Understanding Routers, Switches, and Network Hardware

http://www.getyourcensoron.com/

Star Trek TNG Ambient Engine Noise (Idling for 24 hrs) - YouTube

This is my favorite non-music background noise right now.

Look up any character or symbol with Shapecatcher

"Although you could easily look up any word or concept in a search engine, what would you do if and wanted to look up a character or symbol (say if you were a designer or artist or just interested). In ‘real life’ you would simply draw it and show it to someone who might now, and that is precisely how ShapeCatcher works."

God Forbid You Post Something Helpful

20 of the Best Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most out of the Windows Command Line

Here.

Get More Pages Out of Your Printer When the Toner is Low by Covering the Sensor

Chrome, FTW

I just switched browsers, from Maxthon to Google Chrome, for reasons of speed, stability, features, and available add-ons. I wish I'd done so a lot sooner. Here's the add-ons (known as extensions in Chrome) I'm using right now, having looked at many hundreds of them.

Adblock Plus for Google Chrome™ (Beta) - Version: 1.1.4

Ads were yesterday! The successful extension Adblock Plus is now available for Google Chrome™.

Antisocial - Version: 0.1.3

Blocks social plugins from loading
I don't participate in social networking, and appreciate this extension's ability to block all the little icons from littering the pages I'm reading.

Autofill - Version: 5.5

Fill form fields automatically on page load.

Awesome Button Bar - Version: 1.0.0.7

Button bar, combining downloads, bookmarks, extensions, history, view source, print, and more from a single button.

Chrome Toolbox (by Google) - Version: 1.0.28

A quick access tool that allows you to put your favorite browser commands in one drop down menu, save unsubmitted form data, magnify images, view videos in standalone windows, and define shortcuts to open all links in any bookmark folder.

Email this page (by Google) - Version: 1.2.5

This extension adds an email button to the toolbar which allows you to email the page link using your default mail client or Gmail.
This works jut fine with Outlook as my email client, without modification. Nice touch: any text I have highlighted on the page is also pasted into the email.

Greader+ - Version: 0.3.7

Interface enhancement for the new Google Reader™
This extension makes the visual style of Google Reader a bit better, and I spend a *lot* of time in Google Reader.

IE Tab - Version: 2.10.13.1

Display web pages using IE within Chrome. Supports ActiveX controls, Sharepoint, ICBC, alipay. A "Top 10" extension since 2009!
 For example: my bank's website has all kinds of problems in Chrome, but I've configured this extension to always open that site with IE's rendering engine (and I turned off the "open pop-ups in Chrome" option so links to my bill pay service are kept in IE mode as well)

Mouse Stroke - Version: 1.9.5.2

Use mouse strokes (aka gestures) to accelerate your operations. Support super drag & go, rocker gestures and wheel gestures in one extension! Volunteer translators needed.
This is the function that drew me to Maxthon, and it's even better here: I can close tabs with a mouse gesture, drag links to the right to open them in a background tab, drag links to teh left to open them in a new foreground tab, and many other cool things are possible.

Neat Bookmarks - Version: 0.8.26

A neat bookmarks tree popup.
I choose not to keep my bookmark bar turned on; this extension gives me easy access to my bookmarks and bookmarklets.

Screen Capture (by Google) - Version: 5.0.3

Capture visible content of a tab, a region of a web page, or the whole page as a PNG image. Support horizontal and vertical scroll when capturing whole page, with an all new autosave capability.

Sexy Undo Close Tab - Version: 7.1.1

Accidentally closed your last tab? Tired of losing tabs in Incognito? Don't worry, everything is possible with this sexy extension.
This extension lets me easily recover closed tabs. Chrome does have a keyboard shortcut for this, but I like this simpler method.

Skip ads on YouTube - No illegal block - Version: 1.36

A new button on YouTube which skips the current ad and start the main video. It will always work.
I don't mind text ads, but those long ads in front of videos (I'm looking at you, ICanHasCheezburger!) chap my hide.

Speed Dial - Version: 2.1

Speed Dial for Chrome - replace Chrome new tab with your predefined visual bookmarks.
When I open Chrome, I see a panel of sites I frequently visit, and can choose them easily. Also displays when opening a new tab.

To Be Read - Version: 1.8

A list that holds the pages that you didn't read yet but you would like to.
An easy way to save items to be read later: the right click menu on each page offers "Save For Later And Close", and activating that option adds the page to a list and closes the page; you can then at any time go into the list of things you've saved and bring them back up.

9 Reasons To Wear Tinfoil Hats

"Here’s our short list of nine reasons that Wired readers ought to wear tinfoil hats, or at least, fight for their rights and consider ways to protect themselves with encryption and defensive digital technologies."

How to Open the Start Menu Folder in Windows 7

"Are you one of those people that obsessively edits your start menu to keep it clean, tidy, and organized? Back in Windows XP, all you had to do was right-click on the start button to get to the folder, but Windows 7 chang ed it."

How to Assign a Static Drive Letter to a USB Drive in Windows 7

Top 10 Tech Concepts You Always Wanted To Learn About (But Never Did)

How Can I Make My Inkjet Printer Suck Less and Print Better?

5 Steps to a Family-Safe Internet

"I’ve reviewed several internet filtering and internet security products for GeekDad over the years. Each has pluses and minuses. I’ve decided to come clean with what my family runs: yes, we do filter the internet for our kids — but our filtering is more common-sense than technology solution (although both play a part)."

"To Tablet or Not to Tablet"

"Is it going to replace my notebook/desktop computer?"

The credulous Bubbie-net

"This explains why many middle-aged people and senior citizens I meet are actually more misinformed and radicalized than their children. Many Tea Party fanatics, in particular, are older white people who have cobbled a political philosophy together from nonsense Internet stories claiming that Barack Obama is Muslim, that global warming has been “debunked” or that universal health care means sending grandma to a “death panel"

It's Time To Kill The Electric Car, Drive A Stake Through Its Heart And Burn The Corpse

Create an About Me Page and Profile the Easy Way

"If you are wanting something a bit simpler than Facebook or MySpace, perhaps not a social network at all, but rather a place to create a more balanced profile for people to learn more about you, there is an awesome website for that."

The Problem with Plugging into USB Ports [Image]

100% of the time. Grrrr.

Adding FrontPage forms with Expression Web

Microsoft removed the ability to create FrontPage forms in Expression Web, but left in the ability to edit existing forms. I've just found that it's easy to create a FrontPage form manually. Caveats: -- I've tested this on multiple sites, and so far it's worked perfectly, but you should of course test everything thoroughly (but you do that anyway, no?) -- I would not normally advise adding any page code that deals with FrontPage extensions and their function, but in this case it works and seems simple enough. -- For those who aren't aware, you need to use a web host that offers FrontPage extensions; and if you use FrontPage extensions, you need to do all of your web editing work with FrontPage or Expression Web or some other application that plays nice with the FrontPage extensions (no FTP). I've been a LunarPages customer for years, and happy with my choice. The process: copy the code below into the body of your web page, while in Code view (to make it easier to place, enter some placeholder text in Design view, and highlight it; then when you switch to Code view, you'll be right there and can just paste the code in place of the already highlighted placeholder). Then when you go back to Design view, you'll see the new form and can make changes as needed. Your standard form items are available in the Toolbox panel under Form Controls.

I couldn't paste the raw html code here and have it remain visible, so in the below, make the following replacements:
[ becomes <
] becomes >

===begin code block, copy everything after this line ====

[form method="POST" action="--WEBBOT-SELF--"]

[!--webbot bot="SaveResults" S-Email-Format="TEXT/PRE" S-Email-Address="emailaddress" B-Email-Label-Fields="TRUE" S-Builtin-Fields="Date Time" startspan S-Date-Format="%Y-%m-%d" S-Time-Format="%I:%M:%S %p %Z" --][!--webbot bot="SaveResults" endspan --]
[p]
[b]
Form starts here and ends at the buttons[/b]       [/p]
[p] [input type="submit" value="Submit" name="B1"][input type="reset" value="Reset" name="B2"][/p]
[/form]

Instant Elevator Music

Windows: "The program automatically kicks in whenever you have to wait for a progress bar dialog to finish and plays elevator music in the background. Not only can this make the wait a little more pleasant, it can also be useful to be "keep an ear out" for a progress to finish without having to look at the screen. "

$300 Million Button: making customers create logins to buy cost etailer $300M/year

For Yahoo users: How Not To Be A Closet Spammer

KidLogger

"KidLogger enables you to log an monitor PC and Internet activity on your computer. The program can keep track of websites visited, applications used, keystrokes typed and even capture screenshots of desktop activity. The program also includes a voice monitoring feature that allows you to record audio via an attached microphone and save it to MP3 files."

Safe Mode Fixer Repairs Windows Malware Disablements

"The tool is an executable file that requires no installation. Upon running the executable file and clicking on the Fix button, repairs are applied to your system followed by an immediate reboot."

Physion - Physics Simulation Software

Physion - Physics Simulation Software: "Physion is a 2D Physics simulation software. It can be used to easily create a wide range of interactive physics simulations and educational experiments. Teachers may find it particularly useful since it can be used as a virtual physics laboratory through which they can demonstrate some basic physics concepts in the classroom."

How To (Un)Lock Your PC By Being Nearby (With a Bluetooth Phone)

Speed Up Windows 7 and Vista by Turning Off Glass Transparency

EFF's 21st Century bust-cards

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation's new 'Know Your Digital Rights' guide is a bust-card for the Twenty-First Century, explaining your rights when it comes to searches of your phone, computer, laptop and other devices."

Windows 7 and Vista desktop list view utility

Hit the link above to find tiny, non-resident utility to change your desktop display from this:

 to this:

I've used many utilities for this over the years with XP and Vista, but none of them seem to work in Window 7. I finally found this one that works. Props to Rei Resurreccion for making this available.

To use: run the installer from the site above (found just above the screen capture of the desktop), and choose the option to have it run automatically when Windows starts.

It's also available here (the top link requires registration to download).

Pulling plug on privacy

"When did the Fourth Amendment die, you ask?Recently, but it’s been sick for a while."

The Myth of Multitasking

You may think you're multitasking, but you're not, in most cases.

Give Your Ubuntu Installation Full Multimedia Support

"What formats are we talking about? Well, a default installation of Ubuntu can’t play any of your MP3s. It can’t play videos on Hulu or YouTube. It can’t play the Divx file you downloaded off the Internet, and it can’t play your store-bought DVD disks."

Dealing with Cyberbullies

"Bullies are taking advantage of technology to intimidate and harass their victims. Dealing with cyberbullying can be difficult, but there are steps you can take. "

How to Recover Windows and Software Keys from a Broken Computer

How To Remotely Backup Your Data for Free with CrashPlan

CrashPlan offers a free and cross-platform solution that makes it so easy to backup your data both locally and remotely that it’s criminal not to.

Why Privacy Matters Even if You Have 'Nothing to Hide' - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Filter Bubble: how personalization changes society

"In Pariser's view, invisible, unaccountable, commercially driven customization turns into a media-bias-of-one, an information system that distorts your perception of reality. " I share the same concerns with user-driven customization of information.

Pandora Rolls Out Comedy Stations

Easily and Quickly Optimize Windows XP Using a Free Tool

"Are you still using Windows XP? Is it slowing down? We found a quick and easy way to optimize Windows XP using a tool called Quick XP Optimizer. It improves the performance of your system and applications and speeds up the boot up and shut down processes of Windows XP."

How To Set Up Your Own Online Store

Why People Should Stop Being Duped By the 3D Scam

"The entertainment and electronics industries keep trying to push 3D on consumers, even though a lot of smart people have caught on to the fact that it is a scam and not innovation as the industry would like you to believe."

Disclaimers in Email Signatures are Not Just Annoying, But Legally Meaningless

Incompetent Research Skills Curb Users' Problem Solving

How to secure your PC with Microsoft Safety Scanner – Simple Help

Demo: Enable Excel Services and data connections for a SharePoint team site - SharePoint Server

Generate a System Health Report in Windows 7 to Check for Errors

Don't damage LCDs trying to clean them

"Chemicals in municipal water and window cleaners can damage LCD screens on TVs and laptops. Harsh chemicals can kill pixels, or cause clouding and smudges."

Top 10 Web Design Mistakes

Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 7

"If the hardware and software in your PC are not working correctly, you need a way to boot up Windows 7 so you can find out which component is causing the problem. Learn how to perform a clean boot in Windows 7 to troubleshoot malfunctioning hardware and software."

Google Lets Users Blacklist Sites From Search Results

"Google users can now ban the sites that annoy them most from ever showing up in their search results. Think of it as the Hate button."

Getting Started with Linux: Installing Apps and Going Further

Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware

The Trouble With “Balance” Metaphors

"... the familiar trope of “balancing privacy and security” is a source of constant frustration to privacy advocates, because while there are clearly sometimes tradeoffs between the two, it often seems that the zero-sum rhetoric of “balancing” leads people to view them as always in conflict. This is, I suspect, the source of much of the psychological appeal of “security theater”: If we implicitly think of privacy and security as balanced on a scale, a loss of privacy is ipso facto a gain in security. It sounds silly when stated explicitly, but the power of frames is precisely that they shape our thinking without being stated explicitly."

productivity tip: reboot your computer every time you get bored

"The urge to check all those sites magically vanished--and my 'productive' computer use was unaffected."

F.lux: software to make your life better

"F.lux fixes this: it makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day. It's even possible that you're staying up too late because of your computer. You could use f.lux because it makes you sleep better, or you could just use it just because it makes your computer look better."

US-CERT Cyber Security: Debunking Some Common Myths

"There are some common myths that may influence your online security practices. Knowing the truth will allow you to make better decisions about how to protect yourself. "

How To: Recover Your Data (Mostly) Free and Easy

10 year old extols his 3D printer's virtues

Family Tech Support Guy

"Family Tech Support Guy: Or, 21 Reasons Why Technology Isn’t So Great Sometimes"

Virtualization in the trenches with VMware, Part 1: Basics and benefits

Check Browser Compatibility: Cross Platform Browser Test

Nice service: enter the URL you'd like tested, and in a few minutes(or longer) you'll get screen caps of the page as rendered in many browsers.

Learn to Code: The Full Beginner's Guide

Honda U3-X Personal Mobility Prototype

Staying Safe on Social Network Sites

Website Challenges You to Do the Impossible: Absolutely Nothing for Two Minutes

What happens when mom unplugs teens for 6 months?

"For six months, she took away the Internet, TV, iPods, cell phones and video games. The eerie glow of screens stopped lighting up the family room. Electronic devices no longer chirped through the night like "evil crickets." "

Quote of the Day

"I looked at the USB cables dangling there, and I laughed pityingly at them, and I thought, Whoever designed the connector of the USB cable was a man who despised the human race, because you can't tell which way to turn it and you waste minutes of your tiny day, crouched, grunting, trying the half-blocked connector one way and the next."

- Nicholson Baker, from his novel The Anthologist.

Five Easy Places to Recycle Your Old Gadgets and Computers

De-Crapify Your Windows Printer or Scanner Setup

"Your printer's manufacturer doesn't want you to use your printer to just print and scan. They want to install bloated apps, eat memory, and to constantly nag you for more ink. Trim your printer setup to the minimum with this five-step guide"

If This Fusion Restaurant's Website Could Talk.

Web designers: take note.

How to make your web site's shopping cart suck less

Not safe for work, but oh so true: The Oatmeal's take on how your site's shopping cart can be better.

How to Combine Rescue Disks to Create the Ultimate Windows Repair Disk

Why I Still Want a Desktop Computer

Yup!

The Importance of Vacation

"There is something truly decadent about turning off e-mail, quitting Twitter, signing off Facebook and going to the beach. The first few hours are a bit bumpy — I hallucinate the ping, ping, ping of my inbox — but I eventually get over the anxiety of my digital disconnectedness. And then I begin to enjoy it."

TrashMail - Disposable email addresses

"Create a new email address on trashmail.net. All mails to this address will be forwarded to your real email address for a number of times you can set up on the following form. When the limit is reached, the Trashmail.net email address will be automatically deleted. All following mails (like spam, newsletter, etc) will be rejected at Trashmail.net."