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• Add a Cache Clearing Button to Firefox

  - by Asian Angel

  While emptying your browser’s cache may not be something that you need to worry with often or at all there are times when clearing it can be helpful. The Empty Cache Button extension lets you have instant on-demand cache clearing in Firefox. Some reasons why you might want or need to clear your browser’s cache: Clear out older (or out of date) versions of images, etc. from your favorite websites Free up disk space Clearing the cache may help fix browser behavior issues Help protect privacy (i.e. images, etc. displayed within a personal account) Before For our example we loaded three webpages in order to add content to our browser’s cache. Using the “CacheViewer” we were able to easily see the contents of our browser’s cache after the webpages finished loading. What if you need to clear your cache immediately without restarting your browser (if the options are set to empty the cache on browser exit)? Note: CacheViewer is available via a separate extension and can be found here. Empty Cache Button in Action Once you install the extension all that you need to do is right click on any of your browser’s toolbars and select “Customise”. Drag the “Toolbar Button” to an appropriate location in your browser’s UI and you are ready to go. To clear your browser’s cache simply click the button…that is all there is to it. When the cache is empty you will see this small message window appear in the lower right corner of your “Desktop”. Opening up the “CacheViewer” again shows that everything has been cleared out. Terrific! Conclusion If you ever find yourself needing to clear your browser’s cache immediately then the Empty Cache Button extension provides an easy way to do so without restarting your browser (if the options are set to empty the cache on browser exit). Links Download the Empty Cache Button extension (Mozilla Add-ons) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Change SuperFetch to Only Cache System Boot Files in VistaTroubleshoot Browsing Issues by Reloading the DNS Client Cache in VistaSearch for Install Packages from the Ubuntu Command LineQuick Tip: Empty Internet Explorer 7 Cache when Browser is ClosedRemove the New Tab Button in Firefox TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Use Quick Translator to Translate Text in 50 Languages (Firefox) Get Better Windows Search With UltraSearch Scan News With NY Times Article Skimmer SpeedyFox Claims to Speed up your Firefox Beware Hover Kitties Test Drive Mobile Phones Online With TryPhone

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• Building the Elusive Windows Phone Panorama Control

  When the Windows Phone 7 Developer SDK was released a couple of weeks ago at MIX10 many people noticed the SDK doesnt include a template for a Panorama control.   Here at Clarity we decided to build our own Panorama control for use in some of our prototypes and I figured I would share what we came up with. There have been a couple of implementations of the Panorama control making their way through the interwebs, but I didnt think any of them really nailed the experience that is shown in the simulation videos.   One of the key design principals in the UX Guide for Windows Phone 7 is the use of motion.  The WP7 OS is fairly stripped of extraneous design elements and makes heavy use of typography and motion to give users the necessary visual cues.  Subtle animations and wide layouts help give the user a sense of fluidity and consistency across the phone experience.  When building the panorama control I was fairly meticulous in recreating the motion as shown in the videos.  The effect that is shown in the application hubs of the phone is known as a Parallax Scrolling effect.  This this pseudo-3D technique has been around in the computer graphics world for quite some time. In essence, the background images move slower than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in 2D.  Here is an example of the traditional use: http://www.mauriciostudio.com/.  One of the animation gems I've learned while building interactive software is the follow animation.  The premise is straightforward: instead of translating content 1:1 with the interaction point, let the content catch up to the mouse or finger.  The difference is subtle, but the impact on the smoothness of the interaction is huge.  That said, it became the foundation of how I achieved the effect shown below.   Source Code Available HERE Before I briefly describe the approach I took in creating this control..and Ill add some **asterisks ** to the code below as my coding skills arent up to snuff with the rest of my colleagues.  This code is meant to be an interpretation of the WP7 panorama control and is not intended to be used in a production application.  1.  Layout the XAML The UI consists of three main components :  The background image, the Title, and the Content.  You can imagine each  these UI Elements existing on their own plane with a corresponding Translate Transform to create the Parallax effect.  2.  Storyboards + Procedural Animations = Sexy As I mentioned above, creating a fluid experience was at the top of my priorities while building this control.  To recreate the smooth scroll effect shown in the video we need to add some place holder storyboards that we can manipulate in code to simulate the inertia and snapping.  Using the easing functions built into Silverlight helps create a very pleasant interaction.    3.  Handle the Manipulation Events With Silverlight 3 we have some new touch event handlers.  The new Manipulation events makes handling the interactivity pretty straight forward.  There are two event handlers that need to be hooked up to enable the dragging and motion effects: the ManipulationDelta event :  (the most relevant code is highlighted in pink) Here we are doing some simple math with the Manipulation Deltas and setting the TO values of the animations appropriately. Modifying the storyboards dynamically in code helps to create a natural feel.something that cant easily be done with storyboards alone.   And secondly, the ManipulationCompleted event:  Here we take the Final Velocities from the Manipulation Completed Event and apply them to the Storyboards to create the snapping and scrolling effects.  Most of this code is determining what the next position of the viewport will be.  The interesting part (shown in pink) is determining the duration of the animation based on the calculated velocity of the flick gesture.  By using velocity as a variable in determining the duration of the animation we can produce a slow animation for a soft flick and a fast animation for a strong flick. Challenges to the Reader There are a couple of things I didnt have time to implement into this control.  And I would love to see other WPF/Silverlight approaches.  1.  A good mechanism for deciphering when the user is manipulating the content within the panorama control and the panorama itself.   In other words, being able to accurately determine what is a flick and what is click. 2.  Dynamically Sizing the panorama control based on the width of its content.  Right now each control panel is 400px, ideally the Panel items would be measured and then panorama control would update its size accordingly.  3.  Background and content wrapping.  The WP7 UX guidelines specify that the content and background should wrap at the end of the list.  In my code I restrict the drag at the ends of the list (like the iPhone).  It would be interesting to see how this would effect the scroll experience.     Well, Its been fun building this control and if you use it Id love to know what you think.  You can download the Source HERE or from the Expression Gallery  Erik Klimczak  | [email protected] | twitter.com/eklimczDid you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• What was missing from the Content Strategy Forum?

  - by Roger Hart

  In April, Paris hosted the first ever Content Strategy Forum. The event's website proudly proclaims: 170 attendees, 18 nationalities, 17 speakers, 1 volcano... Content Strategy Forum 2010 rocked the world! The volcano was in Iceland, and the closest we came to rocking the world was a cursory mention in the Huffington Post, but I'll grant the event was awesome. One thing missing from that list, however, is "94 companies" (Plus a couple of universities and freelancers, and what have you). A glance through the attendees directory reveals a fairly wide organisational turnout - 24 students from two Parisian universities, countless design and marketing agencies, a series of tech firms, small and large. Two delegates from IBM, two from ARM, an appearance from RIM, Skype, and Facebook; twelve from the various bits of eBay. Oh, and, err, nobody from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon, Play, Twitter, LinkedIn, Craigslist, the BBC, no banks I noticed, and I didn't spot a newspaper. You get the idea. Facebook notwithstanding, you have to scroll through a few pages to Alexa rankings to find company names from the attendee list. I find this interesting, and I'm not wholly sure what to make of it. Of the large, web-centric, content-rich organizations conspicuously absent, at least one of two things is true: They didn't know about the event They didn't care about the event Maybe these guys all have content strategy completely sorted, and it's an utterly naturalised part of their business process. Maybe nobody at say, Apple or Play.com ever publishes a single piece of content that isn't neatly tailored to their (clearly defined, of course) user and business goals. Wouldn't that be lovely? The thing is, in that rosy and beatific world, there's still a case for those folks to join the community. There are bound to be other perspectives, and things to learn. You see, the other thing achingly conspicuous by its absence was case studies. In her keynote address, Kristina Halvorson made the point that what content strategy really needs is some big, loud success stories. A point I'd firmly second as a content strategist working within an organisation. Sarah Cancilla's presentation on content strategy at Facebook included some very neat, specific examples, and was richer for it. It didn't hurt that the example was Facebook - you're getting impressively big numbers off base. What about the other big boys? Is there anybody out there with a perspective? Do we all just look very silly to you, fretting away over text and images and users and purposes? Is content validation and maintenance so accustomed a part of your business that calling attention to it is like sniffing the air and saying "Hmm, a lot of nitrogen about today."? And if it is, do you have any wisdom to share?

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• New regular expression features in PCRE 8.34 and 8.35

  - by Jan Goyvaerts

  PCRE 8.34 adds some new regex features and changes the behavior of a few to make it better compatible with the latest versions of Perl. There are no changes to the regex syntax in PCRE 8.35. \o{377} is now an octal escape just like \377. This syntax was first introduced in Perl 5.12. It avoids any confusion between octal escapes and backreferences. It also allows octal numbers beyond 377 to be used. E.g. \o{400} is the same as \x{100}. If you have any reason to use octal escapes instead of hexadecimal escapes then you should definitely use the new syntax. Because of this change, \o is now an error when it doesn’t form a valid octal escape. Previously \o was a literal o and \o{377} was a sequence of 337 o‘s. In free-spacing mode, whitespace between a quantifier and the ? that makes it lazy or the + that makes it possessive is now ignored. In Perl this has always been the case. In PCRE 8.33 and prior, whitespace ended a quantifier and any following ? or + was seen as a second quantifier and thus an error. The shorthand \s now matches the vertical tab character in addition to the other whitespace characters it previously matched. Perl 5.18 made the same change. Many other regex flavors have always included the vertical tab in \s, just like POSIX has always included it in [[:space:]]. Names of capturing groups are no longer allowed to start with a digit. This has always been the case in Perl since named groups were added to Perl 5.10. PCRE 8.33 and prior even allowed group names to consist entirely of digits. [[:<:]] and [[::]] are now treated as POSIX-style word boundaries. They match at the start and the end of a word. Though they use similar syntax, these have nothing to do with POSIX character classes and cannot be used inside character classes. Perl does not support POSIX word boundaries. The same changes affect PHP 5.5.10 (and later) and R 3.0.3 (and later) as they have been updated to use PCRE 8.34. RegexBuddy and RegexMagic have been updated to support the latest versions of PCRE, PHP, and R. Older versions that were previously supported are still supported, so you can compare or convert your regular expressions between the latest versions of PCRE, PHP, and R and whichever version you were using previously.

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• How to Make Ubuntu Play MP3 Files

  - by Trevor Bekolay

  Because of licensing issues, Ubuntu is unable to play MP3s out of the box. We’ll show you how to play MP3s and other restricted file formats in about four mouse clicks. The philosophy behind Ubuntu is that software should be free and accessible to all. Whether MP3 and other file formats are free is unclear in many countries, so Ubuntu does not include software to read these file formats by default. Fortunately, it does include a package that installs the most commonly used file formats all at once, including a Flash plugin for Firefox. Note: These instructions are for Ubuntu 10.04. There are small differences for earlier versions of Ubuntu. Play MP3 Files Open the Ubuntu Software Center, found in the Applications menu.   Click on View and ensure that All Software is selected. Type “restricted extras” into the search box at the top-right. Find the Ubuntu restricted extras package and click Install. Enter your password when prompted. Once the install is complete, close out of Ubuntu Software Center, and you’ll be able to play MP3 files! To confirm this, we’ll open up Rhythmbox, found in the Sound & Video section of the Applications menu. Our test MP3 plays with no problems! Note: If Rhythmbox tells you that MP3 plugins are not installed, close Rhythmbox and reopen it. You should not have to install anything extra through Rhythmbox.   Despite this extra step, playing the most common audio and video file formats – including Flash videos on the internet – is simple. All the software comes installed, you just have to teach them how to read your files. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How to Play .OGM Video Files in Windows VistaView Hidden Files and Folders in Ubuntu File BrowserMake Ubuntu Automatically Save Changes to Your SessionInstalling PHP4 and Apache on UbuntuInstalling PHP5 and Apache on Ubuntu TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 How to Forecast Weather, without Gadgets Outlook Tools, one stop tweaking for any Outlook version Zoofs, find the most popular tweeted YouTube videos Video preview of new Windows Live Essentials 21 Cursor Packs for XP, Vista & 7 Map the Stars with Stellarium

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• Make Windows Position Your Dual Monitors Correctly

  - by Mysticgeek

  If you have a dual monitor setup and each monitor is a different size or height, it can be annoying trying to move the mouse pointer between them. Here is a quick tip that will help make the process easier. Align Monitors In our example, we’re using Windows 7, but the process is essentially the same in all versions, but getting to Display Settings is different. In Windows 7 open the Start menu and type display settings into the search box and hit Enter. In Vista right-click the desktop and click Personalize. Then from the Personalize appearance and sounds menu click on Display Settings. In XP right-click on the desktop and select Properties then in Display Properties click the Settings tab. Now here is where you can change the appearance of your monitors. In this example we have a larger 22” LCD and a smaller 19” and it can be annoying getting the mouse pointer from one to another depending where you are on each monitor. So what you want to do is simply move each display around to a particular height so it’s easier to get the pointer over. For example with this setting we know we’ll have no problem moving the pointer to the other screen at the top of each display.   Of course here you can flip your monitors around, change the display resolution, orientation, etc. If you have dual monitors where one might be larger or set up higher than the other, then this is a great way to get them finely tuned. You will have to play around with the settings a bit to settle on what works best for you. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips GeekNewb: Get to Know These Windows 7 HotkeysDual Monitors: Use a Different Wallpaper on Each DesktopSet Windows as Default OS when Dual Booting UbuntuEasily Set Default OS in a Windows 7 / Vista and XP Dual-boot SetupSet XP as the Default OS in a Windows Vista Dual-Boot Setup TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Download Wallpapers From National Geographic Site Spyware Blaster v4.3 Yes, it’s Patch Tuesday Generate Stunning Tag Clouds With Tagxedo Install, Remove and HIDE Fonts in Windows 7 Need Help with Your Home Network?

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• Manage Your Twitter Account from the Sidebar in Firefox

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you a Twitter addict and need an easy way to manage your account in Firefox? Now you can access Twitter in your Sidebar or as a separate window with the TwitKit+ extension for Firefox. Accessing TwitKit+ There are three ways that you can access TwitKit+ after installing the extension. The first is by adding the “Toolbar Button” to your browser’s UI. The second and third methods are through the “View & Tools Menus”.   TwitKit+ in Action When you open TwitKit+ for the first time you will see Twitter’s “Public Tweet Stream”. To get started login into your account. Note: If you do not care for the “brown theme” you can select a different one in “Preferences”. Here is a closer look at the top area and the commands available. Notice the “blue arrow symbol” in the upper left corner…very useful if you want to separate TwitKit+ from your main browser window for a bit. Secure Mode, Undock, Preferences, Login/Logout Google Search, Twitter Search, Copy Selection To Status Box, Shorten Selected URL Public, User, Friends, Followers, @ Messages, Direct Messages, Profile Note: To use Google or Twitter search enter your term in the “Status Area” and click on the appropriate service icon. Here is the regular timeline for our account…the “clickable tab buttons” make everything easy to view and work with. You can perform actions such as replying, retweeting, marking as a favorite, etc. using the set of “management buttons” at the bottom of each tweet. To add a new tweet to your timeline enter your text and press “Enter”. A look at the “Following List” for our account. Having a more defined and separate “view categories” set makes this better than directly accessing the Twitter website. Preferences The preferences can be quickly sorted out…choose how often the timeline is updated, name display, favorite URL shortening service, theme, and font size. Note: The default connection setting is for “Secure Access”. Conclusion TwitKit+ makes a nice addition to Firefox for anyone who loves keeping up with Twitter throughout the day. There when you want it and out of your way the rest of the time. Links Download the TwitKit+ extension (Mozilla Add-ons) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Move Add-on Management to the Sidebar in FirefoxPreview and Manage Multiple Tabs in Firefox with Tab SidebarDisable Windows Sidebar in VistaQuick Tip: Use Google Talk Sidebar in FirefoxRun Windows Sidebar Gadgets Without the Sidebar TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Enable Check Box Selection in Windows 7 OnlineOCR – Free OCR Service Betting on the Blind Side, a Vanity Fair article 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less LEGO Digital Designer – Free Create a Personal Website Quickly using Flavors.me

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• Manage Your Twitter Account from the Sidebar in Firefox

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you a Twitter addict and need an easy way to manage your account in Firefox? Now you can access Twitter in your Sidebar or as a separate window with the TwitKit+ extension for Firefox. Accessing TwitKit+ There are three ways that you can access TwitKit+ after installing the extension. The first is by adding the “Toolbar Button” to your browser’s UI. The second and third methods are through the “View & Tools Menus”.   TwitKit+ in Action When you open TwitKit+ for the first time you will see Twitter’s “Public Tweet Stream”. To get started login into your account. Note: If you do not care for the “brown theme” you can select a different one in “Preferences”. Here is a closer look at the top area and the commands available. Notice the “blue arrow symbol” in the upper left corner…very useful if you want to separate TwitKit+ from your main browser window for a bit. Secure Mode, Undock, Preferences, Login/Logout Google Search, Twitter Search, Copy Selection To Status Box, Shorten Selected URL Public, User, Friends, Followers, @ Messages, Direct Messages, Profile Note: To use Google or Twitter search enter your term in the “Status Area” and click on the appropriate service icon. Here is the regular timeline for our account…the “clickable tab buttons” make everything easy to view and work with. You can perform actions such as replying, retweeting, marking as a favorite, etc. using the set of “management buttons” at the bottom of each tweet. To add a new tweet to your timeline enter your text and press “Enter”. A look at the “Following List” for our account. Having a more defined and separate “view categories” set makes this better than directly accessing the Twitter website. Preferences The preferences can be quickly sorted out…choose how often the timeline is updated, name display, favorite URL shortening service, theme, and font size. Note: The default connection setting is for “Secure Access”. Conclusion TwitKit+ makes a nice addition to Firefox for anyone who loves keeping up with Twitter throughout the day. There when you want it and out of your way the rest of the time. Links Download the TwitKit+ extension (Mozilla Add-ons) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Move Add-on Management to the Sidebar in FirefoxPreview and Manage Multiple Tabs in Firefox with Tab SidebarDisable Windows Sidebar in VistaQuick Tip: Use Google Talk Sidebar in FirefoxRun Windows Sidebar Gadgets Without the Sidebar TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Enable Check Box Selection in Windows 7 OnlineOCR – Free OCR Service Betting on the Blind Side, a Vanity Fair article 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less LEGO Digital Designer – Free Create a Personal Website Quickly using Flavors.me

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• Set App Windows to Always be on Top

  - by Asian Angel

  Sometimes you have a small app or other software that you want to keep topmost but how do you keep it on top without a lot of hassle? If this sounds like your situation then you might want to have a look at OnTop. Before For our example we had four individual apps open…any of the four could easily be on top at the moment. OnTop in Action The exe file for the app comes in a zip file. Simply unzip the file, place it in the Program Files Folder, create a shortcut and you are ready to go. Once you start OnTop you will see a new System Tray Icon…right click to access the Context Menu with a list of currently open apps. We decided to set Winamp to be always topmost first. Note: OnTop detected all three individual sections of our Winamp Player along with the individual monitors running in our Taskbar. Clicking on Paint.NET brought it forward over Firefox and Microsoft Word but Winamp was still sitting on top. Clicking on Microsoft Word next still did not affect Winamp’s topmost status. Nice. As soon as we switched the topmost status to Microsoft Word you can see that it immediately came to the front. One thing that we did note in our tests…the best method for switching topmost status is either to choose a different app or close the app that was topmost. Conclusion OnTop might be considered niche software but if you have an app window that you need to keep on top of other windows then you might want to give this small app a try. Links Download OnTop at Softpedia Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Use the Windows Key for the "Start" Menu in Ubuntu LinuxIncrease the Cached Logon Count for Windows Computers on a DomainUsing Windows 7 or Vista Compatibility ModeQuick Tip: Change the Registered Owner in WindowsMake Safari Stop Crashing Every 20 Seconds on Windows Vista TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 2010 World Cup Schedule Boot Snooze – Reboot and then Standby or Hibernate Customize Everything Related to Dates, Times, Currency and Measurement in Windows 7 Google Earth replacement Icon (Icons we like) Build Great Charts in Excel with Chart Advisor tinysong gives a shortened URL for you to post on Twitter (or anywhere)

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• How to Customize the Internet Explorer 8 Title Bar

  - by Mysticgeek

  If you’re looking for a way to personalize IE 8, one method is to customize the Title Bar. Here we look at a simple Registry hack that will get the job done. The Internet Explorer Title Bar is displayed on the top of the browser with the site name followed by Windows Internet Explorer by default. If you have a small office you might want to change it to the company name, or just change it something more personal at home.   Customize the IE 8 Title Bar Note: Before making any changes to the Registry, make sure to back it up. The first thing we need to do is open the Registry by typing regedit into the Search box in the Start Menu and hit Enter. With the Registry open, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main. Then create a new String Value and name it Window Title. Right-click on the Window Title String and enter in whatever you want to display on the Title Bar in the Value data field and click OK. When you’re done, you should see the new String called Windows Title with whatever you entered in as the value. Close out of the Registry. Restart or launch Internet Explorer and you’ll now see your new text in the Title Bar. If you want to change it to something else, just go in and modify the Value data. If you want to switch it back to the default, just go back in and delete the string we created. A lot of times you’ll see corporate branding already in the title bar from your ISP or some computer company. To get rid of it, check out The Geek’s article on how to remove it. This should work with other versions of Internet Explorer as well. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Remove ISP Text or Corporate Branding from Internet Explorer Title BarReset All Internet Explorer 8 Settings to Fix Stability ProblemsMysticgeek Blog: A Look at Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 on Windows XPDisable Third Party Extensions in Internet ExplorerToggle Flash On or Off in Internet Explorer the Easy Way TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows Video Toolbox is a Superb Online Video Editor Fun with 47 charts and graphs Tomorrow is Mother’s Day Check the Average Speed of YouTube Videos You’ve Watched OutlookStatView Scans and Displays General Usage Statistics How to Add Exceptions to the Windows Firewall

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• Keep Track of Your Tasks with toDoo

  - by Asian Angel

  A tasks list can be convenient but most times you can not include details for those tasks or have to have an online account to do so. If you want to keep your tasks list with you on your computer or laptop and be able to add plenty of details then you might want to look at toDoo. Note: Requires Adobe AIR (download link at bottom of article). toDoo in Action Once you have installed toDoo everything is rather straightforward for getting started. The first time that you start toDoo there will be a temporary “fill-in” for the “Subject & Details Areas”. Simply highlight over the temporary text and add your information. Notice that if desired you can easily set a custom date and time for your tasks right below the “Details Area”. Note: toDoo does not minimize to the “System Tray”. Once you have everything set all that you need to do is click on “add task”. Here was our first new task being viewed in the “toDoo Description Tab”. Time to add a second task…here you can see the drop-down calendar. You can scroll through and select a different month very easily…just click on the desired day and it will be automatically set. Adding our second task… If you need to edit any of the details for a particular task you can do so in the “Edit toDoo Tab”. This nice little app is convenient and easy to use. Conclusion ToDoo is a simple straightforward app that lets you keep track of your tasks list and relevant details without an online account (especially helpful if you are without a wireless connection at a given moment). If you are looking for more of a list approach that runs on your desktop, then check out our article on Doomi here. Links Download ToDoo at Softpedia Download ToDoo at Adobe Marketplace Download Adobe AIR Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Turn Chrome’s New Tab Page into a Google Tasks PageMake To-Do Bar in Outlook 2007 Show Only Today’s TasksAdd a non-Google Tasks List to ChromeKeep Track of Homework Assignments with SoshikuTrack the Amount of Time You Spend Online in Firefox TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Download Videos from Hulu Pixels invade Manhattan Convert PDF files to ePub to read on your iPad Hide Your Confidential Files Inside Images Get Wildlife Photography Tips at BBC’s PhotoMasterClasses Mashpedia is a Real-time Encyclopedia

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• Make the Firefox Awesome Bar Semi-Transparent Like Google Chrome

  - by Matthew Guay

  Would you like to make the Firefox Awesome Bar drop-down menu semi-transparent like in Google Chrome?  Here’s a quick trick that can make your Firefox Awesome Bar a bit more awesome. When you type an address or search query into the address bar in Google Chrome, the drop-down list of history and search suggestions that appears is slightly transparent.  Nothing extreme, but it adds a nice touch. Firefox’s Awesome bar, on the other hand, is fully opaque by default. We can change that with a simple change.  Exit Firefox, then open your Firefox profile folder by entering the following in the address bar in Explorer or in the Run command: %appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ Open the default folder, and then open the Chrome folder in it. Now, open the userChrome.css file in an editor such as Notepad.  If you do not have a userChrome.css file, open the userChrome-example.css file instead. Now, add the following to the end of the file: #PopupAutoCompleteRichResult[type="autocomplete-richlistbox"]{    opacity: 0.9 !important;} You can change the opacity value, but 0.9 seemed the closest to Chrome’s transparency while keeping the text readable. Save the file as userChrome.css in that same folder.  If you’re editing with Notepad, make sure to select to save as All Files so the file won’t be saved with a .txt extension. Open Firefox, and now your Awesome Bar’s drop-down list will be transparent.  Actually, it may look even more awesome than Google Chrome’s address bar! Conclusion With this simple trick, you can make your Firefox Awesome bar a bit more awesome.  With tweaks like this, it’s no wonder Firefox is still so popular. Special thanks to Daniel Spiewak for the tip! Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Stupid Geek Tricks: Compare Your Browser’s Memory Usage with Google ChromeHow to Make Google Chrome Your Default BrowserEnable Vista Black Style Theme for Google Chrome in XPMake your Gnome Terminal Background (mostly)Transparent on UbuntuStop YouTube Videos from Automatically Playing in Chrome TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 Use ILovePDF To Split and Merge PDF Files TimeToMeet is a Simple Online Meeting Planning Tool Easily Create More Bookmark Toolbars in Firefox Filevo is a Cool File Hosting & Sharing Site Get a free copy of WinUtilities Pro 2010 World Cup Schedule

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• Add Transitions to Slideshows in PowerPoint 2010

  - by DigitalGeekery

  Sitting through PowerPoint presentation can sometimes get a little boring. You can make your slideshows more interesting by adding transitions between the slides in your presentations. Transitions certainly aren’t new to PowerPoint, but Office 2010 adds a number of exciting new transitions and options. Add Transitions Select the slide to which you want to apply a transition. On the Transitions tab, select the More button to reveal the all transition options in the gallery.   Select the transition you’d like to apply to your slide. The transitions are divided into three types…Subtle, Exciting, and Dynamic Content. You can hover your mouse over each item in the gallery to preview the transition with Live Preview. You can adjust many of the transitions using Effect Options. The options will vary depending on which transition you’ve selected.   You can add additional customizations in the Timing Group. You can add sound by selecting one of the options in the Sound dropdown list…   You can change the duration of the transition… Or choose to advance the slide On Mouse Click (default) or automatically after a certain period of time.   If you’d like to apply one transition to every slide in your presentation, select the Apply To All button. You can preview your transition by clicking the Preview button on the Transitions tab. A few clicks is all it takes to add a little energy and excitement to an otherwise dry presentation.   Are you looking for more ways to spice up your PowerPoint 2010 slideshows? You could try adding animation to text and images, or adding video from the web. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Insert Tables Into PowerPoint 2007Bring Office 2003 Menus Back to 2010 with UBitMenuEmbed True Type Fonts in Word and PowerPoint 2007 DocumentsHow to Add Video from the Web in PowerPoint 2010Add Artistic Effects to Your Pictures in Office 2010 TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Windows Media Player Plus! – Cool WMP Enhancer Get Your Team’s World Cup Schedule In Google Calendar Backup Drivers With Driver Magician TubeSort: YouTube Playlist Organizer XPS file format & XPS Viewer Explained Microsoft Office Web Apps Guide

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• Add Global Hotkeys to Windows Media Player

  - by DigitalGeekery

  Do you use Windows Media Player in the background while working in other applications? The WMP Keys plug-in for Media Player adds global keyboard shortcuts that allow you to control Media Player even when it isn’t in focus. Windows Media Player has a slew of keyboard shortcuts that work only when the media player is active, but these shortcuts stop working once WMP is no longer in focus or minimized. WMP Keys add the following default global hotkeys for Windows Media Player 10, 11, and 12. Ctrl+Alt+Home – Play / Pause Ctrl+Alt+Right – Next track Ctrl+Alt+Left – Previous track Ctrl+Alt+Up Arrow Key – Volume Up Ctrl+Alt+Down Arrow Key – Volume Down Ctrl+Alt+F – Fast Forward Ctrl+Alt+B – Fast Backward Ctrl+Alt+[1-5] – Rate 1-5 stars Note: Tapping Ctrl+Alt+F and Ctrl+Alt+B will skip ahead or back in 5 second intervals. Close out of Windows Media Player and then download and install WMP Keys (link below). After you’ve installed WMP Keys, you’ll need to enable it. Select Organize and then Options… In the Options window, select the Plug-ins tab, click Background in the Category window, then check the box for Wmpkeys Plugin. Click OK to save and exit. You can also enable the plug-in by selecting Tools > Plug-ins and clicking Wmpkeys Plugin. You to view and edit the global hotkeys in the WMPKeys settings window. Select Tools > Plug-in properties and click Wmpkeys Plugin. Below you can see all the default WMP Keys shortcuts.   To change any of the shortcuts, select the text box then press the new keyboard shortcut. Click OK when finished. WMP Keys is very simple little plug-in that makes using WMP while you’re multitasking just a little bit easier and more efficient.  Looking for more plugins for Windows Media Player? Check out our previous articles on adding new features with Media Player Plus, and displaying song lyrics with Lyrics Plugin. Download WMP Keys Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Built-in Quick Launch Hotkeys in Windows VistaFixing When Windows Media Player Library Won’t Let You Add FilesKantaris is a Unique Media Player Based on VLCInstall and Use the VLC Media Player on Ubuntu LinuxAssign Keyboard Media Keys to Work in Winamp TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server XPS file format & XPS Viewer Explained Microsoft Office Web Apps Guide Know if Someone Accessed Your Facebook Account Shop for Music with Windows Media Player 12 Access Free Documentaries at BBC Documentaries Rent Cameras In Bulk At CameraRenter

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• How to Assign a Static IP to an Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop Computer

  - by Mysticgeek

  If you have a home network with several computers, assigning them static IP addresses can make troubleshooting easier. Today we take a look at switching from DHCP to a static IP in Ubuntu. Assign a Static IP Using Static IPs prevents address conflicts between machines and can allow easier access to them. If you have a small home network and are satisfied with the machines getting their IP address automatically via DHCP, there won’t be anything gained by using static addresses. Using Static IPs isn’t necessarily for the average user, but if you’re a geek who wants to know the address assigned to each machine, it can allow for faster troubleshooting.  To change your Ubuntu machine to a Static IP go to System \ Preferences \ Network Connections. In our example, we’re on a wired system so click on the Wired tab, then select Auto eth0 and click on Edit. Select the IPv4 settings tab, change Method to Manual, click the Add button. Then type in the Static IP Address, Subnet Mask, DNS Servers, and Default Gateway. Then click Apply when you’re finished. Make sure to hit Enter after typing in the Default Gateway otherwise it will revert back to 0.0.0.0 You’ll need to enter in your admin password before the changes go into affect. To verify the changes have been made successfully launch a Terminal session and type in ifconfig at the command prompt, or follow these directions. You also might want to ping the address from another machine to make sure everything is communicating. If you want to assign a Static IP to your Windows machines, check out our article on how to assign a Static IP on Windows systems (make sure to browse the comments as our readers have some good suggestions).  Whether you have a small office or home network set up with a server and several machines, using a Static IP on each device can help you manage them easily. Again, it isn’t for everyone as it really depends on how your network is setup and the way you use it. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Change Ubuntu Desktop from DHCP to a Static IP AddressAllow Remote Control To Your Desktop On UbuntuAssign Custom Shortcut Keys on Ubuntu LinuxKeyboard Ninja: 21 Keyboard Shortcut ArticlesChange Ubuntu Server from DHCP to a Static IP Address TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server TubeSort: YouTube Playlist Organizer XPS file format & XPS Viewer Explained Microsoft Office Web Apps Guide Know if Someone Accessed Your Facebook Account Shop for Music with Windows Media Player 12 Access Free Documentaries at BBC Documentaries

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• Gain Quick Access to the Cache in Firefox

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you looking for a quick and simple way to view the contents of the cache in Firefox? Then you will definitely want to see how easy it can be using the CacheViewer extension. Note: CacheViewer is a front-end app for easily accessing and searching the memory cache. Before Viewing the cache in Firefox using “about:cache” provides some information about the contents but may not be the most efficient method available for some people. CacheViewer in Action Once you have installed the extension there are three easy ways to access your new cache viewer. The first is using the “CacheViewer Command” available in the “Tools Menu” and the second is using the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl + Shift + C”. The third way is by adding a “Toolbar Button” to your browser’s UI. All three work equally well…choose the method that best suits your personal needs. When you access the “CacheViewer Window” this is what it will look like. You may decide to resize it and move (or hide) some of the columns for the best viewing. You can easily scroll through the cache contents and preview images if desired as shown here. If you keep the “CacheViewer Window” open you can refresh it as you browse using the “Refresh Button” in the lower right corner. This is a nice, quick, and very simple way to access the cache on demand and save items to your hard-drive if desired. Note: The “CacheViewer” can also be set to open in a new tab instead (see “Options”). Options Choose whether “CacheViewer” opens in a separate window (default) or in a new tab. Conclusion If you want a quick and simple way to view the cache in Firefox then the CacheViewer extension is just what you have been looking for. Link Download the CacheViewer extension (Mozilla Add-ons) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Add a Cache Clearing Button to FirefoxSearch for Install Packages from the Ubuntu Command LineQuick Tip: Empty Internet Explorer 7 Cache when Browser is ClosedView Internet Explorer Cache Files the Easy WayQuick Hits: 11 Firefox Tab How-Tos TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Out of band Security Update for Internet Explorer 7 Cool Looking Screensavers for Windows SyncToy syncs Files and Folders across Computers on a Network (or partitions on the same drive) If it were only this easy Classic Cinema Online offers 100’s of OnDemand Movies OutSync will Sync Photos of your Friends on Facebook and Outlook

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• F# &ndash; Immutable List vs a Mutable Collection in Arrays

  - by MarkPearl

  Another day gone by looking into F#. Today I thought I would ramble on about lists and arrays in F#. Coming from a C# background I barely ever use arrays now days in my C# code – why you may ask – because I find lists generally handle most of the business scenario’s that I come across. So it has been an interesting experience with me keep bumping into Array’s & Lists in F# and I wondered why the frequency of coming across arrays was so much more in this language than in C#. Take for instance the code I stumbled across today. let rng = new Random() let shuffle (array : 'a array) = let n = array.Length for x in 1..n do let i = n-x let j = rng.Next(i+1) let tmp = array.[i] array.[i] <- array.[j] array.[j] <- tmp array   Quite simply its purpose is to “shuffle” an array of items. So I thought, why does it have the “a’ array'” explicitly declared? What if I changed it to a list? Well… as I was about to find out there are some subtle differences between array’s & lists in F# that do not exist in C#. Namely, mutability. A list in F# is an ordered, immutable series of elements of the same type, while an array is a fixed-size zero based, mutable collection of consecutive data elements that are all of the same type. For me the keyword is immutable vs mutable collection. That’s why I could not simply swap the ‘a array with ‘a list in my function header because then later on in the code the syntax would not be valid where I “swap” item positions. i.e. array.[i] <- array.[j] would be invalid because if it was a list, it would be immutable and so couldn’t change by its very definition.. So where does that leave me? It’s to early days to say. I don’t know what the balance will be in future code – will I typically always use lists or arrays or even have a balance, but time will tell.

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• Should I be wary of signing a non-disclosure agreement with someone I just met?

  - by Thomas Levine

  tl;dr: Some guy I just met says he wants me to join his company. Before he shows me what they do, he wants me to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Is this weird? I'm traveling right now. Someone who saw me coding seemed to think I was smart or something and started talking with me. He explained that he owns a software company, told me a bit about what it does and told me that he was looking for a programmer who would work for a stake in the company. He explained that the company's product is being developed rather secretly, so he couldn't tell me much. But he did tell enough about the product to convince me that he's not completely making this up, which is a decent baseline. He suggested that he show me more of what he's been working on and, after seeing that, I decide whether I want to join. Because of the secrecy behind the product, he wants me to sign a non-disclosure agreement before we talk. I'm obviously somewhat skeptical because of the random nature by which we met. In the short term, I'm wondering if I should be wary of signing such an agreement. He said it would be easier to show me the product in person rather than over the internet, and I'm leaving town tomorrow, so I'd have to figure this out by tomorrow. If I decide to talk with him, I could decide later whether I trust that it's worth spending any time on this company. The concept of being able to avoid telling a secret seems strange to me for the same reason that things like certain aspects of copyright seem strange. Should I be wary of signing a non-disclosure agreement? Is this common practice? I don't know the details of the agreement of which he was thinking, (If I end up meeting with him, I'll of course read over the agreement before I decide whether to sign it.) so I could consider alternatives according to the aspects of the agreement. Or I could just consider the case of an especially harsh agreement. This question seems vaguely related. Do we need a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)? Thanks

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• Add "My Dropbox" to Your Windows 7 Start Menu

  - by The Geek

  Over here at How-To Geek, we’re huge fans of Dropbox, the amazingly fast online file sync utility, but we’d be even happier if we could natively add it to the Windows 7 Start Menu, where it belongs. And today, that’s what we’ll do. Yep, that’s right. You can add it to the Start Menu… using a silly hack to the Libraries feature and renaming the Recorded TV library to a different name. It’s not a perfect solution, but you can access your Dropbox folder this way and it just seems to belong there. First things first, head into the Customize Start Menu panel by right-clicking on the start menu and using Properties, then make sure that Recorded TV is set to “Display as a link”. Next, right-click on Recorded TV, choose Rename, and then change it to something else like My Dropbox.   Now you’ll want to right-click on that button again, and choose Properties, where you’ll see the Library locations in the list… the general idea is that you want to remove Recorded TV, and then add your Dropbox folder. Oh, and you’ll probably want to make sure to set “Optimize this library for” to “General Items”. At this point, you can just click on My Dropbox, and you’ll see, well, Your Dropbox! (no surprise there). Yeah, I know, it’s totally a hack. But it’s a very useful one! Also, if you aren’t already using Dropbox, you should really check it out—2 GB for free, accessible via the web from anywhere, and you can sync to multiple desktops. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Use the Windows Key for the "Start" Menu in Ubuntu LinuxAccess Your Dropbox Files in Google ChromeSpeed up Windows Vista Start Menu Search By Limiting ResultsPin Any Folder to the Vista Start Menu the Easy WayEnable "Pin to Start Menu" for Folders in Windows Vista / XP TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Classic Cinema Online offers 100’s of OnDemand Movies OutSync will Sync Photos of your Friends on Facebook and Outlook Windows 7 Easter Theme YoWindoW, a real time weather screensaver Optimize your computer the Microsoft way Stormpulse provides slick, real time weather data

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• SQL SERVER – Public Training and Private Training – Differences and Similarities

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier this year, I was on Road SQL Server Seminars. I did many SQL Server Performance Trainings and SQL Server Performance Consultations throughout the year but I feel the most rewarding exercise is always the one when instructor learns something from students, too. I was just talking to my wife, Nupur – she manages my logistics and administration related activities – and she pointed out that this year I have done 62% consultations and 38% trainings. I was bit surprised as I thought the numbers would be reversed. Every time I review the year, I think of training done at organizations. Well, I cannot argue with reality, I have done more consultations (some would call them projects) than training. I told my wife that I enjoy consultations more than training. She promptly asked me a question which was not directly related but made me think for long time, and in the end resulted in this blog post. Nupur asked me: what do I enjoy the most, public training or private training? I had a long conversation with her on this subject. I am not going to write long blog post which can change your life here. This is rather a small post condensing my one hour discussion into 200 words. Public Training is fun because… There are lots of different kinds of attendees There are always vivid questions Lots of questions on questions Less interest in theory and more interest in demos Good opportunity of future business Private Training is fun because… There is a focused interest One question is discussed deeply because of existing company issues More interest in “how it happened” concepts – under the hood operations Good connection with attendees This is also a good opportunity of future business Here I will stop my monologue and I want to open up this question to all of you: Question to Attendees - Which one do you enjoy the most – Public Training or Private Training? Question to Trainers - What do you enjoy the most – Public Training or Private Training? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Optimization, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Training, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• Gawker Passwords

  - by Nick Harrison

  There has been much news about the hack of the Gawker web sites. There has even been an analysis of the common passwords found. This list is embarrassing in many ways. The most common password was "123456". The second most common password was "password". Much has also been written providing advice on how to create good passwords. This article provides some interesting advice, none of which should be taken. Anyone reading my blog, probably already knows the importance of strong passwords, so I am not going to reiterate the reasons here. My target audience is more the folks defining password complexity requirements. A user cannot come up with a strong password, if we have complexity requirements that don't make sense. With that in mind, here are a few guidelines:  Long Passwords Insist on long passwords. In some cases, you may need to change to allow a long password. I have seen many places that cap passwords at 8 characters. Passwords need to be at least 8 characters minimal. Consider how much stronger the passwords would be if you double the length. Passwords that are 15-20 characters will be that much harder to crack. There is no need to have limit passwords to 8 characters. Don't Require Special Characters Many complexity rules will require that your password include a capital letter, a lower case letter, a number, and one of the "special" characters, the shits above the number keys. The problem with such rules is that the resulting passwords are harder to remember. It also means that you will have a smaller set of characters in the resulting passwords. If you must include one of the 9 digits and one of the 9 "special" characters, then you have dramatically reduced the character set that will make up the final password. Two characters will be one of 10 possible values instead of one of 70. Two additional characters will be one of 26 possible characters instead of a 70 character potential character set. If you limit passwords to 8 characters, you are left with only 7 characters having the full set of 70 potential values. With these character restrictions in place, there are 1.6 x1012 possible passwords. Without these special character restrictions, but allowing numbers and special characters, you get a total of 5.76x1014 possible passwords. Even if you only allowed upper and lower case characters, you will still have 2.18X1014 passwords. You can do the math any number of ways, requiring special characters will always weaken passwords. Now imagine the number of passwords when you require more than 8 characters.  If you are responsible for defining complexity rules, I urge you to take these guidelines into account. What other guidelines do you follow?

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• Share Your Top 30 Visited Domains with Visitation Cloud for Firefox

  - by Asian Angel

  Curious about the domains that you visit most or perhaps you want a way to share that information on a social website? Now you can see and share the 30 most visited domains in your browser’s history with the Visitation Cloud extension. Accessing Visitation Cloud As soon as you install the extension you can get started using it. Depending on how your browser’s UI is set up there are three methods for accessing Visitation Cloud: a “Visitation Cloud Button” inserted at the end of your “Bookmarks Toolbar”, a menu listing in the “Tools Menu”, and a “Toolbar Button” (not shown here). Visitation Cloud in Action As soon as you activate Visitation Cloud a new window will appear with your top domains displayed in a cloud format. Keep in mind that this is more than just a static image…each listing is actually a clickable link. Clicking on any of the listings will open that domain in a new tab or window depending on your particular browser settings. If you feel that you have a great set of links and want to share it with your friends then that is easy to do. Right click anywhere within the Visitation Cloud Window and select “Save as…”. The “cloud image” can be saved in “.png, .jpg, or Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg)” format. For our example we chose the “.svg format”. Perhaps you love the set of links but not the layout…right click and select “Randomize” to change how the cloud looks. Here is our cloud after being “Randomized”. Things definitely got moved around… Accessing the Visitation Cloud Image in other Browsers Once you have your “cloud image” saved you can share it with friends or save it for your own future use in other browsers. Here is our “cloud image” open in Opera Browser with link opening in progress. The same “cloud image” open in Google Chrome. Very nice… Conclusion While this may not be something that everyone will use Visitation Cloud does make for a rather unique, interesting, & fun way to access and share your most visited domains. Links Download the Visitation Cloud extension (Mozilla Add-ons) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Fix "Security Error: Domain Name Mismatch" Warning in FirefoxAdd Variety to Your Searches with Search CloudletRestore Your Missing/Deleted Smart Bookmarks Folder in Firefox 3Blocking Spam from International Senders in Windows Vista MailSee Where a Package is Installed on Ubuntu TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Share High Res Photos using Divvyshot Draw Online using Harmony How to Browse Privately in Firefox Kill Processes Quickly with Process Assassin Need to Come Up with a Good Name? Try Wordoid StockFox puts a Lightweight Stock Ticker in your Statusbar

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• New Themes New Benefits (WinForms)

  We believe that working hard on something can be great fun at the end when everything is done and the seeds have resulted in the sweetest fruits. This is the case with the new Theming Mechanism and the new Visual Style Builder which we introduced as of Q1 2010.   I am not going to dive into any details on the new concepts behind all this stuff, but will simply focus on the numbers: both in terms of loading speed and memory usage. As you may already know, the new approach we use to style our controls uses the so called Style Repository which stores style settings that can be reused throughout the whole theme. As a result, we have estimated that the size of our themes has been significantly reduced. For instance, the size of all XML files of the Desert theme sums up to 1.83 MB. The case with the new version of the Desert theme is drastically different. Despite the fact that the new theme consists of more XML files compared to the old, its size is only 707 KB!   Furthermore, we have performed a simple performance test since the common sense tells us that such a great improvement in terms of memory footprint should be followed by a great improvement in terms of speed. We have estimated that loading and applying the new Desert theme to a form containing all RadControls for WinForms takes roughly 30% less time compared to the same operation with the old version of the Desert theme. The following screenshots briefly demonstrate the scenario which we used to estimate the loading time difference between the old and the new Desert theme:     Here, the old Desert theme is applied to all controls on the Form which takes almost 1,3 seconds.     Applying the new Desert theme (based on the new Theming Mechanism) takes about 0,78 seconds.   On top of all these great improvements, we can add the fact that the new Visual Style Builder significantly reduces the time needed to style a control by entirely changing the approach compared to the old version of this tool. You can be sure that we have already prepared some great new stuff for Q1 2010 SP1 that will simplify things further so that designing themes with the new VSB will become more fun than ever!Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• New Themes New Benefits (WinForms)

  We believe that working hard on something can be great fun at the end when everything is done and the seeds have resulted in the sweetest fruits. This is the case with the new Theming Mechanism and the new Visual Style Builder which we introduced as of Q1 2010.   I am not going to dive into any details on the new concepts behind all this stuff, but will simply focus on the numbers: both in terms of loading speed and memory usage. As you may already know, the new approach we use to style our controls uses the so called Style Repository which stores style settings that can be reused throughout the whole theme. As a result, we have estimated that the size of our themes has been significantly reduced. For instance, the size of all XML files of the Desert theme sums up to 1.83 MB. The case with the new version of the Desert theme is drastically different. Despite the fact that the new theme consists of more XML files compared to the old, its size is only 707 KB!   Furthermore, we have performed a simple performance test since the common sense tells us that such a great improvement in terms of memory footprint should be followed by a great improvement in terms of speed. We have estimated that loading and applying the new Desert theme to a form containing all RadControls for WinForms takes roughly 30% less time compared to the same operation with the old version of the Desert theme. The following screenshots briefly demonstrate the scenario which we used to estimate the loading time difference between the old and the new Desert theme:     Here, the old Desert theme is applied to all controls on the Form which takes almost 1,3 seconds.     Applying the new Desert theme (based on the new Theming Mechanism) takes about 0,78 seconds.   On top of all these great improvements, we can add the fact that the new Visual Style Builder significantly reduces the time needed to style a control by entirely changing the approach compared to the old version of this tool. You can be sure that we have already prepared some great new stuff for Q1 2010 SP1 that will simplify things further so that designing themes with the new VSB will become more fun than ever!Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Save Links for Later Reading in Firefox

  - by Asian Angel

  Do you want a simple way to save and manage links for reading later? The Save-To-Read extension for Firefox makes it easy to do without an account. Using Save-To-Read As soon as you install the extension you will notice two new additions to your UI. You will see a small plus sign in the address bar and a new toolbar button (opens and closes the sidebar shown here). Your bookmarks menu will also have a new folder entry. For our example we chose to save three pages for later reading. Each time you want to save a website click on the small plus sign, and it is automatically added to your read later list. Our second article… And finally the third article. Notice that the small plus sign has become a minus sign after adding the article to our list. Opening the sidebar shows our three entries waiting to be read. Checking the bookmarks menu shows the same articles available there. When you are ready to read your articles simply click on the link in the sidebar, bookmarks menu, etc. Notice that the entry is still available at the moment…there are no automatic deletions until you are finished with an article. This is great if you accidentally click the wrong link before you are ready for it. Removing an article from the list is as simple as clicking on the address bar minus sign. It will revert to a plus sign and the entry is no longer visible in your list. For those who want to avoid using a sidebar there is a different toolbar button available too. The alternate toolbar button provides access to a drop-down article list. Choose the access style that best suits your needs. Preferences The preferences are simple to work with and focus on appearance/ease-of-use. Conclusion If you have been looking for a simpler alternative to other “read later” extensions, then Save-To-Read could be just what you have been waiting for. Another cool option for reading posts later, even on eReaders, then check out our article on saving articles to read later with Instapaper. Links Download the Save-To-Read extension (Mozilla Add-ons) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Save Pages for Later With Reading List Extension for FirefoxInstall Adobe PDF Reader on Ubuntu EdgyQuick Hits: 11 Firefox Tab How-TosSave Webpage Links & URLs as Files in FirefoxQuick Tip: Save Windows and Tabs When Restarting Firefox TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server TubeSort: YouTube Playlist Organizer XPS file format & XPS Viewer Explained Microsoft Office Web Apps Guide Know if Someone Accessed Your Facebook Account Shop for Music with Windows Media Player 12 Access Free Documentaries at BBC Documentaries

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