Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Remove Service Pack 1's uninstall files-- save almost a Gig

Folks, today I'm passing along a quick tip that I picked up from Bill Detwiler over at TechRepublic. This is for folks who are running Vista and who have installed Service Pack 1.

As I wrote about in my article Running with Vista Service Pack 1, If you are running a Vista machine, you really want to install the package of Updates and bug fixes called "SP1". (Microsoft installed SP1 via Windows Updates a few months ago, and so you may not even be aware that you were upgraded.)

If you are happy with SP1 and are sure you are not going to want uninstall it -- and I cannot think of one good reason why you would uninstall it -- you can delete SP1's uninstall files, and recover at least 800 MB's* of space on your hard drive in about a minute's time (that's about 250 MP3's worth).

Tip of the day: remove the unnecessary pre-S P1 files from your Vista machine.
1) Open a command prompt with Administrator privileges. (Start> Programs> Accessories, right-click on "Command Prompt" and select "Run as Administrator")
RunAs
2) Type in "vsp1cln" (no quotes) and hit Enter.
image

The file cleaning tool will take a couple of minutes to run, depending on your machine, and when it's done, you will have almost a Gigabyte more storage on your hard drive-- it cleaned 925 MB's from my hard-drive.
I know, on today's giant drives that's not a big deal.. but who wants useless files taking up space for no reason?

Today's free link: SpywareBlaster from Javasoft. "SpywareBlaster doesn't scan for and clean spyware--it prevents it from being installed in the first place. SpywareBlaster prevents the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, dialers, browser hijackers, and other potentially unwanted programs. It can also block spyware/tracking cookies in IE, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, and many other browsers, and restrict the actions of spyware/ad/tracking sites." [note: this very useful tool requires that you manually check for updates.]

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

New search engine respects your privacy

There's a new player in the search engine game. It's named Cuil (and yes, it's pronounced "cool") and it claims to have indexed three times as many webpages as Google.image

We all have our favorite search engine, and whether yours is Google, or Yahoo, or MSN, or Ask, or.. whichever, I think you should at least give Cuil a look-see. Why? (You ask) Well, Cuil does things a little differently than those others do them.
* results are not "ranked" by popularity, but by keyword, relevance, and page content.
* your searching history is not tracked and stored.

It is this second one that appeals to me. Here's Cuil's privacy statement: "Privacy is a hot topic these days, and we want you to feel totally comfortable using our service, so our privacy policy is very simple: when you search with Cuil, we do not collect any personally identifiable information, period. We have no idea who sends queries: not by name, not by IP address, and not by cookies. Your search history is your business, not ours."

And here's (part of) Google's*:

  • Google uses cookies and other technologies to enhance your online experience and to learn about how you use Google services in order to improve the quality of our services.
  • Google's servers automatically record information when you visit our website or use some of our products, including the URL, IP address, browser type and language, and the date and time of your request.
    (*Yahoo, MSN, and the others do the same thing.)

    And so, if your privacy is a concern of yours, and/or you would like to stop playing the popularity game, I recommend you give Cuil a try. And since it produces results in a different layout than you're used to seeing on the others-- such as the use of tabs, and "drilldowns" (used to narrow down the list of results by category)-- I also recommend taking a brief moment to look over the explanatory "features" page to see how it works.
    http://www.cuil.com/info/features/.

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

  • Saturday, July 26, 2008

    Pen Scanners-- A Back-to-School Must

    There are some technologies that really do make me say, "gee, I wish they had that when I was a kid", and one of them is the hand-held document scanner.

    A hand-held document scanner is pretty much exactly what it sounds like it is; a portable device that allows you to "scan" text and images into digital form so you can store them on your computer... and thus access them for later study.
    It's kind of like having your very own pocket Xerox machine.

    pen scanner

    This is simply a "must have" if you are a researcher, or a student, as it replaces hand-writing out your notes, or carrying pockets full of coins to feed into the library's copy machine.

    When you find a relevant passage in a book, or other document, you simply pass the device over the text, much like you would use a highlighter. Later, you attach the device to your PC via a USB cord, and thanks to OCR, you can open your scanned passages in a text editor, like Word.

    Hand-held document scanners (generally) come in two flavors; a true "pen" style -- as pictured above -- and a "wand" style.
    planon-docupen-rc800-scan_m

    The "pen" style makes it easier to capture just the lines of text that you are interested in. However, you must pass it in a fairly straight line, and wobbling it high or low may cause you to have to rescan the sentence (most have a preview window).. and some people use a plastic ruler as a guide.

    I prefer the "wand" style, even though it (usually) means capturing a whole page. The color versions of these devices are pretty good at scanning images. Another advantage of the wand is if you are scanning tables and charts-- the included software allows you to open the scanned tables in Excel.

    Tip of the day: A simply fantastic Back To School gift (either for yourself, or someone you love) is a hand-held digital note taker. They're quite reasonably priced.
    My personal reco is to go with the slightly pricier wand scanner, and to go with the pricier-yet color model.

    I won't say which one's "best", but I will say that I agree with this PC Magazine review (read it here).

    Today's free link: SyncBack is a backup program that also functions as a file synchronizer, such as keeping your thumb-drive files and desktop files updated. From ZDNet:"Easily backup, synchronize, or restore your files to another drive, FTP server, ZIP file, networked drive, or removable media."

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

    Friday, July 25, 2008

    Truth, and the Internet*

    • Teach your kids that not everything they read or see online is true. Encourage them to ask you if they're not sure.

    I came across this bullet-point on a security vendor's* helpful tips & advice page. I was looking at Internet Safety tips for parents sites, as part of my relentless pursuit of bringing you, Dear Reader, the best gosh-durn information possible. ('Cause that's the kinda guy I am.) That particular point was #10 on a 10 Things Parents Should Do list.
    It's a good bullet-point. Agreed?

    Not to get too far off the topic here, but how are parents supposed to do that when they themselves haven't learned it? People believe what they see in print.. and what the CBS Evening News tells them.

    Okay.. I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about people. Them. All those other cars on the freeway. They believe it because they read it in their local paper, or saw it on TV. Or.. CNN.  Or they "Googled it".
    And those things never lie.
    Right?

    [The media are businesses. Businesses need to make profits. Headlines sell papers. Fear makes headlines. Add it all up and you get-- The Media is in the business of profiting from your fears.]

    How many lies, distortions, or "misreporting's" have you found in print or seen on TV as you've traveled down life's path? One? Two? Each and every day?

    Here's the Truth: The Internet is the worst possible source of information because any-old nutcase with a computer can publish there (like I am doing right now) AND it is the best possible source of information because any-old nutcase with a computer can publish -- without government interference, unmotivated by profit, and "say it as he sees it" (like I am doing right now).
    A confusing dichotomy.

    A confusing dichotomy I urge you to always remember.. and to tell your kids about... that should make for an interesting conversation!

    Tip of the day: Don't be ignorant of the dangers of the Internet. Educate yourself and your friends and your kids about online predators, identity-stealing spyware, and phishing e-mails, and take steps to get protected. (A good way to do that is to become one of this site's regular readers. To make it easy, click on the orange "feed" icon, or "Bookmark" me.)

    * The advice page referred to is at Webroot's (SpySweeper) Website. Their advice page is here. It has four main categories: Internet Dangers, Online Activities, Threats, and Resources.
    Of course, modestly sprinkled in with all the free advice is urgings to buy their product (which is OK, SpySweeper is consistently in the Top 3) which you are free to ignore. There is some really good information there, and it's bullet-point easy to read. It is Today's free link.

    If you have a computer in your home, and you have a child in your home, you might also want to take a look at my other Internet+Kids related articles. Clicking this link will produce a page with all my past articles that are 'tagged' with those keywords. My special page on safety advice is here.

    Did you miss my Top 10 list? Click here for my Top 10 Things You Should Do To Your Computer.

    TGIF!

    *Original post 3/26/08

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

    Thursday, July 24, 2008

    "Attention Required"

    I have a disturbing personality quirk. I have had it for a very long while, actually-- I don't respond well to the words "mandatory" or "required", and I don't do too well with "urgent" or "now!" either..

    When someone (say, my mother) would tell me to, "get over here now", I knew I was in trouble and I would move slower than grass grows.
    When a Mandatory Staff Meeting was being held (back in the days before self-employment) I was famous for always having some trick worked out that allowed me to escape attendance.. because we all know that "Mandatory Staff Meeting" translates into English as "torture session - guaranteed to drive you insane."

    So, armed with that knowledge about me, you will understand why I ignored this e-mail for several days...
    email
    IRS Notification - Tax Refund - Attention Required.

    .. and if you read me regularly (or, happened to catch this article) you know that when I did take an action on this e-mail, I marked it as Junk, unopened.

    What?! (you say) How could I disrespect the IRS?! (you say)
    Well, for one, the IRS does not e-mail you important documents (neither does your bank, or Pay Pal, or..). And, the IRS -- like almost every other Government institution -- uses "dot gov" in its URL. In fact, the Internal Revenue Service's web address is www.irs.gov.
    IRSscam

    These particular phraudsters haven't tried spoofing the URL, instead they've set up a similar looking name, hoping that I wouldn't notice.
    This classic phishing attempt is using "social engineering" to try to get me to reveal information that will allow cyber-criminals to adopt my identity. It is using my conditioning (to reacting) to Authority. It is appealing to my greed. It is telling me to "act now" (or miss out). In it is a hyperlink that would take me to a very realistic-looking fake IRS website.
    This phraudster, or gang, probably had a network of zombie computers send out a million of these e-mails.. because he knows that for every phishing-savvy person, who deletes at a glance, there's 3 who've never heard of phishing.

    Tip of the day: Pay attention to details, and know that IRS phishing e-mails are an everyday occurrence, and an estimated 6,000 fake IRS websites are in daily operation. Don't even open e-mails you suspect may be a scam.
    Yes. I'm repeating myself. But, at least a part of someone's identity is being stolen every two seconds (global) at an estimated cost to business of $25 billion a year. That's 15,000,000 victims a year.

    Today's free link(s): Folks, I don't usually do this (in fact, I never have before).. but I bet you don't know that you have a heuristic bogus Website detector built right into your machine, and all you have to do is turn it on. I wrote an article on how to do that, and the link to it is here.

    Firefox users have this protection as well, and it is already enabled. When you see this..
    image
    you've stumbled across a cyber-criminal's site. I have been using the new version of Mozilla's Firefox browser, Firefox 3, for a while now, and am satisfied enough to recommend it. To get it, or just read more about it, click here.

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

    Tuesday, July 22, 2008

    A Dirty Little Secret

    You would know if someone was using your social security number, right? Well, maybe not.. in fact, probably not. The folks who know are probably legally barred from telling you.
    No matter what your political leanings, or feelings on the immigration issue are, there's a dirty little secret I think you ought to be aware of.

    Bob Sullivan's Red Tape Chronicles ("Corporate sneakiness. Government waste. Technology run amok. Outright scams. The Red Tape Chronicles is MSNBC.com's effort to unmask these 21st Century headaches and offer real solutions that save you time and money.") wrote an eye-opening article,
    HIDDEN COST OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: ID THEFT

    Here's a link to Bob discussing this issue on camera. (Requires Flash)
    Immigration and ID theft
    Immigration and ID theft


    Today's free link: and here's a resource if you are concerned about ID Theft, or need some help because you, or someone you know, are a victim. IDTheftAwareness.com

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

    Monday, July 21, 2008

    The Boss Calls You At Disneyland-- with an "urgent" task ...

    HAL is watching It started with pagers. Beep beep beep. It's your boss calling.

    Now we have cellular, phones, satellite phones, e-mail, PDA's, notebooks, and access to the corporate network via VPN.
    And iPhones.

    We are now "empowered" to accomplish work where ever we are, and at any time of the day or night. We're "road warriors" and "telecommuters".
    "But sir, it's Saturday!" doesn't cut you any slack any more.

    Apparently, neither does, "But sir, the family and I are on our approved vacation. We're on the 'It's a Small World' ride right now.. can't you hear the singing?"
    (Your GPS-enabled phone will back up your claim; you really are at Disneyland.)

    In a 2005 study, the Families and Work Institute found that one in every three people had performed job duties outside of regularly scheduled work hours. My guess is that if you did that survey today, you get 66% answering yes (IT types would be at 100%--IMHO).

    Yes.
    And we got spy cameras watching us now, too-- with more and more cities proudly boasting of "100% camera-coverage". The Chinese are becoming remarkably adept at designing streetlights, mailboxes, fencepost's, clocks, etc. that really are nothing more than camera concealer's, and they're exporting them as fast as they can make them.
    We're onboard Arthur C. Clark's Discovery, and HAL is watching us. I ain't joking with you. Some of those "security" cameras have HAL's facial recognition ability, and some of them read lips (if not now, soon).
    Like the man said, if you're not doing anything wrong, this shouldn't bother you.

    GPS tracking. Security cameras. Can't escape from work... Hmmm...

    Open the pod bay doors, HAL... I wanna get off.

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

    Saturday, July 19, 2008

    Photoshop online-- use the Web to edit pictures*

    "Made You Look" is the marketing catchphrase for the new online Photoshop Website, and yes-- I did take a look. Adobe Photoshop Express (Beta) is a Web 2.0 application for editing and sharing your digital images, and is seen to be a replacement for a program you buy and load onto your computer. It is -- at this time, anyway -- a free service (and surprisingly, has no ads).

    I would be very surprised if you haven't heard of Photoshop; it has been around so long, it has become a verb in today's language -- meaning "to create a fake image". Photoshop is the tool which allows you to put your head on someone else's body.. or make it look like you're standing on the moon.. or remove your Ex from your old vacation pictures. (With the right starting photos, there's almost nothing I can't fake in Photoshop.)

    Photoshop has long been considered the premier digital image manipulation program. As I discussed in this article, "Web 2.0" is all about us regular folks being able to 'upload' to the Web (and "share"/collaborate) instead of simply viewing ('downloading') content. And frankly, Adobe is not the first to the market of online photo sharing Websites, nor sites that let you edit your pictures once you've loaded them.. Picassa and Photobucket have been around for a while now (to name a few).

    Considering Photoshop's reputation, I wanted to know if Adobe's online service had superior editing capabilities. editing To use Express, you must "join" the club, by providing an e-mail address and creating a user account. While you do that, you create a personalized URL (like, http://yourname.photoshop.com) where you can post your pictures in "galleries", if you want to share them (not required). Once you're a member, you "upload" your pictures, and you can now edit them, and organize them into galleries, e-mail them, or use them as images on (other) Websites.

    The screenshot above shows the image editing screen. Those of you who have ever used Photoshop Elements will be very familiar with this interface. The editing options (left column) provide a thumbnail range above your original so you can see, and select from, adjustments. This makes 'tweaking' your image fairly easy and straight-forward, and allows you to experiment without ruining your original.

    Is this for you? Well, as it stands, I find that there are some basic image editing features which are missing (it is possible I just couldn't find the menu..) such as image resizing and dots-per-inch adjustment. You can crop, but not shrink.. nor adjust file type or size. I am an advanced Photoshop user, and so I find the tools in Photoshop Elements overly simplified, and these even more so-- which is precisely what many people want.

    While this (at least, in its current state) tool will not let you paste your head onto a super-model's body, or pose on the moon, it will let you smoothly and easily tweak your images, remove the red-eye effect, and share your pictures with far away friends and relatives. If you are not already using a similar service.. or are not satisfied with the one you're using.. you should give this a tryout. It is very slick and easy to use. Click the link in the second sentence, and get started.

    *Original posting: 4/14/08

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

    Friday, July 18, 2008

    Rejuvenate your PC

    When my computer was fresh-out-of-the-box, and all shiny and new, it was speedier than it is now. It had a spring in its step that seems to be lacking now. Can you relate?

    There are reasons for this 'slowing down', of course. Some of them are just 'facts', and there's not much we can do about them, and others we can (should) remedy. Today I'll list and review the basic PC steps, which will optimize your computer's performance, and provide you with the links to my more detailed How-To's.

    *Your files:
    A primary cause for PCs 'slowing down' is simply that there is more stuff (files) on your hard-drive now, and the more you put on there, the more there is for your computer to keep track of (index). You have added applications (programs), Updates, and all your files, and the volume on your hard-drive has grown-- probably quite a bit! [note: to function properly, you should always have at least 10% "free space" on your drive.]

    Clean off the junk. As you use your machine, and browse the Internet, you will pick up scraps of files (temps), and you will put things into the Recycle Bin, etc., and I recommend that once a week you use the Disk Cleanup Tool to "take out the trash". My article on this tool is here.

    Get organized. As you machine writes data to the hard-drive, which it is doing a lot, it places things in the first available block of space to save time. The first available space is not necessarily the best or most logical place, though, and we need to come along after and put things in better order. The tool for this is a "defragmenter", and it should be run at least once a month. I wrote an article on how to set this tool to run automatically, here.

    Make space. You may also want to make more space on your hard-drive, and do some "serious cleaning", by going into the Add/Remove Programs area of your Control Panel and uninstalling any programs you never use anymore.

    Get physical. It may seem a bit un-intuitive, but excess heat can cause your PC to run slower, and so I highly recommend a physical cleaning of your machine as well... particularly removing the dust and lint build-ups around your fan vents (depending on your environment, you may want to do this every couple of days). Every so often, open the cover (usually a side panel) and use a can of compressed air to blow out all that dust and dirt and pet hair...

    Today's free link: Believe it or not, some people just prefer not to use the tools built into Windows, and insist on using specialized "3rd-party" tools to do the job (imagine that), and a top-rated (free) disk defragmentation tool is the Auslogics Disk Defrag.

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

    Wednesday, July 16, 2008

    Security tip-- turn off the preview pane

    A recent article on scam spam (e-mail) prompted a reader to send in this good question,

    Hi Paul --
    You wrote "... don’t even open e-mail from unknown sources.. doing so can/will mark your e-mail address as a “live” person, ...".
    How do we delete without opening a specific email message?   Even while deleting in bulk the first email in the highlighted selections opens.  I'm using Outlook Express.  Thanks for your help!

    What is being referred to is the feature common to e-mail clients called the "Preview Pane".

    OE

    Dear Reader--
    You're correct that most webmail settings, and e-mail clients, (by default) have what is called a "preview pane", which opens the first (topmost/most recent) e-mail in your Inbox, and shows you the first few lines of the e-mail. Yes.. this will trigger whatever the spammers/hackers are using to verify receipt (such as downloading an invisible jpeg). Because of this, I always turn the Preview Pane off.
    To do this in OE, click on the View menu and select Layout.
    Then in the Preview Pane Properties, uncheck the "Show preview pane" checkbox.

    BTW-- by exploring Properties/Options/Settings/Preferences (different names for the same thing), you can disable the preview pane in every e-mail viewer.. Hotmail, Thunderbird, etc.

    Tip of the day: While many people find the preview window a convenient way to skim their incoming mail, using it automatically opens your machine up to security risks (especially if you are allowing HTML, and/or images, as the OE pictured above does) and tells anyone who's interested that yes, your.name@isp.com is a valid address.. suitable for spamming.
    I advise disabling the feature, and doing without the 'speed enhancement' of previewing. Doing so will reduce the amount of spam you receive, and close the door on one of the methods hackers can use to infect your machine.

    Today's free link: (For Mac) Evernote is the ubiquitous notetaking/data capture utility, and I was please to find it for Apple machines/devices. From site: "Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere."

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

    Tuesday, July 15, 2008

    my interview

    Folks--
    The Pakistani Spectator published an interview with me today. If you're interested in taking a look-see, click here.

    Another advantage of credit cards..

    LONDON (Reuters) - Prices charged by cybercriminals selling hacked bank and credit card details have fallen sharply as the volume of data on offer has soared, forcing them to look elsewhere to boost profit margins, a new report says.*

    Yes, folks, you read that right. If you want to buy a stolen credit card and PIN, now's the time because the price has never been better. A Platinum card -- guaranteed to be "fresh" and work when you use it -- can be had for $20.

    This is because hackers have been so successful at planting Trojans on your machines, poisoning websites, and getting people to provide their identities through phishing (spam) e-mails, and using their botnets, that they simply have too much product.

    We aren't just losing the war on cyber-crime, we're not even fighting one.

    So.. since stolen credit cards are now a dime-a-dozen, what is the "shadow economy" organized cyber-criminal to peddle? "New types of stolen data are now commanding a premium, such as patient healthcare information that can be used for insurance fraud or to illicitly acquire and sell medicines.

    Other premium data includes business information, company personnel files and intercepted commercial emails."

    Yikes.

    These kinds of news stories, and reports, never seem to make make the front page or headline the news. Billions are being stolen from us, every year, the problem is growing, and we don't seem to care.

    And the media doesn't like finding the "guilty party" in this kind of story because the truly guilty are us.
    * From a security perspective, the Internet is completely broken and needs to be scrapped and rebuilt. Nobody knows how to "fix" the old structure. The headline, Tech Experts Are Baffled isn't very reassuring to the public, and that might lead to the dreaded "consumer confidence" failure.

    * We --the common everyday Internet surfer-- can't be bothered with securing our machines, or even learning enough of that "tech stuff" to realize our PC's are not convenient toys.
    "Why get a new Vista or Mac computer? My Windows 98 machine lets me get on the Internet and play BlackJack.." How many times have I heard that???
    Some experts say that 75% of all the computers are infected with malware. Wonder why?
    What does this story's headline look like?

    * We --the common everyday Internet surfer-- KEEP clicking on e-mails that promise us free iPods, or tell us that there's 750,000 Pounds Sterling waiting for us to simply pick it up.
    What does this story's headline look like?

    Awww, I'm getting depressed, angry, and.. frustrated. We deserve to have our identities stolen, and we can't blame the smart people for taking it from us when it's this easy.

    Yes, a lot of this is not our fault. The Tech Industry continues to sell us crappy products, and would rather be first to market than to check the security of their technology. I wrote about this here, How the Tech Industry is Failing You.

    To read the whole news story which triggered today's rant, click here.

    To visit Finjan (one of the article's sources) and look at their quarterly analysis of the state of Web security and cyber-crime, click here.

    I apologize. I didn't mean to bring you down. But if you think you can take more, why not read about how the credit card companies are putting unsecured transmitters into your cards now, so a criminal can pick your pocket wirelessly! Credit Card 2.0.

    Don't you just love the folly of Man?

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

    Monday, July 14, 2008

    ! READ AND REPLY

    This urgent ("flagged with a red "!") e-mail slipped into my Inbox. The Subject was READ AND REPLY.

    Sir/Madam
    I am a lawyer and legal representative to a high profile client within the international community that requires your experience and assistance in the investment of her inherited funds,should this transaction be of interest to you contact me for more.
    Best regards,
    Dominic Chambers

    Hmmm... curious. I suspect this is scam spam (mainly because I have never, ever, made an investment or inquired about investing). But some of the usual elements are missing.. and it did make it past my spam filters.. and it is marked "urgent"...

    Maybe this high-profile, international lady wants to invest her money in me?
    That could be kewl. I like money.

    Tip(s) of the day: Don't even think about responding to e-mails like these; and better yet, don't even open e-mail from unknown sources.. doing so can/will mark your e-mail address as a "live" person, and get your name on junkmail lists (which spammers trade with each other) and you'll get even more spam than you already do. I don't care if they're marked "Urgent" or not-- resist the temptation.

    Secondly, please read my article Managing your email: eliminating junk and learn a few techniques for spam reduction.

    And thirdly, why do dumb scammers send dumb scam e-mails? Because ________ people respond, and get hoodwinked. Don't be part of the problem.

    Today's free link: A recent building project had me using an old 3D drawing program that I first downloaded years ago, and so I went looking to see what apps available now. I discovered the simply fabulous Google SketchUp, and after watching a couple of animated tutorials, I knocked out my design in no time at all.

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

    Saturday, July 12, 2008

    Restore Bookmarks in Firefox-- quick tip

    Earlier this week I posted a "quick tip" on restoring your Internet Explorer "Favorites" (everybody else calls them 'bookmarks'), and quite naturally and predictably I received a question asking how do you do that in Firefox -- the world's most popular "alternative" Web browser.
    So, here goes.

    Like IE, Firefox's Bookmarks are a list of URL's saved into a file (localstore.rdf) that can be "imported", "exported" to other browsers, or Saved as a comma-separated-values file (.csv) or HTML file. This file can become corrupted, or deleted, and your Bookmarks will no longer appear. To restore your "favorite" websites to your Bookmarks..

    Method 1: (Firefox 2)
    1) Close any instances of Firefox (hereafter referred to as "FF") you have open/running and then launch FF in Safe Mode by clicking Start> Mozilla Firefox> Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode).
    1

    2) In the dialogue box, select (check) "Reset Toolbars and Controls.
    2
    and click the "Make Changes and Restart" button.

    3) Close FF and then start it (aka "launch"/"open") again in normal mode.

    That's it. You're done. You should now see your bookmarks.
    If you don't...

    Method 2: (Firefox 2) FF automatically generates a backup copy of your localstore.rdf, and you can "import" this copy into your Bookmarks.
    1) press Ctrl+Shft+B (or select "Organize Bookmarks" under the Bookmarks menu).

    2) In the new window, select File> Import, and then "From File".

    3) In the Open file search window, you need to "drill down" to
    C:\Documents and Settings\user*\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles...where you'll see a 'dot default' folder.
    3

    4) Open that folder, and then open the "Bookmark Backups" folder. Select the most recent one, and click the "Open" button.

    Firefox 3: the new version of FF is "Firefox 3", and it makes restoring the backup easier.
    1) press Ctrl+Shft+B (or select "Organize Bookmarks" under the Bookmarks menu), and click the "Import and Backup" button.
    4

    2) Select "Restore" and choose the top date and hit "Enter", and then "OK".

    Today's free link: Today I'm putting it out to you, Dear Reader. I have provided over 300 links to free tools and great websites (so far) and I'm wondering.. is there a favorite of yours, and you haven't seen it posted here yet?
    Let me know-- in a Comment -- an item you think should appear here.

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

    Friday, July 11, 2008

    Video + e-mail = v-mail

    Loyal Friends and True know that Tech--for Everyone is always on the cutting edge of technical innovation, and that I am a World Renown Tech Journalist whose fame springs from bringing you the latest in breaking IT news. (Ignore the man behind the curtain.)

    It is my skill and extensive research (ahem) that allows me to be the first to inform you, Dear Reader, that e-mail, as we know it today, is utterly passe -- completely old hat-- and, like, so yesterday that it 'gags me with a spoon'.

    Yes my friends, e-mail is dead.
    (And you heard it here first.)

    Some of you are surely saying, "Why, Tech Paul! E-mail is the single greatest contribution to society that the IT Geek's ever made! It enables commerce, and has facilitated 'Globalization'! A billion e-mail messages are sent everyday! Dead? Surely you are mistaken!"
    Right? You did say that?

    It is true... it is very hard to picture a world without e-mail (I can envision a world without spam e-mail just fine, thank you very much) and it is impossible to deny that the ability to send electronic messages has radically altered the way we communicate with friends and family, conduct business, and.. share jokes. Yes, e-mail has had an incalculable impact on our lives.
    Keywords: "has had".

    My extensive (ahem) research, and whetted-finger-held-aloft-to-the-winds-of-Change , tells me (and now I'm telling you) that a New Thing has come along which is going to replace e-mail entirely.. and that is a little thing I have named "v-mail". (With a little "v". To those of you old enough to remember Victory Mail, I salute you.) The little "v" stands for "video".

    My Award-Winning* Nose for News has led me to uncover a service (which I am revealing as Today's free link:) that allows us to send 30-second video clips of ourselves instead of boring -old letters and words and punctuations and stuff. No longer will we need emoticons and "smileys". Avatars are doomed too. Video, my friends, trumps them all!

    Why type "wink", when you can just.. well.. wink?!

    Bonus: Typos and outright misspellings will no longer embarrass us, and ruin careers! (Bad hair days are another story..)

    As I mentioned in my recent article , at this stage in the game you really should have a webcam, and the odds are pretty good that, by now, you have added a microphone and used Skype or SightSpeed to make calls or video conference (aka "video chat").
    * With v-mail, you don't have to worry about if you're "buddies" are available at the moment.. you just create your message and send it.
    * With v-mail, you don't have to download any special software, or manage a "Contacts" list.. it is entirely browser-based (it uses Flash).
    * With v-mail, you don't have to pay any subscription fee.
    * It is one-click simple. (And you don't have to learn that "texting" lingo used in Instant Messaging/Chat.)

    Now.. when you add all that up, doesn't it spell the end of e-mail to you too?
    Today's free link: Get your v-mail at EyeJot (or, go there and take a look at their "how it works" examples). All you need to do is provide your first name and a valid e-mail account (doesn't have to be one of your real accounts). This creates your eyejot account. Your microphone and webcam are automatically detected, and you can start recording your v-mail right away.
    Folks.. don't you want to be an early-adopter, nay, trendsetter, for once? Blow your kids away and be the first to send a v-mail.

    * The prestigious Annie Award. (An award that I just made up, and named after a beloved family pet.)

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

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    Wednesday, July 9, 2008

    Recently opened documents show in Start menu

    Folks, today a 'quick tip'- The Windows Start menu can show you a list of the files you have recently opened, which is a handy shortcut for returning to works-in-progress. This feature is called "My Recent Documents" and you can quickly and easily turn it on or off.

    Tip of the day: Customize your Start menu to show your most recently opened files (Note: if you're a 'minimalist', and want a leaner, cleaner Start Menu, do the opposite of [uncheck] these steps to disable the Recent Documents feature).
    Step 1:Right-click on a blank area of your Taskbar, and select "Properies" from the context menu.

    Step 2: Select the Start Menu tab, and click on the "Advanced" button.



    Step 3:Place a check in the checkbox labelled "List my most recently opened documents." Now click "OK", and "OK" again.
    That's it. You're done. Now when you click on the Start Button, you will see the last things you were working on, and can quickly launch them by clicking their icon.

    For Vista: Vista users can do this too, and actually have a little more control..


    .. but the steps are the same.

    Today's free link: TweakUI, a Microsoft "Power Toy", is an applet for XP that allows for a remarkable amount of, well, "tweaking" of Windows' behavior and appearance. "This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more."

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

    Tuesday, July 8, 2008

    IE's Favorites are missing-- quick tip

    Bookmarks (called "Favorites" in Internet Explorer) make returning to our favorite Websites an easy task, and I -- for one -- rely on mine. The other day I got a call from someone whose Favorites had disappeared. Quite naturally, I think, they wanted to get them back, and came to me for aid.

    An important thing to understand is that Favorites and Bookmarks are shortcuts.. just like the icons on your Desktop are shortcuts to programs (.exe's) located in your c:\Program Files folder.
    Your Favorites are simply a list of shortcuts to URL's, and when you click on the gold star Favorites icon, this list is displayed. You can "export" this list to other browsers, a comma-separated-values (.csv) file, or a HTML file.. And you can add and delete items from this list as your heart desires.

    Tip of the day IE is a integral component to Windows, and Windows stores your custom configurations in your User Account-- your Desktop icons, Theme, Settings, etc.. Windows allows for multiple users, and each person who uses the machine should have their own user account-- it also has some built-in accounts, like Administrator, and Guest.

    If your Favorites is empty, and not displaying any shortcuts, the first thing you should check is that you're logged into your User Account. Click the Start button, and then choose "Log off" (or "Switch User", depending) and verify that you are indeed logged into your user profile (and not Guest or Admin..).

    If this is not the issue, navigate to the folder that contains the shortcuts list-- this is called "Favorites", and it's located in your User folder. In XP, your User folder is in the Documents and Setting folder, so your path is c:\Documents and Settings\User*.
    In Vista, it's c:\Users\user.
    Fav's

    Open the Favorites folder and see if your bookmarks are there. If they're not, well, something's happened to them somehow, and this might be a cause for concern (has a hacker been playing on your machine?) or it might not.
    To restore the shortcuts, you can "import" a .csv, or .html 'export' you made earlier (hint, hint).. or copy the contents from a backup copy of your Favorites folder (which, because you follow my advice, you have on CD/DVD and another drive).

    Or, you have never exported and haven't backed up your files and folders.. (ahem), well, here is where you can try System Restore to revert your computer to an earlier date. System Restore does not restore deleted files, but it does store User Account information, and so you may have luck this way.
    My article on using System Restore is here.

    Today's free link: PowerISO is a powerful CD/DVD image file processing tool, which allows you to open, extract, create, edit, burn, compress, encrypt, split and convert ISO files, and mount these files with internal virtual drive. It can process almost all CD-ROM image files including ISO and BIN.

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

    Monday, July 7, 2008

    Life is an accumulation of memories

    Baby's first steps. Graduations. Birthday parties. Wedding ceremonies. Today's title came from a friend of mine-- "That's what life is; an accumulation of memories"-- during a recent conversation; and it got me onto to thinking about Deep Things.. and yes, I took a little stroll down my own Memory Lane...

    But this is, after all, a tech site, and I am a World Renown Tech Journalist, and so I will not get all nostalgic on you, nor 'share' some of my favorite recollections. No, I won't. But I will point out to you that more and more frequently, we are coming to rely on our computers to help us 'remember'.

    What do I mean by that? Well, now that we have digital photography, the odds are pretty good that the pictures you take -- of baby's first steps, graduation, B-Day parties, etc. --are not in a shoebox, or photo album, but are on your hard drive. Your "home movies" too.
    Perhaps your computer is the only place you have those pictures/memories.

    Tip of the day: Loyal Friends and True to this series know that once a month I remind my readers to make a backup copy of their important files (Ahem), and to store those copies someplace else. That's because hard drives fail. (Not all that often, I grant you that, but they do die.. and not just from old age.) They can also get corrupted by malware, or erased by a virus or hacker, or...

    If -- for some bizarre and mysterious reason -- your computer (or, just the hard drive) croaked and started pushing up daisies, would you lose the only pictures you have of Junior's birth? Of your hard-earned graduation? Of your Grandmother?

    Well, don't let your heart get broken because you just "never got around" to making backup copies. Make copies today! Burn some CD's/DVD's and one other form of storage-- another (external, maybe) hard drive, or perhaps online.

    To help you, I refer you to two prior articles--
    1) Windows has a built-in Backup Utility, found in Programs> Accessories> System Tools and my advice for using it is here, http://techpaul.wordpress.com/2007/07/02/automate-your-backup-and-get-some-peace-of-mind/ 

    2) Instead of buying an external drive, you might prefer to take advantage of an online storage service.. of which there are many. My article on selecting one is here, http://techpaul.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/online-storage-for-data-backup/

    Folks.. there are many, many reasons to make backup copies, and one reason not to (can you guess what it is?).

    Today's free link: Perhaps you would like a backup tool other than Windows' own.. SyncBack is worth taking a look at. From C/Net Editor review, "This straightforward backup utility makes it a snap to safeguard and synchronize your files, and its freeware price just sweetens the deal. Surprisingly flexible for a free program, SyncBack can save your files anywhere: on external hard drives, in ZIP archives, on network drives, on CDs (using UDF), or transfer them via FTP. Recovering from a drive loss is also cinch, with a convenient restore tool that replicates folder trees along with the files in them."

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix

    Friday, July 4, 2008

    A "heads up" to my loyal readers -- as you are aware, today starts a long Holiday weekend to celebrate the founding of the first nation governed not by Monarchy, but By the People. In the spirit of long weekends, I will not be writing new Tech for Everyone posts (after this one) for a few days but I will repost some of the older, more popular past articles which you may have missed. I will be available for tech help and support at Aplus Computer Aid, however.

    Tip of the day: Give XP a "makeover". One of the "coolest" things about Windows Vista®, in my opinion, is it does not look like boring old XP. Instead of the blue desktop, which dates back to Windows 95, Vista has a rather nice nature photo. The "edges" around windows are 'modernized' in Vista and have a smoother "feel", and so on and so forth. The Vista GUI looks a lot like what Apple users have been used to seeing in OS X.

    If you, too, are bored and tired with XP's utilitarian 'look' and are not ready (for whatever reason) to dive into a brand-new operating system, you can "tweak" the look of XP in a myriad of ways and make it a much more modern and pleasant-to-look-at computer. There are pre-built 'packages' -- called "skins" -- that you can download. Windows X offers a "Vista Transformation" utility that fairly mimics the Vista shell (look to Today's free link) on XP machines. And there are display settings, and "themes" that you can simply change from their defaults, which is what I'm going to describe today.

    Today we're going to explore the Display Properties options -- get started by right-clicking on any vacant area of your desktop and selecting Properties. This is the same place we used to create our custom screensaver slideshow in an earlier post.
    By default, Display Properties opens to the Theme tab. Use the drop-down arrow in the Themes window, and you will see that we're basically faced with two choices: the getting old XP Theme, and the even older Windows Classic theme. Don't be discouraged by this. This is where you would make the changes if you had downloaded a "skin" from the Internet. We will be using the other tabs.

    Kill the hill. XP by default shows us a desktop that is either a solid color (blue) or a rolling hill, but XP comes with other (better) choices. Click on the Desktop tab. Now explore the possibilities, using the up-down scroll arrows, of the names listed in the Background box -- the previews are displayed on the little PC when you single-click on a name.
    You may already see the pictures in your My Pictures folder listed here as well. This is because you can use just about any digital image as your desktop, and the "stretch" option helps the image fit the screen. If this little bundle of possible backgrounds doesn't satisfy, and you have a specific image in mind, use a graphics manipulation tool (like Photoshop) to resize the image to your screen resolution (Found on the Settings tab. My laptop's resolution is 1024 x 768 pixels at {the standard} 96dpi, for example) and Save it. Now use the ...Browse button to find and open it, and viola!

    More tweaks: Now let's explore the Appearance tab, which allows us to modify to some degree the look of the windows we interact with. Again, we really have the two choices of old and older, and again, a "skin" is the way to make drastic changes, but by clicking the Advanced button there is quite a bit we can adjust, as shown below.

    apper.jpg

    You can 'tweak' colors and sizes, and in some cases, behaviors. For more color options, click on the down-arrow on Color1, and a small palette will open: for even more color options, click Other.

    By experimenting with these options and 'tweaks', you can customize the look of XP and make your computer much more personal. For those of you who want the Vista "look"...

    Today's free link: Windows X offers a tool that makes changes to XP which makes it look and operate quite a bit like Vista. Before you use this utility I strongly advise that you have a full system backup, as I demonstrated in yesterday's post, just "in case" it proves incompatible with a device driver or Windows Update. Also, I must reiterate my disclaimer in regards to this particular reco' -- I have not done this, as I have been running Vista since early betas, and so I cannot attest to its reliability. If you're brave, and have a full back up, download the Vista Transformation Pack.

    Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.jaanix post to jaanix