my Computer Quest: April 2010

29 April, 2010

Where is the Show Desktop Icon in Windows 7?

Image representing Windows 7 as depicted in Cr...

If you are wondering why there is no 'Show Desktop' icon in Windows 7, you are not alone.

This is one of the changes that somehow confuses the user who is migrating from previous versions of Windows OS, into Windows 7.

It is neater now, I may say, but it is not easily recognized as the Show Desktop icon.

So no, it is not missing; it simply is in a different location now.

Wondering where it is?

It is at the bottom right corner, and it simply is just a rectangular bar at the end of the Taskbar.

Go ahead and look for it. There is no mistaking that you will find it.

Happy computing!

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Reference:
How to Show Desktop in Windows 7

27 April, 2010

More, or most out of Windows 7?

Image representing EzineArticles as depicted i...

Image via CrunchBase

With Windows 7 just getting a more serious attention from all the affected users who'd have to buy a license for their copy, I think it would be high time that Windows 7 users now focus on getting the most out of Microsoft's latest OS, Windows 7.

I found this article in the Ezine directory, and I am sure that there will be some good points, practical and useful, to be gained from this reading.

Read on...

Getting the Most Out of Windows 7

Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows 7, is an excellent release. Microsoft listened to consumers and technicians this time around to create a great operating system that has a lot of user-friendly features. This article will cover several of those features to help you get the most out of your Windows 7 system.

First, your Start Menu remains the improved version seen in the last Windows release. You access your Start Menu by clicking on the Windows button at the bottom left of your screen. Once you click, your most frequently used programs are displayed right in front of you. You can "pin" programs to this menu by right-clicking them and choosing "Pin to Start Menu."

Access all your programs by clicking "All Programs" on the bottom of the menu, or simply type the program name into the search box. You'll see buttons linking to all your folders to the right of your menus. Your user folder will be there, as well as a link to documents, downloads, and pictures. You can customize what shows up by right-clicking next to your user picture and choosing "Properties," then click the "Start Menu" tab, then click the "Customize" button.

Next, take a look at your Taskbar - that's be bar that runs along the bottom of your computer screen. Any programs you have open will have an icon displayed on the Taskbar. The Taskbar is greatly improved in Windows 7. First, you can rearrange the icons in any order you like. Simply click on them, hold your mouse button down, and drag the icon where you want it.

If you have multiple windows open in a program they will "stack" on top of each other, looking a bit like a deck of cards. When you click the stack of icons, a little window will pop up and show you a preview of each of your program windows so you can pick the one you want. There will also be an "X" button so you can quickly close those you don't need open anymore. If you have music or a video play, the preview window will have controls for you!

Next up is the windows themselves. If you have a window in a small size and you want it maximized, simply click on the top border of the window with your mouse. Hold down your mouse button and drag the window to the top of the screen. It automatically maximizes! Drag it down again and it will return to the size you had it.

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade

Windows 7 makes comparing two documents or screens easy, too. Click on the top bar of the first window and drag it until your mouse point hits the left side of your screen. It will pop to fill half of your screen. Use the same technique to drag the second window to the right - it will fill the other half of the screen for side-by-side viewing.

A final useful feature in Windows 7 is a small button in the very bottom, right-hand corner of your screen. It looks like a tiny button on top of the Taskbar. Click that, and all windows on your screen minimize so you can see the desktop. Click again, and your windows pop back to where they were.

Windows 7 truly has a user-friendly interface that you'll find quick to learn and easy to work with. Explore these features and others to get the most out of your copy of Windows 7.

Kristen enjoys writing and sharing good ideas. Come visit her new website about the pet play pen and a really great idea - the puppy play pen.

Article Directory: EzineArticles

Taken from Ezine directory; see the source article below:
Getting the Most Out of Windows 7
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Auto log-in in XP

Microsoft Windows XP Professional Full Version with SP2

I wanted to be automatically logged in to my PC when I turn it on, and I searched from the web how to do that. Of course, primary source will be Microsoft websites, but a lot of users appear to have a more user-friendly instruction set.

Take for example this instruction set from one of Microsoft's site: Auto Logon to Windows XP.

Try it first. Here is what it says:

Click Start, click Run, and type control userpasswords2.
Clear the Users must enter a username and password to use this computer check box.
Click Apply.
Enter the user name and password you wish to automatically log on with, and then click OK.
Click OK again and you're all done.

Find anything missing?

Of course, there is. Some assumptions on the user knowledge may be the reason. But you wouldn't be searching the web if you knew exactly what to do.

Anyway, to complete the instruction set, see below:

Click Start, click Run, and type control userpasswords2.
Click on Advanced tab
Clear the Users must enter a username and password to use this computer check box.
Click Apply.
Enter the user name and password you wish to automatically log on with, and then click OK.
Click OK again and you're all done.

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition FULL VERSION with SP2

Actually, for my case, this is what works:

Click Start, click Run, and type control userpasswords2.
Click on Advanced tab
Clear the Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete check box.
Click Apply.

I guess I'm connected to a domain. That is. At least it should be covered. I hope your case will be covered by this short article.

Let me hear from you then.
Thanks!

19 April, 2010

Face Lift!

Image via Wikipedia

I managed to pull up some energy and time to devote to make some facial change to my Computer Quest site.

Hopefully, this will be of great value to the readers.

Comments are welcome, if you please!

Thanks!

Ejecting a thumb drive

The device pictured is a 16GB SanDisk Cruzer M...

Image via Wikipedia

This may be a very common item, but then again, i am prompted to post this short article on how to eject a thumb drive. Well, there's no robotic arm to physically eject and disconnect your thumb drive from your USB socket, but this is to electrically disconnect your thumb drive from your computer, so it is "safe" for removal.

Many do a right click on the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the system tray. This results to opening up the hardware dialog, and you have to select which USB device to disconnect.

Nothing wrong with this, but try to make a mistake and see what happens.

Instead of doing a right click on the said icon, do a left click, and you are ready to select, if there are many USB devices connected, which particular item to remove.

In most cases, it is only one, and that is your USB thumb drive.

Left click, then click on your thumb drive, and voila! You can pull out your thumb drive!

Isn't that easy?!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

16 April, 2010

Site of the week: www.tovisitornot.com

Image via Wikipedia

Some useful sites to check out. This short article is taken from TODAY, Tech - Friday, 09-April-2010

Read on...

Site of the week: www.tovisitornot.com

Do you have an online shopping addiction you need to do something about?

Or have you been obsessively checking your ex’s blog every five minutes? Tovisitornot.com can help rescue your money, time and sanity.

This website gives you a hand in breaking online addictions by limiting you to one visit within a designated period of time (say, 60 minutes).

When you try to access the site for a second time that hour, you are taken to an intervening webpage with text persuading you not to go there.

However, if you absolutely must, you can still give in to temptation after four clicks. This simple deterrent works by creating a new link from the website’s address for you to use in place of the usual one.

To Visit Or Not also helps you kick the habit by placing a timer above the website (some sites like Facebook prevent it from working, however) as a constant reminder of how long you have been there — its way of guilt-tripping you into leaving the site and, hopefully, doing something more constructive instead.

May Chua

Blogged with the Flock Browser

15 April, 2010

Blogger in Draft: Facelifting my blogs

I spent more than half a day today doing face lift to my blogs - and I'm not done yet. I just happen to open up and see how my blogs look like, and I'm not impressed.

Anyway, Blogger in Draft is open for use, while it is still in the beta phase, and that is helping me a lot. It is just so easy selecting which template to use, going down to deciding how many sidebars you want - and where. You'll be able to change the fonts and their size and color afterwards.

Then you can choose the background you want to employ - if available.

Actually, what I liked the most is the arranging and re-arranging of the columns - which the guys doing the development are really doing a very, very good job. Well, kudos to all of you there making life easier for all of us bloggers.

I'd continue to use Blogger in Draft - I can't get enough of what is being offered, and I'm taking advantage at this very early stage of its development.

Bye for now, and till then!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

3 Blog Editors - What Have You?

I was searching for some blog editors, and this page came up.

I said, "Finally, this should be some good and useful blog editors."

I quickly opened up the page, and lo, and behold, what I found surprised me!

Yes, there were 3 recommended blog editors, and these I am already using.

I think I should be really using what I have, and stop searching for other blog editors - for now.

The search will go on - technology is continually improving, and for sure, there will be newer and better blog editors. Who knows, the current ones will be improved or enhanced to an astonishing degree?!

These are they:

The other guy who said about the 3 editors, see his article here: 3 Blog Editors . Check it out.

Which one do you use?

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13 April, 2010

HP Chip Discovery Could be a Tech 'Game Changer' - PCWorld

Image via CrunchBase

Memristor.

Have you heard of it? probably not yet, but it is a new thing from HP, and it might change the world of computing.

Full article is below. Read on!

HP Chip Discovery Could be a Tech 'Game Changer' - PCWorld

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12 April, 2010

Naming Your Domain - a TIP! Really!

Well, the recent news on getting a domain name going hard, to harder, and near to impossible - is finally affecting everyone - mostly those who don't have the money for it. I'm with that group currently...

Anyway, I've come across a news article that tells some story of how domain naming is presently plaguing everyone, and not simply because you can't find a right name; it's when you do think of a name, and find that it's been taken, that's were the headache and anguish comes:

headache - that it is no longer available
anguish - that you don't have the money for it (to buy, especially if it is 'hijacked' by a domain squatter...)

But don't fret. Take the case of Flickr; when the group that started the company thought of the name, it wasn't that actually. It was Flicker, which is already taken. The guy who owns the domain doesn't want to sell, but the group wanted to use that name. The group brainstormed, till one of them decided to drop the 'e', making it Flickr - and the rest is history.

It is hstry afterwards, where vowels are dropped here and there.

For the full article, find that news article here.
Anyway, should you need help on finding a domain name, you can check this nifty apps: Find Me A Domain, by Eric Giguere.

Have you been affected by this recent 'domain name' plague, lately?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Google Alerts

I came across this nice and useful feature from Google, which is Google Alerts.

Anytime a certain keyword or word combination is searched, you can receive a notification, and you can set that alert in several ways: (1) as it happens, (2) daily, and (3) weekly.

You can also set the number of results, which can be (1) 20, or (2) 50.

As in all things so wonderful (I say it is!), don't get too excited.

You just might be overwhelmed.

Test the waters, and decide your comfortable level. You're good to go!

I've just set up my alerts of 7 keywords, and I'm starting to enjoy it. Hopefully, the main purpose of it being a useful tool be fulfilled in me.

Have you tried Google Alerts yourself?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

09 April, 2010

Test post using ScribeFire in Chrome

Image via Wikipedia

I got the news from the mail that ScribeFire for Chrome is on the alpha version, and is needing testing.

So here I am testing that alpha version.

It turns out that you need to specify the URL of your blog, then furnish the user info, which means you have to do log-in. I think that is OK if you are only posting to a single blog. If you are posting to multiple blogs, what will happen? You will have to log-in to all those blogs.

If you have 10 blogs and you want to post to those 10 blogs, does it mean that you will have to open up 10 tabs in the Chrome browser so you can post to each single blog?

That is what I want to find out.

The font formatting works just fine, as you can see.

Care to join in the testing?
Let us know what's your discoveries!

One of my blogs was locked, but it is released now

Image by filipe ferreira via Flickr

Last 30-March-2010, I was posting some articles, and one of the blogs that I was updating is my health blog.

I have posted my article (3 that time), and I was going through the 2nd round of update, which is putting in all the links and pictures, etc. I managed to update one post, then when I was updating and re-posting the second article, I got an error (404, etc.), which I didn't understand at first, so I retried 3 to 4 times.

When nothing worked, I gave up the updating, and after a while, I went to check my dashboard.

That was when I found out that my health blog was locked!

After the usual rounds of request, review and appeal, my blog was finally released back to me, and to the whole world wide web.

As it was the second time occurring (first one locked was my leadership learning blog, then my health blog), I was already wanting to know what could be the cause of my blog(s) being locked. I don't want to go through the same pain (and worry). The review process has 3 levels, and once you reached the 3rd level and you don't get your blog back, it can't be appealed anymore.

I was all too glad that my questions were all answered. It could be due to backlinking and attribution, which matters most when the article being posted is taken in its entirety, which I usually do. Sort of them saying, 'we don't allow plagiarism, even in the web, especially in our blogs.' We usually call it spamming...

Now that my blog is back, I am all the more careful with my blogging. I really hope that none of my blogs will be locked or suspended in the future.

Again, to the blogger team, many, many thanks!

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(Did you have the same experience like me?)

08 April, 2010

China blocking some Google search results

Image via Wikipedia

I thought, how can it be possible? if the servers are already in Hong Kong, how can it still be 'meddled with'?

Beats me. But with an international issue like this, it makes us step back to ask why. Why is China so keen to get Google block some search results? Is China wanting to keep a 'clean slate' facade to the world? Everybody already knows what happened. Is China trying to keep from its local citizens what really happened, or how those past events are seen from the eyes of those not living in China, not controlled by China?

Whatever, read the news article here, and do leave your comments. You are most welcome!

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Google has confirmed that the Chinese authorities have begun blocking certain terms from a local search engine, after the company said it would no longer censor results for those terms itself.

The Chinese government's Golden Shield, which uses Cisco routers to censor terms deemed inappropriate by the authorities, is filtering out sensitive search terms used on Google.co.hk, the search company told ZDNet UK on Tuesday.

Read Special Report: Google, China showdown

"Certain terms seem to be being blocked by the firewall," said a Google spokesperson, referring to the 'Great Firewall of China', the popular nickname for Golden Shield.

The Chinese government has not made any comment on whether it is blocking search terms on Google.com.hk. However, it has reacted to Google's actions, saying on Tuesday that the company was "totally wrong" to stop censoring its Chinese language search results, according to Chinese government portal Xinhua.

Source article is here.
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Chinese official blasts Google

Image by bfishadow via Flickr

I was looking up on the status of Google in China, and seems like the news is not that much. Anyway, this news article may already be a couple of weeks old, but some details may yet be unknown to some, if not many.

I would like to know what's your reaction to this world event. I say that it is a world event, as everybody is watching. Read on.

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A Chinese official has blasted Google for "violating its written promise", following the U.S. company's decision to move its search traffic to Hong Kong while leaving just its sales and research and development teams in China.

According to a China Daily news report filed Tuesday, the unnamed official from the Internet bureau under the country's State Council Information Office, said Google went back on its agreement to filter its search engine. His allegation was unleashed four hours after Google announced in a blog post its move to Hong Kong.

"Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market, by stopping [the] filtering of its [search] service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks," the official said. "This is totally wrong. We're uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts."

According to one Chinese analyst, Google's stance smacks of "big power" gestures by Western countries harking back to the 19th century in attempts to prise the once-closed economy.

The unnamed commentator, who wrote in the Hong Kong-based Chinese newspaper Sing Tao Daily, noted that China's top leaders have themselves stressed the issue of opening the country up to the world. Google, however, is challenging the Chinese government's sovereignty by demanding it accepts Google's definition of "opening up", he said.

Source article is here.
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What's on your mind? Do leave your comments.

C going up the list, actually top of the list

Image via Wikipedia

What is C's rise to the top (again) have got to do with me? I mean, I'm using C# in the .NET package, and also VB and ASP. And though I wanted to delve into Java, I've not gone close enough, or even near, to be considered an intermediate-, or even a beginner-level at that.

But for those of you out there who are into Java and C programming languages, I think this news matters. It may be actually dictating the trend (and future employability) of software developers in this arena.

Read on:

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"After more than 4 years C is back at position number 1 in the TIOBE index. The scores for C have been pretty constant through the years, varying between the 15% and 20% market share for almost 10 years. So the main reason for C's number 1 position is not C's uprise, but the decline of its competitor Java. Java has a long-term downward trend. It is losing ground to other languages running on the JVM. An example of such a language is JavaFX, which is now approaching the top 20."
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What's on your mind? Do leave a comment - here - or check out what others are saying at the source here.

my Computer Quest

29 April, 2010

Where is the Show Desktop Icon in Windows 7?

27 April, 2010

More, or most out of Windows 7?

Auto log-in in XP

19 April, 2010

Face Lift!

Ejecting a thumb drive

16 April, 2010

Site of the week: www.tovisitornot.com

15 April, 2010

Blogger in Draft: Facelifting my blogs

3 Blog Editors - What Have You?

13 April, 2010

HP Chip Discovery Could be a Tech 'Game Changer' - PCWorld

12 April, 2010

Naming Your Domain - a TIP! Really!

Google Alerts

09 April, 2010

Test post using ScribeFire in Chrome

One of my blogs was locked, but it is released now

08 April, 2010

China blocking some Google search results

Chinese official blasts Google

C going up the list, actually top of the list

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