Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on April 10, 2008 by CyberNet.

It’s always amusing to read why people think one operating system is better than the other.  Of course we are all titled to our own opinions, but people can really get defensive when it comes to their operating system of choice even if they have no knowledge of, or have never used the other operating system. In our opinion at least, at the end of the day, there are reasons why Vista is great and reasons why OS X is great. By asking someone who used both on a regular basis, they could probably tell you about the strengths and weaknesses of each operating system. Do they both have their problems? Of course! Do they both have some great features about them? Why of course! If they didn’t, people wouldn’t use them.

Given this, you’ll understand why we found it amusing when Computer World recently wrote an article titled “Five Reasons why Vista Beats Mac OS X.” When TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) wrote their reasons why OS X was better to respond to what Computer World (CW) wrote, the situation got even more interesting. Here’s a quick look at what Computer World wrote and then how TUAW responded.

1. CW: Vista runs more software
   TUAW: “Is software ever really about quantity over quality?”
2. CW: Vista is safer
   TUAW: “The BSD base of OS X has certainly proved itself over the years and to say otherwise is just a staggering example of either stupidity or arrogance”
3. CW: It’s the money, stupid. “If like most of the world, you’ve got to work for a living, then you’ll find that a Vista machine is far less expensive than a Mac.”
   TUAW: “For many consumers, they want something that will last more than a year. For a one-year purchase, a $600 PC is fine — but if you want to keep something around for a while, the price point is going to be almost exactly the same Windows or Mac.”
4. CW: The Mac is closed; Vista is open
   TUAW: “If you are building your own computer, you aren’t looking for official support anyway — voiding the warranty is part of the fun. You can tweak out your iMac or you MacBook in amazing ways. Overclocking is so 2003 anyway.”
5. CW: Two words — Steve Jobs
   TUAW: Two words — Steve Ballmer

All of these arguments seem a little silly, don’t they? People use what they use for a reason, right? In the end, it comes down to personal choice. Any thoughts?

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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

Microsoft Monday

One of Vista’s shining points that often gets looked over is the amazing parental controls that are included with it.  Microsoft certainly spent some time thinking this feature through because it’s thorough and gives parents control over nearly every aspect of their child’s computer use. If you’re running any version of Vista besides the Business edition, you already have this feature at your fingertips just waiting to be configured. Today we’re going to take an in-depth look at parental controls and how to set them up and configure them best for your children.

What is the purpose of Parental Controls?

It’s rather self explanatory, but parental controls help parents manage what their kids are doing on the computer.  Children are much more tech savvy these days and use computers regularly.  Parents aren’t always able to be monitoring their children while they’re on the computer at all times which is where this comes in handy. There is so much that you can control like which web sites a child can and cannot visit, and controlling which programs they can open.  If there’s a game that has been issued a rating that you don’t approve of, you can block them from playing it. There’s a lot to it and it’s worth taking the time to set it up so that you can make the most out of it.

Finding Parental Controls

Remember, parental controls is not available if you’re using the business version of Vista.  Any other version has it, and to find it, just click on the start menu and start typing “parental controls” in the search box.  It will pull it up from there, otherwise you can go to the “control panel” and then “user accounts” to access it.  Once you’re there, you’ll begin configuring all of your options. One thing I recommend doing is to leave the “Activity Reporting” turned on.  It’s on by default and with it you can get reports and collect information about computer usage. We’ll explain more about this a little later…

Web Restrictions

If your children are going to be on the Internet, you’ll likely want to visit the web limits section.  Here you add web sites to the block/allow list. If you don’t want to create a manual list, you can block web content automatically and choose a setting like high, medium, or none.  Selecting the medium level, Vista would block “unratable” content and web content in categories like mature content, pornography, drugs, hate speech, and weapons.  You can also block your children from downloading files.

Time Limits

This is a great feature where a graph is displayed and you can click and drag the hours that you want to block or allow your children from using the computer. For example, between the hours of 4 and 6 each day, your children are to work on their homework in which case you don’t want them using the computer.  You can block this time out each day so that your children can’t use the computer. The blocks will turn blue to signify that the time has been blocked.  If your child is using the computer and they’re approaching a blocked time, they’ll get a 15 minute warning followed by a 1 minute warning letting them know that their time is almost up. Once time is up and they’re still using the computer, Vista will automatically go back to the login screen.

Game Ratings

Under the game ratings section, you first determine whether or not the child can play games at all. If you decide that they can, you can choose which ratings are suitable for the child to play. More specifically, you can block games based upon certain type of content like reference to alcohol, depictions of blood, crude humor, and more. If there are specific games on your computer that you know you don’t want your child to play, you can block those by name.

Program Controls

Perhaps there are some programs on your computer that you’d prefer your child not use. If you decide that your child can only use the programs that you allow, you’ll be able to manually check the programs on your computer that can be used.

Activity Report

The activity report is great for filling you in on what your child has been doing.  You’ll be able to see the top 10 web sites they visit, the most recent 10 web sites that you blocked, whether or not they downloaded files, when they logged on to the computer, the applications that they ran, and more. It gives you a great overall glimpse at what they are doing and if there are any parental controls that you need to modify like adding a website that they frequently visit to the blocked list. There are also options to see the media that they’ve played, and even instant messaging statistics.

Wrapping it up

I told you this feature was thorough, didn’t I? Parental Controls covers nearly everything imaginable and helps parents do their job of protecting their children from harm, all while allowing them to experience all that a computer and the Internet has to offer.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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This article was written on July 24, 2008 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

Windows only
One of the things that I’ve always done on my Windows computers is have them show all of the hidden files. Some people think I’m crazy because this adds a lot more clutter, but it always seemed as though I frequently had to access files there were otherwise hidden. Sure I liked when some files were out-of-sight because I only ever mess with a handful of them, but the hassle of going into the Windows Explorer options every time I needed to see some hidden files just wasn’t worth it.

After a little research I had come across an article on the PCWorld forum that outlined how I could create a shortcut that would enable or disable hidden files on the fly. If the setting is enabled it would disable it when run, and vice versa. It’s one shortcut that serves as an on/off switch for hidden files. Here’s how you do it:

1. Open up Notepad and paste in the following text:
   Set sh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
theKey = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Hidden"
setHidden = sh.RegRead(theKey)
If setHidden = 1 Then
setHidden = 0
MsgBox "System and hidden files will no longer appear in Explorer.",64,"Hidden File Exchange"
Else
setHidden = 1
MsgBox "System and hidden files will appear in Explorer.",64,"Hidden File Exchange"
End If
sh.RegWrite theKey,setHidden,"REG_DWORD"
Set sh = Nothing
2. Save the file with any name you want, but make sure to designate the extension to be “.vbs”:
   
3. Run the file that you just saved. Give it a few seconds to take affect, but you should see the results without even having to restart Windows Explorer.
4. If you want you can place this script file anywhere you’d like on your computer, and then you can create a shortcut to it by right-clicking on the file. I recommend placing a shortcut to the file in the Windows Explorer Favorites for fast access from the Favorites menu.

Compatibility: I’ve verified that this works on Windows XP, but it only works on Vista when User Account Control (UAC) is disabled. This is because it needs access to the registry, and Vista doesn’t allow that unless it is run as an administrator. Since it is a VBS file the “Run as Administrator” option does not appear when right-clicking on the file.

By default the script will prompt you with the current setting for the hidden files each time you run the script. That way you know whether you are turning them on or off. If you don’t want to see the prompts just remove the following two lines that I’ve highlighted in the code:

Now you are all set with a shortcut that can enable or disable hidden files in Windows Explorer. This should help reduce the clutter you see on a regular basis by keeping the hidden files out-of-sight when they’re not needed, and then pulling them up when you need to make a change. How convenient is that?

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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This article was written on April 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

A couple of days ago, the Windows Vista Blog announced what they thought would be a big day for IT pros – The Resource Kit for Windows Vista has been released! That’s right, 1500 pages (yes, you read that right) of “in-depth” technical guidance “on deploying, securing, and managing Windows Vista.”

Who knew it would take 1500 pages to explain all of this to IT pros? I wonder how many pages would be included in “Windows Vista for Dummies” or an “Instruction Manual” that I hear people complaining is missing from the box when they purchase Vista?

For $59.99 you can learn all the ins and outs of Windows Vista deployment (i.e. disk imaging, volume activation), management (i.e. user accounts, printing, file sharing and collaboration), maintenance (remote user assistance, software updates and patches), networking, and troubleshooting (i.e. how to deal with errors).

Or, you could read Paul Thurrott’s eight-part, detailed Windows Vista Review (not 1500 pages worth of detail— but more than enough for anyone) for free.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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This article was written on September 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

Hard drives are becoming huge these days, and most applications have begun to make use of the abundant space that barely ever gets filled up. I’m a big proponent to full-featured applications as long as they serve a purpose, but size isn’t always the best representation of quality. To prove that, I set out to find 15 top-notch apps that take up little to no room on your hard drive.

–Requirements–

The first thing I did was setup a few requirements for the applications that I was going to look for:

• A download size smaller than 250KB (I caved in and included one program that was 252 KB though)
• I preferred apps that didn’t require any installation
• They must run on Windows (at least compatible with XP, but most listed work on Vista as well)
• Has to be completely free

One of the problems I ran into is that many programs include installers with the download, and doing so often adds a considerable amount to the download size. After some careful deliberation I still decided to go with the download size as the deciding factor for this article, and not the actual size of the program once it is setup on your computer.

–The List–

I’ve listed each of the 15 programs below, and sorted them with the smallest program first. Next to all of the apps you’ll see the download size, and some of them also specify that they don’t require installation. A few of the programs we have also written about before, and we give links to our reviews on those apps. Some also have similar, but more feature-packed siblings, and we’ve listed those in case the small size isn’t the primary characteristic you look at.

Without further ado I present to you our top 15 ultra tiny apps:

1. jRes [5KB] – No Installation Required
   Description: Switch between all available resolutions using a simple System Tray icon.
   
2. WinRoll [9KB] – No Installation Required – Our Review
   Description: Roll windows up so that only the title bar of the window is visible.
   
3. GhostIt [11KB] – No Installation Required
   Description: You can assign certain windows to have a “ghosting” effect. When a ghosted window loses focus it stays on top but becomes ultra-transparent.
   
4. Mouse Emulator [14KB] – No Installation Required – Thanks for the tip “s”!
   Description: Control the mouse using the number-pad on your keyboard
5. SlimFTPd [59KB] – No Installation Required
   Similar: Quick ’n Easy FTP Server
   Description: There is no GUI for this FTP server application, but everything can be edited through a well-explained text configuration file. I’ve yet to see another FTP server that has a footprint as small as this one.
6. Switch Off [64KB]
   Similar: WinOff, Power Manager, Shutter, and PowerOff
   Description: Schedule your computer to shutdown at a specified time, or you can easily access the shutdown options from the System Tray.
   
7. Taskix [64KB] – No Installation Required – Our Review
   Similar: Taskbar Shuffle
   Description: Rearrange Taskbar items using this super-small app. Prior to this I used Taskbar Shuffle, but this is much smaller and does the same thing.
   
8. TinyResmeter [92KB] – No Installation Required
   Description: Monitor your system’s resources with this customizable application. You can pick and choose which stats you want to see, and you can customize the look as well.
   
9. TrayIt! [144KB] – No Installation Required
   Similar: TrayDevil and DM2
   Description: Minimize windows to the System Tray therefore decluttering your Taskbar!
   
10. TweakUI [147KB]
    Description: Customize dozens of hidden Windows XP options. This is a must-have for anyone running XP!
    
11. winMd5Sum [181KB]
    Similar: digestIT, HashOnClick, MD5 Column Display
    Description: Calculate the MD5 checksum so that you can make sure files were downloaded without becoming corrupt.
    
12. Unlocker [192KB]
    Similar: WhoLockMe
    Description: Unlock files that are still considered “in-use” by the operating system. That way you will be able to deleted them without restarting your computer.
    
13. uTorrent [219KB] – No Installation Required – Our Review
    Description: This is hands-down my favorite BitTorrent downloader.
    
14. Notepad2 [243KB] – No Installation Required
    Similar: Notepad++
    Description: A great Windows Notepad replacement that has dozens of settings you can configure.
    
15. Total Copy [252KB]
    Similar: Copy Handler and TeraCopy
    Description: This one barely broke the 250KB limit that I was shooting for, and so I thought I would include it. With this you’ll get a better file transfer manager that can pause and resume file transfers. You can also impose speed limitations so that the transfer doesn’t hog all of your network bandwidth.
    

–Overview–

Did you even realize that there were so many tiny apps that are this useful? I’ve only begun to scratch the surface, and there are hundreds more that are just as good if not better. I just wanted to diversify the list, and tried hard not to list programs that performed similar functions as one another.

If you know of any free tiny apps that you use on a regular basis, hit us up in the comments below. Let everyone benefit from your knowledge!

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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