Category Archives: computers

How To: Annoying Webpage

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This post is a revival of a webpage I made over 4 years ago, and I was recently reminded of it, so, I decided to bring it out again.  The problems demonstrated with this page are not as prevalent on the web today as they were several years ago, but I think it’s still relevant. Follow the link provided below for your viewing pleasure.

Annoying Webpage

Oh, as far as the “How To” part goes, just follow these simple steps when building a webpage:

  1. Use ugly, clashing colors
  2. Integrate pop-ups as much as possible
  3. Includes sounds that play automatically
  4. Be sure to include some sort of animated text
  5. Create a MySpace page in lieu of steps 1-4

Mac-tastic

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The PC is all I have ever known. I guess it sort of fits like the proverbial old shoe since I know it inside and out, upside down, and backwards. I am familiar with all the hardware, software, settings, file structure, tweaks, tips, hacks, etc… Well, I guess I shouldn’t say all, but I’ll leave it at a lot. Macs were just something with pretty colors, but were not very useful for doing real work. Actually, I had that notion without ever really using a Mac so I guess it was just successful subliminal advertising or something like that. Anyway, all that to say this: I now have a 20-inch, 2.0GHz, 1GB RAM iMac in my home.

iMac

First off it’s not technically my computer since it actually belongs to Walnut Creek of Thomasville. I am just using it to do work at home with a program called MacDraft which, believe it or not, is not available for the PC unless you get PCDraft, but I’m not getting into all that.

With my previous Mac experience being somewhere between zero and Continue reading →

3D Computer Modeling

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Render Small

In the Kitchen Workstation – Part II post I did a 3d rendering of the proposed addition to our kitchen cabinets. Renderings attempt to accurately represent reality using 3d shapes along with varying textures and lighting. In order to better explain what it takes to make one of those models and why it can be so incredibily time consuming I will spend some time going into a little more detail. Continue reading →

Computer Tip: Ok, Cancel, Apply

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Dialog BoxJust a quick tip for when you’re working with a Windows based computer. If you have an open dialog box for changing settings/options/whatever you will often see three buttons at the bottom: Ok, Cancel, and Apply. Here are the explanations for what each button does.

Ok – saves all settings as modified and closes the dialog box

Cancel – discards all changes to settings and closes the dialog box

Apply – saves all settings as modified and leaves the dialog box open

Therefore, there is no reason to click Apply then immediately click Ok. Just the Ok button will suffice. Clicking Apply then Cancel is equivalent to Ok. Clicking Cancel will only discard the changes that were made since either the dialog box was opened or Apply was last clicked, whichever is most recent.

I know this is simple, but it is potentially helpful.

How To: Go Iconless on Your Desktop

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Iconless DesktopIn the spirit of David Allen’s Getting Things Done I have, in the last year or so, been essentially iconless on my desktop. I have come to think of my desktop as a sort of inbox where any icons piling up are just unprocessed or not-dealt-with information (a.k.a. clutter) that decreases my productivity. Besides all this efficiency stuff, a desktop full of seldom used icons just bugs me.

Besides the handful of shortcuts most people used daily, the desktop tends to act as a graveyard for the useless triple or quad icon installs that are common with many programs. Whenever I use someone else’s computer and I see a Free AOL icon from their latest AIM upgrade it makes my skin crawl. Why are these icons installed and, even worse, why don’t people delete them?!

In addition to installed shortcuts, an unattended desktop tends to collect many downloaded or created files that either need to be moved to an appropriate folder or, in most instances, just deleted. I often use my desktop as a place to temporarily house files while I’m working with them (i.e. inbox), but I try to always clean it out before I leave the computer. Many times I have found old files on my desktop and I can’t remember where they came from or if I need them any more.

How To Do It

I have long since stopped using my desktop as a place to keep shortcuts to frequently used programs. There are few people who commonly use more programs than can be easily housed in the Quick Launch toolbar on the Windows XP taskbar. If you can see in the image above I have 6 icons as shortcuts on my taskbar, and I could easily house more without encroaching too much on the rest of my taskbar. I think the Quick Launch toolbar is one the of the most underused features of Windows along the Show Desktop button which is included in the toolbar.

By default, the lone icon that comes installed on the XP desktop is the Recycle Bin. The only way I have found to remove this is by using the TweakUI utility. It is part of a suite of PowerToys distributed by Microsoft which also includes other very useful utilties such as Image Resizer and Power Calculator. TweakUI has an easy way, under the Desktop section, to turn on and off all the common Windows desktop icons including the Recycle Bin. One thing to note, before you remove the icon from the desktop it is necessary to make a shortcut in the Quick Launch bar or from wherever you are planning to access it.

Besides getting rid of the standard Windows icons it is just a matter of looking through your icons and deciding which shortcuts are really needed and, if they are, then make a shortcut in the Quick Launch toolbar. As far as the random files go: file the ones you need to keep in an appropriately labeled folder and delete the ones you don’t need.

Follow all of these steps and you will realize why the default Windows XP background is appropriately named Bliss.

Bulk Rename Utility

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FilesWhen it comes to annoying, mundane computer tasks, renaming or editing filenames one at a time is near the top of the list. I have recently revisited a useful utility that nearly eliminates this chore. I have used this program for about 4 years, but just recently downloaded the latest version which has added many new features I was not aware of. Some of the capabilities of the program include: adding sequential numbering or lettering, subtracting or adding any defined characters, editing extensions, adding dates into file names, changing mp3 filenames using the ID3 tag info, as well as many other useful options.

Check out this screenshot of the main interface. This single screen allows simple, quick control of nearly all options. Also, one of the most useful features is the ability to see, in real time, what the new file names will look like before any change is actually made.

Visit www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk to download the program. The site includes lots of information to help you quickly learn how to effectively use the application. See the features list for a more detailed list of the programs capabilities. It is a free download but donations are accepted.

Building a Server – Part II

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I received all of the parts and assembled the server without much trouble. One note to anyone looking to build a computer in the near future: Check that the motherboard and power supply connections match up, especially if you are using server type motherboard. A change I did make to the hardware since the last post was to add a third hard drive that is identical to the other two. I still set up two in a RAID 1 arrangement, but I used the third alone for the operating system. This allows me to reinstall or remove the operating system without disturbing the data on the server. Also, it has disc space for a daily backup of the RAID data. This provides protection from accidental deletion or overwriting of data. Continue reading →

Building a Server – Part I

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Due to anticipated expansion at Walnut Creek of Thomasville, they have recently requested a server, primarily for data storage. Although the current network is peer-to-peer this will be a dedicated server. Upgrading the peer-to-peer to a true client/server network would be a huge and expensive undertaking considering nearly all the machines on the current network are running Windows XP Home Edition, which is unable to join a network domain. Given that fact, I’ll leave the client/server network for some time in the distant future, or never.

Continue reading →