Want a Trickky Password

WinTinker Password Generator offers a secure and simple way to generate a password. It turns your easiest word to remember, into a very random password. If you happen to forget it by any chance, you run rerun the program and it will give you your password. This software happens to have an ability to run its software by just by plugging in a thumb drive and can also be run with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and 7.  So check it out now by following into this link.

Difficulty Level: Easy

Pic from Geekalerts

WindowsJuan ZepedaComment
Apple Store for the Apple devices

DING DING DING DING... "You have hit the Jackpot!!!"  For some people this is sort of  true. If you have a portable Apple device like the iTouch, iPhone, or the iPad, the following might be great news. Apple has incorporated a similar form of its online version of its retail store to its portable devices.  With this new app from Apple, called Apple Store, you can do almost everything as if you were in the Apple website. You can browse products, buy products, read reviews,  it can locate you the nearest retail apple store, and etc.  This app is free to all users and it requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later. If you desire more information please follow this link.

Difficulty Level: Easy

Pic from the apple website

MacJuan Zepeda Comments
World Cup 2010 Streaming Options

With FIFA's 2010 World Cup well under way, there might be a few of you out there that can't watch the matches. But if you have any form of high-speed internet, then you can just view the matches live on your computer. Tom Harrison has a post up on Lifehacker that contains a variety of sites that can stream matches to you. Like the post says, some services might be region blocked and will not allow users from certain areas to view while other services like ESPN3 (formerlly ESPN360) are paid services that the user pays through their Internet Service Provider. Go ahead and check out the post to see which ones work for you. Now those are the legal (and most likely the best quality) ways to view the match, but there are even more options. ustream and Justin.tv are known sites that offer un-authorized streams of various sports, ranging from the NBA to the World Cup. You can search for the specific match you want and there will be a variety of streams available. For the most part, some are of really poor quality or don't even work at all but you might get lucky and find one that works.

There are also people have their own blog/site dedicated to hosting their own streams. You can find these using Google. Just use "high quality world cup streaming" or a variety of other keywords. You can also just Google "lets-kickoff". *wink wink nudge nudge*

If you have any other sites or services that you know of, let me know in the comments and I'll add them on here.

Where to Watch World Cup Soccer Streaming Live [Lifehacker]

TV, WebJuan ZepedaLifehacker, Streaming, World Cup Comments
Soluto! Yes I can help make your computer start faster!

Overtime, Windows machines tend to slow down. They can take a long time to boot. For example, my boot originally was  2 minutes 2 seconds. Thankfully, an application cut it down to 1 minutes 22 seconds. It is very simple, the application  tells me  what programs I can turn off  on start-up, which would make my boot (computer start) faster. The software is called Soluto. It is a very elegant software that you can downloaded here.  You run it and on the next boot it analyzes how much it took and lets you know what you can turn off. As a recommendation, after you use it, uninstall Soluto. It is also a program that runs at boot and you only may need it for maybe 4 times.

More Info

[vimeo 11786742]

How to Install

[vimeo 11952424]

Computer, WindowsJuan Zepedaboot, soluto Comments
Sticky Side Down

Over time keyboards get really grudy and nasty. We eat next them,  shed our eye lashes on them and just in general stuff gets  in between.  If you have a keyboard not on a laptop but connected to a desktop. You can simply put in the dishwasher. Yes, you heard me right, most of the time if you wash it and let it dry completely before plugging  it back in, you should be fine. If not you can simply buy another one. They are reasonably cheap now a days. If you want to clean your laptop keyboard you can clean it with some alcohol and a rag. You may ask how do I clean in between the keys? Well, you can grab a sticky note and stick and slide down the sticky side in between the keys. Everything will stick and you will successfully take it out. I rarely recommended to detach the keys because you may break it and get some keys mixed up.  Happy cleaning.

Photo by [Zniper]

ComputerJuan Zepedaclean Comment
Photoshop For FREE!!!!!!!!

Photoshop is out online for free. This photoshop enables you to sync with your online photo albums, such as Picasa, Photobucket and Facebook. You can edit them and then save them, and then photoshop will send it back and it will be shown up as how you made it to be. This has more things available than the other free ones out there, like, the demos. So come and check it out here.

Difficulty Level: Easy

WebJuan Zepeda Comment
How is your battery life?

I recently discovered on a forum a new trick to make my battery last longer. I do know if it will work on all devices but it is well worth the try.  Every morning I unplug my 100% charged cell phone and restart it. I plug it back in and see that it is not 100% charged anymore. It is more like 95%. So I charged back up to 100% and  restart it. I do this again and again. This helps my battery last longer during the day. I do know why this is helping but my guess that there is a memory cell on the battery the remembers the maximum charging level and restarting resets it. Give it a try and let me know if you have the same problem.

Photo by [scalespeeder]

Cell PhonesJuan Zepedabattery, cell Comment
Download Embedded Media

A while ago here on OneTechTip, I gave a tip on DownThemAll, a download manager extension for Firefox. Now today's tip is a little similar to it because it's also a Firefox extension to help you download media but with a twist. DownThemAll helps you download media but only if the link to the media is posted on the webpage. If the media in question is embedded behind a media player (let's say it's a song), DownThemAll wouldn't be able to download it. This is where DownloadHelper comes in. You just click on DownloadHelper's icon in the status bar or next to the address bar and the available song(s) will be there ready for you to download. It does video as well with a long list of supported sites including YouTube.

Like DownThemAll, DownloadHelper does have a drawback. It can only download media if the file is already pre-loaded onto the sites servers. If they are streaming the file instead of downloading the file all at once, you will not be able to use DownloadHelper. I'll go over on what to use for that next week.

You can find more info on DownloadHelper here.

Difficulty Level: Easy

WebJuan ZepedaDownloadHelper, DownThemAll, FirefoxComment
Charging Your Devices on the Road (in the Air)

If you're going on a trip any time soon and need a way to power up your electronic devices, you should look into investing in a power inverter. These handy devices come in all sorts of sizes but the one that does the job for me was Kensington's Auto/Air Power Inverter. It successfully charged my MacBook Pro and my iPod while on my way to school. It comes with a three-prong plug and two USB ports. That was the biggest selling point for me was the capability to charge two USB devices without using the three-prong plug. They not only work great if you're going on that long road trip, but they also help out during emergencies. Just recently, the power went out in my house leaving me with my phone and its' battery that was about to die. Having only around half an hour left on it, I went over to my car, turned it on and hooked up my phone and charged it for a good 30 minutes. The only drawback is that my car was using its' gas to charge my phone and with gas being so expensive, it's tough to make that choice. My phone was running low so I had to make that sacrifice so I could receive and important messages or phone calls.

If you have that long road trip or flight, it works in airplanes (that have DC power available) too, look into getting an inverter to charge your devices and sat connected.

You can get the one I have on Amazon here.

technologyJuan ZepedaCharging, Kensington, Power Inverter Comments
Google has a background...About time

For many years Google's homepage has been very very simple. White and straight to the point. The only significant thing that has been changed has been Google's Doodles( found here). Just a couple of days ago Google allowed you to add "a favorite photo or image to the background of the Google homepage. You can choose a photo from your computer, your own Picasa Web Album or a public gallery hosted by Picasa which includes a selection of beautiful photos." Have fun and be creative customizing  your homepage, if of course you use Google. [Googleblog]

1.) Go to www.google.com

2.) Find the button/Text that Says "Change background image" on the lower left hide side and click.

3.) Choose your background and walla!

4.) If you want to remove it. You will see a button like in the picture.

WebJuan Zepedabackground, google Comments
Keyboard Shortcuts That Take Place of a Mouse

These shortcuts are only good for Windows users. Windows + Up and Windows + Down -- they change the screen view, you can either zoom in or zoom out

Windows + Shift + Up and Windows + Shift + Down -- they change the view of the screen, the width,  and height

Windows + Left and Windows + Right -- they control the page of the screen, so if you want it to appear half of it to one side, then you direct it to that side.

Windows + Home -- this controls or sends you to your desktop screen

Windows + E -- Opens up a new Explorer Window

WindowsJuan ZepedaComment
Windows Mobility Center in Windows 7 or Vista

I recently, very accidentally discovered Windows Mobility Center. I had seen it before but never really thought about it. If you hit Win+X, you will see a window pop up. Here you can control many things like Display Brightness, Sounded, battery, presentation mode and many things. It's a very simple easy handy shortcut. Unfortunately, it is for Windows 7 and Vista for laptops.

WindowsJuan ZepedaComment
Are You Getting The Bandwidth Speed You Were Promised?

Many internet service providers, also know as ISP's, promise a certain speed, but never actually give you what you are paying for. For example, for us we were promised a speed of a 512 kbps, but we actually receive an average speed of 200 kbps. The FCC, Federal Communications Commission, is trying to get high-speed internet service to all the houses. The FCC, can't do this by themselves, they need our help. They want to provide us with reliable and accurate statistics of the ISP broadband connections. But how can we help? Well just head over to test my isp and sign up. You will get a chance to change the American Broadband Industry and get a free high-speed wireless router! For more info go the site. FCC, SamKnows & you: "Working together for better broadband"

Info from the test my isp site

Difficulty Level: Easy

WebJuan ZepedaispComment
A USB power outlet? Cool!!!

Recently, I have bought my HTC Incredible and have had the need to charge different gadgets but with one problem. I needed to plug them in to my computer. I have run out of USB ports and just want to charge them. I discovered a U-socket. This is a regular power outlet with two USB Plugs. Genius! I love this idea. I have Pre-order this U-socket. It will be available in October for about $20.  It will support USB 3.o and will supply a full 10 watts of power.

technologyJuan ZepedaUsb Comments
Improve Your Browsing Experience

Sites are becoming more and more malicious as exploiters are able to add code to a site and run it without your notification. So instead of dealing with it when your system is already affected, you can prevent it at the source with NoScript. NoScript is a Firefox extension that prevents any un-authorized scripts to be run. Whether it be Javascript, Java, or even Flash, NoScript prevents any of them without being run. If you're at a site that you do trust, all you have to do is click on the icon that appears in the lower right of the window and whitelist the sites of your choice. You can also temporarily allow sites instead of adding them permanently to your trusted sites.

It's not just a great security tool but a general improvement to your browsing. It can stop YouTube videos that auto-play, block those pesky flash ads, and any other scripts that interfere with your browsing.

This script alone makes Firefox worth using if you're not already. But to those that don't like using Firefox, there is an alternative for Google Chrome. The word alternative is used very loosely for Chrome's FlashBlock extension. Just as the name suggests, it blocks Flash from running until you choose to allow it. Just click on the Flash object and it will run as if nothing happened. The downside is that it isn't as advanced as NoScript but it is a start. If you have any other alternatives or suggestions, leave a comment and I'll check it out.

NoScript and FlashBlock

Difficulty Level: Easy

WebJuan ZepedaScriptComment
Put a YouTube Video On Repeat

Just found out about a nifty site/service for those who listen to music on YouTube (me included). EndlessYouTube is the name, fittingly enough, and does exactly what the name suggests; It constantly plays a YouTube video on repeat until you choose to stop it. Sure you can do it yourself but the simplicity begs you to use it instead. All you have to do is add "endless" to the beginning of the URL and you're good to go. You get the YouTube URL of the video you want, in this example I'll use Gorillaz' (Some of the best music you will ever hear) Tomorrow Comes Today video. So you have your URL, http://youtube.com/watch?v=0KxHqJwO1-Q, and change it to http://endlessyoutube.com/watch?v=0KxHqJwO1-Q.

You can also just grab the video ID, in this case it's "0KxHqJwO1-Q", head over to EndlessYouTube and paste the ID into the appropriate box. The service does have it's faults though. Because it's using the embedding feature, it won't work with videos that turned off embedding.

Another amazing feature is you can choose to loop over a segment of the video. Just use this format http://www.endlessyoutube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID&start=[e.g.%201m10s]&end=[e.g.%201m20s] and choose the segment you want to loop.

WebJuan ZepedaEndlessYouTube, YouTube Comments
Need a faster system? Have you considered RAM?

I have fixed peoples computers because of how S....L....O....W... they are  and have seen very little RAM in these 5-10 year old machines.  One of the major fixes is making sure you have sufficient ram. In today's world I would say 2GB is that minimum. I use a company called Crucial. If you go to their page you can see on the front page a way to see what kind of RAM you might need. You can find your exact computer or download a program to see which RAM you need. Next, it will show how much it cost and the maximum amount of RAM you can install. It is easy.

technologyJuan ZepedaComputer, crucial, ram Comment
Keep Your Computer Running Safe

Some things you should have to keep your computer safe are as follows: use a firewall, have a good virus protection, and a spyware protector. You should also consider on keeping up to date your computer.  By doing this, computers will start to run faster and will be in better condition. There are a lot of programs out there in the internet that you can download to keep your computer safe. A good virus protection program out there is Microsoft Security Essentials. It is recommended on using Threatfire because it co-works with your virus protector and makes sure everything is safe. The way Threatfire works that it makes sure that each program is doing what it's supposed to be doing. If it notices that it's doing something its not supposed to be doing then it will quarantine it. You should also run Spyware Doctor and PC Tools Firewall Plus 6.

Difficulty Level: Easy

ComputerJuan Zepeda Comments