DropBox – and why I love this service!

Due to the fact I have two computers, a laptop, and an iPhone, there are some documents, pictures, and other things that I want to be able to access at any time on any of them, and not have to worry about manually transferring the updated versions of each file.

About a year ago, I discovered a service called DropBox, which is completely free. You can upgrade to paid accounts starting at $10 for 50GB of space. If you’re happy with 2GB, it’s free.

All you have to do is save the documents to your DropBox folder that you want synchronized to your other computers, and the service does it automatically. It even saves a secure copy of the files on the DropBox servers for remote access if you’re not near your computers.

Even if the other computers aren’t turned on, they’ll download the latest versions of the files when they are turned on.

I am so impressed by this service! When I update a file on my main computer, and my laptop is on, it synchronizes with my laptop, and in seconds, the file is updated in my laptop’s DropBox folder, too! It’s such a fantastic way service in the time and headaches it avoids!

If you’re not using this wonderful service, download it free from www.getdropbox.com

Cannot connect to Shaw FTP or E-Mail

As of a couple of years ago, Shaw Cable blocked FTP access to it’s webspace accounts from non-Shaw customers and IP Addresses.

Those who may have previously been Shaw Cable customers could no longer connect to Shaw’s webspace via FTP if they are trying to access those services from non-Shaw Cable internet connections, through programs such as Outlook or Thunderbird. Though, webmail can still be accessed by non-Shaw customers.

The solution? Hopefully a friend uses Shaw Cable, and you can download all of your content and upload it to a provider such as GoDaddy.com (their ftp instructions).

As for e-mail, if you still have mail coming to your previous Shaw e-mail accounts, log into the webmail service at http://webmail.shaw.ca, and forward all of your email to another account you can use for access through Outlook or Thunderbird. Another alternative is to use Yahoo Mail Canada, which still allows POP3 and SMTP access (go to your account settings, then ‘pop and mail forwarding’, as I recall). The USA version does not provide this service for free, it’s only available in the Plus version ($20 a year).

Learn how to setup your mail through Outlook 2007 (coming very soon)

Teamviewer Walkthrough

TeamViewer allows you to see another person’s desktop and control their computer through a secure, encrypted connection that is easy to setup and use. There is no risk associated with using it, as only those who you give the randomly generated user ID and password can connect. You must also “ok” the connection.

It’s very safe, and I have used it to connect to my parents’ computers back home and to a friend’s computer, who lives in Nova Scotia.

Important note: while it allows someone to see and control your computer, you see exactly what they are doing and can type and use the mouse the same as you’ve always done.

To install TeamViewer, go to www.teamviewer.com, click on the ‘download’

under ‘full version’, click the button next to the Windows icon.

Double click the file you downloaded, and this screen will show up. Click ‘personal/non-commercial use’, and click ‘next.’

Be sure to click box checkboxes to accept the license agreement and to confirm the fact you’ll Only use the program for personal use.

Click “normal installation”. There’s no need for TeamViewer to start when you log into Windows, so don’t Select that.

The program will quickly install, then click “finish” to complete the installation.

You will then see this screen every time the program starts. When someone (me) attempts to connect to your computer, simply provide the ID and Password under “Wait for session”. You should then be asked to confirm the connection. If not, that’s fine, it’s secure either way.

The ID and password and automatically generated each time the program starts, so noone can access your computer without that information or approval.

Change the size of desktop icons in Windows Vista

I’ve been asked a few times now by friends how to change the size of desktop icons in Windows Vista. There are two ways. These methods work in Windows 7 (RC1) as well.

1. left-click an empty area of the desktop once, and while pressing down the left CTRL key on your keyboard, use the wheel on your mouse to change the size of the icons.

2. right-click an empty area of the desktop, and choose ‘view’, and choose from ‘classic’, ‘medium’, or ‘large’.

Send large files over the internet

I’ve encountered a few situations in which I’ve needed to send someone a large file. E-Mail is great for small files, but is too unreliable for larger files. I started using Box.net, which works well enough, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for, not to mention the effort and numerous clicks it takes to set up a “shared” file.

Since then, I’ve been using YouSendIt.com and Drop.io, which are much quicker alternatives and the recipient can download the file seconds later. Very convenient. Both have a 100MB limit, though they do have subscription services.

Drop.io’s plans start at $10 a month for 1GB of space, all the way up to$99.99 a month for 250GB of space each month.

YouSendIt.com’s plans start at $10 a month, too, and goes up to as much as $2999.99 a year for 60GB of storage.  Also,YouSendIt limit the amount of times a single can be downloaded to 100 times for it’s free service, unlimited for its other plans.

For more options, see Mashable.com’s list.

Use a song as a ringtone for the iPhone

NOTE: This is the my more detailed explanation of the process. If you’re looking for the quicker tutorial, from which this post was inspired. go here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/156234/turn_any_mp3_into_an_iphone_ringtone.html.

I wanted a way to use a song as a ringtone on my iPhone, and I didn’t want to pay for the priviledge. There is the option to download, for a fee, a song from the iTunes store, and pay another small fee to use it as a ringtone.

I don’t like spending money if I don’t have to, especially when it’s so easy to use one of your existing songs as a ringtone in about 30 seconds, once you get the hang of it and do it enough times. Here’s how.

1. First, find the song you want to set as a ringtone, and watching the playback timer, find the 30 seconds of the song you wish to use for the ringtone. i.e.: If a song is 3:38 in duration, maybe you only want from 0:23 – 0:53.

2. Left-click the song you want as a ringtone to select it. Right-click it, and choose ‘Get Info’.

3. On the ‘Options’ tab, put a checkmark in each box beside ’start time’ and ’stop time’, and enter those 30 seconds mentioned earlier, and click ‘ok’.

4. Right click the song again, and choose ‘create AAC version’. The new AAC version of the song will appear directly below the original song, and will be 0:30 long.

5. Right click the AAC version of the song, and left click ‘copy’. Right click and choose ‘paste’ in whichever folder on your computer you want to keep a copy of your ringtones.

6. Right click on the AAC song you just pasted into your ringtones folder, and left click ‘rename’. Change the extension to “.m4r”, and press enter to make the changes.

7. You will get a prompt confirming you want to change the file, click ‘yes.

8. Back in iTunes, Right click the original AAC version of the song you copy&pasted, and choose ‘delete’.

9. Right click the original song, and choose ‘Get Info’.

10. Go to the ‘options’ tab, and uncheck those two boxes beside ’start time’ and ’stop time’, or every time you play that song from now on, it’ll only play those 30 seconds. Obviously, you don’t want that. Then click ‘ok’.

11. Go back to your ringtones folder outside of iTunes, and double left-click that “.m4r” file. It will automatically open in iTunes and be shown as a new ringtone.

12. Now, all you have to do in sync your iPhone with your computer. To use the new song as a ringtone on your iPhone, under ’settings’, and ’sounds’, and ‘ringtone’, choose your new ringtone, so your iPhone will begin using it. (as shown below)

Monitor Your Monthly Bandwidth

A few months ago, it occured to me that I had been downloading quite a bit. Since I don’t watch cable TV very much, I get most of my entertainment content online, which means I’m using up more bandwidth. I live in Canada and my ISP is Shaw Cable, and with their Xtreme-I package, only offer 100GB a month. That’s tough for me to hit on my own, but with three other housemates, it’s easy, so having a tool to monitor my own usage gives me peace of mind.

I found a free tool called NetLimiter. It has everything I could possibly need and more. You can monitor your daily, monthly, and even yearly usage, in KB, MB, and GB units. and even monitors the real-time bandwidth of every application running.

There are paid verions of the program available, but the NetLimiter 2 Monitor, which is the full name, is completely free.

Configuration Mania replaces about:config

props again to Tekzilla…

For those who frequently access about:config via the Address Bar, there is now an add-on, Configuration Mania, that makes it even easier to manipulate those settings, especially for those who are uncomfortable with the geeky feel.

To get Configuration Mania, go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search?q=configuration+mania&cat=all

Now, click on ‘Add to Firefox’

Click ‘install now’ to install the Configuration Mania Firefox plug-in (add-on)

After Configuration Mania installs, it will ask you to restart Firefox for the new settings and change to take effect.

Firefo will inform you that it will try and restore your open tabs when it restarts. This has always worked for me, so I wouldn’t worry about it.

When Firefox restarts, you can access Configuration Mania via ‘Tools’ and ‘Configuration Mania’.

Configuration Mania will look like this:

Stop Firefox Download Manager from popping up

There are two ways to prevent the Firefox Download Manager from popping up.

First way:

props to Tekzilla for this tip.

1. In the Address Bar in Firefox, type “about:config”, without the quotes and no space before ‘config’

2. In the filter bar, type browser.download.manager.showwhenStarting

3. double click it, making sure the value turns from ‘true’ to ‘false’, and restart Firefox

Now, when you download a file, the download manager won’t pop up annoyingly. but remember to clear the download history, as that will still exist. To do so, click ‘Tools’, then ‘Downloads’, and ‘Clear’.

Second way:

1. Go to ‘Tools’, then ‘Options’.

2. On the ‘General’ tab, uncheck the box next to ’show the downloads window when downloading a file’, and click ‘ok’.

Speed Up Firefox via about:config

source: two videos from Tekzilla,

METHOD 1

1. 1. In the address bar, type “about:config”, and in the filter bar, type network.http to filter the list

2. 2. Double click “network.http.pipelining”, which changes the value from false to true.

3. 3. Double click “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to change it’s value to true

4. 4. Double click “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” and change the value to 30.

5. 5. Next, close the and restart the browser to have the changes take effect, the next time a page loads, you should see a noticeable increase in the speed at which it loads, because instead of loading each thing one step at a time, it loads everything at once.

METHOD2

1. 1. In the address bar, type “about:config”

2. 2. Right click anywhere and choose “new”, then “integer”

3. 3. Name the new integer “nglayout.initialpaint.delay”, press “ok” and set the value to “0”. This is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

4. 4. While it doesn’t load the page any faster, it lets you see what has been loaded sooner.