How to fit 300 DVDs on one disc

A new optical recording method could pave the way for data discs with 300 times the storage capacity of standard DVDs, Nature journal reports.

The different colours and polarisations of light access different images

The researchers say this could see a whopping 1.6 terabytes of information fit on a DVD-sized disc.

They describe their method as "five-dimensional" optical recording and say it could be commercialised.

The technique employs nanometre-scale particles of gold as a recording medium.

Researchers at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia have exploited the particular properties of these gold "nano-rods" by manipulating the light pointed at them.

The team members described what they did as adding three "dimensions" to the two spatial dimensions that DVD and CD discs already have.

They say they were able to introduce a spectral - or colour - dimension and a polarisation dimension, as well as recording information in 10 layers of the nano-rod films, adding a third spatial dimension.

The scientists used the nanoparticles to record information in a range of different colour wavelengths on the same physical disc location. This is a major improvement over traditional DVDs, which are recorded in a single colour wavelength with a laser.

Also, the amount of incoming laser light absorbed by the nanoparticles depends on its polarisation. This allowed the researchers to record different layers of information at different angles.

The researchers thus refer to the approach as 5-D recording. Previous research has demonstrated recording techniques based on colour or polarisation, but this is the first work that shows the integration of both.

As a result, the scientists say they have achieved unprecedented data density.

Their approach used 10-layer stacks composed of thin glass plates as the recording medium. If scaled up to a DVD-sized disk, the team would be able to record 1.6 terabytes - that is, 1,600 gigabytes - or over 300 times the quantity stored on a standard DVD.

Significant improvements could be made by thinning the spacer layers and using more than two polarisation angles - pushing the limits to 10 terabytes per disc and beyond, the researchers say.

Bit by bit

Recent efforts based on holography have shown that up to 500 Gb could potentially be stored on standard DVD-sized disks.

Holographic methods take all of the information to be recorded and encode it in the form of a graph showing how often certain frequencies arise in it.

That means that the recording process is a complex, all-at-once, all-or-nothing approach that would be difficult to implement on an industrial scale.

By contrast, 5-D recording is "bit-by-bit", like current CD and DVD writing processes in that each piece of information is read sequentially.

That is likely to mean that recording and read speeds would be comparatively slow, but the approach would be easier to integrate with existing technology.

"The optical system to record and read 5-D is very similar to the current DVD system," says James Chon, a co-author on the research.

"Therefore, industrial scale production of the compact system is possible."

DVD surfaces now are "2-D": just the position on the disc matters

Now that the method has been demonstrated in custom-made multi-layer stacks, the team is working in conjunction with Samsung to develop a drive that can record and read onto a DVD-sized disc.

Dr Chon says that the material cost of a disc would be less than $0.05 (£0.03), but there are a number of advantages in moving to silver nano-rods that would bring that cost down by a factor of 100.

For optical data storage expert Tom Milster, at the University of Arizona, the beauty of the approach is in its simplicity.

"It's not just elegant - there are a lot of experiments that are elegant - it's relatively straightforward," he told BBC News.

For the moment, Dr Milster says, the equipment needed to write the data would make a commercial system expensive. However, that has not stopped the development of optical storage solutions in the past.

"For example, a Blu-ray player is not an easy system to realise; they've got some wonderful optics in there," Dr Milster said. "People thought that would be pretty difficult to do, but others managed to do it."

Source:BBC News

Tips for Buying a Used Computer

A used computer purchase can be a great one for getting a solid machine while saving some money along the way. Depending on what's found on the used computer market, the resulting machine can be perfect for doing reports, running a small business and even just for kicking back and enjoying video games. But, before you plunk your money down on a rig, it's a good idea to understand computer hardware before buying. And, if you intend to buy a used piece of equipment to fix your machine, it's even more important to weigh the purchase carefully.

There are a number of considerations, but exactly what's needed will depend a whole lot on what you intend to do with the machine. Here are some tips for getting a good machine that has decent used computer hardware:

* Hard drive.
The hard drive is one of the most important pieces of used computer hardware. This acts as basically a filing cabinet for the entire machine, providing storage for programs, documents, pictures and other similar files. Gamers, for example, will need to make sure this piece of used computer hardware is large enough to handle their programs, but someone who only intends to use the computer for reports might not need a machine with a huge storage capacity.

* Processor.
This piece of hardware is basically the brains behind the operation. The processor speed will be a key factor in how fast a computer runs and what it can handle. The higher the speed: generally the better.

* RAM.
This bit is the computer's random access memory. The higher the number, the quicker a computer can access its files and programs. A good piece of computer hardware will offer RAM that's at least in the 500s or better.

* Video card.
While not everyone who buys a used machine will care about the video card, gamers in particular will want this piece of hardware to be of decent quality. Video cards should also have their own onboard RAM.

In addition to the previous, there are some other things shoppers should be concerned about as they look at used computer hardware. They include:

* Ability to upgrade.
Make sure the machine you buy has an ability to upgrade.

* Warranties.
While not all used computer hardware will come this option, if you can even get a limited one, you're in fairly good shape.

* A chance to check out the machine first.
Before buying a used computer or even used computer parts, see if you can check them out before paying. This might not always be possible, but when it is, it can save you from a bad purchase.

Buying used computer hardware doesn't have to be a gamble if you take your time, make sure you get what you need and look for locations that offer at the least very limited warranties. Some shops that sell used computer hardware will give you at least a 30-day warranty to cover your purchase. If you can get this on a used computer hardware purchase, you've likely found a decent buy.

Source:grownups.co.nz

Computer Viruses and Malicious Code

These days with the proliferation of computers and computer technology it is inevitable that when things go wrong they do so on a larger scale. People can sit at home and write programs that insidiously invade computer systems both public and private. The consequences of these attacks can range from benign to extremely severe and the consequences can be extreme depending upon the system attacked.

The computer simply executes instructions given to it. As such it is an extremely useful tool for the criminally inclined. When passwords and security mechanisms that are put in place to protect a system are breached, access is gained and a host system can be altered, its contents modified or infected with a latent virus or malicious code that will execute at a later date. This means that a system can be compromised, and although seeming to run smoothly will cause havoc when least suspected.

A computer virus is a program for the computer that is destructive, or designed to gather un-authorized information, or somehow impair the computers integrity. Viruses are malicious in nature and intent. A Computer virus is a piece of code that can duplicate itself and spread via Floppy Disks, Networks and of course the Internet to many computers. Some can format your hard drive, erase your computers BIOS and cause programs to crash. A virus can copy itself or reproduce itself and infect another computer system without permission or knowledge of the user. A virus can only spread from one computer to another when its host is taken to the uninfected computer, for instance by a user sending it over a network or carrying it on a removable medium such as a floppy disk, CD, or USB drive or via an attachment in Email.

So what is the best advice to avoid viruses?

1. Don't open an email from an unknown sender
2. Don't click on hotlinks on websites unless it is from a trusted site
3. Don't open email attachments
4. Don't inset software into your computer without first scanning for viruses and malware
5. Don't allow Active X controls to be installed on your system
6. Use caution when visiting questionable sites
7. Avoid clicking on a box just because it is blinking or flashing

If you know you have a virus or malware, the only sure way to be sure it is gone is to reformat your computer.

You should also make use of precautionary software like "Ad-Aware", "Spybot Search and Destroy".

Make sure you have a good anti-virus program installed on your system and update it regularly. Some recommendations include:

Xoftspyse
AVG Antivirus (they have a free version),
NOD 32 Antivirus
Bit Defender

Remember computer health and integrity is everyone's responsibility. Keep you computer free from viruses, spyware and other malicious software. These helps maintain the integrity and privacy of all systems.

Source:grownups.co.nz

Increase Your Computer Security

For many years passwords have been a basic part of computer security. They are one fundamental means of attempting to authenticate or verify that a particular user is who they say they are. They are also a way to limit access to a system. In theory only those with the right username and password (or other defined criteria) gain access. In practice that is not always the case because anyone with the right knowledge, software and time can compromise such basic security and gain access to a particular system. The same is true regardless if it is one computer or an entire room of specialized equipment. Properly motivated, anything can be compromised.

The good news is that you can take steps to reduce the chance of this happening to you. First, make sure your passwords are long enough. Typically, this means longer passwords of at least eight to ten alphanumeric (containing a combination of letters and numbers). Of course the longer something is, the harder it is to remember and correctly type in.

Additionally, many sites are making use of "captcha". Captcha is a challenge-response test that is generated and checked by a computer. The idea here is that another computer cannot read the captcha. Therefore it is assumed that anything entering the correct response must be human. The term captcha is an acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart". Without such measures, computers can more easily access other computers through automated means. This would further mean computer could be more easily used against computer to breach security.

Despite their long history, passwords are a good first line defence against unauthorized access of a system. In addition to choosing longer alphanumeric passwords, grouping together unusual combinations of letters and numbers also helps. One suggestion might be to devise a password using the first letter of a group of words. This way, by recalling the sentence, the password can be more easily remembered. However, never make the combination of letter and numbers predictable. A weak password may be easy for you to remember, but it also means that it is easy to crack.

A better solution is to make use of a password keeper on your computer. A good open source, free option is a program called "Password Safe" by Source Forge. If you Google "Password Safe", you will find this program. An even better option, because it not only stores passwords in an encrypted file on your computer but it also fills in the password and user information for you with a single click, is "Roboform". Any website you visit will have the required information filled in for you with this program.

Computer security can get quite involved, but at its most basic level, the username and password can be more easily managed than you might at first imagine. As has been said, developing good strong alphanumeric passwords is the first step. The second is maintaining a secure means to manage and maintain these password combinations is the next critical component in a basic secure system. If you need help generating passwords, you can also Google "Password Generator" and you will come up with tools for this. All of this is important if you want to keep your computer as secure as possible and prevent unauthorized access to your valuable information.

Source:grownups.co.nz

Gaming on the Internet

Internet games use the cyber world technology for playing. Games are extremely popular and constantly evolving.

There are:

• Games played using e-mail.

• Games played on a browser window by using a web address.

• Games played using Internet Relay Chat, Telenet, MUD client, or a Web based forum.

• Games that are graphic need stand-alone software that permits players to play with or against one another using an Internet connection.

The first game, MUD, was developed in 1978, and the market has burgeoned since then.

To play, one needs:

• A reliable Internet connection.

• A personal computer or game console.

• Selected software required by specific games.

One can play simple board games like scrabble, or bingo, or games like poker, mah-jong, and pool. Another popular category is simulation games-these imitate real-life situations and cover aspects like combat, city planning, strategies, as well as flight simulation.

For serious gaming the computer performance must be optimized. This can be done by:

• Running the disk defragmenter and organizing the computer files. This should ideally be done once a month at least.

• Correct folder and file errors by using scandisk---use once a week and the computer will give trouble free performance.

• Clean your hard drives-get rid of Internet files, temporary files, as well as files in the trash/recycle bin. Clear the cache and uninstall programs that are not in everyday use.

• Update the operating system software. Download any new security patches. Keep video drivers updated.

• Clear space on the hard drive---store files on a backup system.

• Clear any spyware you have inherited from websites.

• Minimize number of programs running-when playing a graphic intensive game if there are too many programs running simultaneously the graphics will become choppy and game will be slow.

• Delete add on game files-wall papers and other paraphernalia will just clutter the computer.

• Run an anti-virus program regularly but disable it when you are loading/playing games. Antivirus programs slow down games.

• Always shut down the computer properly.

The Internet allows gamers to compete with people across oceans, on the other side of the world and anywhere in the universe. Some use PCs while others use consoles. What you use is a personal choice and depends on issues like costs and so on.

Before you buy a game you must:

• Consider "system requirements" - some games can run on systems that are not exact others need specific hardware.

• Find out if the game is single player or multi-player. Many games need the Internet-and, the broadband connection is more efficient than the dial-up connection. Many like Xbox Live only work on a broadband connection.

• Find out if the game can be played using a mouse/keyboard or whether it will need a full-featured joy stick.

Be wise and try a demo before making an actual purchase. Playing a demo benefits the player as well as game developer. Many online games offer free trial periods - beta testing is a great opportunity to find out if the game suits your taste as well as pockets.

Do your research thoroughly-usually there are several games competing for players within a genre. Read game reviews before taking the final step.

Source:grownups.co.nz

How to Speed Up a Slow Computer (XP)

With faster machines cropping up almost daily, the life span of a midrange PC is a little more than two years of service. Physically, the computer you bought a few years ago is just as sound as any new piece of hardware. Ideally, it could probably last you a decade or two--as long as you didn't add any new software or surf the Net. Realistically, that's not likely to be the case. Instead of buying a new computer, optimize your present one. The following are 11 things that Chip Manufacturers and PC Retailers don't want you to know or how to perform. Following these advices will drastically increase your PC performance and help you regain your sanity while saving loads of money. And, if your PC is years old and can't afford to upgrade yet, you will be able to squeeze out some more juice out of the old thing!

1. Disable file indexing.

This is a tiny service that uses a great deal of RAM and induces much disk thrashing. Your system instantly becomes more responsive. Here's how: First, double-click the My Computer icon. Then, right-click on the C: Drive, then hit Properties. Uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching." Next, apply changes to "C: subfolders and files," and click OK.

2. Zap the Windows Pre-fetch folder every week.

Windows XP can "pre-fetch" portions of data and applications that are frequently loaded. This allows processes appear to start faster when requested the user. Over time, the pre-fetch folder overwhelms with references to files and applications no longer in use. Guess what happens? Windows XP wastes time and grinds to a halt by pre-loading obsolete data. It helps you gain some performance on your XP Professional to periodically empty the pre-fetch folder.
The pre-fetch folder resides on your local hard disk, under the Windows folder.

%systemroot%\prefetch
-or-
X:\windows\prefetch

Where X is the drive letter where you have Windows installed. Either path will get you to your local system. The second path is for those who have the default installation on the most commonly used drive letter, C:\

3. Optimise Display Settings.

Windows XP can look sexy but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources. Kill unnecessary animations, and nix active desktop. Here's how to do it:

1. Go to Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Click System
5. Click Advanced tab
6. In the Performance tab click Settings
7. Leave only the following ticked:
   - Show shadows under menus
   - Show shadows under mouse pointer
   - Show translucent selection rectangle
   - Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
   - Use visual styles on windows and buttons
   

Feel free to play around with the options offered here, as nothing you can change will alter the stability of the computer - only its responsiveness.

4. Remove the Desktop Picture

Your desktop background consumes a fair amount of memory and can slow the loading time of your system. Removing it will improve performance.

1. Right click on Desktop and select Properties
2. Select the Desktop tab
3. In the Background window select ‘None’
4. Click Ok

5. Remove Fonts for Speed

Zap extra fonts installed on their computer. Fonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. The more fonts they have, the more lethargic the system will become. Anything over 300 fonts tax the system and slow down load times- especially graphic apps. For optimal performance, trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require.

1. Open Control Panel
2. Open Fonts folder
3. Move fonts you don't need to a temporary directory (e.g. C:\FONTBKUP?) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will gain.
   

6. Speedup Folder Browsing

You may have noticed that every time you open my computer to browse folders that there is a slight delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers every time you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing significantly:

1. Open My Computer
2. Click on Tools menu
3. Click on Folder Options
4. Click on the View tab.
5. Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box
6. Click Apply
7. Click Ok
8. Reboot your computer
   

To prevent a single Windows Explorer window tanking up takes the rest of your OS down, you can launch separate folder windows in multi processes. Open My Computer, hit on Tools, then Folder Options. Click on the View tab. Scroll down to "Launch folder windows in a separate process," and enable this option.

7. Disable Performance Counters

Windows XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC's performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good idea. To disable:

1. Download and install the Extensible Performance Counter List
2. Then select each counter in turn in the 'Extensible performance counters' window and clear the 'performance counters enabled' checkbox at the bottom button below
   

8. Optimise Your Page-file

Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.

1. Right click on My Computer and select Properties
2. Select the Advanced tab
3. Under Performance choose the Settings button
4. Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
5. Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.
   

9. Improve Memory Usage

PC Washer improves the performance of your computer by optimizing the disk cache, memory and a number of other settings.

Once Installed:

1. Click the 'Tools' from the left menu
2. Select 'Memory Booster' in the tools list. A new window named 'PC Turbo
   Memory' will popup.
3. Click Defragment button in the new window.
4. Exit the program. That's all.
   

10. Disable unnecessary services

Windows XP loads services you will never need. To determine which services you can disable for your client, visit the Black Viper site for ideal Windows XP configurations. Here are a few services I booted off to streamline my PC:

• Alerter
• Background Intelligent Transfer Service
• ClipBook
• Computer Browser
• Error Reporting Service
• Help and Support
• Indexing Service
• IPSEC Services
• Messenger
• NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
• Network DDE
• Network DDE DSDM
• Performance Logs and Alerts
• Portable Media Serial Number
• QOS RSVP
• Help Session Manager
• Remote Registry
• Secondary Logon
• Server
• Smart Card
• Smart Card Helper
• SSDP Discovery Service
• System restore Service
• TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
• Uninterruptible Power Supply
• Universal Plug and Play Device Host
• WebClient
• Windows time
• Wireless Zero Configuration
• WMI Performance Adapter
  

11. Disconnect USB devices you aren't using.

When Windows starts, it must load all the drivers for the devices connected to your computer. If you have many devices connected to the USB ports, such as printers, scanners, cameras and hard drives that you don't use on a regular basis, disconnect them. You can reconnect them when you use them. Disconnecting them when they are not in use will allow Windows to load the drivers only when needed.
The above steps should help increase the performance of Windows XP as well as keep it running with more stability.

Source:grownups.co.nz

Get the Most Out of Your Laptop's Battery

A Gizmo addict acknowledges that the most unprotected component of their laptop is purely and simply the battery. Although nearly all of the laptop battery producers brag of producing batteries which are capable of lasting for up to five to six hours, they neglect to stress that such life can be afforded solely when you apply it in the most idealistic stipulations.

Therefore our batteries come up short of supplying our laptops with the necessary power more and more often. The cause is simplistic - we do not recognise how to use it judiciously to lengthen its life.The following tips are aimed at helping you get the most out of your battery.

1. Apply the Power-Saving Option

All laptops have a power-saving setting in the control panel. Applying this setting assists to cease the uninvited use of varied parts such as the disc drive, screen etc. In addition to bringing down the time limit for your screensaver approximately one minute aids a lot.

2. No Externals

Do not use a mouse with your laptop, use the built in one instead this reduces the usage on your battery. Another tip is to use headphones as they take up less power than your laptops speakers..

3. Turn Off the Internet

If your laptop has wi-fi then, when you're not using it, turn it off so its not using your battery trying to find a connection you're not using.

4. Daily Defragmentation

Daily defragmentation of the hard disc has 2 visible benefits. First, it accelerates your processor, and second, it keeps all the files in order reducing the time in locating files.

5. Shut Down Processes

You're not compelled to use all the processes whilst using your laptop. So shut down all the processes which bring an uninvited load on the laptop.

6. Clean the Battery

Keep cleaning, applying a cotton bud, the metal contacts of your battery at least once a month. Getting rid of the dirt betters the flow of energy.

Source:grownups.co.nz

An expert's guide to YouTube

Video-sharing site YouTube is the perfect service to start with because it's massively popular and incredibly simple to use, but also has a few powerful features that are tucked away. This guide is to help you learn how to use some of these advanced features and to serve as a simple reference page.

For the sake of simplicity, we're only covering searching, viewing, and sharing. We've skipped uploading since it's pretty straightforward and made simple with the service's recently launched multifile uploader. We're also not including any third-party downloading tools because that is against YouTube's terms of use and is already an official first-party feature on some content.

Searching

Using YouTube's search tool:
YouTube's search engine works a lot like Google's. In fact, it uses the same search operators to let you tweak your results. Here are some worth remembering the next time you're looking for a video:

• Limit to words in the title. Putting "allintitle:" in front of your search keeps YouTube's results limited to those videos with the matching words in the title. This is great if you want to keep it from searching through descriptions or tags. Not so useful if the video you're looking for has a misspelled or misleading title.

• Exclude a term. Add a "-" then the word you want to exclude will keep it out of the results. So if you're searching for explosions but don't want to see videos with diet Coke or Mentos, you'd type in "Explosion -diet -coke -mentos." Be sure to add the "-" in front of every word you don't want.

• Play the wildcard. If you're too lazy to type a word, or think that YouTube will figure out the words you're leaving out, you can just put in an asterisk in place of that word. In practice, this means that searching for something like "Fallout: Broken Steel" you could just type "Fallout * Steel" and have it guess the word in the middle.

If you can't remember these off the top of your head you can find them in YouTube's advanced search box, which shows up as an option in the results of any completed search. It's also worth going there if you want to filter how long the videos in the results should be. This is a great way to find long-form content that's 20 minutes or more.

Search and browse with your eyes.
If titles and thumbnails are not enough, you can explore additional, related video clusters by using YouTube's warp feature. This is a feature that can still be found on some videos, but YouTube has since relegated it to its TestTube section. That doesn't mean you can't use it on any old video though. Simply inserting "warp.swf" in the URL instead of the word "watch" will send you into full-screen "warp speed" mode. To read more about how to use this feature check out our coverage of it.

To warpify any video just change the watch in the URL to warp.swf, and you get a special treat.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Third-party search tools
There are a handful of third-party YouTube search engines and tools that add a little bit of utility on top of YouTube's search. Here are some of our favorites:

• YouTube Fast Search lets you play the video right next to the results, as well as create a playlist by dragging and dropping videos from the results page. It's also got a cool feature called VideoWall that creates a giant canvas of thumbnails, which you can play just by clicking on them.

• CoolIris, which works on iPhones and computers alike, also presents videos in a giant wall that can be browsed or searched. You simply click on the thumbnails you want to play.

• The YouTube search Firefox add-on. Puts YouTube's search engine in your browser, and uses Google's Suggest API to give you suggestions as you type.

• VideoSurf gives you visual summaries of YouTube videos (and other video services). If it's a movie or TV show you can search by actor, and all videos get a visual time line so you don't waste any time waiting to see what's on that 10-minute clip.

• Search The Tube is a search engine that only shows videos that can be embedded off YouTube. Keeps you from finding that perfect video that can't be stuck on a blog post.

Viewing

Watching videos on YouTube seems pretty straightforward, but if you want to enhance the viewing experience there are some official, and unofficial, tools that can tweak the presentation.

Setting YouTube to automatically play the high-quality version
You've got to be logged in to make this work. Simply go to YouTube's playback settings (when logged in) and pick the "I have a fast connection" option. The next time you play a video it will automatically switch over to the higher quality stream. Worth noting is that this doesn't yet work for HD videos; you still need to click on the HD button to make it switch over to that stream.

Choosing this option makes YouTube always play the high-quality stream.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Make HD videos fit the screen better
Viewing a video in HD resizes from the standard 710-pixel player into one that's 950 pixels wide. It still doesn't go to the edges of the page though. To get that extra 100 pixels or so you can install this small Firefox add-on that resizes them to fix the rest of the YouTube UI. Of course you could always just hit the full screen button, but this lets you access all the other page elements while it's playing.

Turn down the lights on any YouTube video
A select few YouTube videos have the option to "turn down the lights," which darkens the rest of YouTube's UI and shows you just the video. If you want to make this option available on all videos you can download YouTube Cinema for Firefox, which can do this for you automatically. It also lets you change the background color.

See also Quietube (story) and Theeter (story), which do the same thing using a special bookmarklet you can add to your browser. However, unlike the Firefox extension, both of these services require using the bookmarklet to turn it on when you're browsing videos on YouTube proper.

Sharing

Watching videos on YouTube is a no-brainer, but if you want to control the way viewers see your videos or videos you're sharing, there are some handy tweaks.

YouTube recently introduced a relatively simple way to do this using tags. During or after an upload you have the option to add tags, and this is where the magic happens. Adding one of the below tags has different effects on your video, which gives you complete control over how it looks:

Controlling the size of the video by cropping or scaling:
• Add "yt:crop=16:9" This zooms in on the 16:9 section of the video, and gets rid of any black bars on the side or on the top of your video.
• Add "yt:stretch=16:9" takes any content that's been shot in anamorphic (with the black bars on the top and bottom) and scales it to fit the wide-screen player.
• Add "yt:stretch=4:3" scales widescreen videos to fit a 4:3 player.

Changing the default quality of the stream:
• Add "yt:quality=high" makes it so that the default quality level is the highest, whether that's HQ or HD. It depends on what type of content you've uploaded.

How to control the start time on a shared link or embed
With some small URL tweaks you can control the start time of a video when shared as a basic link, or when embedded. YouTube is likely to add this as part of the embedding options at a later date. In the meantime, the below methods are helpful if you want to share a specific part of a long video.

For basic links:
The time you want the video to start must be appended by hand with #t=_m_s at the end of the video's URL. You have control over the minutes and seconds, which are what go where the underscores are. So, for this URL www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfkxBVIJ0vc#t=0m21s, the video would start 21 seconds in.

Here's a video of how to do it:

For embedded videos:
Skipping ahead in embeds is a little harder than with basic URLs, but still manageable. Copy and paste the embed code wherever you intend to put it. Then find the two places where the source URL is. These two links come after "value" and "src" and simply contain the link to the video. Now, paste " &start=__" onto the end of that URL, placing the number of seconds you want it to start at where the underscore is. Since there's no minutes section like you get with the link trick above, you have to do the math and add an additional 60 seconds for each minute you want to go in.

Creating and embedding a self-playing playlist
Say you've got two or more videos you want to share--or just group together. Skip the link dump and make a playlist. Go into your uploaded videos and create a new one. Then simply check off the videos you want to add. Pick the "add to playlist" option, then click on the playlist you just created.

For one reason or another, YouTube isn't very up front about giving you an embed code to stick the playlist elsewhere. Don't worry though--it's still there. To find it, go to the playlist you just made from here: www.youtube.com/my_playlists. Then click on the "play all" link on a playlist to start playing it. Under the playlist option on the right, click on the link with the name of the playlist you're watching. This will take you to a page that gives you a rundown of the entire playlist, along with the option to send that self-playing list as a permalink, and the embed code to put it elsewhere.

You're looking for these three things (the highlighted link will have the name of your playlist, not mine):

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Third-party sharing tools:
Worth a mention here is Splicd, which lets you pick specific beginning and end points of a video. It plays these videos off YouTube's site, but gives you simple sharing links and a slightly higher degree of control than YouTube does.

See also the aforementioned Quietube and Theeter which both provide links that can be shared with others that format the video without the rest of YouTube's UI.

These are just a few tips to become an expert in all things YouTube. If you have any of your own, add them in the comments or shoot me an e-mail.

Source:CNET

Microsoft Outlook Tips

Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager that can help you increase efficiency and organize your busy life. Whether you use it to help prioritize your time at work, or to manage personal tasks, knowing how too effectively use Microsoft Outlook will make collaboration a breeze and save time. Here are some useful Outlook tips that will assist you in maximizing productivity:

• Did you know you could set a reminder to reply to a message? Simply right-click the message you want to set the reminder for, point to Follow Up, and then click Add Reminder. In the Due By list, click the date when you have to complete the reply. In the second list, click a time. In the Flag colour list, click the flag colour you want, and then click OK

• Would you like to send a message to multiple people without revealing other recipients' identities? In order to do this, you will need to use the Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy) line in the message. If you add an email address in the Bcc line, a copy of the message is sent to that person, but his or her name is not visible to other recipients. Using this method increases email address privacy, and reduces the risk of the recipients’ address being harvested by senders of bulk email (spammers)

• You can automatically add a signature or logo to each message you send -- On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail Format tab. If you have more than one account, select the account you want to create the signature for, and then click Signatures

• Have you ever hit the Send button too soon? You can recall that message -- To recall or replace a sent message, simply open the message in the Sent Items folder, and on the Actions menu, click Recall This Message. You’ll have to be on an exchange server network for this to work, however

• You can add holidays to your Outlook Calendar On the Tools menu, click Options, click Calendar Options, and then click Add Holidays. Outlook will then install the holidays for the current year

• You can access any Outlook folder from your Windows desktop -- Create a shortcut to an Outlook folder on the Windows desktop by dragging the folder from Outlook to your Windows desktop. Be sure to press CTRL before you release the mouse button. When you double-click the new shortcut, Outlook will open to that folder

• If you want to quickly attach a file to a message, task, appointment, meeting request, journal entry, or contact -- Open the item, then on the Insert menu, click File. Locate the file you want to attach. You can also click and drag a file into the body of the email message

• To add a new contact from an e-mail message – Open the message. In the From field, right-click the name you want to make into a contact. On the shortcut menu, click Add to Outlook Contacts.

• Like using the keyboard instead of the mouse? Try these shortcuts:

• To reply to your current e-mail message, press CTRL+R.
• To forward your current e-mail message, press CTRL+F.
• To delete your current e-mail message, press CTRL+D.
• To quickly remove formatting from selected text, press CTRL+SPACEBAR.
• To reply to everyone who received the selected message, press CTRL+SHIFT+R.

Source:grownups.co.nz

Recover Deleted Email Messages in Vista Windows Mail

Outlook Express was, and by the time of this writing still is, the most popular email client by a huge margin. It's hard to overestimate the amount of support Outlook Express has received from third party developers. Multiple free and commercial products compete for your disk space and a place in your Start menu, including tools that backup andrestore email messages, and that fix and recover corrupted mail database. Outlook Express users certainly have no lack of email recovery tools that help to recover accidentally deleted email messages.

The situation has changed momentarily. With the release of Windows Vista, Outlook Express has been superseded with a new-generation email client, Windows Mail. Windows Mail stores email messages in a new format that is completely different from Outlook Express and incompatible with anything before it. Familiar mail recovery tools for Outlook Express no longer work with Windows Mail, and, as is typical, there is no method to un-delete email messages provided by Microsoft.

Recovery for Windows Mail is one of the first products on the market to support the new Windows email client. It is designed specifically to un-delete email messages in Windows Vista.

Windows Vista offers increased security and strengthened protection against modern threats. New security measures typically prevent users and applications from accessing important files and modifying vital information. In order to overcome these restrictions, you would have to be logged in as an Administrator, or at least as a user with administrative rights. This may become a major inconvenience for a home user, and a total show-stopper in a corporate environment.

Recovery for Windows Mail is fully aware of the new account security measures implemented in Windows Vista, and does not require you to be logged in with an administrative password. Just run Recovery for Windows Mail, and it'll do the rest - automatically!

Windows Mail differs from Outlook Express in the way it stores email. Each message is stored in a separate file, complemented by meta-information that's stored in a mail database for faster indexing. Deleting email in Windows Mail simply moves messages into the "Deleted Items" folder without affecting the files. But if you remove a message from the "Deleted Items" folder, there is no easy way to un-delete that mail.

Recovery for Windows Mail protects your messages from accidental deletion. It can un-delete and fully recover deleted mail even if it has been erased from the "Deleted Items" folder.

Recovery for Windows Mail is fully capable of recovering deleted email in the Windows Mail client. Protect yourself and download your free evaluation version here: http://www.nsware.com/Windows-Mail-Recovery.htm

Source:grownups.co.nz

Tips for Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a fabulous program containing tools for manipulating and enhancing pictures and graphics. Although the application is useful it can be complicated for some. Here are some tips you may find helpful even if you are a veteran Photoshop user.

Picture "pops out" of the frame

This is an easy task that can have dramatic effects. A portion of the picture will "pop out" of the original frame and look as though it has "popped" onto your screen.

• Save a copy of the original picture and work on a second copy, just in case you make mistakes.

• Use any selection tool to cut out only the portion of the image you wish to have "pop out".

• Lift the image by using the Float Command and duplicate it onto its own layer.

• Create a new layer in the frame for the photo. You can use textures, borders or nothing at all.

Place a picture into text

Placing a picture into text is a simple job that creates a word using the picture. The picture will be placed into the text.

• Select the image you want and place it in a new layer with a solid background.

• Set the word you want using the type input method of choice. Use a style with a large area so much of your picture can be seen.

• Select the type so you can move it around.

• Click on the picture layer to edit the picture.

• Use the Float Command to pick up the picture inside your text.

• The selection will start a new layer and fill with a copy of the picture.

• Turn off the original layer with the picture and your text will be filled with the picture.

Remove the white background from an image

Many images end up having a white background included in the frame. For example, a logo that may be used on different documents will often be surrounded by a white square. When placing it on a white page this is not a problem. However, placing it on a coloured page will show the white square behind it. For a more professional look, follow these steps to remove the unwanted background.

• Start a new layer and create an object of the same shape as your picture. The shape must replicate that of your picture and will be used like a cookie-cutter to place over the picture.

• Make sure your shape layer is under the original picture layer in the Layer Palette.

• Place the pointer over the line that divides these two layers in the Layer Palette while holding down the Alt/Option Key and click.

• You have created a layer group. Choose Save As and select Photoshop EPS as the file format. Name the file. You are done.

NOTE: You may use Help and Export Transparent Image for an interactive wizard to help prepare images with transparency to be used in a page-layout application.

Make old photos look more vivid

Old photos can look dark or have a brown or gray colour covering the entire image. Photoshop can help brighten and colour these types of photos to make them vibrant and bring them closer to their original state.

• Use Photo Filter from the Adjustment Layers area to choose colour filters based on what your photo looks like.

• Choose Colour Balance from the Adjustment Layers area to adjust flesh and other tone levels for different elements in the photo.

• Use Levels to balance the photo after the above changes are made.

• Select an area with the Magic Wand to adjust from the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer. You can repeat these steps as many times and in as many areas as necessary.

• Adjust the Brightness/Contrast levels as your final adjustments to the photo.

Whiten teeth and eyes in Photoshop

There is no better way to make someone look fantastic than to whiten their teeth and eyes in a photo.

• Create a new layer.

• Select the Dodge tool.

• Set the Range to Midtones on the Tool Options bar. The default Exposure is set at 50%. You may change this, but 50% is a good place to start.

• Run the Dodge tool over the teeth and eyes to whiten. If you make a mistake or the results are too white, you can use Undo to reduce the Exposure level.

• Zoom out frequently because the results often look different when viewing the entire image.

Source:grownups.co.nz

Tips on Using Microsoft Word

If you have ever used a computer, chances are you have also used Microsoft Word to create documents for work, school or life. Word makes it easy for anyone to quickly create, edit and share professional looking documents. Here are a few tips to help you get exactly what you need or want using Microsoft Word.

Working on Two Separate Document Sections

Have you ever needed to edit a large document, and needed to work simultaneously with sections on different pages? You can do this by splitting the document window:

• From the Window menu, choose Split

• A horizontal line will appear in the middle of the screen. With your mouse, click and drag the line up or down, then click away from the line to set the split. You can switch between the two panes by clicking on the document text in the top or bottom pane. MS Word will remember both cursor positions as you work between the two sections. You can remove the split by going back to the Window menu, and selecting Remove Split

Preventing Page Breaks in Paragraphs

Your document may include a paragraph split onto separate pages. This may not be ideal for you. By default, Word splits large paragraphs onto separate pages. To change this, do the following:

• Select a paragraph or group of paragraphs, and right-click

• Select Paragraph from the menu

• When the dialog box appears, select Line and Page Breaks

• Check Keep lines together

• Press OK to close the dialog box

Disable Reading Layout

When you open MS Word documents from e-mail attachments or from other sources, Word displays them in the "Reading Layout". While intended to make the documents easier to read and scan, it can reformat tables of contents, lists, tables, and long paragraphs.

If you would rather not use this feature, and open documents in the default (Print Layout) view instead, try this:

• Click the Tools menu and select Options

• When the dialog box appears, click General

• Uncheck "Allow starting in Reading Layout"

• Click OK to close the dialog box

An Easier Way to Create Tables

If you are like most Word users, when you need to insert a table, you create the table first, then tab through and insert the data. There’s a much more efficient way to create tables. First, enter your table data in your document, separated by commas (comma-delimited format). For example, let’s say you want a table that shows the number of new employees hired in three departments during the first quarter.

Your data would look like this:
,Jan,Feb,March
Sales,2,11,9
Marketing,3,9,14
Accounting,2,9,4

Now, highlight the text and choose "Table then Insert Table" A 4x4 table is automatically created for you. If you want to change the formatting, go to Table, then Table Autoformat to apply a table template; or you can go through the Table menu and manually edit the table's display properties.

Full-Screen Mode

When you edit a document in Microsoft Word, your workspace is shared with toolbars, a menu bar, a status bar, and your system toolbar/taskbar. If you’d like to hide everything but your document, click View and select Full Screen. To return to normal view, press the ESC key, or select Close Full Screen from the Full Screen toolbar that appears. You can also move your mouse pointer to the top of the screen to access the menu items.

Source:grownups.co.nz

Running the Windows 7 beta, and want to bend it to your will? No problem. We've got plenty of tips, hacks and secrets to keep you busy for a long time, including automatically opening Windows Explorer to a folder of your choice, bringing back the Quick Launch toolbar, forcing User Account Control to act the way you'd like, keeping your Explorer searches secret from others, and more.

So check out these tips. If you like them, we'll keep more coming.

Note: A few of these tips involve editing the Windows Registry. If you don't feel comfortable creating a Restore Point, finding your way around the Registry or performing tasks such as creating a DWORD value, see "The tweaker's guide to the Windows Registry."

General tips

We'll start with a few nifty tips that can make it easier to get around and increase your computer's power efficiency.

Shake your desktop free of clutter

If you frequently run multiple programs simultaneously, your desktop can get extremely cluttered. This can get annoying if you're working on one program and want to minimize all the other windows -- you'll have to minimize them individually.

With Windows 7's new "shake" feature, though, you can minimize every window except the one in which you're currently working in a single step. Click and hold the title bar of the window you want to remain on the desktop; while still holding the title bar, shake it quickly back and forth until all of the other windows minimize to the taskbar. Then let go. To make them return, shake the title bar again.

You can accomplish the same thing by pressing the Window key-Home key combination -- although doing that is not nearly as much fun.

Kill the Send Feedback link

The beta of Windows 7 includes a "Send Feedback" link at various places throughout Windows 7, including at the top of Internet Explorer and on top of dialog boxes. Don't like the link? You can easily get rid of it, using a Registry hack.

(Important: Always create a Restore Point before editing the Windows Registry.)

1. Launch the Registry Editor by typing regedit in the Search box and pressing Enter.

2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop, and double-click the FeedbackToolEnabled entry.

3. Change the value to 0, exit the Registry and restart your PC. The feedback link will now be gone. To turn the link back on again, change FeedbackToolEnabled to 3 and restart.

Get a power efficiency report

A laptop's power efficiency report.

Have a laptop and want to get more battery life out of it? Windows 7 includes a hidden, built-in tool that will examine your laptop's energy use and make recommendations on how to improve it. To do it:

1. First, run a command prompt as an administrator. To do this, type cmd in the search box, and when the cmd icon appears, right-click it and choose "Run as administrator."

2. At the command line, type in the following:

powercfg -energy -output \Folder\En Energy_Report.html

where \Folder represents the folder where you want the report to be placed.

3. For the next minute, Windows 7 will examine the behavior of your laptop, and will then analyze it and create a report in HTML format in the folder you specified. Double-click the file, and you'll get a report -- follow its recommendations for ways to improve power performance.

Windows Explorer tips

Windows Explorer is the heart and soul of the Windows interface, and overall it works quite well. But you can make it better.

Set a new Windows Explorer launch folder

When you run Windows Explorer, it always opens to the Libraries folder. That's fine if you use Microsoft's default file organization, which designates Libraries as the overall container for your folders. But what if you don't? You might prefer to have Windows Explorer open to Computer or any other folder you choose. Here's how to do it:

1. Right-click the Windows Explorer icon on the taskbar (it's the one that looks like a folder), and then right-click the Windows Explorer icon from the context menu that appears and select Properties. The Windows Explorer Properties dialog box appears.

Changing the default Explorer location.

2. You'll have to edit the Target field on the Shortcut tab of this dialog box in order to change the default location at which Explorer opens. If you want Explorer to open to a specific folder, simply enter the name of the folder, substituting your folder name for Folder, below, like this:

%windir%\explorer.exe c:\Folder

So to open Explorer to the folder named Budget, you would type this in the Target field:

%windir%\explorer.exe c:\Budget

If you want Explorer to open to special, pre-set locations, such as Computer, you'll need to enter special syntax in the Target field. Following is a list of three common locations and the syntax to use, followed by the syntax for the Libraries folder in case you ever want to revert to the default.

• Computer: %windir%\explorer.exe ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
• Documents: %windir%\explorer.exe ::{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}
• Network: %windir%\explorer.exe ::{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
• Libraries: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe

3. After you've changed the Target field, click OK. Next time you launch Windows Explorer, it will open in the new location you've designated.

Show all your drives in Windows Explorer

Depending on your system settings, when you go to Computer in Windows Explorer, you may be in for a shock -- you may not see all your drives such as memory card readers if those drives are empty. If this disconcerts you, there's a simple way for you to see them even if there's nothing there:

Having Explorer show empty drives.

1. Launch Windows Explorer and press the Alt button to reveal the top menu.

2. Select Tools --> Folder Options and click the View tab.

3. Under "Advanced settings," uncheck the box next to "Hide empty drives in the Computer folder." Click OK. The drives will now always be visible.

Protect the privacy of your Explorer searches

When you search through your PC from Windows Explorer, you can see the most recent searches that have been performed. If you share a PC and don't want others to see what you've searched for, you can turn off the recent searches feature:

Protecting search privacy.

1. In Explorer's Search box, type GPEDIT.MSC and press Enter to launch the Group Policy Editor.

2. Go to User Configuration --> Administrative Templates --> Windows Components --> Windows Explorer.

3. Double-click "Turn off display of recent search entries in the Windows Explorer search box" and select Enabled from the screen that appears. Then click OK. The recent searches feature will now be turned off.

Build your own Internet Search Connector

Windows 7 has a very useful new feature called a Search Connector that lets you search through a Web site from right inside Windows Explorer. With it, you type in a search term and select the Search Connector for the site you want to search; Explorer searches the Web site without having to open Internet Explorer, and the results appear inside Windows Explorer. Click any of the results to head there using your default Web browser.

Normally, you'll need to get each Search Connector from the Web site through which you want to search, and very few Connectors are available. Sites normally need to adhere to OpenSearch standards in order for their Connectors to work.

However, there's a work-around that will let you easily build your own Search Connector for any site, using Windows Live Search as a kind of go-between. Don't worry, you don't need to know any code to write a Connector. Just follow these steps:

1. Copy the following text and paste it into Notepad. The text you'll need to change is in bold, all-caps text:

NAME YOUR SEARCH

DESCRIPTION OF SEARCH

SITENAME.COM&count=50&format=rss">

2. In place of NAME YOUR SEARCH, type in the name of the search as you want it to appear. In our case, we're going to build a Search Connector for Computerworld, so we'll just type in Computerworld.

3. In place of DESCRIPTION OF SEARCH, type in a longer description of the search. In our instance, it will be Search through Computerworld.

4. In the first SITENAME.COM entry, enter the Web site's domain. Don't use the http:// or www -- just the domain name. In our instance it will be computerworld.com.

5. To the right of "count=", type in the number or results you want to appear. In our instance, we'll keep it at 50.

6. In our example, here's what the code should look like (no bold necessary):

Computerworld

Search through Computerworld

computerworld.com&count=50&format=rss">

7. Save the file in Notepad, choose UTF-8 from the Encoding drop-down box near the bottom of the Save As screen, and give it an .osdx extension. In our instance, we'll call the file Computerworld.osdx.

Congratulations! You've successfully installed a Search Connector.

8. In Windows Explorer, right-click the .osdx file and select Create Search Connector. The Search Connector will be created, and you'll see a screen like that shown to the right.

9. You can now use the Search Connector. To get to it, in Windows Explorer go to YourName --> Searchers --> Connector, where YourName is your account name, and Connector is the name of the Connector. You can see it in action below.

User Account Control tips

The User Account Control (UAC) security feature was one of the most reviled additions to Windows Vista, with good reason -- its constant warning messages asking for permission to continue many operations drove users around the bend. UAC has been significantly improved in Windows 7 so that it's not as intrusive as in Vista, but you can still tweak it if you like.

Modify UAC

Here's how to turn UAC on or off, and make it less or more intrusive than the default:

1. Go to the Control Panel --> User Accounts and Family Safety.

2. Click User Accounts, then click Change User Account Control settings.

3. From the screen that appears, use the slider to select the level of protection you want. Here are the four levels, and what they mean:

Always notify me. Think of this as UAC Classic. It works like Vista's UAC: When you make changes to your system, when software is installed or when a program tries to make a change to your system, an annoying prompt appears.

Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer. This is the default; make a change yourself and UAC leaves you alone. When a program makes a change, a prompt appears. Otherwise, UAC sits there silently.

Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer (do not dim my desktop). This setting is identical to the default setting, with one difference: It won't dim your desktop so that you only see the UAC prompt asking you to take action. This presents a slightly elevated security risk over the default setting, because theoretically a program could allow a malicious program to interfere with the UAC prompt.

Modifying UAC.

Never notify. In this one, UAC is completely turned off. This is, of course, an insecure option and not recommended for most users.

After you make the selection, click OK. Depending on the selection you made, you may need to restart it for it to take effect.

Use gadgets without UAC

If you turn off UAC as described in the previous tip, you can't use gadgets, tiny applets that run on the desktop, because Microsoft deems them a potential security threat. However, if you feel comfortable enough with that potential threat, you can use gadgets even when you've turned off UAC by following these steps.

(Important: Always create a Restore Point before editing the Windows Registry.)

1. In the Search bar, type regedit and press Enter. This will launch the Registry Editor.

2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Sidebar\Settings.

3. Create a new DWORD value called AllowElevatedProcess. To create the new DWORD, select Edit --> New DWORD (32-bit) Value and give it the name AllowElevatedProcess.

4. Set its value to 1.

5. Close the Registry Editor, right-click the desktop and select Gadgets. You'll now be able to add gadgets as you would normally.

Taskbar tips

One of the most significant changes to the Windows 7 interface is its new taskbar, which acts more like the Mac OS X dock than the Windows taskbar of old. Here are a few tips for using the new taskbar and tweaks for taking charge of it.

Take control of the taskbar notification area

The notification area, at the far right of the taskbar, shows system messages and alerts, and displays the icons of programs and services that typically run in the background, such as Windows 7's wireless service. But what determines when, how and which icons show up there seems one of Windows' great mysteries.

There's a simple way to find out, and better yet, to customize it.

1. Right-click the taskbar, select Properties, and from the dialog box in the notification area section, click Customize. A screen like the one below appears.

Customizing the notification area.

2. For each application, select from the drop-down box whether you want the icon and notifications to always be displayed, to never be displayed or to have an icon appear only when there's a notification of some kind. Click OK when you're done.

You can also customize the system icons and services that appear there, including the clock, volume, network, power and Action Center icons. At the bottom of the same screen, click "Turn system icons on or off," and from the screen that appears, choose whether to turn on or off the icon and notifications. Click OK twice when you're done.

Get back the Quick Launch bar

Windows 7's new taskbar functions as a program launcher as well as task switcher, and so the old Quick Launch bar, an area on the left side of the taskbar that contained shortcuts for frequently used programs, has been banished. However, if you really miss the little applet, you can add it back. Here's how to do it:

1. Right-click the taskbar and choose Toolbars --> New Toolbar.

2 . You'll be asked to select a folder for where the new toolbar should live. In the Folder text box at the bottom of the dialog box, enter this text:

%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

After you do that, click Select Folder. A link for the Quick Launch bar will be added to the taskbar. It will be on the right of the taskbar, just to the left of the Notification area, as you can see below.

The Quick Launch bar docked on the right.

It's not particularly useful docked all the way to the right with no application icons showing, so we're going to have to do a bit of work on it to make it useful. Right-click the taskbar and in the pop-up menu, remove the check next to "Lock the taskbar." Now right-click Quick Launch and remove the checks next to Show Text and Show Title.

Once you've done that, drag the vertical triple dotted line next to the Quick Launch bar to the left until you expose its icons, as you can see below. To prevent further changes, right-click the taskbar and check Lock the taskbar. You can now use the Quick Launch bar as you could in Windows XP and Vista, including adding and deleting icons to it.

Run multiple copies of applications from the taskbar

The Windows 7 taskbar serves a dual purpose, which can get confusing at times. It's used to launch programs, and also to switch between programs that are running. So you launch a program by clicking its icon, and also switch to that program after it's running by clicking its icon.

But what if you want to launch a second instance of the program? Once the program is running, it seems there's no way to launch a second instance, because when you click its icon, you only switch to the running instance.

There's a simple fix: If a program is already running and you want to launch a second instance from the taskbar, hold down the Shift key and click the icon. A second instance will launch. You can keep launching new instances this way.

Run multiple copies of Windows Explorer from the taskbar

There are times when you'll want to run multiple instances of Windows Explorer -- for example, doing that can make it easier to copy and move between different PCs on your network. Unfortunately, though, you can't launch multiple instances of Windows Explorer from the Windows 7 taskbar using the Shift-click technique. When you try it, you'll only switch to the already running instance of Windows Explorer; a new instance won't launch.

There's a simple way to enable multiple Explorer instances from the taskbar. Right-click the Windows Explorer icon in the taskbar, then right-click the Windows Explorer icon near the bottom of the context menu that appears. Select Properties. Enter this text in the Target box and click OK:

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,::{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}

Now you're ready to launch multiple instances of Windows Explorer. Click the Windows Explorer icon as you would normally to launch a first instance. To launch a second one, hold down the Shift key and click the Windows Explorer icon. A second instance will appear. You can keep launching new instances using this same technique.

More nifty taskbar tips

Want some quick tips about the Windows 7 taskbar? Here are a few:

First, you may not realize that it's easy to rearrange the icons across the bottom of the screen -- simply drag an icon to where you want it to live. You can also add icons to the taskbar by dragging them from an application, and delete the icons by highlighting them and pressing the Delete key.

If you're a fan of using the keyboard rather than your mouse whenever possible, you can launch any program on the taskbar without the mouse. Press the Windows key and the number that corresponds to the position of the application on the taskbar -- for example, Windows key-1 to launch the left-most application on the taskbar, Windows key-2 to launch the second left-most application and so on.

The taskbar in thumbnail view.

One of the nicest things about the taskbar is that when you move your cursor from icon to icon, you can see thumbnails of all open windows for each of those applications. If you're a keyboard-centric person, you can do this without a mouse. Press the Windows key-T, and you'll move the focus to the left-most icon on the taskbar. Then use your arrow keys change the focus to other icons.

Video Wallpaper

In Windows Vista, you could get the extraordinary experience wallpaper. You may put video as wallpaper at desktop. This feature called Windows Dream Scene. To get this experience, first you must have Windows Vista Ultimate Edition original with supportive hardware graphic aero. Then right click mouse in desktop and chose Personalize. Chose the option of Window Color and Appearance and then chose Open option classic appearance properties for more color options. Further, followed the steps:
1. The clique [Start] > [All Programs] > [Extras and Upgrades] > [Windows Ultimate Extras].
2. Make sure your computer connectedi to Internet.
3. In Windows Update window, click [Check for updates].
4. Give the sign in Windows Dream Scene Preview option, then update from the Microsoft site.
5. After Windows DreamScene installed to your system, restart your Windows.
6. To activate Windows Dream Scene, right click mouse in desktop and chose Personalize. Chose the option [Desktop Background].
7. The difference of the Location position with Windows Dream Scene Content Pack. Further chose the available video option there and saw in your desktop.
8. If you want to used file from the other video, shift the location to the Video or Browse to determine the video location in your hard disk. If you were unsatisfied with one file, repeated the step to 1 to 5.

Source:PCplus

How to Protect an Excel 2007 Workbook

Excel 2007 includes a Protect Workbook command that prevents others from making changes to the layout of the worksheets in a workbook. You can assign a password when you protect a workbook so that only those who know the password can unprotect the workbook and make changes to the structure and layout of the worksheets.

Protecting a workbook does not prevent others from making changes to the contents of cells. To protect cell contents, you must use the Protect Sheet command button on the Review tab.

Protecting a workbook

Follow these steps to protect an Excel 2007 workbook:

1. Click the Protect Workbook command button in the Changes group on the Review tab.

   Excel opens the Protect Structure and Windows dialog box, where the Structure check box is selected by default. With the Structure check box selected, Excel won’t let anyone mess around with the sheets in the workbook (by deleting them or rearranging them).

   

   You can protect the structure and windows in a workbook.

2. (Optional) If you want to protect any windows that you set up, select the Windows check box.

   When selected, this setting keeps the workbook windows in the same size and position each time you open the workbook.

3. To assign a password that must be supplied before you can remove the protection from the worksheet, type the password in the Password (optional) text box.

4. Click OK.

   If you typed a password in the Password (optional) text box, Excel opens the Confirm Password dialog box. Re-enter the password in the Reenter Password to Proceed text box exactly as you typed it Step 3, and then click OK.

Unprotecting a workbook

To remove protection from the current workbook, follow these steps:

1. Click the Unprotect Workbook command button in the Changes group on the Review tab.

2. If you assigned a password when protecting the workbook, type the password in the Password text box and click OK.

Protecting a shared workbook

If you create a workbook with contents to be updated by several different users on your network, you can use the Protect and Share Workbook command to ensure that Excel tracks all the changes made and that no user can intentionally or inadvertently remove Excel’s tracking of changes. Follow these steps:

1. Click the Protect and Share Workbook command button in the Changes group on the Review tab.

   The Protect Shared Workbook dialog box appears.

2. Select the Sharing with Track Changes check box.

   

   Protect a shared workbook so that users cannot remove Excel’s tracking of changes.

3. To assign a password that each user must supply before he or she can open the workbook to make any changes, type a password in the Password (optional) text box and click OK.

Source:Dummies.com

How to Increase the Speed of a Macintosh Computer

Step1

Rebuild your desktop once a month by holding down the Command and Option keys as you restart your computer. Leave the keys pressed until the computer asks if you want to rebuild the desktop. Click OK.

Step2

Remove fonts you never use. (Open the Fonts folder in the System Folder and drag the fonts out.)

Step3

Open the Extensions Manager control panel and turn off system extensions you don't need. For example, if you're not on a computer network and don't have a printer, you can turn off printer drivers and file-sharing extensions.

Step4

Purchase and install speed-increasing software, such as SoftwareFPU from John Neil & Associates, Speed Doubler from Connectix, and Norton Utilities from Symantec.

Step5

Add RAM if your computer takes a long time to open programs and slows down when working with multiple programs or large files.

Source:Ehow.com