Category Archives: Computers
Productivity Tip: Make Windows Vista’s User Account Control Your Watchdog
One of Vista’s security features is a thing called User Account Control (UAC) and one of it’s more family-friendly capabilities is Parental Control. It allows the parent (or administrator) to control what certain accounts in the computer can do – limit surfing capabilities, set program access and control, even set time limits. And what’s best is there’s an activity monitor. While it’s obvious use is for parents who’d like to keep their kids safe in a virtual safety deposit box, I’ve just figured why not use it for productivity’s sake. I don’t have kids and I’m the only once using my computers so why not put the darned thing to …
Windows Tip: Reclaim Space by Hiding the Ribbon in Office 2007
After a week or so of dealing with Office 2007, I’ve started to be settle with the Ribbon thing. The Ribbon is Office 2007′s replacement for the layers of toolbars that were previously found in 2003 and older. While I do miss the novelty, it now has struck me that the Ribbon has made it more efficient for me to access tools and whatnot. Other people simply hate the Ribbon. To each his own, but I guess one of the reasons is because the darn Ribbon eats up too much space. I can’t imagine having this thing on any computer running on anything less than a 1280 x 800 screen …
YouTube Raid: No More Fat Geeks with WiiFit
Ever since games became more and more interactive, there are now a lot of reasons why gamers should fall into that harsh stereotype of fat and pimply geeks with no lives. Well, save for MMORP gamers. But with the days of Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Sports, we’ve read a lot of reports of people actually getting fit from gaming. And the bonus is, it’s still gaming and no gym memberships required. Nintendo ups their ante with this release. WiiFit is Nintendo’s fitness program for the Wii. It comes with a pressure sensitive Balance Board (name not final) that lets people do aerobic, toning, and balance exercises. To give you …
Tech News: Firefox 3 Release Date Pushed Back
Speaking of Firefox, I just can’t wait for the release of Firefox 3. Unfortunately for me, it will still be a few months before I could get hold of the third major incarnation of my favorite browser. But since I trust that Mozilla is gunning for quality over a shippable (shit-able) format, I’m quite fine with it. The latest alpha release is alpha 6 and alpha 7 is due in about 6 weeks (around September) and so on and so forth until they finally release a beta. Firefox 3 is going to be a very significant release, and a lot of work has gone into improvements under the hood so …
Firefox Quick Tip: Play Pacman in Firefox
Now here’s one for a dose of retro. How about some Pacman on your Firefox? Yup, that’s right. You read it. Play Pacman on Firefox. with the Pacman add-on. It plays pretty much like your good old Pacman game. It’s pretty much straight up (complete with the retro sound effects) only you get to play it with four different speed settings – slow, normal, fast and insane. Plus you get a high score list. Download the Pacman add-on here. Via Forever Geek
Download: Be Warned of Homeland Security Threats
Ever since that tragic day, the US government has gone through lengths to ensure the safety of its people. Probably one of the most apparent signs of this is the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security. It presents a color scheme of five threat levels depending on the level of risk. Now if you want to be always in the know of any changes in the threat level, you might want to download this Homeland Threat Security Monitor. It’s a small utility that displays the current threat level based on the DHS website. It displays conveniently in your system tray. While I know that there are people out there …
How to Protect your Kids from Gaming Violence
Video games are so popular these days. With your kid hunched over the PC or console set, determined to destroy the enemies, you can’t be unconcerned if the violence of these video games won’t affect his behavior. It’s really a concern why many kids “have no lives at all” opting to play video games rather than go out and play. In some researches on video games, psychologists highlight increased aggression and hampered social skills as result of too much gaming. Guide child kid towards harmless fun with these tips.
Windows Tip: Set Word 2007 to Save in Word 97 to 2003 Format
The problem with the latest Microsoft releases is that they aren’t backward compatible. Take Vista for example. There are only a special number of software that run on it. Good thing they weren’t that inconsiderate with Office 2007. At least, there’s still the option for you to save using older document formats. By the way, Office 2007 now, by default, uses a different format. Word 2007 saves its files using the .DOCX format. However, since the world hasn’t shifted all to the latest Microsoft releases, chances are you might be sending other people documents in .DOCX format which they wouldn’t be able to open in Word 97-2003. You just have …
Firefox Quick Tip: Purge Your Cache Instantly with Cache Status
One of the things that turn people off from Firefox is it’s tendency to be a resource hog. There are several ways to address this. One is not to max out Firefox – just keepin. Another way is to limit the number of add-ons activated at a given time. Or you can do these RAM tweaks. Another surefire way to police this tendency is by purging your cache. This can be easily done by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Del that loads up the Clear Private Data window, checking Cache and clear the data. However, one drawback to this is that it clears both Firefox’s disk and memory cache. If …
Firefox Quick Tip: List All Images Found in a Web Page
Actually, listing images is a feature already included in the Web Developer toolbar. But for a non-web developer, the toolbar might just as well be a resource hog with all its features. If all you need is a list of the images on a web page (for educational, appreciation, or leeching purposes), here’s an add-on that’s exactly for that purpose. List All Images is a fairly old add-on that’s been around and performs one specific function – to provide a table listing all the images loaded on a page. So regardless if it’s a background or hidden underneath layers, it will be included in the list. Quite a handy reference …