Tuesday, July 28, 2009

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Cool Websites and Tools [July 28]

Posted: 28 Jul 2009 06:01 PM PDT

cool websites Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option). No trials or buy-to-use craplets. For more cool websites and web app reviews subscribe to MakeUseOf Directory.

(1) AlbumSpotter – Online service that lets you check  for latest albums or singles. Not only you can check for latest stuff from a single artist but also upload your entire iTunes library and check for new releases from the list of artists in your library. Read more: AlbumSpotter: Checks Latest Albums or Singles From Your Favorite Artists

(2) BestParking – Website that allows drivers to compare and find cheap parking in NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and all major airports. It can show both short-term and long-term parking rates for more then 3,000 parking garages run by different parking operators. Read more: BestParking: Find Cheap Parking in NYC, Chicago, Boston & Other Major Cities

(3) Guzzle.it – Personalized online news page which provides a nice way to easily track information from a bunch of news sources on a single webpage. The interface is similar to the popular news aggregating site Popurls, the difference being the ability to add almost any topic you want to the page and customize it according to your tastes.  Read more: Guzzle.it: Online Personalized News StartPage

(4) Repayment Calculator – This calculator comes directly from the United States Federal Reserve, and helps you quickly calculate how long you would take to pay off your credit card debt assuming that you make no more charges and you clear only the minimum dues each month. Read more: Repayment Calculator: Online Debt Pay Off Calculator

(5) Rollip – Web based tool which lets you quickly create polaroids from your pictures online. The site has a simple user interface and the entire process of converting your pictures to polaroids can be completed in a matter of seconds. Read more: Rollip: Create Polaroids Online

Submit Your Web App

These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed.

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Legacy Locker – life insurance for your online identity

Posted: 28 Jul 2009 03:01 PM PDT

Legacy Locker Have you ever wondered what might happen if you were to somehow become unable, be it sick or dying, to login to your many internet accounts such as banking or even your Facebook page?

It’s sort of a morbid thought to think of, but what would happen to your “social profile” if you were to become unable to communicate or worse, died?  Many of these types of websites have no or very little ways to allow the immediate family or beneficiaries the ability to “re-claim” these profiles on behalf of the person who created them.

Now there’s a new web app on the block that aims to fix this hole in social networking. Legacy Locker aims to protect your online assets the same way you would with your physical ones like your savings account, retirement account, etc. Having a will, estate or even a trust protects all of your things including your house, accounts, and all other assets. Legacy Locker comes in to protect all of your “internet assets” the same way.


Think about it for a moment, do you have accounts like email, eBay, Amazon, Paypal, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, iTunes, etc? Normally, all of these would be lost upon your passing, but Legacy Locker takes them, protects them for you and ultimately puts them in the hands of those you’ll list as your beneficiary.

If we were to think about how much time and effort we put into our online profiles and identities these days, it makes sense to protect that and have them safeguarded in the event that something was to happen to you.

Ease your Mind

Using this service obviously isn’t the only method to save and store your online information. You could write everything down on a piece of paper and secure it in your desk drawer at home/work or even write it to a file on your computer. You could also just always use the same login/password for every site you’re a part of. These scenarios often happen, but we know that these are not good ideas to protect your identity.

This service is easy, safe and convenient when it comes to storing, tracking, and updating your account information and they promise to only provide the data to the right people at the right time. Of course you can easily update, change, or modify not only your accounts but the beneficiaries at your whim. You can also have Legacy Locker send you reminders to update old passwords, or to add new assets occasionally.

Ease of Use

This app is simple to setup; they boast that setup takes less than 60 seconds! As soon as you’re logged in, you can begin inserting your “assets”.

For each account, you can assign a beneficiary to that account who will have access when the time is right. Plus, since this is a web app, all data can be added/edited from anywhere in the world. Think about it as life insurance for your online identities.

Legacy Locker is easy to use and understand. First things first, you must create an account and fill out your profile with your basic information. Then you start the simple step-by-step process.

Security Questions

Security questions here are just the same as in any other online web application.  Just things that you have knowledge of and those close to you do as well. Here are some of the available security questions:

Security Questions

Verifiers

Then you should enter what they call “verifiers” or the people whom you have complete confidence in to handle this information in the unfortunate event of your passing. For most of us, its our spouse or other family member that quite frankly you think might just outlive you.

Legacy Locker likes two verifiers, but will allow you to continue using only one. After you enter these verifiers, Legacy Locker will email them to verify once again that you are who you say you are and they are indeed your “verifiers.”

Online Assets

Thirdly, you need to identify all your online assets, entering the Website, username, and password for each of them. On each one you enter, you’ll assign one beneficiary to whom will have this sensitive information.

Digital Asset

Think of your Legacy Locker as being similar to a safety deposit box – it’s a secure place to store important assets – only online.

Upon your Demise

Mortality isn’t fun to talk about, but its real for all of us and to truly give this app justice, you have to mention what happens next (with Legacy Locker, not death).

Basically, its very straightforward. When a Legacy Locker customer passes away, one of their verifiers must report the death. Then the service uses something called “human oversight with secure technology” to ensure the user’s assets are passed off correctly and to the right people. Emails are then sent to the beneficiaries with secure links to the site that contains the secure assets.

Pricing Options

It wouldn’t be on MakeUseOf if there wasn’t a free option. The free option gives you one beneficiary and three online assets to protect. This is free for life. If you need more, they have a very reasonable price for two more tiers of pricing. $29.99 annually, or the one-time fee of $299.99 and with both of those you have unlimited assets, beneficiaries and legacy letters.

616-4126629d1e956d9b

Are there any other services like this out there?  Do you use a service like this yourself? Let us know in the comments…

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Best Windows 7 Tips & Hacks (Part 2)

Posted: 28 Jul 2009 01:01 PM PDT

In the previous article, we looked at some basic tips and tricks to unleash the power of the new Windows 7 user interface. In Part 2, we’re going to cover additional tips to improve usability, enhance the performance, and help secure Windows 7.

Some tweaks available on the web (like opening Explorer at My Computer or using PC Safeguard) are now obsolete because of the updates from Beta to RC. All the tips here work with Windows 7 RC (Build 7100), and most, if not all, will work with the final release.

1. Add Search Providers to Windows 7

Windows 7 allows you to search remote website databases from your desktop, using open standards like Open Search and RSS. Here are some of the popular and useful search providers you can add to Windows 7:

You can install these and additional connectors from Windows 7 forums, or get a pack with multiple search providers here.


Flickr Search

These search connectors work even within Windows Common Dialogs, such as the Insert Picture dialog from PowerPoint or any other application. You can even drag and drop Flickr images from Explorer search results to copy them to your desktop, without opening any web browser.

2. Single Click Screen Lock

You can lock your computer using the Win+L keyboard shortcut. Here's another way to do it with a single mouse click. Right-click on your desktop, select New, Shortcut. In Type the location of the item, enter rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation. Click Next, name the shortcut 'Quick Lock', and Finish.

QuickLock

If you wish, you can make it look pretty by giving it a lock or keys icon: Right-click, select Properties, click Change Icon, enter shell32.dll, and select any icon you wish. Drag this shortcut and pin it to the taskbar, after which you can delete the desktop shortcut.

3. Customize Sticky Notes

You can format your Sticky Notes, by selecting text and using different keyboard shortcuts as shown in this screen capture:

Formatted Sticky

4. Use New Accessories

Don't forget to use the revamped accessories in Windows 7. With WordPad, you can open and save Office 2007 .docx and Open Document .odt documents.

The improved Calculator can convert units, and calculate dates, fuel economy, mortgage and lease payments.

Paint has new brush strokes, shapes, and grid support. Paint and WordPad have Print Preview and the Ribbon UI, which brings customizability and live formatting previews.

5. Use Check Boxes in Windows Explorer

You can select non-adjacent files in Explorer using Ctrl-click, but there is an easier way using check boxes. In Explorer, click Organize, then select Folder and search options.

On the View tab, under Advanced Settings, scroll down to select Use check boxes to select items. Now you can easily select multiple items using only the mouse.

Checkbox Selection

6. Shortcut to Run Program as Administrator

You can Ctrl+Shift+Click on a taskbar icon to run the application as an Administrator with full rights (provided your account has permissions). Simply Shift+Right-Click on any program shortcut to run it as a different user, if for example you need higher privileges when logged in with your child's account.

7. Boost performance with ReadyBoost

ReadyBoost improves your system performance by using faster USB Flash Drives instead of slower hard disks for system operations. It works best using flash drives with at least 1 GB of storage. Simply insert your flash drive, and if it meets certain performance benchmarks, Windows 7 will ask you if you want to use it for ReadyBoost and recommend the size to reserve.

ReadyBoost Settings

8. Tweak Windows Search/Defender Services

By default, Windows indexes all files appearing under all your libraries, email, and offline files. You can reduce the time and resources spent in indexing by tweaking this to your actual needs.

Go to Control Panel, then Indexing Options. Windows 7 shows a list of locations currently being indexed. Click on Modify to choose only those locations where you perform frequent searches.

You can also disable Windows Search and Windows Defender services, which can take up system resources. If you do not search for files, images, documents, etc. using Windows Explorer, or use another search/indexing program, then you should disable Windows Search service. If, and only if, you use a third-party anti-virus program that is also anti-malware (the best ones are), you can also disable the Windows Defender service.

Go to Start, enter and run msconfig. From the Services tab, uncheck the box for the service you wish to disable, and reboot for the changes to take effect.

9. Secure USB Drives with BitLocker

Secure your USB flash drives using BitLocker encryption. Right-click on your USB drive in My Computer, select Turn on BitLocker and follow the instructions to protect sensitive data on your thumb drives.

The next time you use your USB drive on another computer, it will prompt you for the password before allowing you read-only access to your flash drive. You can even use the drive on older computers running Windows XP/Vista.

Turn On BitLocker

10. Create a System Recovery Disc

A system recovery disc helps you in situations where Windows cannot start successfully. Your Windows 7 installation disc also serves as a recovery disc. When Windows 7 comes pre-installed on computers, you will need to create a system recovery disc.

System Repair Disc

Click Start, enter and run recdisc.exe. Insert a blank CD/DVD in your burner, and click Create Disc.

**Caution**

Follow the next two tips only if you're knowledgeable enough to edit the Windows registry. Before making any changes, make sure you back up your registry as described earlier on MakeUseOf.

11. Faster Thumbnail Previews

thumbnailpreviewThe taskbar shows thumbnail previews of opened windows when you hover the mouse over the program icon. By default, it takes a little time for the preview to appear. Make the previews appear faster with this registry tweak:

Go to Start, enter and run regedit. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse. On the right, open the MouseHoverTime key and reduce its value from the default 400 to around 150.

Be careful, as decreasing it further may cause problems.

12. Faster Shutdown

Start regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control. Find the WaitToKillServiceTimeout key on the right, double-click to edit and change it from the default 12000 (12 seconds) to 2000 (2 seconds) or above.

This setting tells Windows how long to wait before prompting you that a service is not responding to the shut down request. This may help speed up your shutdown if you have any such services running.

These are some of the best Windows 7 tips we found. Did we miss any of your favorites? Share with us in the comments!

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How to Create Top Quality Computer Desktop Wallpapers

Posted: 28 Jul 2009 01:01 PM PDT

ThumbnailPersonalization – that's the mantra for anyone who is too attached to his computer. Some take it to the extreme of case mods but for us pedestrians, using a theme or changing the wallpaper is as far as we dare to spice it up. But even here with a bit of design savvy we can make a graphic statement.

Dressing up our screens with quality custom wallpapers gets the oohs, aahs and the stares. Memories come in pixels and custom wallpapers are just a cool simple way to put it on the screen. Perhaps you need not look any further than your last vacation trip or the captured moments spent frolicking with your kids for some wallpaper design inspiration. You can even put some motivational quotes or a GTD list on a dark background.

Creating custom desktop wallpapers for your computer is actually a breeze. Though, a better than basic familiarity with an imaging program like Photoshop, Paint.net or GIMP really helps. Stripped to the basics, it's a 1-2-3 process.

Step 1: Find your screen resolution

The size of the image needs to match the size of the desktop so that the image does not stretch or tile across. Finding this figure (the screen resolution) is dead easy.

  • Right-click on any blank area on your desktop and select Properties from the context menu.
  • Click the Settings tab on the Display Properties box. Note the screen resolution in pixels.

    • 1_Display Prop

Step 2: Get Your Image

A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed – Ansel Adams.

If you have such an image in your pictures folder then you have your wallpaper. But why only a snapshot? It could be a stock photo, a collage, a funky gradient or some text on a background. But there are always these rules of thumb to consider.

  • For the crystal clear look, use high quality, high resolution photos. For best results, shoot images with resolutions more than that of the monitor (or use stock photos with the same or greater resolution).
  • Avoid pictures with image artifacts and blurs. Artifacts are the uneven patches of color here and there in images.

    • 2_Artifacts

  • Look at the placement of your icons on the desktop. If they are on the left of the screen, look for photos which have an even colored background on the left. The idea is to not lose your icons in a flurry of background colors.

Step 3: Match image proportions to screen resolution

  • Fire up the image editor. We need to use resize the image to match the screen resolution. Usually, the commands we need to resize an image can be found under the Image menu. For instance –
  • In Photoshop: Image – Image Size
  • In GIMP: Image – Scale Image (use the chain icon)
  • In Paint.net: Image – Resize – check Maintain Aspect Ratio
  • In IrfanView: Image – Resize/Resample – check Preserve Aspect Ratio
  • Image editors generally have a setting called – Constrain Proportions or Preserve Aspect Ratio. This keeps the width and height proportional as we change sizes. Not using this setting results in a distorted image as one dimension changes without a mirror change in the other. ‘Squished’ is the word designers' use.

    • 3_Constrain-Proportion

  • Even with Constrain Proportions checked, resizing may not give us the exact match for our target resolution. We can get by with a close match – a difference of 10-20 pixels.
  • If the size doesn't come close, then we are left with the alternative of cropping the image gradually so that we come close to the required resolution. Cropping may mar the scene, then we can, as another option, resize it and drop it onto a similar colored background. Though it usually takes something away from the look.

Finishing Touches

With the work on the image complete, all we need to do is save it. Generally, a 1024×768 wallpaper is around 100kb – 150kb in size. Images with rich colors will be heftier in size.

If you plan to upload or email it, then it's better to keep file sizes small. But wallpapers are all about 'rich' quality so when saving it as a JPEG file, remember that it's a lossy format i.e. compression takes away some quality from the file. Experiment with the compression settings till you have a balance of quality and size. Save it with a quality setting that's about 80% of the original.

4_Quality-Setting

A good practice to follow is to save the master file as a PNG lossless format. This can be reused and converted to take advantage of JPEG's smaller sizes.

The final step – Right-click on the desktop – select Properties from the context menu – go the Desktop tab – Browse and open the image you made – position the image (Center, Tile or Stretch) -  click on OK and you have your desktop décor.

5_Set Wallpaper

Making your own desktop wallpaper for your computer is as easy as browsing for an image and setting it from Desktop Properties or it can be as intricate as a work of art. This basic how-to is just a start. A web search will return a multitude of tutorials on how to make the fanciest of wallpapers. Most of them will make you go wow. But to reach that summit calls for some dedicated hours spent with your favorite image program.

Do you make your own wallpapers or do you take them off the web? If you do make them, what other quality tips can we put to use? Share your craft with us in the comments.

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How To Track Your Favourite Author’s New Book Releases Online

Posted: 28 Jul 2009 12:01 PM PDT

bookshopdisplayThese days it’s becoming more and more easy to keep track of your favourite artist, whether it be a singer, band or author.   We’ll come back to tracking music artists another time but for today, I want to take a look at how you can keep track of a book author’s new releases so you don’t miss a single thing.

I am a big fan of Fantastic Fiction – my reading list is so huge that FF helps me to keep on top of new releases by the best in the business.   But up until now, the only way to check up on each author was to individually go to their FF page.

This as you can imagine was very time-consuming and I silently hoped that one day they would introduce RSS feeds.   That hoping seems to have worked as each FF page now has its own unique RSS feed which will alert you to that author’s new book releases.


Using the site is simple.   First, just use the search engine to find the author’s page.   I will search for Jasper Fforde, one of my favourites.

ff1

You’ll then be taken to his page and part of the way down, on the right hand side, is a small RSS icon.

ffforde

Click on the icon and you will be taken to your default RSS reader (mine is Google Reader) and you will then see his new book scheduled for release in a couple of months.

ff2

In this way, you can input all your favourite authors into FF and get all their RSS feeds running through your Reader. Then when a new book is announced, you’ll hear about it pretty much straight away.  The only downside to Fantastic Fiction is, of course, that it is limited to fiction.   So any non-fiction fans are not going to get any use out of this new feature.

If RSS isn’t your thing or if you’re more into non-fiction, and/or if you prefer email, then most authors nowadays have a web presence (it’s pretty much essential) and some even embrace social networking with fan pages on places like Facebook (Daniel Silva, for example, has a busy and popular Facebook page and so does John Grisham).

So check to see if your author has a personal website and if so, if they offer a mailing list.  Big thriller authors like Ken Follett and Jeffery Deaver have websites and mailing lists for example (Deaver even offers an exclusive short story to his mailing list subscribers).   Author sites like these will also feature other news such as upcoming TV / movie adaptations and perhaps even podcasts.   When the author brings out a new book, they will immediately notify everyone on their mailing list.

Here are some more big fiction writers with websites and mailing lists.  Stephen King’s site is particulary impressive with its artwork.

John Connolly

Michael Connelly

Stephen King

Dean Koontz

Dan Brown

Some authors though prefer to defer to their publishers to do things like newsletters.   So if you went to John Grisham’s website, you’ll see that he promotes his publisher Doubleday’s newsletter.   Virtually all major publishers have their own newsletters and if you subscribe, you’ll be kept up to date with their authors new books.   For example, here’s Random House’s fiction email newsletter with an option to subscribe at the end.   If you go here, you’ll get a complete list of all of Random House’s email offerings.

If you like to keep track of where your favourite author will be appearing in person to sign books, a good site is AuthorsTrack.   It only shows US events though which is not so great for non-US fans.

How do you normally track your favourite author?   Do you have a favourite web resource not mentioned here?   If so, please let us know in the comments.

Image Credit : eclecticlibrarian

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Exteel : Third-Person Online Robot Shooting

Posted: 28 Jul 2009 09:01 AM PDT

exteelThe future is harsh. People have to fight for the resources of the planet. Sharing is not for the living, and everyone wants to be on the right side of things when hell breaks loose.

This is the world in which we find Exteel. A chaotic fight for survival, where people struggle for control of the planet. They’re trying to control the resources, and perhaps ultimately, ensure their further existence.

In this future world, battles get fought on a more personal level than today, but the influences of time and technology are obvious.

Exteel

Soldiers mount statuesque Mechanaughts robots, and face each other head on. Equipped with a wide variety of plasma and conventional weapons, swords and guns, they engage in a fast-paced, adrenaline-powered battle.

Exteel is one of the best games of its kind, and free as well. It’s hard not to lose yourself in the rush of gameplay. With its fast pace and fluent controls, how could a robot-fighting game not be cool? Fly, or boost yourself around the level, and frag some of those Cylons mech warriors to hell.

You can play with up to 16 players in online deathmatches, capture-the-flag, and other traditional game modes. As far as comparisons go, this game plays pretty similar to the popular S4 League game.

exteel2

Expandability and Customizability

However, one of the biggest standout features of the game, is its expandability. Players can customize their robots by choosing from a multitude of weapons, armor parts and skills. Once you get started, no two mech warriors are the same. Parts can be bought in all-in-packages, called ’sets’, or separately.

Skills can be purchased with in-game credits earned while working your way through the game, or real-money deposits, but we’ll get back on that later on. Skills are weapon-specific, and will give you an extra advantage in battle.

exteel3

On the Downside

On the downside, Exteel doesn’t feature a particularly extensive storyline, like you’d expect from such a big MMORPG. Instead of offering a lot of depth, the game just manages to keep you entertained. Well entertained, if I might say so – which is good enough for me. Although a story is often preferred, it’s pretty superfluous and shouldn’t really interfere with the actual gameplay.

exteel4

Nevertheless, a substantial downside comes from the importance of NCcoins. People can make micro-transactions to raise their credits in-game. For those willing to spend, buying better armour and skills becomes increasingly easier, and although they might not be as skilled as many opponents, they’ve got an obvious advantage.

Like it or hate it? Let us know what you think about the game, or direct any possible questions to the comments section below.

Minimum System Requirements
AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium III 800 MHz
GeForce Series 4 video card
256 MB RAM
1 GB available HDD space
Windows 2000/XP

Recommended System Requirements
AMD Athlon 64 2800+ or Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz
GeForce 5700 or ATI Radeon 9200 Series video card
512 MB RAM

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Technology Explained: How Does Satellite Internet Work?

Posted: 28 Jul 2009 07:01 AM PDT

satellite_dishSatellite Internet service appears to be becoming more and more popular. Once the exclusive domain of exploration companies and war journalists, there are now thousands of people with an extra dish on the home or RV. Part of the reason for this is that certain technologies have increased the bandwidth and decreased the cost.

Now, there are geostationary satellites. That’s a fancy word for saying the satellite stays still in relation to your position on Earth.  You have to set the dish up just once and, barring windstorms or worse, the dish stays in constant communication with the satellite.

The latest way to communicate with satellites for Internet service is over something called the Ka band (pronounced kay-eh). The Ka band is a set of frequencies that are between 18.3 GHz and 31 GHz. More specifically, the uplink (that part of the call that is going from your home to the satellite) is in the range of 27.5 GHz and 31 GHz. The downlink (that part of the call that is coming from the satellite to your home) is in the range of 18.3 Ghz and 20.2 Ghz.


What the heck is a GHz? Giga Hertz. Giga for a 1,000,000,000, and Hertz for a cycle per second. Picture a wave on the ocean. It has two parts, the crest of the wave that comes high out of the water. Then there is the trough of the wave, which goes below the normal waterline. Now picture a cot and some Bud Light Lime….mmmmm. Okay back to school.

When the crest AND the trough are done passing over the same point in the water, that can be thought of as one cycle. Now imagine that happening in just one second. That’s a Hertz.  Now imagine that happening a thousand times in one second! That’s a megahertz. Now imagine that happening 1,000,000,000 times in a second! That’s a gigahertz. My brain hertz.

sine_waves real_wave
See the similarities?

Why do you need to know this? Well, those numbers relate to transmitting power and what the signal can carry for information. Just like in my first Technology Explained article, the lower frequencies transmit longer distances with less power, but aren’t capable of carrying a lot of information. That’s why the old 900Mhz phones don’t have the voice quality of the 2.6Ghz phones. Yet you could take those old phones down the block with you.

So, using the higher frequency ranges for satellite Internet allows for more data to be sent, giving us something close to high-speed Internet even if we’re an Alaskan recluse.

Because of the high frequency rates, that signal has to be stepped down and lose a bit of power before it hits the delicate electronics of the modem. This is done using a device that is on the dish itself as well as having a minimum of 150 feet of high-quality RG6 coax cable connecting the dish to the modem. So if you wonder why the installer used such a long cable just to wrap it up and drop half of it on the floor, well, this is why.

Something else you should know about is that Ka band satellite uses spot beams. A spot beam covers a specific area that really isn’t that big – about a third the size of Alberta. Each spot beam can support only so many users. If you hear that your buddy in Montana can get service, but you can’t because your spot beam is full, there isn’t much you can do about it. Also, you can’t move your service from spot beam to spot beam unless you are a certified installer. You will also need a clear line of sight to the satellite.

Here’s what the spot beams look like. As you can see, service is NOT available anywhere, like they sometimes advertise.

anik-f2-spots

What’s the downside? Latency. What’s latency?  Gamers call it lag. It’s that time when your signal is going between your house and the satellite. Typically, it’s about 230 milliseconds or more. That doesn’t seem like much considering the signal is covering about 45,000 miles in that time. However, when it comes to things like VoIP or online gaming, it makes it nearly impossible to do.

Another downside is something called the Fair Access Policy or FAP. What this means is that your Satellite Internet Service Provider will put limits on how much you can download over a period of time – usually 24 hours. If you exceed that, they will automatically slow your speed down to something close to dial-up, to give other users fair access to the satellite. When this happens, you have been FAP’ed. So, if you are a chronic downloader, you’ll have to change your ways for satellite Internet.

Is it picture time yet? Of course it is.

satellite_diagram

All this for about $800 for the hardware and $50 a month for ongoing service. Not bad, when you consider bringing in a phone line down a logging road will cost about $10,000 a pole. However, if you want to put a self-pointing dish on your RV, you’re going to need to dig a little deeper as the hardware will run you about $10,000. You could try to take a stationary dish with you, but pointing the new dishes can take up to eight-hours to aim, and you must be a certified installer.

Photo Credits: cogdogblog, stewart, benchun

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How to Use a USB Jump Drive Like a Super Geek with Tech Tookit 2.0 (Windows)

Posted: 28 Jul 2009 05:01 AM PDT

techHeadSo you fancy yourself the technical advisor out of your clique? Are you the person your friends and family call when anything technical is hurting their head? Maybe you just love free applications! If either or all three of these statements are true then The Tech Toolkit 2.0 is for you!

I am talking everything here. They have the best free applications for everything including anti-virus, virus/spyware removal, password recovery and even DVD burning. The magic behind this baby is that it comes with a downloader so that you can use your jump drive to launch a program. That program grabs the latest and greatest versions of a whole bunch of portable tools. With that same program (Ketarin) you can keep your applications updated as well.


Once you download the zip file from here you then extract those files to your memory stick. Then you launch the application called Ketarin.exe which you can see it below in this screenshot.

tech1

After launching Ketarin you will get a screen that looks like this:

tech2

You can right click on any of the items and delete it. The right click context menu looks like this:

tech3

You add a new web application by hitting Add new application. You need either the URL or a FileHippo ID (I wrote about File Hippo here)

tech4

Once your list is set up the way you want, click the Update Now button. These are your available options:

tech5

I hit Check for updates and download. The program took off and grabbed all my applications. Some of them are password crackers and most antivirus programs will tag them as Trojans. They are in a way – they can harvest passwords but for good and not evil. But if that scares you do not download these applications! The downloads completed and my stick was ready to go.

tech6

I opened up my memory stick and saw a launcher application. I double clicked on it and was greeted with this:

tech7

When you expand all the categories there are a HELLAVA lot of applications here is the full list:

tech9

Everything but the kitchen sink! From Malware Bytes to FoxIt and back over to Gspot. I can use my jump drive to do almost anything with this kit, from recovering a system to burning a CD/DVD. If you love free software, this one is for you! Every application downloaded, I totaled 270 MB of power packed tools.

What do you have on your memory stick? Share it with us in the comments!

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