SPCUG EXTERNAL LINKS

Information, resources, etc.
READER may be required for some documents.

Remember: Donations to SPCUG are TAX DEDUCTIBLE.
We are a 501 (c) (3) Charitable Organization
See OUR text document that explains donations to non-profits, here. Either read on line, or right click the LINK and "Save Target As" so you print the document off line. You may also view OUR NON-PROFIT verification from Guidestar.org.

What type of memory do you have in your PC? http://www.crucial.com/

Some links from the log-take a look. Nothing "dangerous".
http://www.bornfreervclub.org/bulletin_board/viewforum.php?f=14&sid=49a856d28dfb64286f4b8aadb8694207

http://www.snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html

http://maps.yahoo.com/mapmixer?

http://translator.live.com/Default.aspx

Intelways.com, formerly CrossEngine and before that, mrSAPO, isn't a metasearch engine; you type in your query and then select which search engine to use. Intelways provides one-click access to around 300 different search tools, organised by broad channels. You type your search query and select any one of these search tools; the results appear in a frame below the search boxes. The Intelways frame remains at the top of the screen as you scroll through your search results, and can switch from one search engine to another. What makes Intelways particularly useful is its categorisation of finding tools. The default selection includes several Google search indexes (web, images, news, maps), other major search engines, Wikipedia, several multimedia search engines, social bookmarking sites, and even Amazon and eBay. There are also categories of tools for "General" searching, images, video, news, "Social" sites (ranging from Reddit and Furl to Squidoo and Friendster), searching by file type, reference sources, and so on. Click on any of these categories, and a new collection of search tools is displayed, specific to that type of search. Although these tools are not search simultaneously, it's almost ridiculously easy to switch from one to another by clicking the box for that search tool on the top frame. http://www.intelways.com/

How to use the Cipher command to wipe data from your disk - As you probably know, when you delete files off your Windows XP or Windows Vista computer, those files aren't actually gone. The only thing that happens is that the "pointer" to the deleted files is removed and the space on the hard disk is marked as available to put new data. But until new data is put in the same location as the deleted data, the deleted data remains on the hard disk and can be recovered by hackers and other malicious users. What you need to do is "wipe" the data off the hard disk. You can do this by using the cipher command that comes free with Windows XP and Windows Vista. Here are the instructions, compliments of Tom Shinder: 1. Close all programs. 2. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then press ENTER. 1. Type cipher /w:driveletter:\foldername, and then press ENTER. Specify the drive and the folder that identifies the volume that contains the deleted data that you want to overwrite. Data that is not allocated to files or folders will be overwritten. This permanently removes the data. This can take a long time if you are overwriting a large space. For example, if you have a deleted files in folder c:\SECRET, you would enter cipher /W:C:\SECRET Use cipher /? to see allthe cipher commands. The wiping process can take a long time, so be patient. Once the files are wiped by the cipher utility, no one will be able to recover your deleted information from your hard disk.

Plug a 2nd monitor into your PC: 1. Plug the second display into your computer. Many video cards today have a second port; or, you'll have to install a second video card in an available slot. 2. In Windows XP, right-click on your desktop, click Properties and choose Display Properties. Now, click on the Settings tab. In Windows Vista, right-click on your desktop, click Personalize and then Display Settings. 3. You will see a greyed-out box to the right of the black box. This is your second monitor. Click on the greyed-out box (which will also have a No. 2 in it) and check off where it says, "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor." You can also adjust the video resolution of the second monitor, if desired. 4. On your desk, place your second monitor to the right of your primary one. Now, when you move your mouse on your primary monitor and reach the right edge of the screen, you'll see the mouse continue onto the second monitor.

SelfImage is the little hard drive utility with big aspirations. SelfImage is capable of making an image file of a hard disk or hard disk partition, and can restore an image back to any drive or partition that doesn't have open files. Useful for making backups. Unlike dd for Windows (or cygwin), SelfImage is capable of creating an image of a partition that is currently in use. SelfImage can even create images of partitions that Windows doesn't recognize (partitions that Windows doesn't have mounted on a drive letter). This is perfect for the dual-boot system, you can create an image backup of a Linux partition directly from Windows.
http://www.excelcia.org/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=66

Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot floppy that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction. DBAN is a means of ensuring due diligence in computer recycling, a way of preventing identity theft if you want to sell a computer, and a good way to totally clean a Microsoft Windows installation of viruses and spyware. DBAN prevents or thoroughly hinders all known techniques of hard disk forensic analysis. FREE. http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Dedaulus System Cleaner: Freebie that cleans temp files, Internet files, duplicate files, and more. If you're looking or a simple, easy way to do basic system cleaning this is the program for you. It cleans temp files and Internet traces, finds duplicate files, and fixes Registry errors. It'll do more as well, including showing you all programs that load on system startup, and deleting and uninstalling programs.
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_download/fid,67265-order,1-page,1/download.html

Audio Searching: http://skreemr.com/
Try = this - cut and paste into browser:
http://skreemr.com/results.jsp?q=3Dshostakovich

Removing Programs; A Manual Fix
If you think that using an uninstaller, Add Or Remove Programs, or the installation disc didnt result in a clean uninstall, you can check the Registry for remnants of the program. First, back up your Registry. Click Start and Run, type ntbackup.exe, and click OK. Follow the instructions. (NOTE: Its possible that the Backup utility is not yet installed on your system, in which case youll need to install it from your WinXP installation disc.) Now, on to the Registry Editor. Click Start and Run and enter regedit in the Open field. Click OK. There are = three key places to check for lingering elements of the uninstalled program.
They are:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE. Find the folder named for the program you removed, if its still there, and delete it.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE. Again, find the folder of the program youve removed and delete it.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES. Look here for any services that may be associated with the program. Be very careful, because deleting something here could affect other programs.
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World Newspapers: http://www.world-newspapers.com

World Clock - yipes! Lots of info: http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf

Microsoft Internet Explorer navigation
• CTRL+B (Open the Organize Favorites dialog box)
• CTRL+E (Open the Search bar)
• CTRL+F (Start the Find utility)
• CTRL+H (Open the History bar)
• CTRL+I (Open the Favorites bar)
• CTRL+L (Open the Open dialog box)
• CTRL+N (Start another instance of the browser with the same Web address)
• CTRL+O (Open the Open dialog box, the same as CTRL+L)
• CTRL+P (Open the Print dialog box)
• CTRL+R (Update the current Web page)
• CTRL+W (Close the current window)

Lots of Microsoft/Windows KEYBOARD shortcuts: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449

Sequim Map for SPCUG http://tinyurl.com/343z37

Guide to BitTorrent: http://guides.radified.com/magoo/guides/bittorrent/bittorrent_01.html

How to change file associations in XP - Sometimes when you install a new program, it may change the file associations. For instance, if you install a graphics program such as PhotoShop, you might find that it is now the default program to open picture files like .jpg and .gif, even though you prefer to have them opened by the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. Luckily, it's easy to change the file associations so that files with the selected extension will open with the program of your choice. Here's how:
1. Right click the Start menu and select Explore.
2. In Windows Explorer, click the Tools menu, then click Folder Options.
3. Click the File Types tab.
4. In the list of registered file types, scroll down to the file extension whose association you want to change and highlight it.
5. Click the Change button.
6. Scroll through the list of programs that can open the file type and select the one you want to use as the default. Be sure the box labeled "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" is checked.
7. Click OK.

You can click the Browse button to look for the program if it doesn't appear in the list.

For those on shared hosting, myIPneighbors IP search is a great way to find out who your neighbors are or just to see how many other websites your hosting company hosts your server. Is your website packed into a crowded host with hundreds of other sites? Or is there questionable content being hosted side by side with your site? If so, it may be time to look for a better host. http://www.myipneighbors.com/

July 18, 2007 - Some people call it shovelware; some call it crapware or bloatware. But whatever it's called, I personally despise preinstalled software on new computers. To start, let me define in my own words what it is. "Shovelware" is software (be it trial ware, promotional ware, whatever) that is shoveled onto your new PC whether you like it or not. "Crapware" is software preinstalled on your new system that the majority of us will find useless. And, last but not least, "bloatware" is shovelware or crapware that uses up your PC's system resources right out of the box; to me, this is the worst offender. Now that I have given you my definitions, let's get started. -Lee Koo

EULA - End User License Agreement(s): You're about to sign up for or purchase a service and aren't prompted to accept an end-user license agreement, nor are you offered a privacy policy to view. Shady site proprietors often disclose their intentions in the privacy policy or EULA, so you should always read carefully. The free tool EULAlyzer is a great help because it analyzes license agreements and notes any unusual or possibly dangerous language. http://www.download.com/EULAlyzer/3000-2086_4-10464852.html?tag=-txt

GNU cash for Windows: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=192 GnuCash is a personal finance manager. A check-book like register GUI allows you to enter and track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses. The interface is designed to be simple and easy to use, yet is based on formal accounting principles.

NNDB is an intelligence aggregator that tracks the activities of people we have determined to be noteworthy, both living and dead. Superficially, it seems much like a "Who's Who" where a noted person's curriculum vitae is available (the usual information such as date of birth, a biography, and other essential facts.) But it mostly exists to document the connections between people, many of which are not always obvious. A person's otherwise inexplicable behavior is often understood by examining the crowd that person has been associating with. http://www.nndb.com

How to use AVG, CCleaner, etc.: * How to use AVG http://www.download.com/How-to-use-AVG/1200-2023-5158759.html
* How to protect your PC with Ad-aware http://www.download.com/How-to-use-Ad-aware/1200-2023_4-5157520.html
* How to clean your PC with HijackThis http://www.download.com/How-to-use-HijackThis/1200-2023_4-5157522.html
* How to use ZoneAlarm http://www.download.com/How-to-use-ZoneAlarm/1200-2023_4-5157528.html
* How to lock down your hosts file http://www.download.com/How-to-lock-down-your-hosts-file/1200-2023_4-5157524.html
* How to use CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) http://www.download.com/How-to-use-CCleaner/1200-2023_4-5159733.html

Computer Science E-1: Understanding Computers and the Internet Harvard Extension School The Podcasts and lectures are online at:
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~cscie1/

A SAFE WAY TO CHECK QUESTIONABLE EMAIL MESSAGES BEFORE OPENING THEM
The following applies to users of Outlook Express:
(1) right-click on any questionable email item shown in the OE inbox list;
(2) left-click on "Properties" in the pop-up list;
(3) click on the "Details" tab;
(4) click on the "Message Source" button;
(5) click on the "Maximize" button;
(6) peruse the display to see where the message came from and what is contained within the original email message (NOTE -- some of what is displayed may be gobbledygook);
(7) after reviewing all of this make a decision whether to open the message or not;
(8) then just exit from this via clicking twice on the X in the upper-right corner of these windows to get back to your Outlook Express inbox list and do what you decided to do.
The process described here will not allow malware from affecting your PC unless you chose to open a questionable message that had a virus, trojan, etc.
And make sure your Outlook Express does not show a PREVIEW of emails received, because the Preview actually opens the emails automatically. And if there is malware hidden in the message, then it is too late. [Thanks, Ed.]

World Clock - yipes! Lots of info: http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf

Lots of Microsoft/Windows KEYBOARD shortcuts: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449

For those on shared hosting, myIPneighbors IP search is a great way to find out who your neighbors are or just to see how many other websites your hosting company hosts your server. Is your website packed into a crowded host with hundreds of other sites? Or is there questionable content being hosted side by side with your site? If so, it may be time to look for a better host. http://www.myipneighbors.com/

July 18, 2007 - Some people call it shovelware; some call it crapware or bloatware. But whatever it's called, I personally despise preinstalled software on new computers. To start, let me define in my own words what it is. "Shovelware" is software (be it trial ware, promotional ware, whatever) that is shoveled onto your new PC whether you like it or not. "Crapware" is software preinstalled on your new system that the majority of us will find useless. And, last but not least, "bloatware" is shovelware or cr*pware that uses up your PC's system resources right out of the box; to me, this is the worst offender. Now that I have given you my definitions, let's get started. -Lee Koo

How Can I Find Help With Linux? by eldergeek on July 18, 2007 at 10:05 pm · Comments Categorized by Linux / Related Information - Go to google and type in “Linux tutorials” (in quotes) and hit the Search button. Prepare to be astounded. There are an enormous number of Linux tutorials on the web. Quite a number of them cover Linux in general and there are many more which cover specific distributions or software applications. You can get more pertinent information by replacing the word “Linux” with the name of whatever Linux distribution or software you wish to learn about.

If you’re having a problem, you can google for “Linux forums” or, once again, you can replace the word “Linux” with the name of a specific distribution or software. If you can reduce your question, or the description of your problem, to a few clear words you can string them together with plus signs and place the name of the distro somewhere in the string. When you have a problem, remember to google for a solution instead of for the problem. For example, if you have no sound in Puppy Linux, don’t google for
no+sound+puppy,
instead, google for:
sound+puppy+fixing OR configuring
If one string doesn’t work, try another. Finding the answer to any question with a search engine is ALL about finding the right question.

My most valuable Linux resource has been the email lists of my Linux User Groups. I belong to our local Highland Lakes Linux User Group, and to the email lists of the Austin Linux Group and San Antonio Linux Users Group. We’re an hour and a half from Austin and over two hours from San Antonio so I’m not able to attend their meetings but they’ve made me welcome on their email lists. Of course I treat them as the invaluable resources they truly are by trying hard to find my own answers before asking them questions and by helping to answer questions others have asked. I have to admit, I’d been on those lists for months before I was ever able to make any sort of contribution and even now, it doesn’t happen often but that’s not the point. I contribute what I can, whenever I can; that’s what matters and I’m not the only non-resident contributor on the Austin and San Antonio lists. Clearly there are other Linux users who feel the same way I do; they don’t care where the email list is coming from as long as they can find other knowledgeable Linux users with whom they can network. Keep that in mind if you get interested in Linux and find that there’s not a LUG near your community, on the web “near” can be a very flexible concept if that’s what’s required. Here are a few places where you can look for a lug.
http://www.linux.org/groups/
http://www.linuxforu.com/ShowLugs.php
http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Linux/User_Groups/
http://www.tux.org/luglist.html
http://www.linux-magazine.com/Readers/Usergroups
If you can’t find a LUG on one of these lists, you should consider starting your own and here are a couple of sites which might help you with that:
http://www.linuxusersgroups.org/search.html
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/User-Group-HOWTO.html
If you just want to check out a few LUGs, there’s even a webring.
http://q.webring.com/hub?ring=lug

Every Linux distribution I’ve seen, whether it was a live CD or fully installed, comes with an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Client. There’s a learning curve attached to using an IRC client but if you’re patient and persistent, you can literally get 24/7 help with your Linux questions or problems. Frédéric L. W. Meunier wrote the definitive treatise on Linux and IRC which can be found in many places on the web. A couple of other potentially useful documents might be The IRC Prelude by David Caraballo and Joseph Lo or A beginner’s guide to IRC by Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier. Given an IRC client and a general understanding of how to use it, you need only google the name of your distro, followed by a plus sign and the letters IRC to locate an instant source of information or help. Here, for example, is a google search on Ubuntu plus IRC:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Ubuntu%2BIRC&btnG=Search

-Don Crowder, Buchanan Lake Village, served by the U. S. Post Office in Tow (rhymes with "cow"), Texas ###

DCCExplorer 2.03 http://dccrypt.netfirms.com DCCExplorer software is a freeware. This software is compatible with these 32-bit versions of Windows (95/98/ME/2K/XP). You can use it to protect your files and folders on your USB disk and hard disk. This software use password to encrypt and decrypt your files. This software use Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm to encrypt and decrypt your data.

Large type search: http://www.big.com

This handy utility allows you to manage context menus items of file objects displayed in a file manager like Windows Explorer or any other application that deals with shell's application programming interface. It's a very simple way to make your often used file actions quickly accessible. Fast Explorer handles both static and dynamic context menu items and can assist with even more...With Fast Explorer you can create new menu items, submenus (cascaded menus), dividers, specify menu bitmaps and hint text, and manage existing context menu items added by other programs. http://thesoftpro.tripod.com/downloads/fe/

Feeling patriotic? Want some goosepimples? Go to Library of Congress site to download some music: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/patriotic/patriotic-home.html Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent - Victor Hugo After you listen to this, and you want some spirited up-tempo music, try: http://www.acmel.nl/am/accordion/listencd.html (Samples from Album)

Some email tips for the newbie:
* Save Time. Use [NM] or [EOM] (they stand for "No Message" or "End of Message") in the subject line as a shorthand way of answering e-mail that's simply a thank you or an acknowledgement. It helps reduce the number of e-mails that need to be opened.

* The subject is... Tell me, explicitly and quickly, what your message is about in the "Subject" line. I delete all messages with vague subjects -- Hi, Hello, or worse, an empty subject line. And make sure you don't trigger my spam filter by using all capital letters, exclamation points, and words you typically see in spam.

Pandora Recovery is a powerful free tool that provides its users an effective way to attempt recovery of permanently deleted files. And that does not mean restoration of a file from Recycle Bin. Pandora Recovery actually recovers files permanently removed from Recycle Bin, files originally deleted using Shift + Delete keys bypassing Recycle Bin and files deleted from DOS prompt. http://www.pandorarecovery.com/ Pandora Recovery is not a backup tool - it can recover files that have been deleted months before Pandora Recovery was installed. And while the likelihood of successful recovery is negatively affected by the time passed since the deletion of files Pandora Recovery users were able to recover files deleted more than five years after deletion and from re-formatted drives!

An example of gobbledygook by a software company hyping their product. I sent this off to my technical writing teacher as a perfect example of gobbledygook: Prevx 2.0 provides the breadth and depth of technologies necessary to combat the ever increasing sophistication of malicious software. Prevx’s unique implementation of ‘herd intelligence’, malware virtualization, frequency analysis, centralized behavioral heuristics and automated malware research gives a significant advantage, one that translates into faster, more extensive and accurate determination of malware to provide the highest levels of security. -tp

I have an almost religious zeal.. not for technology per se, but for the Internet which is for me, the nervous system of mother Earth, which I see as a living creature, linking up.
Dan Millman-The Peaceful Warrior

I like MACS. In fact, I have two of them...an iMac and a MacBook. Here are some Mac sources: http://web.mac.com/simon_elliott/iWeb/simon_elliott@mac.com/Software.html
http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/ Webcam drivers for cheap USB webcams for your older G4 Mac or PowerMac
http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3 Drivers for just about every legacy printer out there.
http://osxportableapps.sourceforge.net/ Apps for Mac that you can take anywhere on a memory stick or portable hard drive.
http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/Freeware/ A wide range of free utilities including CombinePDFs
http://www.freemacfonts.com/ for some good extra fonts for your Mac.
Finally, for those students on PCs that do not have the ability to take partial screenshots as you can do on a Mac, use Snippy - http://www.bhelpuri.net/Snippy/

Give me some FLAC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Lossless_Audio_Codec - definition

http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html - references and sources

http://ff123.net/samples.html - some downloadable FLAC sample files

I use MediaMonkey to play FLAC files. MediaMonkey is available, FREE at: http://www.mediamonkey.com/ You can also convert Convert MP3s, OGG, FLAC and WMA files into other formats with the Audio Converter which is a built-in tool. ###

Personal-finance - FREE e-books:
http://www.mint.com/blog/finance-core/30-free-ebooks-to-learn-everything-you-want-to-know-about-personal-finance/

FREEBIE! As everyone knows, JPEG (.jpg) image compression doesn't save all the information in an image. It compresses images so as to consume only a small amount of disk space (e.g. compared with .bmp), but also damages them with a "blotchy look" and "JPEG artifacts". Most graphics editors have JPEG as a default format. And almost all digital photo cameras save images in JPEG format. Jpeg Enhancer is a simple and extremely powerful program that lets you restore the images damaged by low-quality JPEG compression. Unlike all other tools, our science-intensive technology doesn't damage your photos simply by blurring them, but restores them, so your images will look as they did before being damaged by JPEG compression! Jpeg Enhancer is the only product on the market able to restore compressed JPEG images smartly. Jpeg Enhancer is useful for everyone who works with JPEG images. It's a must for design studios and publishers as well. http://www.vicman.net/download.php?Title=Jpeg%20Enhancer

Lots of hype about the iPhone. See video of device in action, here: http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/30/iphone-first-hands-on-video/

Google Maps has improved its directions feature dramatically by adding “Click and Drag”: after laying out a route, click and drag any point to have Google Maps recalculate the route with updated distance and time. It works great when you don’t like the suggested route, want to take a detour or need to avoid traffic.

Waterproof paper for ink jets and laser printers: http://www.waterproof-paper.com/inkjet-paper.shtml 8 1/2" x 11" 50 Sheets only $23.99 Great for maps, nautical charts, signage.

The Art of Innovation - Guy Kawasaki:
http://www.zentation.com/viewer/index.php?passcode=epbcSNExIQr - excellent video combined with PowerPoint at Zentation - a new experience and presentation tool. If you have about an hour, watch the presentation about Innovation.

Google image search. If you search for something and then add &imgtype=face to the result URL, you will get only results that have faces in them. Another search tip: Suppose you want a picture of a hamster. Use this Google search string:
intitle:index.of + .jpg OR .bmp OR. png OR .gif + "hamster" -html -htm -php -asp -txt -pls This will find an index of pictures - including .jpg, bmps, etc.

LastChance is a desktop utility that provides the facility to run programs when the machine is shutting down. Once the user chooses Shutdown from the Start menu, LastChance will intercept the shutdown request and optionally run the configured programs, waiting for them to finish before continuing the shutdown procedure. What's new * Confirmation dialogs can now be suppressed * Now FREEWARE. http://www.fileware.com/public/lchance.exe Great for running backups of data at shutdown every day. This will insure saving YOUR DAY'S WORK.

ESBCalc - Free Scientific Calculator with Paper trail. Latest Release: v6.2.0 released 26-Jun-07 http://www.esbcalc.com/ Try this. It's free, of course, and lets you copy the "screen" to your clipboard, then paste the numbers (paper) into a document to view and/or print. They call this the Paper Trail, and it's a handy feature of this little proggie. -tp.

There were 79 million blogs on line in July of 2005. The number of blogs is said to double in size every six months. See our NEW list of BLOGS as recommended Technology News: bloglist.htm

New. BIG LIST of on-line VIDEO tools: onlinevideotools.htm

New. BIG LIST of on-line photo tools: on_line_photo_tools.htm

A GOOGLE tips and references PAGE is here: googlepages.htm

From Google Labs: Time line view: Try this string at the regular, Google site: nanotechnology view:timeline
- Try the MAP view by using this string: bioinformatics conferences view:map to see locations of bioinformatics conferences

Troubles playing sound or pictures while viewing videos? Get your lastest CODECS at:
http://www.free-codecs.com/ACE_Mega_CoDecS_Pack_download.htm

Build a great PC on a budget with these parts and procedures, by George Ou. Illustrated with how-to photos. build_pc.pdf [File downloaded and dated 22 Feb., 2007]

If you have a USB flash drive holding various Windows XP files, you may want to configure the drive to automatically open Windows Explorer rather than display the AutoPlay dialog box.

You can select the Open Folder To View Files In Windows Explorer and select the Always Do The Selected Action check box but that only configures the flash drive for one file type. Here's how to configure your flash drive to open Windows Explorer for all file types at the same time:

1. Insert your flash drive into the USB port.
2. When you see the AutoPlay dialog box, click Cancel.
3. Open My Computer, right-click your flash drive icon, and select Properties.
4. In the Properties dialog box, select the AutoPlay tab.
5. Perform the following steps for each item in the Content Type drop-down list:
- Select an item in the Content Type drop-down list.
- Choose Select An Action To Perform in the Actions panel.
- Select the Open Folder To View Files In Windows Explorer action.
- Click the Apply button.
6. Click OK to close the Properties dialog box.

Now use the Safely Remove Hardware feature to remove your flash drive -- wait a moment and plug it back in. You'll see the AutoPlay progress appear momentarily, and then you should see Windows Explorer open to show the contents of the flash drive.##

Some of you may be interested in books enough to get a FREE account at Amazon. This enables you to advertise and sell your books through Amazon. You look up the ISBN number, compare your asking price with others listed, and then list your book for sale. In the past, I've picked up books at garage sales, estate sales, etc., and listed them with Amazon via my merchant seller account. Amazon collects the money for you, takes their commission, allows an amount for postage, and credits your checking account with the balance. Amazon guarantees purchases from Amazon Marketplace, Auctions, and Merchant sellers when payment is made via the Amazon.com website.

The last book I picked up, FREE, at a church giveaway box was listed for 125.00. It's a technical book on Cybernetics, and is a popular title, although it is an older book. A purchase made at an estate sale last year sold for ninety dollars. It, too, was a technical title dealing with databases. I sold it to someone at Fort Dix in the IT department. It paid for everything I bought at the estate sale, my gas, lunch and my "time". You have to like books, Amazon, and using the computer to research and list your sale items.

Have a look at Amazon at: http://amazon.com and look at MORE BUYING CHOICES on the right side. This is a list of all the individuals and companies that have the book for sale at a reduced cost. I buy used books from Amazon frequently, using on line sellers. You do NOT have to supply your personal information to the seller. It all goes through Amazon's site and is secure.
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Photo studio in a box. Fabric, fold-up diffusion for your photos of light from
two, 35W Halogen lamps. Prices range from 60-90$, so compare. Great for table-top
photos with your digital camera. I'm testing one, and will help a friend use it to
photograph her handmade jewelry.

Wavosaur is a lightweight audio editing application. All the basics are covered here, including support for multitrack audio files, trimming, adding effects, making loops, and normalization. Most processing settings are also available for batch conversions, making Wavosaur a handy tool for applying the same settings to a bunch of files. You can use it to remove silence in a batch, which is a convenient way to speed up spoken word audio without altering pitch. A vocal removal preset also scrubs music files of vocals, so you can make your own karaoke tracks in a batch. This doesn't always work, but you can try. The vocal removal doesn't always get chorus sections perfectly scrubbed, but it shouldn't hurt your ability to sing over the top of the file. The application runs as a completely standalone executable, meaning you could put it on a thumb drive and use Wavosaur anywhere. The user interface is generally more intuitive than the popular freeware app Audacity, but the two make nice companions rather than being replacements for each other. While Wavosaur doesn't bundle all the features of things like Sound Forge and Audition, it does most of the common audio tasks well at a price neither of those two apps can touch. [Windows 2k/XP/Vista $0.00] http://www.topdrawerdownloads.com/download/104957 Company site: http://www.wavosaur.com/ Guide:
http://www.wavosaur.com/download/manual/Wavosaur%20quick%20start%20guide%20v2.0.zip

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods:
http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html

LastChance is a desktop utility that provides the facility to run programs when the machine is shutting down. Once the user chooses Shutdown from the Start menu, LastChance will intercept the shutdown request and optionally run the configured programs, waiting for them to finish before continuing the shutdown procedure. What's new * Confirmation dialogs can now be suppressed * Now FREEWARE. http://www.fileware.com/public/lchance.exe Great for running backups of data at shutdown every day. This will insure saving YOUR DAY'S WORK.

ZoomIt is screen zoom and annotation tool for technical presentations that include application demonstrations. ZoomIt runs unobtrusively in the tray and activates with customizable hotkeys to zoom in on an area of the screen, move around while zoomed, and draw on the zoomed image. I wrote ZoomIt to fit my specific needs and use it in all my presentations. ZoomIt works on all versions of Windows. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/zoomit.mspx

Serif PhotoPlus PhotoPlus 6 is a free program that does a creditable imitation of Photoshop Elements. Along with painting, drawing, and text manipulation tools, there are tools for erasing, filling, and cloning a region. --Leigh Anne Jones Version: 6 Price: Free Operating Systems: Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP Go to the download page now: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_download/fid,64406/download.html You have to register on their site after you download.

Samsung has introduced what it claims is the world's first USB-connected display, which also needs no graphics card.

The UbiSync LCD monitor has a 19-inch 1280-by-1024 screen that uses a software graphics adapter which it downloads to the PC when it is plugged into a USB 2.0 port.

Samsung senior vice president Ha Yoon-ho suggested that UbiSync would be ideal for laptop users wanting a second display, and for workers who need multiple PC screens. It includes a four-port USB hub, so up to five monitors can be connected via a single USB port on the PC.

UbiSync is due on sale in May for $678 -- not cheap for a 19-inch monitor, but it does mean you can add an extra screen to a PC without having to open the box and install extra VGA or DVI ports.

PrintKey 2000 - Sometimes you just need to do a simple thing--like making a hard-copy printout of your screen. But if you hit the Print Screen key in Windows, it won't actually print the screen to a printer. Instead, it will copy the screen into the clipboard, from where you have to paste it into a graphics-capable program and then print it. Print Screen (as the name suggests) cuts out the middleman: once the small, free program is installed and the No Dialog mode is enabled, it will print out the computer screen to the default printer whenever you hit the print screen key. It can also enhance the normal function of the print screen key by allowing you to capture the screen and do some simple editing on captured screens, such as turning it into grayscale (useful if you are printing to a black and white printer), rotating the screen or changing the color scheme. --Richard Baguley Price: Free Operating Systems: Windows 2000, Windows 9.x, Windows Me, Windows XP http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_download/fid,22960/download.html

Next time you have to go into Safe Mode on a Windows XP system, don't worry about having to repeatedly tap F8. Instead, use this tip to add Safe Mode to the standard Windows XP boot menu so that you can easily enter Safe Mode without cramping up your index finger.Format: Other Download | Size: 76KB | Date: Mar 2005 | Version: 1.0 | System Requirements: Microsoft Word or equivalent; or a PDF reader http://downloads.techrepublic.com.com/download.aspx?&q=xp&docid=173797&tag=nl.e064

Vista can send you emails! The Computer Management tool can still be accessed by right-clicking “Computer” and selecting “Manage” from the menu. However, now you can attach a task to any event. Try navigating through System Tools / Event Viewer / Windows Logs / Application. Now, go ahead and select an event - then look to the rightmost pane and click “Attach Task to This Event.” Name it whatever, describe it however, click through the next step, then in the Action step, you’ll see the “Send an e-mail” option.

The free Undelete PLUS can come to your rescue. Run it, and it scans your system for files that have been deleted, even those removed from the Recycle Bin, or deleted on a network drive or via a DOS window. It lists all the files, and tells you whether it can likely be restored. (In some instances, the delete file has already been overwritten; in that case, you can kiss it sayonara.) Then tell the program to restore your files, and they come back from the dead. --Preston Gralla Version: 2.71 Price: Free
http://www.downloadcenter24.com/system-utilities/undelete-plus.html

Moleskine notebooks, sketchbooks, address books, etc. Check these sites for prices, information,
etc. Moleskine Related Links: http://www.moleskineus.com/ | http://www.moleskine.com/eng/default.htm | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moleskine | Exhibition of Moleskines: http://www.moleskine.com/eng/_interni/city/exhibition.htm | Moleskine hacks: http://www.43folders.com/2004/11/18/more-moleskine-hacks/ | http://moleskineart.com/ | http://www.moleskinecity.com/jo/index.php

People Search: http://www.pipl.com/ I think this a good one. Try it.

Video Search: http://www.purevideo.com/

Put Your documents on line: http://www.scribd.com/ Post your own docs in several formats, FREE.

Register with SpamCop for FREE SPAM reporting service at: http://spamcop.net/anonsignup.shtml
http://spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/19.html ##

How do I get my email program to reveal the full, unmodified email? It would behoove you to know how to do this...esp. to report SPAM, etc. [ Did you hear the one about the pony that got into an altercation with a bear and was behooved? ]

With Outlook Express:
The following is instructions to obtain the full message source if you have the preview panel turned off:

Using the keyboard:
1. Highlight the message in the folder
2. Press alt & enter - this will open a message information window
3. Press Ctrl & Tab - this changes to the "Details" tab
4. Press Alt & m - the opens the message source
5. Press Ctrl & a - to select all the text
6. Press Ctrl & c - to copy the selected text to the clipboard
7. Press Alt & F4 - to close the message source window
8. Press the Esc key - to close the information window
9. Switch to the SpamCop reporting page
10. With the curser in the parsing box, press Ctrl & v to paste the clipboard contents into the window
11. Click the Process Spam button.

With Netscape, Mozilla and Thunderbird

Preferred method: Click on the "View" menu, then "Page Source," (ctrl-U in windows, meta-U in unix, ?-U on the Mac) then copy the contents of the window (Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C windows).

Old versions: Click on the "View" menu, then "Headers," then "All." Note: This method will not work correctly with HTML spam.
##

Talk to the Media: http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/contact/media.asp Phone numbers and addresses of contacts in the media - including: print, wire, magazines, TV.

All versions of Windows Vista come with the Back Up Files wizard that is designed to make it very easy for you to back up all of your data files. The Restore Files wizard is also designed to make it very easy for you to restore files from your backups. In this article, I'll show you how to use the Restore Files wizard by walking you through a restore operation.

Just as with the Back Up Files wizard, there are two ways to access the Restore Files wizard. You can access it from the Backup and Restore Center by clicking Start | All Programs | Maintenance or you can access it from the Backup Status and Configuration page by clicking Start | All Programs | Accessories | System tools
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-6180819.html?tag=nl.e132

SMAC. Price: Free. Operating Systems: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista File Size: 4920KB Author: KLC Consulting Security tool lets you change the ID for your wireless LAN. This utility lets you change the MAC address--the unique ID--of a wireless adapter. Use it to perform vulnerability testing, or to keep your identity private. --Preston Gralla http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_download/fid,64536/download.html

New PC? The PC Decrapifier attempts to remove all of the crap on your PC that you never asked for or wanted. To manually remove all of this stuff by hand can take at least an hour (depending on the severity of the infestation.) The PC Decrapifier will detect the 'crap' on your system, you choose what to uninstall, then sit back and let the PC Decrapifier work its magic. All of this stuff is placed on your new PC because the big companies like Dell, HP and others sell advertising space on your PC to put more money in their pockets at the expense of your time and frustration. The PC Decrapifier is a program free for personal use to help the average computer user combat this problem. It is also available for PC technicians at a small fee to use as a tool in their everyday business to save a tremendous amount of time. http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/files/PC-Decrapifier-1.8.zip

SoThink Movie DVD Maker - Free DVD authoring software is hard to come by. Many of the free apps I've found are buggy. SoThink Movie DVD Maker is among the best of the free solutions available for DVD authoring. The app converts most formats, including AVI, MPEG, WMV, MP4, RMVB, MOV, and 3GP to DVD. Basic video editing features like trimming clips and combining smaller clips into a larger movie are also supported. When your video is ready for DVD you can burn straight to disk. The default video format is PAL, so if you are authoring home movies created in the US, you'll need to change the defaults for NTSC support. This is especially useful in combination with something like Windows Movie Maker for Windows XP, which includes no DVD burning support. While the app will work with Vista, the Vista DVD Maker application has a better burning engine and far more features for authoring DVDs. [Windows 2k/XP/Vista $0.00] http://www.topdrawerdownloads.com/download/104952

If you need to back up CDs or DVDs, or made CDs or DVDs from .ISO files, you won't find a simpler program than this. Looking to copy a homemade DVD? That's just one of the many tasks you can accomplish with ImgBurn. It's a combination disk-burner and disk-reader that's about a simple a program as you'll find, but will tackle pretty much whatever disk-burning task you throw at it. How's this for simple: Put a CD or DVD in your drive, and select Mode --> Read, and the program reads the disc. Then click the Read button, and it will create an .ISO image file on your PC, which is an image of the disc. To burn that image to a CD or DVD, you only need to click a few buttons. Even if you don't need to back up CDs or DVDs, you'll find the program useful, because some programs are distributed as .ISO files which need to be burned before they could be used. For example, beta versions of Windows Vista were commonly made available online as .ISO files.
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_download/fid,64960/download.html OR at:
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/cdr_software/cdr_tools/imgburn.cfm

If you have lots of drive letters of different types of drives, such as mapped network drives, thumb drive (USB memory sticks), smart media and compact flash, CD-ROM and DVD then this utility is perfect to help you manage them. Using Drive Manager to Identifying Which Drive is Which. Drive Manager has been written to help you easily identify drives which are of the same type. As well as displaying the volume label it also displays vendor information so that multiply CD/DVD drives and removable drives such as USB thumb drives can be differentiated by their manufacturers name, version and revision date. Also the serial number can be seen as a unique ID for each drives. http://www.alexnolan.net/software/driveman.htm

Optical info is a spin off utility from the popular System Spec - system information program which can already display this information regarding optical drives. The purpose of this utility is to detect the optical drive's (CD / DVD drives) Read/Write capabilities. When looking at the front of a computer which is not your own it is often difficult to tell whether the optical drive installed is either a CD ROM, CD Writer, CD Rewriter, DVD ROM, CD Rewriter + DVD Combo, DVD/CD Rewriter etc. A utility like this is useful because CD and DVD drives don't often display their capabilities in the front and sometimes even if they do, they still can't been seen due to the design of the PC's case. People quite often have more than one optical drive installed in their machine. They can have for example the original CD ROM or Writer drive and also a newer DVD drive. Another advange of this utility is allows you to see by selecting the drive letter for one of the drives, which is which. It also allows you to see which of the two or more drives is the faster for reading / writing. http://www.alexnolan.net/software/opticalinfo.htm [From Steve: Optical info is a spin off utility from the popular System Spec - system information program which can already display this information regarding optical drives. The purpose of this utility is to detect the optical drive's (CD / DVD drives) Read/Write capabilities. When looking at the front of a computer which is not your own it is often difficult to tell whether the optical drive installed is either a CD ROM, CD Writer, CD Rewriter, DVD ROM, CD Rewriter + DVD Combo, DVD/CD Rewriter etc. A utility like this is useful because CD and DVD drives don't often display their capabilities in the front and sometimes even if they do, they still can't been seen due to the design of the PC's case. People quite often have more than one optical drive installed in their machine. They can have for example the original CD ROM or Writer drive and also a newer DVD drive. Another advantage of this utility is allows you to see by selecting the drive letter for one of the drives, which is which. It also allows you to see which of the two or more drives is the faster for reading / writing. http://www.alexnolan.net/software/opticalinfo.htm This does NOT work with SCSI CD-R devices. - Thanks, Steve.]

Topographical Maps: http://mytopo.com

WiFi hotspots in Sequim: http://usatoday.jiwire.com/browse-hotspot-united-states-us-washington-wa-sequim-3447373.htm [ If you drive around with your laptop set to find open wireless routers, you will find a lot of "open" nodes in town. It's not legal. The latest listing didn't include The Buzz on N. Sequim Avenue and the Visitor's Center on E. Washington Street. ]]

Description: Unstoppable copier will copy files/folders from disks that have physical damage and attempt to repair these. It will ignore error messages generated in the copying process and attempt to restructure the file using every readable part. Here are some notes on this program: Will read files from damaged disks: in many cases it will create a good copy. There are many reasons why this is possible (a) Unstoppable Copier will attempt to fill in any missing part based on a ’best guess’ after considering all the parts that were actually readable, (b) it is possible that the file might work just fine even if the unreadable parts were not reconstituted 100% correctly (the missing info might have been that part of the mp3 that is inaudible to the human ear, or a part of the image that we cannot see anyway). Or you may notice the damage in, say, your salvaged video but at least its useable and can be watched past the damaged point. Note that Unstoppable copier has a slider that enables you to control whether you want the fastest copying speed or the best data recovery. If the media is particularly badly damaged you might want to use “best data recovery”, but the copying process might take a very long time as a consequence. One nice feature is that Unstoppable Copier will allow you to pause and resume the data recovery process mid-way-through. It will also generate a log of errors for those of us who are inclined to look into these. Hassle-free copying (i.e. without dialogs, notifications, or interruptions). After recently helping a friend set-up his new computer, we wanted to copy his 20 gigs worth of backed-up data from an external hard drive to his new system. What we found was that once we got through all of the Windows dialogs (are you sure you want to copy?, are you sure you want to replace?), his new up-to-date antivirus software would keep interrupting the copy process as it found and caught all sorts of malware that was in his files. We then resorted to Unstoppable Copier to do the copying; after which the antivirus would intercept and heal the bad files but the entire copying process would not be ground to a halt. Copying-over in-use system DLLs: use Unstoppable Copier to get around Windows’ objections. If you don’t know what this means you can ignore this point (you probably will never need to worry about it). http://www.roadkil.net/downloads/unstopcp.zip

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The world's only multichannel - mainstream jazz radio station -- featuring artists like sonny rollins, thelonius monk, miles davis, blosssom dearie, and many more! http://accujazz.com/

MEDIAMONKEY - This free music manager organizes your collection, plays files, and grabs album art. Not happy with Windows Media Player or your current media player, or are you just looking for an alternative? Then give the free MediaMonkey a try. It's an excellent tool for playing media, organizing your media library, and ripping and burning music. It'll play pretty much every music file that's out there, will synchronize with your iPod and MP3 player, and includes a tag editor. It will also automatically find album art for the file you're currently playing as well. MediaMonkey organizes all your music in multiple ways, including by artist, title, album, genre, year, rating and so on. Unlike Windows Media Player, it loads fast. Fans of Internet radio will like this program as well; it automatically connects you to the Shoutcast and Icecast online radio directories, and play any stations you want
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_download/fid,64955/download.html It likes MIE better, but you can use FireFox tab options extension < https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/ >to open in MIE if you wish.

Filemon - Is your PC acting flakey? This tool can help you find out what's causing the problems. FileMon gives you a real-time view of every running program -- and lets you know what it's doing. The tool records and timestamps the actions of each open application -- say, opening other files or loading helper programs. Watch for a specific program's behavior just before a system freeze. --Steve Bass Version: 7.02 Price: Free http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_download/fid,22271/download.html

A 1-Gigabyte flash drive can hold the data equivalent of 958 3.5 inch disks or a stack about ten feet high. Today, a 1G USB sells for @ ten dollars. Today, in bulk, 3.5 inch disks cost about 11 cents each. You could buy ten flash drives for the price of 958, 3.5 floppies.

You may have found that Windows XP's Disk Cleanup utility misses a spot from time to time, retaining temporary files most recently accessed. Here's how to perform a clean sweep of your Windows XP files by forcing Disk Cleanup to get rid of all your temporary files. If you've ever run the Windows XP's Disk Cleanup utility, you probably discovered that your temporary files occupy a significant amount of space. You might select the Temporary Files check box in order to allow the Disk Cleanup utility to delete the files in the Temp folder, but the Disk Cleanup utility will not remove all of the files. The reason for this oddity is that the configuration for the Disk Cleanup utility does not allow deletion of files accessed in the last seven days. By altering the LastAccess value in the registry, you can configure the Disk Cleanup utility to delete all the files in the Temp folder regardless of the last accessed date. Here's how:

1. Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
2. Go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Explorer\VolumeCaches\Temporary Files

3. Locate and double-click the LastAccess value.
4. When you see the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, change the Value Data setting from 7 to 0 and click OK.
5. To complete the operation, close the Registry Editor and restart Windows XP.

Changing the value to 0 will force the Disk Cleanup utility to delete all the files in the Temp folder every time that you select the Temporary Files check box. Notes: Since editing the registry is risky, be sure you have a verified backup before saving any changes. This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional. ##

USB and other external drives...removing info...Here's the official word from Microsoft on the two correct ways of removing an external or hot-swappable disk (or other device), as described in the Windows XP Professional Resource Kit:

* "If the Safely Remove Hardware icon appears in the taskbar notification area, you must use [it]. If the Safely Remove Hardware icon is not in the notification area, you must use Device Manager to uninstall the disk before you unplug it."

The third, improper method is the one almost all of us use: We simply unplug the device. In fact, this usually works, as long as the device isn't actively being written to or read from. You unplug the device, hear the audible "device unplugged" confirmation tones (a descending "ding-dong"), and that's that.

But note Microsoft's use of the word "must" in the above quote: You must use the Safely Remove Hardware method — if it's available. It's not a mere suggestion or recommendation. Microsoft says it's a must.

That's because simply unplugging a device (the way most of us do) runs the risk of losing data through a delayed write, or open file, or similar problem. You also risk leaving behind a phantom drive or other resource assignment, because the OS doesn't realize the device is gone.

You can avoid these problems by using either the Safely Remove Hardware method or the Device Manager method. They ensure that all writes or other pending operations are completed, that any open files are closed, and that the OS knows it can free up whatever resource assignments the device was using.

To put it another way, go ahead and simply unplug your removable devices if you wish. Most times, it'll work perfectly fine. But if it doesn't and you end up with phantom drives or other problems, you'll know why! ##

Restoring the HotPlug Manager

OK, so know we know that we're supposed to use the Safely Remove Hardware method to disconnect removable devices. But what happens if the Safely Remove Hardware icon goes AWOL on you? Or, what if you click it, but it doesn't do anything? And what if you already have phantom drives on your system? How do you get rid of them?

The Safely Remove Hardware icon is actually a shortcut to Windows' HotPlug Manager. This service normally launches automatically when you connect a recognized USB or Firewire device to your system.

Safely Remove Hardware
Figure 1. The HotPlug Manager can be accessed via the Safely Remove Hardware icon, which normally appears in the Notification Area by the clock.

But, as with all software, things sometimes go awry. The HotPlug Manager occasionally hangs or fails to launch, meaning that the Safely Remove Hardware icon won't appear, even when you know it should. In this case, the simple fix is to manually launch the HotPlug Manager by opening the Start, Run dialog and typing the following:

RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL HotPlug.dll

Click OK, and the HotPlug Manager's Safely Remove Hardware icon should appear. Its dialog box should open and display any connected devices. That's all it takes!
##

Free virtual CD-ROM drive from Microsoft-It's the Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel. The download is a self-extracting archive that contains three files: the front end (VCdControlTool.exe), the virtual CD driver (VCdRom.sys), and a readme file. The latter contains the basic instructions for using the tool.

To understand how it works, you need to know about ISO files — a kind of disk image of a standard CD. Many large downloadable software packages (including most Linux distributions) are packaged as ISO files. These files contain not only the data that's on the original CD, but also information about how the CD is structured and formatted.

Normally, an ISO file has to be processed by special software to separate the stored data from the formatting information. The software then uses the formatting data in the ISO file to burn an exact duplicate of the original CD's contents. Most normal CD-burning tools have a built-in way to do this. In Roxio's Creator Classic, for example, it's under the Record Disc From Image option on the File menu.

But sometimes, you don't want the entire contents of a CD. You may instead just want to extract one file from the ISO image. Or, perhaps you'd like to test-drive software before committing it to a physical CD. Or, you may be in a situation (such as with a laptop computer) where you only have one CD drive but would like to be able to access two or more CDs simultaneously. Or, maybe you're bogged down by having to process large amounts of data from a relatively slow CD, and you'd much prefer to access the data at hard-drive speeds.

That's where the Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel comes in. It lets you mount an ISO file of a CD in one step, without having to burn it to an actual, physical CD first. You then have access to the full contents of the CD and can get at any or all of the data.

The Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel also lets you mount several images at once, each with its own drive letter. I don't know what the upper limit is, but I've had as many as four ISOs mounted at once, in addition to the two real CD drives in my system. And, of course, because the ISO files actually reside on your hard drive, you can access them at normal hard-drive speeds, which are usually much, much faster than CD drives. ##

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Create personalized, annotated, customized maps using Google Maps
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/userguide/index.html

Affordable 3D scanner: https://www.nextengine.com/indexSecure.htm

Manage your digital photos in Vista - Many of us have amassed large collections of digital photos, and Vista makes it easier to manage and find them. One of the most useful new features is the ability to add "tags" to your pictures. These are keywords that can be used to sort and search. The tags are stored as metadata within the file, along with other details about the graphic.

To add a tag to a photo, right click the photo file and select Properties. Click the Details tab, and then click Tags. A field will appear that says "Add a tag." You can type in the keyword(s) you want to associate with the picture here. Then, in the Tags column of Explorer (in a folder that contains pictures), you can click the down arrow to sort or stack by tags.

EMAIL TIP - sending BCC emails: You may received emails with "undisclosed recipient" or "recipient list suppressed" in the "TO:" line. How is this done and can you do it in Outlook Express, T-Bird and Eudora?

Outlook Express & Thunderbird

In Outlook Express, there is an option for CCing (carbon copying) and BCCing (sending a blind carbon copy) to intended recipients. Just click the TO button next to the address field and a new window will pop up exposing the BCC box at the bottom. Select your desired address and click the BCC button, then click OK.

When a sender enters addresses only into the BCC field, and sends with an empty TO field, those messages are received as "undisclosed recipient."

The easiest way to use BCC: is to make an entry in your address book called "Recipient List Suppressed" with your own e-mail address. When you send an e-mail to a lot of people at once, especially to a lot of people who don't know each other, send it TO: "Recipient List Suppressed" and BCC: everyone else.

The use of the BCC field is a practical one. How many times have your received forwards only to find that your email address was among many listed in the TO or CC line? Privacy is a big issue these days among computer users and having your address displayed in that manner only gives multiple unknown recipients access to your address and reveals how careless and thoughtless the sender is.

This neat little box hides all those computer and phone cords and doubles as a power outlet. Inside are 10 outlets and the box comes with a clever method for keeping things very organized: metal ties that are affixed to the inside. You just coil each cord, wrap a tie around it (twisting the end like you would with a sandwich bag), and stack each cord on top of one another. Unplugging is a cinch: simply find the cord you want, undo the ties and pull out the plug. I own two -- one at home and one at the office. You can keep it under your desk or on top (I have my monitor on it), and the front accessibility means you can plug/unplug items (i.e. cell phone) quickly and easily without having a mess of wires on your desk. With everything plugged in I've never had any trouble closing the lid. I once tried making something like this out of laminated wood (to match my desk). It cost about $200, didn't look as nice and wasn't nearly as convenient.

-- Vic Habersmith. Cordinator $55 (only in beige - black pictured) Available from and Manufactured by Herrington http://www.herringtoncatalog.com/ts181.html

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I N F O R M A T I O N S O U R C E S
Special Section

Directory of Clipping Services -- http://dmoz.org/News/Media/Services/Media_Monitoring/

Google Alerts -- http://www.google.com/alerts

Yahoo Alerts -- http://alerts.yahoo.com/

* Use Technorati -- a search engine of blog content -- to check for blog coverage of your organization.
Not all blog content is indexed by Google or Yahoo. Technorati is as comprehensive as it gets, at this point.
Technorati -- http://www.technorati.com/

Wikipedia is a popular place. You can be sure that some prospective donors, volunteers, members and clients are learning about your nonprofit here. Make sure you know what they're learning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Once you identify the sources that cover your organization or field, Bloglines synthesizes all the blog posts and website content on a single web page. You can clip content (for later use) or email it to a colleague.
Bloglines -- http://www.bloglines.com/

Top 10 Web Search Tricks - From Wendy Boswell, http://websearch.about.com/od/enginesanddirectories/tp/toptentp.htm

Top 10 Ways to Find People - From Wendy Boswell, http://websearch.about.com/od/peoplesearch/tp/peoplesearch.htm

Search the Deep Web with Turbo10: http://turbo10.com Turbo10 connects you to deeper, more quality information from niche-specific search engines, and enables the searcher to access databases (such as government, business and university databases). Basically, Turbo10 has cut out some of the middleman work you would have to do to get to these resources on your own. #

Look up colors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taupe For example, you want to know about taupe. Use the following URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/taupe Now you want to know about lavender, but THE COLOR, not the plant. Use the following URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender_(color) [Note the use of the _(color) in the URL to find the color rather than the plant.

Cheat sheets for tech related work: http://mypage.bluewin.ch/yuppi/links/cheatsheets.html Lots of cheat sheets here. FREE.

FUTEF, in beta at http://futef.com/ allows you to search Wikipedia both by keyword and by category. In addition to the search at this site, FUTEF also offers a Firefox plugin about which you can get more information at http://futef.com/plugin/ . There's also a short blog at http://futef.blogspot.com/ and a very brief about page at http://futef.com/about.html .

Real-Time Information," at http://www.resourceshelf.com/category/real-time-information / , Example: http://www.yes.com/ Radio. What's playing right now? Find by Zip Code. Example - Sequim: http://www.yes.com/zipcode.php?z=98382 Example: Seattle incident response (911 calls): http://www2.cityofseattle.net/fire/realTime911/getRecsForDatePub.asp?action=Today&incDate=&rad1=des

Calendars - events, etc.: http://www.resourceshelf.com/2006/07/23/calendars-calendars-calendars-and-some-schedules/ .

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