How To Clean A Flat Screen Monitor

Flat screen monitors, also known as LCD monitors, are a little different than their CRT cousins when it comes to cleaning. Your standard CRT monitor has a glass screen and be cleaned in pretty much the same way as you would any other glass in your home or office.

Flat screen monitors, however, require a bit of special care when cleaning. Their displays are much more sensitive and are easily scratched and damaged.

Follow the easy steps below to safely clean your flat screen monitor in just a few minutes.

Here's How:
1. Turn off the monitor. If the screen is dark, it will be easier to see the areas that are dirty or oily.

2. Use a dry, soft cloth and very gently wipe the screen. A great choice would be the microfiber type of cloth used to clean eyeglasses. See Tip #1 below for kinds of cloths to avoid.

3. If the dry cloth did not completely remove the dirt or oil, do not press harder in an attempt to scrub it off. Pushing directly on the LCD screen can often cause pixels to burn out.

4. If necessary, dampen the cloth with distilled water or with an equal ratio of distilled water to white vinegar. See Tip #2 below for products to avoid.

Many companies also sell small spray bottles of special cleaner for flat screen monitors but the vinegar mixture is usually just as effective.

5. The plastic edge that surrounds the screen can be cleaned with any multipurpose cleaner but take care to avoid contact with the screen itself.

Tips: 1. Avoid using paper towels, toilet paper, tissue paper, or something like your shirt to wipe the LCD screen. These non-ultrasoft materials can easily scratch the screen.

2. Avoid cleaning products that contain ammonia, ethyl alcohol, acetone, toluene, ethyl acid, or methyl chloride. These chemicals can react with the materials that the LCD screen is made of which could yellow the screen or cause other kinds of damage.

3. Never spray liquid directly on the LCD screen or it could run inside the monitor and cause damage.

About Linux

What is Linux?

Linux is a free Unix-type operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers around the world. Developed under the GNU General Public License, the source code for Linux is freely available to everyone which is causing a major evolution in the world of computers. It outperforms other operating systems on similar hardware and is available on architectures ranging from a PDA to supercomputers.

A modern operating system like Linux is even easier to install and use than Microsoft® Windows™, especially given the reboot nightmares, viruses, worms, driver-update hassles and Service Pack annoyances that come with Microsoft® Windows™.

Linux and Open Source technologies have become the standard platform of choice for IT system deployment. Over seventy percent of the Internet is running on Open Source technologies and international vendors such as Sun, Novell and IBM are deploying Linux and Open Source.

With proven reliability, security by design and a world class reputation throughout the IT industry there really is no reason why you cannot move to Linux and freedom right now. Why wait for your next systems failure? Now is the time to start your move to Linux and Open Source.

Moving to the Linux platform does not require abandoning existing investments in Microsoft Windows applications and infrastructure. Linux runs on the same hardware and can run many of the Microsoft Windows applications, like OpenOffice. What makes this even more amazing is that Linux and Open Source applications are freely available to anyone who wishes to download them.

Why Move?

The big question for many corporate IT professionals and developers is "Why would I move from Windows to Linux?" Windows is well established in the enterprise computing space and applications currently deployed on Windows may be running just fine in their organisation.

However, many organisations are migrating from Windows and UNIX to the OSS Linux platform. They are moving in order to gain better business value, a greater choice of solutions, and richer capabilities for addressing their enterprise computing needs and abilities. This is what no proprietary vendor can do...

1. They don't have the hugely productive environment of KDE to program in.

2. They can't run development crews of the Open Source Community size without considerable investment.

3. They can't gather the input of thousands of users.

4. They can't design in such an open fashion as to remove all their hooks.

5. They can't make a product so extensible that it takes away their upgrade leverage.

6. They can't give it away for free.

How does satellite Internet operate

How do you access the Internet other than dial-up if you live too far from a phone company office for DSL and there is no cable TV on your street? Satellite Internet access may be worth considering. It's ideal for rural Internet users who want broadband access.

Satellite Internet does not use telephone lines or cable systems, but instead uses a satellite dish for two-way (upload and download) data communications. Upload speed is about one-tenth of the 500 kbps download speed. Cable and DSL have higher download speeds, but satellite systems are about 10 times faster than a normal modem.

Firms that offer or plan to offer two-way satellite Internet include StarBand, Pegasus Express, Teledesic and Tachyon. Tachyon service is available today in the United States, Western Europe and Mexico. Pegasus Express is the two-way version of DirecPC.

Two-way satellite Internet consists of:

* * Approximately a two-foot by three-foot dish
* * Two modems (uplink and downlink)
* * Coaxial cables between dish and modem

The key installation planning requirement is a clear view to the south, since the orbiting satellites are over the equator area. And, like satellite TV, trees and heavy rains can affect reception of the Internet signals.

Two-way satellite Internet uses Internet Protocol (IP) multicasting technology, which means up to 5,000 channels of communication can simultaneously be served by a single satellite. IP multicasting sends data from one point to many points (at the same time) by sending data in compressed format. Compression reduces the size of the data and the bandwidth. Usual dial-up land-based terrestrial systems have bandwidth limitations that prevent multicasting of this magnitude.

Some satellite-Internet service still requires you to have a dial-up or cable modem connection for the data you send to the Internet. The satellite data downlink is just like the usual terrestrial link, except the satellite transmits the data to your computer via the same dish that would allow you to receive a Pay-Per-View television program.

So, if you are in a rural area and you want broadband access to the Internet, satellite Internet may be for you!

Use Different Firefox Profiles For Different Browsing Habits

One of the most under-looked features of Firefox is its ability to run different profiles. This is perfect for various reasons. If more than one person is using the same computer, each person can have a different profile where he can have his own customized Firefox setting - such as extensions or bookmarks.

Another reason to use different profiles is when using FireFox for different purposes. Obviously, most people don't use every extension every time they use Firefox. However, the fact that the extension is installed makes Firefox startup and run slower than usual. The more extensions you run, the slower Firefox will run.

Use Firefox Profiles for different browsing habits

You can create Firefox profiles for the different browsing habits that you have. For example, if you are a web developer, you can have all extensions for that on one profile, without the unnecessary ones cluttering your Firefox. Likewise, if you want to browse without leaving any trace -"private browsing" - you can have a profile with the extension distrust or stealther and noscript.

For normal browsing, you can have another profile, and so on. This will keep your Firefox neat and fast - leaving only the necessary extensions and bookmarks for their respective purposes.

To use Firefox Profiles, follow these steps:

1. Go to Start->Run and type:

Firefox -p

Ffprofile.GIF
2. Click on Create Profile and name it whatever you want (porn mode, work…)

3. Run each profile and set it up exactly how you want it - download the correct extensions and place the bookmarks that you need.

Place desktop shortcuts for each profile:

To create shortcuts for each Firefox profile, put a shortcut for Firefox on your desktop for each profile. So if you have 4 profiles, place 4 shortcuts to Firefox. Right click->Properties on each shortcut and go to the Shortcut tab. In the target field, it will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Firefox. exe"

Simply add -p name to the end where name is the name of the profile. So if the profile name is 'private' the Target field should look like this:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Firefox. exe" -p private

Ffprofile21. GIF
Do this for every shortcut of Firefox.

Depending on how many extensions you normally use, this can speed up your Firefox significantly (especially how long it takes it to start up) because the extensions are spread over more profiles. Also, it's much less cluttered because you can spread bookmarks also.

Picasa Tip: How to Create an Account and Start Uploading Photos

One of the many wonders of the world wide web is Picasa Web Album, and I think everyone should have an account.

It is both an online-tool and a FREE downloadable, client-side tool made by Google, allowing you to easily upload photos. I for one find it really easy to use, I think Google tools are built that way. One can quickly use those photos for other online websites like blogs and the like. I use it to store my personal private photo library too.

The free account allows one to have 1024MB of photo space. An upgraded full account are separated into 4 general plans:

1. 10GB for $20/year
2. 40GB for $75/year
3. 150GB for $250/year
4. 400GB for $500/year

For those who do not have a Picasa Web Album account yet, here are 5 easy steps to start with one of your own and begin your online photo library.

1. Create an account or sign into your Google account using your GMail username and password at http://picasaweb. google.com.

2. At the upper left corner you'd see My Photos, My Favorites, & My Public Gallery. You can click any of these links when you've got photos uploaded into your account.

3. To begin uploading your first sets of photos, click the upload button on the upper-right side of the website.

4. You then must first choose to create a new album and/or to upload your photo into an existing album.

5. And the fifth step is to choose the actual photos and click OK/Upload.

How to access FTP servers without any software

FTP is used for transfer of large files. Bloggers and webmasters use FTP frequently for uploading files to their server space all the time.

FTP transfers usually involve some software installed on the computer. The method usually involves connecting to a particular host server URl, and entering the username and password for access. FTP transfers may be primitive (they do not have much security), but they are still widely used.

Imagine yourselves in this situation : you are at a friend's house or a browsing cafe, and need to access your server immediately (perhaps for uploading WP-Cache during a spike, for example). Do you wait until the download of FTP software is complete? That is a complete waste of time.

There is an easier way to access FTP servers - without any third-party software. All that you require is the humble Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer (either of them can be used). To access any FTP server, enter the following (replace server with the domain/subdomain):

FTP://FTP.server.com

Once you enter this, a dialog box will come up, and you can fill out the user name and password and click Log On.

If you're still not convinved of using this method, try out FileZilla , a free, open-source software.

Disable popup warnings in Windows XP

Windows XP may be one of the more stable and developed operating systems (Vista is like a beta right now). But there are many irritating aspects in Windows XP.

Windows has a really stupid popup system, which pops up for every unnecessary thing imaginable. For example, there is a popup to warn that disk space is low on the system drive (usually C:\). Also, there is a popup for alerting you that a new program installed. As if you didn't know that you've installed a program!

There is an easy registry hack to get rid of all these popups. Do not be appalled by a registry edit - this is really simple.

Open up the registry editor - go to Run, type regedit and click OK. Backing up the registry before a hack is always a good idea, so click File > Export, choose a location and click save. Then, proceed to HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentV ersion\Explorer\ Advanced

Right click on the right-hand pane, make New> DWORD Value and name it EnableBallonTips. Set the value to 0 to disable ballontips, and set it back to 1 to enable balloontips.

This hack disables most balloontips. In order to eliminate all popups, some more work is required. In each of the following locations, change the values to 0 to disable balloontips.

Location: HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentV ersion\Explorer\ Advanced\

1. Change the value of FolderContentsInfoT ip to 0

Location: HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentV ersion\Explorer\ Advanced\

1. Change the value of ShowInfoTip to 0.

Location: HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentV ersion\Explorer\ tips\Show

1. Change the value of Show to 0

If anything goes wrong, restore the registry file that you had explored before and settings will be restored.

How Processor Speed Is Reported to a Computer

The System tool in Control Panel uses Current Speed to do its reporting rather than Max Speed, but the System tool may display the wrong clock speed for the Central Processing Unit (CPU).

As of January 2002, Windows XP uses the Current Speed value rather than the Max Speed value because the Max Speed value was reporting inconsistent values.

After startup, the processor may not correctly reflect its correct speed until a program utilizes processor cycles.

The computer basic input/output system (BIOS) in some laptop computers may throttle the processor because of heat, load, power AC/DC.

To check the Current Speed setting:

1.Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.

2.Click See basic information about your computer. On the General tab, the processor speed (in MHz) appears under Computer.

To check the Max Speed setting:

1.Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Information.

2.The speed (Max Speed) of the processor appears in MHz in the System Information window, in the right column of System Summary, under Processor..

NOTE: System Information from Administrative Tools always reports Max Speed.

If you click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Information, the correct processor speed (for example, 797 MHz = 800 MHz) is shown. After you start the System Information tool, the System Properties tool in Control Panel displays the correct speed. However, when you first start your computer, the incorrect speed is shown in the System Properties tool in Control Panel.

Computer maintenance tips

With the amount of information available for download on the Internet, it's easy to quickly fill up your valuable hard drive space and turn your computer into a sluggish, unresponsive monster. Keeping your hard drive clean is essential to the high performance that the latest computers can achieve. Fortunately, it's a simple process; one that can easily be performed on a regular basis and, with some organization, keep your computer running like a well-oiled machine.

You can discover how much hard drive space is available on your computer by accessing the DriveSpace program in your System Tools. A pie graph will show you the amount of used and unused space for each of your drives. Check this often to keep an idea of how much space you are using.

There are six simple steps to clearing up your hard drive:

1. Uninstall unused programs.

Many times a new program will come along that looks fun to have or play with, but after a week or two you simply stop using it. These programs clutter up your drive and take up valuable space. You might be tempted to delete these programs from your drive, but doing so will cause problems. You must use the uninstall function of Windows for the program to be removed safely and completely.

2. Clean out temporary files.

When your computer is not shut down properly, it will pass information from memory into fragmented files. Also, while you are running programs, your computer will write information that it does not immediately need into temporary files. Installation files will also expand themselves into the temporary folder and will not always clean up after themselves. You can delete these temporary files safely by using the Disk Cleanup option in your System Tools.

3. Empty your Internet cache.

As you surf the Internet your computer stores web pages and images into a temporary Internet cache so that it can quickly recall and access information when you move back and forth between pages. This backup information can quickly add up and eat hard drive space.

Whether you use Internet Explorer, Netscape, or one of the many other browsers available, emptying out your cache is quick and easy. Simply follow the instructions in the Help files located within those programs. You may also wish to set a specific maximum file size for your cache folder, so that it is not allowed to run rampant.

4. Empty your mail programs of clutter.

It's easy to browse through your email and leave old messages there, promising yourself you'll sort them out later. One or two messages don't take up much space, but hundreds certainly do. Take the time to sort through these old emails now and delete what is not important. Create folders and organize what is left. Make it a habit that when new emails come in, they are either filed immediately or thrown away. Set your email program to empty your deleted items folder each time you close your mail program.

5. Empty your recycle bin.

Once you've emptied your drive of cluttering, unnecessary programs; empty your recycle bin to remove what has been placed there in the process.

6. Scandisk and Defrag.

When Windows installs programs, it will put the files it needs anywhere that it finds free space, and not directly after the last program installed. As a result, your hard drive has patches of empty space on it that are not big enough to fit a full program, and will result in a drive space error if you attempt to install something new. Scandisk your drive to check for lost file fragments and to fix any errors it finds, then Defrag to pack all of the program files together at the beginning of your drive. This will clear out those empty patches and move all of the free space you've just created to the end of your drive.

Now that you've got it clean, keep it that way. Perform this quick maintenance routine every week. For your work computer, Friday afternoon before you leave for the weekend is the perfect time. When you return to work on Monday, you'll have a computer that is clutter-free and as responsive as it should be.

Organize your surfing habits. Direct all of your downloads to the same folder, so that you can easily find them and delete them when necessary, or move them to zip disks for storage. Keep track of the programs that you install. For trial versions, note the date that they will expire on a calendar. This will remind you to uninstall the programs that you can no longer use rather than allowing them to clutter up your drive. Also, if you run into problems, keeping track of new downloaded and installed programs and the date they were installed can help you track down the cause of problems.

Remember that the cleaner your hard drive is, the better your machine will respond! In order for your computer to be user friendly, it must have a friendly user. Be your computer's best friend and clean out the cobwebs regularly.

Microsoft Excel Shortcut keys

Auto sum shortcut key : Quickly create a Microsoft Excel formula to get the sum of all cells by highlighting the cells you wish to know the value of and pressing ALT and = .

Create hyper links in Excel : Quickly create hyper links in your Microsoft Word, Excel, or Front Page document by highlighting text and pressing "CTRL + K".
Close all open files at once : Close all open Microsoft Word and/or Excel files by holding down the shift key and clicking "File" and then "Close All".

Quickly open recently opened files : Quickly open the recent files by first pressing "ALT + F" to open the file Menu and press 1, 2, 3, or 4.

Create underlines without any text : This tip works with the majority of Microsoft Office applications. Easily create an underlined space by pressing CTRL + U to start the underline, then press SHIFT + Space for each underlined space you wish to create. An example of how this could be used is for printable forms, for example: Name: .

Print only sections of a document : Save on your printer ink by selectively printing in Windows programs such as Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, WordPad, Outlook, etc. To do this highlight portions of text you wish to print and click print. In the printer dialog window under Page Range choose the option Selection. It is important to realize that not all programs or printer drivers support this feature.

Repeat recent action : Using the F4 key in Microsoft Office 2000 and above allows the user to repeat the last used action. For example, if you have changed the font of a selected text and wish to change another portion of text to the same font, pressing F4 will do this for you automatically.

Quickly undo : Quickly undo mistakes in the majority of most PC Windows program by pressing CTRL + Z.

Quickly above cell contents : In Microsoft Excel press CTRL + SHIFT + " to copy the above cells contents.

Using the Microsoft Excel Auto filter : Organize cells quickly by using Microsoft Auto filter. Columns that contains long listing of data can be easily sorted by using the Auto filter option, to use this option select the top rows of the columns you want to be used and select Data / Filter and Auto Filter. Once successfully completed you can use drop down arrows to filter the data automatically.

Enable Administrator at Welcome Screen

View Admin At welcome Screen


By default windows XP doesn't show the Administrator in the user list at the welcome screen. Here's a way to get around it.


Now head up to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\ Microsoft\ WindowsNT\ CurrentVersion\ Winlogon\ SpecialAccounts\ Userlist

Create a new DWORD entry and name it as Administrator and change its value to 1.

Exit and reboot for the changes to take effect.

To change it back change its value to 0 or simply delete the key.