Think Microsoft Paint Sucks? Wait Till You See This

I used to think that Microsoft Paint was just a bare-bones basic image editing software that couldn’t really serve much use — clunky and under-featured. Until I saw this video. Then I thought maybe the problem lay with me

Just look at how this guy does it — it’s AMAZING. He/she completely reproduces the Mona Lisa, and in under 3 hours!

Ms Paint: Painting Mona Lisa - video powered by Metacafe

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Windows XP PHP Bug / Easter Egg?

I just stumbled upon this accidentally! I realised that contact us pages are more exposed to spam bots and whatnot when you actually name the contact us page as contact.php or something similar. So I tried naming the file con.php. Works great on the server, but something interesting happened on my Windows desktop.

Apparently con.php cannot be created, copied or moved on to a Windows desktop for some reason. I’ve tried this on two different computers, both running Windows XP, and I got the same result.

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I want to change my Treo 650 to something like the Samsung i600 (Blackjack)

I want to change my Palm Treo 650.

Don’t get me wrong - it’s a great phone, an excellent phone in fact! But these days it’s becoming too much of a giant in the land of the slimmies. Plus, it doesn’t have Wi-Fi, which is quite a big drawback since I can get a free wireless connection pretty much anywhere these days.

I love the keyboard though - I type amazingly fast compared to my friends who are using the normal numeric keypads. And this is really important to me because I have so many thoughts and ideas and things that I need to jot down or work on that a physical keyboard is a MUST.

That’s why phones like the Samsung i600 (Blackjack) drew my attention. These phones have everything I need - the keyboard, wifi, slim form factor…

Everything save for one fatal flaw….no touchscreen.

What a bummer. I know people are saying that the scrollwheel can almost replace the touchscreen, but I think it just doesn’t. With text operations like copy-and-paste, there’s really nothing that beats a touchscreen. So I guess it’s going to be more waiting for a Samsung i600 phone with touchscreen.

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Clearing your web browser’s cache (IE, Firefox, Safari)

Some browsers automatically cache a webpage that you visit by default, and serve that cached webpage the next time you visit. That’s a problem especially if the page is constantly updated, because your cached version will be showing you outdated information. So sometimes, you’ll find yourself needing to clear your browser’s cache. Here’s how to do it for the various browsers out there:

Firefox 1.5

1. PC: Go to the Tools menu and select Options
   Mac: Go to the Firefox menu and select Preferences
2. Click on the Privacy icon
3. Click on the Cache tab
4. Click on Clear Cache Now
5. PC: Click OK
   Mac: Click on the red dot in the upper left corner of the window

Firefox 2.0

1. PC: Go to the Tools menu and select Options
   Mac: Go to the Firefox menu and select Preferences
2. Click on Advanced icon
3. Click on the Network tab
4. Click on Clear Now
5. PC: Click OK
   Mac: Click on the red dot in the upper left corner of the window

Internet Explorer 6
(Note: CTRL-F5, is a shortcut for ‘refresh’ and ‘clear cache’) 

1. Go to the Tools menu and click on Internet Options.
2. Ciick on Delete Files…
3. Check the box for "Delete all offline content", then click OK
4. Click OK  OR

Internet Explorer 7
(Note: CTRL-F5, is a shortcut for ‘refresh’ and ‘clear cache’) 

1. Go to the Tools menu and click on Internet Options
2. Click on Delete
3. Click on Delete files
4. Click Close, then OK

Safari

Go to the Safari menu and select Empty Cache…

Netscape 7.1

1. PC: Go to the Edit menu and select Preferences
   Mac: Go to the Netscape menu and select Preferences
2. On the left side, click on the triangle next to Advanced
3. Click on Cache
4. On the right side, click on Clear Cache
5. Click Close

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Roboform Rocks - The Best Password Web Form Filler Software

Roboform’s got to be one of the most frequently used software on my system. I love it because it saves me soooo much time! I discovered Roboform accidentally after seeing my friend using it. And after giving it a shot myself, I’ve even upgraded to the Pro version!

But why is it so useful? Because what used to be so stressful and take loads of work and effort now becomes effortlessly! Roboform helps me to fill up any forms that I come across instantly with my data — so registrations for any new sites is so simple and quick!

Have you ever come across those lengthy registration forms and thought to yourself — “not again!”? Well, Roboform fills in forms with just one click!

Roboform’s also a great way to protect yourself from keyloggers, especially if you’re more susceptible to them. How it does this is simple — keyloggers log your keystrokes right? But Roboform allows you to login to website with just one click of your mouse button, so there AREN’T any keystrokes to log.

With its password management features, Roboform also allows me to store all my usernames and passwords in one handy place — so I just need to remember one master password to access all of my other different passwords. Also, whenever I come across a login box, Roboform actually knows the different profiles to that site — so I can login to both my Hotmail accounts with Roboform by choosing the correct account that I want from the handy list that Roboform gives!

I have so many usernames and passwords, and sometimes some places even have an account number instead. I would have gone crazy already if it weren’t for Roboform.

And don’t even think about the inbuilt password managers in your browsers. They can’t compare to Roboform in terms of ease-of-use, convenience, security and ease-of-backup!

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Synchronise 2 Laptop and Desktop with Unison Free Synchronization Software

I have a laptop and a desktop, and one of the problems that I faced was to get my files synchronized. I work on my desktop while I’m at home, and on the go, I rely on my laptop. However, I need my files to be the same on both laptop and desktop.

In the past I used to do a manual sync with rsync, but now I’ve just discovered Unison and it solves the pain of synchronization, because unlike rsync, Unison works both ways. With Unison, I can set it so that any files that I change on my laptop will get synchronized with my desktop, and vice versa.

I don’t use this feature, but Unison has versions for the Linux and Mac platforms as well, and allows you to synchronize with different OS-es. So if you’re using a Mac desktop and have a windows laptop, and work with Linux at your workplace — no problems!

The great thing about Unison that it can work over SSH too, so you don’t have to be physically near your other computer — you can be lounging at Starbucks with your laptop, and synchronise your files over the public Wi-Fi connection.

And just in case you might have different synchronization needs from time to time, don’t worry, because Unison also has support for profiles. These syn allow you to create configuration files that can set preferences on different directories and files. Comprehensive documentation on profiles is available on the Web site.

All in all, Unison can be extremely useful and quite powerful. It doesn’t take the blind-sync approach by default, but allows you to determine what files to sync, if any, and in what direction. Using profiles, you can largely automate things to suit your situation.

Click here for the official Unison website.

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Why Backing Up Your Information and Data is so Important

I just talked to a friend and found out that he survived a HDD crash. Luckily he got his data back, but we should always backup, especially since information/data is so critical to us. You don’t think so? Imagine if you lost all your photographs, all your contacts, all your documents, etc — that’s how important backing up your information/data is.

Here are 3 simple ways of backup, all of which can be bought from any computer store:

1. External HDD (Most common)

Pros: cheapest option, portable
Cons: Need to be committed to perform regular backups since it’s a manual process

2. Network Attached Storage (NAS)

Pros: Quite expensive (about USD $200)
Cons: Not portable, requires a power source

This one is probably the best, especially if you do synchronisation regularly. Can be as regularly as hourly backups.

3. Cheap Computer (Alternative to NAS)

On top of as a network backup, you can use it for simple tasks like web surfing or word processing, or as a server, etc. But power usage is higher than a NAS and the wear-and-tear is higher.

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