Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on June 21, 2006 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

Everyone knows the people that refuse to use or even try Firefox because they are already used to Internet Explorer. You know, the kind of people that don’t like change? You tell them “it is easy to learn how to use it” but they just tell you “Internet Explorer does everything that I need it to”. You want them to use Firefox because of the additional security features and the extensibility but they could care less. What if you could switch them over to Firefox without them even knowing?

A great piece of software called eFox (also known as FirefoxIE) will help you switch those people over from Internet Explorer. eFox models itself after Internet Explorer 7 but has all of the stability of Firefox 1.5.0.4!

You have a few options to get eFox (I recommend the second option, at least to test it and make sure you like it). First, you can download it from their site and install it. This is a good solution if you know that you will like it because this will overwrite your existing Firefox profile and your Firefox installation (If you have a version of Firefox installed, let’s say 1.5.0.3, and you installed eFox it will change your installation to version 1.5.0.4).

I downloaded the executable file and while that was downloading, I backed up my profile folder and my Firefox installation folder. After it finished downloading I went ahead and ran the EXE file. I waited about 15 seconds and nothing happened, so I double-clicked on it again. Still nothing, so I opened up Firefox and wham!!, eFox was running. The installation process doesn’t prompt you for any information or directories. It would have been nice to get a confirmation box that said “Make sure you back everything up and press OK to continue” but there was nothing like that.

It was up and running, and I have to say it was pretty slick! Everything was setup as best as it could be to make Firefox appear to be Internet Explorer 7. This isn’t just a theme like some are probably thinking– but I will get into some of the features after I discuss my “easier” method of trying eFox.

Like most people, you will probably want to try this out before you commit yourself to a newly styled browser. That is how I was but there was no hope of it being that simple for me. To make my second method of getting eFox simple for you,download this Portable eFox that I put together. Simply run the IEXPLORE.EXE file (as pictured to the right) and it will be up and running. This also makes it easy to trick someone that this is Internet Explorer because all you have to do is replace these files with the ones in the “Program Files/Internet Explorer” folder. This way, anytime that they execute an Internet Explorer shortcut it will run eFox. Clever huh?

There are a lot of things that eFox does to make it resemble Internet Explorer. Besides for the obvious theme, it also replaces the Firefox logos with IE7 logos. It comes with a small list of extensions already installed: UI Tweaker, Google Toolbar, Bookmarks Menu Button, IE Tab, ChromEdit, Compact Menu, Launchy, FirefoxIE SMS Messenger, and Firesomething. Some of these extensions are to make the theme more like Internet Explorer– however, some of them are also used to make your browsing experience better.

One thing that I didn’t like was that the Menu bar was removed and there was no way to get to some of the menus I use– like Tools. In the portable version I was able to put the Menu back in next to the Bookmarks. This Menu will provide every option normally found in the complete Menu bar, except this is more condensed. You can do this in the installation version by simply right-clicking on a toolbar and select “Classic Menu”. Right-click on a toolbar again and select “Customize”. Drag the Menu button down next to the Bookmarks. Now you can remove the Classic Menu bar because there is nothing else you will need on it.

Overall there has been a lot of great work put into eFox. I am impressed with how it handles, but then again I love Firefox. Even though I won’t be using this browser on a daily basis, (I actually like the default Firefox theme) I will always keep it in the back of my head for the next time that I meet the person that doesn’t want to try anything other than Internet Explorer.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on September 18, 2007 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

Last Thursday we showed you how to make Windows Live Writer portable, and today we are going to show you how to create powerful text templates that will save you incredible amounts of time. Unfortunately the plugin you’ll need to install, Dynamic Templates, won’t work with the portable version.

Dynamic Templates was created by Joe Cheng who happens to be one of the primary Live Writer developers. For that reason I had expected the plugin to be good, but I didn’t expect it to be this good!

As of two-weeks ago I was using the free Post2Blog software for writing all of my articles, and it had a built-in template manager. It was designed to let users quickly enter in some HTML code that would otherwise be found repetitious. It was limited to doing what Dynamic Templates can do in the first example below, so if the plugin doesn’t seem special from that demo make sure you move on to the others!

Before we get started with the four demonstrations I want to give you a heads up that there is some C# code involved in some of the examples. I’ve never actually programmed in C# before, but I’ve done 7 or 8 other languages so I was quickly able to pick up on the basics. The Dynamic Templates page has some instructions on how to insert the syntax, but you’ll probably learn the ropes from the videos.

–HTML Templates–

This is a basic HTML template that is what most of you will probably want. We use these all the time to insert things we frequently use in posts, such as our daily CyberNotes logo. That way we don’t have to insert the image every time we want to use it.

Code:

<p align="center"><a href="http://cybernetnews.com/category/cybernotes/"><img alt="CyberNotes" src="http://tech.cybernetnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/CyberNotes.gif"></a><br><strong>Time Saving Tuesday</strong></p>

–Selection Formatting–

The Dyanmic Template plugin has a command, "_selection", that lets you insert the highlighted text anywhere in your template. You might be asking yourself how that would be useful, but I think you’ll be surprised at how many things you can do with it. In this example we show you how to wrap multiple HTML tags around the text that we’ve highlighted thereby creating a one-click colorful header.

Code:

<h3><strong><font color="#800000"><%= _selection %></font></strong></h3>

–Selection Processing–

This is using the same "_selection" command mentioned in the previous demonstration, but now it is really starting to tie in some of the C# programming. More specifically this code will send the highlighted text through an HTML filter which will transform any plain text HTML tags into valid HTML.

Code:

<%= HtmlDecode(_selection) %>

–Advanced Video Insertion–

This demonstration shows you why I love the plugin so much, but you’ve got to know a little bit of programming to completely understand what it’s doing. Here I setup the plugin to prompt the user for a Google Video ID and the desired width/height for the embedded video. If no dimensions are entered in it will fall back on some defaults which can be designated in the code.

Tip: This code can easily be configured for use with any video service, but sites like YouTube specify the ID, height, and width twice in the embed code. Make sure you replace all necessary instances if you want it to work properly.

Code (there are also a few variables which you can get from the video):

<% if(width == "")width = "400"; %>
<% if(height == "")height = "326"; %>
<embed style="width:<%= width %>px; height:<%= height %>px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=<%= ID %>&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed>

–Overview–

While the plugin is very complete in my eyes there are a few things that could make this even better:

• Hotkeys! Oh man, it would be really sweet if you could assign hotkeys to some of the templates you use the most often.
• I would like the option to set the size of the window which lists all of your templates. I have about two-dozen templates, and I don’t really like having to scroll to get to some of them.

To wrap things up Dynamic Templates is a great way to remove the strain of repetitive tasks, but to harness the true power you’ll need to sit down for an hour or so and learn how to write code that works well with it. Believe me, you won’t be sorry!

Dynamic Templates Homepage (Download)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on June 11, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft Monday

The popularity of digital cameras has meant that people take more pictures because they’re not held back by limited amounts of film.  I love taking pictures with my digital camera, and I also love to share them whether it be through email, social networks, or my Flickr account.  Another way to share photos that I recently experimented with is by using the new Windows DVD Maker. If you have Windows Vista Home Premium, or Ultimate, this feature is available to you. It’s simple to use, and filled with customization options that will allow you to put your own personal touch on the DVD to show to family and friends.

There are two different ways to access Windows DVD Maker. The first option is to go to the Start Menu and select Windows DVD Maker. Another option is to open up a photo from the photo gallery and click burn up at the top, then “Video DVD.” This is the option I chose, and the one I’ll be walking you through today.

Step 1: Select Your Photos

The first thing that you’ll want to do is select the photos that you’d like to be a part of your DVD. All you have to do is highlight (just like you’d highlight multiple files) the photos that you’d like to be included. Remember, you’re creating a DVD so there will be plenty of room for all of your pictures. If you’re taking your photos at 3 megapixels, you should have room for about 3,000 photos!

If you’ve used the tagging system that the Windows Photo Gallery offers, you can select pictures that you’d like to be included by selecting the tag. For example, if you have a tag labeled “pets” you can click on it. Only the pictures that have been tagged “pets” would be selected.

Once all of your pictures are highlighted, you’ll go up to “Burn” then click “Video DVD.”

Another option would be to select just one picture, then go to “Burn,” then “Video DVD” and from there you can add additional items to the video by clicking “Add items.”

Step 2: Menu Options

You’ll have options for deciding how the menu will look on your DVD. There are several customization options including appearance of scenes, button styles, and you can also include foreground and background video along with audio.

Step 3: DVD Settings

Want to add music to your movie? No problem! Add the songs that you’d like.  What to change the slide show length to match the music length? No problem! Want to select your transition between slides or use pan and zoom effects for pictures? No problem! I was especially happy to find that they include the pan and zoom effects because that really makes a difference between a boring and interesting video.

Step 4: Finish and Burn

The last step is to burn your disc! Make sure you have a DVD in your DVD drive, and then click burn. My DVD turned out great, and hopefully yours will too. It’s such a simple, easy process that anyone can do. And it’ll be great to send out to family and friends.

Video of the process:

I’ve included a video of all the different menu options, and I removed all of the loading times associated with previewing the menu animations. Even if you have Windows DVD Maker, it’ll still be easier to watch the video if you want to see the different animations before trying it for yourself.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on June 25, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft Monday

When Microsoft released a DreamScene Preview for Vista Ultimate users, I couldn’t wait to try it out. Once I got it installed I was indeed impressed, but I still felt like I was missing out on the full capabilities of what DreamScene could really do.

Now being more than 4-months after the preview version was released, there is still no final version, but that’s a whole other story. Shortly after the Vista release, Stardock picked up some of Microsoft’s slack by extending the feature set that Dreamscene had. They made a free add-on called Deskscapes which once installed, lets you choose from their vast collection of user-uploaded “Dreams.”

Almost all of them are offered for free, and so I thought I would take a look at several that I have personally tested out. And since there are no videos of them available on the site I also felt the need to demonstrate to you what each of them looks like.

Note: None of the videos have sound because I was trying to keep the size of the video to a minimum, but its not like they would have sound on your desktop anyway. You can also look for the little white dots on the timeline to quickly skip to the next Dream demo:

–The City–

These three Dreamscapes are all based on cities, and one of them has a special place in my heart since it is of the Chicago skyline!

1. Bay Bridge
2. Detroit By Night
3. Stadt (Chicago Skyline)

–Waterfalls and Lakes–

Everyone loves water when it comes to desktop backgrounds, so I thought I would devote an entire section just to that! We’ve got waterfalls, lakes, and tropical paradise that will help prepare you for a vacation.

Note: Some of the effects that some of the Dreams have are more subtle than others, particularly the two Island ones. I threw these in because they look good, and some people don’t like too much motion on their desktop.

1. Berge
2. Future World
3. Heron
4. Island Oasis
5. Island Paradise
6. Small Waterfall
7. Sydney Opera House
8. Wassfall

–Other–

This is kind of a conglomeration of odds and ends that I found. A few of them put you in space, some are related to movies, and others just don’t belong anywhere.

The hot one in this group is no doubt the Shark Pit, which is what I have my current Vista desktop set to. When other people have seen me using it they think it is the coolest thing ever. Kudos to the Stardock team for developing it and not charging a dime!

Caution: The Rollercoaster might make you sick.

1. Apollo
2. Bliss (like the default XP background)
3. Evolution
4. Matrix
5. Rollercoaster
6. Shark Pit (this is my favorite)
7. Spiderman
8. The Moon
9. Vista

–Premium Dynamic Dreams–

Besides for producing free Dreams such as the Shark Pit, Stardock also works hard to create dynamic ones. Unlike other Dreams, the content that these show are not just a looping movie, and are instead created on-the-fly for your viewing pleasure.

Since these will cost you money, I decided to point out the features that each has a little bit more in detail so that you have a better idea of what you’ll receive. All of them, except the first one, also have options that you can configure to your liking and I made sure to demonstrate some of the different things you can do with those settings.

1. Blissful Dream ($8.95)
   This one is pretty cool because it adjusts with your computer’s clock. From what I gather, there are just a few transitions that it has (sun rise, afternoon, sunset, night) which I try to demonstrate in the video by manually adjusting the clock.
2. Desktop Earth ($8.95)
   I think the NASA-addicts out there will really get a kick out of this one. It is a rotating globe that shows where it is currently daytime and where it is nighttime. You can customize the speed of the rotation, or just make the globe stationary and have the light revolve around it as the day goes on.
3. Desktop Collage ($8.95)
   I really thought at first that this was going to be my favorite. I consider myself a photo guru and take pictures of almost anything, and looking through the options there was all kinds of stuff to love. At certain time intervals, it places a picture on your desktop (essentially forming a collage), and you can control the size of the pictures as well as the delay between adding photos. The downside is in choosing the location of the photos to use because it didn’t let me use a folder that only contained sub-folders. Instead I had to pick a folder that had pictures directly in it, which takes away a little bit from the beauty of this Dream.
4. Liquid Dream ($9.95)
   I think this ended up being my favorite out of the bunch because of how realistic it is. At first glance it doesn’t look like anything amazing, but the power lies in the configuration. You can adjust the rain drop frequency, the drop size, the background (rocks, sand, etc…) and the reflective image (night sky or clouds). If you sit there and play with the different options you are sure to find some cool settings, which I try to demonstrate in the video.

While all of the cool dynamic Dreams currently cost money, in the near future that could be changing. Stardock told me that they are working on an SDK (Software Development Kit) for the dynamic Dreams so that anyone could create ones just like these. So keep your eyes open because there could be some cool things on the horizon!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on March 27, 2008 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

In Windows when you right-click on a file there will likely be an “Open With” menu that lists the various applications that can be used to open that specific file. I use it all of the time because there’s never really just one application that I want to open a file. For example, with HTML files the operating system naturally want to open them in a browser by default, but you may need to open them in Dreamweaver or Notepad to make some changes. The Open With menu makes that possible.

Today we’re going to show you how you can add or remove programs in the Open With menu. In the end you’ll truly appreciate how much easier it is to open files in several different applications that are installed on your Windows computer.

–Add Programs from Open With Menu–

Adding an application to the Open With menu is a pretty easy task, and can actually be done in a few different ways. The easiest way is probably to right-click on the type of file that you want to alter, go to the Open With menu, and click the Choose Default Program option pictured above. You should now see a window similar to this one:

(Click to Enlarge)

The applications listed underneath the Recommended Programs section are the ones that already appear in the Open With menu, and then underneath those are some of the other apps installed on your computer. If the program you want to add to the menu is listed just select it and hit the OK button. Otherwise you can use the Browse button to hunt down the program on your computer.

One thing that you may want to think about before hitting the OK button is whether you want to make the new application the default for that specific type of file. If you don’t you’ll want to uncheck the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file box.

Any programs that you select from this window will be added to the Open With menu until you decide to remove them.

–Remove Programs from Open With Menu–

Unfortunately there is no fancy interface for removing programs from the Open With menu like there is for adding items. To do this you’ll need to fire up the Registry Editor by opening the Run command (Windows Key + R), and then typing regedit into the box. Messing with the Registry Editor is not for the faint of heart, and I recommend that you understand how it works before diving into it.

The programs listed in the Open With menu should be located in one of two locations in the Registry:

1. HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ FileExts \ .FileExtension \ OpenWithList
2. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ .FileExtension \ OpenWithList

Note: Replace “.FileExtension” with the extension of the file for which you’re looking to modify the Open With menu.

You should find the applications listed according to their executable name, and all you have to do is right click on the entry and have it deleted:

Tip: If you’re having troubles finding the application listed in the Registry Editor it might be easier to perform a search for the name of the executable. Just make sure that the entry you are deleting is located underneath an OpenWithList entry.

After you’ve successfully deleted the OpenWithList entries related to an extension you’ll want to restart your computer to see the changes take place.

–Overview–

So that’s how the Open With menu works! If you’ve got any suggestions as to easier ways to manage the Open With menu we would love to hear them.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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