Monday, April 28, 2008

Type a special character in any document

Windows has all kinds of special characters built in - characters that you don't see on your keyboard. Here's how you access them.

First, make sure your NUM LOCK is on. Then, hold down the Alt key and type a number, such as 164, on the number pad of your keyboard. See the character that just appeared? If you typed 164, you saw the letter "n" with the squiggly line over it (used when writing in Spanish). There are all kinds of different characters available to you - you just have to know the codes.

And for your reading pleasure, here is a chart with all of the codes.

This week's video profiles a new invention. Click below to see the running-powered bike in action. Somehow I don't think it's going to be a big hit.



Saturday, April 26, 2008

The Invisible Shelf



















Here's a neat idea - create a bookshelf that you can't see. Full instructions are here.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Yahoo's spam filters grow even more incompetent


I hadn't checked my old Yahoo email account in a while, and I recently logged in just to see what was there. What you see here is just a partial listing of what Yahoo's spam filters determined were legitimate, non-spam emails that had a rightful place in my Inbox. With Gmail having such a smart spam filter, I can't imagine any reason to use Yahoo for email.

(Click on the image to see it full size)

Monday, April 21, 2008

How to create a good password

Here's a rule that just about everyone knows, but almost no one follows: whenever you create a new password, use a random mixture of letters and numbers, don't use regular words, and make sure it is a password you have never used before. No one does this because the password would be too difficult to remember.

Here's an easy way to create a good password that you WILL remember. Instead of thinking of a password, think of a sentence. For example:

I got my driver's license when I was 16.

That's easy to remember, right? Then take the first letter of each word of the sentence, and here's your password:

igmdlwiw16

There we have random letters and numbers that don't spell a dictionary word. If you wanted to get tricky, you could use the last letter of each word in the sentence. But don't get so tricky that you can't remember the method that you used!

This week's video is a really freaky robot, created by a team of engineers in Boston:

Sunday, April 20, 2008

I love Florida!

Today was a great example of why I love living on the gulf coast of Florida. First, the weather today was fantastic:


I took one of our dogs up to the Safety Harbor Marina/Pier for a walk. There was a wedding that had just taken place:


Then over at the boat ramp, there was a couple launching their kayak -


And right after that, a pontoon boat full of people came in to the dock after spending the afternoon out on Tampa Bay:


It was a great day!

Friday, April 18, 2008

Tip on making a fake ID

Need a fake ID? No problem, there are places all over the internet where you can order one. Here's a tip - choose carefully which photo you will use. An authentic state identification card generally pictures just one person.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Free fonts - thousands and thousands of them!

Everyone loves to spice up a text document (or an email) by using a different font. Most people have a lot more fonts installed on their computer than they will ever use. Can you have too many fonts? Absolutely. Here's why:

1. The fonts that are installed on your computer are all catalogued in a Registry key. The key that holds all of that info does not have unlimited space. If you have too many fonts, you might find one day that you try to install a new one, and the computer won't let you. This is usually when you have several hundred (or maybe close to a thousand) installed fonts.

2. Practically speaking, if you are creating a Word document and want to use some different kind of font, do you really want to scroll through 500 fonts to choose one?

So, the point is, don't just go installing fonts all the time unless there is a chance that you will actually use them.

Now, having said that, I present you with a collection of websites that offer...free fonts! From the sites listed below, you can choose from thousands and thousands of different fonts, and you don't have to pay for any of them. This blog post will be a good reference for you to use in the future when you need a new font - so I recommend that you bookmark it.

And now - the free fonts:

Font River

Fontsy

Fawnt

Mike's Sketch Pad

Filecart


Bittbox

Iconian

Font Garden

Search Free Fonts

Get Free Fonts

The Font Shack

Keith Devens

Font Foundry

Font Reactor

Simply the Best Fonts

Fontennium

More free quality fonts

Acid fonts

Daily Free Fonts

Fonts 500

Urban Fonts

High Fonts

Web page fonts

Da font

Font Freak

Larabie Fonts

Themed Fonts

Divide by Zero

1001 Fonts

Better Fonts

Blambot Comic Fonts

Modern Life

Abstract Fonts

40 Excellent Free Fonts

Free Font Downloads


This week's video isn't funny, but it is entertaining and has a good message.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Personal service is best

If your computer has a problem, what do you do? Maybe you're lucky enough to have a family member or close friend that is good with computers and has time to fix it. Or perhaps someone like that can walk you through a repair over the phone.

Because of a big advertising campaign, the first choice for some people is the repair guys at the local "box store". I am talking about the Geek Squad, which is part of Best Buy. This is not always the worst choice, but the problem is that these guys just work for an hourly wage. They don't usually get to know the customer very well, and they don't necessarily have the customer's best interests at heart. Here's a good example of this.

I have repaired hundreds of computers with all kinds of different problems. Before I do anything, I want to get a good idea of exactly what the problem is. I also want to make sure that the customer's data will never be at risk, so I determine that all important data is already backed up (or I back it up). Then, I completely analyze the computer and determine what the problem is and how long I believe it will take to fix it. If, during the course of the repair, it gets more complicated and will take longer than I estimated, I contact the customer to explain the situation and get permission to proceed.

My point is that when you deal with me, you get personal service. You are not just one of thousands of machines that I am working on. I understand your dependence on your computer and my job is to make sure it is working correctly. I don't want my customers to be satisfied; I want them to be raving fans!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Don't do this to your computer


I tell all of my clients to not have food or drinks near their computer. Does my own household listen to this advice? Not exactly.

Monday, April 7, 2008

No more comments

Unfortunately, I have had to disable the "Comments" feature on my blog. Recently there have been comments added that were not acceptable.

Today, a scumbag spammer scammer posted a link to a scam antivirus website. The site appears to be "scanning" your computer for viruses. Then it shows that it has "found" several viruses on your hard drive. Then of course, there is the offer to get rid of those viruses - for a fee, of course. This is a complete scam, and these vermin travel the internet posting their links on blogs such as mine. Well, not any more.

I do enjoy hearing from you, so if you have any comments about a post here, just send me an email. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Get hassled!

"I decided to quit procrastinating. Starting tomorrow."

You know there are some things you have to do, you just avoid getting started. Or you forget about them and then remember at a time when you can't get started. Of course, once the job is started, it's usually not that big a deal and I wonder why I kept putting it off for so long.

Sometimes all we need is a little nagging. A reminder every so often that "hey, you need to do this thing - don't forget!". Now there's an internet service that does just that. It hassles you!

You can sign up free at www.hassleme.co.uk and enter those things you want to get "hassled" about, and approximately how often. You will receive an email reminder to get busy and do that task. Some examples:

- go to the gym roughly every 4 days
- write an entry in my diary roughly every 3 days
- call your mother roughly every 7 days

One of the future planned features is that you can get hassled via text message to your cell phone - handy for people who don't check their email very often (you know who you are!).

In the past I have used video clips of people singing the Star Spangled Banner - usually because they mess up. This week's video is the same song, but performed very well by the Cactus Cuties - a group of very talented (and very young!) girls.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Not all teachers are underpaid

Homeschooling is not right for everyone, but this letter from a school teacher to a parent sure makes a good case for it.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

You may be cool, but...

you'll never be Four-Popped-Collars cool.