Integrating web office products into your desktop
Submitted on July 26th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Productivity and Resources and Software and Windows
No. of comments (2)
The longer I am involved with TipMonkies, the more useful sites I find, and the less desktop software I use. Aside from a browser, CD/DVD burning software, a music and video player, and a graphics manipulation application, there really isn’t anything else on my PC (aside from lots of music). One suite of programs I’ve been able to uninstall is any office application, opting instead for web-based office products like ajaxWrite. The problem with web-based office products is that it’s not integrated into your desktop so you couldn’t simply double-click a Word file and have it open up automatically…or could you?
Lifehacker has a good how-to on how to integrate these products into your desktop using a little application called AutoHotKey. This little application will let you associate office filetypes on your computer to web apps and open them automatically. Sweet!
Foxit Reader: fast and functional PDF reader
Submitted on July 21st, 2006 by admin
Filed under Productivity and Software and Windows
No. of comments (3)
About a year or so ago, I was really into downloading and reading e-books, which generally come in PDF format. Most people generally use Adobe Acrobat Reader for opening PDF files, but it’s not the fast or most effective way. Tired of waiting a lifetime for my e-books to open, I went looking for alternatives and found Foxit Reader. You can check out a quick and dirty review of it over at the great UNEASYSilence site.
Foxit Reader is a completely free Windows application, and trust me, it is FAST!
Quick security guide for Windows
Submitted on July 21st, 2006 by admin
Filed under Windows and Security
No. of comments (1)
Looking to keep your Windows installation nice and clean? Then check out these great tips over at Keeping up with the Joneses, a site run by one of our savvy readers 
Reinstall Windows without losing important data
Submitted on July 21st, 2006 by admin
Filed under Resources and Windows and Security
No. of comments (2)
Once in a while, you might want to reinstall Windows, especially if your system starts to get bogged down, or if you’d had a catastrophic loss from a virus attack. The problem is that reinstalling Windows will delete personal files and data, so what do you do? Check out this article over at InformationWeek which offers a step by step on the process complete with videos of each step.
You could always do constant backups of your system (NOTE: if you have never performed a backup, start now!), and even if you are, this article is a fairly valuable resource in order to keep your data safe and secure.
How to embed YouTube into Winamp
Submitted on July 21st, 2006 by admin
Filed under Audio and Software and Windows
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Are you a YouTube junkie? Yeah, me too. If you’re a Winamp user, you might enjoy this quick tip to embed a YouTube page directly into your media player. Open the configuration file found inside C:\Program Files\Winamp\ Plugins\ml\ml_online.ini and add the following lines to the file:
ElementId11=8000
ElementIcon11=11002
ElementSubbed11=1
ElementName11=Youtube
ElementURL11=http://youtube.com/?cmd=mini
Then, remove the line ElementID10=-1, save the file, and restart Winamp. A little useless? Maybe, but still fun.
[Via Lifehacker]
Gizmo offers free VOIP to landline calls
Submitted on July 20th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Storage and The Mac Side and Services and Windows and Linux
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The Gizmo Project has been around for a while and we’ve mentioned it once or twice before. Even though I like using the program quite a bit, something has kept me from completely dropping Skype in favor it Gizmo, though that may soon change as Gizmo is now offering free VOIP to landline calling to over 60 countries!
There is one catch though…any number you wish to call must be registered by a Gizmo member, so don’t go ahead and start calling grandma; get her to sign up first. Second, if you want someone to call you, you’ll need to fork up the cash and have a phone number tied to your Gizmo account (which is just like US$3 a month). While not as free as it may sound, the new VOIP to landline calling feature should definitely be easy enough to do, and hey, maybe you can just sign your friends up so you can call them.
[Via Engadget]
Deliwin, for the del.icio.us freak in you
Submitted on July 20th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Productivity and Bookmarking and The Mac Side and Services and Software and Windows
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Even though the world has seen a huge explosion in the number of social bookmarking sites, many of you are probably still using one the first, del.icio.us. I’ve often stated my discontent with how tedious it can be to quickly access bookmarks off del.icio.us sometimes unless you search for the right tools (I like Flock, for example). Deliwin is definitely one of those tools. Simply install this little tool and you’ll see an icon in your system tray which lets you quickly access your bookmarks via tag. Reload times and displayed tags are pretty customizable so you can have some fun trying to get it to conform to your needs. Deliwin is for Windows only, but OSX users can use its parents application, Delibar which has the same features. Both applications are free (donations accepted).
[Via Download Squad]
Custom flash drive icons
Submitted on July 20th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Graphics and Windows
No. of comments (15)
You can easily make your USB flash drive show up in Windows with a custom icon. Simply find an .ico file you want to use (favicons from websites work nicely). I used the TipMonkies favicon: .
Yahoo! Go beta
Submitted on April 28th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Reviews and Audio and Video and Windows
No. of comments (2)
Yahoo has finally come out with their own all in oneDVR/media software for your PC. I’ve tinkered around a little bit and it’s pretty slick. Very cool and eye appealing user interface but uses quite a bit of your computers resources. Overall this Yahoo Go program can act as your DVR, music player, photo and video player. What I didn’t like was the menu system. It only has a “Back” button which becomes tedious to use once your going through a huge list of folders. They need to actually put a “Home” or a “Menu” button on every page so that it can take your right back to the main menu. Also I tried editing the album art cause it was displaying the wrong one and I couldn’t. By default it will use the image it sees in the directory/root closest to the music track. I didn’t have a tv tuner card to actually check out the DVR functionality of the program. If anyone can give me a heads up on it I’d much appreciate it. Once again go check it out yourself at yahooGo beta.
Parazz Mini Viewer
Submitted on April 20th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Storage and Reviews and The Mac Side and Windows
No. of comments (1)
I know, I KNOW!!! I’ve been talking about photo online services over and over again. But I am a photographer/graphics designer and I’m always constantly looking for places to store my photos. I’ve been using Parazz for awhile because they upgraded my account for free since I was a beta-tester. They’ve got lots of work to do but overall great service/concept.
They’ve recently rolled out a new feature called the “Parazz Mini Viewer”. It’s actually a small Flash driven photo album that you can post on your own website. I’ve posted mine on my blog. You can go check it out by clicking here. They’ve still got some bugs to work out, such as: none of the photos actually link out to the actual image. This service is a work in progress. Much to improve here but they are heading in a good direction. Check them out at www.parazz.com or stop by my album at www.parazz.com/albums/j5uh.
