If you go to http://www.google.com/chrome, you can download one of my favorite web browsers:

Google Chrome Speed Tests - HD
I ran into an issue a couple weeks back and discovered that when you install Chrome from http://www.google.com/chrome, the program installs to your local profile. This means that if you have someone else using your computer on a separate account, the 2nd user might not see your Chrome installation.

Probably the largest influence I had growing up was watching (the now defunct) ZDTV/TechTV back when shows like The ScreenSavers, Call for Help, Silicon Spin, and Gamespot TV/Extended Play were on the air. I started watching around the time Leo Laporte and Kate Botello hosted The ScreenSavers, but I remember watching more shows with Leo Laporte & Patrick Norton. Eventually my cable provider dropped ZDTV shortly after it turned into TechTV.

These shows inspired me to persue a career in information technology. Everything from learning about HTML code to building my first custom PC, I owe to the crew over at ZDTV. There's still plenty of great tips/tricks/information on technology from these shows.

The hosts of the shows eventually moved on to other projects after ZDTV/TechTV got merged/canceled and are still out there today in the world of tech. The channel now exists as G4 but a good chunk of the crew work at Revision3 now.


I huge internet shout-out to the whole crew from ZDTV. I'd like to thank the following in particular for inspiring me the most: Roger Chang, Jessica Corbin, Yoshi DeHerrera, John C. Dvorak, Leo Laporte, Sarah Lane, Jim Louderback, Megan Morrone, Patrick Norton, Chris Prillo, Kevin Rose, Martin Sargent, Catherine Schwartz, Adam Sessler & Morgan Webb.


Leo Laporte has his own site called The TWiT Newscast network, operates a blog and has an archive of podcasts/radio shows @ TechGuyLabs.com:
http://twit.tv
http://techguylabs.com
http://leoville.com
http://www.amazon.com/Leo-Laporte/e/B001K8PZ3I/
http://twitter.com/leolaporte

Kate Botello operates a personal website, owns a theatre production company, a web design company, and runs a children's theater summer camp in Traverse City, Michigan:
http://www.katebotello.com
http://traversecitywebdesign.com/about

Patrick Norton currently hosts shows called HD Nation & Tekzilla on Revision3:
http://revision3.com/tekzilla
http://revision3.com/hdnation
http://www.twitter.com/patricknorton

The coolest nostalgia bomb that was dropped on me recently was when I re-discovered tons of old ZDTV clips online. You can check out a boatload of shows archived via these links or do a search online for more:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ZDTVMultimedia
http://www.livestream.com/desertbunker
http://www.youtube.com/user/zdtvfan

Bonus 1: Internet Archive of The ScreenSavers website:
http://discretionary.org/screensavers/index.php

Bonus 2: TechTV - How to build a website (hosted on archive.org)
http://www.archive.org/details/Daanbrg-TechTVHowToBuildAWebsite459

I always forget that I have a custom background for my Google homepage. The thing that gets me every time is that I'll go to Google then wait a second to type something in. All of a sudden I get this picture that fades in like a nightmare (that one on the left).

Here's where that picture is from:

Anyway, if you'd like to add your own custom background to your Google homepage, follow these instructions

1. Sign in to your Google Account in the top right corner of the Google homepage.

2. Click Change background image in the bottom left corner of the Google homepage.

3. Choose where to select your background image

4. Once you've chosen your image, click Select at the bottom of the window. It may take a moment before your new Google homepage background appears.

You can remove your background image at any time by clicking Remove background image in the bottom left corner of the homepage.

Source: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=180720

When you're using Remote Desktop, you can't use ctrl+alt+del to bring up the remote computer's task manager. Here's an easy solution: use ctrl+alt+end

Also, here's a video on the history of Ctrl+Alt+Del:

DownThemAll (or just dTa) is a powerful yet easy-to-use Mozilla Firefox extension that adds new advanced download capabilities to your browser.
DownThemAll lets you download all the links or images contained in a webpage and much more: you can refine your downloads by fully customizable criteria to get only what you really want.
DownThemAll is all you can desire from a download manager: it features an advanced accelerator that increases speed up to 400%, it allows you to pause and resume downloads at any time and, last but not least, it's fully integrated into your favorite browser!

http://www.downthemall.net

Download High Definition Videos off Youtube... and lot more!!

KeepHD is a sweet tool that lets you download HD videos off Youtube and other tube sites in to your video editing softare! Not only can you download from youtube HD copies of your movies and music, you can also download the mobile 3GP version for your mobile devices plus the standard MP4 and FLV format. Just enter your video URL, and KeepHD will automatically grab each version of the youtube video clip you want to download.

http://keephd.com

I found this nifty guide by "Th !e.FaLconO6" on building a nice computer for the right price. At version 0.8, it was last updated June 2nd, 2010.

2-18-2012 - UPDATE!
You can find an updated version of this guide here:
http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af150/The_FalconO6/CurrentLogicalPCBuyingGuide/Guide.png

More Stuff here too:
http://s1002.photobucket.com/home/The_FalconO6/index

Thanks Internet!

Not sure what programs you might need to update? Tried of having to look them up the old fashioned way? Try FileHippo Update Checker! It scans your computer for the programs you have installed and it will let you know what updates are available. The updates are displayed on a customized page for you and you can download your updates from FileHippo.

If you have a valid .edu email address and want to get Windows 7 for cheap then check out http://www.win741.com

Go to your start menu and select Run

I've been trying for a while to get OS X to run on my Dell Inspiron 1525. The following walk through I found on antyalias's wordpress blog helped me out immensely!

http://antyalias.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/hackintosh-10-5-7-running-on-dell-inspiron-1525/

There are a few additions/revisions I had to add to the guide above. Make sure to review all the steps before you actually start installing...

0. Very Important! Go and buy a copy of Apple OS X before you go through the rest of these steps. It's only fair to the guys over at Apple since you'll be running their software on your laptop ...or at least trying to run their software - haha!

1. Get a copy of iPC 10.5.6 and burn it to a DVD.

2. Download Dell_1525_Driver_Update_2009_05_27.zip and save it to a flash usb drive.
http://hotfile.com/dl/4015785/3a47b7d/Dell_1525_Driver_Update_2009_05_27.zip.html
Please email me if this link dies and I can upload it somewhere else for ya.

Update 1-16-2012
The above link is no longer active, go ahead and try this one instread:
http://www.mediafire.com/?dzbwo74g22vb1pn 

3. Download Mac OS X Update 10.5.7 on apple site and save it to a flash usb drive.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL826

4. Plug in a monitor to the VGA port and make sure the monitor is on during the install.

5. Boot from the iPC DVD and press F8, type -v. Lots of messy text will appear and you'll see code running. While the code is running, tap Fn+F8 so that the code shows up on the monitor instead of the laptop. When the install is ready to begin, the screen will go back to the laptop automatically. This took about 5 minutes for me so be patient!

6. Open Disk Utility and format your drive to Macintosh Extended Journal and name it Macintosh HD. Erase and continue.

7. View the option for Customize and select only these packages:

>Select iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Base System 6.3 GB

>iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Intel AMD SSE2 SSE3...
>>Drivers...
>>>Chipset Drivers...
>>>>Select Intel ICHx SATA Drivers 132 KB

>>>USB Drivers...
>>>>Select Patched USB Drivers 2.9 MB

>>>Power Management...
>>>>Select Clamshell Display Support 36.0 KB

>>Fixes and Patches...
>>>PS/s Device Support...
>>>>Select PS/2 Keyboard Fix 1.4 MB

>>>DSDT Patches...
>>>>Select Patch DSDT 628 KB

>>>AppleSMBIOS Patch...
>>>>Select AppleSMBIOS-27 Rev6 MacBook 52.0 KB

>>Applications...
>>>Select Kext Helper b7 3.8 MB

8. Install and Restart. Then remove the iPC DVD

9. Boot from the hard drive. Your screen will go blank after apple logo dissappears. Wait a minute... really, wait 60 seconds. Make it 75-80 seconds to be sure.

10. Perform "The Sleep Trick"...
Unplug your power cable. Close the lid screen. Wait until hard drive light idles (this means no fast blinking). Then open the lid screen again. Your screen desktop should appear. Don't waste your time, setup your information (SEE !!NOTE!!).

!!NOTE!!: If this does not work for you (it didn't for me!) you will be asked to restart. Go ahead and do restart. THIS TIME when the laptop is booting, hit F8 to get the boot options... then tap Fn+F8. This will swap the text on your laptop to the monitor. Now you can continue normally with the boot. Repeat the steps above for "The Sleep Trick" and you should be able to get to the desktop.

11. Drag/copy the dell drivers and 10.5.7 updates from your flash usb drive to the desktop.
A. Open the sleep trick folder & drag dsdt.aml to Macintosh HD. this will fix the blank display on your GMA X3100 graphics card. Now you won't have to use the sleep trick anymore (well, I still have to so this is something I still need to fix on my computer).
B. Install chameleon for fake boot interface. Restart.

12. Install the 10.5.7 updates package that's on your desktop. Open the disk utility and repair permissions. Restart.

13. Install other kext and package inside dell driver pack.
* Install Wifi broadcom package
* Install Power Management
* For audio. Drag 1525_Codec to AppleHDAPatcher_v1.16
* Install Samba if you want to share files with other windows computers on your network.
* Install SD Card Reader using kext helper.
* Open the disk utility. Repair disk permissions. Restart.

That's it! Enjoy your hackintosh!

Depending on your setup, you may have to go through some of the same extra steps I had to go through. It helped me to have an extra monitor to get through the sleep trick. For some reason I just couldn't get the video to show back up on my laptop. Also, I forgot to run the disk permissions repair at one point and so I had to boot to the install DVD, run the repair, and then try booting again. Kind of a pain but worst comes to worst and you can start over from the beginning.

The install disc I used was iPC 10.5.6 and I was able to successfully upgrade to 10.5.7 but my Ethernet connection didn't work anymore. Also, I have yet to find any compatible drivers for my Intel wireless card. I've been wanting to get a compatible card but I don't really need it i guess :) So far things are running pretty smoothly on about 3 GB of RAM. One of my main goals was to get GarageBand to work on my Dell... mission accomplished!

Here are some more pages I found useful in my OSX86 quest:
http://tgrounds.blogspot.com/2009/04/leopard-os-x-1056-on-your-pc.html
http://mintywhite.com/vista/triplequadboot-pc-windows-ubuntu-mac-osx/
http://www.amazon.com/Mac-OS-Version-10-5-6-Leopard/dp/B000FK88JK
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MB966Z-A-iLife-09/dp/B0014X5XEK
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ipc+10.5.6+download

There is no excuse for it. No form of technologic wizardry will bring it back. Your hard drive is dead and you neglected to make any backup of your files whatsoever. Years of family pictures and important documents, gone. Your personal collection of hilarious cat pictures, all gone. Sure, you could send in your hard drive to a restoration service (that could cost you a pretty large amount of cash), but couldn't this tragedy have been avoided?!?! Keep the following quote in mind when you think about your hard drive:

So what can you do next time you're working on an important project??? BACK IT UP!!! In fact, you should back up all your "mission critical" files on a regular basis if they're so important.

You might be asking yourself, "What am I supposed to do? I don't have a USB drive/external hard drive/DVD burner, how am I gonna do this?" Well, if you have an email account @hotmail.com and an active internet connection then you've already taken a step in the right direction!

Windows Live! SkyDrive - http://skydrive.live.com
An online storage tool where you can store up to 25GB of files for FREE! Even though I have a Gmail account, I was able to sign up for Windows Live! without having to sign up for a @hotmail.com or @live.com email account. Go to https://signup.live.com and use your existing email account to set up your live account. You can access your SkyDrive account by going to http://skydrive.live.com were you can add folders and start uploading files.

If you're running Windows and you've signed up with an account, you can use a program called

I was recommended this brand of wireless card about a year ago. Compatible with Windows/Linux/UNIX, this is the type of card you would use for rigorous wifi analyzing or wardriving.

Ubiquiti Wireless Card SR71C 802.11N/G/B/A w/ 2 Antenna Jacks & Clip-on Antennas
http://www.data-alliance.net/-strse-137/Ubiquiti-SR71C-SR71-dsh-C-MIMO/Detail.bok

Ubiquiti SR71X Wireless-N Card for Express Card Slot. Has Antenna Jack. 802.11N/G/B/A
http://www.data-alliance.net/-strse-104/Ubiquiti-SR71X-300mW-802.11N/Detail.bok

You can find more products on their website (http://www.data-alliance.net). They also sell these on eBay. Just search Ubiquiti.

I had an issue where a client's antivirus program (Symantec EndPoint) was outdated and there was no way to update the virus definitions from the program. The LiveUpdate button was disabled when the program was installed.

For managed Symantec EndPoint Clients, open regedit and navigate to the following entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection\LiveUpdate\AllowManualLiveUpdate

The value must be 1 to enable the LiveUpdate button on Clients side.

Linux. There are so many different flavors out there! Which one is right for you?

zegeniestudios.net's Linux Distrobution Chooser was very helpful for me when I was looking to step into the world of Linux. It's a very easy to follow quiz-type questionnaire that will point you in the right direction if you're looking to find the right one for you:

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

Check it out!

Bandwidth and download speeds can be tricky to understand. If you don't know the math behind it, you could end up being seriously let down once you commit to a service plan. Every service plan will advertise their speed but keep in mind it is the maximum speed, not what you'll be getting all the time. Adverse weather conditions, distance from your provider, other people on your network, or restrictions imposed by your provider all contribute to this.

To start off, here are a couple of equations to solve the difference between bits (advertised speed) and bytes (what you're probably use to seeing when downloading):

• If you sign up for a 768kbps plan, your max download speed will be around 96 KB/sec

• If you sign up for a 1.5mbps plan (that's 1500 kbps), your max download speed will be around 187.5 KB/sec

• If you sign up for a 5mbps plan (that's 5000 kbps), your max download speed will be around 625 KB/sec
  

That's it.

Below you will find more information on the math behind all of this. It's a lot of technical jargon but if you want to know why those equations work you should read on...



...you have been warned!









Here's a breakdown on sizes:

Most people know bandwidth speed by what shows up when they download a file. You'll typically see something like "X" KB/sec for your file download speed.


Let's say you're browsing around for a new internet service provider. They advertise a two plans. Their "Budget Plan" has with a maximum download speed of 768kbps. Their "Choice Plan" has a maximum download speed of 1.5Mbps.


At first glance, your 768kbps plan might look amazing, but keep in mind that it will not let you download at 768 KB/sec. Why? It all comes down to how computers handle numbers and information.

Computers work in a language called binary. It's the most basic form of computer language. In binary, a "bit" is either a 1 or a 0. A "byte" is 8 bits. For example: A string of ones and zeroes (bits) like 10101101 is called a byte. Notice that there are 8 bits in that byte.

Confused?

There are a couple of equations to figure all this out:

Ok, so you know what YouTube.com is... but have you ever heard of kissyoutube.com?

Let's say you want to use a video clip for a presentation you'd like to have a copy to download on your computer. Then this is the site for you!

Once you find the video you'd like to save, add kiss in front of the URL...

You'll need to have Java installed in order to use the download feature.

http://www.java.com/getjava

I usually recommend downloading the "HQ" version. The file will be in .mp4 format so you'll need a video player like (1) Quicktime or (2) VLC Media Player.

(1) http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download

(2) http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Do you like Do-it-Yourself projects? Ever wanted to know how to make a laptop case out of old floppy disks? How about finding out how to convert your old xbox controller to use it on your computer? You can find these useful guides (and many more) at www.instructables.com

Here's a particularly good one about all the things you can do with an old computer:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Things_to_do_with_a_old_computer/

And here's another one on how to run composite video and network data through an Ethernet cable:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_Run_Composite_Video_Through_an_Ethernet_Jac/

Make sure to browse though your categories of interest, you're sure to find something worth working on!

CCleaner is a nice tool to clean up old temp files and clear out registry errors. When running this program, make sure you know what you're checking to get rid of. Here's a nice walk through guide on how to use the program (Click here!).

http://www.ccleaner.com

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

There are other nice FREE cleaning programs out there. I also recommend checking out (1) Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware or (2) Spybot Search & Destroy and (3) AVG free

(1) http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

(2) http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

(3) http://free.avg.com

Found this useful article that explains Outlook's Auto-Complete feature:

http://www.outlookpower.com/issues/issue200506/00001584001.html

"If the users are losing addresses of people they recently replied to, it's because Outlook crashes or does not close properly and the changes aren't written to the NK2 file. The existing *.NK2 shouldn't be replaced by a clean *.NK2 if this happens, but new addresses you've sent mail to, or replied to won't be saved to the file. Less used addresses are replaced by new addresses when the NK2 contains 1000 addresses, but if something is corrupt, Outlook replaces the current NK2 with a new, clean one. We don't know what causes it to become corrupt, but we suspect a large number of addresses in the cache is part of the problem."

I had this program a while back that would read text from my computer. I thought it was really cool but up until about 10 minutes ago... I forgot what that program was called!

"Sayz Me is a free text-to-speech reader for Windows. Text is typed in or copied from the clipboard and then read aloud. Words are highlighted as they are spoken. Select voice, adjust reading speed, voice pitch, font, font size and color. Hides in the system tray. Very simple and easy to use. Freeware. BSD style license."

Requirements

Sayz Me has been tested on Windows 98, 2000 and XP.

Please ensure that the Microsoft Speech API 4.0 and the Microsoft synthetic voices are installed.

NOTE: the installation order is important!

Be sure to install "spchapi.exe" first, followed by "msttsl.exe". These files should only need to be installed for Windows 98 and XP. They are already included in the default setup for Windows 2000.

More information about the myriad of Speech setups can be found at the Microsoft Speech website.

Source: http://www.datafurnace.net.au/sayzme/html/documentation.html

So I have some old movies I don't watch anymore, some old CDs I've grown tired of, and a pile of books that I've read and I'm pretty sure I won't read again. What am I going to do with all of this "junk"? How about taking it down to Bookmans and getting some trade-in credit? That way I can get a copy of Scorpius by John Gardner (which I still don't have by the way). Or I can browse the DVD section and get that copy of Unbreakable to replace the one that the cats scratched up. Doesn't really matter if you're not looking for something in particular. I know that when I go to Bookmans, I usually end up finding something special.

Not many people know that if you're out here in AZ and you're either a student or a teacher, you can get some serious discounts at Bookmans. This is straight from their Educators Program page:

"As an educator, we know you're spending your own money on class materials. So spend some on yourself, and take 20% off all your purchases. Not just classroom material, everything. And by the way, thanks."

If you're a kid that's 14 and under, you can join their Kids Club and get 10% of anything in the store. Also, if you're into writing book reports, you can join their Reading Program "Read 10 Books, Get A Free Book!" Details are on their website.

http://www.bookmans.com

This year's Fine Arts Festival @Orme was awesome! We had several artists running classroom workshops for the students. You can checkout the school's event flyer on the event here. I was involved with assisting Kevn Lambson who teaches the Computer Art class at Orme during Fine Arts Festival Week. Kids used several programs including NewTek Lightwave 3D, Pixologic Zbrush, Corel Painter, and Adobe Photoshop.

You can check out Kevn Lambson's website at http://www.idearstudios.com

Here are a few useful links to find the demo versions of the programs listed above:

Lightwave 3D
http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/lwtrial.php

Zbrush
http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/trial/

Corel Painter
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Content/1152796555406

Adobe Photoshop (and other Adobe products)
http://www.adobe.com/downloads/

Also, Kevn reccomended some open-source (free) programs out there you can take advantage of if you're working in Linux or don't like the price tags on the above programs:

Unreal Development Kit
UDK is Unreal Engine 3 – the complete professional development framework. All the tools you need to create great games, advanced visualizations and detailed 3D simulations. The best tools in the industry are in your hands.
http://www.udk.com/

Blender 3D
Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.
http://www.Blender3D.org

The Gimp
GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.
http://www.Gimp.org

InkScape
An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.
http://www.inkscape.org

We were having a problem with printing to our color Xerox machine in the Faculty Room. A 7MB PDF file would expand to over 300MB in the queue and literally take f-o-r-e-v-e-r to print. Not sure what was the problem at first but there were alot of factors to take into consideration. I found an article on http://www.petri.co.il/forums that explained a similar situation someone else had.

Here's the link to the post:
http://www.petri.co.il/forums/showthread.php?t=23752

And here's what Moderator Sorinso had to say...
"There is a big difference between PCL and PS drivers... Especially PCL6, that has some advanced capabilities that might be problem-makers when printing PostScript files. I don't recall the whole theory, and my printers' guru is out of reach at the moment, so cannot give you the whole picture.
Anyway, a PDF file is a PostScript file, that you are printing with a non-PostScript driver.
I would suggest two things:
1) in the printer's Properties, on the Advanced page, uncheck the Enable Advanced Printing Features box (see the attached screenshot).
2) install the PS driver for the same printer on the server and map it to the users.

Test these two and see which of them is better.
Good luck and let us know the outcome.

Added: also, see these articles from Adobe's site:
- http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/view...ernalId=333091
- http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/view...ernalId=323299"

It turned out we had that printer installed using the PCL6 driver rather than the PS driver. The option to change the driver was grayed out so I had to add the printer locally via it's IP address. Followed the instructions in the forum post and sure enough it printed great!

With the PCL6 driver, it took about an hour to get that job to go through. Now with the PS driver installed it took only about 5 minutes! And the file only expanded to about 120MB instead of 300MB.

A couple of weeks ago I witnessed the mass hysteria caused by an innocent email from a concerned person. Not like the world was coming to an end or anything. It was a forwarded message and it went something like this...

"The telemarketers are out to get you and there's nothing you can do about it. Your cell phone number is going to be released to the public unless you call this number and get your number put on the do-not-call list. It'll only be valid for 5 years once you register your number(s). Send this to all your friends NOW!"

Be advised that this Hoax Email has been debunked by Snopes.com Please read this article:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/cell411.asp

You can also visit https://donotcall.gov for more details on the real Do Not Call Registry set up by the Federal Trade Commission. Here are some more details from their site:

MORE INFORMATION

• The National Do Not Call Registry is managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency. Click here to view more information from the FTC on the National Do Not Call Registry and how to avoid telemarketing fraud.
  
  
• Information for Consumers. Click here if you would like more information on how to register, what registration means for you, what calls are covered and more.
  
  
• Information for Businesses. Click here for answers to some common questions from telemarketers and sellers.
  
  
• Information for the Media. Click here for media materials related to the National Do Not Call Registry.

Picture Source:
http://mobilesyrup.com

I found an awesome online file conversion website called Zamzar. You can upload files or send youtube links to their site and have them converted to other formats. Enter your email and they’ll send you a link to download your converted file.

This is a great service for teachers who receive papers from students that save their documents in programs like Microsoft Works (.wps) or Office 2007 (.docx) format. Also great for those who like to show youtube videos in the classroom but would rather download the videos for future use instead of reloading a page and waiting for their video to load.

http://www.zamzar.com

This goes out to all of you who got a new computer back in December. You know that, shiny new laptop that has a copy of Office 2007 installed on it. If you didn't end up getting a license for that, it means your 60-day trial is either coming to an end or it has already expired. Good news for you, you can buy a license over at your local computer store or online at a site like Newegg.com - I highly recommend that you do not purchase a license unless it's from a well established retailer. You could get into trouble if you think you're getting a good deal by purchasing Office online through an auction site.

For those of you that either don't have the money for that yet or need a nice office suite to replace your expired Office suite, look no further!

OpenOffice is a nice office suite that'll get you where you need to go. Got a paper to write that's due but you can't use Office because your trial expired? Go to http://www.openoffice.org and download their FREE office suite that runs using Java. It's cross platform so for all you Linux users out there (I know you're out there) can take advantage of this too. 150MB download so be advised if you're on a slow connection, it might take a while to download.


And hey, are you borrowing a friend's computer and they don't want you installing anything on it? There's always OpenOffice Portable. You can get a copy and install it to a USB drive. Works like a charm! http://portableapps.com/apps/office/openoffice_portable
Note: Like the site says "99MB Download - 248MB installed" I'd advise installing to a least a 512MB USB drive so you can also have some space for your documents/presentations/spreadsheets if need be.

If you're anything like me, you don't like having programs you don't use start up when you open other programs. If I wanted to open it, I would open it myself or have it start up when my computer boots up. I had a tech request recently that dealt with Messenger starting up when Outlook 2002 starts. Here's how to disable that:

Open Outlook and select Tools from the menu bar
Under Tools, select Options
Select the tab named Other
Towards the bottom you'll see a section named Messenger
Uncheck the box next to "Enable Instant Messaging in Microsoft Outlook"
Click Apply
Restart Outlook

Now that little messenger icon next to your clock shouldn't pop up again when you open Outlook 2002