File sharing, collaboration and sending big e-mail attachments?

Often, it seems to be the case that the sharing and sending files with others, not to mention colloborating with others on a large project, is often difficult. And due to the fact that most e-mail providers have a limit on their attachment, it's even more hard to send large attachments through e-mail. For example, the attachment size limit for Gmail and Yahoo is only 20 MB. If you have 11 pictures of 2 MB each, you're going to have to send another email just for one photo.

Well, if you're ever confronted with a similar problem, there are actually several things you can do. In this article I'll mention only a few of the free services that I've used or know a little bit about.

Dropbox: By far one of the coolest things on the internet right now. The main purpose of dropbox is to allow you to save your files (up to 2 GB of total space, size of individual files don't matter) on the internet so that you can access them wherever you want to. But, since it allows you to save files in the internet, you can use if for back up purposes as well. Finally since it allows you to "share" files and folders with others (with the whole world or with a select group of friends that you can invite) you can also share files that would otherwise make for some very large attachments. Definitely the first thing you should check out.

Windows Live SkyDrive: This free service from Microsoft allows you to store files on their servers so that you can share it with others. It provides 25 GB of space, specifically for this purpose but upload size for each file is limited to 50 MB. Certainly worth checking out, especially for photos, since it also provides a great gallery feature and integrates nicely with other Windows services such an Windows Live Photogallery.

Yousendit: Like some of the other free webhosting services, yousendit allows you to upload your file, and sends that link to your friend so that they can download it via yousendit. While yousendit only stores the file for some days, it might be worth it since no actual sign up is necessary.

Office Live Workspace: While not strictly a file sharing service, office live workspace works great for sharing documents with others, and allows up to 5 GB of storage space. While it does requrie you to have an office live addin for some features, it is great for colloboration. It allows you to allow multiple users to edit a document, add comments and has features like todo lists and so on.

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RogersHelp.com is a suspicious website

Interestingly enough, I was browsing the Internet today and came across an interesting phenomenon related to my Internet Service provider. Turns out, Norton actually blocks Rogers' forum websites and shows the big red X beside any Rogers website in Google search results.

Sometimes, it even warns you when you click on the search results telling you that the website may be malicious.  Maybe it's because the forum has a lot of bad advice. I guess it serves Rogers right for blocking bit torrent traffic, even if it is downloading an open source project like Ubuntu.

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Download Free Parallels and VMware Fusion alternative for Mac

Have you checked the price of Parallels lately? It's going to cost you about $80 dollars (USD) plus taxes. The price of VMware Fusion is also the same. If you're like me, and paying for virtualization software just isn't an option (I mean, you already paid for the operating system you'll be running on it... except if that operating system is Linux), you'll want to look into something else to help you run Windows, Linux, Solaris, etc. and Mac OS X at the same time on your computer, without having to use BootCamp and going through its cumbersome install process.

Turns out that you don't have to pirate virtual machine software to be able to run a virtual machine. I just came across a great FREE virtual machine program for the Mac Desktop developed by Sun Microsystems called Virtual Box that does the exact same thing. It even has support for expandable virtual machine drives, and provides virtual machine tools (so all you have to do to use the mouse in the virtual machine is hover your mouse over the VM window, and to go back to your Mac just move you mouse away from the mouse window).

All you need to do start using VirtualBox to take the place of VMware Fusion or Parallels desktop is your Windows/Linux/Solaris/etc. DVD/CD or even just an iso image (so you can technically test out Windows 7 on your mac too although Aero won't work!). When VirtualBox opens up it'll give you the opportunity to create a new hard drive for your VM and allow you mount your .iso image or use the CD drive to install windows onto the virtual hard disk.

On top of that VirtualBox supports other features too that parallels does. For example, you can use Fullscreen mode and increase the size of the window to increase the resolution of the screen. You can also share folders between your Mac and the Windows or Linux virtual machine. Beware of viruses though, because they can still infect your mac partitions through the shared folders (provided they were written to take advantage of this). So you'll still have to keep your virtual machine updated and tuned up.

The only feature that VirtualBox does not support is 'Unity' mode or 'Coherence' features that allow you to run Windows applications just like a mac application without having the ugly windows desktop behind it. So you can minimize Windows applications to the dock and move them around just like a mac application. However, for the price you are paying (nothing!) I think its a great trade off. Besides, I was never a fan of that feature anyway.

If you want to run Outlook, Photoshop for Windows or any other windows specific application, or just want to test out things on the windows side, Virtual Box should be able to handle anything you can throw at it. In fact the configuration screen looks just like the VMware Fusion or Parallels configuration screen. The only downside is that if you ever upgrade to VMware or Parallels, the applications will not recognize the virtual machine hard drive created by VirtualBox, and you'll have to start from scratch.
So if you are looking for a great free (and karma free too) way to get Parallels Desktop/Parallels Workstation/Parallels Workstation Extreme on your desktop, look no further than VirtualBox - the ultimate free VM solution!

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Search for a word that is at the tip of your tongue

How often have you realized that there is a word that is at the tip of your tongue, but just isn't coming out? While similar to writers block, this can be just as deleterious. But fear not, there is an online web app that can now help you find the word that you are searching for.

Instead of having searching the word database like you would in a conventional dictionary, you can now search on on other factors like "Sounds like", "word meaning" and the letters the word contains. The app is called Tip of My Tongue, and I guarantee you that if you are a blogger or a writer, you'll be using this online web program more than once.

Of course, it's not perfect yet, but it's just a matter of time before it becomes more robust, or a web engine like Google picks up the idea. Typing in say 'eek' and using the sounds like box to refine the search actually yields several results, even those that are distant from the pronunciation of the word 'gawk', and to narrow it down, you'll have to give the app more input.

The app uses several online dictionaries, mostly wordnet apparently, and a host of other websites. However, in my brief inspection of the site, I've noticed that some words, especially those associated with idioms and containing other meanings are not present when you use the 'Word Meaning' feature, and the results from the letters features can be quite overwhelming. Nevertheless, while the app is no substitute for a proper dictionary or a thesaurus, it will sure help you find the word that you already know and is on the tip of your tongue.

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Readable - A web app that makes it easier for you to read webpages

Let's face it... Although we've come a long way from the first webpage on the internet the most used method of communication on the web is text. Yes, we have videos, images and other interesting content (ex: ytmnd) out there on the interwebs, but just like I'm communication with you right now, text is essential.

So, what do you do when you can' t read the text clearly because there is a picture of a jumping rhino on the background that doesn't provide contrast or the web designer though it was cool to have a really small 7px font size?

Or to be more true to life, let's say you stumble onto a website like CNN that's littered with ads all over the place, and it makes it really hard for you to find your content. What do you do then? Until now, you'd either have to download it to tweak the html or use a text only browser to view only the text and get rid of everything else.

However, now there is a cooler web app in town called Readable that is going to be your best friend. It uses javascript to extract the text out of a page, and display it in an overlay that you can customize to your liking. For example, all you can make the size of the text bigger, have a grey background with black text, and get rid of annoying ads on web pages. Take a look at how a post in beyond teck displays:

Plus, all you have to do is click a bookmarklet in your bookmarks toolbar, and Readable will do the rest. If it has problems finding the text on the webpage, it'll ask you to click on the text, and then take care of the rest.

Here's a little demo from the creator of the app:

So if you tend to use the internet a lot, especially to read news and other blogs, Readable might soon become your best friend.

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Protecting your computer on a public network

Do you own a laptop? Have you ever used your laptop at a public wi-fi (wireless internet) location to use the free (or paid) wireless internet services? Often, places like Libraries (or at least some libraries here in Toronto), Starbucks, Coffee Shops and even some restaurants offer a wireless internet service which anyone can use if they bring along their laptop or mobile computing devices.

Why should you care about protecting your computer while using pubilc wi-fi netoworks?

Although this is pretty cool, one thing that you must be aware of is that using these networks might not always be the most secure thing to do. Using public internet might mean that you are opening up your computer for lots of snoopers and malignant people to take advantage of your computer. In fact, after a recent visit to the library I noticed that many people (unknowingly I presume) were actually sharing the files on their computer with everybody else in the network. As a result, anyone else on the network was also able to freely access these shared files and folders. What’s more? Some people even stored files (fortunately, being the good citizen that I am, I did not open these files or do anything malicious with them!) in these folders!

What does all this mean?

It means that if you use your computer on a public network, you have to be extra secure.Theoretically, someone could delete files, edit files and even transfer malicious files to the computer to execute code (plus, if you never visited any website or downloaded anything… and you get a Windows UAC prompt, you’re likely to just click Confirm and allow the malicious application that some transferred to your computer to happily go on performing its evil tasks!)! If this doesn’t sound more scary than Conficker, I don’t know what will.

How can you protect yourself?

Protecting your computer while using public networks should be the first thing you do, even before you start using the network. In this post, I’m going to assume that most of you will be using Windows Vista. The settings for Windows XP (you might want to make a google search if you are unsure… most things that I mention here for Vista also apply for XP, but configuring them for XP might be a little different) are similar, but since most laptops now come with Vista, I’ll only cover the Windows Vista and Mac OS X in this article.

The first thing that you should do is turn off all File Sharing.

To do so on Windows Vista:

1. Double click on the “Internet Icon” in the system tray in your taskbar. In the picture below, it’s the icon between the “Battery Icon” and the “Volume Adjustment/Speaker Icon”. Doing so should take you to the “Network and Sharing Center”. If there’s no “Internet Icon” then, you’ll have to open your start menu (or click on the “Windows Orb” and type in “Network and Sharing Center”.
2. In the '”Network and Sharing Center”, under Sharing and Discovery click on arrow beside any topic that has a “Green” light (meaning that the sharing for that area is turned on.. and anybody on the network will be able to see whatever you are sharing). Then, simply select ‘Turn Off’ and click ‘Apply’.
3. Then accept the Windows UAC prompt.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for any other feature for which file sharing might be turned on.

Doing so will make sure that no files/folders, be it the Public folder on your computer or any other folder, is shared on the network.

On a Mac, the process is similar. Click the Apple Button on top left hand corner, choose ‘System Preference’ and go to ‘Sharing’. There, uncheck all checkboxes to make sure that your computer isn’t sharing anything.

Step 2: Use a firewall to prevent any direct connections from other computers

Often, although you might disable any sharing of files, other computers might still be able to connect to your computer through any other ports (think of them like ‘doors’) that might be open. So naturally, the best and easiest way to protect yourself, although not the most ‘sure fire’ way, is to turn on a firewall that will try and block most of the attempts to access your computer. If you don’t yet have a firewall, you might want to consider getting a free firewall if your computer is not running too slow (although if it is running a bit on the slower side, you might want to check out this article to speed up your windows computer).

At the very least, turn on Windows Firewall, which will prevent incoming connections (or others) from accessing your computer.

Step 3: Use an anti-virus program and keep your computer updated

Well, there isn’t much you can do after you’ve secured all the entry ways into your computer, so the only other ways to make sure that nothing else malicious is already on your computer and there are no ‘security’ holes in your computer are to run Anti-Virus software and keep your computer updated.

As for the Virus software, you don’t always have to turn on heuristics for it to keep on searching your computer all the time and making it really slow. Like I mention in my article to make your computer a bit faster, just turn on it’s basic settings and let it perform a scan once in a while when you are not using your computer. However, if you do across a suspicious (and when I mean suspicious I mean really suspicious…. like a birthday greeting card from your friend) just manually scan it.

Also, don’t forget to let Windows install the Microsoft updates when it bugs you do.. you don’t always have to do it right when it starts bugging you to.. but it’s a good idea to do it when you have the time.

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Best Free Downloadable Firewalls for Windows Computers

With the advent of the internet, it’s really easy for anyone to connect to the internet and access other computers (i.e. servers) across the globe. However, this also means that other computers across the globe can actually access YOUR computer in a similar fashion. By doing so these evil, evil men can actually take control of your computer, insert malicious files that will track your password/credit card number and/or use your computer to do something evil.

How do you protect yourself from other malicious programs or people from accessing your computer? With a Firewall of course! But like most things in the computer software world, Firewalls often come at a price. Although this price might be minimal (around $20 – 30 on average, some times you might have to renew it every year), considering the safety it provides, it might still be worth it to get a free firewall that will be able to do almost the same thing.

Here are a few things that you might want to try out. Keep in mind though that sometimes having a firewall might actually be more annoying, since it will often ask you whether or now you’d like to connect to a server or website. However, in the long run it might save you the trouble of reinstalling your computer or calling up your credit card company to report a fraud. Also, it might slow down the speed of your computer as it constantly monitors your incoming/outgoing connections from every application that connects to the Internet. But given the speed of average computers the speed should be “negligible” or at the most unnoticeable.

Additionally, you might at least want to turn on your Windows Firewall (although this will only prevent incoming connections and not prevent any outgoing connections) if you don’t plan to use a third-party firewall. If you do use a third party firewall, you should disable Windows Firewall.

Some free firewalls, in order of preference

Comodo Firewall – Comodo make a lot of great products that I like, and their firewall is one of them. For the most part it is unobtrusive, but does a good job of notifying you of any incoming/outgoing connections that it thinks are ‘suspicious’. Plus, it has an easy to use interface that doesn’t look like anything from “the Matrix”. If you’re looking for a simple free firewall that does it job quite well, Comodo should probably be your first or second choice. Also, do note that when you download the firewall, it actually might download their firewall AND their antivirus suite. So you you already have an antivirus suite, and you’re okay with it, you should only install their firewall.

Free Zone Alarm – The free version of the Zone Alarm Firewall is not as powerful (or so they say) as it’s paid big brother, but I still thing that it does a fairly ok job of making sure that no internet packet goes unnoticed. It also has a pretty simple interface to use, so if you aren’t an experienced Firewall user, you might prefer to have something like this.

Sunbelt Kerio Firewall  – If you’re using Windows XP (but it also works for Vista now apparently, although I haven’t tested it out) then this firewall is still one of the best ones out there. It does the job of every other firewall out there, and also provides some of its premium features (like ad-blocking) for a period of 30 days. If you don’t want to buy it (you probably don’t need to… unless you’d like to support their software), then after 30 days, it’ll just function in the normal firewall mode.

Tall Emu Firewall – Again, this is a fairly good free product, but doesn’t have all the pro features such as ‘Keylogger detection’ and so on. But obviously, you don’t need these features if you have a little common sense (i.e. if you are getting an incoming connection from some random computer on the internet, you probably shouldn’t allow it to access your system files).

Of course, there are several other Free Firewalls out there, but I’ve never used or heard of any other good ones. So, if you feel like you know about something else that might be worth while… do share!

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CalorieKing: A great free website to keep track of calories

Some people are able to maintain their weight in tip-top condition without any effort. Others, are not so lucky. There are many things out there that experts recommend you do in order to lose some weight. But, most of these plans involve cutting down the calories.

Are you counting your calories to get back on track? Good for you. But the problem is, how can you cut down on calories, when you don't really know how many calories are there in something? Things like subway sandwiches, Big Macs and tomatoes don't come with a nutrition label.

However, fear not - where's there's an internet connection, there is a way. It's called CalorieKing.com and it's a website that helps you find how many calories are there in each types of foods. Be it a banana or a egg McMuffin - it's mostly all there.

Plus, you can also specify the method something was cooked and so on. For example when you type in rice, you won't get a option for rice, instead you'll be presented with several options such as brown rice, white rice, sticky rice... and so on.

Of course, you can also pay to become a member of the site, and they'll offer additional features like ability to track your weight, track progress and help you "stay motivated", but I'm pretty sure an excel spreadsheet can help you do the same.

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Create free logos for your blog, website, business or company

Here’s a great little website that allows you to create and customize your own logos. It’s called Logo Creator from Logo Yes. And that’s just what it helps you do. All you need to do is go the website, and start going through their process of creating a logo.

It’s pretty simple for the most part. Just go the website, choose a logo, and then it’ll give you the option of saving your logo. Of course, I wouldn’t recommend using such logo creators if you are running a considerably big company – that’d be a job for a real graphic designer. But, if you need a logo for your small business, then websites like this would probably be the best bet.

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List of Websites for FREE math help, practice and tutorials!

Here’s a list of websites that are great for that additional math help anyone might need. I found then especially helpful last year when I was studying for my Math finals. Although these resources can’t really replace the experience you’ll gain by doing out the questions yourself, they will help you understand the concepts a little better.

Also, I must point out that the following resources will not replace friends and teachers that might be able to help you out. So use them only if it is truly necessary or just to review things you already know.

Yahoo Education Math - A great resource that covers all kinds of math topics from Grade 7 - Grade to Calculus. If you want to brush up on some math then this is the place you have to visit!

Purple Math - A website that’s great for help with topics that might be a little bit on the advanced side like Calculus and Functions. But nevertheless, they have lots of examples, illustrations and graphs that will help you better grasp the concepts. It even has a forums section where you can ask questions and get answers.

WebMath - A website that can not only teach you how to solve problems, but also help you solve them. Plus, it caters to many levels of math such as General Math, k-8 math, trigonometry and even calculus. A great resource.

Algebra Help - A site that has a huge list of algebra lessons, tips, help and much more. If you need some algebra help then this is the website you should visit.

MathForums - A great place to get help and even to solve their ‘problems of the week’ where they post a question every week or so, and you can try to come up with an answer for it.

Bonus: King’s list of On-line Math Activities - This website provides a great list of games that you can play to improve your mathematics skills. Although I must point out that it is all pretty basic math, but nevertheless you’ll definitely improve your skills or perhaps even gain a liking for math after playing these games.

Are there any other great math resources that you know of that might be beneficial to a student or an adult alike?

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Download Free Adobe Illustrator CS3 and CS4 Alternatives

Luckily, you don't have to spend a cent to use products that are just like Adobe Illustrator. In fact, there are several free alternatives that you can download free of cost (provided you have an Internet connection of course) and create art that is just as good if not better than the art you can create in Illustrator. Plus, there are several websites out there that have tutorials related to this software.

So, without further ado, here are some bad-karma free alternatives that you can use instead of Adobe Illustrator CS 4 or CS 3 or whatever version that you wanted to initially use.

Free alternatives for Adobe's Illustrator (or Vector editing software)

Note some of the software here is Linux only (yes, that's right, only runs on linux!) but fear not, take a look at my guide where I mention how to run Linux applications on Windows.

1. Inkscape (Windows, Linux, Mac) - Inkscape is a great piece of free and open source software that can do just about anything Illustrator can do. Bezier curves, typography, an infinite canvas, you name it. Although you will likely have to learn some new tricks and learn Inkscape from scratch if you're used to Illustrator, having free software that you can use whenever you want is always a good thing. It's also the only open source alternative that turns on any platform of your choice.


2. Skencil (Linux / Unix only) - While being Linux only, it is still a very powerful tool to help you create vector art. Check out the preview below! It comes with the Illustrator look and feel and also has similar features. Plus its free too! (well, actually, everything on this page is)



3. Xara LX (Linux only) - Linux only, but boy does it do interesting stuff. It has all the standard tools found in Illustrator, bezier curves and all and has the potential to produce great quality art. Definitely worth a look.


4. OpenOffice Draw (All platforms comes along with OpenOffice.org) - While most people don't find OpenOffice draw to be anything special, people who do not wish to spend the time on learning complex software like InkScape or Illustrator can still take advantage of a much simpler editing program. It's perfect for doing little posters, banners or greeting cards or something with a minimal amount of effort. And you can always save your stuff in a variety of formats.


5. Gimp - While GIMP is almost always known as a raster/bitmap imaging application, You can always still use it to do Illustrator like stuff, provided the factor of scalability that you need isn't as great and the art you are doing is somewhat simple.

There you have it, 5 great alternatives for illustrator, all freely available on the Internet. Also, if you are probably going to use the software for commercial uses, you might want to be kind and donate some money to the developers, however, downloading the applications (and... gasp... their source code!) is completely gratis (or free).

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Use a free online virus scanner that won’t slow you down

A while ago, I wrote in my ‘5 steps to make Windows faster’ article that it’s better to stay away from anti-virus programs that constantly scan your computer just because its going to slow you down. Instead I recommended that you turn off the ‘heuristics scanning’ and only scan the files you think are a virus, so that your memory and CPU cycles won’t be taken up by the anti-viruses’ processes. But just now, it struck me, why use a virus scanner at all if you PC is always connected to the internet. Why not just us a online virus scanner, and not have any protection (with the exception of some ‘inbuilt’ tools like Windows Defender) at all. Using an online scanner will ensure that the database against which your file is being checked, is always going to be up to date, and plus it won’t slow down your computer, or even cause it (or other applications on your computer) to crash.

Now, before you start saying how important anti-virus applications are to keep your computer safe… I must say here that anti-virus is absolutely necessary, only if you don’t know what you are doing. If you DO know the way malicious pieces of software work, you probably won’t need any protection at all. So pretty much, if you were to rely on only an online scanner, you shouldn’t be visiting any ‘malicious’ websites (see phishing filter and protecting yourself from malicious websites for free post if you don’t know how to stop yourself from visiting these websites…), you most likely shouldn’t be visiting any bit torrent or private downloading website, and you mustn't open any ‘suspicious’ attachments or e-mails. But if you only use webmail, most web mail providers scan the attachment for your anyway.

Therefore, if you don’t do any of the things above, then you most likely don't NEED an anti-virus program at all, although it might always be a good idea to have it incase someone else using the computer doesn’t fit in the criteria listed above.

In my case, I’m the only one using my computer, so I don’t really have to worry too much about not having an anti-virus on my system. Plus, if I do receive any suspicious attachments and so on, I can always use the online antivirus. Anyway, using or not using anti-virus is completely up to you, but incase you do decide to sacrifice a little bit of security for a lot of speed (and stability) here are some good online antivirus scanners that I find work well (although there is no way in the world to ‘completely’ protect yourself from any malicious program that might be created this instant):

The list of free and recommended Online Virus Scanners

Kaspersky Online Virus Scan – There is a limit of 1MB for files that can be checked, but nevertheless, its fast and efficient. All you need to do is upload your file on their site, and they’ll check it for you. No ActiveX controls needed. The great thing I like about this is that it’s super fast because it’ll only check the files you upload to it – Not your whole system like the scanners below do.

BitDefender Online Scan – Free online scan. ActiveX controls needed. May take a while.

Symantec’s Scanner – Yes, I know. It’s Symantec. But its not necessarily a bad thing when the only thing you have to do is download a little ActiveX control.

ESET’s online scanner – A fast online scanner that does only what it’s supposed to. Again, ActiveX controls are necessary fot it to do its job.

Jotti’s Malware Scan – This is a scanner that claims to check your file against the databases of many anti-virus manufactures and has a 100MB file limit that you can upload to its database so that it can check your file. I wouldn’t recommend using this service, unless it is absolutely necessary (and the file you are checking doesn’t contain any personal information) just because is not a well renowned name in the security business.

Of course, there are others out there too, but I’ve never tested them out, so fell free to try out other options too and post about them in the comments.

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Fix D-Link Wi-Fi Router Disconnection Problem

Yes, I have a fairly old D-Link router, and I'm afraid I'm not too happy with it. It keeps disconnecting form time to time, and somehow it manages to disconnect at the most inopportune time (like when I'm chatting with my friends... because our project is due in an hour and I still haven't started it) Well, of course, I got what I paid for. The router cost me about $5 bucks after those annoying rebates and plus I got a copy of CA Anti-Virus Suite for 1 year, but then again I barely use anti-virus at all.

Anyway, I think I've figured out a way to make it much more stable again. It's mostly router configuration settings, but it also has a little bit to do with router placement. The biggest factor that helped me solve the problem was relocating my router.

Now, I must mention here that my router was placed in a bedroom that is approximately 40 - 50 feet away from where I keep my laptop. I usually kept my router on the bottom shelf of the computer desk that I had in that bedroom. However, I realised that moving the router to the top of the computer desk might be much better, and it was! My signal reception improved significantly just by placing the router at the top of the table instead of the bottom. But that wasn't the end of the problems – I also had to take care of the settings below.

Fix D-Link (DI -624?) router with these admin settings

First, log into the administration page for your router (which is 192.168.0.1 by default unless you've changed it). It should look like this (click image to enlarge it of course!):


Then, as indicated in the picture above, switch to the Tools tab and choose Misc.

Now, change all settings from Enabled to Disabled as shown in the picture below. Leave the WAN select setting to 100 Mbps.


Finally click Apply, and let your router restart.

Next, change your Wireless Channel to something like 11 (but don't choose 6 obviously) by clicking on the 'Home Tab' and clicking 'Wireless' in the left sidebar'. If you're wondering which channel might be the best, take a look at the guide on how to improve your wi-fi settings.
Also, disable 'Super-G mode' if you have it on there. You might even want to disable your SSID broadcast, to ensure that no one else 'accidentally' tries to connect to your network.


Personally, I also turn off wireless security sometimes, because it allows for faster connection speeds and less interruptions while working. However, this is very unsafe, so if you're doing online banking with your laptop and a wireless connection I wouldn't disable security. But if you're like me, and don't really think anyone might be snooping around, then you might want to turn on MAC address filtering and then disable security.

Now, your router should reboot less often, and hopefully not overheat as much. Also remember to place your router in a better well ventilated area for optimal performance and minimal overheating.

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How to stop GIF images from animating

A lot of users like to customize their settings, and some users just go overboard. Many a times people have seizure inducing GIF animations in their signatures and avatar/display images on forums, blogs and other such sites on the internet. Myspace for example has many user pages that contain thousands of animated images that will cause to you jump off from the 9th floor. If you dont want that to happen to you, I suggest you learn this quick tip.

The solution to stop GIF images from animating for ever and ever(and this solution is only limited to GIF images... Flash is a different story) is to press the Escape key on your keyboard. Simple enough, isn't it? Plus, it works on any browser! Well, thank goodness its this simple, or else I would have long ago stopped using the internet.

Here's a test. Try to use the tip you've just learned to stop the annoying bug below.



See, I told ya it'd be helpful.

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Stop the Yahoo Messenger Spam!

If you too use Yahoo! Messenger like me, you've probably received an awful lot of IM spam from random people on yahoo messenger. Turns out, I'm not the only one. A lot of other people are having the same problem. Why is the Yahoo network so prone to random messages from spammers? Probably because the spammer doesn't have to be on your contact list in order to spam you, any random person can send you a message without your approval. And although this feature might be a pain in the neck, it's not hard to use it to your advantage. Here's how.

The solution to the problem is simply allowing only the people you know to reach you. Sadly, its a feature that only Yahoo Messenger (for now anyway) has because the Yahoo network (well AIM and other networks also have this feature, but Yahoo's the only one that seems to suffering the fury of the spammers right now) allows anyone to communicate with everyone on the network. So once a spammer has your Yahoo address, this is pretty much your only option.

How to ignore people you don't know in Yahoo Messenger

1. Click on Messenger after you open Yahoo Messenger
2. Click on Preferences
3. Click on Ignore List in the left column (this is the Privacy tab if you're using Yahoo Messenger on a Mac)
4. Then select the option 'Ignore Anyone who is not on my messaging list'
   
5. Click OK
   

The only downside here is that you have to add people to your contact list, and approve them before you can chat with them. But that's a small price to pay for being spam free.

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Fullscreen in Firefox on Mac OS X

Update: Finally, Firefox 3.6 (and onwards hopefully!) support fullscreen. Just Press the Command key + Shift key + F, or go to View > Full screen. Nevertheless, the method below might still be useful if you want to make the Firefox window a particular size, say 1024*768 or something like that for testing purposes.

_______________________

Mac: Hi, I'm a Mac. I look cool and interesting.
PC: And I'm a PC. I look ugly and boring.
Mac: Dude. You're so boring.
PC: I sure am.
Mac: I rock.
PC: Ya sure do.

- Some Apple commercial where Apple makes fun of "personal computers".

Yup. The Apple commercials sure are right. There is huge different between the Mac and PC lifestyles. I've been a switcher recently. And one big problem that I ran into recently is that a lot of things on the PC side aren't quite available to the Mac users.

Usually, when I'm on the PC, I hit F11 and Firefox goes into full screen mode. However, when I'm on Tiger or Leopard for that matter, hitting F11 will only show you your desktop. You can change that however through system preferences, but there's no way of going fullscreen on a mac :(. For other cocoa applications, Ian Henderson created a really lightweight and useful app/plug-in called megazoomer, but Firefox isn't exactly a cocoa application.

So, after searching the inter web for a while, I came across this lifehacker post. I then searched a bit more to find out what you can do with javascript and a bookmarklet. Turns out, you can do a lot.

To be honest, it's not possible to maximize a firefox window completely on a mac. However, it is possible to maximize the window to fit in the whole screen. To do this just follow these steps:

1. Create a new bookmark by right clicking on the bookmark toolbar. If you don't see the bookmark toolbar just go to View > Toolbars > check Bookmark toolbar.
2. Give the bookmark a name like Fullscreen (something that you can remember) and then paste the code below in the Location box. Make sure you paste all the code in 1 line only though, or else it won't work.

javascript:self.moveTo(0,0); self.resizeTo(screen.availWidth,screen.availHeight);


3. Click OK, and then just click on the Fullscreen button to maximize Firefox.

Then once you click on the Fullscreen Button, Firefox should then take up all the space that OS X allows an application to take up, depending on the size and position of your dock. Sometimes, when I'm viewing pictures, I like to minimize the dock by pressing Cmd + Option + D and this will allow Firefox to take up more space.

Do let me know if you find other ways of going Fullscreen in Firefox or any other Mac app for that matter.

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How to export Firefox Bookmarks to Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us! Ever heard of it? If your answer is no, then I highly recommend to take a look at del.ico.us. It's a really cool website where you can store your bookmarks online, and then access it from anywhere. But the best part is that you can tag them and make them public so the rest of the world can see what you're really into.

This post is all about how to export Firefox bookmarks into delicious, so that you can access them from anywhere. And if you're anything like me then you probably have a lot of bookmarks in Firefox, so you might want to back them up first.

The easiest way is to use the del.icio.us plugin. Once you install it just go to del.icio.us in the menubar > del.icio.us website > import bookmarks. You will have to be logged in to do this step.


If you don't wan to use he plug-in it is possible to upload the bookmarks that you have in Firefox manually as well.

Once you are done backing up your Firefox bookmarks, you are ready to export them into a HTML file. To do so

1. Click on Bookmarks in the menubar
2. Click on Organize Bookmarks
3. Click on File and then on Export

Then a window should pop-up prompting you to choose a file name. Just choose a file name and remember where you saved it.

Log into your del.icio.us account and click on settings in the upper right hand corner of the window. Then click on import / upload.

Here, browse for the HTML file that you just created, and then choose your desired settings. Once you click on the import now button, delicious will automatically start importing all the bookmarks. Once its done, all you're bookmarks will be stored on delicious forever, and you can access it from anywhere.

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Make VoIP phone calls for free

Voice over Internet Protocol is a technology that I find to be still in a stage of infancy. Nevertheless, this doesn't mean that we cannot take advantage of the benefits it provides us with. One of the most prominent benifits of VoIP is that it's cheaper than traditional phones, especially international calls, because essentially one simply uses the internet to call other people. However, although it might be cheap to call through VoIP, it almost always isn't free. Here are a couple of websites/applications that offer free VoIP services.

1. Gizmo Project - The guys over at Gizmo Project seem to offer a great deal for people who wish to try out VoIP, and allow you to call about 60 countries for free. Of course, they only give you about 40 minutes of time to take, and I presume that the actual time they give you is going to be a lot less but it is free if you wish to give it a go. I'm guessing the business model here is to get people to try it out, and then when they like it, charge them for their premium services.
   
2. Jajah - This is a pretty cool website where you type in your phone number, and then you type in your friend's phone number and the websites enables you to talk to your friend/who ever you want to talk to for free. You might want to take a look at the rates list to verify if the call is free or not.
   
3. Jaxtr - Works just like Jahjah. It connects you to the person that you want to talk to throught the web. Jaxtr also has a web widget which you can use to talk to other people
   
4. Jangl - Works just like Jahjah and Jaxtr, but it's more private and you first have to provide Jangl an email address of the person you wish to reach instead of a phone number. Jangl will then let you send them a voice mail, and if the person accepts it, it'll give that person a local number and send you a local number. You can then use that number to talk to each other.
5. The Pudding - Although this service is in beta and only open to beta testers, it allows you to talk to anyone in the US, completely free. The way they plan to make money is by showing relevant advertisements to you using speech recognition technology. I'm not sure if this would be a successful start up or not, but it will definitely be interesting to use this service.
   

So there you have it. 5 great ways to talk to most people around the world, totally for free! If you know any other services like this, do let me know.

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Excellent Blogging Tips from the Doc

Cory Doctorow from boingboing shares some of his thoughts on how to blog better to Thomas Crampton in this extremely cool video for anyone who wants to get into blogging.



Here's what I got from the video. It's pretty much the last part of the video but I'd like to summarize anyway, so that may be I'll remember it better.

1. Have descriptive headlines and at the same time make them interesting (although it needs to be informative, I take it that it doesn't always have to be dull and would much rather prefer writing a headline that has Oomph. Like "The B@sturds of Sep 11" instead of "Sep 11" or simply "Basturds")
   
2. Simplify the reading process for the reader - state what the article is about in the first paragraph, so that the reader can skip it.
   
3. Every post should be only 1 page instead of a bazillion pages
4. Respect the reader, and don't bombard them with ads and extra other unnecessary info
5. Don't sell yourself and be honest

After listening to Cory, I feel as though I should remove the read more link on the homepage of the blog.

The main reason I have a read more link is so that the home page and the archive pages load up quick, and people (especially those with dial-up) can only read more if they are interested in the post. But I guess I might have to switch the template to display full posts on every page instead of just the excerpts if a lot of people start complaining.

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Wait what? Why do I see ads on Beyond Teck?

Do you see ads on Beyond Teck? Yeah, I see them too.. because I put them there. Why? Because I felt like it!

Okay, not really. There are ads placed on the blog for a reason. A really big reason. The truth is that I'm trying to experiment and find out more about human psychology. Yeah, you read that stuff right. I'm currently performing an experiment on online advertising.

Why do an experiment on online advertising out of all other things I could be studying?

Google, the search engine giant, makes billions of dollars every year. Why? Because of Adsense. Surely, there must be a reason why online advertising is so successful. And there must also be a reason why some people can make a living off of advertising on the internet.

So, I decided to find out more about why people click, when do they click and if they will ever stop clicking in the future. This will give me an idea on why the internet as a whose is so successful, which I can then write a meaningful post (or perhaps even a e-book or something) on.

My plan is to do a qualitative and a quantitative analysis on why these ads really work. In order to accomplish this, I've volunteered my own blog to be the guinea pig. Over the course of the next few months, I plan to collect important data such as:

• What kind of a internet user clicks on the ads. these will be judged according to the target audience that will come to read a post and click on an ad - I'll be keeping an eye out for stuff like age, OS of choice, things they like and dislike and so on.
• What colours and tricks attract the users the most. Again, the kind of user will still be kept in mind while doing the quantative analysis.
• What tricks cause the most clicks. Stuff like blinking/fading backgrounds behind the ads, size of the ad and the colour of the URL in an adsense text ad etc.
• When do users click. This analysis is going to answer questions like -Sometimes, a user might be in desperate search for information, so is a user more likely to click on ads?

So as you can see, there are a lot of things that one can find out simply by looking at stats from Google analytics and running Adsense. Hopefully I have enough time to do these experiments though.

Okay, I've explained my reason why I chose to put ads on the site (yes this is a reason and not an excuse). Now it's your turn. Tell me what you think about adsense, online advertising etc.

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