window print screen on Windows. The following tools give you much more flexibility.

ZScreen

Open-source screen capture program that allows for region/window/full-screen screenshots. It can FTP screenshots and put the URL in your clipboard in a single keystroke. It supports automatic custom naming conventions with variables. [Download]
Screenshot Captor

Behave like most screen capture software. The most interesting part is – you can run it from a USB thumbdrive. Talking about print screen portability. [Download]
Cropper

Cropper is a screen capture utility written in C# on the Microsoft .Net platform. [Download]
Capture

Capture is a quick-and-easy screen capture utility for Windows (and NT), which allows you to capture the entire screen, at any color depth and resolution, and save it into a Bitmap file for editing. [Download]
MWSnap

Small yet powerful Windows program for snapping (capturing) images from selected parts of the screen. [Download]
ScreenPrint32

Free windows tool to print and/or capture to disk or clipboard, the full desktop, active window, predefined area, or user selected area of the screen. [Download]
Snippy

Useful free tool to copy webpage screenshot for sharing purposes. Interesting thing is that, when you cutting out a portion of an Internet Explorer window, the URL will also be copied to the clipboard; this makes it very convenient to select something interesting on a Web site and send it out in an email message. [Download]
SWBCapture

Screen capture utility that allows you to quickly and easily capture an image of any window on your desktop, or the entire desktop. [Download]
Screen Grab Pro

Screen Grab Pro features one-click grab of any screen for ease of use, Timer operation, Current window selection list and more. [Download]
Wisdom-Soft ScreenHunter

Wisdom-Soft ScreenHunter is a free screen-capture tool for you to easily take screenshots. ScreenHunter can capture a full screen, an active window, the client window, or a rectangular area. [Download]
Gadwin PrintScreen

Capture screenshots with ease. [Download]
FastStone Capture

Light and powerful screen capture application with whole screen, object-selective and region screencapture ability. Save files in various formats, BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, PNG, TGA, TIFF and PDF. [Download]

Mac Only

Here are some of the most commonly used screen capturing tools for the Mac enthusiast.

Capture Me

Flexible screen capture and recording utility for Mac OS X which features a floating capture window, several saving options, and resize ability. [Download]
Backdrop

Simple utility to fill your screen with a giant blank window. Fill the window with a solid color or a custom image, your choice so you can take clean nice printscreen. [Download]
Skitch

Skitch is not solely a screen capture tool. It allows you to capture screen shots of any application, chat moments and the ability to sketch on the screen shots. You can then upload it to share with friends. A printscreen tool injected with some fun. [Download]
InstantShot!

InstantShot! offers classical screenshot functionality for capturing the whole screen, a portion of it or a window and also the option to make timed screenshots or to make delayed captures over time. It offers a wide range of preferences and options to fit everyone’s needs. [Download]
Paparazzi!

Written in Objective-C and the WebKit framework, this small utility is suitable for those who wants to do simple screen shots in their Mac. [Download]
Screenshot Helper

Screenshot Helper shows a full screen window with a solid color or a desktop picture so that you can take clean screenshots without having irrelevant windows and desktop icons in the background. [Download]
SnapNDrag

SnapNDrag lets you take a screenshot by just clicking a button and dragging the resulting screenshot off, perhaps one of the simplest and easiet to use Mac printscreen tool we’ve seen. [Download]
About Timed Screenshot 1.1

A light screen capturing tool that runs in background until you kill the process (in Terminal) or logout. [Download]
Copernicus

Mac application for speed screenshot taking and video capturing (no audio). It’s also a virtual photo gallery. [Download]

Linux

Screen capturing tools for Linux users.

XscreenCapture

XscreenCapture allows you to capture an X11 dump from any Linux client with X11 port open. It will also convert and save automatically the result picture in the desidered compress format (default PNG). [Download]
Xvidcap

Screen capture enabling you to capture videos off your X-Window desktop for illustration or documentation purposes. [Download]

Web Tools

These web tools go beyond screen capturing of your desktop. It allows you to print screen any website, all the way from header to footer.

Browsershot

Free web service that shows you how your website looks like in different browser of different version. A must tool for web developers on a browser compatibility check.
ScreenShots.jp

Similar to Browsershots, this free web services is for those who understand Japanese.
Super Screenshot

Simple web service for those who wants quick print screens. No compatibility check of different browser or versions available.
Clip2Net

Clip2Net allows you to capture, sketch and share screencaptures online instantly. Good tool to communicate ideas with peers. [Download]
Websnapr

As the name suggest, it snaps thumbnail screenshot of any webites. All you need to do is enter the URL and hit capture. Comes with plugins you to facilitate blogging and web publishing.
Thumbalizr

Yet another online web thumbnail generator. Comes with API.
Browsrcamp

Test the compatibility of your design with Mac OS X browsers. Free web screenshot tool build on Mac OSX Leopard.

Firefox Plugins

Screen capturing plugin for Firefox browser. They prints the lower fold screens you don’t see.

Screengrab!

Firefox plugin with the ability to printscreen entire upper-fold and lower-fold of any browsing websites. Instead of saving the screenshot to a file, you can copy it to clipboard. [Install]
FireShot

Firefox extension that creates screenshots of web pages. Comes with sets of editing and annotation tools, which let users quickly modify web captures and insert text annotations and graphical annotations. Somehow it’s nota available for Firefox on Mac OSX [Install]

Idou: A 12.1MP camera phone to be launched by Sony Ericsson in September

2009-07-11T12:27:00.000-07:00

Idou the new phone by Sony Ericsson is a 12 megapixel camera phone with Xenon flash. The phone is on the lines of Xperia, but is powered by Symbian foundation OS. The phone has 3.5inch touch screen with 16:9 aspect ratio. The mobile is expected to be launched by the company this summer.

The mobile was unveiled at Mobile World Congress held earlier this year. The mobile is expected to be launched by the name of Satio. The phone has a in built 12.1 megapixel camera. The mobile is expected to be available in three colors – Black, Silver and Bordeaux.

The mobile phone is finished with metallic materials that re-inforce the feeling of solidity. The idou will include Sony Ericsson’s media bar and music player. The homescreen of the mobile has been customized with Sony Ericsson Style and is similar to Sony Ericsson’s W960.

The mobile will provide you with 3rd generation of mobile networks. This enables fast data transfer speeds, easy access to the world of audio and video streaming, surfing, multimedia messaging and email where ever you go. Now you can quickly and easily send and retrieve files. Satio also offers lots of other features like Wi-Fi, 3G, a GPS chip, Bluetooth etc. You can enjoy high definition games and play many 3D games on this phone.

The phone specifications are:
Dimensions 112.0 x 55.0 x 13.0 mm
Weight 126gm
Display 360×640 pixel, 16,777,216 color TFT touch screen
Memory 128MB internal, expandable up to 16GB
Camera 12MP with autofocus, xenon flash and video LED flash
OS Symbian Series 60, 5th edition
Connectivity GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE, 3G, WLAN, Bluetooth, USB
Battery Standard battery, Li-Po 1000 mAh

Internet on your phone using bluetooth.

2009-07-11T11:36:00.000-07:00

Ok I found this other guide which is more easy for newbies to follow. I ahvent checked it on my 6600. Will do the testing soon. Those of you on N-gage & 3650 please try too and post a new topic outside this FAQ section about how it is.

this will work on most s60 phone I guess! it has been tested on an NGAGE and on N3650!

step 1:
Creating an access point on your phone!

tools\settings\connection\access points\options\new access point>default settings...

these are the settings u need there..

Connection Name : Anything (sugestion ADLS or PCGPRS something u remember well cuz u'll need it later!)

Data Bearer: GPRS

Access Point Name: The name you gave to your bt connection when pairing up with the computer...

Username : None

Password : No

Authentication : Normal

Gateway IP Address : 0.0.0.0

and that's all on this on this part..

then go to:

tools/settings/connection, and select GPRS

set the GPRS connection to "when available", and the access point to "none".

The settings on your fone are done! now... the next step;

Create a serial port connection from ur pc to ur phone (u've done this before if u ever used Pcsuite from nokia), this serial connection must be on everytime you want to use your pc internet connection as a gprs connection for ur phone!!

Install the software u need to surf the web (opera, netfront, agile messenger for chat, etc..)

My advise to you is to use netfront, the options are pretty cool and it uses less memory meaning u can still run other program such as agile at the same time (it crashed my 3650 when I tried to do it with opera)..

Voil? ur ready to use ur phone to surf and chat for free!!

hope this helped you and that is simple and clear!! any question u know where to post, this will be updated if many doubts come up.

ps. works with ngage arena games!!!

Enjoy!

Google Pokes Microsoft Where It Hurts with Chrome OS

2009-07-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

Google has escalated its challenge to Microsoft with plans to develop a Chrome Operating System based on Linux. The Windows challenger will run on both x86 and ARM chips, and Google says netbooks will have the open-source Chrome OS in 2010. The Chrome OS will run applications on the Web, relieving users of the burden of software maintenance.
Google isn't satisfied to challenge Microsoft with office-productivity software, search and the browser. On Tuesday the company announced an operating system to challenge Windows.

Google Chrome Operating System is the company's attempt to "rethink what the operating system should be." Google Chrome OS is an open-source, lightweight operating system initially aimed at netbooks. Google Chrome OS will run on x86 as well as ARM chips, and the company said it is working with multiple OEMs to bring several netbooks to market in 2010. Google plans to open-source the code later this year.

"Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the Web in a few seconds," said Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management and Linus Upson, engineering director, in the Google blog. "The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the Web."

A Web-Based Approach

Google Chrome OS runs within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. Google said all Web-based applications will automatically work and developers can write new applications using Web technologies. The apps would run on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux, Google said, giving the developers the largest user base of any platform.

"We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear -- computers need to get better. People want to get to their e-mail instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up," wrote Pichai and Upson. "They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files."

Even more important, the duo said, users don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware , or have to worry about constant software updates. Google figures when its users have a better computing experience, the company benefits by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.

A Threat to Microsoft?

"This is Google's attempt to poke Microsoft once again with a sharp stick and see what they can do to weaken Microsoft's position," said Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret. "Google has done this in the past by giving away semi-free versions of software like Google Docs, but that hasn't put Microsoft's Office business in any trouble yet."

As Gartenberg sees it, the notion of creating a free OS for netbooks doesn't make much business sense. The netbook market, he said, is beginning to disappear as these miniature machines become more like full-function PCs with new every new iteration.

"Most people use a netbook or laptop to run PC applications," Gartenberg said. "Linux has failed in the netbook market because it can't run PC applications. The return rate of Linux-based netbooks to Windows-based netbooks is dramatic and there's nothing here that would indicate that Google Chrome OS would be a change for the different. This is not a threat to Windows, or a threat to Mac OS for that matter."

EXCEL® SHORTCUT KEYS

2009-07-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

F2 Edit the selected cell
F5 Go to a specific cell
F7 Spell check selected text and/or document
F11 Create chart
Ctrl + Shift + ; Enter the current time
Ctrl + ; Enter the current date
Alt + Shift + F1 Insert new worksheet
Shift + F3 Open the Excel® formula window
Shift + F5 Bring up search box
Ctrl + A Select all contents of worksheet
Ctrl + B Bold highlighted selection
Ctrl + I Italicize highlighted selection
Ctrl + C Copy selected text
Ctrl + V Paste
Ctrl + D Fill
Ctrl + K Insert link
Ctrl + F Open find and replace options
Ctrl + G Open go-to options
Ctrl + H Open find and replace options
Ctrl + U Underline highlighted selection
Ctrl + Y Underline selected text
Ctrl + 5 Strikethrough highlighted selection
Ctrl + O Open options
Ctrl + N Open new document
Ctrl + P Open print dialog box
Ctrl + S Save
Ctrl + Z Undo last action
Ctrl + F9 Minimize current window
Ctrl + F10 Maximize currently selected window
Ctrl + F6 Switch between open workbooks/windows
Ctrl + Page up
& Page Down
Move between Excel® worksheets in the
same document
Ctrl + Tab Move between two or more open Excel® files
Alt + = Create formula to sum all of above cells
Ctrl + ‘ Insert value of above cell into current cell
Ctrl + Shift + ! Format number in comma format
Ctrl + Shift + $ Format number in currency format
Ctrl + Shift + # Format number in date format
Ctrl + Shift + % Format number in percentage format
Ctrl + Shift + ^ Format number in scientific format
Ctrl + Shift + @ Format number in time format
Ctrl + g Move to next section of text
Ctrl + Space Select entire column
Shift + Space Select entire row
Ctrl + W Close document

Five Essential Apps for the Ubuntu User

2009-07-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

Ubuntu is arguably the most popular Linux distribution available. It's solid, stable, and well packaged. On top of that, the developers have made some good calls about the software that they package with Ubuntu.

There's a lot of software for Ubuntu (and other Linux distributions). A lot of it's good, some of it's OK, and there are a few duds. But the five applications that this TechTip covers are great additions to anyone's installation of Ubuntu.

Note: Some of the software discussed in this TechTip can also be installed on other Linux distributions.

Ubuntu Tweak

There are many different ways you can modify or just fiddle with the configuration of Ubuntu. You can edit configuration settings in a little application called gconf-editor. You can mess with configuration files in a text editor. Or you can choose one of the options from the System > Preferences menu. A better option is to use Ubuntu Tweak.

Ubuntu Tweak, as its name implies, lets you change the configuration of an Ubuntu system right from a single user interface. With Ubuntu Tweak, you can install a number of popular or third-party applications, change the look and behavior of your window manager, set up shortcuts, and more.

Two of my favorite features of Ubuntu Tweak are the third-party software installer and the package cleaner. While you can install a lot of software using Synaptic Package Manager (the default software installation tool for Ubuntu), there's a lot of interesting software that you can't get through Synaptic. The third-party installer lists some of these – like VirtualBox and the Chromium browser – and installs any additional software or libraries that they require.

The package cleaner frees up space on your hard drive. Whenever you install a new piece of software using Synaptic, Ubuntu saves a copy of the installer (called a package) and information about that package on the drive. The thing is, though, that you don't need those packages. With Ubuntu Tweak, you can clear all of that out easily.

Epiphany

Firefox is the default Web browser for Ubuntu. It's a great application that has some nifty features. But the problem with Firefox is that it's fairly large and can be quite slow. If you want to speed up your Web browsing, then Epiphany is for you.

Whereas Firefox is plodding, Epiphany is lean, fast, and mean. In fact, it's almost spartan. The browser window contains a set of menus, a button bar, and an area in which to type Web addresses. That's it. No search box and no other eye candy. If you want to do a search, just type the term that you want to find in the address box and press Enter. You'll be taken to a Google page with the search results.

What you'll notice, though, is that Epiphany can do everything that Firefox can do. Only faster. From clearly rendering Web pages to logging into secure sites, Epiphany does it all.

While Firefox comes with a massive array of add-ons (which extend the features and functions of the browser), the pickings for Epiphany are pretty slim. There's an ad blocker, one that lets you subscribe to an RSS feed, and one that lets you look up text that you select with a bookmark.

Epiphany's not everyone's cup of tea. Some people who try it are frustrated by its lack of features. But if you want to see how fast Web browsing can be then give Epiphany a look.

Ubuntu One

Sharing files between computers can be a chore. Emailing files or copying them to a USB flash drive gets really tedious really quickly. A more efficient way is to share your files online. Shortly after the release of Ubuntu 9.04 in April, 2009 Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) opened a service called Ubuntu One to users by invitation only.

Ubuntu One is an online service that enables you to upload, share, synchronize, and store files. You install the Ubuntu One client on your computer, and it integrates with Nautilus (the file manager for the Ubuntu desktop). You can copy files into the Ubuntu One folder in your /home directory, and the client synchronizes them with the Ubuntu One Web site.

On the Web site, you can specify which folders to share and with whom. At the moment, service is in beta testing which means there may be a few problems. But it looks like it will be quite useful. And you get 2 GB of free storage, which isn't too shabby.
Note: An upcoming TechTip will look at online storage and file sharing services.

GNOME Do

Inspired by a Mac utility called Quicksilver, GNOME Do is a very powerful utility that lets you start applications, search for items on your computer and on the Web, and a whole lot more. Once you've given GNOME Do a shot, you'll find it indispensable.

When you start it, GNOME Do sits out of sight. You launch it by pressing the Windows key (also called the Super key) on your keyboard along with the space bar. From there, you type the command or search criteria that you want to execute and press Enter. GNOME Do then fades into the background.

While GNOME DO is a powerful tool, it gets a lot more power and flexibility from its array of plugins. There are dozens of them – some you can download with GNOME Do itself, and others which have been created by enthusiastic users. These plugins do a lot of things, like allowing you to access your files in Google Docs, microblogging, searching for files on your computer, shortening URLs, and looking up words in a dictionary.

GNOME Do can do a lot. And it's fun exploring the application's capabilities.

Guake

One persistent myth about Linux is that it's all command line (also called the terminal). Or, at least, you need to use the command line as much as the graphical user interface. Nothing can be further from the truth. I know several Linux users who've never gone to the command line.

That said, using the command line can enhance your experience with Ubuntu (or any other Linux distribution). For an interesting perspective on why you should learn the command line, read this article.

To get to the command line in Ubuntu, you'd normally select Applications > Accessories > Terminal. That's a lot of work. I like to have the command line at my fingertips. Literally. Which is why I love Guake. Whenever I need it, I just press a hot key (in my case, F9) and Guake literally drops down from the top of my screen. I do whatever I need to do, and then press F9 again to make the Guake window disappear.

You can tweak Guake in a number of different ways. You can change the size of the window to best suit your LCD monitor, set the transparency and background of the window, change the font, and modify the keyboard shortcut to call Guake. You can even configure the behavior of tabs. Yes, you can have multiple terminals in a single Guake window.

Conclusion

Ubuntu really shows the flexibility and potential of the Linux desktop. And the various applications – like the five discussed in this TechTip – add to that flexibility.

Are you an Ubuntu user? If so, what are some of your favorite applications? Leave a comment and share your favorites.

What is the difference between a Virus, Trojan, and Worm?

2009-07-03T07:13:00.000-07:00

Basically, they all fall under the generally category of "viruses". However, there are a few distinctions.

Virus :- Technically, a virus infects another file (attaches or inserts itself into it). They usually infect program files or MS Office documents. From there, it can replicate, do damage, etc. Unlike a worm, these do not function as a stand alone (except possibly to infect a given file).

Worm :- This is almost identical to a "true virus", except that it lives on its own and generally doesn't infect other files (although it can replace them). Usually, these copy themselves using e-mail, networks, disks, etc. Again, these are very close to a true virus, and can do the same kind of damage.

Trojan Horse :- This type of program doesn't copy itself but does do damage to your computer. These types of programs rely on people to pass them around and to run them. They do not e-mail themselves. The idea is to make the program look like it's something harmless, like a screen saver or joke, so it gets sent around.

How to secure/hide folders on personal computer?

2009-07-03T07:10:00.000-07:00

Just imagine if multiple users are using the same computer at home or in office environment then there is no any 100% secure method to protect your personal files. You may be used any third party tools to protect your folders but it is not recommended by Microsoft to use such kinds of tools. Using built-in windows (XP, 2003, Vista) Attrib commands option, you can change the attributes of a folder (Read only, Hidden and System attributes) and safe your data.

Follow the given steps to edit the folders attributes to secure your data :-

*
To enable this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.
*
Now create a folder that you want to hide on any computer drive. (For example, you have created a folder on D drive with the name Data.)
*
Now, click on Start button and type CMD in Run box then press Ok button to display the windows command prompt.
*
Now type the command "attrib +s +h D:\Data" without quotation marks and press Enter button to execute it.
*
This command will hide your "Data" folder from D drive and now you can verify it.
*
Any one cannot unhide this folder using windows "Show hidden files and folders" option also.
*
When you want to unhide this folder, again open command prompt and type the command "attrib -s -h D:\Data" and press Enter button. If you want to hide files then simply move all these files to this "Data" folder.

Rename Multipal file

2009-06-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

When you download photos from your digital camera, they often have unrecognizable names. You can rename several similar files at once with the following procedure. This also works for renaming other types of files.

1.Open the My Pictures folder. (Click Start, and then click My Pictures.) Or open another folder containing files that you want to rename.

2.Select the files you want to rename. If the files you want are not adjacent in the file list, press and hold CTRL, and then click each item to select it.

3.On the File menu, click Rename.

4.Type the new name, and then press ENTER.

All of the files in the series will be named in sequence using the new name you type. For example, if you type Birthday, the first will be named Birthday and subsequent files in the series will be named Birthday (1), Birthday (2), and so on. To specify the starting number for the series, type the starting number in parentheses after the new file name. The files in the series will be numbered in sequence starting with the number you type. For example, if you type Birthday (10), the other files will be named Birthday (11), Birthday (12), and so on.

Install Windows XP on Your Pre-Installed Windows Vista Computer

2009-06-29T12:30:00.000-07:00

The question I am asked most often is "How do I install a dual-boot with Windows XP on my new Windows Vista computer?" The answer is that it's not that difficult, it's just very time consuming, and you need to own a copy of Windows XP.

Note that you should not attempt this if you aren't ready to troubleshoot any problems that might occur.
The first issue we encounter is that computers with pre-installed operating systems take up the entire drive. Luckily Microsoft included the Shrink volume feature in Vista, so we can easily shrink the Vista partition down to make room for XP.

Open the Computer Management panel, which you can find under Administrative tools or by right-clicking the Computer item in the start menu and choosing Manage. Find the Disk Management item in the list and select that.

Now we'll shrink our volume down by right-clicking on the main hard drive and choosing Shrink Volume.

Now you can choose the size that you want to shrink, which really means you are choosing the size that you want your XP partition to be. Whatever you do, don't just use the default. I chose roughly 10gb by entering 10000 into the amount.

The next step might be confusing, because we need to change the cd-rom drive that's invariably taking up D: at the moment, because we want to use D: for the Windows XP partition, but it's already taken by the cd-rom drive. If you skip this step than XP will install onto the E: drive, which isn't the end of the world, but it's not quite as tidy.

Right-click on the cd-rom drive in the list and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths from the menu.

Now we'll change the CD drive to use E: by selecting that in the drop-down.

Now we can create a new partition for XP to live on and make sure that the drive letter is set the way we want. If you do not create a partition now the XP install will do so automatically, but it's easier and cleaner to do it this way.

Right-click on the Unallocated free space area and then select New Simple Volume from the menu.

Follow through the wizard and select whatever options you'd like, making sure to use D: as the drive letter.
Now you will need to close out of disk management and reboot your computer. This is because we can't do the next step until we reboot. (you can try, but it won't work)

So we've come back from rebooting… open up Computer from the start menu and then right-click on the D: drive and select properties.

Give your partition a meaningful name like "XP". It would be wise to name the C: drive to "Vista" at this point as well.

Now you'll want to pop your XP cd into the drive and boot off it. You may have to configure your BIOS to enable booting off the CD drive, or if your computer says something like "Hit Esc for boot menu" you might want to use that.

Once you come to the screen where you can choose the partition to install on, then choose either the unpartitioned space or the new partition you created. Whatever you do, don't try and install onto your Vista partition! See how much cleaner it is now that we've labeled each partition distinctly?

We'll assume XP is completely installed at this point, and you will have lost your ability to boot into Windows Vista, so we'll need to use the VistaBootPro utility to restore the Vista boot loader.

Download and install VistaBootPro from vistabootpro.org

During the install you'll be forced to install the .NET 2.0 framework. Open up VistaBootPRO and then click on the System Bootloader tab. Check the "Windows Vista Bootloader" and then "All Drives" radio buttons, and then click on the Install Bootloader button.

At this point, the Windows Vista bootloader is installed and you'll only be able to boot into Vista, but we'll fix that. Instead of manually doing the work, we'll just click the Diagnostics menu item and then choose Run Diagnostics from the menu.

This will scan your computer and then automatically fill in the XP version.. click on the "Manage OS Entries" tab and then click in the textbox for Rename OS Entry, and name it something useful like "Windows XP" or "The Windows That Works"

Click the Apply Updates button and then reboot your computer… you should see your shiny new boot manager with both operating systems in the list!

If you get an error saying "unable to find ntldr" when trying to boot XP, you'll need to do the following:Find the hidden files ntldr and ntdetect.com in the root of your Vista drive and copy them to the root of your XP drive.

If you can't find the files there, you can find them in the \i386\ folder on your XP install cd

This is a critical piece of information: Windows XP will be installed on the D: drive, even in Windows XP… so you'll need to keep that in mind when tweaking your system.

You can share information between the drives, but I wouldn't recommend messing with the other operating system's partition too much… it might get angry and bite you. Or screw up your files. What I do recommend is that you store most of your files on a third drive shared between the operating systems… you could call that partition "Data".

Enjoy...But,..Be a little careful..!

Windows Magic

2009-06-29T11:22:00.000-07:00

MAGIC #1

For those of you using Windows, do the following:

1.) Open an empty notepad file

2.) Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)

3.) Save it as whatever you want.

4.) Close it, and re-open it. Noticed the weird bug? No one can explain!

MAGIC #2

Again this is something funny and can't be explained At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates, couldn't answer why this happened!

Try it out yourself : Open Microsoft Word and type =rand (200, 99) And then press ENTER And see the magicâ..!

Top 100 Essential Mac Applications

2009-06-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

Computer Files

This section is all about programs that can be used to work with files and applications

1) AppFresh
Software updater is great for Apple applications, but appfresh has the ability to check thrid party apps for updates. A great little tool for keeping upto date.

2) AppZapper
Although applications are easy to uninstall on a mac there are usually small preference files hanging about. Appzapper cleans up an uninstall all of those files.

3) Disk Inventory X
A simple program that scans your disk and visually shows what files takes up how much space, good to visualize if you are running out of space and you have some size hogs.

4) Grand Perspective
Very similar to Disk Inventory X, shows you what files take up how much space on your website.

5) OpenPlist

A very cool little tool if you need to end up editing Plist files.

6) Quicksilver
One of the best applications ever made for the mac. Its a quick launch tool that enables you to open and do practically anything. Very fun and really increases your productivity.

7) Stuffit
An application design to unstuff or unpack nearly any file. Create if you use archives a lot.

8) TextWrangler
A very cool text editor that lets you edit text files quickly. Sometimes more powerful than text edit.

9) TidyUp
An application that enables you to search through a list of files finds duplicates. Great if you have many files and you need to organise them.

10) Todos
Leaves no application behind. A very visual way to view all of the applications on your computer. Kind of surpassed by the stacks in the dock.

11) UnRarX
UnrarX gives you the abilty to easily uncompress .rar files. Very good, although stuffit can now handle .rar files.

12) Xslimmer
Give your mac a diet. It goes through and removes the powerpc or intel parts of your program. It can really reduce the size of applications. Can also break them if you are not careful.

Internet

This section is all about applications that use the internet or this type of connectivity in some way.

13) Adium
A simple all in one AIM, chat client. Supports, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and many other through the use of plugins and basic support. It does lack some functionality in some chat protocols.

14) ApGrapher
A great little program that offers the ability to find information about the wireless networks whizzing around your head.

15) Azureus
One of the best bittorrent clients out there. Has lots of user extensions through the use of plugins.

16) Colloquy
A really powerful application that can be used for the IRC networks. Special care has been taken in this application to make it blend in with the rest of the Mac OS theming.

17) CSSedit
A must for any web developer. CSSedit offers the best tools around to help you edit and modify CSS code for you webpages.

18) Cyberduck
A small lightweight application for ftp. Has some small niggles, but it is free. Transmit is better if you use ftp a lot.

19) Firefox
One of the best web browsers around in my opinion. Has a massive add-on library which you can customize to your needs. A viable alternative to safari.

20) iStumber
I found this a great small application that enabled you to view wireless and bluetooth networks quick and hassle free.

21) LittleSnitch
The application that snitches on any application that is trying to access the net to phone home. Great for protecting you privacy.

22) Netnewswire
A very popular RSS client for the mac, nuff said.

23) Skype
Offering superior calls over the internet, it is the application if you do a lot of talking and want a good quality transmission.

24) Transmission
A light weight bittorrent application that is gaining popularity. Its personal choice at this point of transmission verse Azureus.

25) Transmit
A great application from Panic that will feature a couple of time in this list. It is a powerful application for ftp uploads and downloads.

26) Undercover
A piece of software that dials to the undercover servers if you computer has been stolen. Great if you use a laptop, less useful on a desktop.

27) Unison
Another piece of panic software that enables you to use the usenet newsreader networks. A really good piece of software if you use usenet a lot.

28) Vidalia
A GUI controller for the Tor anonymity network. One click on, one click off, simple and easy to use. Best of all its free.

Multimedia

This section is all about video, images and sound. Anything of this nature is included here.

29) VLC
The all in one application for watching videos. Supports nearly every codec imaginable.

30) Aperture
One of Apples Pro programs for organizing and altering photos. A very powerfull application although comes with a bit of a price tag.

31) Audacity
A free audio editor which has a few advance features that make it create for editing audio for your videos or other applications.

32) Blender
A free 3D modeler which has the same power of many of the most advance applications on the market. Comes with quite a steep learning curve.

33) Delicious Library
A very cool application used to organise your books, movies, games and CD’s. You can use your built in iSight to save time by scanning your books. Very cool and fun to use.

34) DeskLickr
A simple application that uses the vast photo resource of flickr to change your wallpaper every so often. Makes a cool change.

35) Desktastic
Anoter Panic app. This time it can be used to write directly on your desktop. Very cool if you use a tablet for your daily work.

36) Gimp
The free image editing program. Used by many open source and linux users. A create start since Leopard doesn’t include any image editing software.

37) Google Earth
One of the best applications from Google. Use it to zoom in on planet earth and explore the world around you. A great time waster, as well as a very useful tool if you are going anywhere and want to check out the surroundings.

38) HandBreak
An open source application that can quickly convert DVD’s to Mpeg-4.

39) iLife
The all in one package made by Apple. I don’t think this needs any explaining.

40) iShowU
This application takes a direct recording of your screen. Great if you want to make recordings of specific applications. You need a good CPU, a bit of a power hog.

41) Joost
A very hot application that lets you watch free TV. Beautiful application even though the amount of TV stations are a bit small.

42) Photoshop
The high priced application for real pros who want to edit and manipulate images and photos. Not for people with tight wallets.

43) Pixelmator
The medium priced application that has a lot of great image editing potential. Not as expenisive as Photoshop.

44) Shapeshifter
Bored of your interface? Let shape shifter change it for you. Not Leopard compatitble although this is likely to change.

45) Theme Park
A great little app which lets you delve into the resource files for applications and lets you change them. Not as powerful as Shapeshifter but lets you tweak little bits of your operating systems interface.

46) TVShows
A little app that downloads all of the torrent files for your favourite TV shows. You need a bittorrent client to finish the process off.

47) Wallsaver
Puts your screensaver as your wallpaper. Add a bit of life to your desktop.

Little Apps

Little Applications are small applications in size that add a bit of functionality or are just plain cool.

48) Autorate
A simple piece of software that rates your musis in your iTunes libary based on the number of plays and track skips.

49) Fish
A simple little program that shows you little fishes swimming around.

50) iAlertU
A little program that can arm your computer. Moving your laptop will set of the alarm and alert you to intruders.

51) Liquidmac
Once again using the motion sensor in a laptop. This program fills the screen with water which you can play around with by moving your computer.

52) MacSaber
Let your Mac become a jedi. Once again using the motion sensor makes cool lightsaber noises. Don’t let the mac fly out of your hands as it has with a couple of people.

53) Quinn
Tetris on the extreme side of life. A cool little app with amazing graphics on the old arcade favourite Tetris.

54) Resize ‘Em All
A little program which can be used to resize images.

55) Rulers
Put a ruler on your screen. This application lets you measure nearly anything on your screen, great if you are in the design world.

56) smcFanControl
A small application that runs in your menu bar to control your fan speeds. A must if you think your computer runs a bit hot.

57) TimeOut
One for the work-a-holic. A little application that tells you to take a break and stop what you are doing.

58) Wallsaver
Sets your screen saver as your wallpaper. A great little program to add a bit of movement to your desktop.

Tools

This section of essential applications is all about tools. These are tools to do specific task or just to give you information.

59) Apple Remote Desktop
One of Apples many programs that lets you work effectively on your network. This app lets you look in on a remote desktop and work with it remotely.

60) Battery Health
One of many tools used to help you find out how much juice is left in your Mac battery. A tool for any laptop.

61) BootCamp
Installing Windows on a Mac is never easier with BootCamp. A simple program that create a partition on you disk for installing windows.

62) BwanaDik
A menu bar monitoring tool for you network. Lets you find tons of info about you LAN and WAN in one easy to reach place.

63) Carbon Copy Cloner
For serious back ups you need somthing like Carbon Copy Cloner that can clone your entire drive quickly and easily.

64) Chmox
Chmox is a program that enables you to open .chm help files on your Mac. Chm files are not supported in preview.

65) Coconut Battery
A personal favourite of mine, this is another battery tool to monitor the health of your battery. I wish my laptop was run off coconuts.

66) DasBoot
DasBoot is a tool to create a diagnostic and repair kit for your computer to put on an iPod or flash drive.

67) Flip4Mac
The tool endorsed by Microsoft to help with those pesky .wmv files.

68) FreeDMG
This software creates drag and drop .dmg archives on the fly. Easy to use if you make a lot of disk images.

69) GeekTool
GeekTool is a preference pane module to show system logs, unix commands output, or images (i.e. from the internet) on your desktop.

70) Growl
A very useful tool that is used by many applications to show a clean way of displaying messages to you. Like the bubbles in Windows except a hell of a lot better.

71) Hardware Monitor
Hardware Monitor is designed to check the various pieces of hardware on you computer for faults and problems as well as give messages back to you.

72) Hex Fiend

Editing hex files cannot be easier with Hex Fiend.

73) HoudahGeo
HoudahGeo allows you to add Geo data to any image within the EXIF data. Helps you find your way around the world in your images.

74) iStat Menus
iStat Menus off a wide range of statistical analysis of your computer including various hardware bits. Their widget is one of my favouites.

75) Mac Pilot
This piece of software allows you to modify various parts of your computer that you would normally have to do through Terminal.

76) MacJanitor
This little app cleans up various system files and other bits and bobs to keep your computer running smoothly.

77) MainMenu
MainMenu is another piece of software to help you keep your computer running smoothly. This one has more advance options such as rebuilding the spotlight database.

78) MenuMeters
Another monitor piece of software but this one is designed to run within the menu bar.

79) Monolingual
Who needs to know French. Monolingual removes the languages from the computer that you do not need.

80) Operation
A project management tool that lets you organise your projects quickly and easily.

81) Parallels
Highly recommended virtualization software for virtualizing other OS’s.

82) Service Scrubber
Helps you organise and remove services from your menus (Name of App > Services)

83) SquidDan
Once a very popular proxy tool for sorting out your own proxy for handling your internet connection. Has become disused over time.

84) Stomp
Stomp those big files down to size. Helps reduce video files into more compressed formats.

85) SuperDuper
Another great backing up utility although its not fully Leopard compatible at the time of writing.

86) Synergy2
A very cool little application that lets you share a mouse and keyboard between one or more computers.

87) TinkerTool
A tool that lets you access more preferences the Apple has built into the OS.

88) VMWare
Another very good piece virtualization software to enable to to virtualize other OS’s.

Work

This final section ,and to round up, is going to be all about top programs for use at work.

89) Cha-Ching
A simple money program that helps you organise your accounts, budgets and finances.

90) Concept Draw
More of a group of programs that offer a wide range of applications such as flow charts to mind maps.

91) Filemaker
A cross platform database application, that has amazing power and potential.

92) iWork
Apples work application package to complement iLife, a good package if you want the Apple integration although lacks on some features.

93) Microsoft Office
Office is one of the most prominent packages on the Windows machines for work programs. Very good on Mac, although some small annoying bugs.

94) Money2
Another application for managing your accounts. The interface on this program is amazing.

95) Neooffice
An Open Office port to Mac, like Microsoft Office, except its free.

96) Nvu
A very powerful webpage editor for designing and creating websites. Just as good as Dreamweaver.

97) Omnigraffle
A brill program that offers a really cool way of creating presentation diagrams. Check out the Omni Groups offerings for all of the cool programs they have to offer.

98) Process
Another program by Jumsoft on this list that lets you plan and organise your projects.

99) Quicken
Another personal finance program, but this one feels more corporate and official.

100) Yojimbo
A cool little program that helps you organise all your bits of information, great if you end up filling up dashboard with millions of stickies.

free backup

2009-06-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

Sign up for an account. Sign up and create a MozyHome Free account. It's that simple and it's free.
Download and install the software. The MozyHome backup software downloads in just seconds, and step-by-step instructions guide you through the installation process.
Select the files you want to back up. Simply check the boxes next to the types of files you want to back up or select specific files and directories, and MozyHome does the rest.

Get 2 GB of 100% free online backup for your photos, music, and other files. No credit cards, no monthly payments or fees, and no expiration.

If 2 GB just won't cut it, insure all your files with MozyHome Unlimited. It costs less than a cheeseburger to protect your entire home computer.

How to Run PlayStation 2 (PS2) Games on Your PC with PCSX2

2009-06-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

There has always been a gap between computer gamers and console gamers. Generally because of the impossibility of a console gamer to play computer gamesor a PC gamer to play console–only games. Luckily for us, some people just don’t understand when to quit and keep on trying to create a bridge between consoles and computers as far as gaming is concerned.

Those people are the ones behind console emulators for the PC allowing PC gamers to play titles that appeared in a console-only format. This is how emulators such as Chankast for the Sega Dreamcast, Dolphin GameCube emulator, ePSXe PlayStation One emulator and many more appeared. Next generation consoles, however, seemed to be impossible to emulate on a modern computer mainly because their architecture is pretty different from that of a computer. Although it is said that console manufacturers have created emulators, there are no real facts confirming these speculations.

There are numerous teams working on Xbox360 and Nintendo Wii emulators, and one has just succeeded in making the first emulator to play PlayStation 2 video games. Starting with version 0.9.6, PCSX2 can play most console games on your computer at acceptable speeds. I will continue by showing you how to configure your PCSX2 emulator. Let’s start with the basics: download the latest version and install it. After completing the installation, double click the short cut created and start configuring your emulator.

The graphics: configuring the graphics is easy. Go to the Graphics section and choose to use the GSdx 890 0.1.14. Plug in and choose these settings: Resolution: Windowed, Renderer: Direct3D10 (Hardware), no Interlacing, texture filtering and an internal resolution of 1024 x 1024. Now, press OK and you have just configured your graphics to play PS2 games at fast frame rates. The emulator should be preconfigured but better safe than sorry, right? In case you don’t have a DX10 compatible video card, Direct3D 9(Hardware) is always an option.

Let’s continue by configuring the sound. My personal favorite is SPU2-x 1.1.0. Choose the “configure option” and make sure you use Linear Interpolation and XAudio 2. These should be the recommended options so you won’t have any trouble (don’t tick any other option… it will make the emulator highly unstable).

For the Cdvdrom emulator, it’s best that you use Gigaherz’s CDVD Plugin 0.7.0 and choose the drive you will be inserting the CD in. Side note: if you are planning to use disc images and not actual discs, I advise you to load them up with a third-party tool, such as Alcohol or Daemon Tools.

The last part of the basic comfiguration is the First and Second Controller comfiguration . My personal favorite is LilyPad 0.9.9. Choose this plug in, then press configure and start configuring your buttons (I can’t help you on that one because you know better than anyone how you want to play. A word of advice, though: the L Stick controls movement in most PS2 games so you might want it configured to your arrow keys or WASD keys. The R Stick usually controls the camera.

So, you have configured your game, yet it still runs slowly? Then, let’s get to the more advanced options, shall we? First of all, Cpu Config: if you don’t have at least a dual core CPU, don’t even think about running the PCSX2, since it is pretty CPU intensive. If you have at least a dual core, just tick all the options in order to get maximum speed and choose Limit for the Frame Limiting option. Normal will give you lower speed, Frame Skip will give you bad FMV in most games and VU Skip is Frame Skip just worse.

The “Game Special Fixes” menu allows you to choose custom options for certain games that sometimes happen to have a good effect on other games as well. It’s best if you tick them all

Now, heading to the PCSX2 speed Hacks menu. Although it has a lot of options that increase speeds, I have found it works best when you use a Default Cycle Rate and enable INTC Sync Hack, IOP x2 Cycle Rate, as well as WaitCycles Sync Hack. After pressing OK, head over to the Advanced Options tab where you should just choose the default options and not bother yourself with anything else (really touchy, this one).

Even if the comfiguration is officially over, you should know that in order to play PS2 games, you need a bios dump from a PlayStation 2 console (put it in the Bios folder… that’s what the Bios folder is for). Although there are many easy (illegal) ways to obtain the files, I strongly recommend the legal way: using a bios dumper and dumping the bios from a PS2 console. These settings allowed me to play PS2 games at more than acceptable speeds.

It has worked on two low to medium-end PCs: an Intel Core 2Duo CPU E7200 2.53GHz, 2046 DDR2RAM with GeForce 8600 GTS 512VRAM AND an AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.1 GHz, 2046 DDR3 RAM with GeForce 8500 GT 512 VRAM/ATI Radeon X1300 with 512VRAM.

About The Concept NOKIA 888 A phone of the future

2009-06-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

*design concept

“Form follows you”
A personal mobile communication device which lets you be free and fun. It is light, simple and carefree. You can change its form according to your needs during the day.

*target

It is targeted to the young consumers who are likely to be active and take place in a lot of different activities.

*why this target ?

Because they move and change place too much. They do a lot of different things during the day. So that’s what my design offers : to adjust to the moment, the place and the function.

*technologies that are used

It uses liquid battery, speech recognition, flexible touch screen, touch sensitive body cover which lets it understand and adjust to the environment. It has a simple programmable body mechanism so that it changes forms in different situations.

*the functionality of design

You dont have to carry it in your pocket or on your wrist. You can carry it anywhere, in anyform. You can roll it, bend it, put on your clothes like a clip. It also makes some form changes that makes it more ergonomical: i.e. when you want to talk on the phone, the body form turns into the form of the good old telephone. You can personalize these forms and record them. So it fits you the best in the way that you have chosen. The functions that it has also create a feeling of electronical pet, as it senses your moves, understand what you want, respond you in the best way. It learns you, to fit you better.Also e-motions lets you send forms to the other 888 users. It could be the shape of a heart or a small dance. This way you can talk without words.

*how the user interacts

E-motions… It means electronical motions that 888 has. You can send and receive forms from / to friends. You can send a heart shape to your girlfriend, so her telephone turns into an icon of heart. Or you can send a dancing form to your friends to call them to the party tonight. This is the fun side of the product. If we look from the functionality side, 888 is quite flexible. You can put it into your pocket, roll it and make it smaller, or put on your wrist when you want to make a video call on the go. If you want to talk like a normal telephone, there you have your telephone shape. We go through a lot of places and situations in the daily life, so it seems like one form is not enough.

*what is unique ?

You can change the form of the body. Not just the color. And you can do the same by sending an e-motion to your friend.

*the inspiration

The idea is that “the perfect form” does not exist. “Form follows you”
We create the perfect form for each function.

Tamer NAKISCI
industrial designer

Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts
Istanbul / TURKEY

'm All For the Environment...But You Can't Have My iPod

2009-06-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

A new survey finds consumers wants to buy greener and more environmentally-friendly products...but not if it means being inconvenienced.

A new "Eco Pulse" survey of just over 1,000 American households finds that while Americans are trying to buy greener products and be more environmentally conscious with their purchases…but don't want to give up modern conveniences. When asked if they would give up cell phones, microwaves, air conditioning, computers, or iPods, most Americans said "no"—even if they thought those products were harming the environment.

"Consumers don't want to give up the modern conveniences of life," said Suzanne Shelton, whose firm The Shelton Group conducted the survey. "We're all basically saying, 'I'll be green as long it doesn't make me uncomfortable or inconvenienced.'"

Some 38 percent of survey respondents would be willing to give up their iPods if they were hurting the environment…which, of course, means 62 percent would not be willing to give up their precious media players. The percentages go down from there: only 35 percent would give up their dishwasher, 25 percent would give up their microwave oven, 21 percent would give up their cell phone, 14 percent would give up air conditioning, and only 13 percent would give up their televisions. Even less popular sacrifices on the altar of eco-consciousness? Computers and cars, with only 7 and 6 percent of respondents, respectively, willing to give them up.

Over a fifth of respondents—21 percent—weren't willing to give up anything, even if they knew it was harming the environment.

The Shelton Group speculates that the most effective way for consumers to adopt green products it to make environmentally-friendly products as convenient and easy to use as the less eco-savvy items they replace. Examples would be Energy Star appliances—which typically require no additional effort from consumers after purchase—and straight-ahead replacements for existing products.

Windows 7, Now Stronger Against Hackers

2009-06-21T11:03:00.000-07:00

The new Windows contains a safe unlinking feature, making attacker exploits far more difficult than before.

You’ve got to keep building better mousetraps, and that what Microsoft appears to have included in its new Windows 7. The OS includes a feature called safe unlinking that makes it a great deal harder for attackers to exploit bugs within the operating system.

It’s in the part of the kernel responsible for allocating and de-allocating memory, and works by checking before the removal of an entry to ensure it’s not an OS exploit called a pool overrun.

Peter Beck, a member of Microsoft's Security Science team, wrote:

"This simple check blocks the most common exploit technique for pool overruns. It doesn't mean pool overruns are impossible to exploit, but it significantly increases the work for an attacker."

The company decided to act because “the proportion of security bulletins affecting the Windows kernel has been increasing, from under 5% in 2007 to just over 10% in 2008.”

A similar feature was added to Service Pack 2 for XP, and added to Vista. One concern was whether it would affect speed, but Beck pointed out that “in practice this check adds no more than 8 instructions to the binary in each place it occurs; this is not enough to make a noticeable difference.”

Where to Change Folder Options and Folder Types in Windows 7?

2009-06-19T05:25:00.000-07:00

The place where to change folder options has been changed since Windows Vista, which remains in Windows 7. It used to be located in tools –> folder options in windows explorer in Windows XP but since Vista, you can find them

either in Control Panel and Folder options

or Folder and Search options under Organize dropdown menu in Windows Explorer.

And then the following Folder and Search options window pops up, in where you can change some advanced settings to change the way how you browser your folders and files.

Wait a second, where is the File Types that used to be in the same window where I can manually set up the file associations? Here is how:

Right-click the file and choose properties. If the file type of the file you choose is not a executable file, you will see Change button under General tab where you can re-define the file association.

How to get Official Windows 7 beta RC activation code product key for free

2009-06-19T04:54:00.000-07:00

Windows 7 BETA and Windows 7 RC (Release Candidate) are the two official Windows 7 versions that had released to public. Both are free for download, but activation is required. You can use Windows 7 without activating for 30 days, after that you have to get register activation, or else your PC will not let you login anymore.

It’s very simple to get real activation code for Windows 7 and it’s free. All you need is just a Microsoft Live ID (MSN, or HOTMAIL account)

Go to this link http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

You should see something like this, chose the version of your OS 32 bit or 64 bit and then chose your language.
Enter your Live ID and password
Wooha ! free official activation code are yours, here is an example of what you will get

Now you have your own unique product key, note for Windows beta and Windows RC both Product key will work

OpenOffice.org 3.1 is available for download

2009-06-17T05:07:00.000-07:00

07 May 2009: OpenOffice.org 3.1 was officially released to the world at 09:00 UTC today. Read all about the new features in this release and download it now!

Have you tried Ubuntu yet?

2009-06-17T04:41:00.000-07:00

DivX playback, Totem player, Windowed.

One of my new years resolutions for 2007 was to use an open source operating system. I don’t mean try it out and forget about it - rather, I want to learn how to use it for day to day work (which I would normally do on an XP powered PC).

And each day I use this new OS, I’m amazed by how easy it is to use. The purpose of this little article is to give Windows XP users a rough idea on how easy it is to use Ubuntu, and see how Ubuntu compares with Windows XP

Pre installation FAQ

What is Ubuntu? Ubuntu is an open source operating system. What that generally means is, Ubuntu can be downloaded for free, and you can use it on your system without paying for a licence.
Yes, but isn’t that OS for Linux experts? Don’t you need to know Linux? Not necessarily. Ubuntu works mostly via a graphical user interface (similar to Windows XP, you use a mouse, click buttons, etc). Most operations are completed with a mouse. Very rarely you may have to perform some advanced operations using a terminal/console (like MS Dos window).
How easy is it to install? Basically, you boot off the CD and follow the prompts. Installation is via a GUI.
How do I get the CD? You can download an ISO image of the CD from http://www.ubuntu.com/ - burn this image onto a CD and boot off that CD.
Will it recognise my hardware? Ubuntu recognised all hardware on my test PC without any problems. Contrast this with XP which required me to download additional drivers for VGA and Sound! Does this guarantee all your hardware will be recognised? No, but most of the time, it just works.
Does it require a lot of space? Actually I was told (during the installation process) that you will need around 2.5GB of space, which is not bad considering that Ubuntu comes with many applications (e.g. Open Office), unlike Windows XP.
But I only know how to use XP? How can I retrain myself to use Ubuntu?? The most surprising thing is, you don’t have to retrain yourself - most of the functionality of the desktop/etc is very similar to Windows XP. I don’t mean to say Ubuntu mimics Windows (they don’t), rather, if you are familiar with XP you should be able to find your way around Ubuntu easily. Actually, it’s more accurate to say both XP and Ubuntu are intuitive and follow common concepts and logical processes in their graphical user interfaces (translation: if you can use XP, you will probably be fine with Ubuntu).

The Ubuntu Experience

To give you an idea of what it’s like to use Ubuntu

I was amazed at how many applications are included with Ubuntu - right out of the box, this OS seems to include everything I could think of - office software, DVD/CD Writing software, Email and Internet browser, graphics, etc, all included, fully functional, and ready to use.

The Desktop

I’ve tweaked the menu to start from below (like XP) because I’m used to that Old habits..

As you can see, it’s a lot like XP - you have your “Computer”, and a taskbar which shows Tabs for windows, a clock, and a menu to launch programs, accessories, etc. Yup, just like XP - so nothing to relearn here as such!

Included Software:

Unlike Windows, Ubuntu includes a range of popular Linux applications for various tasks such as Graphics, Wordprocessing, etc. Most of these software packages are equivalent to (or better than) similar commercial Windows applications

Graphics Software:

GIMP is a professional graphics software, similar to Photoshop.

Office software:

Ubuntu includes Open Office which is similar to Microsoft Office - it includes applications for Spreadsheet, Word processing, database, and presentation.

Games:

Ubuntu includes a large collection of preinstalled games

Security:

One big plus point of Ubuntu is, as with most Linux distros, it is very secure. Virus and spyware generally are not much of a threat (compared to Windows environment) as most attacks are directed against Windows.

Also, users aren’t automatically set up as administrators - and most admin operations require a password, so it’s harder for a malicious application to attack the system.

Also, as Ubuntu is open source, the code is regularly checked by thousands of people worldwide, and bugs are quickly fixed.

Summary

Ubuntu is professional operating system, it’s simple to use, includes freeware versions of most Windows software, and, did I forget to mention, happnens to be FREE?

Over the next few days I will write more articles on my Ubuntu experience.

PS: Hi to everyone at http://www.groklaw.net/

Ubuntu tips n tricks 1

2009-06-17T04:02:00.000-07:00

1. Customise the panel (taskbar)

It’s the classic Windows XP desktop - In Ubuntu!!

Ubuntu includes the Gnome panel - this allows you to add or remove menu items in various ways to panels - they can be located on the top/bottom/left/right of screen, like XP’s taskbar - Unlike XP, you can have more than one taskbar in Ubuntu.

I like Windows XP’s menu system, so I’ve configured my system to be similar (single panel at bottom like XP taskbar). Here’s how I did that:

Delete bottom panel: (right click over it, and click delete)
Move top panel to bottom: right click, select panel properties, change orientation to bottom.
Delete the various menu items you don’t need from the panel (I deleted all except the date) by rightclicking and selecting remove from panel).
Add the main menu: Right click panel, select add to panel, scroll down to ‘utilities’, find main menu, click it and drag it to bottom left of panel.
Add the show desktop button (under desktop and windows).
Add tabs: to add a list of tabs for open windows, select window list under desktop and windows, and drag it to the bottom.
Add the network monitor (or modem monitor if you use one).
You can add any other icons you like.

2. Add the computer to your desktop

Not that you need to, but if you miss it, you can add it by dragging it off the places menu

3. Adding shortcuts

Ubuntu allows you to set up keyboard shortcuts - in this case I will show how to set up a shortcut for Terminal (some Ubuntu tasks need you to access the terminal). You can make a hotkey to it easily by going to System - Preferences - Keyboard Shortcuts, then select Run a terminal, and press the shortcut combination you want - e.g. alt+t, and click close.

4. Enable media playback

By default, Ubuntu does not enable playback of non open source media formats via its movie player. To re-enable this feature so you can play DivX, etc, by following the instructions here: (do whats described in the “how to make things work in a hurry” section.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

5. Install Wine (Enables you to run Windows software under Ubuntu Linux!!)

Microsoft Word under Wine - not really necessary as open office is already installed - but I did this to test the installation process on Wine - it works!

Open synaptic package manager (System - Administration - Synaptic package manager.
Enable all repositories (Settings - repositories - and tick the unticked ones)
Reload (click reload).
Click search, type Wine - scroll through the list till you find “wine” and doubleclick Mark the packages, then click apply
Downloading package files wait for all files to be downloaded, follow the prompts to install Wine.

After you instal wine, you can run a program by clicking Alt F2 (run) and then type wine /path/to/application e.g. wine /media/cdrom0/setup.exe

You can now install many Windows applications on your Ubuntu PC, and even create shortcuts to them.

6. Reconfigure Screen (if it doesnt work properly)

Sometimes Ubuntu’s default installation won’t detect your monitor properly (e.g. you can’t select all the resolutions you had under XP), also if you change your monitor (e.g. from a CRT to LCD) or change graphic cards, you might find that ubuntu no longer loads properly.

You can fix this by reconfiguring the graphics setup by logging to terminal on startup (press esc when Grub loads and follow the prompts) then type:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

7. Pronounce the name right

For some strange reason, some people pronounce Ubuntu as U-BAN-tu. This is wrong. Ubuntu is pronounced as oo-BOON-tu, and if you don’t believe me, just watch the video about Ubuntu which features Nelson Mandela (included on the installation disk).

So, what are your favorite Ubuntu tricks? Please add them as comments

Need more tips and tricks? Check out the Ubuntu forum here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=100

Modify Styles Consecutively in a Word Document

2009-06-17T03:40:00.000-07:00

When I have numerous paragraph styles to modify, I like to modify them one after the other without closing the Style dialog box—something you can't do when using the Styles and Formatting task pane. Here's how you can access the Style dialog box to modify paragraph styles:

1. Make sure you are in normal view by choosing Normal from the View menu.

2. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the View tab.

3. In the Style area width box under Outline and Normal options, enter a measurement for the width of the style area, for example, 1.2" and click OK.

4. In the style area that appears on the left side of the screen, double-click the name of the first paragraph style you want to modify.

5. When the Style dialog box opens, make your adjustments and click Apply. Any changes you make to that style are applied throughout the document.

6. Now, without closing the Style dialog box, select and modify the next style. In this way, you can modify every style in the document, one after the other.

View or Modify Formatting with the Task Pane

2009-06-17T03:38:00.000-07:00

You can use the new Reveal Formatting task pane in Word 2002 to view a detailed description of any text in your document. You can also use it to modify or clear the formatting; compare the formatting of different selections, or to find blocks of text with similar formatting. Here's how to use it:

1. Select the text you want to examine or reformat.

2. From the Format menu, select Reveal Formatting.

3. Do any of the following:

§ To change any formatting properties, click one of the underlined commands from within the task pane, and then change any options you want in the dialog box that appears.

§ To determine the formatting source, such as whether the formatting comes from a style, select the Distinguish style source check box.

§ To show formatting marks, such as paragraph marks and tabs, select the Show all formatting marks check box.

§ To format a text selection like the text that surrounds it, select the text. In the Selected text box, click the arrow, and then click Apply Formatting of Surrounding Text.

§ To view a feature-by-feature comparison of your text selection with another block of text, select the Compare to another section check box and then select another block of text.

Editor's Note: You can also open the Reveal Formatting task pane by choosing What's This? on the Help menu or selecting text within your document and pressing SHIFT+F1.

Use the Mail Merge Wizard to Make Mass Mailings Easy

2009-06-17T03:36:00.000-07:00

The Mail Merge feature in Word, which you can use to create many personalized letters from one standard letter, has always been a timesaver. But it was also tricky to learn and use, especially for new users. Not anymore! The new Mail Merge Wizard in Word version 2002 walks you through every step of the process. It helps you:

1. Select the type of document: letter, label, envelope, or even e-mail message.

2. Open or create a list of recipients, or choose individuals from your Outlook Contacts.

3. Insert merge fields, such as name and address, into the document.

4. Preview the document and remove any recipients before merging.

5. Print the finished documents.

To access this new feature:

1. On the Tools menu, point to Letters and Mailings, and click Mail Merge Wizard.

2. When the Mail Merge task pane appears, simply follow the instructions.

Find Shortcuts to Useful Word Features on the Status Bar

2009-06-17T03:34:00.000-07:00

Did you know that the status bar, that area at the bottom of Word documents where the page number appears, also provides shortcuts to a number of very useful features? Here are a few you may want to use:

§ To open the Find and Replace dialog box, double-click any location indicator on the status bar, such as the page number or section number.

§ To turn the macro recorder on or off, double-click REC.

§ To turn the Track Changes feature on or off, double-click TRK.

§ To turn extend selection mode on or off, double-click EXT.

§ To turn overtype mode on or off, double-click OVR.

§ To change the language format of selected text, double-click Language.

§ To resolve errors in grammar or spelling, double-click the Spelling and Grammar Status icon. Note: When the previous features are turned off, their labels appear dimmed.

Editor's Note: If your status bar is not visible, go to the Tools menu, click Options, click the View tab, and then select the Status bar check box under Show.

Navigate Word Documents by Using the Table of Contents

2009-06-17T03:29:00.000-07:00

When writing long documents in Microsoft Word, you'll find the table of contents (TOC) is an indispensable tool—even if you don't include the TOC in your final draft! Why? The TOC creates internal links (similar to the ones you find on a Web page) that you can use to quickly navigate a document as you work. And, if you're already using styles, adding a TOC is easy.

First, be sure that you've applied either built-in (for example, Heading 1 and Heading 2) or custom styles to all headings and subheadings in your document.

Once you have done that, you can insert a TOC at the beginning or end of your document. To do so:

1. Click where you want to insert the TOC.

2. On the Insert menu, point to Reference, and click Index and Tables.

3. Click the Table of Contents tab.

4. Click Options and make sure a TOC level number appears next to every heading you want to include in your TOC.

5. Select any other TOC options you want.

Now, to go to a specific section in your document, click the corresponding page number in the TOC while holding down the CTRL key. To return to the TOC, click the Go to TOC button on the Outlining toolbar.

Editor's Note: To make the Outlining toolbar visible, open the View menu, point to Toolbars, and click Outlining.

Microsoft Word Tips and Tricks

2009-06-17T03:18:00.000-07:00

Remove All Formatting in Two Easy Steps

Here's a great way to remove all of the formatting from a Word document or just a selected portion of the document:

1. Select the whole document by pressing CTRL+A or just select the portion of the document you wish to change.

2. Press CTRL+SHIFT+N.

Presto! All of your formatting is removed from the document or selection.

History of computer

2009-06-15T19:59:00.000-07:00

Nearly 5,000 years ago the abacus emerged in Asia Minor. The abacus may be considered the first computer. This device allowed its users to make computations using a system of sliding beads arranged on a rack. Early shopkeepers used the abacus to keep up with transactions. The use of pencil and paper spread, the abacus lost its importance. Nearly twelve centuries past before the next important advance in computing devices emerged.

In 1642, Blaise Pascal, the 18-year-old son of a French tax collector, invented what he called a numerical wheel calculator to help his father with his duties. The Pascaline, a brass rectangular box, used eight movable dials to add sums up to eight figures long. Pascal's device used a base of ten to achieve this. The disadvantage to the Pascaline, of course, was its limitation to addition. In 1694, Gottfried Wilhem von Leibniza a German mathematician and philosopher improved the Pascaline by creating a machine that could also multiply. Like its predecessor, Leibniz's mechanical multiplier worked by a system of gears and dials.

It wasn't until 1820, however, that mechanical calculators gained widespread use. A Frenchman, Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar, invented a machine that could perform the four basic mathematic functions. The arithometer, presented a more systematic approach to computing because it could add, subtract, multiply and divide. With its enhanced versatility, the arithometer was widely used up until World War I.

The real beginnings of computers began with an English mathematics professor, Charles Babbage. Babbage's steam-powered Engine, outlined the basic elements of a modern general purpose computer and was a breakthrough concept. The Analytical Engine consisted of over 50,000 components. The basic design of included input devices in the form of perforated cards containing operating instructions and a "store" for memory of 1,000 numbers of up to 50 decimal digits long.

In 1889, an American inventor, Herman Hollerith, created a machine that used cards to store data information which was fed into a machine and compiled the results mechanically. Each punch on a card represented one number, and combinations of two punches represented one letter. As many as 80 variables could be stored on a single card. Hollerith brought his punch card reader into the business world, founding Tabulating Machine Company in 1896, later to become International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924 after a series of mergers. Other companies also manufactured punch readers for business use. Both business and government used punch cards for data processing until the 1960's.

When World War II began, the governments sought to develop computers to accomplishment their potential strategic importance. This increased funding for computer development projects and hastened technical progress. In 1941, a German engineer Konrad Zuse had developed a computer to design airplanes and missiles. The Allied forces, however, made greater strides in developing powerful computers. American efforts produced a broader achievement. In 1933, Howard H. Aiken, a Harvard engineer working with IBM, succeeded in producing an all-electronic calculator. The purpose of the computer was to create ballistic charts for the U.S. Navy. It was about half as long as a football field and contained about 500 miles of wiring. It used electromagnetic signals to move mechanical parts. The machine was slow taking 3-5 seconds per calculation and inflexible in that sequences of calculations could not change; but it could perform basic arithmetic as well as more complex equations.

Another computer development spurred by the war was the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC). It consisted of 18,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors and 5 million soldered joints, the computer was such a massive piece of machinery that it consumed 160 kilowatts of electrical power. ENIAC was developed by John Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchl. ENIAC was a general-purpose computer.

In 1945, Von Neumann designed the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC) with a memory to hold both a stored program as well as data. This "stored memory" technique as well as the "conditional control transfer," that allowed the computer to be stopped at any point and then resumed, allowed for greater versatility in computer programming. The key element to the von Neumann architecture was the central processing unit, which allowed all computer functions to be coordinated through a single source. In 1951, the UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer), built by Remington Rand, became one of the first commercially available computers to take advantage of these advances. The first computers were characterized by the fact that operating instructions were made-to-order for the specific task for which the computer was to be used. Each computer had a different binary-coded program called a machine language that told it how to operate. This made the computer difficult to program and limited its versatility and speed. Other unique features of first computers were the use of vacuum tubes and magnetic drums for data storage.

The invention of the transistor greatly changed the computer's development in 1948. The transistor replaced the large, cumbersome vacuum tubes. The transistor was at work in the computer by 1956. Throughout the early 1960's, there were a number of commercially successful computers used in business, universities, and government from companies such as Burroughs, Honeywell, IBM, and others. These computers also contained transistors in place of vacuum tubes. They also contained all the components we associate with the modern day computer: printers, disk storage, memory, tape storage, operating systems, and stored programs.

By 1965, most large business routinely processed financial information using computers. It was the stored program and programming language that gave computers the flexibility to finally be cost effective and productive for business use. Though transistors were clearly an improvement over the vacuum tube, they still generated a great deal of heat, which damaged the computer's sensitive internal parts. Jack Kilby, an engineer with Texas Instruments, developed the integrated circuit in 1958. The IC combined three electronic components onto a small silicon disc, which was made from quartz. Scientists later managed to fit even more components on a single chip, called a semiconductor.

By the 1980's, very large scale integration squeezed hundreds of thousands of components onto a chip. Ultra-large scale integration increased that number into the millions. The ability to fit so much onto an area about half the size of a dime helped diminish the size and price of computers. It also increased their power, efficiency and reliability. By the mid-1970's, computer manufacturers sought to bring computers to general consumers. These minicomputers came complete with user-friendly software packages that offered even non-technical users an arrangement of applications, most popularly word processing and spreadsheet programs..

In 1981, IBM introduced its personal computer (PC) for use in the home, office and schools. The 1980's saw an expansion in computer use in all three arenas as clones of the IBM PC made the personal computer even more affordable. The number of personal computers in use more than doubled from 2 million in 1981 to 5.5 million in 1982. Ten years later, 65 million PCs were being used. As computers became more widespread in the workplace, new ways to harness their potential developed. As smaller computers became more powerful, they could be linked together, or networked, to share memory space, software, information and communicate with each other. Computers continue to grow smaller and more powerful.

Introduction of a computer

2009-06-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

Computers play a key role in how individuals work and how they live. Even the smallest organizations have computers to help them operate more efficiently, and many individuals use computers at home for educational, entertainment, and business purposes. In this session, you will learn the basics about computers, the history of computers, the different categories of computers, hardware and software, and maintaining your computer. You will also learn about computer applications in education and explore various technology issues that are related to computers such as security, privacy and ethics.