Category: Computer tips

  • How to Get Rid of Addiction to Facebook, Myspace, Orkut, Twitter, Other Social Networking Sites, Internet or Computer in General

    This is an exclusive way to get rid of your obsession with facebook, myspace, twitter, orkut, other social networking sites, or internet in general, computer to be specific.

    (If you reached here searching google for “How to get rid of facebook addiction”, “How to get rid of internet addiction”, “How to get rid of internet” or “How to get rid of that feeling to google my answer to whether I should stop surfing now”, you are good enough as an addict)

    Follow my orders carefully. It is absolutely important to do so.

    1. Save all your open files. [Save everything that may be lost in case of power failure]
    2. Stand up.
    3. Those of you who are still sitting, stand up.
    4. I told you, if you don’t follow what I tell, this won’t work. So please STAND UP.
    5. OK. Now go to start menu, click shut down, click shut down again.

    Now by the time your browser process is terminated by your processor, tell me a good bye.
    And then when your wallpaper comes up look how beautiful it is.
    And when your screen goes blank, switch off the UPS, pull out the power cords, and if possible disconnect monitor, mouse and keyboard.

    Do something productive. (And be assured nothing will happen in the e-world by the time your urge to check your inbox returns to you)

    That will do.

  • Rule #1 for Productivity with Computers

    After tussling with my 256 MB RAM for more than 3 years, I bought a 1 GB RAM last week. And that very instant I knew that I was making myself a fool for 3 long years.

    The #1 rule for productivity when dealing with computers is

    UPGRADE YOUR HARDWARE

    This does not apply to those who already have tons of RAM, and amazing processor speed and graphics accelerator and so on…

    But that poor consumer who just knew that computer can be used to calculate when he was buying his first PC; who bought a PC at the lowest prize (and slowest configuration implied) and then learned so much about everything and computers too; but still forgot to upgrade his own computer, this is to you.

    When you bought your computer you were only learning. You needed just a little power.
    Once you are in the second year, you have learned almost enough. You need twice the same power.
    And every 2 years so forth you will need to make fine adjustments to the configuration of your system.

    Or else, you will be doomed.

    I learned it the hard way. Thought that the time my computer takes to respond to a click could be used to think about what to do after that. But I was wrong. When my computer started responding faster, I started thinking faster.

    What are you waiting for? Go and buy some new chips.

  • Some Windows Keyboard Shortcuts You Probably Didn’t Know Of

    I found out some shortcuts recently which I didn’t know of.

    • Ctrl + Tab will switch through the tabs in a tabbed window like that of Firefox
    • Alt + Enter will open up the properties of a file or folder when it is selected (while enter opens it)
    • F2 can rename an item
    • Win Key (start) + Tab will cycle through items on the taskbar, without opening them (then, pressing Enter will open them)

    While dragging an item for copying or moving

    • Ctrl while dragging a file will cause it to be copied
    • Shift while dragging a file will cause it to be moved
    • Alt while dragging a file will cause a shortcut to be placed in the destination folder

    While exploring in windows explorer

    • Left and Right Arrows will collapse and expand folders (so will + and in the number pad)
    • * (in the number pad) will expand all folders below the current selection
    • F6 will switch panes

    While viewing folders (like in My Computer

    • Backspace will let you go to the upper level folder
    • Alt + Right or Left Arrow will go forward or backward

    While editing text

    • Ctrl + Backspace will erase a whole word.
    • Ctrl + Left or Right Arrow will go one word left or right
    • Ctrl + Home or End will go to the first or last position
    • Shift + Any movement selects text. (Shift + Ctrl + Home will select from first to the point where you are, Shift + Home will select the line up to where you are, like wise)

    Some of these have been filtered from worldstart.com

    Get time to enjoy life

  • ClearType Tuner : If You Are Using Windows XP and an LCD monitor

    The above pic is a comparison between text as it is seen on most computers, and text as it could be seen on those same computers.

    ClearType is a technology by which microsoft has made it possible to view texts more clearly in LCD monitors. But by default it is turned off in all computers. So, most people do not get the best out of their LCD monitors (which I understood when I went to my cousin’s home last week and found it extremely hard to read a thing)

    It gets more interesting when you know that it is very simple to turn it on if you have cleartype in your system,

    1. Right Click on your desktop
    2. Select Properties. Now the Display properties window opens up. Yeah, the one you use to change screen saver, wallpaper, etc.
    3. Go to Appearance tab. This is where we don’t go
    4. Click Effects… button
    5. Tick “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:” and select ClearType from the drop down menu.

    (And if you don’t have that option, don’t worry. You can download it and install from microsoft itself. ClearType Tuner PowerToy setup.exe (2 MB 5 min @ 28.8 Kbps))

    Happy reading

  • Tips for Making Your PC Eco-friendly

    Want to save the world? Already switching off lights and fans when not in use? What next? Make your computer energy efficient. There is (in Windows):

    • Power Options: in Control Panel –> Performance and Maintenance (category view)
      Here, there are Power Schemes and Hibernate tabs.

      I have set the Power Scheme as follows:
      Turn off monitor : After 1 min
      Turn off hard disks : After 10 mins
      System Standby : After 15 mins
      System hibernates : After 20 mins
      And it works extremely well for me. Every time I go to drink tea, or fight with my brother, even if i forget to switch off the monitor, it automatically goes off.

      Hibernating is a very powerful power saving tool that many often do not use due to lack of awareness. Enabling this is very easy. In Power Options, there is the Hibernate tab. Enable it.
      Now is the tricky part. Normally when turning off, you can see stand by towards the left of turn off. When hibernation is enabled also, there is standby there. But now, if you press Shift, you can see that it turns into hibernate button. Click while pressing shift* and your PC hibernates like a polar bear does in winter.
      The advantage of hibernating is that you can turn the power supply off like when shut down and you can resume your session from where you stopped as when stood by.
      *Note: You can press H instead of pressing shift and clicking.

    • Switch off: When not hearing music, you can switch off the speaker (so that you can even prolong the speaker life). When only hearing music you can turn off monitor.
      When working offline, turn off modem. After printing turn off printer.
      After shutting down, turn off every hardware that you can – monitor, speaker, printer, blue tooth device so that the next time you turn on, you switch on only the things that you need.
    • Protect : CPU – play small games instead of huge EA sports games.
      Monitor – adjust the monitor settings according to the company recommended settings.
      Speaker – play soft songs, lower the volume.
      Modem – avoid overheating by keeping your hands on the modem and taking the heat off.
      Keyboard – Don’t bang on the keys, not even the enter key or space bar. Don’t eat powdered food in front of the keyboard.
      Mouse – Dust the dust from the mouse pad. Click softly. Increase mouse speed in pointer options of mouse menu in control panel.
      The whole computer – use UPS, prevent voltage fluctuations.
    • Hardware: When buying new, always choose the better product. Like between CRT and LCD choose LCD. Buy a speaker with a separate power on/off switch.
      Buy a table designed specifically for your PC, so that you easily switch off accessories that aren’t necessary.
      Larger RAM means faster work means lesser time means lesser energy.

    Finally. Don’t install unnecessary programs. Not that you needn’t install the new browser that google releases. But make sure that you don’t install an audio recording/editing pro software that you don’t even know the use of, just to know how it looks like (like I used to do for years).

  • How to Increase the Number of People who Read your Blog

    There have been numerous articles based on this theme. But, let me discuss some points which have clicked for me.

    1. Tell your friends: If there are any people on earth who would be ready to read your blog at any day, any time whatever your topic is, those will be your friends. Tell out all your friends, that you’ve started something.
    2. Comment on others: There are fellow bloggers, who have more readers. Read their articles, comment intelligently. If others feel that your comment was wise, they will want to know about you.
    3. Profile: So you have people visiting your profile. How do you make them read your blog? Make your blogger profile the most attractive thing they will ever find from you. And also try to include direct links to your best posts in your profile itself. (See my profile)
    4. Socialize: Orkut, Facebook, Twitter… Why should they exist if they can’t promote your blog?
    5. Internal links: Have links to your own blog in your own blog. So, if a reader reads one of your posts, you should make him read 5 other similar posts too.
    6. Give and take: You follow others, they follow you. (Note:This haven’t worked for me yet)
    7. Organize: Whenever a user lands on your blog, make sure that he will get what he wants in a single click if possible.
    8. Bandwidth: Pictures, videos, flash, sounds… All seem fantastic. But think about your poor readers too.
    9. Layout: Have a layout that does not kill the eye.
    10. Quality content, regularly: Lastly, without quality content, you can never keep up. Also, the frequency is important. People prefer one post per day of medium quality posts than posts coming once in a blue moon. Also make sure that you make your reader an addict of your blog. Every day he gets one post, one day he doesn’t, he asks you.
  • How to Make Blog Post Through Emails in Blogger, ie Send an Email and It Will Become a Blog Post, How

    Ever thought it would be a lot easier if you could make blog posts directly from your GMail or yahoo mail inbox. But it’s possible too. Blogger allows this option of having a unique email address to which you can send an email such that the subject of the mail becomes the title and the body becomes the blog post.
    To do this, you should create a Mail-to-Blogger address which you will use to send posts via email to your blog by going to Settings | Email

    The format of the email address is username.secretword@blogger.com .

    Here, the secret word is something that we can specify so that only we may send emails to the blog.

    Otherwise, you can also make your email public so that others can post to your blog. But, when doing this, make sure that the posts are not published immediately, because, in that case, this feature, like anything else, may be misused.

    Sometimes email programs append text to the bottom of each sent message; to make sure this cruft doesn’t get posted to your blog, put #end at the end of your post.

    If you don’t understand this, you can view the illustrated blogger help too

  • BSNL Broadband India Best Plans

    I will agree to the fact that BSNL is the most economic, if not the best, broadband service provider in Kerala, if not in India. Because, apart from providing a range of options like USB, wi-fi, ethernet, it also has packages that allow BSNL landline to go along with broadband. And with my personal experience I am posting the best of those plans.

    For home users with BSNL landline phone at their homes, the best available option is the Home 500 C combo plan. Along with 1.5 GB free download and unlimited free download between 0200 hours and 0800 hours, it gives you 175 free calls @ Rs 500 / month (OR you can pay Rs 5000 for a year too .I.e. : Rs 5000/12 = Rs 417/month ). Moreover for government employees there is a 20% reduction for BSNL broadband usage only (and not telephone) which, in this case, is extended to the telephone charges too.

    If you are a computer professional working at home and needs unlimited plans, BSNL has got the best for you. They provide Unlimited Broadband for home users at just Rs 750 per month. Remember, it is not combo plan.

    For beginners BSNL has startup plans. But be careful while chosing these. BSNL offers a Rs 250 / month Broadband plan that gives you just 1GB free download and no free download during nights (happy hours : 0200 – 0800). So this can suit you only if you are just a beginner and are not going to visit youtube.com and also if you don’t have bsnl landline or you have them at lower rates. If you are in urban areas and have monthly landline charge around Rs 300, then Home 250 will make your bill Rs 550, whereas with Home 500 Combo you get only Rs 500, with almost the same amount of free calls (200 becomes 175) and much more download (1 GB to 1.5 GB + night unlimited).

    Also, never ever opt for Home 125 startup plan. It gives you just 150 MB free usage and the sites like Orkut, if you visit everyday are gonna eat up that in a few days. So you will have to pay another 125 for extra usage.

    Choose Wisely. Live Well

  • Google Docs OR How to create PDF files easily and without using any softwares

    Most of the PDF creators or readers now available are at least greater than 5 MB in size. So, if you are a slow internet user or are unable to download those softwares or use them you could be int trouble. But that’s where the mighty google comes for your help.

    Heard of Google docs?

    You think it is just an online virtual drive where you can store your files? Absolutely not.
    Google doc is like MS office in the web. It helps you to do virtually anything – creating, editing, saving, storing and downloading documents.

    All you need is a google account, some know-how about documents like presentations, PDF, etc. and an internet connection (even that is not required nowadays with offline functionality).

    So, how to create PDF files?

    Create a new document using the buttons. Type it. Make it what you want it to be. Then from file, select download it as PDF. That’s the way. And you have much more things to do.
    Let me first learn them.

  • Clear any problems related with computer

    Which is the best online forum to ask help in your computer related problems?

    I don’t find any separate website that can be as useful as Orkut, because this Computer Problems and Solutions Help Desk, questions and answers thread in IC 370 a community which has more than 8000000 members atleast 0.1% of whose members are always active.

    Go there

    Reply assured from all parts of India.