Oct 20

CyberNotes: Protect and Secure your Browser with Sandboxie

Posted in: CyberNotes, Freeware, Internet Explorer, Software, Today's Chili

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

CyberNotes
Web Browser Wednesday

We’ve written a lot about protecting your computer while browsing the Internet, and now we thought it was a good time to cover an application that quite a few of you have recommended. Sandboxie is a free (for the most part) application that can wrap itself around your browser to provide a more secure session when downloading applications or trying out new extensions.

Sandboxie serves as a middle man between an application, which for our purposes today is a Web browser, and the hard drive. When you want to protect the browser you simply run it in a “sanboxed” mode through the Sandboxie menu:

Sandboxie

Then anything that you do from within the browser is stored in a sandbox that can be deleted at anytime. Don’t quite understand? I’ll walk you through a common scenario that explains it a little better. The first thing I did after installing Sandboxie was start Internet Explorer by using the menu option seen in the screenshot above, but you can use your default browser by choosing the respective option.

Sandboxie

One thing that you’ll notice in the screenshot is that the window title for Internet Explorer has a “[#]” on each end. This represents that I’m running that program in a sandbox.

Now lets say I came across a program that I want to try out, but I’m not too sure whether I’ll like it or I’m not sure if it is going to try and install a virus on my system! With Sandboxie you just download and run the installation as you normally would, and if you watch the Sandboxie process explorer you’ll notice that even the installer runs in a sandbox:

Sandboxie

Don’t worry about doing anything special…Sandboxie takes care of it all! After the program is done installing you can go ahead and run it. The program will work just like you expect it to, but underneath lies a secret that is keeping you secure! When the program installed everything it did was placed in a special location on your hard drive (registry settings, files, Start Menu links, etc…).

If you want to get to the location where the files are stored just go to Function -> Contents of Sandbox -> Explorer Contents and you will instantly be presented with the area where all the files are being stored. After installing Taskbar Shuffle into the default sandbox that I made, here is what the file structure looked like in Vista:

Sandboxie

It replicated everything in my Vista folder structure perfectly, and as you can see, it will create a different folder for each sandbox that you make. That way you can switch between sandboxes depending on what you are doing, and if you ever want to get rid of a program you don’t have to worry about uninstalling it…just delete the corresponding sandbox!

If you’re looking for the ultimate privacy control in your Web browser then Sandboxie also has a setting for you. You can designate a sandbox to automatically be emptied after each use. If you run your browser in a sandbox, as soon as you finish everything will instantly be wiped clean…talk about covering your tracks! :)

Some of these features are compliments of the new Sandboxie version 3 that was just released yesterday. Features such as automatic sandboxing of a Windows Installer as well as sandboxing Windows Explorer is all new, and I have thoroughly been enjoying the work that has been put into this new version.

Sandboxie doesn’t cost a thing and you can use it as long as you would like, except for one small catch. After 30-days it will periodically pop-up asking for you to enter in a registration code. You can continue to use the program for as long as you would like, but you will have to get a valid registration code for $25 if you don’t want to get nagged.

Sandboxie supports 32-bit versions of Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista and 64-bit versions of Windows XP/2003. The installer is just 245KB, so the whole thing is a small and efficient application.

Sandboxie Homepage

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Oct 19

CyberNotes: Research Your Travel Destinations With Wikitravel

Posted in: CyberNotes, General, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on August 12, 2006 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Weekend Warrior

When I’m planning a trip, I like to make good use of the Internet to research where I’m going, what to do while I’m there, arrange transportation, and learn a little bit about the culture if it’s a foreign destination. I’ve found that one of the best ways to learn about where I’m going is to talk to those that have been there before. The internet has made it a lot easier to find travelers who have been to or are going to the same destination. A website called Wikitravel.org is an up to date world wide travel guide that is very similar to Wikipedia with the content edited and added by its’ users.

WikiTravel

Wikitravel was created in 2003 and is essentially a travel encyclopedia filled with information on every travel destination imaginable. It makes it easy to learn about where you’re going with the help of those that have experienced it and have contributed their knowledge. One of the features that is particularly interesting is the destination of the month in which a country is spotlighted. Another feature is the ‘Off The Beaten Path‘ section to learn about an unusual destination. This month’s ‘Off the beaten path’ is a spotlight on Denali National Park in Alaska.

The site is easy to navigate with areas of the world broken down into regions/continents. Clicking on a region will pull up all of the countries within, and from there you can get specific details on each location. I clicked on the Caribbean, and from there clicked on the Bahamas. There’s information like what to buy, where to eat, information about the climate, history, etc.

The benefit of this site using the ‘wiki’ format is that the information that is given is probably from someone who has either vacationed there, or lived there, and they probably know a lot about the area. I was disappointed at the lack of content that some of the locations have. Some of the areas less traveled aren’t filled with nearly the amount of information as other more popular areas such as the United Kingdom. Particularly one area of interest to me is Grand Caymen. Thus far there is very little information available.

WikiTravel is good resource to check while planning and researching your vacation. While you won’t be able to find everything you’d need to know, it’s a good start. The information is almost always accurate (when it’s not, you can bet users quickly edit it)and it’s up-to-date. If you’re planning a vacation and you need some advice, check out WikiTravel.

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Oct 17

CyberNotes: Funny Accident Reports

Posted in: CyberNotes, Humor, Today's Chili

This article was written on July 20, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Funny Friday

CaraccidentWe’re stepping away from the humorous technology types of jokes today and changing gears to something non-tech related – accidents. I know, how funny could that be? But, they are.

From the source, “Accident insurance claim forms ask for a brief statement about how the accident happened.kk  The combination of the finger pointing instinct and the small spaces provided on the forms can lead to some curiously phrased explanations.”

Explanations like:

  • I thought my window was down; but found it was up when I put my hand through it.
  • The accident happened when the right door of a car came around the corner without giving a signal.
  • In my attempt to kill a fly, I drove into a telephone pole.
  • The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.
  • An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle, and vanished.
  • To avoid hitting the bumper of the car in front, I struck the pedestrian.
  • Coming home, I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don’t have.
  • No one was to blame for the accident, but it never would have happened if the other driver had been alert.
  • The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go, so I ran over him.
  • I had been driving for 40 years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.

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Oct 15

CyberNotes: Download Wikipedia Pages (with Images) for Offline Use

Posted in: CyberNotes, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on April 17, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Time Saving Tuesday

Wikipedia MediaWikipedia is an absolute phenomenon when it comes to aggregating the knowledge of people around the world. There are over 75,000 active contributors working on more than 5,300,000 articles in more than 100 languages (source). The number of articles is growing tremendously from month-to-month with an increase of about 6% every month…that’s about 300,000 new articles per month!

The success of Wikipedia is astounding to say the least. The site puts millions of articles at your fingertips, but what about when you’re not on the Internet? Below you’ll find four solutions for taking Wikipedia articles offline so that you can read them anywhere.

—Wikipedia on CD/DVD—

This is probably the most convenient way to get your hands on Wikipedia. The Wikipedia on DVD project contains a collection of 2,000 articles (including images) using software called Kiwix to make browsing and searching the articles a lot easier:

Kiwix

As of right now, the software comes in an ISO image format which makes it faster to get it burned to a CD or DVD. The file weighs in at 421MB so it is still able to fit on a CD, but as they continue to increase the number of articles that are included I would expect that it will only be available for DVD’s. If you’re not able to burn the CD then you can purchase it for $13.90 plus shipping (which is $1.54 in the United States).

You can browse all of the included articles here and you’ll notice that they still include many of the links, such as the “Related Articles”, at the bottom. What’s nice is that they point the links to the articles on the CD so that you don’t have to be online to read related articles. The downside is that not every related article is available on the DVD so some of them are not hyperlinked.

 

—Wikipedia HTML Pages—

Wikipedia actually provides all of the HTML pages for the articles on a monthly basis. The download is broken up into several files because all of them together total about 6GB…and remember that is just for text!

The latest version of the HTML pages that’s available is from December 2006 and you’ll need 7–zip to uncompress the files.

There are still image files available from November 2005 that total 75GB, but on the download site they say that the updated image files should be available in the middle of 2007. If the image file from 2005 is 75GB…I don’t even want to know how big the current one is considering at that time they had 836,000 articles on the English site, and now the English site has over 1.7 million!

 

—Wikipedia Database Download—

ZipediaThere are also dumps of the Wikipedia database that you can download if you want the most current information available. These also don’t contain the images and the downloads are still several gigabytes.

To view these pages you’ll need to run MySQL or mediawiki…or as an alternative you can download and install the Zipedia Firefox Extension.

 

—Wikipedia on Your iPod—

Lastly, there is the Encylopodia project who’s goal is to put Wikipedia articles on your iPod. The download is 1.5GB and provides search capabilities so that you can quickly find the information that you’re looking for. Unfortunately this won’t work for anyone who has a 5th generation iPod video or an iPod Nano, but it should work for everyone else.

Encyclopodia

 

—Overview—

I’m sure by now you realize how large Wikipedia is, and there is even a Wikipedia page dedicated to its massive size and insane growth rate. If Wikipedia was to be published in a set of books similar to hardcopy encyclopedias, this is how many it would take:

Wikipedia on Book

If there is truth to the saying “knowledge is power” then Wikipedia probably owns the world. :)

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Oct 14

CyberNotes: How to Put Microsoft Word to Work for You!

Posted in: CyberNotes, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 31, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Microsoft Monday

Microsoft Word is such a powerful application that can do a lot for you and save you time! The key though is knowing how to put it to work for you. Today’s Microsoft Monday includes five tips that will help you make the most out of Microsoft Word. If you have a tip of your own, feel free to share…

Tip #1 – Automatically Create a Table of Contents

Did you know that you can automatically have Microsoft Word 2007 create a table of contents (TOC) for you? It’s actually very simple.  If you have written a paper and you’ll need a TOC, you’ll want to make sure that you are using Headings which are found under the Styles section on the “Home” tab. This helps Word distinguish what should be included in the TOC.

headings

Header 1 will be considered the highest level while Heading 2 will be the next highest level and Heading 3 is the following level in the TOC. Using these different headings will give you the hierarchical levels in your Table of Contents.

toc

Once your paper has been written and you’ve appropriately used the headings, just place your cursor where you’d like the TOC inserted. Then go up to the “References Tab” and under the “Table of Contents” section, select the design you’d like. Word will create a Table of Contents for you based upon the headings that you used, and will insert the proper page numbers. My example Table of Contents can be seen below.

table of contents

Tip #2 – Random Text Generator

If you’re ever in a situation where you need some random text, Microsoft Word will generate paragraphs for you. You can either choose to have the random text be paragraphs about Microsoft Office, or you can also have the Lorem Ipsum “dummy text” inserted. You are able to choose how many paragraphs and how many sentences in each paragraph you’d like.

To generate random text about Microsoft Office, do the following.

Type =rand(2,4) and then press enter. This will generate two paragraphs with four sentences in each paragraph. If you wanted 3 paragraphs with 6 sentences each it would be =rand(3,6) and then press enter.

random number generator

To generate Lorem Ipsum text, do the following:

Type =lorem(2,4) and then press enter. Like above, this will generate two paragraphs with four sentences of Lorem Ipsum text.

lorem

Tip #3 – Quickly Select a sentence or paragraph

Instead of using your mouse to select an entire sentence or paragraph, there’s a really simple way to do it in Microsoft Office.

Select a Sentence

To select a sentence, just hold down the Ctrl key and then click anywhere within the sentence and then it will be highlighted.

Select a Paragraph

Selecting a paragraph is just as easy. Hold down the Ctrl key and then click three times in rapid succession and the whole paragraph will be selected.

Tip #4 – Easily Single or Double-Space your Document

This is one of those tips that most people know by now, but if you don’t, here it is. By pressing ctrl+2, your document will be double-spaced. Pressing ctrl+1 will bring your document back to single-space. If you want your document spaced by 1.5, just press ctrl+5. Spacing your document is as simple as that!

Tip #5 – Use Word to Format and Correct Your Text

If there are certain words that you regularly type, you can use the AutoCorrect feature to let Word type the names or phrases that you use most. Click on the Office Button and then click “Word Options.” From there click on the Proofing tab in the left sidebar and then click “AutoCorrect Options…”

auto correct word options

If you end up typing your name quite a bit, for example, you could create an abbreviation for it. Then anytime you typed that abbreviation, Word would replace it with the text that you selected for it. My example is that I type my name quite a bit so I chose to have Word replace the abbreviation “aw” with Ashley Wagner anytime it’s typed.

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Oct 11

CyberNotes: Remember the Milk – Free Simple Task Manager

Posted in: CyberNotes, General, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on September 01, 2006 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Free For All Friday

You can’t but help remember the name, “Remember The Milk.” I’m sure we’ve all said something along the lines of “Remember ________” and without fail at sometime or another we’ve forgotten because we didn’t write it down. If you’re having trouble mentally managing your to-do list, you may want to check out “remember the milk,” a task manager in beta. Their slogan says: ”The best way to manage your tasks. Never forget the milk (or anything else) again.” They’ll be celebrating their 1 year anniversary in October and have made many improvements and updates to the service along the way.

Remember The Milk Logo

– Getting An Account–

Signing up for an account is simple and free, and there’s nothing to download because everything is web based. This means you can access your list just about anywhere that you have an Internet connection.  I literally registered for my account in under a minute. If you don’t speak English, there are 12 different languages that they support. They are: Bosnian, German, Swedish, Turkish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Dutch, UK English, French, Japanese, Brazilian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

–Getting Organized–

Yes, there are lots of task managers out there, however this one is particularly nice because of a tabbed user interface that makes it simple to manage different to-do lists. You’re able to have as many to-do lists as necessary. Just like other such services, you’re able to share and publish your list. An additional feature that they offer is the capability to send your to-do list via text message to your phone. It makes getting organized simple and easy and leaves you with no excuses to be unorganized.

With one click you’re able to see what’s due today, tomorrow, or a week from today.  You’re also able to prioritize with a color coded/numbered method.  If a task is due today it is displayed in bold.  If it is overdue, it will have an underline.  You’re also able to estimate your time for tasks and postpone a task to a later date.

–Managing Tasks–

I’m all about using RSS to manage everything and make life simpler. RTM (Remember the Milk) allows you to receive your lists via RSS, email or instant messaging. Instant messengers services that are supported include Skype, AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN and Yahoo! You’re able to add tasks no matter where you are via email or from your phone. Another feature that I like is the ability to view tasks on my Google calendar (you can also view them with Apple iCal).

They offer a “Quick Add” which allows you to add important dates and times you find on the Internet to your account. This service is available for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera. You could use this for online bill services, exam dates taken from an online syllabus, and the list goes on and on. Another example they offer is to keep track of an auction ending on eBay. You would highlight the date and time and then click the “add to RTM” bookmark. It’s as simple as highlighting the date and clicking, and your task has been added.

–Other Helpful Features–

Tagging seems to be the popular feature for any service to have lately, and RTM is no exception. You can create tags for different entries such as exams, grocery store, bills, etc.  This makes recalling important dates related to the tags easy and convenient.

They also have a good sized list of keyboard shortcuts (some of them pictured below) to save you some time.

Shortcut Key

-Overall-

Overall, Remember The Milk is a helpful to-do list service that has some great Web 2.0 features implemented.  If you haven’t tried out such a service and you’re still using the paper, pencil, post-it note method, check it out. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how simple, easy, and convenient services such as RTM can be. And of course, it’s free!

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Oct 08

CyberNotes: When Artists Meet Semi Trucks

Posted in: CyberNotes, Humor, Today's Chili

This article was written on November 30, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Fun Friday

There are thousands and thousands of semi-trucks on the road everyday that pass car after car full of people. Given that, there’s no doubt why some companies use their trucks to advertise. A company in Germany decided to run a competition to find the best original application of graphic art to a transport truck, and below you’ll find the winners. They’re all pretty amazing, but I must say that the 1st and 2nd place trucks are definitely my favorite.

7th Place

truck 1

6th Place

truck 2

5th Place

truck 3

4th Place

 truck 4

3rd Place

truck 5   

2nd Place

truck 6

1st Place

truck 7

Aside from the competition, there are some other great designs out there as well…

truck 8 truck 0  truck9 truck11

Source: CyberNet Forum (Thanks Al and Max!)

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Oct 08

CyberNotes: Funny Things that Kids Say…

Posted in: CyberNotes, Today's Chili

This article was written on June 13, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Fun Friday

We’re not sure how many of CyberNet’s readers are fathers, but we know some of you must be. With Father’s Day on Sunday here in the United States, we thought for today’s fun Friday we’d put together a list of funny things that kids have said. If you’re a dad, we’re sure you have your own list of funny things your own kids have said because they do manage to come up with some pretty funny things, don’t they? Happy Father’s day to all of you Dad’s out there and to everybody, have a great weekend!

Note: At the bottom of this list you’ll find our sources…

happy faterhs day.pngFunny Things Kids Say…

Dad is a sissy:

One summer evening during a violent thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small boy into bed. She was about to turn off the light when he asked with a tremor in his voice, “Mommy, will you sleep with me tonight?

The mother smiled and gave him a reassuring hug. “I can’t, dear,” she said. “I have to sleep in Daddy’s room.” A long silence was broken at last by his shaky little voice: “The big sissy.”

—-

What is water anyways?

H20 is hot water and CO2 is cold water.

Water is composed of tow gins, Oxygin and Hydrogin. Oxygin is pure gin. Hydrogin is gin and water.

—-

Proverbs from the mouths of kids… (the completed proverb)

A penny saved is … not much (a penny earned)

Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and… you have to blow your nows

If at first you don’t succeed… get new batteries (try, try again)

An idle mind is… the best way to relax (a devils playground)

—-

Vocabulary Building

Question: What does the word “benign” mean?

Answer: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.

Question: What is the fibula?

Answer: A small lie

Question: Name the four seasons.

Answer: salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar

—-

Jerk!

One day a guy was driving with his four-year old daughter and beeped his car horn by mistake. She turned and looked at him for an explanation.

He said, “I did that by accident.”

She replied, “I know that, Daddy.”

He replied, “How’d you know?”

The girl said, “Because you didn’t say JERK afterwards!”

—-

About Love..

– Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.

– Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your french fries without making them give you any of theirs.

– Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.

—-

Welcome to McDonalds…

This is about a physician and her four year old daughter:

On the way to preschool, the doctor had left her stethoscope on the car seat, and her little girl picked it up and began playing with it. Be still, my heart, thought the doctor, my daughter wants to follow in my footsteps! Then the child spoke into the instrument: “Welcome to McDonald’s. May I take your order?

Sources: Here, Here , and Here

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Oct 03

CyberNotes: Weird and Crazy Inventions!

Posted in: CyberNotes, Humor, Today's Chili

This article was written on February 01, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Fun Friday

There have been great inventors over time who’ve come up with some pretty amazing inventions.  Topping the list would be modern plumbing, the printing press, the telephone, computers, automobiles, and more.  Each of those inventions will go down in history as truly changing the way we live as a society.  While there may be list upon list of influential inventions, today’s Fun Friday takes a look at those that probably won’t be remembered 50 years from now. Some of them are actually real, others aren’t…

Pogo Shoes

pogo shoes

Automatic Toilet Night Light

light up toilet

Wedgie-Proof Underwear

wedge proof underwear

Life Expectancy Watch

time watch

Super Trash Man (bag attached to his back!)

trash bag

Give Yourself a Pat on the Back (for when no one can do it for you)

pat on back

Surf-N-Surf

surf n surf

Pro Thumb Wrestling

thumb wrestling

Geek Gear Helmet

geek gear

Motorcycle Airbag

motorcycle airbag

Sources: Here, Here, Here, and Here

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Sep 30

CyberNotes: Your Chance to Win a Pimped Out John!

Posted in: CyberNotes, Gadgets, Today's Chili

This article was written on January 29, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Million Dollar Monday

Did you know that the average person spends 11,862 hours in the bathroom, or one year four months and five days, in a lifetime? That’s according to Roto-Rooter who has launched their “Pimped Out John Sweepstakes.” They’re starting this contest because the “crapper” as they say, has not really been revolutionized since a flushable toilet was invented back in 1898.

For some, the bathroom is the only quiet place in the house, the only place you can get away from it all.  Why not make it a more enjoyable place to be? You can always read, you may even take your laptop along for the ride, but Roto-Rooter has a better idea. They’ve  put together an ultimate bathroom with just about anything you’d ever want, and you have a chance to win it all!  It includes the following improvements:

  • Philips 20 inch LCD TV and Star Wars DVD
  • Xbox 360 gaming system
  • Philips DVD player
  • Gateway EMachine laptop computer with fully articulated robot arm
  • iPod with stereo docking station equipped with toilet paper dispenser
  • Roto-Rooter “emergency” button
  • TiVo recorder
  • Avanti refrigerator with beer tap, stocked with drinks and snacks
  • Magazine rack and subscriptions to Sports Illustrated, ESPN and GQ
  • Bike pedal exerciser
  • Cup warmer/cooler

The contest runs until April 2, 2007, and the winner will be crowned on National Plumber’s Day (yes, there’s such a thing) , April 25, 2007. The motive behind the Pimped-Out John? Well, Roto-Rooter’s vice president of marketing says, “We hope that with the ‘Pimped out John,’ young people especially, will have a good laugh and think of Roto-Rooter when they need high quality plumbing and drain service.” 

Winning this pimped out bathroom may require some work.  I don’t know about you, but my bathroom certainly isn’t wired for all of this! So, with that said, click here to enter in on the fun… go on.. you know you want to :)

Source: Luxury Launches

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