Computer Tips and Guides

Archive for September, 2009

Belarc Advisor is a fantastic way to quickly take a snapshot of your computer regarding the installed hardware and software in the machine.

It provides a clear report showing installed hardware including CPU type and speed, motherboard brand and model including the serial number, amount and type of memory installed, hard drive/cd-rom drive information, video, sound, modem, network,printer and other installed devices.

It also shows in the report a list of installed software versions and licenses for that software with a link ..read more

If you use web-based email like Yahoo or Gmail, you know the biggest drawback occurs when you click on a link on a web page to email someone and you realize the default email program on your computer is not the web based email one. Instead of opening Yahoo Mail, Outlook Express or some other client-side email program opens. Of course, if you have Yahoo Mail Plus, you could setup Outlook Express or any other default email application to use ..read more

Google Book Downloader Downloads Books to PDF

Windows: Thanks to Google’s drive to add more and more books to the Google Books project, including thousands of public domain volumes, you’ll find quite a nice selection to choose from. Google Book Downloader helps you download them to PDF.

Let’s get one thing out of the way from the start. Google Book Downloader will not let you pirate books. It will however let you download books that are flagged as full-access such as books ..read more

Top 10 Underhyped Webapps, 2009 Edition

As with rock music, video games, and other awesome pursuits, great web applications often don’t get enough credit for what they do well. We’re revisiting and updating our favorite underhyped webapps to give a new crop of contenders their due.

Photo by thievingjoker.

10. Freckle

Like previous underhyped champ Remember the Milk, Freckle doesn’t require you to learn a new set of rules or input methods to track how you spend your time working for clients. If you ..read more

The Best Cheap Office Upgrades

Sometimes the best way to give your workflow a boost is to give your workspace a makeover. Even if money’s a bit tight right now, there are cheap ways to spruce up the place where you’re earning your keep.

Photo by hejgustav

Organize Your Workspace

You can’t work at your peak if you’re constantly searching for the tools you need to get your job done. Whether it’s making sure the basics are close at hand or keeping the non-essentials ..read more

Google Chrome Frame Turns Internet Explorer into a FrankenChrome Browser

Google today released a new browser plug-in called Google Chrome Frame that creates an unholy union between Internet Explorer and Google Chrome, rendering web pages in IE using Chrome’s rendering engine.

That rendering technology includes Chrome’s support for HTML5 and its lightning-fast JavaScript engine. How does it turn IE into Chrome? By creating a new frame inside of Internet Explorer that basically embeds the Chrome browser. It’s sort of like the previously ..read more

Remains of the Day: Linux Needs a Diet Plan Edition

The father of the open-source OS calls his baby “scary” and “bloated,” Sony gets down with the indie (distribution) kids, and we learn how the Netflix Prize was won in today’s odds-and-ends roundup.

Linus Torvalds: ‘Linux is bloated’ The Finnish Linux founder says modern-day Linux is “definitely not the streamlined, hyper-efficient kernel I envisioned when I started writing (it).” As Matt Asay points out, it also now runs on just about every platform ..read more

SetPower Adjusts Your Computer’s Power Management on a Schedule

Windows only: Windows ships with some solid power management options, but it misses the mark on one issue: Most of us need different energy-saving schemes at different times of the day. SetPower adjusts your power management settings on a user-specified schedule.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed SetPower, just fire it up and start scheduling different power management options based on the time of day. As the cheesy informercial-style video above points out, SetPower ..read more

Microsoft Office Web Apps Will Be Available to Everyone

Microsoft offered up a Technical Preview of its web-based Office offerings yesterday, but the invites are long since gone. The good news is that anyone who can get a Windows Live sign-in will eventually have access to stripped-down office apps.

ReadWriteWeb notes that a limited preview is being offered to “partners” at the moment, with greater beta availability coming this fall. In the preview, Word documents are read-only, but can be shared and ..read more

Zune Desktop Player Updates to 4.0

Windows only: Microsoft’s Zune HD was released yesterday and it looks great, but whether you’ve got the latest Zune, an older model, or just like the Zune desktop player, Zune 4.0 brings new features and an improved look to desktop music players.

The Zune player sets itself apart from iTunes in one important way (not including the whole iPod vs. Zune support). As the Zune marketing folks put it: “Browse music, not spreadsheets.” That is to ..read more