CyberNet Classics - CyberNotes

CyberNotes: USB Travel Devices

CyberNotes: Some of the Best Unknown Travel Gadgets

Ashley — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:41:13 -0600

This article was written on January 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

Weekend Warrior

There are all kinds of gadgets designed specifically for traveling. Here are some of the best ones that you probably haven’t heard about.

–Solar Powered Cooling Pith Helmet–

First up is the Safari-grade helmet from Hammacher. It may look a little funny, but it will be sure to keep you cool when you’re out in the hot weather. It uses rays of the sun to power a small fan, and a quiet motor is powered by compact solar panels. Have no worries either, at night or when the clouds are covering the sun, you can power this hat by using two AA batteries. It’s made from straw that is lightweight and easy to carry. Also important to note: Apparently it’s pretty popular! Hammacher is all sold out “due to the popularity of the item!”

Price: $49.95

–Cell Phone Mini Projector–

I bet you never thought your phone could also be a projector! Code named GPP, it has not yet been released yet to the public, but could possibly be a great tool for those traveling on business. You’re able to transform your cell phone into a very portable projector. While the size may be a little large for a phone, it works greats as an ultra portable projector. It also has a swivel LCD screen, and a D-pad to control navigation menu.

Price: No price yet, it hasn’t been released.

– Solar Generator Briefcase–

This is another item you probably haven’t ever thought about before. If you carry around a briefcase when you travel, why not carry the Solar generator briefcase? It’s perfect for the great outdoors when you don’t have electricity. You could always drag along a gas powered generator, or you could simply use the SOL8-Solar Generator Briefcase. It’s powerful enough to run laptops, small tools, DC refrigerators, GPS, etc. Two solar panels on this briefcase generate 13 watts of power! It’s fairly lightweight and small at 9.7lbs., and measuring 20.1 x 14.7 x 1.6 inches.

Price: $139.95

–StashCard–

This is a pretty clever way to make use of that empty PC card slot in your laptop. The StashCard is exactly what the name says. It looks like a card, and it’s perfect for stashing a variety of things like:

Memory cards
Money
Stamps
Extra keys
Screen cleaning clothes
Photos

Not to mention, it’s also really affordable!

Price: $7.95

– Inflatable Massage Chair–

Last on the list is the inflatable massage chair. It would work well when you’re traveling for business, and you don’t have all of the comforts of home, like relaxing in your favorite chair. It inflates electrically in less than 2 minutes, and includes a remote handset. It also has three levels of intensity with massage zones in the back. Great for a massage, on the go!

Price: $49.97

Source: Techeblog

CyberNotes: Your Week In Review With Sunday’s Summary

CyberNotes: Your Week in Review with Sunday’s Summary

CyberNotes: Windows Vista Tips and Tricks

Ryan — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:26:23 -0600

This article was written on February 01, 2007 by CyberNet.

Special Vista Edition: Part 3

This is the third and last part of our special Vista Edition of CyberNotes this week. We’ve already reviewed all of the various applications and features that are included in Vista, as well as covering some add-ons that can be used to make Internet Explorer 7 even better. I wanted to wrap up today by offering some tips and tricks on using Vista.

Here are the tips and tricks listed in this article:

Checkboxes and Dragging Files/Folders
Taking Full Advantage of Flip3D
Quick Calendar View
Slow Down Aero Animations
Scale Desktop Images to make them Larger or Smaller
Keyboard Shortcut to Launch Quick Launch Apps
Customize the Location of User Folders
Open Command Prompt Here
Modifying Vista’s BCDEDIT the Easy Way
Disable User Account Control (UAC)
Get a Report on your System’s Health
Temporarily View Menu Bar in Windows Explorer
Overview

–Checkboxes and Dragging Files/Folders–

Vista makes you very aware of when you are doing things with files and folders to prevent accidents from happening. I’m sure it’s happened to all of us at some point or another, where we accidentally dragged a folder or file somewhere and didn’t realize it.

First, go to the Folder Options in Vista, then the View tab, and check the box that says “Use check boxes to select items.” Now when you’re selecting multiple items, Windows Explorer will place a checkbox on that item so that you can easily see what items you currently have selected:

The other thing that I wanted to mention was dragging files around in Vista. If you have multiple files selected it will show you how many items you are actually dragging which can be really helpful at preventing accidents from occurring:

–Taking Full Advantage of Flip3D–

Flip3D is one of Vista’s new ways to switch between running applications. It angles all of the open windows so that they can all be seen at the same time, but there are some things you may not realize you can do with it:

Note: To activate Flip3D press the Windows Key + Tab

Use your mouse’s scroll wheel to quickly flip through the open windows.
Use the arrows to flip through the open windows
Click on any portion of a window with your mouse to quickly switch to it without having to flip through them.

–Quick Calendar View–

By left-clicking on the clock in the System Tray you’ll get a nice calendar popup. Once you get used to having quick access to a calendar like this you’ll take it for granted. Also, if you observe Daylight Savings Time it will notify you one-week prior to setting your clocks back so that you don’t forget.

–Slow Down Aero Animations–

The Aero Glass interface is pretty nifty, but the animations happen so quickly that there just isn’t enough time for you to savor them.

No problem! It requires a little Registry work to tweak the timing, but it might be worth the extra “wow” factor.

Click on the Start button and in the Search field type regedit. Press Enter.
Click Continue if you see a User Account Control Prompt.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
In the right hand pane, right click on an empty space and from the context menu that appears choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Give the new DWORD (32-bit) Value a name of AnimationsShiftKey
Double click on the AnimationsShiftKey value and give it a value of 1.
Close the Registry Editor and logoff of Windows and log back in to see the effect.

You’ll only see the effect of the slow animation when holding down the Shift key, so it doesn’t completely hinder your productivity. The source of this tweak also found out that the coolest animation has to be when starting Windows Flip3D by pressing CTRL+WinKey+Tab and then holding the Shift button while clicking on a window. It’s just something you gotta see at least once.

Source: Windows Now

–Scale Desktop Images to make them Larger or Smaller–

While on your Desktop hold down the Control button on the keyboard and start scrolling with the scroll wheel on your mouse. You’ll notice that you can make the icons on the desktop very small or very large. Here is the smallest and largest that you can make the icons:

–Keyboard Shortcut to Launch Quick Launch Apps–

Open any of your applications or documents in the Quick Launch bar by simply pressing the Windows Key + Num where “Num” corresponds to the position of the shortcut. Here is an example of how the numbering scheme works (for example, Internet Explorer would be Windows Key + 3):

–Customize the Location of User Folders–

The most important things on your computer are probably your documents, music and pictures. The custom locations option is something you’ll love if you happen to place these things on a separate drive just incase the Windows hard drive fails. That’s what I do and now I can point the My Music, My Pictures, and My Documents folder to the location on a different hard drive. Then whenever I click a link to one of those locations it will immediately pull up the results from that other drive.

–Open Command Prompt Here–

You can easily open a command prompt window pointing to any directory by simply right-clicking on a folder while holding down the Shift key. That will reveal the “hidden” option that says “Open Command Window Here“:

–Modifying Vista’s BCDEDIT the Easy Way–

Microsoft changed how users modify the boot entries available when starting your PC. If you want to do something simple like modifying the name of the operating system that appears, you’ll be forced to go to the Command Prompt because Vista uses BCDEDIT. However, there is an alternative that I have talked about before called VistaBootPro that makes this chore a lot easier.

–Disable User Account Control (UAC)–

If you get tired of those User Account Control prompts always popping up wanting to get your permission, just disable them. To do this just go to the Control Panel -> User Accounts and Family Safety -> User Accounts -> Turn User Account Control On or Off. After doing this you will have to restart your computer though.

–Get a Report on your System’s Health–

It’s always nice to know that your computer is up to par when it comes to its’ health. That’s why you can generate a health report in a few minutes that analyzes a bunch of different aspects of your system. Pulling up the report is pretty simple, just go to the Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> Performance Information and Tools -> Advanced Tools (located in the left sidebar) -> Generate a system health report.

If something is not quite right this report will be sure to tell you after it is done analyzing your system. Who knows, a health report might be just what the doctor ordered.

Source: ZDNet

–Temporarily View Menu Bar in Windows Explorer–

The Menubar (File, Edit, View, Tools, etc…) is hidden by default in Vista when using Windows Explorer. It can be enabled by going to Organize -> Layout -> Menu Bar but I think you’ll find that you hardly need it. If, however, you do want it real quick just press the Alt key while in Windows Explorer to temporarily reveal the Menu Bar. It will disappear immediately after making a selection in one of the menus.

–Overview–

That completes our first Vista tweak guide. If you found any of these interesting you should make sure to follow future postings closely because I’m sure we’ll find other great things to tweak as we are able to play around with Vista a little more.

Microsoft Windows Vista 5365 Tips And Tricks

CyberNotes: Your Week in Review with Sunday’s Summary

CyberNotes: Your Week in Review with Sunday’s Summary

Ashley — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:05:30 -0600

This article was written on July 06, 2008 by CyberNet.

Sunday’s Summary

What was going on this week at CyberNet News and Learn Firefox? Here’s your chance to catch-up if you missed something!

Monday: A Look at Microsoft’s Main Redmond Campus
Tuesday: Automatic Text Replacement Programs
Wednesday: CyberSearch Firefox Extension
Thursday: Assign Driver Letters to Folders in Windows
Friday: More Dumb Laws from Around the U.S.
Saturday: Get Company Reviews and Salary Information

CyberNotes: Week In Review With Sunday’s Summary

CyberNotes: How to Copy a DVD Movie

Ryan — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:55:44 -0600

This article was written on August 02, 2007 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

What would you do if you lost your entire movie collection? Wouldn’t it be nice to have some backups laying around in case someone scratched your precious Rudy video or your dog ate an entire season of the Simpsons?

A popular application called DVD Decrypter lets you copy an entire DVD onto your computer’s hard drive, and it bypasses any copy protection mechanisms that would make duplicating a store-bought DVD otherwise impossible. The only problem is that new copy protection algorithms are frequently being created, and this application hasn’t been updated since 2005.

For that reason you should use Free DVD (kudos to xpgeek in the forum for pointing this out). It can copy an entire movie to the hard disk while removing all traces of copy protection (CSS, RC, RCE, APS, UOPs and Sony ARccOS). This application is frequently updated, and best of all it’s not hard to use nor does it require any installation.

How you copy a DVD movie:

Put the movie you want to copy in the DVD drive of your computer. Open up the contents of the DVD using a file explorer, such as Windows Explorer, and copy the VIDEO_TS folder to a location on your hard drive.

Download and run Free DVD (the free version, not the Platinum). It’s only 44KB, and doesn’t require any installation.
In Free DVD, select the VIDEO_TS folder you copied to your hard drive in the first step. You’ll receive a prompt notifying you of the restrictions that will be removed.
You probably won’t need to adjust any of the settings, but go ahead and do so if it’s needed. Then press the Free DVD! button to remove all copy restrictions from the movie.
Then if you want to put this video on a DVD you can use DVD Shrink. This program will also remove copy protections, but it is well over a year old and you’ll probably run into some DVD’s that it doesn’t work with. If you use Free DVD first then all of your issues should be solved. The great thing about DVD Shrink is that it will also cut down the size of the video so that it will fit on a normal DVD instead of needing a dual-layer disc.

Backing up your DVD’s has never been so easy! Now remember, these instructions are for educational purposes only, and I guess they should only be used on your own home-made movies that you apply copy protection to.

Once again a big thanks goes out to xpgeek in the forum for pointing out this great app!

CyberNotes: Kaleidescape Stores All Of Your Media

Coming Soon: Copy your Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs Legally

Windows Vista Supports Copying Movies

CyberNotes: Always Group Similar Taskbar Buttons in Windows

CyberNotes: Do more with your Windows Taskbar

Ryan — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:54:26 -0600

This article was written on January 02, 2007 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

One of the things that you probably use the most on your Windows computer is the Taskbar, right? I’m not just talking clicking because think about how many times your eyes wonder down to see what time it is in the System Tray. One thing that I find that Windows Vista (to be released January 30, 2007) still lacks are some features that make using the Taskbar more efficient. Let’s see if we can find some freeware tools that will make things a little easier…

–What the Taskbar Can Do By Default–

There is one thing that the Windows Taskbar can do by default that most people don’t realize, and that’s performing operations on multiple windows simultaneously. This is by no means an extravagant trick but if you didn’t know about it then you’ll probably find it to be useful.

If you Ctrl+Click on multiple Taskbar items and then right-click you’ll be presented with some operations that you can perform on all of the selected programs. Whether it be closing them all, minimizing them, or tiling/cascading them so that they are easier to see:

–Easy Access Calculator (Homepage)–

Over time I have noticed that I trust my mental math less and I reach for the calculator more. I guess that is more figuratively speaking though, because more times than not I find myself popping up the built-in Windows Calculator to get the job done. Most of the time I am wanting to just add or multiply a few numbers so all I need is something simple.

Have no fear…the Taskbar Calculator is here! It doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles that your graphing calculator has, but I would say that it is a fair match for the Windows Calculator. All you have to do is type in an equation like “7+3″ and press Enter to have it show you the result. This could come in handy if you’re not a registered user on our site and you’re having troubles with the spam protection.

–Virtual Dimension (Homepage)–

Virtual Dimension greatly surpasses the Windows XP PowerToy that Microsoft released for Windows. It does all kinds of really great stuff and even offers a window that can be placed on your desktop to show which applications are currently open on which desktop (pictured below). You can make that window as big or small as you would like.

As if a well-made virtual desktop manager wasn’t enough…this also adds features like minimizing a window to the System Tray or making it partially translucent. These options are available when you right-click on an item in the Taskbar and go to the Virtual Dimension menu (pictured below). There you’ll also find an option to move the application to any of your other virtual desktops. Talk about a great way to reduce clutter! The application officially works in Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP but I have also tested it in Vista and can verify that it works great on there.

–GroupBar by Microsoft (Homepage/Download)–

This is one application that I am surprised Microsoft has kept so silent on. They haven’t even put GroupBar on the PowerToys for Windows page, but this is one thing that should definitely be on there. Here are a list of things that you can do with GroupBar:

Drag and drop reordering of items in the Taskbar
Drag and drop arranging of items in groups (pictured below)
Perform actions on groups of windows such as closing, minimizing, or maximizing all of the windows in the group
These bars can be simultaneously placed in multiple locations on the screen
You can save the state of your open windows so that you can do things like restart the PC and quickly resume where you left off. You may want to be careful when using this feature though, because it isn’t like what happens when hibernating your PC. GroupBar tries to store key information about the program that you have open, such as with Microsoft Word it will store the file location of what you currently have open, and then upon restoring the session it will re-open the file. Saving sessions only works with the more popular applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Visual Studio, Internet Explorer, and Shell/Explorer (folder windows). It is customizable though, so you might be able to save sessions for other applications as well.

–Overview–

I talked about the next version of Windows, codename Vienna, in an article yesterday and offered possible solutions that Microsoft may use to replace the Windows Taskbar. New functionality is quickly getting limited and I think Microsoft has taken the Start Menu as far as they can in Windows Vista. There are few people in the world who have a good idea of what to expect in the next big release of Windows…but whatever it is will take some getting used to. By the time Windows Vienna is released we will have been accustomed to the Taskbar and Start Menu for 15-years, and I’m sure it will be hard to let go.

Remove Windows From The Taskbar And Place In Tabs

CyberNotes: Your Week in Review with Sunday’s Summary

Your Week in Review with Sunday’s Summary

Ashley — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:38:47 -0600

This article was written on February 10, 2008 by CyberNet.

Sunday’s Summary

What was going on this week at CyberNet News and Learn Firefox? Here’s your chance to catch-up if you missed something!

Monday: System Restore Tips & Tricks
Tuesday:Ultimate Windows Tweaking
Wednesday:Free Online Virus Scanners
Thursday:Shortcut to Change Resolutions
Friday: Unique Vehicles in Unusual Places
Saturday: Free Desktop Wallpaper Sources

Send Tab URL’s – This extension will email a list of your open browser tabs.

CyberNotes: Your Week in Review with Sunday’s Summary

CyberNotes: Week In Review With Sunday’s Summary

CyberNotes: Creating Advanced Desktop Shortcuts in Windows

Ryan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:21:55 -0600

This article was written on July 29, 2008 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

Windows only
Desktop shortcuts can be extremely useful for doing common tasks like launching applications, opening commonly used folders, and pulling up your favorite websites, but few people take the time to use shortcuts for anything else. With the help of some very small programs we’re going to show you how to create supercharged shortcuts that can do more than you probably thought was possible.

What will you be able to do? Things like adjust the volume on your computer, turn your monitor off, lock your computer, disable WiFi, and much more. The shortcuts that we’ll create can be especially useful when used in conjunction with a keyboard launcher, such as Launchy.

I have two different free applications that are going to assist us in creating the advanced shortcuts, and each one weighs in under 100KB. You don’t have to install them, but one thing you will have to do is manually create the shortcuts. So the first thing we’re going to show you is how you can manually create a shortcut, and we’ll follow that up with the two applications you can use to enhance the shortcuts.

–How to Create a Desktop Shortcut–

Right-click on the executable of one of the applications (wizmo.exe or nircmd.exe) and click the Create Shortcut option:
Right-click on the new shortcut that was created, and choose Properties. Now what you need to do is edit the “Target” field by appending commands onto the executable. Using the Wizmo application as an example, the Target field would look like this to turn the monitor off:
Repeat these steps to create however many shortcuts you would like.

–Wizmo (Homepage)–

Wizmo is one of my favorite tools for creating advanced shortcuts because it has a wealth of features buried within it. It includes options to power down your computer, put it into standby, lock it, open/close the CD drive, enable/disable WiFi, turn the monitor off, adjust the volume, and more. Multiple commands can be used in a single shortcut making it even more useful. You can do things like mute the volume, turn off the monitor, and disable the WiFi all in one shortcut. The shortcut for this would look something like:

wizmo.exe mute=1 monoff wanlock

Additionally Wizmo has a nice feature, called graviton, that will activate the built-in screensaver, and will execute some command(s) once the user returns. For example, entering this into the shortcut:

wizmo.exe mute=1 graviton mute=0

will cause the music to be muted until the user returns to the computer. Similarly this shortcut will increase the volume to 80% when the user is away from the computer, and decrease it when the user returns:

wizmo.exe volume=80 graviton volume=20

Once you get into mixing and matching the various commands you’ll find that this will become an indispensable tool. Visit the Wizmo homepage for more commands that you can use.

Tip: If you double-click on the wizmo.exe file it will show you a list of commands available to use in the application. That’s all it does though.

–NirCmd (Homepage)–

NirCmd is actually very similar to Wizmo in that you modify shortcuts to create a powerful commands. I find Wizmo to be a bit simpler to configure, and NirCmd can’t recognize multiple commands in a single shortcut. On the flipside NirCmd has a lot more things that you can do including adjusting the window transparency of a certain application, terminating a process, modifying the registry, emptying the Recycle Bin, and dozens of other things.

Here is an example command for setting the transparency of all Internet Explorer windows to 75% (note that the 75% is calculated as 192/256, similarly 50% transparency would be 128)

nircmd.exe win trans ititle “internet explorer” 192

We’ve also shown how to create shortcuts to kill processes in the past, but you can do the same thing with this application. Here’s an example for killing off Internet Explorer:

nircmd.exe killprocess iexplore.exe

NirCmd does a lot more than I’ve ever needed, and for that reason I’ve always stuck with Wizmo. It’s always good to have options though.

–Overview–

Who would have ever thought that something as simple as a shortcut could be so handy? If you’re trying to decide which of the two apps to use I would start with Wizmo, and become acquainted with that first. Once you get that under your belt you can checkout some of the things NirCmd offers to see if it would be any more useful to you.

If you decide to give one of the apps a whirl feel free to mention in the comments some of the shortcuts you come up with.

Get Drive Shortcuts on Your Windows Desktop

Ultimate List of Keyboard Shortcuts

CyberNotes: Create Shortcuts To Shutdown Or Restart Your Computer

CyberNotes: Get Product Reviews from the “Experts”

Ashley — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:49:46 -0600

This article was written on August 09, 2008 by CyberNet.

Weekend Website

Back in December, we introduced you to a site called ConsumerSearch, an online publisher and aggregator of consumer product reviews and search. We talked about the benefits of putting the time into reading reviews before you buy including time saved and money better spent. It’s definitely a great site worth checking out if you like researching potential purchases. To add to ConsumerSearch we were recently introduced to another great site called alaTest. AlaTest is all about reviews, but they take a different route for providing you with information you need before you buy.

What is alaTest?

alaTest is different from some product review sites in that they do not focus on collecting reviews directly from the consumer (they do offer these though). Instead they provide you with “professional” reviews. When we say professional, think magazines and blogs like PC World or PC Magazine. They say that they have about 600 sources and after looking through them, we’d say they are pretty reliable as well.

Their list of sources can be found here. When you go to view them, you’ll notice that there’s a “Country” drop-down list. They gather sources from various countries, so you can view which ones they use from where you live. For example, they’ve got a lengthy list of sources from the United Kingdom as well as Germany, and smaller lists for countries like Portugal and Finland. The nice thing is that other countries are represented among the mix of reviews which isn’t something we always see.

Topics They Cover

alaTest obviously caters to reviews of electronics because when you visit the site, you’ll see the following categories across the top menu bar:

Photography
Electronics
Phones
Computers
Games
more…

Under the “more” section is where you’re going to find categories like home appliances, home & garden, health & beauty, sports & outdoors, books & magazines, and more.

Searching for Reviews

Ryan has been itching to get a Digital SLR Camera so I thought I’d perform a search for just that (although he won’t be getting one for a while…). Up at the top of every alaTest page is a box for searching. You can always just click on one of the categories up at the top as well – in this case I’d click on Photography and then select the specific type of camera I was looking to review.

alaTest makes it easy to narrow your results with a whole box of options towards the top of the screen. I could narrow my results by the following:

Brand
alaScore
Price
Optical Zoom
Resolution
LCD Screen Size
Camera Flash
Type

If I knew I wanted to buy a Nikon, I could narrow my search to only Nikons. If I wanted a camera that fell into a certain price range, I could narrow my search by that. All I’d have to do is drag the left price tab upwards to increase the starting price, and drag the right price tab downwards to lower the ending price.

What the Review Includes

Once you perform a search, you’ll see a list of results that match your criteria. From there you can sort by a few different things including the alaScore (this is a score between 0-100), product name, experts level, and price. By default it is sorted by the alaScore.

One of the top ranked reviews for my search was the Nikon D60. Clicking on it will provide you will all of the reviews that they collected. Examples of sources for this particular result, just so you can get an idea, included CNET.com, DigitalCameraInfo.com, and PC World. Not only can you read the expert reviews, but many products also have user reviews that you can sift through as well.

If there are multiple products you would like to view side-by-side to compare, you can do that as well. Just look for the boxes under each item that say “compare,” check them, and then click compare up at the top.

What we like about the reviews:

Not all reviews, but many, do include the date that the review took place which is handy. I don’t know about you, but I like to know how recent these reviews are. Another nice thing about the reviews is that they tend to include something that is good about the product (shown with a plus-sign) followed by an area of improvement (shown with a negative-sign).

Additional features we like:

The option to watch video reviews of the product
How they outline key features
How they show a list of price comparisons from various companies that you can buy from

Wrapping it up…

If you are in need of product reviews for anything, but particularly electronics, don’t waste your time going from site to site trying to round them all up. Just head to alaTest, perform your search, and sift through all of the reviews collected into one location.

Thanks for the tip Jack of all Trades!

Where to go for the Best Product Reviews

Retrevo: Product Reviews, Deals, Manuals, and More

CyberNotes: Best Location for Product Reviews

CyberNotes: Your Week in Review with Sunday’s Summary

CyberNotes: Benefits of Using Messenger Plus!

Ashley — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:45:32 -0600

This article was written on August 11, 2008 by CyberNet.

Microsoft/Mac Monday

In the past we’ve mentioned Messenger Plus a few times. It’s an add-on for Windows Live Messenger (WLM) that adds all kinds of features and extras. There are millions of people who use WLM yet don’t know that Messenger Plus exists, so we thought we’d take some time today to explain the benefits of the add-on and all that it offers.

Before we dive-in, we wanted to point out that Messenger Plus! is considered Adware and that’s because when you are installing the application, it will ask you if you would like to become a part of their “Sponsor” program. By default it is NOT checked. They explain that their sponsor program is adware that helps keep Messenger Plus running. I don’t know many people who enjoy adware on their computers, so be sure you pay attention. If you do, you will have no issues.

In the past, people have asked if there are any spyware concerns with the program and there aren’t. Messenger Plus is a reputable application that has been around for a long time so there’s really nothing to worry about, other than paying attention during installation. But that’s something you should always do.

Background info:

For 7 years now, Messenger Plus has been available to Windows Live Messenger users. As of mid-July, 50 million people use the add-on on a daily basis. The current version is 4.6, and it’s a free download that you can find here. Installation is quick and painless, but again, make sure you pay attention while doing it. When you launch Windows Messenger for the first time after installing Messenger Plus, you’ll be taken through the configuration process.

Now on to the benefits of using Messenger Plus!…

Tabbed Chats

For those of you who enjoy a tabbed browser which seems to be the norm these days (Firefox, IE7, Opera, to name a few), you may find that you’ll enjoy a tabbed chat window. Grouping all of your chat windows will save you space in the taskbar and make it easier for you to keep track of all of your conversations. You decide where you want the tabs to be, whether it’s on the top or the side.

Skinning

Skinning is another important part of Messenger Plus because you can select different skins to make the application look unique. They have a whole online database where you can browse through the options and find the one you’d like, and then import it.

To access the skins, just go the the Preferences, then the Customize tab up at the top, and then the skins tab on the side. Or you can just follow this link to the skins database. They have them divided up into different categories or you can browse by downloads, ratings, or date added.

The highest rated skin based upon downloads is Vista Ultimate. It works with Messenger 8.5 only and makes your messenger fit right in with Windows Vista as far as looks go. For Mac fans, there’s an “Apple Live Messenger” that will make your messenger look like it’s a Mac application. It too has been downloaded many times and is rated fairly high.

Quick Texts

Quick Texts is a text replacement feature that can turn your shorthand jibberish into complete sentences:

For example, you could set it up so that anytime you typed TTYL it would automatically replace that text with “Talk to you later!.”

Polygamy

If you have multiple Windows Live accounts that you would like to have open at the same time in messenger, Messenger Plus will allow that to happen. It’s just a matter of going to the Preferences, then going to the “Customize!” tab. Under the “General” tab on the left, look at the “Multiple Accounts” section and check the box that says “Allow me to connect to several accounts simultaneously.”

Show Contacts on the Desktop

This is one of those features that you have to try and actually use before you appreciate it. Contacts on the Desktop allows you to select certain contacts that you would like to keep a close eye on, and then it places them on your desktop. This makes it easier for you to keep track of what they are doing – when they are online or when they are away, etc. Instead of always having to navigate to Messenger to check, you can just take a quick look at your desktop.

Messenger Lock

This is for those times when you’re on Messenger but you’re not supposed to be (e.g., work or school). With Messenger Plus, with one shortcut all of your windows instantly hide.

Scripting

Scripting isn’t a feature for the inexperienced. It’s a scripting system that will allow people with programming experience to add their own features to the application. Below is the interface of what you’ll see should you decide to add your own features:

Other Features:

Custom sounds
Personalized Status
HTML Chat logs that are searchable
Color and formatting options
Event viewer and logging
Contact list clean-up (deletes duplicate contacts)
and more…

Get Messenger Plus Here

Microsoft Gains Messenger Users with “I’m” Initiative

Messenger Plus! Live Soon To Be Released?

MySpace Has An Instant Messenger, Too!

Windows Live Messenger Available To The Public

CyberNotes: Luxury Home Entertainment With Armed Chair Motion Simulators

Ashley — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:41:59 -0600

This article was written on July 17, 2006 by CyberNet.

Million Dollar Monday

Talk about luxury home entertainment with Armed Chair motion simulators! They may look like your typical recliner, but don’t be fooled! This chair is fully loaded and equipped with enough horse power to give you whip lash. Armed Chairs are designed to move in sync with specially made DVDs to make the motion and action in the movie come to life. The motion ranges from movements that are almost undetectable to dynamic theme park ride types of motions making the DVD you’re watching come to life. With Armed Chair it’s easy to get into the action of a high speed car chase!

How does it work?

The combination of actuators moving in a programmed, choreographed motion enables the system to reproduce a wide range of 2 and 3-dimensional motions and vibrations; ranging from subtly detectable to extremely dynamic.
This motion is coordinated by the motion controller (connected to the digital audio output of any DVD player), which synthesises motion and instructs the actuators to move in perfect synchronisation with the on-screen action and sound. You are literally drawn into the action as you experience the motion and drama of the movie.

There are over 70 different colors available to choose from and over 500 movies specially made for the Armed Chair motion simulator.

A luxury like this doesn’t come cheap! Prices begin at around $12,000, and add around $3,000 more if you want a remote to go along with it. Plus, if you want it delivered and installed, it will cost an additional $1,300. There are a few other additional options such as receiving your updated movie codes via the Internet for $250, or by DVD for $500 a year. Armed Chair Simulators are definitely luxury home entertainment… to the max!

CyberNotes: Ultimate Luxury Submarine

Circuit City Downsizes and opens "The City" stores…

CyberNotes: Luxury On Wheels: Most Expensive Coaches

CyberNotes: Directory of Paint.NET Tutorials

Ashley — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:36:36 -0600

This article was written on November 12, 2007 by CyberNet.

There are so many different things that can be done with Paint.NET, the possibilities are really endless. Many people have created tutorials that guide you through the process of creating something but the problem is that it can take time to sift through all of them to find a good one. I took the time to go through the Paint.NET forums to find so of the best tutorials that have been posted. Today’s Microsoft Monday is simply a directory of eight different tutorials that I think you’ll enjoy.

Making Glass Buttons – You know the shiny Web 2.0ish buttons you see all over? This tutorial written by BuzzKill in the Paint.NET forums will explain how you do it. This tutorial is explained well and full of images.
Antiquing an image –
If you’ve ever had an image that you’d like to convert to more of an antique look, this tutorial will explain just how you do it. The before (on the left) and after (on the right) below shows what you’ll be doing:
“Toy Car Conversion“ – This isn’t exactly a tutorial, but it’s pretty cool. Using a picture of a full-sized sports car, you can modify it to look like a toy car, or even a cartoonish toy car as shown in the before and after pictures below. The bottom right image looks the way it does thanks to the Toon Filter, but you can also use the ink sketch and pencil sketch feature.
Flaming Text – creating flaming text requires just a few steps and no filters! The end product will look something like this:
Playing with Ribbons – this tutorial is pretty amazing! Not only are the instructions easy to follow, there are also great screenshots. They start out with something simple and move to something advanced. The three different end products below were created using the ribbon tool. Cool, huh?
Glassy Effect - Here’s one for the most basic of users, using basic effects. If you’ve never used Paint.NET before, you too will be able to do this. It simply uses the “tile reflection” effect under the distort menu to get this result (before on left, after on the right):
Round Glass Button – Very similar to the glass button tutorial we listed above, this round glass button tutorial is simple and takes no time. Your end result will look something like this:
Create a Rose – It’s hard to believe that the creation of the rose below started out as a bunch of black and white dots. This literally took me about 3 minutes to make, maybe even shorter. It’s quick and easy, and you can make it any color you’d like! This particular tutorial has simple instructions and screenshots so you know what you’re supposed to be doing.

Paint.NET 3.10 – New Effects Available

iGoogle Themes Directory Launches

CyberNotes: Ever Wonder How To….?

Almost Real-Time File Backups

CyberNotes: How to Change the Primary Monitor on a Laptop

Ryan — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:18:29 -0600

This article was written on June 21, 2007 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

When hooking my laptop up to an external monitor, the first thing that I like to do is extend my desktop over to that monitor. That way I am able to use my main monitor, but I am also able to utilize the screen on my laptop which practically doubles the amount of screen space I have to work with.

The only problem is that Windows has never let me choose which monitor is the primary one, and by default it always sets my laptop to be the primary display. I don’t like this because I have my main monitor in front of me, and my laptop sits more off to the side. Despite there being an option to choose which monitor is the primary one in the Display Settings, it has always been grayed out for me. After several hours of messing around, I have finally been able to figure out a solution that should work for everyone who has that option grayed out.

On Windows Vista, the grayed out option reads “This is my main monitor” while on XP it says “Use this device as the primary monitor.” The two options mean the same thing, but the wording has been changed in Vista.

The reason that the option is grayed out is because some graphics cards don’t support changing the primary monitor. Well, they do, it just takes a little trickery to get it done. It won’t take you long to do, and doesn’t require you to download any additional tools or hack the registry. I was actually surprised at how easy it is after I figured out how I could get around it:

Here’s what I’m starting out with: the monitor on my laptop is enabled and my external monitor disabled:
The first thing you need to do is to enable only the monitor that you want to be the primary one. This is done by pressing the Function (Fn) key on your laptop along with the “F” key that switches the display. There should be either a picture of a monitor on the “F” key or it should say something like “CRT/LCD”. For me the key combination is Fn+F8:
So right now I have my external monitor enabled, and my laptop screen is off:
Now I open up the Windows Display Settings, click on the box with the number 2 in it, and choose the “Extend the desktop onto this monitor.” In this case the secondary monitor is your laptop and should be the one disabled:
Now enjoy the bliss of having the Start Menu in front of you instead of off to the side:

Note: You can also reverse this process to have the Start menu show up on the laptop’s monitor instead of on the external monitor.

The cool thing is that Windows will remember this setting so that every time after setting this up, it will properly designate the primary monitor. As soon as you unplug the external monitor, Windows will then move the Start Menu back to the Laptop just like you would expect it to.

Hopefully this will help someone out there because I spent hours searching the Internet trying to figure it out before finally sitting down and trying to come up with a solution myself.

CyberNotes: Getting Your Taskbar Onto Another Monitor

CyberNotes: Rotate Your Screen Orientation

Helpful Tip: Make a Laptop Sleeve or Stand

CyberNotes: Introducing Avant Browser 11

Ryan — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:09:01 -0600

This article was written on October 11, 2006 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

It has been over two-months since we last discussed the status of Avant Browser 11, which was in the Beta phase at the time. It was officially released around the middle of September but I held off writing about it because they were providing updates almost everyday. It appears that it has finally settled down a little bit.

Avant Browser uses the Internet Explorer rendering engine so you don’t have to worry so much about compatibility problems with those sites that you frequently visit. It offers users a huge list of features, including tabs, which is why the browser has become so popular over the years…while Internet Explorer was still in the dog days of multiple windows. Man, whoever came up with the whole idea of tabs is a genius!

Avant Browser 11 has some really great features so I thought I would cover some of them. Here is a quick overview of what is new since Avant Browser 10:

Avant Online Storage: Save your bookmarks, feeds, and more!
Outlook-style RSS reader.
AutoFill: allows users to save their web passwords.
New Bookmarks System and bookmarks management.
Improved plug-in support.
More tab options: Lock Tabs, Show Underlines, Show Progress Bar, Show Close Button, and more.
Fixed most of the bugs reported in 10.x

–Avant Online Storage–

It is a dream for many to have access to your bookmarks and RSS feeds wherever you go. Avant Browser makes it easy to to bring your browser with you by utilizing a central storage area. I think it is cool to have this service available but the real reason I would use this is for a backup. Computers crash more often than you would like and the browser is probably the most used application for many computer users. That data is definitely something that I don’t want to lose.

I use Google Bookmarks myself and I have my Firefox profile synchronized with another computer using backup batch files. I’m sure that I’m one of the few geeks that do that so this solution by Avant Browser is great. Here is a screenshot of what the Online Storage system looks like when you start the browser:

–The Browser Itself–

After you provide the information for the quick configuration (like where you want the tab bar located) it will welcome you to the sleek interface. I have always loved how compact everything is in the browser but the first thing that I normally do is remove some of those unnecessary buttons from the toolbar. I think they could trim down on those by default because it looks a little congested. Start simple and let users clutter things up if they choose.

–Feed Reader–

When I originally found out that Avant Browser was going to have a feed reader I was really excited. I opened up the sidebar and chose to add a feed to the reader. Here is what the feed configuration screen looks like:

I was very happy to see the option to let me choose the update frequency. Most online readers will only update once each hour and that seems to be a little long for me. I normally adjust less-updated feeds to 30-minutes and frequently updated feeds to 15-minutes.

Now came the disappointment. The feed reader is designed to show you feeds in a similar fashion to how Outlook shows you emails. The problem is that it will only show you a snippet of the article in the feed even if the publisher has chosen to display the full content. This should be a feature that could be adjusted somewhere but I didn’t find anything. I guess there isn’t anything that I can do about it:

–Options–

If you are afraid of options then you definitely don’t want to open up the preferences! This thing, like previous versions, is loaded down with configurability and customization. I have never seen a browser offer its users the ability to change so much:

–Overview–

As you can see Avant Browser is a great alternative to Internet Explorer. I have, and probably always will, keep this installed for those IE only sites. I haven’t really had memory leaks or anything of that nature while using it and it is very power-user friendly (meaning a lot of options), which is something I have never found Internet Explorer to be. For that reason it has earned a place on my hard drive.

Avant Browser Update 10.1.038 Now Released

Avant Browser 11 Will Be The Best Version Yet

Another Web Browser Update This Week…Avant Browser

CyberNotes: An Early Look At Maxthon 2

Your Week in Review with Sunday’s Summary

Ashley — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:53:21 -0600

This article was written on September 09, 2007 by CyberNet.

Sunday’s Summary

What was going on this week at CyberNet News and Learn Firefox? Here’s your chance to catch-up if you missed something!

Monday:Exclusive Opera 9.5 Features & Video
Tuesday:Top 15 Ultra Tiny Apps
Wednesday:Firefox Extensions cause Memory Leaks and Crashes
Thursday:Reset a Windows Password
Friday:Funny Error Messages
Saturday: Analyzing Competitors with Google Trends

Copy Link Text – Quick and easy way to copy a link’s text.

Unified Back/Forward Button – Combines the Back and Forward drop-down menus for easier navigation.

Firefox Download Counter – Every wonder how many times Firefox has been downloaded?

CyberNotes: Your Week in Review with Sunday’s Summary

CyberNotes: Week In Review With Sunday’s Summary

CyberNotes: How-To Videos and Advice from ExpertVillage

Ashley — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:35:51 -0600

This article was written on June 16, 2007 by CyberNet.

Weekend Website

Video sites have been popping up all over the place, even ones with a focused niche. YouTube, MetaCafe, and the like are great for your random sampling of just about anything, but what if you’re looking for something on a more specific topic? One such site with a focused niche is called ExpertVillage and their focus is specifically on “how-to” videos. These how-to videos range from instructions on changing the oil in your car, to learning how to belly-dance, and everything in between.

At ExpertVillage, their goal is to provide how-to videos and articles containing advice from experts in their fields. For each video or article, they provide the credentials of the person being filmed so that you can get an idea of how credible the information is. For example, a video on how to read sheet music for piano is given by someone who has a degree in Music and Theater, and teaches piano lessons. I’d feel pretty confident getting advice on piano from someone with those credentials.

Finding the Videos

Finding the how-to videos is simple. They’re broken down into 12 different categories which include: Automotive, Beauty and Fashion, Crafts, Food and Drink, Health and Fitness, Hobbies, Home and Garden, Music, Parenting, Pets, Sports, and Other. While they do have a wide range of categories, you’ll notice that they do not have a how-to technology category, so this isn’t the place to get your tech advice. The videos tend to be short so that you don’t lose interest, and they get to the point pretty quickly.

Registered Users

Anybody can go to ExpertVillage to view the how-to videos, however you can also become a registered user. The only difference with registered users is that they are able to rate and comment on an article or video. You can also bookmark your favorites so that when you click on “My Videos,” you’ll be able to quickly find all of your previous favorites.

Embed the Player

Just like other video sites, you can embedded the player on your own site. When you click on a video you’ll get the code to link to the video, as well as the code to embed the video. Below you’ll find a video that I have embedded titled “The Floating Card Trick Explained: Learn Free Magic”

Click here for more on “Telekinesis Revealed: Learn Easy Magic Tricks Online for Free”

Wrapping it up

With over 17,000 videos and over 1700 experts (and counting), ExpertVillage is a great resource for getting advice on a wide array of topics. You can also get involved as either an expert or as a film-maker. Film-makers have their own equipment, shoot content, and then send it in to the company. If that sounds interesting to you, they’ve got additional info on their site.

Now go on, go learn how to do something new like: Standing Up on the Surf Board, When to Travel: How to Plan a Vacation, Choosing a Tent Site (Camping), How to Check your Engine Coolant Level, or any of the many others!

Time Magazine’s 50 Best Websites of 2007

CyberNotes: Ever Wonder How To….?

CyberNotes: View How-to Videos and Wiki-Guides with Howcast

CyberNotes: What Are Your Favorite Firefox Extensions

CyberNotes: The Funniest Firefox Extensions

Ryan — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:32:09 -0600

This article was written on September 13, 2006 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

I thought today I would do something a little different than usual. Sure I have done lists of Firefox extensions before (tabbed browsing and security) but this one takes a unique approach. It isn’t focused on productivity or usefulness, instead we are taking a look at funny extensions. Some of them are even great for pranks.

–Ad Bar (Download)–
Duh, this is what Firefox has been missing all along. Ads!

This extension will display ads in Firefox much like how Opera used to. If there are some relevant ads to be displayed from Google it will do so, otherwise you will see a Firefox ad like the one pictured above. Before you jump the gun…no one is making money off of this because the Google ads use a “test” mode:

If adbar were to generate revenue from ad clickthroughs, it would violate the AdSense policy that disallows client software from showing the ads. While Google has made an exception for the free version of Opera, it did not respond when I asked for an exception for adbar.

Two of the other FAQ’s will give you a good laugh as well:

Can I register and get rid of the ads?

Of course! Paypal $19 (51% cheaper than Opera!) to me or the Mozilla Foundation, then uninstall adbar using the Extension Manager in Firefox’s Tools menu.

When I visit porn sites, why do I get public service ads instead of ads for porn?

Good question.

They say “51% cheaper than Opera” because this extension was last updated back in 2004…you know the days when Opera didn’t offer a no cost version that was ad-free.

–Firesomething (Download)–
Sick of your title bar always saying “Mozilla Firefox”? Then have it say something a little more random. Firesomething will replace the word Firefox with Fire**** where the asterisks are random words.

I’m sure the title of this extension makes a lot more sense now.

–Hammer Time (Download)–
So you’re trying to introduce your Grandma to the Internet but she just doesn’t understand how the stop button works, right? I know, that is a common issue but the Hammer Time extension will solve all of your woes! You can now replace the stop button with an MC Hammer icon. I mean how can anyone forget what that button does now…”STOP! Hammer Time..”

–Remove Links (Download)–
If you find yourself browsing the Web too much then this extension will definitely solve that problem. Why? It will remove every link so that you have nothing to click on. If you can’t click then there isn’t much you can do.

–Anti-Paranoia (Download)–
If you are constantly watching over you back, can’t sleep at night, or stressed out at work then you need the Anti-Paranoia extension.

It will add an option to the Tools menu that says “I am afraid” which activates the extension. Once it has been activated you will see a notification box every 3 to 7 minutes popping up in the bottom-right corner of Firefox with comforting messages like “Everything is good” and “The world is a good place”.

–Random Theme Switcher (Download)–
This extension does have some usefulness to it but I would say it would be awesome for performing a prank. All you have to do is install a bunch of crazy themes and this extension on someone’s Firefox and they will go crazy…especially if you make it a point to tell them that a virus has been going around lately that infects Firefox which makes it constantly change its appearance.

–Goodbye, Cruel World (Download)–
Someone thought the Hello World program was a little too cheery. Enough said.

–Mood Tap (Download)–
This extension will let the whole world know how you are feeling. Just select your mood from the list of options and it will add it to the other statistics on MoodTap.com. It looks like right now the world isn’t feeling too good.

–Office Poltergeist (Download)–
Sure you could setup someone’s computer so that you could remotely control it but why not just hijack their web browser? All you have to do is download this extension and install it on your friends existing Firefox installation.

Once installed you will be able to access the computer by typing in http://IPADDRESS:666 to if installed on a PC and http://IPADDRESS:13013 if the computer is a Mac. Once you are in control you can change the URL of the site they are viewing, make an alert box popup, play a sound, shake their window, or replace every word on the screen with another word.

This extension can give you hours of amusement when installed on a friends computer.

–Autobrowse (Download)–
This extension will take all of the pain away from finding search results. How? Just activate it from the Tools menu, choose the search term, and pick the search engine. Once it has that information it will automatically start surfing through the results!

What do you want your Firefox to do?

A Look Back at Firefox in 2006

The Ultimate Firefox Test: Installing Over 100 Extensions

CyberNotes: Unique Computer Case Mods!

Ashley — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:29:41 -0600

This article was written on June 15, 2007 by CyberNet.

Fun Friday

For the ultimate way to express creativity, some geeks turn to unique, weird, crazy (whatever you’d like to call it) case modifications for their desktop computers. There are some pretty amazing modifications out there, and today’s Fun Friday article will include some of the interesting mods I have come across.

Coffee Anyone?

Microwave PC

Source: Engadget “Your PC and Hot Pockets, together at last.”

A Newspaper Box?

Bugged Out

The Ultimate Flight Simulator

Mustang Computer Case Mod

Related Posts:

Flaming Computer Case Modification

CyberNotes: Best Xbox 360 Case Mods

CyberNotes: A Look at MSN Encarta

Ashley — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:17:24 -0600

This article was written on March 03, 2008 by CyberNet.

Microsoft Monday

Today we’re taking a look at MSN Encarta, not Encarta Premium which you buy from Microsoft, but the portion of it that’s available online for free. While the complete version contains far more information, the ad-supported online version has a wealth of information that’s worth taking advantage of. If you have children in the home, it’s even better because it will be a reliable source of information for them to turn to when needed. MSN Encarta isn’t just an encyclopedia, it’s much more so today we’ll be taking a look at all that is offered online for free.

Homepage

The landing page for MSN Encarta can be found at http://encarta.msn.com. There you’ll find all kinds of information. They have a “Today’s Highlights” section with a variety of different articles, a quiz of the day, and an “on this day” section where they explain something that happened on the day years ago. Additionally, they have Top Education Headlines that might give you helpful information if you’re a student or you’re thinking about going back to school. If by chance you want to discuss and share information with others, you can do that too by following a link on their homepage to the Message Boards.

Encyclopedia

Here’s why I like Encarta’s encyclopedia. While you may not get as much information as you could from a different free source online like Wikipedia, you do get a substantial amount. They list the people who wrote the content as well and their credentials which gives you more reassurance that the information is accurate.

Their Encyclopedia article center includes over 42,000 articles. Encarta Premium, which you pay for, consists of over 68,000 articles so while they have more, there’s still a good amount of information that you can get for free. Along with the standard encyclopedia entries, they also have historic documents, images, famous speeches, literature guides and more.

When searching for an article in the encyclopedia, you can either perform a keyword search or you can browse through each of the categories. Once you find an article, you can easily view it and then print a “printer friendly” version. There’s also the option to email it to someone (by default, it will open up Outlook) or you can click “blog about it” and you’ll be directed to your Windows Live Space account.

Finally, another reason why I like Encarta’s Encyclopedia is that they show related items that might be of interest to you. If you’re looking for extra related reading, you won’t have to search any further.

Dictionary and Atlas

On the Encarta website is a dictionary as well as an atlas. If you’re looking for a fancy dictionary, this isn’t it. It’s pretty basic, although they do include a Thesaurus. Worth mentioning though is the Encarta Right-Click Dictionary which you can download for free. Once installed, you can highlight any word on a web page, right-click, and then get the definition for the word. Get more information on that here.

Also included is an Atlas which is actually pretty cool. There are different map styles which you can choose from, although not all of the styles are available for free. If there’s something you want to search for in the World Atlas, it just takes one click.

Fun Features

A handful of fun features are available which you can find on the Encarta site for when you’re bored or looking for something stimulating to do.

Coffee Break

Under the Coffee Break section you’ll find a pop quiz, a featured quiz (right now it’s Winter Myth Quiz) and more. There’s also a whole section for Bill Nye, you know, the Science Guy? He answers questions like “is it possible to fool a lie detector test.”

Are you Smarter than an 11th Grader?

Some of you have probably seen the show, “Are you Smarter Than a 5th Grader” which gives contestants the opportunity to see if they’re smarter than a 5th grader. Here’s your chance to determine if you’re smarter than an 11th grader. They give you SAT like quizzes to see how smart you really are. I took the SAT Writing Quiz and I must admit, it was a little tricky.

Top 10 Lists

All kinds of lists are found on MSN Encarta from “10 Great Scientific Discoveries” to “10 Memory Tricks for students. Lists are broken down into categories including College, Brain Candy, Art, Film, Language, and Literature, History, Science and Nature, Sports and Games, and Travel and Adventure.

And More…

There’s so much to be found on Encarta’s website that there’s no way to cover it all here. We recommend heading over there and checking it out. Who knows, you may learn something you never knew before like the word collusion means “a secret cooperation between people in order to do something illegal or underhanded (it was the word of the day).

CyberNotes: ResultR.com – Create Your Own Personal Search Engine

A Reminder About CyberNotes…

CyberNotes: How to View Blocked Websites

Ryan — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:06:59 -0600

This article was written on September 19, 2007 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

Both schools and corporate workplaces are blocking websites apparently without knowing what all of the services do. No, I’m not talking about blocking sites like MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, or Meebo…what I’m referring to are things that can help make you more productive. Just last week I read that some schools were starting to block most Google services including Google Docs, News, and even Google Calendar!

If I was in school right now I would absolutely be loving Google Docs. I could write my papers on the computer, and not have to worry about carrying around some sort of method to store the files on. I really don’t see how that deserves to be blocked, nor do I understand why Google Calendar would be banned? It’s not like these services are bandwidth hungry like YouTube, and they surely don’t deserve to be matched up to the likes of MySpace.

So I thought today I would put together a list of ways to view blocked websites. Most of them are fairly easy and require very little work on your part. Here’s how you can access blocked pages:

–Using Proxies–

I don’t think there is any arguing that free proxies are among the most common solutions to view blocked sites, and searching Google for “MySpace proxies” returns over 1.5 million results. These work by sending the request for a website through a different computer, thereby thwarting any efforts to block a site.

These proxies are normally successful in browsing blocked sites, but they can often go pretty slow or be cluttered with ads. If you’re in desperate need of finding a proxy, you should head over to Proxy.org where you can find hundreds of proxies listed. My personal favorite proxy, however, is Hujiko because it’s super fast and only has one small banner ad located at the top.

–Using Translators–

One of the new (and better) ways that I learned about while writing this article was using translators for viewing blocked websites. No, you won’t be viewing the sites in another language…instead you’ll be doing translations back into the native language. For instance, when viewing an English site you would have it “translated” back into English. It sounds pointless, but you’re essentially using the translator as a free proxy.

The easiest way to do this is to copy the URL below, and replace the “cybernetnews.com” at the end with the site you’re looking to visit:

http://google.com/translate?langpair=en|en&u=cybernetnews.com

It will load everything as expected, and you are still able to login to the sites and services just as you normally would. The best part is that Google doesn’t show any ads while using this!

–Using Mobile Browsers–

As crazy as it may sound, you can actually view blocked sites using services geared for web browsing on your mobile device. They are optimized for small screens, and don’t have any CSS applied to them, but there’s no doubt that they still work. The two most popular are probably Google and Phonifier, both of which produce similar results. Again, the sites aren’t gonna look very pretty, but they’ll work.

–Using IP Address Lookup–

Another thing you can do is lookup the IP address of the site you’re trying to access. When most websites are blocked, the admins only think about blacklisting the domains, and don’t take into account that the sites can still be accessed using their IP address.

To do this one you’ll want a service that will let you provide a host name, and have it lookup the IP address for you. Host2IP is a good example of that, and it’s extremely fast.

–Using the Anonymous Tor Network–

The Tor Network is similar to using proxies, except it distributes the load and is supposed to have slightly better performance. There are specialized versions of both Firefox and Opera that utilize Tor to access blocked sites, but I don’t think this would be one of my first resorts. It’s more for anonymity than anything else, but on the plus side portable versions of those browsers are available.

–OverView–

I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to beat the system, so feel free to drop us a comment below with your thoughts and ideas!

Time Magazine’s 50 Best Websites of 2007

2007 CyberNet Awards Recap