Stop Spending Your Life Up-and-Down the Start Menu

Do you know that you spend a goodly amount of time trying to find 'that shortcut to that program' in Windows' Start Menu?

Well, you'll love Launchy then. It's a small piece of program expressly designed to streamline your life around and away from the Start Menu.

No more hunting for application shortcuts! Just press Launchy's shortcut key (defaults to Alt-Space, but I changed it to Win-Space), and up pops a skinned box, in which you can type the letters of your shortcut.

For instance, to run QuickPar, all I have to do is press Win-Space, type "qui", and voila! Launchy shows the icon and shortcut name for QuickPar. I only have to press Enter, and QuickPar runs.

Or, if I want to start up FireFox, I can press Win-Space, type "fox" . . . lo and behold! Launchy can even match strings within a shortcut!

Or maybe you want to quickly open a website. I only need to press Win-Space, type "www.google.com", and my default browser opens up www.google.com. And it can do some neat tricks, like instant-search in Google with the helpful 'pipe' ( | ) symbol:

No more hunting for shortcuts; download and install Launchy right now!

Note: The latest Launchy version (1.25) is not compatible with Windows Server 2003. Use the older 1.0 version instead.

Making Money via Blogs?

Yes, I know people said that it is possible. Yes, I've heard about AdSense. In fact, I *have* placed 4 AdSense blocks on my blog.

The question is: Is it profitable?

Not without proper marketing of your blog, it won't.

So, we'll see if this blog generates enough money for me to leave my daytime job

But all is not well on Nirvana.

You see, because of the huuuuuuge amount of obnoxious, in-your-face, bandwidth-consuming (not to mention CPU-hogging) advertisements, many people browsed the web with ads blocked. Either by installing an extension (AdBlock Plus in Firefox), built in facility of the browser (Opera's blocker), or external programs (IE7Pro for IE7, or AdMuncher).

( Note: Internet Explorer 7 is now FREE for all... no more of that pesky Windows Genuine Advantage crap )

Someone (NOT me) said that such users are thieves. Not me. Because I'm 'guilty' of that myself.

However, for my monetary scheme to work, I request to ad-blocking users, please do allow ads coming in from adsense, i.e. allow "adsense.google.com". Besides, remember that AdSense ads are (1) Text-based, so it does not consume a lot of bandwidth, and (2) relevant to whatever contents a web page is presenting.

Another problem is JavaScript blocking. Yes, it is necessary for preventing popups and such. I also do that. But this blog is clean, I guarantee. So please allow JavaScript for "p-hack.blogspot.com" and "google-analytics.com".

Why do I need JavaScript enabled? Simply put: Google's AdSense also detected and considered the amount of visitors coming to this blog. They do it by a simple JavaScript hosted at my site and at google-analytics.com. Allowing both URLs above enables Google to record the number of visitors to my site.

Thank you for your assistance. May your hacked-life always be fruitful.

Over and Out.

Pidgin -- another freeware multichat system

First of all, I have to admit that I'm not really keen on IM-ing. That said, sometimes I just have to do IM, e.g. to talk with tech support located in a different country (ugh). Or perhaps to give some assistance to (former) students.

Problem is, some of them use Yahoo!Messenger, while others use MSN Messenger (now called Windows Live Messenger).

I solve the problem of having to install 2 IM clients by using Trillian. The goodness that Trillian was allows me to not only login into Yahoo!Messenger and MSN Messenger at the same time, it also allows me to login using multiple accounts into both. Plus it also supported AIM / ICQ, the previous IM fad.

But lately, Trillian started to act up on me. I found out that if the first attempt to start Trillian always resulted in an error. The second attempt will succeed, though. Beats me what caused it.

But this ... um, 'incident', coupled with the fact that Trillian is kind of resource hungry (it felt sluggish), and also the small emoticons (and incomplete -- some Yahoo! Messenger emoticons are not supported) . . . finally led mo to search for an alternative multi-system chat client (multichat client).

I stumbled upon Pidgin. It's small, fast, light on the resource, and it generally felt far snappier than Trillian. In addition, it supports all Yahoo! Messenger emoticons. Now I no longer have to wonder what my chat partner is trying to convey.

Pidgin seems to be inherently extendible by downloading "plugins" which will add many functionalities. Furthermore, it supports many -- and I do mean *many* -- IM services. Far more than what you can shake a stick at. And unlike Trillian, it supports Google chat. Now that *is* nice.

The only drawback to Pidgin seems that, unlike Trillian, Pidgin does not support multiuser usage. That is, if I double click Pidgin, it will open the chat services that *I* have selected, using my credentials. If someone wants to have their own selection of services and credentials, they must log off Windows and log in as a new user.

No facility for multi-user using single Windows login

Well, since I am the only user of my computer, that drawback is nothing too vital for me. So I guess I will keep using Pidgin.

Try it. I believe the majority of us will surely like it.

Over and Out.

RETURNIL -- FREE alternative to DeepFreeze

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A screencap of RETURNIL's setting dialog box (click to see a bigger version)

We are all familiar with DeepFreeze. It's the software we use when we want to ensure that *absolutely*nothing* can happen to our painstakingly installed and customized Windows.

Unfortunately, DeepFreeze is payware.

I happened upon a posting in Wilders Security Forums, informing me of something called RETURNIL, made by the eponymous Returnil Virtual Systems. Upon checking up on RETURNIL, I found out that not only it is similar to DeepFreeze, the Personal Edition version also FREEWARE.

Wow, I immediately downloaded and installed RETURNIL on my system. I also did a preliminary (and very rudimentary) test, in which I activated RETURNIL's protection, created a new text file on c:\, and rebooted.

Sure enough, after reboot, the new text file... is no more.

Very Interesting. I will keep using this. I guess this *is* a keeper after all.

Stay tuned for more testing results and/or praises and/or rants about RETURNIL.

Over and Out.

Making a (Nearly) Free System

Okay... the days of the free Operating System are here with Linux and their ilks yadda yadda yadda...

Yeah, right.

Be honest: No matter how we hate Windows, we have to use it. Tell me: Which Linux can play those wonderful timewasting games?

So, like it or not, we're stuck with Windows. Which means that we must pay for the Operating System of our PC.

But we can stop right there. Yes, you read me right: The only software you need to buy for your PC is Windows. Now, let me give you the lowdown on the other softwares that you need:

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Office Suite

Okay, we can't work without that one. The 'freebie' WordPad is a joke. And there is no 'freebie' Excel bundled with Windows. So?

Never fear! Just download OpenOffice.org, and you'll have an honest-to-goodness free alternative to Microsoft Office or WordPerfect Office Suite. It's a tad slow, granted, but fully loaded. You may have to adjust yourself to using it... but if you decided to stick with Microsoft Office, you'll have to adjust yourself to use Office 2007 anyway, which is drastically different from previous Office versions.

So, now is the right time to change.

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AntiVirus

Some say, running a PC without an AntiVirus is like having sex without condoms. I disagree, but anyways, why are we so enamored with expensive commercial antivirus programs like Norton or McAffee?

There's a lot of free antivirus programs out there. I personally use Avast! Home Edition, and some other people swear by AVG AntiVirus, and yet others nod to Antivir Personal Edition. All of them are cheap = gratis (as long as you use it in your home). And there are dozens out there that are still free.

And if you're a skillful geek, wanting to control everything going on in your PC, and are not afraid of beta softwares, give Comodo AntiViruSpyware a shot. Up to now, it is the only free AntiVirus program capable of running under Windows Servers. It has HIPS (Host Intrusion Prevention System), that even if a virus ever passed its database, the virus's action will be detected and knowledgeable users can stop the virus in its slimy track.

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Personal Firewall

An antivirus stops malware running in your system. A firewall stops malware accessing your system, preventing them to exploit possible security holes.

There are several free firewalls out there. The more well-known is ZoneAlarm Free. But it's severely underpowered compared to its commercial sibling, ZoneAlarm Pro.

Yet there's a better alternative. Find out why geeks all around the world fell in love with Comodo Firewall. Its features put it on a par with ZoneAlarm Pro, but for a far less price (i.e. gratis).

For a bonus: This program can also run under Windows Server.

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Graphic Processing

Why do you need this one? Okay, easy reason: Remove all those redeyes from your photos. Now, repeat after me: MS Paint Sucks. And so is PhotoShop (too damn expensive).

There are 2 alternatives to PhotoShop (and their ilk): Gimp and Paint.Net. Both are free, open source, and quite powerful, to boot. I prefer Paint.Net because its interface resembles PhotoShop, but you may have to download and install some Plugins first, and then it can perform 80% of what PhotoShop can. Check out the wonderful Tutorials for Paint.Net, and I think 95% of what PhotoShop does can be carried out by this nifty program.

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Pascal Programming

Okay, first I have to admit: I am a die-hard Pascal programmer. So, sorry to you C-aficionados, I just have not the slightest idea what free development tool you can find. Why not be less nerd-y and shift to Pascal?

Anyways, for a free, totally free, Pascal development system, you can't go wrong installing FreePascal on your system. This gives you a powerful command-line based Pascal compiler that's cross-platform. Read it! Cross-platform, for Pete's sake! And also a nice text-based editor complete with online help.

What? You don't like text-based editor or command-line compiler? Never fear! With the Lazarus Development Environment, you can have a visual development environment that's virtually identical with the (far far far far more expensive) Borland Delphi.

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Okay. I think, the list above just suits everybody wanting to pay no more than the Windows operating system on their PC. If I missed something, let me know.

Over and out.

Orbit Download Manager

Now, we all are quite possibly familiar with a download manager, those nice softwares that allow us to *finally* be able to download something in its entirety, no fear of disconnects leaving us with a partial download.

Now, I've used GetRight before, and when FireFox 1.5 is released, I used GetRight with FlashGot. Then I found Free Download Manager. Just approx. 1 week ago I found Orbit, another free (gratis) download manager.

I have thought, what's the use of yet another download manager. However, Orbit's website advertises that Orbit "... is able to download videos from YouTube, GoogleVideo ..." plus "... supports download of streaming contents like MMS, RTMS, ..."

Now, this piqued my curiosity.

So I downloaded it, installed it, and tested it...

... and I'm blown out of the water. Here's my observation:

1. It's damn fast. I downloaded a video from GoogleVideo really quickly, perhaps 50%-70% faster than before.
2. It's damn powerful. I used the Grab++ utility to download embedded videos in profile pages of some friends.
3. It's damn wicked. It seems to consume nearly all the bandwidth, making by browsing become a lot slower... but the download finishes far faster, so a good compromise, methinks.
4. It's damn free! Yes, free, as in gratis, no need to pay yada yada yada
   

I'm still exploring Orbit's capabilities. Unlike GetRight or FDM, Orbit does not seem to support multisource downloading ... but I may not be holding my mouth right. Stay tuned in this space for more Orbit goodness ...

Did I mention that Orbit is free?

First evah posting...

Dear Valued Readers (as if . . .),

Welcome to the very first edition of {p} := hack blog. A blog created and maintained by me, which focuses solely on the gadget-y and tech-y aspects of life.

Day to day I will be talking about gadgets/apps/services/sites that will help us live life better.

Cheers!

{p}