Michael on Tech

Add 5 Gigabytes of Space To Dropbox for Free

2012-02-04T11:53:00.001-08:00

Credit for this one goes to a student of mine who passed this on to me...he was kind enough to share this amazing deal. I am not sure how long this deal will last as it relates to using a beta version of the Dropbox software

With Dropbox you get the first 2 Gigabytes free, which is just enough to get you started but not enough for any serious work as it quickly fills up. So by following a few steps forwarded to me by this super kind student, you can add another 5 gigs of space for free to your Dropbox....which would give you a grand total of 7 gigs...which is a nice healthy amount...all for free....The paid service cost a minimum $100 for 50 gigs...so these 7 gigs is a perfect amount for free...

Dropbox is a very handy little service, it syncs your files across multiple computers, so you do not have to worry as much about carrying your work around with you on a USB key. Everything is stored in the cloud and syncs down to all your computers running the Dropbox software. You can also access your files from any web browser.

Here are the instructions...

- Sign up for a Dropbox account for free if you do not already have an account

- Then visit this link and read the article and click the link to the forum post that talks about the free space....

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-57371209-264/want-4.5gb-of-free-dropbox-space-be-a-guinea-pig/

- Follow the instructions in the forum post...and install the beta software....

- Now once installed...you just have to add some new photos....to the Dropbox folder ....I do not believe you can just copy pictures from your Pictures folder into Dropbox to get more space....instead you have to plug in a Camera or an iPhone or some other picture taking device or card with photos on it...into your computer....

For Windows, once you do this a window should pop up asking what program you wish to run....Select Dropbox and Dropbox will import the Photos into a special folder called "Camera Uploads" that it will create automatically...once you upload a single photo this way you get an instant extra 500 megabytes...then every 500 mb of photos you upload after that you get an extra 500mb of space upto 5 gigs...

- Instructions for the Mac will be slightly different but the concept is the same....

- You can upload photos from your Android or iphone or any Camera Phone....

Change Green Coloured Encrypted files in Windows 7 Into Normal Files

2010-12-13T21:39:00.000-08:00

Like most people I download stuff from the web and often times when I have downloaded the file the file or folder is coloured green. The green colour on a file or folder in Windows usually means the file is encrypted or at least Windows thinks it is encrypted.

To remove that green colour from your folders and or files follow the steps below.

1) Right click on the file or folder and select "properties".

2) Once the properties window appears select the "Advanced" button located in the lower right hand side of the window.

3) With the Advanced Attributes window open uncheck the "Encrypt contents to secure data" and click "OK"

4) Back on the properties window click the "Apply" button. If you are working on a file click "OK" and your done. If you are working on a folder another window will appear asking you to choose to apply to either this folder only or to this folder and subfolders and files. After making your choice click "OK"

5) After clicking "OK" you will return to the properties window. Just click "OK" again and your done.

This step by step was done on a Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate machine. Other versions of Windows may require different steps or may not work at all.

Hope this helps. Please leave a comment in the comments section if you have any questions or anything to add.

Google Apps Outgoing Mail Server Not Authenticating

2010-10-12T23:02:00.000-07:00

I wrote this post to help anyone who has had a problem with accessing their Google Apps outgoing mail server. Unfortunately this post turned into a bit of an outlet for the problems I had with figuring this problem out so if you want to skip to the answer then jump down to the Short Answer section.

The Back Story

I use regular Gmail but send my outgoing mail through my Google Apps outgoing mail server. The reason for this is I like to have my Emails appear to have come from my custom domain Email address and I like to use the regular non-Google-Apps Gmail service as it allows me to use a single sign in to access almost all of Google's services.

Recently the people at Google have decided to allow Google Apps users to use their custom domain addresses to sign in to more Google services such as Blogger and Picasa. The roll out of this new feature is coming this fall and a few Google Apps users may have access to this feature now. I happened to be one of those users and when I logged into my Google Apps account I was asked if I wanted to activate this new feature.

I am a bit of a sucker to new services so I activated the new service and logged out. This was not really a big deal for me as I mainly use my regular @gmail account for signing into all the Google services. I thought all was running smoothly until today when I talked to someone who said they had not received my email. I didn't think much of it until I logged back into my Google Apps account to check the Spam folder (which I do from time to time to check if any email got in there by mistake). It was in my Google Apps Spam folder that I discovered a bunch of Mail Delivery Subsystem - Delivery Status Notification (Failure) Email messages that had been wrongly marked as spam by Google, which prevented me from knowing there was anything wrong with my Email.

After some troubleshooting I soon discovered that my Send Mail As feature in Gmail that used my custom domain email address for sending out emails was not able to access the outgoing Google Apps server. The solution turned out to be very simple.

The problem was that my Google Apps Gmail service required some real human input in order to activate a new Gmail account or choose some other options, either way a selection of some sort was required to access the account. This only occurred when I tried to login to my Google Apps Gmail service through the regular Gmail login page and not my Google Apps login page. Once I made the required selections and activated the Gmail account I could access the account regularly and my main Gmail account's Send Mail As feature worked once again.

The Short Answer

If you run into this problem of your Outgoing Gmail or Google Apps Gmail SMTP Outgoing server not authenticating or seemingly not working for no apparent reason and you have checked and double checked your server and password settings then try logging directly into your Gmail or Google Apps Gmail account and seeing if any human interaction is required. I have read that some people have had to enter a CAPTCHA after logging into their Gmail and or Google Apps Gmail accounts and this might cause the same problem.

Any comments are always greatly appreciated.

How to add a link to your image using HTML

2010-04-25T10:25:00.000-07:00

Here is a step by step on how to make an image link in HTML.

1.) Open your web page using your HTML editor.

2.) Find the image on your page that you want to make linkable.

3.) Add the code that is highlighted in orange to your image tag.

4.) Replace "yourURL" with the location of where you want your image to link to.

5.) To make your image link to another web page and make that web page open in a new tab in the browser you can add the following to the link.

YouTube not working in Opera 10.51 Part 2

2010-04-15T01:23:00.000-07:00

Just over a month ago I posted a solution to the YouTube videos not working in the new Opera 10.51 browser. That solution seemed to work up until today, when for whatever unknown reason YouTube videos played on the YouTube page would not work in Opera.

Again I searched the My Opera Community Forums for a Solution. I did end up finding a fix that worked for me on a post from user lewisje:

Here is the forum thread with the solution:

http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=521491

This solution worked for me but it does seem more like a work around then a true solution, but it does work, so in the end it doesn't really matter.

On a possitive note, according to a twitter post from the Opera software people, it appears that they are aware of the problem and they are working on a solution. This is good news and hopefully we will have a better solution then this one in the near future....

Anyways....here is what I did to get YouTube videos to play in Opera 10.51...and again thanks to lewisje for sharing this solution.

How to fix the YouTube videos not playing problem in Opera 10.51:

1.) Go to http://lewisje.com/YoutubeProtectionRemover.js and copy the displayed text or save the .js file to your desktop. If you copied the displayed text, just paste it into any text editor such as Notepad and save the file as "YoutubeProtectionRemover.js....

Just in case the above link to the .js file breaks, here is the JavaScript code that you will need:

// ==UserScript==
// @name YoutubeProtectionRemover
// @include http://www.youtube.com/*
// @description Removes lame protection on YouTube
// @copyright 2010, Snap
// ==/UserScript==
window.opera.addEventListener('BeforeScript',function(ev){ev.element.text=ev.element.text.replace("yt.flash.update(swfConfig, forceUpdate);","");},false);
//end

2.) In Opera go to "Settings" then go to "Preferences". Under Preferences, click the "Advanced" tab. On the "Advanced" tab you will see a list of sub menu items along the left hand side, find "Content" and click on it.

3.) Once in the "Content" section you will see a "JavaScript Options" button, click on it and go to the bottom of the dialogue box and make note of the file location of your JavaScript folder for Opera. If the field is blank then you will have to create a JavaScript folder.

4.) To create a JavaScript folder just use Windows explorer and create a folder anywhere on your computer and name the folder anything you like (but just try to avoid spaces and special characters). For me I created a folder called "JavaScript" and I created it in my "Program Files (x86)\Opera\" directory. Wherever you create this folder just make note of where it is. After you created your JavaScript folder go back to Opera go to the JavaScript Options menu (located in Preferences - Advanced - Content - JavaScript Options) and select Choose under the "User JavaScript folder" and navigate to the JavaScript folder that you just created. Click "OK" and click OK again.

5.) Go back into Opera and close any and all open tabs and again go back into "Preferences" and choose "Advanced" and then select "Cookies". On the "Cookies" menu click on the "Manage Cookies" button. This will open the "Cookie Manager" window. Do a search for "YouTube" and delete all the cookies that appear. Click "Close" and then "OK".

6.) Shut down Opera

7.) Next take the "YoutubeProtectionRemover.js" file that we created in an earlier step and place it in the JavaScript folder that Opera uses for User JavaScript files (see steps 3 & 4).

8.) Reboot Opera and navigate to YouTube and with any luck the videos should work. If not try restarting Opera a couple of times. Failing that try setting the site mask as Internet Explorer.

To set Opera to mask as Internet Explore for YouTube right click on the YouTube page and select "Edit Site Preferences", then choose "Network". Then under "Browser identification" select "Mask as Internet Explorer), delete all the YouTube cookies and restart Opera.

YouTube Not working in Opera 10.5

2010-03-13T09:46:00.000-08:00

Update!!!
I found an new solution to this problem. I have posted a new solution with instructions. You can view the post here:
YouTube Not Working in Opera 10.51 - Part 2
Thanks,
Michael!

Post Updated on April 15th - 2010 - 1:43am

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just recently installed the new Opera 10.5 browser and I love the new look. Today however I tried to watch a YouTube video and it would not play. I just kept receiving the "Go Upgrade" message to go and upgrade the Adobe Flash player. After trying that a couple of times and still not being able to play YouTube videos in Opera 10.5 I went searching for a solution on the Opera Forums.

The solution that worked for me was from a user named mcclausky on the Opera Forums. You can see his post three quarters of the way down at this page.

Basically the problem seems to be with the new YouTube layout. So to fix the problem do the following:

1.) If your signed in to YouTube then sign out.

2) Close all open YouTube tabs.

3) Go to the Opera "Settings" menu item, and select "Preferences".

4) On the "Preferences" window select the "Advanced" tab.

5) Select the "Cookies" item and then click on "Manage Cookies".

6) On the manage Cookies page do a search for "YouTube" and delete all the YouTube cookies.

7) Click "Close" then click "Ok".

8) Close Opera and then re-launch it.

9) Go to http://www.youtube.com/ and click on any video and it should work. After testing a video to make sure it works, you can sign back into your YouTube account.

This worked for me for Opera 10.5 running on Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. Please comment with any further suggestions.

Also if anyone knows why Youtube's new layout does not work with Opera 10.5 then please comment.

Oh and thanks again to the original poster mcclausky on the Opera forums for this solution.

Create Panoramic Photos in Photoshop

2009-11-23T22:41:00.000-08:00

Merging multiple photographs into a single large panoramic photo can yield excellent results and with the proper software it can turn your small sensor camera into a 30 megapixel digital camera.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 has an excellent Photomerge feature that automates the tedious process of lining up and merging multiple photos into a single larger photograph. Below is the procedure for merging multiple photos into a single panoramic photograph in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

1) Open Photoshop and select "File" and then "Automate" followed finally by "Photomerge.

2) Next you will be greeted by a dialog box with several options. The Layout options give you many choices in how the final outputted file will appear. For good results I usually leave it on "Auto" and let Photoshop decide, this usually gives me decent results, but feel free to experiment with all the options here.

3) After you have selected your layout you need to select the source files. Select the browse button and navigate to the folder where the individual photos for your panoramic photo are stored. Now since you are merging multiple photos you can highlight or select all the photos at once and Photoshop will add all of them to the source files list.

4) Once your source files have been selected hit "OK" and sit back and wait for Photoshop to do all work of merging your photos. If you have a large amount of photos to merge and an older slower computer this step could take a very long time.

5.) When Photoshop has completed its merging of your photograhs you will hopefully have a decent looking panoramic photograph. You will notice that Photoshop has created several layers with masks. This will allow you to adjust individual sections if your colour balance or exposure varies a bit from section to section. You may also notice crack lines in the merged photo (see arrow in photo below). Do not worry about these lines as they will disapear when you flatten your image.

6) If you are happy with the general look of your photo you can flatten it to a single layer (this will eliminate the crack lines). To flatten your file go to the "Layers" menu and select "Flatten Image". When this is done you can crop your photo and adjust the colour balance and exposure on the entire photograph until you are ready to save and possibly share your new panoramic photo.

Below is the final version of the panorama from this short tutorial.

Find Google on Twitter

2009-11-14T19:28:00.000-08:00

I found this post on the Official Google Blog. The post listed all the accounts that Google has created on Twitter, and they even divided it up by category.

To see the list of Twitter accounts that Google has created on Twitter you can click here:

Google accounts on Twitter

View RAW & DNG thumbnails in Windows 7

2009-11-02T22:03:00.000-08:00

To view RAW & Adobe DNG thumbnails in Windows Explorer in the 64-bit addition of Windows 7 just download and install the free*** FastPictureViewer WIC RAW Codec Pack.

***(Recently FastPictureViewer has started charging for this codec pack. It is still reasonable at only $9.99 but if you still want the free version, you can download it from CNET.)

For installation instructions, follow the instructions below:

1) Go to http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/codecs/ and download the 64-bit edition of the WIC RAW Codec Pack.

2) Click on the Fast Picture Viewer WIC RAW Codec installer file that you downloaded to begin the installation.

3) At the first pop up window click "Next".

4) At the next screen, if you agree with the EULA than place a check mark next to "I accept..." and click next.

5) At the next screen you can choose to install codecs for all the available RAWs and DNG formats or just select the RAW types that you need and the Adobes DNG format. My recommendation is to just leave this as is, with all available RAW types and the Adobe DNG codec being installed. Once you have made your choice click "Next"

6) On the next screen click "Install". If a UAC prompt pops up just click "Yes"

7) After the installation has completed a new window will pop up. Just click "Finish"

8) A final window will appear asking you if you want to restart your computer. You can choose to restart now by selecting "Yes" or select "No" to restart later. Before you can view RAW and DNG thumbnails in Windows Explorer your system will have to be restarted.

9) After a system restart the installation is complete and you will now be able to view most RAW files and Adobe DNG thumbnails in Windows 7 Explorer.

Hide User Account In Windows 7

2009-10-28T11:03:00.000-07:00

I have a home network consisting of all Microsoft Windows PCs. To make file sharing and networking easier, I create user accounts for all the users on my home network on every single computer. This works well with one small problem, each computer starts up with a welcome screen with every user listed, even though only one person really uses a particular computer. It's a small annoyance, but it bugged me a bit so I went out and searched out how to hide a user account in Windows 7 (this same tip will also work in Vista). If you have Windows XP just download TweakUI and their is an option in that free utility for hiding user accounts.

So here is a quick guide on how to hide a user account in Windows 7.

*IMPORTANT: before preceding, know that if you hide your only administrator account you may have a very hard time getting back into your system as an administrator or logging on at all. So proceed with caution and make sure and then double check and make sure again that you are hiding the correct account and that you are not hiding your only administrator account. With that out of the way...see below...

How to Hide a User Account in Windows 7

1) Click on the start menu and type in regedit

2) Select "regedit" from the search results and click yes at the UAC prompt.

3) In regedit navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\

4) Right click on the Winlogon folder and select "New" and then select "Key". Note your Windows 7 install may already have these keys that we are creating, in that case you can skip the next few steps.

5) Name the new Key: SpecialAccounts

6) Right click on the new "SpecialAccounts" Key and select "New" and then "Key"

7) Name this new Key: UserList

8) Now select the newly created "UserList" Key. In the right pane right click on an open area and select "New" and then select "DWORD (32-bit Value)"

9) Name this new DWORD the exact same name as the user account that you want to hide. So if the user you wish to hide is "joe", then name this value "joe"

10) Double click on the new DWORD that you created. A new window will open, set the value to "0" (the number zero no quotes) if you want to hide the user. You can set it to "1" if you ever want to unhide the account. Once you set the value click "OK" and close Regedit

The next time you reboot your computer you should notice that the user is hidden from the welcome screen. I tested this in the 64-bit version Windows 7 professional and the 32-bit version of Windows 7 Ultimate RC.

Sources:

IntelliAdmin: Hide user accounts in Windows 7

My Digital Life: How to Create Hidden User Account

WinXPTutor's XP Resources: How do I show or hide an user account in the Welcome Screen?

Telus to Eliminate System Access Fees

2009-10-27T10:05:00.000-07:00

Starting November 5th Canadian wireless provider Telus will offer simple monthly plans that include everything in a single fee. Meaning their will not be any additional system access fees or 911 fees added to your monthly bill.

The new plans called "Clear Choice" will replace the existing "Your Choice " plans. Although these new plans eliminate the system access fee of $6.95 and the 911 fee of $0.75 they also raise the monthly fee by $5.00, but basic voicemail is also included on the new plans whereas on the old plans it was an extra charge.

All in all its a move in the right direction for consumers, even if it only means a savings of a few dollars a month. The main benefit to consumers is a simple "the price you see" is the "price you pay". No more seeing a great deal on a monthly plan and then seeing it go up by 30% after all the extras and system fees are added to the price.

Here is a link to Telus's description of it's new "Clear Choice" mobile plans.

Convert FLAC to MP3

2009-10-18T22:24:00.000-07:00

Converting FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) to MP3 is a very simple process and one that can be performed using free software.

In this post I will show you the method that I use to convert FLAC files to MP3, but their are many other ways to convert a FLAC file to an MP3 using different software and most of them work equally well. This method is just what has worked reliably for me and given me excellent sound quality.

Convert FLAC to MP3 Using Foobar2000:

*Note: that most of these steps only need to be performed once, and once all the settings are in place and saved it becomes almost a two step process to convert FLAC files to MP3s.

1) You will need two pieces of free software to convert a FLAC file to a MP3 file. First click on this link and download the LAME encoder for Windows. Next, click on this link to download Foobar2000.

2) Unzip the LAME zip file and place the extracted Zip folder in a location on your computer that you will remember.

3) Click on the downloaded Foobar2000 installer file and install Foobar2000

4) Run Foobar2000 after it has been installed

5) In Foobar2000, select "File" and then open up the FLAC tracks that you wish to convert.

6) Once your tracks have opened in Foobar they will show up in the playlist window. Highlight all the tracks that you wish to convert.

7) Right Click anywhere on the highlighted tracks and select "Convert".

8) A new window will pop up with a bunch of options. Under Output format you will see a list of a few built-in presets that Foobar2000 has provided. For conversion to MP3 you can select the MP3 Variable Bit Rate of 190kbps. This preset will give you excellent sound quality. If you are happy with this preset than you can skip the next 5 steps and go directly to step 14. If you prefer to have your MP3 in a standard constant bit rate format than you will have to create a new preset. It's easy, just follow the next few steps.

9) To create a new preset select "More Settings" on the Converter Setup window. A new Preferences window will open up. On this window click on the "Add New" button

10) Another window will open up called "Commandline Encoder Settings - New Preset". At the top of this window click on the drop down selection box and choose the "custom" option. You will notice that the options will now change in the window.

11) Under the Encoder section click on the browse button and locate the "lame.exe" file (it will be in the LAME folder that you unzipped in step 2). For all the other settings on this window you can copy the settings that I use from the screenshot below. These settings will convert your FLAC files to a 320kbps constant bit rate MP3. This gives you a CD quality MP3 file that 99% of the population can't tell the difference from the original source file. If you want a smaller output file than you can change the number after the "-b" in the Parameters box from 320 to a lower bit rate (256, 128, or 64 are standard common bit rates).

12) After you have entered all your settings click "OK" and then click "Close".

13) You should now be on the "Converter Setup Page". Select your output format which will now include your new custom MP3 preset.

14) Below the Output format selection box are options for Output path, overwrite options and file naming options. I like to name my tracks with "track #"-"Artist"-"track title" and if you do as well then you can copy the settings from the screen shot below, otherwise you can change this to whatever you wish.

15) Once you have selected all your options, just click "OK" and Foobar will start converting your FLAC files to MP3.

That's it!

Note:

- The above method will not transfer Album artwork from the FLAC file to the MP3 file, but all other ID3 tag information will be transferred.

- Once you have run through this process once, the next time you can just right click on a FLAC file in the playlist, select convert and choose "last used" and Foobar will use your last settings for file conversion.

Windows 7 vs. Vista

2009-10-15T00:29:00.000-07:00

Since I have two laptops of similar specs, I decided to run a very unscientific experiment and make a Windows 7 and Vista compare video of the boot up of both laptops booting up at the same time. I installed one laptop with Windows 7 and the other with Windows Vista.

Both laptops have similar, but not the same specs...Both laptops are HP dv2000 14.1" laptops with 3gigs of RAM. The main difference being the Vista laptop has a 1.83ghz Core 2 Duo and the Windows 7 laptop has a 1.83ghz Pentium Dual Core.

Though in the video the boot-up times appear to be a tie, having used both operating systems I still feel that Windows 7 still feels faster and runs smoother than Vista.

Just my 2 cents!

Canada Mobile Wireless Internet Plans for Rogers, Bell, Telus and Fido

2009-10-14T00:49:00.000-07:00

I thought I would put together some data comparing Bell, Telus, Rogers and Fido, the four largest cell carriers in Canada and the rates they charge for their mobile wireless internet using the new USB Internet sticks that are available through all these carriers.

After putting together all the data there isn't much difference between all four carriers when it comes to mobile wireless internet. So I am very much looking forward to seeing some new competition come in and hopefully drive some of these expensive data costs down.

Here are all four Canadian mobile wireless internet plans:

Telus Mobility

Fixed Data Rate Plans:

Monthly Fee	Included Data Usage	Cost per MB
$25.00	500 MB	$0.05
$30.00	1 GB	$0.03
$60.00	3 GB	$0.02

*Additional Data Rate: $0.05/MB

Flexible Data Rate Plans:

N/A - Telus does not offer flexible data rate plans

Bell Mobility

Fixed Data Rate Plans

N/A - Bell only offers flexible data rate plans

Flexible Data Rate Plans:

Monthly Fee	Included Data Usage	Cost per MB (max/min)
$30.00	Up to 500 MB	$0.06
$35.00	500 MB to 1 GB	$0.07/$0.03
$50.00	1 GB to 2 GB	$0.05/$0.02
$65.00	2 GB to 3 GB	$0.03/$0.02
$85.00	3 GB to 5 GB	$0.03/$0.02

Rogers Wireless

Fixed Data Rate Plans

Monthly Fee	Included Data Usage	Cost per MB
$30.00	500 MB	$0.06
$35.00	1 GB	$0.03
$65.00	3 GB	$0.02

*Additional Data Rate: $0.03/MB

Flexible Data Rate Plans:

Monthly Fee	Included Data Usage	Cost per MB (max/min)
$35.00	Up to 500 MB	$0.07
$40.00	500 MB to 1 GB	$0.08/$0.04
$55.00	1 GB to 2 GB	$0.05/$0.03
$70.00	2 GB to 3 GB	$0.03/$0.02
$90.00	3 GB to 5 GB	$0.03/$0.02

Fido

Fixed Data Rate Plans:

Monthly Fee	Included Data Usage	Cost per MB
$32.00	500 MB	$0.06
$37.00	1 GB	$0.04
$67.00	3 GB	$0.02

*Additional Data Rate: $0.03/MB

Flexible Data Rate Plans:

Monthly Fee	Included Data Usage	Cost per MB (max/min)
$37.00	Up to 500 MB	$0.07
$42.00	500 MB to 1 GB	$0.08/$0.04
$57.00	1 GB to 2 GB	$0.06/$0.03
$72.00	2 GB to 3 GB	$0.03/$0.02
$92.00	3 GB to 5 GB	$0.03/$0.02

Remove "On behalf of Gmail" from outgoing Gmail Email

2009-10-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

I use Google's Gmail as my central email account where I have all my email from various accounts sent to. This has worked great with just one minor problem. When you sent email from Gmail using another email account then Gmail added "sent on behalf of Gmail" to your outgoing email address. So the sender always knew you sent the email through a Gmail account.

Well there is now a solution, thanks to a recently added "send mail as" features to Gmail by Google.

Follow the steps below to eliminate the "on behalf of Gmail" from outgoing emails sent from your Gmail account...

1) On your gmail email page, click on the "Settings" link in the upper right hand corner of the Gmail inbox page.

2) Once in settings, click on the "Accounts and Import" tab.

3) Go to the "Send mail as" section and click on the "Send mail from another address" button.

4) A new window will pop up. Enter the name you wish to see on your outgoing emails and the email address that you wish to use for your "reply-to" address.

5) Click the "next step" button and a new window will open giving you a couple of options for how you want Gmail to have your mail sent out. To have your email appear as though they were sent from your preferred email address with out the "on behalf of Gmail" select the second option "Send through "*****.***" SMTP servers".

6) If you selected the second option then a few more boxes will appear. This is where you have to enter your emails outgoing server information, and the username and password of the email address that you wish to send mail as (not your gmail username and password). If needed you may have to select the "always use a secure connection (SSL) when sending mail, but this depends on your email provider.

7) Click "Add account" and a final dialog box will appear asking you to enter a verification code that was sent to your email. Simply log into your other email account and copy and paste the code from the verification email into the the "verify" box, click verify and your done.

Why is the Google doodle logo a bar code today?

2009-10-07T10:14:00.000-07:00

So why is the Google doodle logo a bar code today? Well according to the Bar Code 1 web page, the first patent filed for a bar code reading technology was filed 57 years ago today (October 7th) by Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver.

Apparently neither Woodland or Silver profited much from this brilliant invention as they sold the rights to Philco who than sold the rights to RCA many years before it's first commercial use.

Here is a link to a PDF of the bar code patent filed by Woodland and Silver from the Bar Code 1 website.

Sources:

The Christian Science Monitor - Horizons Blog Post: Google bar code logo - Latest in "doodle" line

Bar Code 1 Web Site - www.adams1.com

Wikipedia Entry - Norman Woodland

Request an Invitation to Google Wave

2009-10-02T23:13:00.000-07:00

Google is slowly opening up their new Google Wave to select Gmail users, but you don't have to wait for an invite from Google. With past Google beta programs I have found that if you request an invite, then Googlewill invite you to their beta programs very soon after you make the request.

So to request a Google Wave account, go to the Google Wave request an invitation page, enter your Gmail address and answer a few questions. Then just wait for Google to send you an invite, which should hopefully happen shortly.

Merge Multiple PowerPoint Presentations into one File

2009-09-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

Below are the steps that I use to merge multiple PowerPoint presentations into one single presentation. Their are a few different ways to accomplish this task, but the steps listed below are the ones that have worked well for me in the past.

Here are the steps...

1) First open up all the PowerPoint presentations that you want to merge into one show. After you have opened all your presentations you can either choose to create a new PowerPoint file or merge them into an existing file.

2) Open up any of your other presentations and select the "View" tab and select the "slide sorter" view.

3) Once in slide sorter, select the slides you wish to copy or press "Ctrl+A" to select all the slides.

4) Open the merged PowerPoint file.

5) Select where you want the new slides to go and press "Ctrl-V" to paste in the new slides. The copied slides will now be pasted into your new merged presentation, but if the slides have different templates or backgrounds you will notice that the newly pasted slides did not retain their original formatting. To maintain the pasted slides original formatting, select the small clipboard icon located in the bottom right hand corner of one of the newly pasted slides (see the screenshot below) and select the "maintain source formatting" radio button.

6) Repeat steps 2 to 5 until you have merged all your presentations into a single PowerPoint file. That's it!

How to Setup Dolby Digital 5.1 Sound in VLC

2009-09-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

Here's how to setup VLC media player for Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound output through your computer's coaxial or optical digital audio output:

1) Launch VLC and click on the "Tools" menu and select "Preferences".

2) Once on the "Preferences" page select the "Audio" tab on the left hand side of the page.

3) Place a check mark next to "Enable audio" and "Use S/PDIF when available". For the "Force detection of Dolby Surround" setting choose Auto and under the "Output" section, choose "Win32 waveOut extension output" as output type. The rest of the settings are optional.

4) Restart VLC and your done.

Add Speed Dial Button to Opera Toolbar

2009-09-23T01:12:00.000-07:00

One of the best features of Opera is the speed dial page. Unfortunately you can not set the speed dial page as your homepage, but you can set the speed dial to open when you start up the Opera browser or when you open a new tab. However, sometimes you may want to open the speed dial page from an existing tab without having to open a new one. You can easily accomplish this by adding a custom button to Opera's toolbar.

To add a custom speed dial to Opera's toolbar, do the following:

1.) Navigate your browser to the Drag'n'drop buttons for Opera webpage.

2.) Scroll down to the example section of the webpage where you will see two choices for a speed dial button. Either button will work, so the choice is yours.

3.) Click and drag one of the speed dial buttons to the Opera toolbar, click "ok" and you're done.

Sources:

Customizing Opera

Check Yahoo's Ymail Mail in Gmail by enabling POP3 for Free

2009-09-21T15:09:00.001-07:00

In a previous post I talked about how to access Microsofts Hotmail in Gmail. Today I would like to show you how to check your Yahoo Ymail email using Gmail. Notice how I said "ymail" and not "yahoo.com" email addresses, this is because this tip works for Yahoo's Ymail email accounts but not with their "yahoo.com"(or Yahoo's Rocketmail email service) email accounts.

When I tried it with a new "yahoo.com" and a new "rocketmail.com" address I could not get it to work. Even if I tried the "channge Yahoo's regional settings for free POP3 access" trick, it still would not work. Yahoo would not give me the necessary POP3 access unless I signed up for their premium mail service and paid the $20 annual fee.

The good news is that Yahoo seems to have enabled pop3 access by default for Ymail.com email addresses. So here is how to access your Yahoo Ymail.com email for free in Gmail.

1.) Log into your Gmail account

2.) Click on "Settings" located in the top right hand corner of your Gmail page.

3.) Click on "Accounts and Import" and then click on the "Add POP3 email" button located in the "Check mail using POP3 section.

4.) A new window will pop up, enter your Yahoo Ymail address and click "Next Step".

5.) In this window enter the following settings, replacing "yourusername" with your full Ymail email address and "youruserpassword" with your password:

   Username: yourusername@ymail.com
   Password: youruserpassword
   Pop Server: pop.mail.yahoo.com
   Port: 995

Check the box next to "Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail. All the other options are optional. After entering the above settings click the "Add Account" button.

6.) You will next be greeted by a screen asking you if you want to "send mail as" your new "ymail.com" email address. If you click "No" then you are all done and you can now retrieve your Yahoo Ymail email using Gmail. If you click yes, then scroll down to step 7.

7.) Enter any name you wish in the name field, and click "Next Step"

8.) You will now come up to a screen giving you two options. Choose the first option "send through Gmail (easier to set up) and click "Next Step"

9.) Finally you will see a verification screen asking you to verify that you own the Yahoo Ymail address. Click on the "Send Verification button, and Google will send a verification email to your Yahoo Ymail email address.

10.) Log in to your Yahoo Ymail email address and look for the verification email that Google just sent. Open it and click the link in the email or copy the number listed in the body of the email, and paste this number into the verification box in Gmail and click the "Verify" button.

That's it, you can now check your Yahoo Ymail email in Gmail for free.

Sources:

Sajeev Nair

Sync Bookmarks in Google Chrome

2009-09-17T23:09:00.000-07:00

For all you Google Chrome users, I saw this tip on the Google Operating System Blog, on how you can sync Google Chromes bookmarks. I tried this tip on two computers and the sync feature in Google Chrome worked perfectly. Please visit this blog post on the Google operating system blog for instructions.

Please note that this tip only works with the development version of Google Chrome. You can download the dev channel version of Google Chrome here.

Sources:

Google Operating System Blog

Legal Use of Software or Website Screenshots

2009-09-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

Since I have started writing this blog and publishing to the "public" internet, questions that I never really thought of before and took for granted have started to enter my mind. One of the questions I had was concerning the legal use of software screenshots in a blog or other public publication. I am not a lawyer and I do not really have the means to hire my own copyright lawyer so I headed off to Google to do some research into the use of screenshots.

Generally screenshots of software or websites are covered by copyright, however in the U.S. there is a rule called "Fair Use" which allows for the criticism, review, news reporting, teaching and research of a copyrighted work without getting permission from the copyright holder. Wikipedia has an excellent entry about "Fair Use", and there is also a mention of copyright issues in regards to screenshots on the Wikipedia entry for screenshots.

Now copyright law is full of shades of grey and one persons interpretation of a law could be completely different from another, so if you want to play it really safe, just ask the copyright owner for permission to use their screenshots. If you are using the screenshots as part of a "how to" tutorial then most of the time they would be thrilled for the free publicity, just be sure to be honest in how you will be using their screenshots.

If you do some searching on the internet then you may not necessarily have to go through the hassle of contacting the copyright owners for permission (especially larger software/internet companies). A lot of wise companies do not want to waste time on answering copyright requests and have posted guidelines for the acceptable use of screenshots on their websites. Below I have posted some summaries of Google's, Microsofts, Yahoo's and Abobe's screenshot policy.

Google Screenshot Policy:

Google takes a liberal common sense approach to use of their screenshots. Basically you can use them for illustrative or instructional purposes. From their website examples it appears that some minor alterations are acceptable (eg: you want to circle an area of a Google screenshot to highlight a feature). You can not use them in a way that implies that Google endorses yourself or your products. This is common sense. Their policy is fair for everyone and is another reason why I believe Google is a well run company.

Microsoft Screenshot Policy:

The guys from Redmond have a slightly more restrictive policy than Google. You are allowed to use their screenshots except if the use is obscene or pornographic and you can not use Microsoft screenshots for comparative advertising. This is fair enough, but as you drill down further into their screenshot policy you find some more restrictions. You are not allowed to use screenshots of beta software. You can not use portions of a screenshot (this seems to be a common policy - why not?), you must include an attribution statement, stating Microsoft gave you permission to use your screenshots and you can not use screenshots that contain an image of an identifiable person (that's a good policy I think). Their are other restrictions as well and you can click the link above to read Microsoft's full policy.

Yahoo Screenshot Policy:

In a nutshell is very restrictive. You can not use screenshots of Yahoo products without first filling out their permission request form, and asking for their permission. Boo on Yahoo.

Adobe's Screenshot Policy:

Adobe's policy is very similar to Microsofts (maybe they hired the same law firm). According to Adobe's guidelines you can't use portions of a screenshot (again - why not?) without Adobe's permission. You can not use screenshots that contain third party images. The obvious no pornographic or obscene use. You must attribute the image to Adobe, and you can not imply that Adobe sponsors you or supports you. Again their are others restrictions and you can click the link above for their full policy.

Now remember that corporate policy is not the same as legal law. Meaning that just because a company does not want you to do something does not mean that you can not legally do it.

I am definitely not a lawyer but I believe that most uses of screenshots on a blog that are used for instructional, illustrative or review purposes would fall under the "Fair Use" guidelines and requesting copyright permission is not required. This is just my laymen's interpretation. You should use your own judgement

Basically trust your gut and your morals. If your gut tells you are stealing someone else's work than save yourself the anxiety and don't publish it or ask the company for permission.

Hope this information was helpful.

How to remove old versions of Java

2009-09-11T22:44:00.000-07:00

I heard a great tip on the MikeTechShow podcast and his sister podcast Tech-Vets on how to easily and quickly remove old versions of Java from your Windows computer using a simple little program called JavaRa.

To remove old versions of Java you can follow the Sun Microsystems Java removal instructions but all they basically say is to go into the Windows Add/Remove programs and uninstall it that way, but if you have several old versions of Java this can be a real pain. There is an easier way....

1.) Go to the RaProducts webpage and download the JavaRa Application. Find the downloaded application and unzip it.

2.) Click on the JavaRa program file (no installation is required), and a window with a selection of tasks will appear. Click on the "Remove Older Versions" button. A warning window will pop up, click "Yes" if you are sure you want to remove older versions of Java.

3.) Another window will open asking you to close Internet Explorer (this will appear even if IE is not open), just click "OK".

4.) A window will appear telling you what Java files it found and deleted, again click "OK" and JavaRa will tell you it will be opening a log file, though I have never seen a log file open., but thats ok...it's seems to get rid of most of the old versions of Java.

On my system it left a couple of Java files in my program list which I believe are the main Java program and the latest update. This is fine with me, and it beats having six or seven old versions of Java hanging out on your system.

Move Google Calendar to new Google Account

2009-09-10T21:56:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks I have been setting up a new Google account to be used as my central hub for everything Google in my life. My old Google account was fine, it's just that I wanted a more professional user name and a username that more reflected my website. So I opened a new Google account and started investigating ways to transfer my contacts, my Picasa Web Albums and Google calendar over to the new account.

A few days ago I wrote a tutorial on how to transfer a Picasa Web Album account to a new Google account, and today I am going to show you how to move a calendar over to a new Google account.

Here is how to move a Google Calendar from one account to another:

1.) Sign into your old Google Calendar using your old Google account

2.) Click on the "Settings" tab.

3.) Under the "Settings" tab select the "Calendars" tab.

4.) Choose the calendar you wish to share, and select the "Share this calendar" link under the "Sharing" heading.

5.) Move down to the "Share with specific people" section and enter the email address of your new Google account. Under the "Permission settings" select "Make changes AND manage sharing" if you want your new Google account to have full administration privilages for this calendar, otherwise choose one of the more restrictive choices. Click "Save" to save your changes.

6.) Logout of your old Google account and login to your new Google account.

7.) If you wish to keep administration access for the calendar with the old account then you are done. Just go to the calendar section of your new Google account and the calendar will have automatically loaded in. If you wish to delete the old Google account from this calendar then you will have to go into your calendar settings in your new Google account, select the Calendars tab and then select the "Shared: Edit Settings" for the new calendar that you just transfered from the old account.

8.) Move down to the "Share with specific people" section and click on the trash can next to your old Google account. That's it, you have now fully transfered your Google calendar to your new Google account.