Enhance Your Gmail Account in Chrome
Mar/100
Are you tired of items like the Chat and Invite Boxes cluttering up your Gmail account? Then join us as we look at the Better Gmail extension for Google Chrome.
Before
Here are some examples of items that you may be tired of looking at in your Gmail account such as the “Footer” below your “Inbox”, the “Chat Box”, and the “Invitation Box”.
Perhaps you would also like to have the “New Window, Print all, & Create a document Commands” moved elsewhere. And of course there is everyone’s “favorite” sponsored links… Time to do some cleaning up and reorganizing.
Better Gmail in Action
As soon as you have installed Better Gmail a new tab will automatically open and present you with the available options. Place a “checkmark” in the box for each option that you would like activated and click on “Save” when finished.
Note: The final option entry is a tie-in with two other “linked” extensions (Folders4Gmail & HTML Signature) while the middle listing is a link to an article for disabling Google Buzz.
Once you have saved your changes in the “Options” you will be prompted to refresh your Gmail tab to see the changes.
Going back to our “Inbox Area” everything looks so much more streamlined and clean now. Goodbye clutter!
The “New Window, Print all, & Create a document Commands” definitely look a lot nicer as a small toolbar above our e-mail. And the right side…you can see for yourself just how much better that looks. No more distractions there to bother you as you read your e-mail.
Conclusion
If you have been wanting to get rid of the undesirable elements visible in your Gmail account then hurry over to the Better Gmail page, grab the extension and enjoy the better view.
Links
Download the Better Gmail extension (Google Chrome Extensions)
| Similar Articles | Productive Geek Tips |
| Latest Software Reviews | Tinyhacker Random Tips |
See the rest here:
Enhance Your Gmail Account in Chrome
How To Skip Commercials in Windows 7 Media Center
Mar/100
If you use Windows 7 Media Center to record live TV, you’re probably interested in skipping through commercials. After all, a big reason to record programs is to avoid commercials, right? Today we focus on a fairly simple and free way to get you skipping commercials in no time.
In Windows 7, the .wtv file format has replaced the dvr-ms file format used in previous versions of Media Center for Recorded TV. The .wtv file format, however, does not work very well with commercial skipping applications.?
The Process
Our first step will be to convert the recorded .wtv files to the previously used dvr-ms file format. This conversion will be done automatically by WtvWatcher. It’s important to note that this process deletes the original .wtv file after successfully converting to .dvr-ms. Next, we will use DVRMSToolBox with the DTB Addin to handle commercials skipping. This process does not “cut” or remove the commercials from the file. It merely skips the commercials during playback.
WtvWatcher
Download and install the WTVWatcher (link below). To install WtvWatcher, you’ll need to have Windows Installer 3.1 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.
If you get the Publisher cannot be verified warning you can go ahead and click Install. We’ve completely tested this app and it contains no malware and runs successfully.
![sshot-2010-03-09-[19-07-48]](http://semibeta.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/4bad6e0786190748.png.png "sshot-2010-03-09-[19-07-48]")
?
After installing, the WtvWatcher will pop up in the lower right corner of your screen.
You will need to set the path to your Recorded TV directory. Click on the button for “Click here to set your recorded TV path…”
?
The WtvWatcher Preferences window will open…
?
…and you’ll be prompted to browse for your Recorded TV folder. If you did not change the default location at setup, it will be found at C:UsersPublicRecorded TV. Click “OK” when finished.
Click the “X” to close the Preferences screen.
You should now see WtvWatcher begin to convert any existing WTV files.
?
The process should only take a few minutes per file. Note: If WtvWatcher detects an error during the conversion process, it will not delete the original WTV file.?
?
You will probably want to run WtvWatcher on startup. This will allow WtvWatcher too constantly scan for new .wtv files to convert. There is no setting in the application to run on startup, so you’ll need to copy the WTV icon from your desktop into your Windows start menu “Startup” directory. To do so, click on Start > All Programs, right-click on Startup and click on Open all users.
Drag and drop, or cut and paste, the WtvWatcher desktop shortcut into the Startup folder.
DVRMSToolBox and DTBAddIn
Next, we need to download and install the DVRMSToolBox and the DTBAddIn. These two pieces of software will do the actual commercial skipping. After downloading the DVRMSToolBox zip file, extract it and double-click the setup.exe file.? Click “Next” to begin the installation.
?
Unless DVRMSToolBox will only be used by Administrator accounts, check the “Modify File Permissions” box. Click “Next.”
When you get to the Optional Components window, uncheck Download/Install ShowAnalyzer. We will not be using that application.
When the installation is complete, click “Close.”
??
Next we need to install the DTBAddin. Unzip the download folder and run the appropriate .msi file for your system. It is available in 32 & 64 bit versions.
Just double click on the file and take the default options. Click “Finish” when the install is completed. You will then be prompted to restart your computer.
After your computer has restarted, open DVRMSToolBox settings by going to Start > All Programs, DVRMSToolBox, and click on DVRMStoMPEGSettings.
On the MC Addin tab, make sure that Skip Commercials is checked. It should be by default.
?
On the Commercial Skip tab, make sure the Auto Skip option is selected. Click “Save.”
?
If you try to watch recorded TV before the file conversion and commercial indexing process is complete you’ll get the following message pop up in Media Center. If you click Yes, it will start indexing the commercials if WtvWatcher has already converted it to dvr-ms.
Now you’re ready to kick back and watch your recorded tv without having to wait through those long commercial breaks.
Conclusion
The DVRMSToolBox is a powerful and complex application with a multitude of features and utilities. We’ve showed you a quick and easy way to get your Windows Media Center setup to skip commercials. This setup, like virtually all commercial skipping setups, is not perfect. You will occasionally find a commercial that doesn’t get skipped.
Need help getting your Windows 7 PC configured for TV? Check out our previous tutorial on setting up live TV in Windows Media Center.
Links
| Similar Articles | Productive Geek Tips |
| Latest Software Reviews | Tinyhacker Random Tips |
Excerpt from:
How To Skip Commercials in Windows 7 Media Center
[MINI HOW-TO] Update Your Zune Player Software
Mar/100
Keeping your computer and software up to date is very important in keeping everything running smooth and secure. It’s also important to keep your geeky gadgets updated as well. Here we take a look at updating a Zune HD.
Note: In this example we’re updating a Zune HD out of the box which hasn’t been updated yet.
The first thing you’ll need to do if you haven’t already is download and install the latest Zune software (link below).
Now plug your Zune into your computer with the included USB connection cable and give it a moment to be recognized.
Next launch the Zune Desktop software and you should get the following screen. Just accept the EULA…
Then the update kicks off. Make sure not to disconnect the Zune while the update takes place.
The update will take a few minutes, and after it’s complete you should be good to go and can start using your Zune.
To update your player in the future, go to General Settings then Player Update.
![sshot-2010-03-05-[22-17-39]](http://semibeta.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/7702390cb4221739.png.png "sshot-2010-03-05-[22-17-39]")
Just like your computer’s hardware and software, you want to keep your other geeky gadgets updated as well. This will help the device run more smoothly, and sometimes add additional functionality.
| Similar Articles | Productive Geek Tips |
| Latest Software Reviews | Tinyhacker Random Tips |
See the original post here:
[MINI HOW-TO] Update Your Zune Player Software
Final Fantasy XIII deals to pounce on at Target and Amazon
Mar/100
After you heard what we had to say about Final Fantasy XIII, you may very well now be itching to finally get your own hands all over the thirteenth entry in the FF series from Square Enix. Lucky for you, dearest reader, we’ve got news of a couple ways to save some dough on your purchase this week.
Target is offering a $10 gift card with purchase of either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 version, while Amazon is offering a $10 pre-order incentive credit towards future video game purchases for both versions as well (oh, and also, the game costs $56.99 instead of $59.99, which is kinda nice). Sure, neither offers a free rideable chocobo or anything wonderful like that, but that $10 at Target could potentially buy pizza bagels. And did you know that when pizza’s on a bagel, you can apparently eat pizza at any time? Madness!
Source 1 – CAG
Source 2 – Target
Final Fantasy XIII deals to pounce on at Target and Amazon originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink?|?Email this?|?Comments
Read the original:
Final Fantasy XIII deals to pounce on at Target and Amazon
After Burner: Climax looks like Aurora-ing good time
Mar/100
It remains to be seen just how well After Burner: Climax will translate from its arcade greatness over to a downloadable form on consoles, but at least it still looks purty. And we mean everything about it, from the clean and simple Sega UI, to the well-designed dynamic lighting on the planes and explosions, all the way out to the great-looking vistas that catch your eye just as you fire up the ‘burners and race for the horizon …
What? Oh, sorry, we got a little carried away in the Climax there. To see what we mean, lock your targeting reticule onto four new screens from the official Sega America blog in the gallery below.
After Burner: Climax looks like Aurora-ing good time originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read?|?Permalink?|?Email this?|?Comments
Here is the original:
After Burner: Climax looks like Aurora-ing good time
Share a Printer on Your Network from Vista or XP to Windows 7
Mar/100
The other day we looked at sharing a printer between Windows 7 machines, but you may only have one Windows 7 machine and the printer is connected to a Vista or XP computer. Today we show you how to share a printer from either Vista or XP to Windows 7.
We previously showed you how to share files and printers between Windows 7 and XP. But what if you have a printer connected to an XP or Vista machine in another room, and you want to print to it from Windows 7? This guide will walk you through the process.
Note: In these examples we’re using 32-bit versions of Windows 7, Vista, and XP on a basic home network. We are using an HP PSC 1500 printer, but keep in mind every printer is different so finding and installing the correct drivers will vary.
Share a Printer from Vista
To share the printer on a Vista machine click on Start and enter printers into the search box and hit Enter.
Right-click on the printer you want to share and select Sharing from the context menu.
Now in Printer Properties, select the Sharing tab, mark the box next to Share this printer, and give the printer a name. Make sure the name is something simple with no spaces then click Ok.
Share a Printer from XP
To share a printer from XP click on Start then select Printers and Faxes.
In the Printers and Faxes window right-click on the printer to share and select Sharing.
In the Printer Properties window select the Sharing tab and the radio button next to Share this printer and give it a short name with no spaces then click Ok.
Add Printer to Windows 7
Now that we have the printer on Vista or XP set up to be shared, it’s time to add it to Windows 7. Open the Start Menu and click on Devices and Printers.
In Devices and Printers click on Add a printer.
Next click on Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer.
Windows 7 will search for the printer on your network and once its been found click Next.
The printer has been successfully added…click Next.
Now you can set it as the default printer and send a test page to verify everything works. If everything is successful, close out of the add printer screens and you should be good to go.
?
Alternate Method
If the method above doesn’t work, you’ll can try the following for either XP or Vista. In our example, when trying to add the printer connected to our XP machine, it wasn’t recognized automatically.
If you’re search pulls up nothing then click on The printer that I want isn’t listed.
In the Add Printer window under Find a printer by name or TCP/IP address click the radio button next to Select a shared printer by name. You can either type in the path to the printer or click on Browse to find it.
In this instance we decided to browse to it and notice we have 5 computers found on the network. We want to be able to print to the XPMCE computer so we double-click on that.
Type in the username and password for that computer…
Now we see the printer and can select it.
The path to the printer is put into the Select a shared printer by name field.
Wait while Windows connects to the printer and installs it…
It’s successfully added…click Next.
Now you can set it as the default printer or not and print a test page to make sure everything works successfully.
Now when we go back to Devices and Printers under Printers and Faxes, we see the HP printer on XPMCE.
Conclusion
Sharing a printer from one machine to another can sometimes be tricky, but the method we used here in our setup worked well. Since the printer we used is fairly new, there wasn’t a problem with locating any drivers for it. Windows 7 includes a lot of device drivers already so you may be surprised on what it’s able to install. Your results may vary depending on your type of printer, Windows version, and network setup. This should get you started configuring the machines on your network—hopefully with good results.?
If you you have two Windows 7 computers, then sharing a printer or files is easy through the Homegroup feature. You can also share a printer between Windows 7 machines on the same network but not Homegroup.
| Similar Articles | Productive Geek Tips |
|
|
| Latest Software Reviews | Tinyhacker Random Tips |
Original post:
Share a Printer on Your Network from Vista or XP to Windows 7
Shift Between Preset Window Sizes in Firefox with ResizeIT
Feb/100
Do you need multiple different “exact-size” windows for web-design work or other activities throughout your workday? Then see how easy it is to switch between sizes with the ResizeIT extension for Firefox.
Before
Here is our pre-extension test browser set against a 1280 x 1024 pixel sized background. Notice the position and size of the browser versus the wallpaper…
Options
As soon as you have installed the extension and restarted Firefox it is recommended to immediately access the “Options”. These are the default settings for the four window sizes that you can switch between.
For our tests we selected for “Position” in relation to all non full-screen sizes and made a slight change to the “Alt + 2” listing so that it was close in size (and proportional) to our browser’s size in the screenshot above.
Once you have made any desired changes click “OK” to save your new settings.
ResizeIT in Action
Here are the results of our settings. The “Alt + 1” keyboard shortcut setting of 300 x 300 pixels…
The “Alt + 2” keyboard shortcut setting with our altered browser window size of 869 x 651 pixels…
The “Alt + 3” keyboard shortcut setting of 1024 x 768 pixels…
And finally the “Alt + 4” keyboard shortcut setting for full-screen.
Now if you are wondering if you can enter in unique and/or unusual custom sizes the answer is yes. Just for fun we altered only the “height setting” for the “Alt + 1” keyboard shortcut. Enter in the appropriate pixel size(s) and click “OK” to save your settings.
Here is the result of the size modification. Custom sizing makes this an extremely useful extension…
Conclusion
If you need multiple different “exact size” windows for your work then the ResizeIT extension is going to make it a pleasure to quickly switch between them. This is definitely a recommended install.
Links
Download the ResizeIT extension (Mozilla Add-ons)
| Similar Articles | Productive Geek Tips |
| Latest Software Reviews | Tinyhacker Random Tips |
See original here:
Shift Between Preset Window Sizes in Firefox with ResizeIT
Restore Previous Versions of Files in Every Edition of Windows 7
Feb/100
Have you ever accidently deleted a file, or removed a crucial part of a document only to realize it no longer makes sense?? Windows 7 is smart enough to protect you from yourself, and here we’ll see how you can restore files in any edition of Windows 7.
How does this work?
The Previous Versions features is a part of the volume shadow copy service, which creates restore points to help roll back changes to your computer in the event of a problem.? It is also the backend for the surprisingly good image based backup in Windows 7.? By default, shadow copy will save a copy of your files once a day, or when activated explicitly such as when installing an update or new program.
The Previous Versions feature was actually a new feature in Windows Vista, but was not directly available in the Home editions of Vista.? However, the volume shadow copy service was still present, allowing even users of Home editions of Vista to access previous versions of their files.? The default method is much simpler, so thankfully it is now included in every edition of Windows 7.
How do I access Previous Versions?
It is simple to access previous versions of any file or folder on your Windows 7 computer.? Simply open any Explorer window, right-click on a file or folder you wish to restore, and select “Restore Previous Versions.”? For instance, if you accidently deleted a file from a folder in My Documents, browse to that folder and open previous versions from it.? Please note that this will only appear on files and folders, not drives or Libraries.
This dialog shows all the previous copies of this folder that are available.? Here we see that there is a copy of my folder e-books from yesterday, 3 days earlier this week, and some from the week before that.? Click on the time you wish to restore from.
?
You can choose to either Open, Copy, or Restore the folder.? If you click Restore, you can restore the full contents of the folder as it appeared at some time in the past.
?
Choose copy to copy the entire contents of the folder as it appeared at that time to another location.? For instance, you could copy it to a flash drive for safe keeping.
Or, choose Open to browse the contents of the folder as it appeared at that time.? You can open, copy, or do anything you choose with the file from here.? For instance, if I deleted the Audio Books folder accidently today, I could click copy, and then past it into my normal e-books folder in my Documents folder.
?
When in this mode, you are directly browsing the shadow copy of your hard drive.? The path to the folder shows the date and time of the copy.
And, the great thing is, this feature is available in all editions of Windows 7, including the low-cost Starter edition often preinstalled in netbooks.
?
Change Shadow Copy Settings
By default, the shadow copies of your files will use up to 5% of your hard drive space.? You can change this by typing “Shadow Copy” into your Start Menu search.? Click the “Create a restore point” link.
Here you can restore your system with a restore point, create a new restore point, or configure the settings.? Click Configure to manage Shadow Copy.
You can choose to save both system settings and previous versions of files, only previous versions of files, or to turn this feature off entirely (which we do not recommend at all).? You can also choose how much space will be dedicated to these files.? The default is 5% of your hard drive, but you can choose more or less if you wish.? Finally, you can also remove all previous restore points, including the previous versions of all your files.
Summary
The Previous Versions feature is definitely a lifesaver. You can actually retrieve deleted files using Shadow Copy in Server 2003.? It has saved us many times when we accidently deleted a file or removed important information from a document only to realize what we had done minutes later. For these and many other reasons, don’t panic and just check Previous Versions if you ever lose a file.
| Similar Articles | Productive Geek Tips |
| Latest Software Reviews | Tinyhacker Random Tips |
See the rest here:
Restore Previous Versions of Files in Every Edition of Windows 7
Friday Fun: Blosics 2
Feb/100
You’ve suffered through the work week long enough and it’s time to chill out and play a flash game on company time. Today we take a look at Blosics 2 which is a fun and challenging physics game.
Blosics 2
When you start out you’re shown the object of the game. Select different size balls to knock blocks down. Just use your mouse to position the direction to shoot the ball and the level of force behind it.
Each ball costs money and as you progress levels it gets more challenging. In this example you can’t knock the red bricks down, only the green. You loose points when the red blocks fall off.
Sometimes it’s necessary to knock a red brick down to get to the green ones, but be careful and only knock down the minimum amount you need.
Different objects with various properties are introduced as you progress in levels as well.
You can restart a level at any time and can go back and play previous ones to up your score.
Blosics 2 is a fun and challenging game that will keep you amused until the company lets you regain your freedom.
| Similar Articles | Productive Geek Tips |
| Latest Software Reviews | Tinyhacker Random Tips |
See the rest here:
Friday Fun: Blosics 2
Advert
Target launches first scannable mobile coupon program, frugalistas going wild
Mar/100
Target’s announced it is launching a scannable mobile coupon program — the first of its kind. The opt-in program will provides Target shoppers with a customized webpage on their mobile phones, with all offers scannable at checkout via a single barcode. Target’s no stranger to innovative marketing — its gift cards are well known for their cute, gadgety ways — and while this new program is essentially a text message driven sale (meaning it could quickly become a mere annoyance), anything that minimizes our interactions with fellow humans gets our stamp of approval, so the ability to scan your own barcode at the register? Thumbs up. The full press release is after the break.
Continue reading Target launches first scannable mobile coupon program, frugalistas going wild
Target launches first scannable mobile coupon program, frugalistas going wild originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Go here to read the rest:
Target launches first scannable mobile coupon program, frugalistas going wild