Posts Tagged ‘Internet’
I’ve personally only used eBay a handful of times for purchases but have friends that use eBay with fanatical enthusiasm. I ran across this article posted on makeuseof.com that shows 4 alternative ways to search and track items offered on eBay and thought I’d repost.
eBay Desktop
The official eBay Desktop is an Adobe AIR app which mirrors all the searching, tracking, and bidding functionality of the site, plus filtering features, search history, real-time updates. There’s no need to keep refreshing your browser to see updates to whatever item you’re tracking. Enter a keyword and watch the search results update by themselves.
Lastminute Auction
Lastminute Auction search features auctions that all have current prices under $1 (not including shipping), and all have less than an hour to go. Register to keep favorite categories handy, and you’ve got a good chance here to snatch up a great deal.
Typo Buddy
Typo Buddy is a site on which you can take advantage of human error and hopefully find yourself a steal. When you do an eBay smart search for “Nintendo”, you get all the results with that keyword. What you don’t get are “Nintedno”, “Nintenro”, “Nihtendo”, or many other misspellings. Typo Buddy will find all of them, with the idea that the auctions’ low profile will let you swoop in and pay a lower price for the items.
Unwired Buyer
Unwired Buyer keeps an eye on your watch list and lets you place bids by phone in the closing minutes.
Original article on makeuseof.com
BlindSearch is an online test that lets you compare Google, Yahoo and Bing search results. The test based on a simple concept, when you search for something on BlindSearch, it shows search results from 3 search engines, each in its own column, with their logos hidden. Then, you can analyze search results and vote on the best set by clicking on the “vote for this search engine” button. Clicking the button also reveals the logos exposing the engines behind each column.
Original article at makeuseof.com
|
PCMag posted an article pointing out that Microsoft got many things right with Internet Explorer 8, and one of them was the way it made most of IE8′s niftiest features easily accessible. They put together the following tips about features that you may not have noticed.
|
Read the entire article at PCMag.com
ScreenStream lets others ‘watch’ your screen on their computers over the network or the internet. It is the modern equivalent of the overhead projector. When you turn on screen sharing others on your network (or even the internet) can view what is on your screen by typing the link (and optional access code) into their internet browser. They can continue to watch your screen until you turn off screen sharing.
One of the main advantages of ScreenStream is that the viewers do not need to install any special software to view your screen. They just open it directly with their normal internet browser. It is also supports optional streaming audio so others can hear what you are saying.
This desktop screen sharing program is free.
Typical Applications
- In boardroom presentation (if everyone has a laptop it will replace the projector).
- In university lectures where people take their laptops.
- In the computer lab or classroom where students are sitting in front of computers.
- For remote power point and other presentations.
- To assist remote computer support so the helpdesk staff can see what the user is doing or vice versa.
- As a white board equivalent during telephone or video conferences.
- Perfect for use with tablet PCs so others can see as you draw directly on your tablet screen.
Features
- Runs in the background and captures your screen while in any other program
- The image can be viewed by anyone with using an ordinary web browser (from any type of computer).
- The screen can be viewed by users with Windows, Mac or Linux computers.
- Optional access code can be set to secure the connection.
- Optional audio streaming lets others listen as you speak.
- Perfect for desktop screen sharing or application sharing.
- The number of viewers is almost unlimited (the only limit is the size of your bandwidth).
- Installs and runs in just minutes.
- Very simple user interface.
Download your copy of ScreenStream.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,Comet docs provides an easy upload interface that allows you to convert files to various formats. You simply upload a file, choose the format you want to convert it to, and the converted document will be sent to the email address specified.
- Convert CSV file to a delimited format. Data converter which takes a file containing Comma Separated Values (a popular Microsoft coding convention), and turns it into a tab-separated data file for easy data processing with other tools.
- File converter for PDF conversion (Adobe Acrobat) to text file. Takes a PDF file and extracts the readable text. Formatting preserved where possible using html.
- PDF info extracts and prints the contents of the ‘Info’ dictionary (plus some other useful information) from a Portable Document Format (PDF) file.
- Legacy file to PDF conversion. Convert many legacy file formats to modern PDF.
- Diff online. Find differences between two files. Compare two files and return the lines where they are different in standard ‘diff’ format.
- Mp3 info. Gets the tag information embedded in your mp3 file. Supports ID3v1 as well as ID3v2 tags.
- XML lint – pretty printer for XML documents Format your XML documents so that they become easily readable.
- Convert html file to RSS feed Automatically create an RSS XML feed out of an html page.
- Convert ls directory listing to Google sitemap xml Automatically create an XML Google sitemap from a simple ls – lR directory listing online.
- Audio converters. Overview of music converters for conversion to and from mp3, wav, ogg and many others.
- iTunes XML to M3U converter. Converts iTunes XML libraries to M3U playlists for use with other players.
- Metastock data conversion. Utility program to convert Metastock Binary Data Format to Metastock ASCII format and vice versa.
- Legacy word processor to Microsoft Word conversions. Convert older word processor formats for use with Microsoft Word or Works.
- Legacy spreadsheet to Microsoft Excel conversions. Convert older spreadsheet files for use with Microsoft Excel.
I’ve been working on a new site lately and have been trying to put my artistic creativity skills to the test…………… OK, are you done laughing yet?
Anyway, I ran across BgPatterns, which is a site that uses some Flash magic to let you choose from a small variety of patterns, colors, and transparency levels to create custom backgrounds for your web pages. It’s kinda limited in functionality and I was unable to download the pattern I created in Internet Explorer but it worked great in FireFox so I figured it was post-worthy.
Andrew Nusca posted the following on ZDNet.
D-Link introduced its next-generation PowerLine adapter kit that connects computers, high-definition media players, game consoles, network attached storage and Internet content in the home.
The PowerLine HD Ethernet Adapter Starter Kit (DHP-303) allows the user to take advantage of existing home electrical wiring to create or extend a network by turning “every power outlet in the home into a wall-to-wall network for connecting” when connected to a switch or wireless access point. (The kit includes two wall plugs/adapters.)
Installation is plug-and-play, and the system can connect devices such as TiVo, Slingbox, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and others to the home network and the Internet. (The device will automatically be displayed in Microsoft Windows Vista’s Network Map.)
The PowerLine Adapter uses Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES) for one-button security and uses Quality of Service support to help prioritize data in the pipeline.
Source: ZDNet
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,I ran across these tweaks on Dagorret that show how to tweak Firefox and double your browser speed. I’ve not validated the claims but after employing all but those listed as optional, I can definately see a difference.
By tweaking the way Firefox handles some caching functions, you can dramatically improve page load speed and even prevent Firefox from hogging your system resources while minimized. If you don’t currently have any experience playing with your configuration file, don’t be scared. Just follow the simple instructions, take your time and if you want a security blanket to squeeze, jot down each setting before you change it so you can always restore the default configuration if need be.
Reduce the amount of RAM Firefox uses for its cache feature
1. Type “about:config” (no quotes) in the adress bar in the browser.
2. Find “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer”
3. Set it’s value to “0“;(Zero)
Increase the Speed at Which Firefox loads pages
1. Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit Enter.
(Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.)
2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 10.
This means it will make 10 requests at once.
3. Lastly, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0“;.(Zero)
This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives. If you’re using a broadband connection you’ll load pages faster now.
Optionally (for even faster web browsing) here are some more options for your about:config (you might have to create some of these entries by Right Click –> New– > Interger or String
network.dns.disableIPv6: set “false”
“content.notify.backoffcount”: set “5“; (Five)
“plugin.expose_full_path”: set “true”.
“ui.submenuDelay”: set “0; (zero)
Reduce RAM usage to 10MB when Firefox is minimized:
This little hack will drop Firefox’s RAM usage down to 10 Mb when minimized:
1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3. In the box that pops up enter “config.trim_on_minimize”. Press Enter.
4. Now select True and then press Enter.
5. Restart Firefox.
HowStuffWorks posted a very lengthy and informative article explaining how computer viruses work. The article is far too long to post here but I encourage you to read it’s entirety. It covers the following…
- Introduction to How Computer Viruses Work
- Virus Origins
- Virus History
- Virus Evolution
- E-Mail Viruses
- Worms
- How to protect yourself from computer viruses
Talk about invasion of privacy. Check out how Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags can affect our future.