Computer and Web Articles

Did you know you can use your Mac to …

• Plan your meals and calculate your nutritional intake?It’s true. http://www.macgourmet.com
• Manage your Netflix rental queue much, much more easily than you are now? It’s true. http://tinyurl.com/3ppqk
• Get your Sudoku fix (for free)? It’s true. http://tinyurl.com/5qs737
• Print out real $10 bills? It’s not true. That’s counterfeiting
• Know how long you should steep your tea? It’s true. http://tinyurl.com/yv34nm
• Easily, easily, easily backup your precious data. It’s true. http://www.grapefruit.ch/iBackup

If you’ve ever received a gift card to a store you don’t frequent, or if you’ve ever found yourself wishing your Gramma Sue would have given you cash instead of a gift card to the yarn store, keep giftcardbuyback.com in mind.

Giftcardbuyback.com will purchase your unwanted gift cards for 60-80 percent of their value and make sure you receive your check in the mail within 10 days.

Their sister store, giftcardsagain.com, offers the opposite service by allowing visitors to purchase store credits and gift cards for up to 20 percent off the actual value.

(And all purchases are received within one week). They even offer a 30-day return policy.

In retrospect, I realize this information would have been better timed had I shared it right after the holidays, but it’s only … June.

Close enough. Surely some of you still have unwanted gift cards lying about?

• www.ilovejeans.com — Search and shop for jeans by style, brand, and even body type. Set up at-home jean-shopping parties, schedule a private one-on-one denim consultation, or sign up for the denim newsletter.
• www.uniteforsight.org — A nonprofit organization empowering communities worldwide to improve eye health and eliminate preventable blindness. (And 80 percent of blindness is preventable.) Learn how you can help.
• www.fastfoodmaps.com — Zoom in to a major city and see the exact locations of all your favorite fast-food restaurants. Not that I’m encouraging you to eat fast food …
• www.designmyroom.com — Planning on doing a bit of remodeling or redesigning in your house this summer? Give designmyroom.com a whirl. Move all your appliances, fixtures, furniture, countertops, lamps, and rugs around. Paint and repaint your walls with a couple clicks. Test out new window treatments and floor coverings. And yep, it’s all free.
• http://eggcorns.lascribe.net — A site devoted to the collection of unusual English spellings that have developed over time. I found the site’s About page discussing the history of “egg corns” rather interesting.

Here are two methods for selecting a large range of cells at once within Microsoft Excel.

The first method requires you to:

• Select the first cell.
• Press and hold down the Shift key.
• Select the last cell by clicking on it.
• Let go of the Shift key.

The second method requires you to:

• Select the first cell.
• Type the address of the last cell into the Name box (for example, D:32).
• Press Shift + Enter.

Try them both to see which method is easier for you.

Did you hear the news? Two months ago Adobe launched Photoshop Express — a streamlined, online version of their uber-famous Photoshop photo-editing program.

Photoshop Express allows you to not only resize, crop, rotate, tweak, and twirl your photos, it offers “free rent” by providing users with up to 2GB of free space for photo storage. Additionally, Photoshop Express lets users set up their very own customized 3D photo galleries.

Absolutely anyone can sign up for Photoshop Express; you don’t need to own a copy of Adobe Photoshop to use this fantastic online service. Go ahead, don’t be shy; sign up for free over at www.photoshop.com/express.

• www.metaefficient.com — Metaefficient, aka “The Optimal Green Guide,” is a great blog run by Justin Thomas, a self-proclaimed efficiency enthusiast. If increasing efficiency in various parts of your life sounds appealing, take a moment and browse through Justin’s blog.
• www.airlinemeals.net — A site where people share photos and descriptions of airline meals. Find out what you’ll likely be served on your next flight, see how people rate “special” dietary meals on more than 300 airlines, or see what first- and business-class menus offer.
• www.when-is.com is a one-stop site displaying the dates of Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and American holidays. I found it a bit disappointing that they spelled the word “Buddhist” incorrectly in the site’s navigation, though.
• www.ilounge.com — An independent site about “all things iPod, iPhone, iTunes, and beyond,” including accessories and related software. Have questions or problems related to your iPod or iPhone? Make sure to visit the FAQs, tutorials, discussions, and forums located in ilounge’s Help! section.
• www.geni.com — A neat, free site that lets you build an online family tree and “preserve your family history.” The site is private and secure, meaning that only the people within your family tree can actually login and view your profile.

Question: I read a fair share of lengthy online articles each week and when doing so, I normally use my mouse’s scroll-wheel to move down the page as I read. My son has mentioned he prefers using the “Page Down” key on his keyboard. Out of curiosity, what method of scrolling do you use when reading online long articles?

Answer: If I’m scanning through content, I’m a huge fan of my mouse’s scroll-wheel.

When I’m doing more thorough readings of web page content, however, I use … the spacebar. When viewing websites, the spacebar typically functions just like your keyboard’s Page Down key; it’s just bigger and much easier to use.

When I want to move up instead of down, I just hold down the Shift key with my pinky before tapping the spacebar. Very easy.

I’m not sure how people ever managed their lives before the web. In my opinion, the burgeoning of thousands upon thousands of helpful online tools like ForLater (and Hassle Me, which was reviewed a few weeks ago) has made remembering important dates and tasks easier than ever.

ForLater is a basic, simple website that accomplishes one thing and one thing only: it sends important reminders to people at just the right time.

Visit www.forlater.net and type in a message that you’d like to remind your future self about. Choose the time when you’d like to receive your reminder, click the “Remind me!” button, and you’re done. You’ll now receive an e-mail at exactly the time you specified containing the message you wanted your future self to see.

Of course, ForLater need not be restricted to sending reminders to just yourself; go ahead and send reminders to friends, family and colleagues whenever you feel that something important will likely slip their minds.

• www.getnetwise.org — A public service created to “help ensure that Internet users have safe, constructive, and educational or entertaining online experiences.” This site exists to help people make informed decisions about their (and their family’s) use of the Internet.
• www.nationmaster.com — If only a resource like this had been available for public use back when I was writing geography and history reports in high school!
  NationMaster.com is a massive data source that allows people to graphically compare nations across the globe. NationMaster compiles data from sources like the CIA Word Factbook, the UN, and the OECD, and users can generate maps and graphs comparing any of this information with ease. Cool.
• www.instantstorm.com — A freeware tool for PCs that allows you to create Flash-based screensavers complete with plenty of bells and whistles. Features include a Wizard mode for beginners, screensaver scaling options, the capability to create Start Menu shortcuts, and the capability to fully customize your screensaver’s “about” box.
• www.wintabber.com — Attention PC power-users! Wintabber is a nifty, free little program for adding tab support to just about any window on your PC. Multi-tab just about any window in seconds.
• www.stikipad.com — The layperson’s definition of Stikipad: “a blank piece of paper where you decide its use.” A techno-geek’s definition of Stikipad: “a hosted wiki provider that lets you collaborate online.” Make a task list, plan an event, keep all of your team on the same page, book a trip, track document updates, and more … Plans start at $5/month.