You have used bookmarks whenever you try to pause your reading, and want to remember the page that you are already on. But did you know that you can also use it when you want to save a webpage?

Bookmark is a locally stored Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). All modern web browsers include bookmark features. Bookmarks are called favorites or Internet shortcuts in Internet Explorer, and by virtue of that browser’s large market share, these terms have been synonymous with bookmark since the first browser war. Bookmarks are normally accessed through a menu in the user’s web browser, and folders are commonly used for organization. In addition to bookmarking methods within most browsers, many external applications offer bookmark management.

Bookmarks have been incorporated in browsers since the Mosaic browser in 1993. Bookmark lists were called Hotlistsin Mosaic and in previous versions of Opera; this term has faded from common use. Other early web browsers such asViolaWWW and Cello also had bookmarking features.

Newer browsers have expanded the “bookmark” feature to include variations on the concept of saving links. Mozilla Firefox introduced live bookmarks in 2004, which resemble standard bookmarks but contain a list of links to recent articles supplied by a news site or weblog, which is regularly updated via RSS feeds. “Bookmarklets” are JavaScript programs stored as bookmarks that can be clicked to perform a function.

source: wikipedia

Any web links can be bookmarked, maps, youtube videos, etc.

HOW TO BOOKMARK A WEBPAGE OR LINK

Internet Explorer 9

1. Click the “favorite” button (the star icon) on the right of the tab.

Click the image to enlarge

2. Click “Add to Favorites”.

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3. Then a window will appear where you can change the title and save the link into a different folder. Then click ”Add”.

Click the image to enlarge

4. Then once you click the “favorites” button (the star icon.) you will see that the webpage you bookmarked is added.

click the image to enlarge

Mozilla Firefox

1. Click the bookmark button on the right side of the “home’ button.

Click the image to enlarge

2. A pull down menu will appear, click “bookmark this page.”

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3. The “star” icon on the address bar will display a notification, you can change the name (of the webpage) and where you can save the link. Then click “done”.

Click the image to enlarge

4. Click the bookmark button again, and you will see from the pull down menu the link you bookmarked is listed.

Click the image to enlarge

The default shortcut key for bookmarking a webpage or link is “CTRL + D”. That shortcut key is used on all web browsers.

If you have questions you can email at microcrack.cs@gmail.com

Here’s a treat for people who are stuck or using the computer the whole day.

Okay, so after I posted Hand and Wrist Exercises here. Some people asked for some pictures on how to do the exercises. Unfortunately I can’t find one, but if I have the time maybe I’ll create a video for each of the Exercises that were suggested on my blog post.

You can check the blog post here, maybe you can do the exercises

Anyway, I stumbled upon this one video that shows another hand and wrist exercises.

There is a new browser in town…

Rockmelt? What is that?

Rockmelt Home Page

Yep, you got it! Another web browser, Yay! (with the bored tone.) Rockmelt is a is a proprietary social media web browser developed by Tim Howes and Eric Vishria. The project is backed byNetscape founder Marc Andreessen. Rockmelt is built on the Chromium open source code, just as Google’s Chrome is, but with a twist. RockMelt integrates a unique technique for surfing the web that focuses on Google Search and Social Media, in particular Facebook and Twitter.

Rockmelt Google Home Page

I heard about this web browser last year but it wasn’t out yet, I haven’t heard news when it was out, maybe because they didn’t created that much hyped compared to some browser. I just suddenly stumbled upon the news that this browser was out on  one website (forgot what it was).

FEATURES

Online Facebook Friends

Rockmelt is basically a Google Chrome with a twist of Social Networking, once you installed Rockmelt it will ask you to log in on to Facebook. And Then you will see that on the left side of your browser is a panel, it has an icon of Online Friend where you can chat with them in a separate window. There is an a “STAR” icon beside the “ONLINE” icon that once you click it will show your favorite friends.

Facebook Live News Feed

Now the panel on your right side has buttons, one of which is the Facebook feed. It will show the live feeds on your Facebook “News Feed” so you can see everything that your friends post. You can also setup your Twitter account so you can tweet and see the public timeline of your twitter on the browser.

Twitter Feeds

Rockmelt also has a “SHARE” button in between the URL Bar and Search Bar. Which you can share automatically to your Facebook Wall or Twitter the site that you are in.

It also has a quite unique Google Search.

Once you typed what you are searching on the search bar. A list of results will appear instead of the browser opening a new tab for the results. Which I find interesting, because I never seen anything like it before.

The another plus here is that since Rockmelt is using the Google Chrome open source code. The browser is not that heavy on the system. Even though you have a lot of tabs open, it doesn’t matter. I always use Rockmelt whenever I am using the Adobe InDesign and Photoshop CS4 at the same time. And since both Adobe softwares hog virtually most of my system’s memory (you can tell that my system badly needs an upgrade, yeah?!) I use Rockmelt as my browser because it doesn’t eat up that much memory.

Do We Need Another Web Browser?

Some people are already contented with what they are using. Like some people are happy with Internet Explorer (I actually didn’t believed it at first but some people really are), while some loved using Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and the Google Chrome. These four are the top players of the internet browsing competition.

Now the question is: Do we really need another web browser?

I don’t think so, because most of the browser (mentioned above) has everything you need. Like Google Chrome has its Chromed Bird, an add-on for you to be able to tweet and read tweets on your public timeline, Mozilla Firefox also has add-ons. And maybe in the next few months these top browser players will come up with their own integration who knows?!

Rockmelt’s Twitter Integration still has some drawbacks, plus their Facebook live feed is somewhat slow for me (or is it just my system), I don’t know, all I know is this…

All in all Rockmelt is a dependable browser, but can still use a few tweaks…

To check out Rockmelt you can click here

Troubleshooting a PC is a tough especially when you don’t know what is really wrong with your computer. And I am thankful that they invented the very famous “beep codes”.

Beep Codes are the sounds that is produced after the Power On Self Test (or what some tech geeks call it a POST) of a computer. During the POST the computer checks it own hardware for error or malfunction, then it makes a sound if the system is good to go or you have to check on something.

Beep Codes are like Morse Codes that will tell you what is the specific error of your hardware. Beep Codes are emitted thru a small system speaker that is attached to a motherboard.

Old Casing Speaker

Motherboard Speaker

Each motherboard have it’s own Basic Input/Output System or BIOS. So every BIOS has its own beep codes.

The beep codes below are the most common codes that a technician will ever encounter:

No Beep –  Has no power; Defective system speaker; Motherboard Error; CPU Error; BIOS ROM Error.

1 Short Beep – System is OK

Continuous Long Beeps  - Memory error; Memory module not present on system; Memory module not seated properly.

1 Long Beep followed by 3 Short Beeps – Video error; Video memory error; Video BIOS error; VGA Connector not connected to the VGA port.

Continuous Short Beeps – CPU Overheated; CPU Cooling system not working.

Here are some other BIOS beep codes: (Beep Codes source: http://www.computerhope.com)

AMI BIOS beep codes

Below are the AMI BIOS Beep codes that can occur. However, because of the wide variety of different computer manufacturers with this BIOS, the beep codes may vary.

Beep Code                   Descriptions

1 short                          DRAM refresh failure

2 short                          Parity circuit failure

3 short                          Base 64K RAM failure

4 short                          System timer failure

5 short                          Process failure

6 short                          Keyboard controller Gate A20 error

7 short                          Virtual mode exception error

8 short                          Display memory Read/Write test failure

9 short                          ROM BIOS checksum failure

10 short                        CMOS shutdown Read/Write error

11 short                        Cache Memory error

1 long, 3 short              Conventional/Extended memory failure

1 long, 8 short              Display/Retrace test failed

AWARD BIOS beep codes

Below are Award BIOS Beep codes that can occur. However, because of the wide variety of different computer manufacturers with this BIOS, the beep codes may vary.

Beep Code                      Description

1 long, 2 short              Indicates a video error has occurred and the BIOS cannot

initialize the video screen to display any additional information

Any other beep(s)       RAM problem.

If any other correctable hardware issues, the BIOS will display a message.

IBM BIOS beep codes

Below are general IBM BIOS Beep codes that can occur. However, because of the wide variety of models shipping with this BIOS, the beep codes may vary.

Beep Code                                               Description

No Beeps                                                  No Power, Loose Card, or Short.

1 Short Beep                                           Normal POST, computer is ok.

2 Short Beep                                           POST error, review screen for error code.

Continuous Beep                                  No Power, Loose Card, or Short.

Repeating Short Beep                         No Power, Loose Card, or Short.

One Long and one Short Beep         Motherboard issue.

One Long and Two Short Beeps      Video (Mono/CGA Display Circuitry) issue.

One Long and Three Short Beeps.  Video (EGA) Display Circuitry.

Three Long Beeps                                  Keyboard / Keyboard card error.

One Beep, Blank or Incorrect Display   Video Display Circuitry.

Macintosh startup tones

Tones                                                                                Error

Error Tone. (two sets of different tones)           Problem with logic board or SCSI bus.

Startup tone, drive spins, no video                      Problem with video controller.

Powers on, no tone.                                                    Logic board problem.

High Tone, four higher tones.                                 Problem with SIMM.

Phoenix BIOS beep codes

Below are the beep codes for Phoenix BIOS Q3.07 OR 4.X

Beep Code                                         Description / What to Check

1-1-1-3                                                Verify Real Mode.

1-1-2-1                                                Get CPU type.

1-1-2-3                                                Initialize system hardware.

1-1-3-1                                                Initialize chipset registers with initial POST values.

1-1-3-2                                                Set in POST flag.

1-1-3-3                                                Initialize CPU registers.

1-1-4-1                                                Initialize cache to initial POST values.

1-1-4-3                                                Initialize I/O.

1-2-1-1                                                Initialize Power Management.

1-2-1-2                                                Load alternate registers with initial POST values.

1-2-1-3                                                Jump to UserPatch0.

1-2-2-1                                                Initialize keyboard controller.

1-2-2-3                                                BIOS ROM checksum.

1-2-3-1                                                8254 timer initialization.

1-2-3-3                                                8237 DMA controller initialization.

1-2-4-1                                                Reset Programmable Interrupt Controller.

1-3-1-1                                                Test DRAM refresh.

1-3-1-3                                                Test 8742 Keyboard Controller.

1-3-2-1                                                Set ES segment to register to 4 GB.

1-3-3-1                                                28 Autosize DRAM.

1-3-3-3                                                Clear 512K base RAM.

1-3-4-1                                                Test 512 base address lines.

1-3-4-3                                                Test 512K base memory.

1-4-1-3                                                Test CPU bus-clock frequency.

1-4-2-4                                                Reinitialize the chipset.

1-4-3-1                                                Shadow system BIOS ROM.

1-4-3-2                                                Reinitialize the cache.

1-4-3-3                                                Autosize cache.

1-4-4-1                                                Configure advanced chipset registers.

1-4-4-2                                                Load alternate registers with CMOS values.

2-1-1-1                                                Set Initial CPU speed.

2-1-1-3                                                Initialize interrupt vectors.

2-1-2-1                                                Initialize BIOS interrupts.

2-1-2-3                                                Check ROM copyright notice.

2-1-2-4                                                Initialize manager for PCI Options ROMs.

2-1-3-1                                                Check video configuration against CMOS.

2-1-3-2                                                Initialize PCI bus and devices.

2-1-3-3                                                Initialize all video adapters in system.

2-1-4-1                                                Shadow video BIOS ROM.

2-1-4-3                                                Display copyright notice.

2-2-1-1                                                Display CPU type and speed.

2-2-1-3                                                Test keyboard.

2-2-2-1                                                Set key click if enabled.

2-2-2-3                                                56 Enable keyboard.

2-2-3-1                                                Test for unexpected interrupts.

2-2-3-3                                                Display prompt Press F2 to enter SETUP.

2-2-4-1                                                Test RAM between 512 and 640k.

2-3-1-1                                                Test expanded memory.

2-3-1-3                                                Test extended memory address lines.

2-3-2-1                                                Jump to UserPatch1.

2-3-2-3                                                Configure advanced cache registers.

2-3-3-1                                                Enable external and CPU caches.

2-3-3-3                                                Display external cache size.

2-3-4-1                                                Display shadow message.

2-3-4-3                                                Display non-disposable segments.

2-4-1-1                                                Display error messages.

2-4-1-3                                                Check for configuration errors.

2-4-2-1                                                Test real-time clock.

2-4-2-3                                                Check for keyboard errors

2-4-4-1                                                Set up hardware interrupts vectors.

2-4-4-3                                                Test coprocessor if present.

3-1-1-1                                                Disable onboard I/O ports.

3-1-1-3                                                Detect and install external RS232 ports.

3-1-2-1                                                Detect and install external parallel ports.

3-1-2-3                                                Re-initialize onboard I/O ports.

3-1-3-1                                                Initialize BIOS Data Area.

3-1-3-3                                                Initialize Extended BIOS Data Area.

3-1-4-1                                                Initialize floppy controller.

3-2-1-1                                                Initialize hard-disk controller.

3-2-1-2                                                Initialize local-bus hard-disk controller.

3-2-1-3                                                Jump to UserPatch2.

3-2-2-1                                                Disable A20 address line.

3-2-2-3                                                Clear huge ES segment register.

3-2-3-1                                                Search for option ROMs.

3-2-3-3                                                Shadow option ROMs.

3-2-4-1                                                Set up Power Management.

3-2-4-3                                               Enable hardware interrupts.

3-3-1-1                                                Set time of day.

3-3-1-3                                                Check key lock.

3-3-3-1                                                Erase F2 prompt.

3-3-3-3                                                Scan for F2 key stroke.

3-3-4-1                                                Enter SETUP.

3-3-4-3                                                Clear in-POST flag.

3-4-1-1                                                 Check for errors

3-4-1-3                                                POST done–prepare to boot operating system.

3-4-2-1                                                One beep.

3-4-2-3                                                Check password (optional).

3-4-3-1                                                Clear global descriptor table.

3-4-4-1                                                Clear parity checkers.

3-4-4-3                                                Clear screen (optional).

3-4-4-4                                               Check virus and backup reminders.

4-1-1-1                                                 Try to boot with INT 19.

4-2-1-1                                                 Interrupt handler error.

4-2-1-3                                                Unknown interrupt error.

4-2-2-1                                                 Pending interrupt error.

4-2-2-3                                                Initialize option ROM error.

4-2-3-1                                                 Shutdown error.

4-2-3-3                                                Extended Block Move.

4-2-4-1                                                 Shutdown 10 error.

4-3-1-3                                                 Initialize the chipset.

4-3-1-4                                                Initialize refresh counter.

4-3-2-1                                                Check for Forced Flash.

4-3-2-2                                               Check HW status of ROM.

4-3-2-3                                                BIOS ROM is OK.

4-3-2-4                                               Do a complete RAM test.

4-3-3-1                                               Do OEM initialization.

4-3-3-2                                               Initialize interrupt controller.

4-3-3-3                                               Read in bootstrap code.

4-3-3-4                                               Initialize all vectors.

4-3-4-1                                               Boot the Flash program.

4-3-4-2                                               Initialize the boot device.

4-3-4-3                                               Boot code was read OK.

Now that you know some of the beep codes, maybe you can beat your I.T. in defining your computer’s problem.

Spyware is practically everywhere, whenever you (or accidentally) click one of those ads in a website, or maybe installed a software that included a “search bar” for your browser, or maybe you (again… “accidentally”) visited a porn site and clicked on one of those girls pictures, a nasty spyware always sneaks in your system.

Some of this spyware may change your browsers homepage, or maybe run a software during a boot-up that could be a dialer or would like to steal your password or whatever…

Fear not! Because I found one spyware removing software that is (I think) tough enough to handle those nasty spyware!

The Super AntiSpyware (Yes! That’s the software’s name!) is a software application distributed as shareware which can detect and remove spyware, adware, malware, trojans, rogue software, worms, rootkits, parasites and other potentially harmful software applications, as well as restore modified system settings. It can detect malware; however, it is not designed to replace an antivirus software.

SUPERAntiSpyware is updated several times a week (I think), normally daily or every 2–3 days. SUPERAntiSpyware generally receives a build update every 2–3 months. It is specifically designed to be compatible with other security applications, and therefore can be used with Real-Time protection on even with other applications which are often incompatible with antispywares, such as Kaspersky.

This is what I love about this software it uses around 500 KB of RAM when idle, and while protecting. Plus the Professional Edition gives you a real time protection, and automatically checks for program and definition updates every 8 hours.

I have been using this software for months and I haven’t got any problem with spywares. And since I am using a free version of SuperAntiSpyware, I am updating it manually, and scanning my system at least once a week. And the software has been working perfectly for me.

The only downside is its not very easy to use, but once you get the hang of it. You’ll be keeping this one in your toolbox!

You can always download the free version of Super AntiSpyware, but if you want a real time protection and automatic updates you have to pay $29.95 for the Professional Edition.

To download the free version of Super AntiSpyware click here

Here is a funny article I found on the net.

1. When you call us to have your computer moved, be sure to leave it buried under half a ton of postcards, baby pictures, stuffed animals, dried flowers, bowling trophies and children’s art. We don’t have a life, and we find it deeply moving to catch a fleeting glimpse of yours.2. Don’t write anything down. Ever. We can play back the error messages from here.

3. When an IT person says he’s coming right over, go for coffee. That way you won’t be there when we need your password. It’s nothing for us to remember 700 screen saver passwords.

4. When you call the help desk, state what you want, not what’s keeping you from getting it. We don’t need to know that you can’t get into your mail because your computer won’t power on at all.

5. When IT support sends you an e-mail with high importance, delete it at once. We’re just testing.

6. When an IT person is eating lunch at his desk, walk right in and spill your guts right out. We exist only to serve.

7. Send urgent e-mail all in uppercase. The mail server picks it up and flags it as a rush delivery.

8. When the photocopier doesn’t work, call computer support. There are electronics in it.

9. When something’s wrong with your home PC, dump it on an IT person’s chair with no name, no phone number and no description of the problem. We love a puzzle.

10. When an IT person tells you that computer screens don’t have cartridges in them, argue. We love a good argument.

11. When an IT person tells you that he’ll be there shortly, reply in a scathing tone of voice: “And just how many weeks do you mean by shortly?” That motivates us.

12. When the printer won’t print, re-send the job at least 20 times. Print jobs frequently get sucked into black holes.

13. When the printer still won’t print after 20 tries, send the job to all 68 printers in the company. One of them is bound to work.

14. Don’t learn the proper term for anything technical. We know exactly what you mean by “My thingy blew up.”

15. Don’t use on-line help. On-line help is for wimps.

source: http://techrepublic.com

Yahoo Messenger version 10 was released last year and I haven’t posted an offline installer for the current build. It’s all good anyway because a version 10.0.0.1258 was released last March 23 which includes several security enhancements.

So here is an offline installer for Yahoo Messenger 10.0.0.1258

click here to download

April Fools is around the corner, I know that you would’ve love to pull some prank on your friend, love ones or whatever. And since this is a computer blog I found one on the net that is perfect for PC.

Avoid: It’s late in the day and your buddy is dozing. It’s the perfect time to launch Avoid. Every time your pal tries to click on the Start button, it jumps away. The Fix: Move the mouse pointer to the top-left corner of the screen, and a window will display to let you know the program has closed.

Password Prank: Don’t you hate it when you can’t remember your password? Password Prank does a number on your buddies by denying them access to their PC. No matter what they type, the same word appears in the password field of the dialog box. The Fix: Click the close button after you have entered a password.

Rotate: Bored with spinning around in your chair but still craving that rotational stimulus? This program may help you. Amuse yourself and your friends with this desktop manipulator, which will randomly flip the desktop into all sorts of weird positions. The screen can flip over, reverse, or flip and reverse. The mouse pointer also changes to a question mark to aid in the confusion. Each time you run the program the effect is different. Never be bored again.

Shakedown: Put a virtual earthquake in someone’s monitor. This program will shake the desktop violently, not only annoying your victim to no end but also giving their eyes a good strain. Run this on a friend’s computer when they’re gone, and wait for them to arrive with that puzzled look. With a simple mouse click or a press on the keyboard, Shakedown will close.

Slippery Mouse: Load this program and watch the mouse pointer slip, slide, and accelerate across the screen. The Fix: Carefully move the pointer until you get it over the program icon in the taskbar. Right-click and then close the program.

Special Occasion Fax: This program, also known as Fax From Santa, simulates receiving a fax. Now you’re limited only by your imagination. You and the kids can finally get “personal faxes” from Santa Claus. You can also use this program to generate missives for holidays, birthdays, and other occasions.

Start Moving: This gag makes the Start button move across the taskbar. Ideal for anyone who seems to know more about PCs than you could ever possibly know. The Fix: The Start button returns automatically to its original place when you either resize the taskbar, restart Windows, or return the Start button to its original place manually.

Typewriter: Install this program onto someone’s PC, and every time a key is hit everyone will hear the racket of a typewriter from the PC’s speakers. Hit the Return key, and you’ll hear the familiar ratchet-and-ring sound. The only thing missing? A sheet of carbon paper. The Fix: Uninstall the program and go back to the ordinary sounds of your PC.

Now what are you waiting for? Wreak some havoc on a friend or a good-natured coworker.

source: www.pcworld.com

Most of the laptop user have this problem. Battery life being shortened…

But you know eventually all batteries die. Although your battery will eventually die, proper care can put off the inevitable. Here’s how to keep your laptop battery working for as long as possible. With luck, it could last until you need to replace that aging notebook (perhaps with a laptop having a longer battery life).

So here are few tips on how to extend your battery’s life:

Don’t Run It Down to Empty

Squeezing every drop of juice out of a lithium ion battery (the type used in today’s laptops) strains and weakens it. Doing this once or twice won’t kill the battery, but the cumulative effect of frequently emptying your battery will shorten its lifespan.

(There’s actually an exception to this rule–a circumstance where you should run down the battery all the way. I’ll get to that later.)

The good news: You probably can’t run down the battery, anyway–at least not without going to a lot of trouble to do so. Most modern laptops are designed to shut down before the battery is empty.

In fact, Vista and Windows 7 come with a setting for just this purpose. To see it, click Start, type power, and select Power Options. Click any one of the Change plan settings links, then the Change advanced power settings link. In the resulting dialog box, scroll down to and expand the Battery option. Then expand Critical battery level. The setting will probably be about 5 percent, which is a good place to leave it.

XP has no such native setting, although your laptop may have a vendor-supplied tool that does the same job.

Myth: You should never recharge your battery all the way.

There’s considerable controversy on this point, and in researching this article I interviewed experts both for and against. But I’ve come down on the side of recharging all the way. The advantages of leaving home with a fully-charged battery–you can use your PC longer without AC power–are worth the slight risk of doing damage.

Keep It Cool

Heat breaks down the battery, and reduces its overall life.

When you use your laptop, make sure the vents are unblocked. Never work with the laptop on pillows or cushions. If possible, put it on a raised stand that allows for plenty of airflow.

Also, clean the vents every so often with a can of compressed air. You can buy this for a few dollars at any computer store. Be sure to follow the directions on the can, and do this only when the notebook is off.

Give It a Rest

If you’re going to be working exclusively on AC power for a week or more, remove the battery first.

Otherwise, you’ll be wearing out the battery–constantly charging and discharging it–at a time when you don’t need to use it at all. You’re also heating it up (see “Keep It Cool,” above).

You don’t want it too empty when you take it out. An unused battery loses power over time, and you don’t want all the power to drain away, so remove it when it’s at least half-charged.

Never remove the battery while the computer is on, or even in standby or sleep mode; doing so will crash your system and possibly damage your hardware. Even inserting a battery into a running laptop can damage the system. So only remove or reinsert the battery when the laptop is completely off or hibernating.

If you’ve never removed your laptop’s battery and don’t know how, check your documentation. (If you don’t have it, you can probably find it online.) The instructions generally involve turning the laptop upside-down and holding down a button while you slide out the battery.

Myth: Refrigerate your battery.

Some people recommend you store it in the refrigerator, inside a plastic bag. While you should keep a battery cool, the last thing you want is a wet battery, and condensation is a real danger in the fridge. Instead, store it in a dry place at room temperature. A filing cabinet works fine.

You don’t want the battery to go too long without exercise or let it empty out entirely. If you go without the battery for more than two months, put it in the PC and use it for a few hours, then remove it again.

Also, before you take the laptop on the road, reinsert the battery and let it charge for a few hours before unplugging the machine. Allow the battery time to get a full charge before you remove the AC power.

Heal a Sick Battery

Myth: You can rejuvenate a worn-out battery.

This isn’t, strictly speaking, the case. You can’t make old lithium hold more electrons than it can currently manage.

But if the battery is running out unexpectedly fast, or if your laptop is having trouble figuring out how much power it has left, you might be able to fix the battery’s “gas gauge,” so it at least gives a more accurate reading.

If you suspect the battery can’t tell if it’s charged or not, run it through a couple of cycles. Drain it of all its power (yes, this is the exception to the “don’t drain the battery” rule mentioned above), recharge it to 100 percent, and then repeat.

But how do you drain the battery when Windows won’t let you do just that? Don’t bother with the settings described above. They’re not safe (you might forget to change them back), they may not be getting an accurate reading, and they quite possibly won’t let you set the critical battery level to 0 percent. (If they did, it would crash Windows.)

Instead, unplug your AC power and keep your laptop running (you can work on it if you like) until it automatically hibernates. Then reboot your PC back and go directly to the system setup program.

I can’t tell you exactly how to get there; each computer is different. Turn on your PC and look for an onscreen message (one of the first you’ll see) that says something like “Press the X key for setup.” Immediately press the designated key.

It may take a couple of times to get the timing right. If there isn’t enough power to let it boot, plug in AC until you’re at the setup program, then unplug it.

Leave the notebook on until it shuts off. This can take some time (45 minutes on my laptop); setup uses a lot less power than Windows.

Once the PC is off, plug in the AC power, then wait a few hours before rebooting to Windows and making sure you’ve got a full recharge.

Repeat the process once or twice.

With luck and proper care, your battery will still be useful when you’re looking for a new laptop.

source: http://www.pcworld.com/

I had experienced first hand how hard and difficult it is to multitask especially when you’re constantly looking for something and with all the pressure, your can’t seem to find what you are looking for. (not unless there is a naked girl in front of you)

that was always my problem (no, not the naked girl), especially when I am editing a picture or making a banner or whatever with Photoshop. I tend to get irritated and so distracted that I end up ignoring the people around me or the one on my monitor. And so I ran into this software which I think is cool and handy once you get that hang of it. And I’m pretty sure that you won’t be doing your work in your computer without this.

LAUNCHY

Launchy is a free windows and linux utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.

Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!

- Josh Karlin

It’s a really nifty software once you get to use it. You can find programs on your start menu just by typing the name of the software that you want to use. And not just that you can also find your documents, pictures, music files, in a flash (way better than Windows’ Search tool). And they even have a “WEBY plug-in” which you can use to visit a website using of course your default browser.

I know what you are thinking right now (nope I am still a computer tech, I don’t read minds!), How do we use this really cool software? And of course I am going to answer your question.

After you install Launchy, it automatically loads itself on boot and waits for the user to call it by pressing Alt + Space or a custom user hotkey. And once you see  Launchy just type in the keyword of the program, file, or website you are looking for and then click, or press enter.

And now for your follow up question, how to add folder catalogs on Launchy? (I swear! I don’t read minds!)

Right click anywhere on Launchy

Now click  ”option”

A window will appear, now click on the “Catalog” tab

You will see on the right box a list of DIRECTORIES, this is where you can add directories, so you can find even you files.

Now click the ”+” button below the “DIRECTORIES” box, and select the folder that you want to add

If you see the link that you added on the DIRECTORIES list. You will that below the “FILE TYPES” box on the left there is another box. There you will need to type the “*” + filename extension of your file. for documents, it can *.doc, *.xls, *mp3 etc.

And then click “+” below the box and click ok

And then now you can start using LAUNCHY.

Don’t worry once you installed Launchy a handy “readme” manual is included in the install, so if ever you have problem with my steps you can always look through the manual.

You should know that I’ve only use this for 2 weeks and I am still learning, so if you have some tips or something you can always leave comments here ^_^ thanks!

To download LAUNCHY click here

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