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Here is where I will be posting technology tips, hints, news and views to
help you make technology make a difference. I use weblog or blog technology to
write and publish these articles simply and easily from any computer on the web.
Visit Blogger to find out about
blogs and for links to some blogs of
note. 
Tuesday, March 30
File Movers
From the Red Ferret Journal:Suddenly everyone seems to want to move their large files around the place. For no money. Whereupon services appear as if by magic. * Dropload. 'Dropload is a place for you to drop your files off and have them picked up by someone else at a later time.' * SendThisFile. 'Sender makes a couple of clicks and the file uploads. We notify the recipient the file is available. The recipient clicks on a couple of links to download the file.' * YouSendIt. 'You can send photos, audio, documents or anything else. Your file will be stored by YouSendIt without ever filling up your recipient's mailbox.' I haven't personally tried out any of these. Let me know your experiences if you do. Thanks.
Cluttered Desks Make Workers Ill
Researchers at NEC-Mitsubishi say the nation's office workers are being hit by "Irritable Desk Syndrome" reports the BBC. NEC teamed up with Open Ergonomics to produe a simple "Deskology" guide to help people improve their work area: - Setting Up: Pay more attention to the way you set up your desk to reduce stress and health risks Sitting Pretty: Adjusting the way you sit to improve back posture Take Five: Take a few minutes to stretch at your desk to reduce injury from routine activity Change of Scene: Take regular breaks away from your desk to improve concentration, overall health and colleague interaction Express Yourself: Give your desk individuality to remind you of life outside work Keep Cool: Prevent dehydration and overheating at work to promote higher energy levels De-clutter: Organise your desk to reduce stress levels and increase productivity Check out the Open Ergonomics site for tips on how to set up your office or not... 
Saturday, March 27
Don't buy an Inkjet Printer from Dell
Apparently you can ONLY buy replacement cartridges for Dell's branded inkjet printers from Dell themselves. Dell's printers are made by Lexmark but Lexmark carts or compatibles will not fit into Dell's models. Mike Wendland gives you the info. So; no choice of cheaper compatible carts, no chance if popping out to PC World to pick up an emergency replacement. Unbelievable!
The Cult of the iPod
If you haven't got one yet Mike Wendland's Quicktime video explains this growing cult.
Thursday, March 25
Remote Control your Yacht
 Having trouble mooring your yacht or maneuvering in confined spaces? You need a $5,000 Marilux Yacht Controller. As wireless captain of your vessel you are able to manage the forward, backward and sideways movement from any part of the boat, using the tumbler switches to control both forward and reverse on both engines and forward and aft thrusters, if fitted. You can even step onto a dock and handle your own dock lines. Just don't drop the remote!
Monday, March 22
Are your Internet Explorer Windows Getting Smaller?
I bet you are frustrated like I am when Internet Explorer starts opening new windows in various non-maximum sizes. This is a bug in IE that Microsoft seem to do nothing about. I have found a way to correct this until things get non-maximised again. Try this. 1. Open Internet Explorer normally. (Make sure no other instances are running.) 2. Right-click on a link and select "open in new window." 3. Resize the new window by dragging the borders so that it takes up the full screen. (Do not click the "maximize" button.) 4. Close the first window. 5. Close the second (stretched) window by shift-clicking on the red "close" button. This isn't really true maximisation though and as I said a couple of days later and your windows are opening small again. But help is at hand. It's a small program that loads when Windows starts up and keeps you maximised for ever. Has a few other neat tricks as well. You can get it for free at jisoft.
The Bloggies
You may have gathered from reading these tips that I am a fan of Weblog(Blog) technology as a simple way of enabling everyone to publish to the web. There a now hundreds of thousands of personal blogs available for your perusal covering any and all subjects. So where do you start? Well last week Nikolai Nolan published his 2004 Weblog awards - The Bloggies. He has ten categories and their were five nominations per category. Some fascinating reading! Go on, start your own blog. Blogger will get you going.
Saturday, March 20
Not Wired for Sound
 I converted my home network from Ethernet cable to high-speed wireless this week. All went very smoothly with both Mac and Windows PCs connecting up plug and play as per the instructions for once! I chose a Linksys WAG54G as my ADSL Wireless Gateway/Router. When browsing the web to make my choice I couldn't resist adding a NetGear MP101 Wireless Digital Music Player. This neat box connects my existing hi-fi system in the sitting room to my home computer network wirelessly. I can now listen to my MP3 digital music files that are stored on my desktop windows PC in the study. The player has bright display and remote control that you use to select the artist/tracks/playlists that you want to hear. The player communicates to some music server software that sits on the PC and provides the index of all the music tracks I have on the network. I could buy an unlimited number of players to put wherever I want to hear music and thus browse all of my music anywhere. And the really neat thing about this player is the price - 100 quid.
Thursday, March 18
Hot Firewire
Adding additional storage to your PC is pretty much plug and play these days with well-priced firewire and USB 2.0 hard drives, CD/DVD writers etc. However, a word of warning from my son's personal experience. Some of these peripherals claim that they can get their power from the firewire or USB port. This may work well in many cases but Pete has now twice been hit when attaching a hard disk that then promptly fried the firewire interface in his computer. We are convinced that the computer interface was damaged by the drive drawing too much juice. So if your peripheral is something chunky that needs a fair bit of power and offers an 'optional' power supply for self power then do plug the power supply in and let the drive obtain its power independently rather than through the firewire/USB port. Keep Cool!
Tuesday, March 16
Outlook Tip: Quick email find
When you need to find an email from a specific sender or with specific subject there is a quicker way than the Advanced Find command. Right click on a relevant email message Select Find All Select related messages or messages from sender.
Friday, March 12
The Pace of Work
 I have probably been spending too much time at the keyboard over the last few weeks. Not good physically and mentally. So I decided to get some help to ensure I wasn't overdoing it. I installed a trial version of WorkPace. WorkPace is a breaks and exercise software tool to help prevent, and aid recovery from, Repetitive Strain Injury. It monitors your PC usage and forces you to take Microbreaks (5 secs every 5 mins) and Workbreaks (5-10 mins every 45 mins or so). The whole system is customiseable to your workpace and adaptive. I will be buying the package at the end of the month's trial as it has certainly made my aware that I need to take a break. The exercises are also fun with little animated pictures and it will run on Windows, Mac and Unix. Stay healthy!
Thursday, March 11
How to dump your PC litter - Spring Clean Time
 Old utilities and defunct software can slow and damage your system. Dennis Jarrett at Guardian Online says now is the time to spring clean your PC. This is a fairly time consuming task but absolutely worth it in terms of the future stability of your system. Dennis also recommends a few utilities to help you clean up and maintain a healthy PC. However, if you are still on Windows 98, don't bother - just update to Windows XP - pronto.
Wednesday, March 10
Is going all wireless a huge mistake?
Is going all wireless a huge mistake ? by Francois Joseph de Kermadec -- Wireless technologies are without doubt the future of networking... But aren't we trying to do too much too soon, exposing ourselves to a whole new class of dangers ? Some cautionary words from Francois Joseph de Kermadec.
Saturday, March 6
Digital Photography
 Just discovered Norman Koren's comprehensive photography site. Some superb in-depth tutorials on digital photography and photo manipulation. Start with his Introduction in the section Making Fine Prints in Your Digital Darkroom. So much to learn! - Photo by Norman Koren.
Friday, March 5
Technology, Communication and Conversation
Technology has given us many choices of how to communicate, but which to choose (see chart below). Dave Pollard discusses the merits of these different methods and also dives deep into why we converse using technology at all. 
Gadget Link of the Week
This week's postings have been rather gadget orientated. If you want more go straight to engadget, an excellent new Blog dedicated to the latest gadgetry.
Clicker click Nokia
Since I first discovered Clicker, the utility that allows you to remotely control your Mac via a Bluetooth phone or PDA, I have bought a copy (for $20) and it is just great fun. Salling Software has now released version 2.1 which additionally supports Nokia series 60 phones as well as Ericsson and other Symbian based phones. The Register has all the details and reasons why you probably won't see Clicker on Windows for a while.
Thursday, March 4
Technology Desk
 Powerdesk is offering a range of desks with integrated built-in PCs. The PC specs are OK, and not having any cables around is cool. But does an upgrade mean you need to try to sell the whole desk on eBay or hope your kids school will mind desk donations along with the computing power? The company is from Sweden, but don't worry, it's not IKEA so you won't have to assemble the system yourself at home.
Easier storage of DVDs - Rip them all to disk
Molino Networks Inc., last month introduced the Molino Media Mogul, which stores all-digital copies of prerecorded DVDs on an internal hard drive for easy cataloging and viewing, in a manner similar to the way you now copy music from CDs for storage on computer hard drives. But expect to pay around $3000 for the privilege. The device, which uses a movie database supplied by Emeryville's Gracenote, sorts the digital DVDs by title or genre. To protect copyrights, the device does not allow copied DVDs to be transferred out, and requires the same DVD to be reinserted two weeks later to discourage consumers from copying rented DVDs. Read the full story at SFGate.
Tuesday, March 2
Where is it and how do I get there?
Two of my most frequently accessed bookmarks in my web browser are Streetmap.co.uk for the best UK location maps and Via Michelin for the best driving directions route plans. And if you haven't already done so visit Get Mapping and enter your postcode to see an aerial photo of you and your neighbours. No getting lost now!
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