Hi Folks,
There wasn't anything really exciting in the Friday ad. Here are a few things I have been collecting. The first is, in my opinion, the coolest. Typically, my desktop is full of junk - shortcuts to everything I work on all the time. With RocketDock, I now have a clean desktop for the first time in many years. I have it set to auto hide at the top of the screen and I have dragged all my desktop shortcuts on to it. Whenever I need one of them, I just move the mouse up and click on the one I need - It is great! It has lots of different styles so i am sure you will find one to your liking. I am also using the second one - Evernote.
RocketDock is a smoothly
animated, alpha-blended application launcher that is similar to
ObjectDock. RocketDock renders quickly like MobyDock, has the visual
sharpness of Y’z Dock, and the stability that neither seem to
possess.
It is compatible with
every dock skin format we are aware of. In fact, if you have a skin that
doesn’t load properly, send it to the developers, along with a screenshot
of what it should look like and they’ll see what they can do about
integrating the format…
- Compatible with
MobyDock, ObjectDock, RK Launcher, and Y’z Dock skins
- ObjectDock Docklet
support
- Unicode compliant
- Simple drag-n-drop
interface
- True multi-monitor
support
- Supports
alpha-blended ICO and PNG icons
- Icons zoom and
transition smoothly
- Auto-hide
- Popup on mouse over
- Layering options
- Horizontal and
Vertical offsets
- Fully customizable
- Runs great on
slower computers
- Supports many
languages and can easily be translated
[3210k] [Win2k/XP]
[FREE]
[Punk Software]
There is no new way to
take a note, right? Personally I gave up on paper a long time ago, and now
I use digital notes and reminders for myself. How can this be so? Well,
there are a slew of free sticky note programs out there. One of the most
unique I have seen in a while though is EverNote.
So what makes EverNote
so different?
With EverNote 1.5 you
can easily capture, store and quickly access typed and handwritten memos,
webpage excerpts, emails, phone messages, addresses, passwords,
brainstorms, sketches, documents and more! With EverNote, you can create
notes in multiple formats, including text, Web, email, handwriting, image
clips and custom templates. You don’t need to save your notes manually -
EverNote saves them for you automatically.
This is like your
standard sticky note application on steroids. It has just about everything
you could ever need when taking notes via your PC. To make things even
better, it has a Firefox extension as well - so
you get even more integration between programs.
EverNote makes it easy
to store and quickly access notes, Web page excerpts, emails, phone
messages, and more. EverNote innovates by storing content on an endless,
virtual roll of paper. You can quickly scroll chronologically through your
notes similar to scanning through handwritten notes in a
notebook.
For folks who want to
use a note program that doesn’t have so many features, you might take a
look at Stickies.
[10.9M] [Win 2K/XP]
[FREE]
Tags: windows, freeware, notes, sticky, memos
Control Click It
We all know that pop ups are bad and to help our computers combat against them, most of us have pop up blockers installed on our PCs, right? I know I do! I don't like to waste my time with those things! But, on the other hand, has a pop up ever prevented you from clicking on a link that you wanted to check out? This has happened to me quite a few times too.
So, what can we do? Well, first of all, this is what happens. Maybe one of your friends sent you an e-mail with a link to this Web site they wanted you to see. Or maybe you're on a site and you want to click one of its links. Either way, when you click on it, nothing happens. You probably see a little note at the bottom telling you that a pop up was blocked, which is all well and good, but what about the link? The pop up actually ended up blocking the Web site as well and it won't allow you to view it until you do something else.
When this happens, just hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and click the link again. This will offset your pop up blocker and therefore, notify your computer that it's okay to view that particular link. With just a Ctrl + click, you can enable the pop up and be able to see the site you've been waiting for. That's all it takes. Pretty cool, huh?!
~
Let's Keep You Safe
Have I got a neat trick for you this week! It's a little program from Microsoft itself that was designed to help users stay safe while they're online. As I have pointed out before, the most secure way to run any Windows application is under a restricted user format during your normal day to day use. I've also suggested that you should bump up to the administrator rights for any special procedures you need to perform. This keeps you safe in a couple of ways. For instance, if you don’t have administrative rights, you can’t create files in the system32 folder and you can't stop certain things yourself, such as your firewall. This is a security hole, due to the fact that if you do happen to get infected, the virus is likely to take the privileges of the current user and if that user has administrator rights, then the virus does too.
The easiest way to stop this, as I stated earlier, is too simply run in a restricted users account. This can seem like a little bit of a hassle if you’re someone who’s always tinkering with your system (adding and removing programs and such), but it's not that difficult. (I have another article for those of you who like to do that kind of thing next week too, so keep your eyes open!) Taking this into consideration for this week's security article, I have a simple tool from Microsoft that will help protect you from yourself by allowing you to surf the Web with restricted rights.
Drop My Rights is a lightweight application that, when installed, allows you to open up your Web facing programs, such as Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and any instant messaging programs, using less restrictive rights than the logged in user. This will stop things like worms and Trojans from installing files and performing in the before mentioned directories. Instead, they will just be using the rights of the current user.
Drop My Files is easy to install, but the set up can be a little strange, so I’ll walk you through it and try to explain what’s going on.
Setup
Simply copy DropMyRights.exe to a folder. Then, for each application you want to run in the lower privilege, follow the steps below.
Create a Shortcut
Create a shortcut and enter DropMyRights.exe as the target executable, followed by the path to the application you want to execute in lower privilege.
Note: This is the part that I wanted to expand on. In order for the shortcut to work, you must put the path of the DropMyRights executable, followed by the executable file for the program you wish to associate Drop My Rights with.
For instance, the path on my PC to the DropMyRights.exe is: C:\warez\dropmyrights.exe.
The path to my Internet Explorer is: C:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe.
Enclose both paths with their own set of opening and closing quotes in the target path window of the shortcut creation wizard and it should look like this:
Updating the Shortcut
Name
Next, update the name of the shortcut to represent the executable target, but not Drop My Rights. I usually put the word "safer" after the application name to denote that this application will run in a safer security context. "Non-admin" is another common addition.
After this is complete, you are going to have two icons for the programs you have elected to use this procedure on. One will be the normal unrestricted icon and the other will be the icon to launch the program in the restricted rights mode. This is why it is important to change the icon or indicate the difference in the icon’s name.
Now,
since you hardly ever need administrative rights for surfing the Web, you
shouldn’t notice much of difference, if any, in your online experience.
Drop My Rights works with a slew of Internet facing applications other
than the Microsoft applications, such as Mozilla Firefox, Eudora and the
Lotus Notes e-mail program.
You can download Drop My Rights here and you should be able to find more information on the whole process there as well.
Until next week, stay safe out there!
~
Welcome to the Digital Photography Class. This site is going to help you learn how to make the most out of using your digital camera.
I originally stumbled across this site when I was trying to find out what to look for when I went to buy a digital camera for my mom. You don't only get tips on what to look for in a camera to shoot for your needs and budget, you can get Judy’s recommendations on some cameras that are on the market right now.
You will also find links to the best digital camera review sites and the best digital photography sites. Not to mention, information on avoiding losing photos on your memory card, transferring photos to your computer, Photoshop and understanding files and folders.
Below those sections are some book recommendations. Just scroll past them and you’ll find even more information on how to use your camera. One of the more interesting sections is about digital scrapbooking, how to do it and where to get some great scrapbook flair.
You’ll also find Photography Tips, Techniques and Tutorials a fairly handy section. Especially the "When to Break the Rules" link where you will learn all about composition and when it’s okay to not follow the rules. You can even learn how to best shoot in sunlight in this section.
Need somewhere to share your photos? Well, you can find a list of the best free and premium sites to do it at. Or maybe you need some image viewing software. Or even printing software. Well, you can find more information on those here at this site as well.
Whether you need resources or you are just starting to learn to use your digital camera, there is information for every skill level. Check it out!
http://digitalphotographyclass.net/
~ Amanda
Do you
have a cool, non-commercial site that you want to share?
Send it to
Amanda at amanda@worldstart.com
Save and Save As
Are you not sure what the difference is between the options of Save and Save As? It's a common question when it comes to saving items on your computer. Well, I have good news for you today. You don't have to wonder any more, because you're going to find out the answer right now!
When you use the Save command, you save your work under its current file name. If you've never saved whatever it is you're working on before, you'll immediately get an opportunity to name it. If you're just saving the item again, it will keep the name you originally gave it.
When you use Save As, you get a chance to save what you're working on as a new file. Here's an example. Let's say you're working on a word processing document. It's a new document and you decide to save it. A box comes up that lets you give it a name. Now, let's say you add something to it. If you use the Save command again, it simply saves it with no questions asked under the existing file name.
Okay, so now let's say you make a modification to the file, but you want to keep the original version as well. This is where you use Save As. When you use the Save As command, it allows you to save your current file as a new file with a new name. Now, when you go to open your files, you'll find you have both the original version and the new, Saved As, version. You didn't know computers could be so much fun, did you?!
~ Steve
Q:
Whenever I try to use the contents in the My
Computer folder, it takes forever for the icons to come up. Is there any
way I can speed that process up?
A:
Lucky for you, there is
and even better, it's a surefire way that your icons will appear much
faster! Every time you open the My Computer folder to browse through it,
Windows XP automatically searches for your network files and printers.
This unfortunately causes a delay in the display of your icons. You may
see the "default" Windows icon and then as you continue to scroll through,
it changes to the correct icon. Well, if you don't like that, this is how
you can change it.
1. Double click on your My Computer icon to open it.
2. Click on the Tools menu and select Folder Options.
3. Under Folder Options, select the View tab.
4. Uncheck the very first box that reads "Automatically search for network folders and printers."
5. Click Apply or OK and you're all set.
Well, there you go. From now on, you should see a dramatic increase in speed when Windows displays your icons. It doesn't get any better than that!
~ Shantala Ramamoorthy
Have a
question for the newsletter? Submit it at the link
below:
http://www.worldstart.com/submitquestion.htm
Heads up genealogists
and family tree researchers, because here at
How does it work? Well, you can type the first and last name of who you want to find into the search engine on the left side of the page. If you don’t know either of those, you can use an * in either field as a wildcard. Then select the range of dates you’d like to search. Now, click the Search Now button.
The results are displayed in a table, where you will get a listing of people by that name. You will also find their occupation, age, sex, arrived (the date they arrived), origin (country of origin) and the ship they came in on.
Just searching for folks with my last name generated 191 results and let me tell you, I was amazed. I didn’t find any relatives, but that's still a good amount of results generated. So, I think if you have specific names and dates, your results would be fairly zeroed in on the correct area.
What else can you do
here? Well, you can check out the Timeline, which is not completed at this
time, but has tons of interesting information on it already about the
history of
This is a truly amazing site filled with useful and interesting content that can help you trace your roots!
~ Amanda
More Next Friday,
Chuckstr
----My Web Site----
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