Ubuntu 11.04 is here....How to make transparent panels again.....

For instance, if you are like me, you like the "panels" to be clear and show through the wallpaper you have installed....
well you have to go into the "ubuntu software center" and search for "compizconfig-settings-manager"....install that and then hit "alt-F2" and type in "about:config"...this will run the command for you to tweak the desktop panels...

hit the tab "experimental" and move the slider to transparent and viola...clear panels again...

a little tricky but with Unity interface there's lots to learn...have fun with Natty Narwhal!

 

When Your Window Goes Out Of Sight-HELP...here's the fix

If you’ve ever hooked up your laptop to a secondary monitor and then disconnected without remembering to move the windows back to the primary desktop, you’ve probably encounted this problem:
The application is running. You can see it in the taskbar, but you can’t see it on the screen, because it still thinks it’s running on the secondary monitor. You try and use right-click, Move, but that doesn’t do anything, and the window doesn’t move anywhere. You end up rebooting and cursing Microsoft.
There’s a simple trick to get around this. First make sure you’ve alt-tabbed to the window, or clicked on it once to bring it into focus. Then right-click on the taskbar and choose Move

At this point, you should notice that your cursor changes to the “Move” cursor, but you still can’t move anything.

Just hit any one of the arrow keys (Left, Right, Down, Up), move your mouse, and the window should magically “pop” back onto the screen.
Note: For keyboard savvy people, you can just alt-tab to the window, use Alt+Space, then M, then Arrow key, and then move your mouse.
This should work on any version of Windows. It’s really amazing how many people are not aware of this little trick.
Update: Note that you can also right-click on the taskbar and choose to Cascade your open windows, which will often help bring the windows back onto the screen.


(Credit to How-To-Geek)

Ubuntu 11.04 due out on April 28th

Code named

Natty Narwhal

 

No viruses

Life's too short to spend it worrying about viruses.

Download it-install it and use it.....and free (best of all)

 

Save Webpages to PDF's- Free!

Printing a Web page, especially one without a printer-friendly version, can be a paper-wasting nightmare. If the page is too wide, most printers will cut the page at an awkward point, which loses important text, often in the middle of a word.
There are several ways to create more print-friendly Web pages, but one of the newest and easiest to use is iWeb2Print.

Check it out- via a Bookmarklet in your browser-or Chrome Extension and Firefox AddOn

A great feature and then you can download the PDF to your smart phone and take it with you for easy reading even offline....make sure you have an E Reader that can read PDF files such FB Reader- check that out HERE

Change Computer Name in Vista or Windows 7-How to

How to make your computer more personal.
Change the name of the computer.
Here are three routes you can take to open up System Properties:

• Type sysdm.cpl into the start menu search box (quickest)
• Right-click on the Computer option on the start menu.
• Open Control Panel, and go to System and Maintenance, and then System.

If you chose one of the last two options, then you’ll need to click on Advanced System Settings on the left menu:

Now you’ll finally be on the right screen, which should say System Properties.

Click on the “Change” button to rename the computer, which will pop up this dialog:

Now you can finally change the name of the computer. You could also change the name of the workgroup to something more descriptive as well. You’ll have to reboot after you make this change.

Book Lending....another good website!

For those of you who own Kindles here is another website to "borrow" or "loan" your books...and it is free (as always)

Go to the site HERE

Web Of Trust- Extention for Safer Browsing

Would you like to know which websites you can trust? The Web of Trust (WOT) add-on is a safe surfing tool for your browser. Traffic-light rating symbols show which websites you can trust when you search, shop and surf on the Web.

Get it HERE for Firefox

Bookmarklet-What Is It?

It scrubs webpages of the junk you don't want to look at and makes a clean interface...

Check it out HERE

Readibility-Handy for reading long articles....drag the bookmarklet to your bookmark bar and click on it from now on when you want good "clean" reading!

FYI- If Readability says it cannot convert home pages but individual articles click on "render this page anyway"....it will do it.....good clean pages-big print-easy on the eyes...all good....

Got A Kindle? Make It Even Better ....Check This Out!

Kindlebility greatly simplifies the task of getting web articles onto your Kindle. With one click you can quickly send web pages, complete with photos and formatted for easy e-reading, to your Kindle.

To generate and install the bookmarklet, simply enter your Kindle email address (found in your Kindle settings) and then drag the link to your browser bar. You also have to log in on Amazon to manage your Kindle settings and allow Kindlebility to email your device. The video above shows how to set this up.

Once done, it's just a matter of clicking the bookmarklet from the web page and it'll show up on your Kindle almost instantaneously (depending on your connection).

While you could also use Instapaper to direct articles to your Kindle either automatically or manually, Kindlebility is great for easy single page sending.

PS...Make sure you set up a "name"@free.kindle.com email or else you may be charged for a document transfer....just an FYI....go into your "manage email settings" at Amazon and add an @free.kindle.com email....


http://kindlebility.darkhax.com/

Disable automatic saving of contacts to Gmail

As part of a raft of small changes to Gmail, the app now has the option to disable its automatic saving of contacts. While many people find the ability find the automatic saving of any recipient a message is sent to to Google Contacts useful, for some it ends up creating too much clutter in their contacts list.
You can disable contacts auto-save in the “Create contacts for auto-complete” section of General tab of the Setting screen, as shown in the screenshot below.

Note that Gmail uses your contacts list to auto-complete email addresses as you type them in the address fields, so if you disable auto-saving, you’ll need to make sure that you manually add any email addresses that you’d like auto-completed.
Other useful changes to the product include better warnings for typos in email addresses and letting you know which email address contains the error; a reduction in annoying pop-up messages; and easier access to keyboard shortcuts — the Shift+? shortcut, which brings up a keyboard guide overlay, is now turned on by default, and also includes a link to enable the other keyboard shortcuts.

Restore Gmail Contacts

If you ever have a mess-up with Gmail contacts here is the fix:    From the Google Folks!


If you make changes to your contacts that you want to undo, you can restore your full contacts list to an earlier saved version. This allows you to undo changes like:

• Recovering contacts that have been accidentally deleted
• Restoring contacts after an unsuccessful sync
• Undoing a recent import
• Undoing a recent merge

To restore your contacts to a previous version, just follow these steps:

1. Click Contacts.
2. From the More actions drop-down menu, choose Restore contacts.
3. Choose the time you'd like to revert your contacts list to (e.g. 10 minutes ago, one hour ago, one week ago, etc). We suggest that you also make a note of the time that you restore your contacts, in case you'd like to return to where you started.
4. Click Restore. You'll see a confirmation at the top of the screen when the rollback is complete.

To undo a restoration:

• When the operation completes, a notification bar will appear that gives you the opportunity to immediately undo the restore. This notification bar will disappear if you leave Contacts or make edits to your contacts.
• If the notification bar is no longer there, you can always re-run the Restore Contacts tool to take you back to where you started. Just set the tool to take you to the time just before you started the whole process.

The 24 hour rule for Chat contacts:
When you delete a contact in Contacts, it will also get deleted from your Chat list. After the contact is deleted, Chat still remembers the invitation status for that contact for another 24 hours. So if you restore a deleted contact within 24 hours, it will be fully restored in Chat. But if you restore a deleted contact after 24 hours, you'll need to re-invite that person to your Chat list.

HotSpot Shield-Protect Your Browsing Wherever You Are

Protecting the web for your security, privacy and anonymity!
Get behind the SHIELD! 100% FREE!

* Secure your web session, data, online shopping, and personal information online with HTTPS encryption.
* Protect yourself from identity theft online.
* Hide your IP address for your privacy online.
* Access all content privately without censorship; bypass firewalls.
* Protect yourself from snoopers at Wi-Fi hotspots, hotels, airports, corporate offices.

Works on wireless and wired connections alike. Provides Unlimited Bandwidth.
Works on the PC and the MAC, including new operating systems (Windows 7 and Snow Leopard)

Hotspot Shield protects your entire web surfing session; securing your connection at both your home Internet network & Public Internet networks (both wired and wireless). Hotspot Shield protects your identity by ensuring that all web transactions (shopping, filling out forms, downloads) are secured through HTTPS. Hotspot Shield also makes you private online making your identity invisible to third party websites and ISP’s. Unless you choose to sign into a certain site, you will be anonymous for your entire web session with Hotspot Shield. We love the web because of the freedom that it creates to explore, organize, and communicate. Hotspot Shield enables access to all information online, providing freedom to access all web content freely and securely. Secure your entire web session and ensure your privacy online; your passwords, credit card numbers, and all of your data is secured with Hotspot Shield. Standard antivirus software protects your computer, but not your web activities.

That's why AnchorFree is pleased to offer Hotspot Shield. Our application keeps your Internet connection secure, private, and anonymous.
100% Security Through a VPN

Hotspot Shield creates a virtual private network (VPN) between your laptop or iPhone and our Internet gateway. This impenetrable tunnel prevents snoopers, hackers, ISP’s, from viewing your web browsing activities, instant messages, downloads, credit card information or anything else you send over the network. Hotspot Shield security application is free to download, employs the latest VPN technology, and is easy to install and use.

Download it HERE and get security you need from snooping, sniffing, and hackers who have nothing better to do.

Firefox for Android

Take Firefox anywhere. Go from desktop to mobile without interruption.

Introducing Firefox 4 for Android! It's fast, easy to use and completely customizable. And it's built on the same great platform as our desktop version. So you can take your Firefox anywhere you go.

With Firefox for Android, you can synchronize your history, bookmarks, tabs and passwords between all your computers and mobile devices. Discover and install add-ons right from your phone or tablet to customize your browser exactly the way you like. Type less with the Awesome Screen, which gives you one-tap access to your bookmarks, history and custom list of search engines. Tabbed browsing allows for easy navigation and fast switching between Web sites with just one swipe of your finger. See more features at http://mozilla.com/mobile/features/.

It’s your Web, anywhere you go. Firefox for Android is available in over 10 languages.

Firefox is compatible with a wide range of devices, however some older devices are currently not supported. Check http://mozilla.com/mobile/platforms/ for a list of supported devices.

Here Little Pup! Check out latest Puppy Linux!

Linux is a free operating system, and Puppy Linux is a special build of Linux meant to make computing easy and fast.

Puppy Linux enables you to save money while doing more work, even allowing you to do magic by recovering data from destroyed PCs or by removing malware from Windows. See these example articles: recovering files from Windows and safe Internet banking with Puppy Linux.

With Puppy Linux, you can carry your programs and data anywhere.

* Easy - Just use a CD or USB flash to boot a PC. Puppy Linux is downloadable as ISO, an image that can be burned to CD or DVD.
* Fast - Because Puppy is small, it can live in your PC's memory and be ready to quickly execute your commands, whereas in other systems, programs are first read from drive storage before being executed.
* Save Money - Even if your PC has no hard disk (ex, broken hard disk), you can still boot Puppy via CD or USB and continue working. Old PCs that no longer work with new systems will still work good-as-new with Puppy.
* Do More - Puppy boots in less than a minute, even in old PCs, and it does not require antivirus software. Administering Puppy is quick and minimal. With Puppy, you just have to take care of your data, which you can easily save to USB flash (Then forget about your operating system!). Your data can be read by other computers.
* Do Magic -Help your friends suffering from computer malware by booting Puppy and removing malware from their PC (use antivirus that is built-in or can be installed in Puppy). Example - bad Autorun.inf is easily removed by Puppy (Just delete it as well as its companion exe program). If your friend thinks that she has lost data from her corrupted hard disk, boot Puppy and try saving her data!
* Carry Anywhere (Portable) - Because Puppy is able to live in CD/DVD or USB flash, as well as save data to these same devices, you can carry your programs and data with you.

Are you now ready for Puppy? Keep these important reminders before using Puppy:

* You don't have to install Puppy (to hard disk) to use it. Simply burn the ISO to CD/DVD and boot the PC or laptop with it. Once booted, you can then install it to USB flash (see the Setup menu), so you can use it for booting the PC when a CD is not available.
* You don't have to save data to hard drive to work with Puppy. You can save data to USB flash or even to Internet storage (like www.drop.io ). When installed to USB flash, Puppy consumes only a little over 100 MB, or about 256 MB with OpenOffice. You can use the same USB flash (where Puppy is installed) for saving data.

DOWNLOAD PUPPY HERE

WRITE IT TO A USB STICK WITH UNETBOOTIN
GET IT HERE

How to enable copy/paste if you are using CMD (command prompt)

There are two options, the default right-click menu… or QuickEdit mode.

Enable QuickEdit Mode

Right-click anywhere on the title bar and then select Properties. (Or use Alt+Space P
)

On the Options tab, check the box for “QuickEdit Mode” and then close the dialog.

Copy / Paste in QuickEdit Mode

If you have this mode enabled, you can simply left-click anywhere in the window and drag a box around the text that you would like to select.

Once you’ve selected the text, you can either right-click anywhere in the window or use the Enter key to copy the selected text to the clipboard.

To paste into the command prompt, simply use the right mouse button anywhere inside the window while not in “Select” mode.

Copy / Paste With Right-Click Menu

If you don’t want to change any settings, you can just use the right-click menu to copy or paste text. Note that the right-click menu doesn’t show up with QuickEdit mode enabled.

Right-click on the background of the window and select “Mark”, and then draw a box around the text you want to copy.

Once you have selected the text you want, then use the right mouse button or the Enter key to copy the selected text to the clipboard.

To paste into the window, right-click and choose the “Paste” option on the menu.