There are times when our laptop batteries seem to last for hours…and other times they seem to discharge in mere minutes.
The built-in battery manager in Windows can be rather deceptive in its reports of how much time is left before the battery dies. Even more, changing the power settings in windows can take several minutes better spent watching a DVD or surfing the Web.
Monitoring and maximizing your laptop battery’s life becomes much easier with a free program called BatteryCare. The program sits in your system tray like the Windows battery monitor, but gives much more information when your mouse hovers over it.
It tells your battery’s percentage charged, the temperature of your CPU and hard drive, and your current power setting.
If you click the icon in the System Tray, you are shown a selection menu to change your power settings. This means you can change to your Power Saver setting with just one click.
Right-clicking the BatteryCare icon in the System Tray brings up another menu that allows you to change your power plan, adjust settings, donate to the publisher or show the program’s main information screen. Click Show at the top of the menu to see more information about your battery than you have likely ever seen.
The first screen that appear is basic information, further describing your battery’s current health. This is where you can find out how much battery life you have before finding a place to plug in.
Click Detailed Information towards the top right of the window to bring up a menu with information about your battery’s designed capacity, current capacity and wear level. This can help you predict if it is time to buy a new battery.
Clicking the Settings link at the top right of this window brings up configuration options for getting the most of BatteryCare and your battery.
Most of the general settings are self explanatory, like starting the program when Windows starts, but there are added settings to disable the Aero theme in Vista (it worked in Windows 7 too) and to pause services. This can extend your battery life at least a few extra minutes.
BatteryCare is superior to the built-in Windows battery monitoring functions. It gives more information about the battery and over time, its statistical calculations about discharge cycles and how much time you have left on the current battery charge improve. If you use your laptop’s battery on a daily basis, this program is worth the download.
http://batterycare.net/en/index.html
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
TV Chrome Lets You Watch Television While Surfing The Net
If you’re the multitasking type, an avid TV watcher, and a Google Chrome user, you can combine all of those passions into one single browser window. A Google Chrome add-on named TV Chrome makes all of this possible.
Slow day at the office? Google Chrome’s TV Chrome add-on may be just what you were looking for. With TV Chrome, you can watch television inside of a Google Chrome window. Not only that, but the channel selection is decent, and there are channels from several different countries as well.
Simply navigate to your company’s website in a new tab. Boss approaching your desk with an angry look on his face? Simply click out of the Chrome TV tab, and you are back to the company homepage. Here’s how you use the Google Chrome TV plugin.
Open up the Google Chrome web browser and head on over to this page. Although it’s labeled as a Firefox plugin, it will work for Google Chrome as well. Download the Windows Media Firefox Plugin and install it onto your PC. Just like any other program, you will need to click Agree and OK to some licenses, and the wizard will install the program.
After the program gets done installing, close your Google Chrome web browser and reopen. Jump to this page and click the Install button to add the Chrome TV add-on to your browser.
Upon install, you should now have a new TV box in the upper right hand corner of the screen; more specifically, directly to the left of the Control the Current Page button.
Click the TV Chrome icon to get a list of available channels. You will notice that all of the channels are organized by country or by category.
Simply navigate to a channel that you would like to watch and select it. From there, Chrome will open up the Windows Media Player extension, and load the channel. That’s all there is to it. You should now be able to watch television directly from your desktop. No Windows Media Center + TV tuner required.
Web Address : http://www.tv-chrome.com/
Slow day at the office? Google Chrome’s TV Chrome add-on may be just what you were looking for. With TV Chrome, you can watch television inside of a Google Chrome window. Not only that, but the channel selection is decent, and there are channels from several different countries as well.
Simply navigate to your company’s website in a new tab. Boss approaching your desk with an angry look on his face? Simply click out of the Chrome TV tab, and you are back to the company homepage. Here’s how you use the Google Chrome TV plugin.
Open up the Google Chrome web browser and head on over to this page. Although it’s labeled as a Firefox plugin, it will work for Google Chrome as well. Download the Windows Media Firefox Plugin and install it onto your PC. Just like any other program, you will need to click Agree and OK to some licenses, and the wizard will install the program.
After the program gets done installing, close your Google Chrome web browser and reopen. Jump to this page and click the Install button to add the Chrome TV add-on to your browser.
Upon install, you should now have a new TV box in the upper right hand corner of the screen; more specifically, directly to the left of the Control the Current Page button.
Click the TV Chrome icon to get a list of available channels. You will notice that all of the channels are organized by country or by category.
Simply navigate to a channel that you would like to watch and select it. From there, Chrome will open up the Windows Media Player extension, and load the channel. That’s all there is to it. You should now be able to watch television directly from your desktop. No Windows Media Center + TV tuner required.
Web Address : http://www.tv-chrome.com/
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Secure your USB Files with USB Safeguard
One of the biggest conveniences of using a USB pen drive is that you can bring your data with you wherever you go. But this ease can easily turn into a nightmare if you lose your USB pen drive. It becomes doubly worse if you have confidential files stored in it.
A solution to secure your data is available with the USB Safeguard. You can download USB Safeguard at http://usbsafeguard.altervista.org.
After the download is complete, transfer the downloaded file to your USB pen drive. Look for the file and double-click on it to open.
You will be asked to choose a password and confirm it.
You have the option to use an on screen keyboard by clicking on this icon. This is particularly useful if you suspect that there is a keylogger installed on the machine you’re using.
You can also access other options by clicking on the down arrow icon beneath the keyboard icon.
Choosing Customize your USB pen, if it were to be lost… for example, brings up this window:
Enter your contact details and click OK to proceed.
Going back, when you have already entered your password, click on the OK button. You will be asked if you would want to save your password in a file for you to be able to retrieve it later on.
A window will appear asking you to drag and drop files to encrypt.
After dragging your files, highlight / select them all and click Encrypt. You will be then shown the status of your encryption. First, it will tell you that the program is scanning the files. You can also protect the entire USB drive by clicking on Encrypt All.
After the scanning process, click OK to continue with the encryption.
Once this is done, you will be asked whether you want to remove these files or not. If you wish to remove them, you will then be asked to choose from two different options to prevent other people from recovering your files. Lastly, you will have the option to wipe all free disk space on your USB pen drive.
Again, the status bar changes to reflect the status of your shredding.
After this, the encrypted files will disappear from your USB pen drive’s file listings. To access these, you would need to run the program and supply your password; you will be presented with a list of encrypted files. To access the file you need, simply highlight it and click the Decrypt button.
USB Safeguard is a valuable security tool that is very easy to use. Two things bother me about this though. For one, there is no way for you to retrieve your password if you should forget it or cannot locate the password you saved somewhere.
Moreover, it looks like this program works the way an encrypted zip file does. These are, however, very minor gripes if you consider how safe your data stored in your USB pen drive would be.
A solution to secure your data is available with the USB Safeguard. You can download USB Safeguard at http://usbsafeguard.altervista.org.
After the download is complete, transfer the downloaded file to your USB pen drive. Look for the file and double-click on it to open.
You will be asked to choose a password and confirm it.
You have the option to use an on screen keyboard by clicking on this icon. This is particularly useful if you suspect that there is a keylogger installed on the machine you’re using.
You can also access other options by clicking on the down arrow icon beneath the keyboard icon.
Choosing Customize your USB pen, if it were to be lost… for example, brings up this window:
Enter your contact details and click OK to proceed.
Going back, when you have already entered your password, click on the OK button. You will be asked if you would want to save your password in a file for you to be able to retrieve it later on.
A window will appear asking you to drag and drop files to encrypt.
After dragging your files, highlight / select them all and click Encrypt. You will be then shown the status of your encryption. First, it will tell you that the program is scanning the files. You can also protect the entire USB drive by clicking on Encrypt All.
After the scanning process, click OK to continue with the encryption.
Once this is done, you will be asked whether you want to remove these files or not. If you wish to remove them, you will then be asked to choose from two different options to prevent other people from recovering your files. Lastly, you will have the option to wipe all free disk space on your USB pen drive.
Again, the status bar changes to reflect the status of your shredding.
After this, the encrypted files will disappear from your USB pen drive’s file listings. To access these, you would need to run the program and supply your password; you will be presented with a list of encrypted files. To access the file you need, simply highlight it and click the Decrypt button.
USB Safeguard is a valuable security tool that is very easy to use. Two things bother me about this though. For one, there is no way for you to retrieve your password if you should forget it or cannot locate the password you saved somewhere.
Moreover, it looks like this program works the way an encrypted zip file does. These are, however, very minor gripes if you consider how safe your data stored in your USB pen drive would be.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Remove Printing Restrictions and Passwords from PDF Files
Many students these days buy their textbooks in electronic, PDF format. The main advantage of this, besides price, is that the PDF can be carried on iPhones and laptops, so we have less junk to carry throughout the day.
Unfortunately, most of these e-books have restrictions on how many pages from the PDF, if any, can be printed, and forget copying any text from the PDF. So, no real studying, with a highlighter and notes in the margins, can ever occur. At least, not without breaking the restrictions on the PDF.
A Web site exists to break all the restrictions—from print limits to passwords—imposed on PDFs: FreeMyPDF.com.
First, click the Choose File button and select the PDF from which you want to remove restrictions.
Then, click the Do It button.
You are then prompted to save the new, free-of-restrictions PDF to your computer. Choose a location for your new file, then open it and use it however you like!
There are a few restrictions for FreeMyPDF.com. First, you must be able to view the PDF without entering a password for it to help you.
Second, there is a file size limit of 7MB. Finally, they ask that you not use the site to do anything illegal. They do not elaborate on what they define as illegal (or immoral), but they do not take any responsibility for your PDF-freeing activities.
For the documents we tried, FreeMyPDF.com worked like a charm. The file size restriction was our only real complaint.
Unfortunately, most of these e-books have restrictions on how many pages from the PDF, if any, can be printed, and forget copying any text from the PDF. So, no real studying, with a highlighter and notes in the margins, can ever occur. At least, not without breaking the restrictions on the PDF.
A Web site exists to break all the restrictions—from print limits to passwords—imposed on PDFs: FreeMyPDF.com.
First, click the Choose File button and select the PDF from which you want to remove restrictions.
Then, click the Do It button.
You are then prompted to save the new, free-of-restrictions PDF to your computer. Choose a location for your new file, then open it and use it however you like!
There are a few restrictions for FreeMyPDF.com. First, you must be able to view the PDF without entering a password for it to help you.
Second, there is a file size limit of 7MB. Finally, they ask that you not use the site to do anything illegal. They do not elaborate on what they define as illegal (or immoral), but they do not take any responsibility for your PDF-freeing activities.
For the documents we tried, FreeMyPDF.com worked like a charm. The file size restriction was our only real complaint.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
How to Repair Damaged Word Documents
Like any other file on your computer, Microsoft Word documents can get corrupted. Sometimes the damage manifests in obvious ways, like with formatting issues. A corrupt Word document can cause application crashes, system hangs, and many other annoyances that hamper your productivity.
Every new Microsoft Word release introduces new types of file corruption, and can also cause new and different types of problems. There are a few techniques that you can use to repair damaged Word documents, or damaged areas in Word documents, that are quick and easy. None of these fixes work 100% of the time, but these techniques have been proven time and time again.
Document Crashes Repeatedly
This is one of the worst types of document corruption, but it is also one of the most common. You open a document and you’re working in it for a while, and then Word suddenly comes to a halt and shuts down. You re-open the document, and a few minutes later the same thing happens.
Once you’ve determined that the problem is limited to one document and not a larger system or Microsoft Word problem, you can easily fix IT. Open a new blank document, and then open the damaged document. Copy the entire contents of the damaged document and paste it into the new blank document.
Save the new document with a new name in another place (as a precaution incase the problem involves where you were saving the original file). Make sure that the new file has all of the formatting and elements (pictures, tables, etc.) that appeared in the original.
Once you have confirmed that the new copy of the document contains the full contents and formatting of the original document, you can continue working from the new document. This will fix a lot of corrupt documents, but if the problem is linked to a corrupt element in the document (picture, embedded Microsoft Office file, etc.), it is possible that the crashes and application halts will continue.
If that is the case, try removing some of the larger elements from the document and see if it fixes the issue.
Formatting Will Not Change
If you have a document that is heavily formatted, you may encounter issues removing or replacing existing formatting. This frequently happens in Office 2003 and Office 2007 Word documents that have a lot of styles.
We’ve personally experienced this particular issue extensively when editing documents. If you remove a few lines from a document that are formatted in a particular way (e.g., a bulleted list), sometimes the next line will either take the formatting of the lines you removed, or will refuse to take the formatting of the line you removed.
Another good example of this is when you use a Header 1 style to start a chapter after a page break, but after you move items around in the document, the chapter number in the Header 1 style disappears. We’ve all encountered issues like this, and most of us use a trial and error strategy to fix it. Here are some things you should try first.
1. Remove the formatting using Clear All from the Styles sidebar menu.
2. Remove the text that is giving problems (CTRL+X) and paste it back into the document as plain text. Try reformatting it after you do this.
3 . Insert a blank page in the document close to the area that has formatting issues, and move all of the text and document elements to the new blank page. Delete the page that was having formatting issues.
These techniques will not fix every instance of formatting problems, but they will help. If you see this happening throughout your document, consider copying the contents of the document to a new blank document.
Every new Microsoft Word release introduces new types of file corruption, and can also cause new and different types of problems. There are a few techniques that you can use to repair damaged Word documents, or damaged areas in Word documents, that are quick and easy. None of these fixes work 100% of the time, but these techniques have been proven time and time again.
Document Crashes Repeatedly
This is one of the worst types of document corruption, but it is also one of the most common. You open a document and you’re working in it for a while, and then Word suddenly comes to a halt and shuts down. You re-open the document, and a few minutes later the same thing happens.
Once you’ve determined that the problem is limited to one document and not a larger system or Microsoft Word problem, you can easily fix IT. Open a new blank document, and then open the damaged document. Copy the entire contents of the damaged document and paste it into the new blank document.
Save the new document with a new name in another place (as a precaution incase the problem involves where you were saving the original file). Make sure that the new file has all of the formatting and elements (pictures, tables, etc.) that appeared in the original.
Once you have confirmed that the new copy of the document contains the full contents and formatting of the original document, you can continue working from the new document. This will fix a lot of corrupt documents, but if the problem is linked to a corrupt element in the document (picture, embedded Microsoft Office file, etc.), it is possible that the crashes and application halts will continue.
If that is the case, try removing some of the larger elements from the document and see if it fixes the issue.
Formatting Will Not Change
If you have a document that is heavily formatted, you may encounter issues removing or replacing existing formatting. This frequently happens in Office 2003 and Office 2007 Word documents that have a lot of styles.
We’ve personally experienced this particular issue extensively when editing documents. If you remove a few lines from a document that are formatted in a particular way (e.g., a bulleted list), sometimes the next line will either take the formatting of the lines you removed, or will refuse to take the formatting of the line you removed.
Another good example of this is when you use a Header 1 style to start a chapter after a page break, but after you move items around in the document, the chapter number in the Header 1 style disappears. We’ve all encountered issues like this, and most of us use a trial and error strategy to fix it. Here are some things you should try first.
1. Remove the formatting using Clear All from the Styles sidebar menu.
2. Remove the text that is giving problems (CTRL+X) and paste it back into the document as plain text. Try reformatting it after you do this.
3 . Insert a blank page in the document close to the area that has formatting issues, and move all of the text and document elements to the new blank page. Delete the page that was having formatting issues.
These techniques will not fix every instance of formatting problems, but they will help. If you see this happening throughout your document, consider copying the contents of the document to a new blank document.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
iChecker: Find out your Yahoo! Messenger friends status
iChecker is a portable tool that no need to install. Run and input a Yahoo! Messenger ID to find out whether he/she is online or offline.Download Link: http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/iChecker-Download-86641.html
Monday, March 15, 2010
Top 3 Free Broadband Speed Test Websites
When it comes to broadband Internet connections, there is no such thing as too much speed. As more and more people download games, movies, and other large files from the web, the need for speed has spawned entire industries and multi-tiered marketing campaigns that entice consumers to pay premium prices for faster and faster connections.
If you are paying a premium for your Internet connection, you may want to see if you are getting what you are paying for. Using a free online broadband speed test is one way to test your connection for both download and upload speeds.
Why Test Your Internet Connection Speed?
Other than being a novel way to see your connection speed, free broadband speed tests can help you identify problems with your connection and can even provide evidence to your ISP should you need to file a complaint that you aren’t getting the speed you are paying for.
Speed tests are also a way to troubleshoot why downloads and uploads are taking so long or why your ping to a particular gaming server seems too high. If you regularly download and upload large files for your home business, free online speed tests can help you determine the optimal time during the day to transfer your files.
Whatever your reasons, online speed tests are fast, free, easy to use, and provide you with solid data with which to judge your Internet connection.
Speedtest.net
Speedtest.net offers an easy-to-use, information-rich speed test with which you can test your broadband connection. When the main page loads, Speedtest.net has already determined your location. To begin a speed test, simply choose a destination server node and the speed test begins automatically.
When the test is complete, Speedtest.net gives you several useful metrics. First, your raw download speed and upload speed in Mbps are displayed. Notice that Mbps is Megabits per second and not Megabytes per second.
In addition, the website tells you your ping in milliseconds (ms) to the test server. Speedtest.net even tells you the distance in miles between your connection and the test server.
To help you make sense of the results, Speedtest.net estimates how long it would take you to download an MP3 (5MB), a video clip (35MB), and an entire movie (800MB). However, the most useful metric is the comparison of the results of your speed test with your ISP’s average.
If your speed test results are significantly lower than the average for your ISP, you now have some evidence to motivate your ISP to look into the matter.
Speakeasy.net
Another useful free online broadband speed test is Speakeasy.net. Unlike Speedtest.net, the speed test at speakeasy.net only offers eight test servers in major cities throughout the United States. Still, it is interesting to see how your bandwidth holds up as the test servers get farther and farther from your location.
The metrics reported to you by Speakeast.net are sparse compared to Speedtest.net’s but it is great for when you just want to quickly learn you download and upload speeds. One nice feature of Speakeasy.net’s speed test is that is translates your Kilobits per second (Kbps) download and upload scores into Kilobytes per second (KBps) in case you are more familiar with using bytes than bits.
Bandwidthplace.com
Bandwidthplace.com’s speed test is great when you just want the bare essentials in a bandwidth speed test. Offering no choice of test server, this speed test is the simplest of the three to use. Simply press the Start Test button, and Bandwidthplace.com will estimate your download and upload speeds.
When the test is complete, you are presented with only your download and upload speeds in Kbps. Like Speaskeasy.net’s speed test, Bandwidthplace.com also computes your Kilobytes per second at the bottom of the test results page.
Whether you are just curious or you are collecting information to present to your ISP, each of the bandwidth speed tests above offers something that should appeal to everyone. Ranging from complicated to simple, a speed test can help you determine both the short and long-term quality of your Internet connection.
If you are paying a premium for your Internet connection, you may want to see if you are getting what you are paying for. Using a free online broadband speed test is one way to test your connection for both download and upload speeds.
Why Test Your Internet Connection Speed?
Other than being a novel way to see your connection speed, free broadband speed tests can help you identify problems with your connection and can even provide evidence to your ISP should you need to file a complaint that you aren’t getting the speed you are paying for.
Speed tests are also a way to troubleshoot why downloads and uploads are taking so long or why your ping to a particular gaming server seems too high. If you regularly download and upload large files for your home business, free online speed tests can help you determine the optimal time during the day to transfer your files.
Whatever your reasons, online speed tests are fast, free, easy to use, and provide you with solid data with which to judge your Internet connection.
Speedtest.net
Speedtest.net offers an easy-to-use, information-rich speed test with which you can test your broadband connection. When the main page loads, Speedtest.net has already determined your location. To begin a speed test, simply choose a destination server node and the speed test begins automatically.
When the test is complete, Speedtest.net gives you several useful metrics. First, your raw download speed and upload speed in Mbps are displayed. Notice that Mbps is Megabits per second and not Megabytes per second.
In addition, the website tells you your ping in milliseconds (ms) to the test server. Speedtest.net even tells you the distance in miles between your connection and the test server.
To help you make sense of the results, Speedtest.net estimates how long it would take you to download an MP3 (5MB), a video clip (35MB), and an entire movie (800MB). However, the most useful metric is the comparison of the results of your speed test with your ISP’s average.
If your speed test results are significantly lower than the average for your ISP, you now have some evidence to motivate your ISP to look into the matter.
Speakeasy.net
Another useful free online broadband speed test is Speakeasy.net. Unlike Speedtest.net, the speed test at speakeasy.net only offers eight test servers in major cities throughout the United States. Still, it is interesting to see how your bandwidth holds up as the test servers get farther and farther from your location.
The metrics reported to you by Speakeast.net are sparse compared to Speedtest.net’s but it is great for when you just want to quickly learn you download and upload speeds. One nice feature of Speakeasy.net’s speed test is that is translates your Kilobits per second (Kbps) download and upload scores into Kilobytes per second (KBps) in case you are more familiar with using bytes than bits.
Bandwidthplace.com
Bandwidthplace.com’s speed test is great when you just want the bare essentials in a bandwidth speed test. Offering no choice of test server, this speed test is the simplest of the three to use. Simply press the Start Test button, and Bandwidthplace.com will estimate your download and upload speeds.
When the test is complete, you are presented with only your download and upload speeds in Kbps. Like Speaskeasy.net’s speed test, Bandwidthplace.com also computes your Kilobytes per second at the bottom of the test results page.
Whether you are just curious or you are collecting information to present to your ISP, each of the bandwidth speed tests above offers something that should appeal to everyone. Ranging from complicated to simple, a speed test can help you determine both the short and long-term quality of your Internet connection.
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