Computer and Web Articles

Does your PC seem a bit sluggish these days? Take the following steps to give your computer a boost in speed.

Block malware and spyware by making sure you’re totally up to date with Microsoft’s system patches. To ensure you have the latest fixes installed on your computer, open Internet Explorer, then choose Tools > Windows Update.

Let Windows manage your Virtual Memory. In your Control Panel, choose System, then Advanced, then click the Settings button under Performance. Click Advanced once more, then click the Change button under Virtual Memory. Make sure System Managed Size is selected and you’re good to go.

Clean up your hard disk and then defrag defrag defrag. Honestly, when was the last time you defragmented, eh? Here’s what you need to do. Next time you leave your computer for the night or right before you leave work at the end of the day, open up My Computer, click on the C:Drive icon, choose Properties, then Tools. Go ahead and click the Check Now button and then, when the scan is complete, click the Defragment Now button. Oh, and don’t forget to close all your programs and disable your screen saver first, and make sure you give the process plenty of time to complete. It can take a few hours.

If you’re comfortable working with Registry files, go and clean out your messy Registry with a highly-rated (and free) program like RegSeeker (http://tinyurl.com/6r3to).

Zabasearch.com is a free online search tool that allows you to search for people and personal information. It’s basically a “People Search Engine” that searches available public records such as phone listings, court records, real property records and subscriptions.

Zabasearch ONLY searches for people, so unlike an identical search conducted with Google, a Zabasearch will show you a results page with records of people — and nothing else.

If at some point in time you determine that you’d like to remove your personal information from Zabasearch results, I’d suggest reviewing the information provided here: http://tinyurl.com/kxdeg.

• www.reelcomp.com — Upload original footage of you and/or your friends snowboarding, skateboarding or surfing, and compete in qualifying round competitions for $1,000 prizes, and then ultimately the $10,000 grand prize. Or you can always just take a look around the site, browse through the videos, and vote for your favorites.
• www.rosettaproject.org — The Rosetta Project is a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers building a publicly accessible online archive of ALL documented human languages.
• www.rehashclothes.com — Shop for clothes without spending a penny by swapping your clothes and accessories with others. I think this site has the potential to be quite great, but at this point in time it could definitely use more participants.
• www.desktopography.net — A showcase of nature-themed wallpapers created by designers from around the world.
• www.neweyesfortheneedy.org — Founded in 1932, this nonprofit organization purchases new eyeglasses for poor children and adults in the U.S. and recycles donated glasses “for distribution to indigent people in developing nations worldwide.”

1. Knowing how to zoom effectively will help you become a more effective Photoshopper — so remember that you can keep your document window the same size while zooming in and out if you hold down the Alt key (or Option key for Macs) while pressing the Ctrl key (Command key for Macs) and the “–” or “+” keys.
2. One of the easiest ways to add a new color to your Swatches palette is to position your cursor over the gray area after the last swatch and then click. If you want to add the color without having to name it, make sure you hold down the Alt key (or Option key if you’re using a Mac) when you click. Stop going back into your Photoshop preferences every time you want to change your rulers’ unit of measurement. Instead, just right-click (Ctrl-click for Mac users) on one of the rulers and choose your preferred measurement unit from the little box that pops open.
3. If you want your layer mask to have nice, clean, sharp edges — and especially if you want the ability to edit those edges — you should be using a vector mask instead of a layer mask. How? Just hold down Control when you click the “Add a Mask” button at the bottom of your layers palette, then go for it and use your Pen tool to draw your mask.

Have you come across the word “Joost” before? No? There’s quite an online buzz about it, so let me fill you in on the main points.

www.Joost.com is a website that’s all about VIDEO. It offers thousands and thousands of TV shows for viewing, for free, with more being added every day. All you need is a broadband internet connection to use it.

With something for just about everyone, you can watch plenty of popular and niche shows on Joost, from MTV’s “Punk’d” to Comedy Central’s “Stella” to the NBA channel’s “Top Bloopers of the ‘07 Season” to the Xtreme Channel’s World Cup of Skateboarding coverage.

Use Joost’s “Explore” section to find channels, shows or videos you’re interested in. Browse by category or check out what’s new or popular. Use the Search bar if you know exactly what you’re looking for.

Joost is easy to set up, as well. Just download it, install it, choose your Joost name, and start watching. Have fun; with more than 20,000 TV shows and more than 400 channels, it shouldn’t be too hard.

• www.fatwallet.com — Save money and make money while shopping. An alternative to RebateShare, FatWallet allows you to earn cash back while you shop online, in addition to providing a forum where you can share deals, money-saving tips, and details on online sales.
• www.askforkids.com — Ask Jeeves search engine, for kids. Designed to be a fun destination site focused on learning and “edu-tainment”.
• http://tinyurl.com/2bj9aa — A tutorial that will teach you how to Blacklist unwanted senders in Gmail.
• www.foodsubs.com — This site exists solely to serve as your personal cooking thesaurus. The site covers thousands of ingredients and kitchen tools with entries including photos, descriptions, synonyms and pronunciations. Many entries even suggest substitutions.
• www.free411.com — 411 without the charges. Search online when you’re near a computer or dial 1-800-FREE411 when you’re not.

RamBooster is a free software utility that helps you keep your computer from acting like a slug. It optimizes how your computer uses its RAM and works to keep as much free as possible. It can even try to free up a specified amount of RAM if you want to run a program that requires more free RAM than what you have available.

A simple-to-use program that’s been reviewed by PCWorld, RamBooster can be downloaded here: http://tinyurl.com/gblpu. And in the worst case scenario (RamBooster doesn’t work for you), simply uninstall it, no harm done.

Google Alerts is an incredibly, incredibly easy (and free) online tool that far too many people don’t know about. Let me give you the quick rundown here.

Let’s say you broke up with your girlfriend, Susi Q., last year and are painfully curious as to what she’s up to these days. You Google her name occasionally but never really find any new information on her. Unfortunately, you feel like a total weirdo typing her name into Google every week, and you hate wasting your time on such a silly search. But yet you’re still really, really curious as to what she’s doing.

Google Alerts to the rescue! Simply head over to www.google.com/alerts, enter “Susi Q.” into the search terms box and enter your e-mail address into the e-mail field. Hit the “Create Alert” button … and you can now sit back and let Google do all the work for you. Any time a new website, video, blog, etc. contains something about dear Susi Q., you’ll get an e-mail providing you with the exact link. And of course you’re free to turn off this specific search or start as many new ones as you’d like at any time.

Stalkers, researchers, sports-enthusiasts, and gossip-addicts rejoice! The ultimate in online convenience is here and it’s free; Google Alerts does your searching for you and delivers it right to your inbox. It doesn’t get much better than that, folks.

• http://www.archive.org/details/movies - This fantastic online archive contains thousands of movies (from classic full-length films to daily alternative news broadcasts). Even better, most of these movies are available for download.
• www.churchsigngenerator.com - Just for fun. This site allows you personalize your very own church sign photo. Simply choose a design, add your text, and your work is done. Free.
• www.editgrid.com - Spreadsheets. On the web. Slick.
• http://tinyurl.com/27mydo - A short, fascinating little video giving you a glimpse into just how much effort it takes to create what seems like a simple but well-timed photograph.
• www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&;amp;hl=en - See al those extra letters after the standard “google.com” website address? If you visit this particular URL, Google will actually try to guess what you’re typing as you type in your search. Its suggestions display in a drop-down box below the search box, and you can choose a suggestion (or not) from its list at any time.