Some goodies spotted

1. Are you annoying at having to register on a free web site just to read some news or view some information? Here is a simple method to get access to protected content without need to endure the annoyance of signing up for an account.
2. Restart Windows without restarting your computer. The trick is to hold down the SHIFT key when invoking the restart. Windows Vista: Select Start, then hover over the right arrow that is to the right of the padlock icon until the pop-up menu appears that contains “restart” as one of it’s choices. Hold down the SHIFT key while clicking on the “restart” choice. Windows XP: Select Start. Select “Shut Down…”. Change the drop-down combo box under “What do you want the computer to do?” to “Restart”. Hold down the SHIFT key while clicking on the “OK” button.
3. 15 coolest Firefox tricks. Browser Firefox is great right out of the box. And by adding some of the awesome extensions available out there, it just gets better and better. But look under the hood, and there are a bunch of hidden (and some not-so-secret) tips and tricks available that will crank Firefox up and pimp your browser, writes Leo Babauta. Make it faster, cooler, more efficient. Get to be a Jedi master with the following cool Firefox tricks.
4. Carry an entire operating system in your pocket. Scott Dunn says that running applications from a USB flash drive on a public computer is convenient but exposes you to malware and other limitations of the host PC. By installing a Windows-like version of Linux on a flash drive, you can take a complete operating system wherever you go and work in a safe, secure environment, even in an Internet café.

Goodies from the past week

It's back in harness at the desk, and here are a few goodies noted around the traps:
1. Create a Flash-based website. Most websites are constructed using a mark-up language called html, which while not as complicated as computer programming still takes a bit of learning, even for the basics. Wix aims to bypass that, and let you construct a free website just by dragging and dropping elements.
2. Web conferencing. More and more organisations are using web conferencing (sometimes called webinars) to keep their members in touch, especially if they are scattered geographically. How do you go about it? Dimdim is one answer.
3. Online collaboration is another way to get things done. Glasscubes is a new online system allowing you to do that free of charge.
4. Unstick "stuck" applications. One of the frustrations of computers is a programme that refuses to quit no matter how hard you try to close it down. Jessica Dolcourt at CNet has a solution.
5. Automatically refresh Firefox tabs. I would love some of my tabs to refresh automatically, for instance when I am bidding on TradeMe, or following breaking news on Stuff or the NZ Herald. Thankfully, there is a handy Firefox extension called ReloadEvery, which can automatically reload a browser tab at designated intervals.
6. The Greatest Windows Tips of All Time. "If you don't know every one of these 26 classic tricks, utilities, and shortcuts for XP, Vista, or Windows 7, you're not getting your money's worth out of Windows," writes Patrick Miller at PCWorld.
7. Compress PNG format photos. PNG (pronounced "Ping") is becoming an increasingly popular format for photos, largely because you can have transparent areas, which is a boon for graphic and web designers. But the file sizes are much bigger than JPG pics. Fortunately, tools are available to compress a PNG image without losing quality, and PNGGauntlet is an easy-to-use one. You can choose levels of compression,but be aware that the higher the compression, the slower the processing time. If you don't like PNGGauntlet, an alternative is PunyPNG.
8. Email attachment reminder. I constantly forget to attach a document when I email. So here's a great face-saver if you use Thunderbird - Attachment Reminder. It pops up when you hit the Send button if it thinks you have omitted to add your file to the email.
9. Bigger thumbnails in Google's image search. The default setting for Google image search produces pretty tiny thumbnails, but there's a very simple way to enlarge them. Hold down the Control key, rotate the scroll wheel away from you, and bingo! the thumbnails increase in size.

Improving your Windows experience

I have still not switched to the Vista operating system, and am not likely to do so. So while I quite like XP (while drooling for a Mac), it has its limitations. For instance, I will believe Windows is as good as a Mac when you can have wild characters (such as ? and &) in file titles, and when you can colour a folder or the text of a file name without going to a 3rd party extension. However, there are millions of little applications which can improve the Windows experience - your biggest problem is sorting out the wheat from the chaff. To help you out, I have just come across an excellent list of 43 Windows enhancements, and I certainly intend to try out a couple of these.

When Windows goes bad

Most of the time we don't want to be bothered with the hassle of understanding what goes on under the bonnet of our computer. Like cars, they should run with the minimum of fuss and the occasional check of tyres, oil and water. Sadly, there are times when we have to delve into the innards - or else pay a technician megabucks. Here are a couple of helpful articles from PC World. I suggest you bookmark them for that rainy day when needed, or even print them out and put in a handy file.
What to do when Windows gets really messed up
Repair or reinstall your Windows PC

Tiny apps

Bigger is not always best. Even though hard drives are becoming humungous, sometimes a tiny application is just the ticket. Usually such applications do only one thing, but do it very well. Actually, you can get rather hooked on finding these useful little gizmos - it's rather addictive, like collecting miniatures. A site that lists some neat ones is here. One I have downloaded, and like, is Winroll, which makes an open window roll into its title bar when you right click the bar.
I tried to also download GhostIt, but the author's website now appears to have gone AWOL.