Geeky Tips and Tricks: 2008

20080912

Google Chrome: Incognito Setting

Browsing Privately using Google Chrome

Since Google released the new-kid-on-the-block browser, namely Google Chrome, I have been using it quite often together with my primary browser. Since writing a review about it would require certain amount of time, I would review some features that will be helpful to you. Incognito is absolutely one of them.

If you are familiar with Private Browsing feature in Safari or the new InPrivate Browsing in IE8, the feature of Incognito in Chrome would be more or less the same.

When you open a window in incognito mode (Ctrl+Shift+N), your cookies from the standard session are no longer available and you can easily log in to a new Google account. The Google Operating System has a little bit of description about this feature:

"Webpages that you open and files downloaded while you are incognito won't be logged in your browsing and download histories; all new cookies are deleted after you close the incognito window. You can browse normally and in incognito mode at the same time by using separate windows."

To open this in Google Chrome:

Look at a button next to the address bar that when you hover it you will see "Control the Current page"
Choose New Incognito Window
The Incognito Window will appear

Tips: Keyboard shortcut is Shift+Ctrl+N

Hope this helps.

20080905

Software: Picasa Creates Collages

Create Collages with Picasa

If you like to document loads of pictures and enjoy editing them, making collages (a combination of photos) using Picasa, which is a free software from Google, would be really fun.

These are examples of what I did recently using Picasa (pardon me if you hate Chelsea FC, but I am a big fan of them ;p).

To start off, you need to download Picasa if you have not installed it in your computer.

You can watch this one-minute video to get the idea of how to do this.

The simple step you need to do:

Select the pictures you wish to collage (Tips: use Ctrl+click if the pictures are not well-organised in your folder)
Go to Create -- Picture Collage
You can then change the type, and edit it as you ike.
Save it once you are done.

Tips: to change the order of the photos, you can click o on the preview window. If you want to change the layout of the picture, shift+click on the preview window.

Hope this helps.

20080902

Disable Enable Google Suggest

How to Enable/Disable Google Suggest

Though I would think Google Suggest is a great tool a Google user would love to use, I understand not all users would need this feature. Therefore this article is a quick tutorials on how to enable/disable Google Suggest.

To do this, follow these simple steps:

On the Google.com page, click Preference
Scroll down, at end of the options, you should find an option to enable/disable Google Suggest. Tick this option as you like (to disable to enable)

This is what it should look like.

Hope this helps.

Google: Suggestions in Search

Enhance your Searching with Google Suggest

If you have read my post on CustumizeGoogle a few months ago, you will have notice that the addition of Google suggest when you are searching would be of great help, especially if you use Google.com more that any other website in a day.

Just at the end of last month, Google had 'graduated' Google Suggest from its Lab so that now Google users would be able to apply this feature. As you write you search terms, the Google Suggest would give you relevant suggestions that you may find useful.

Here is one shot I took to give you a better idea of what I am talking about.

According to the Google blog, this feature would help in reducing spelling errors, save keystrokes and help in formulating queries.

Personally, this feature help me when I am looking for a terms which I am not sure how to spell. Just a week ago, I was looking for some video of Germany and Bayer Munich player, Bastian Sch%^Personally, this feature help me when I am looking for a terms which I am not sure how to spell. Just a week ago, I was looking for some video of Germany and Bayer Munich player, Bastian Sch%^$&*#(%, and this Google suggest really helped me to find it easier and faster. By the way, now I can spell the name correctly, thanks to Google Suggest too. The player is one of my favorite, Bastian Schweinsteiger.
amp;*#(%, and this Google suggest really helped me to find it easier and faster. By the way, now I can spell the name correctly, thanks to Google Suggest too. The player is one of my favorite, Bastian Schweinsteiger.

If you are wondering how to disable this feature, you can read my other post about disabling Google Suggest.

Hope this helps.

20080819

Software: Kallout Easier Searching

Kallout: Make Searching Much Easier and Better

Kallout, a Windows application, is a great way to enhance your searching experience in the internet. You and most of people would go to search engines and type the phrase you look for in a search box. However, have you ever thought a way to search for a phrase you accidentally found on a page, without having to open a new Google or Yahoo page? Kallout is the answer.

If you highlight any text in many programs (including Firefox, Adobe Acrobat, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office and Notepad) there will be an icon that will show up on the top right of the highlighted text

. When you hover your mouse over that icon, it gives you a menu to look up the selected text in many popular services like Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, eBay and many more.

Watch this video to understand better.

Tips: The page will float on top of the page you are reading, so you don'thave to direct to a new, different page.

To download this useful software, you can click here.

Some screenshots..

Hope this helps.

20080812

Vista: Resizing Desktop Icons

Resizing Desktop Icons with your Mouse Wheel

In my previous post, I have discussed about the use of mouse wheel in resizing fonts when you are surfing the internet. Apparently, as discussed in the Digital Information, the power of mouse wheel doesn't stop there. You can actually now resize your desktop icons.

This video will tell you even more.

So, to do this is simple.

Ctrl + Right/Left Click + Scroll your mouse wheel.

Tips (or Warning rather): XP users, I am sorry that this feature only works on Vista. When I tried using my roomie's laptop (XP), this doesn't work.

Some screen shots..

Hope this helps.

20080809

Speed Up Windows Vista

How to Speed Up your Vista? Here is What Microsoft Suggests

Many people have written or asked me questions about problems that Vista has, especially in terms of speed. Slow computer system is indeed what computer users find really annoying. However, this is what I found when I was surfing to kill my free time last week: WINDOWS VISTA PERFORMANCE AND TUNING.

This is a final advice Microsoft has to help Vista users understand better some ways to speed up the performance of Windows Vista. This 14-page pdf document, will highlight some important issues like:

Power Settings on Mobile Computers
Disable Visual Effects
Adjust Search Settings
Windows ReadyBoost
Sleep Option
Disable Unwanted Startup Programs
Disable Background Programs or Services
Remove Unused Programs
Disable Unwanted Services
Improving Performance on User Account Control
Clean Things up with Disk Cleanup
Schedule Disk Cleanup
Defragment Your Disk
Windows Vista Experience Index
Performance with Task Manager
etc..

To download this pdf, here is the link.

Windows Vista Performnce and Tuning

Here are some shots..

I have not finished reading and experimenting all the tips though (my apology, I am a busy undergraduate ;p). However, i can assure you these tips are absolutely useful! I see some improvements since I applied some of the advice.

Hope this helps.

20080806

Google News: Find Quotation

Find Quotations in Google News

I like how Google put it in a review of Google News: Words Matter. As part of Google's mission to organize the world's information, Google provides quotations in news articles easy to search and browse in the Google News. It is now very easy for you to keep track of what your favorite politician, actor or sports star is saying.

This is a video to kick start.

This is the simple step-by-step method:

Open your Google News
Type the person's name whose speech or quotations you are looking for
You will see a quote from the person above the search result. Clicking on the name will bring you to more quotations from the person

Tips: you can even search within their quotes for specific topics.

Hope this helps.

20080802

Word 2007: Colored Background

How to Set Colored Background in MS Word 2007

Bored of the plain white background in MS Word? Using MS Word 2007, you can set the background to be colored with your own favorite color.

To show you a little bit of preview, you can watch this video.

So, if you already have MS Word in your computer, these are the simple steps you need to follow:

Go to Page Layout
Then Page Color (refer to image below)
Then choose the color (tips: try to hover your cursor to see the preview of the background)

Hope this helps.

20080801

Firefox: Definition Addon Answer.com

Find a Definition using Firefox AddOn: Answer.com

Are you still using conventional way of finding a definition of a word by flipping your thick dictionary? Or, do you still go to an online dictionary to find it? With this add on, you don't have to take you dictionary out of you shelf or open new tab to go to the online dictionary.

1-Click Answers TM will save you even more time with AnswerTips that instantly deliver the information you are looking for. Just point at any word, hold the Alt key (Ctrl in Linux) and a click. Upon letting go, an AnswerTip in the form of a pop-up.

These are the steps to get this great add on:

To download it, you can click here (tips: or, from you Firefox, go to Tools -- Add-ons -- Get Extensions on the bottom right -- then search for "Answers").
Once downloaded, open Tools -- Add-on, look for the Answers and click Options to customize it.
To use this add-on, bring your cursor to the word you want to find the definition, then press Alt together with a right click (if you choose to right click in you options).

This add-on, to me, is a must-have feature in Firefox. There are others alternative for this (Wikilook is one to name), yet I found this as my favorite to date.

Hope this helps.

20080730

Safari Apple: Private Browsing

Have your Online Activities Private with Safari

Having Safari as your browser is a wise choice if you want your online activities to be private as Safari offers a great feature: Private Browsing.

What on earth is Private Browsing?

Well, you might be one of those who always want your cookies, temporary files or history in your computer to be deleted regularly to save some space in your hard disk. The normal way to do is by using Privacy Reset to empty your cache and clear Safari of your browsing, forms, and search history.

However with Private Browsing turned on, you are asking Safari not to store:

Your Google searches
Your cookies
The history of sites you’ve visited
Your download history
Information from online forms you’ve filled out.

So, in other words, you can really have you online activities PRIVATE.

So to turn this feature on,

Go to Edit
Click Private Browsing
A new Conformation Window will pop up, to confirm click OK.

To me, each browser has its own better features than others. Though I am using Firefox as my primary browser, I'd never been disappointed with Safari. This feature is just great thing from Safari.

Tips:f you’ve been browsing without private browsing turned on, just use Privacy Reset to empty your cache and clear Safari of your browsing, forms, and search history.

Hope this helps.

Software: Texter Text Substitution

How to Use Texter: Text Subtsitution

Do you use email (with signature) a lot? Do you write repetitive words again and again? Or, are you a student (just like me!) who needs to write projects with a lot of repetitions of texts? If your answers are ‘yes, yes, yes’ then this article is absolutely beneficial for you!

Before I go on telling you about Texter, I would like to thank Adam Pash (Senior Editor of Lifehacker) who first wrote a review about this great software. I will put a link to his original article at the end of this article for your further reference. So if you find this article useful, go give a tap on his back and say thanks to him! I am a great fan of Lifehacker by the way.

Well, back to the topic. This text substitution software will definitely save you lots of time as it will replace your repeated words with your own ‘hotstrings’. Let’s say, for instance, I write emails to my friends and my family and at the end of my emails, I always write my signature. With this software, now I can easily create my own hotstrings to replace the long-and-tiring-to-write-again-and-again signature with simple hotstrings.

To give you a better understanding, here is my own video to describe it. Adam Pash has his own video too.

So, how to use this great application?

To download you can click here (this will bring you to Adam’s Pash page)
Open your Texter, choose Text. To create a hotstring, click the + button on the bottom left.
A new window will appear, type your hotstring, and the replacement words.
Do not forget to save it. Done!

As someone who use repetitive words quite often, this software is a great tool for me really.

Hope this helps.

20080729

Internet: Find IP Address

3 Simple Ways Finding your IP Address

In case you are wondering what IP address is, the following are the definitions by Microsoft and Wikipedia respectively:

Short for Internet Protocol address. An IP address identifies a computer that is connected to the Internet or a network. An IP address usually consists of four groups of numbers separated by periods, such as 192.200.44.69.

An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical identification (logocal address) that is assigned to devices participating in a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol for communication between its nodes. The role of the IP address has been characterized as follows: "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how to get there."

Have you ever wondering what your IP address is? IP address is getting more and more important in the Internet nowadays. For instance, your IP address is what Google will see if you try to click you Adsense ads by yourself, and it is what Google use to get you banned!

So, to find your IP address, here are 3 simple ways to do just that.

Control Panel

As I am using Vista, the first method is based on Vista system (Xp users read second method). Here are the steps:

Go to Control Panel, Open Network and Sharing Center.
Under Connection, click View status.
Click Details. Your computer's IP address appears in the Value column, next to "IPV4 IP Address."

Using Command: IPconfig

This method can be used for both vista and xp. However the images you will see are based on Vista as I captured the pictures when I am running Vista.

So, this is the how-to.

First, open Run from your Start Menu. (tips: you can search it first using search box, this is why vista is powerful in searching files inside you computer).
Type cmd.
A black window will appear. Relax, you are not messing up your computer, what you need to do is to type: ipconfig.
You will see you ip adress under ipv4 (for vista).

Google Desktop

If you have installed Google Desktop from Google, then I believe this is the easiest way to find your IP address. This is so as there are one or two gadgets that once added to your sidebar, will immediately show the IP address of you computer. Fast isn't it?

If you do not have Google Desktop, you can download it here.
Open you sidebar if you dont start it at the start up.
Add gadget to you sidebar by clicking the + button on top of your sidebar or by clicking the gadgets tab on your task bar, then click Add gadgets. Then a new window listing variety of gadgets will be displayed.
Then search for IP address, and you will see this window. Click the one you want to add to your sidebar.
Once added, you will see the gadgets on your sidebar. The image below is what I have when I choose the first gadget.

Hope this helps.

20080726

Google Trends: Compare Searches

Analyze Google Searches using Google Trends

Google Trends is Lab product of Google that analyze a part of Google web searches to compare and compute how often certain searches have been done for the terms you enter.

The appearance of Google Trends, in general, include Search Volume Index graph, News volume graph, and displays of tops regions, cities and languages in which people searched for the first term you entered.

The Search Volume Index Graph is a display that shows you how often searches have been done, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time.

Below the Search Volume Graph, you will find the News Reference Graph. This graph will show you how often the topic appear in the Google News story. When a spike is detected on the graph, it labels the graph and display the headlines of an automatically selected Google News story written near the time of that spike.

Below the Search and News Graph, the Google Trends displays the tops regions, cities and languages.

Some tips using Google Trends:

Google Trends allows you to compare either search words or website.
Google Trends will let you compare up to FIVE terms, each term separated by a comma. For instance, if you want to compare words like vista, xp, windows and millennium, type this: vista, xp, windows, millennium
To limit your search, you can apply the general searching tips (When you use any of these tips (quotation mark, minus signs or vertical bars) Trends will only display the Search Volume Index Graph):

To restrict the result, use QUOTES around the term you are searching for. For example: "Barrack Obama" (if you do not put the quotes, by default, Google will look for any words of barrack and obama in any order).
To exclude certain words, you can use minus (-) sign. For example, If I am looking for Chelsea (the English football club), and I do not want to see any result about Chelsea Clinton (yes, the daughter of Bill), I will type: "chelsea" -clinton.
To see how many searches contain either terms, list them and separate with a vertical bar (|). For example: AVG|Avast.

Sometimes you notice that you see ZERO results for one of you search terms, this is so because the terms doesn't have sufficient search volume to be displayed. Or, it is also possible that the terms is negligible compared to the others.
The cool thing about this is that you can export the data for you own purpose. It can be exported to a .csv file, which can be opened in most spreadsheet applications.

For more details you can look at Google Help website.

Hope this helps.

20080725

Real Player: Download Video

Download a Video using Real Player 11

Now, we are going to show you another powerful way of downloading almost all type of videos in the Web. Not by using Keepvid, Downloadhelper or Safari browser. It is by using Real Player 11.

From RealNetworks:

RealPlayer 11 gives you the ability to download videos from thousands of Web sites with just one click.

Here are the brief steps:

Open your Real Player 11. Download it here if you haven't done so.
Go the the Menu bar, and select Tools -- Preference. a
Under Download and Recording tab in the left, check the Enable Web Downloading and Recording and set the folder where the downloaded videos are saved. a
When you open a page where a video is playing, you will see the small rectangle for you to click for downloading. a
Then the RealPlayer Download and Recording Manger will appear. a

Out of those I have reviewed regarding ways of downloading a video, this method is my favorite as downloading now is a matter of a click. Simple, yet powerful.

Hope this helps.

20080724

Google: General Search Tips

8 General Searching Tips using Google for Better Results

You might be using Google.com as a search tool everyday, just like me. To give the best result in terms of accuracy and relevance, you might be surprised that Google can do much more than just a simple search.

In this article, I will share what Google have in their site: the 8 general searching tips for Google.com.

1. Exact Phrase (using QUOTE, " ")

If you are looking to find an exact words, rather that a collection of words that might not be relevant to you search, put quotes around your search query. Here, if I want only to look for Chelsea Football Club (yes, that Premier League club), not any CLUB (your animals lovers club?) or any FOOTBALL (your kicking ball?) or any CHELSEA (your friend?), I would write it in this manner: "Chelsea football club".

2. Synonyms (~). Stemming (+). Excluding (-)

You can look for wider range of words by include (~) to indicate you are looking for the synonyms of the word too. For example, ~seminar would include words like training and workshop. By stemming (+), you are telling google that the word is a must-have word(s). Writing +"marketing skills" simply means you want to see the phrase in your search result.
The symbol (-) means to exclude certain words you don't want. Here, as you are looking for a seminar, you prefer not to see any book about marketing skills.

3. Site:

This will search only pages which reside on this domain. This is a very specific way of searching and it really helps to give you a better result. Lets say, you know that you are looking for a music video of Good Charlotte, called The River in Youtube.com. Rather than going to Youtube.com, and then type Good Charlotte The River, you can open Google.com (which hopefully is you homepage) and type 'good charlotte the river site:youtube.com'. Smart way of doing it, isn't it?

Important: note that there is NO space after the colon.

4. Related:

This will show all pages or websites that Google finds to be related to the URL you type in the search box.

5. Link:

This will display a list of all pages which Google has found to be linking to your site.

6. Spell:

It will run a spell check on the word(s) you type.

7. Define:

It will display definitions for words, phrases, and acronyms from the Web.

8. Weather:

It shows the weather in a particular city you specify. Here, I type: 'weather:Singapore' to ask Google to show the weather in Singapore.

Look for the Advanced Searching Tips for Google in my next post. Meanwhile, you can read our article on How to Customize your Google page.

Hope this helps.