Tuesday, January 3, 2012
This Free Online Bookmark Organizer Uses Mind-Map Principles
Organizing your web bookmarks or favourites is always a tricky task. There are so many ways to do it. Every web browser has a built-in bookmark feature, of course, but none of them is particularly friendly. And if you store your favourites in your browser, they're not available to you if you're at a different computer.
There are lots of web-based bookmark organizers, for sure, but their layout is not always popular with everyone.
So it's good to see that someone's thought of a different way to produce an online bookmark manager. The system is called Mind It, and you can access it at http://www.mindit-bookmarking.com. All you need is a web browser, and the service is free to use. There's an optional browser plug-in available, which is recommended, but in my testing I found that it wasn't totally necessary.
Mind It uses mind-map techniques to organize your bookmarks in a graphical, logical format. Once you've signed up and created a link map, as it's called, you can start adding bookmarks or headings. As your link map expands you can drag items around the map to keep everything tidy. To create a new entry, or edit an existing one, just right-click it.
And because the service is online, you'll never lose your collection of favourites. Plus, it's accessible from wherever you are. Which is handy not just for your own personal use, but also if you're setting up demonstrations or seminars and you want to guide your audience through a collection of sites.
Mind It is still in beta, but this is definitely one to check out.
How to Fix a Windows XP System That Won't Start
Sooner or later, it seems to happen to all of us—you turn on the computer and it greets you with problems or maybe it won't turn on at all. An article at Microsoft (link here) gives some tips on what to do when this happens to a Windows XP system.
Here are the situations that are discussed in the article:
You log on by clicking your user accounts, but then you can't open any programsYour computer displays the Windows logo, but fails before you can log onYou see "Non-system disk or disk error," or a similar messageYour computer stops immediately after you turn it on or displays nothing on your monitorYour computer does not turn onYou need to perform a repair installation of Windows XPSome of the suggestions in the tips are simple things like check if you have a loose connector. But don't sneer. You might be surprised by how often the simple stuff works.
Related tip: How to Prepare for Boot or System Problems by Creating a Windows 7 Repair Disk
Get your own favorite tip published! Know a neat tech tip or trick? Then why not have it published here and receive full credit? Click here to tell us your tip.
This tips section is maintained by Vic Laurie. Vic runs several websites with Windows how-to's and tutorials, including a computer education website and a site for learning about the command line.
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News Flash: Get Empire Earth Gold Edition Free!
Head over to GOG.com and add Empire Earth to your cart to get a free copy of the game. Be sure to grab it before 10.59 GMT on the 14th of December.
To download the game you'll need to sign up at gog.com with a username, email, password, and for some reason, a birthday.
Empire Earth Gold Edition is a strategy/real-time/historical game.
Here's the description from the site:
"In case you aren’t familiar with Empire Earth, let’s give you the run down on it. Empire Earth: Gold Edition was the smash hit Real Time Strategy (RTS) game where you lead a civilization from the stone age into the space age and beyond, leading your people to victory while fighting a variety of rival civilizations. Gameplay is best described as a combination of the deliberation and planning of a turn-based civilization-building game with the action and adrenaline of classic RTS games. Empire Earth: Gold Edition also includes the expansion pack The Art of Conquest, and is widely recognised as a classic of the RTS genre. If you’re a fan of RTS games, or if you’d like to try one out, now is your best opportunity."
Empire Earth runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 (32 & 64 bit)
Have fun,
Rhiannon
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Finds of the Week (December 11, 2011)
Finds of the week is a variety of web sites that I've stumbled over recently that are fun, interesting, or useful.
The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011Sometimes there are no words. This is one of those times. (Thanks for the link Mr. G.)Most Interesting Facts ".....the most interesting facts around the world. Interesting facts about animals, technology, lifestyle, human, transportation and other things". The descriptions are brief and informative, perfect if you want to browse several topics. =)How To Back Up Firefox With MozBackup
MozBackup has been around a long time, and while it's fairly easy to use anyone new to the program can use this step by step article.
MozBackup will also back up Mozilla Thunderbird and PostBox. I like the Firefox add-on FEBE for backing up Firefox and MozBackup for Thunderbird and Postbox.Convert Webpages To Better Reading View With Readability
I've mentioned Readability before and I thought this would be good time to revisit it. Its description "...turns virtually any web page into a clean, comfortable reading view" is good but doesn't have the impact that seeing it in action has. That's where this article comes in - it's an excellent overview.
If you want to give Readability a try it works with IE, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Android, iPhone, and iPad. There are also bookmarklets if you don't want to install an add-on. You can create an account to access your articles from everywhere, or just use the bookmarklet that's installed for your browser or mobile. There are two versions of Readability, Free and Premium. You can compare them here. I've always used the free version.Sort Image Collection By Resolution Using Dimensions 2 Folders
If you need to sort photographs or images by resolution this free utility is a gem. It's saved me a lot of time and effort. The application is easy to use - this article outlines step by step how to use the program.
Have fun,
Rhiannon
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Finds of the Week
Finds of the week is a variety of web sites that I've stumbled over recently that are fun, interesting, or useful.
Bits, Bytes, and MegabytesIf you've ever wondered about the difference between them this article has a short and easy to read definition.31 Useful Google Blogs
Keep up to date with these blogs from Google - they cover a large part of the services Google offers. A few have changed addresses: the Official Google Checkout Blog is now the Google Commerce blog, the Google Social Web blog has moved to the Google Plus Platform Blog , and The Google Sites blog has moved to Google Apps. Some blogs aren't active anymore, those are Google Groups, Google Notebook, and Google Talk.A to Z Teacher Stuff
The site describes best:"...A to Z Teacher Stuff is a teacher-created site designed to help teachers find online resources more quickly and easily. Find lesson plans, thematic units, teacher tips, discussion forums for teachers, downloadable teaching materials & eBooks, printable worksheets and blacklines, emergent reader books, themes, and more." There are a lot of resources here.Wired.com
Wired.com and Wired Magazine aren't the same thing, though they both belong to the same corporation (Condé Nast). Wired.com is a daily technology news site - if you want to keep up with the latest tech news all in one place this is a good place to do it.
Wired.com has a lot of sections. I mean a lot. The Sections area contains 18 different topics. There are 17 blogs under the Blogs section, 15 categories in the Reviews section and sections on Video and How-To. There are a ton of RSS feeds within these sections. My favorite sections are the How-To's and the Science section, but the front page is a great place to get news without overload. =) 10 Websites With Fun Art Games For Kids
This is a terrific collection of fun sites - the article says the sites are for kids, but people of all ages will enjoy them as well. I'm rather fond of Picassohead, having been a regular visitor over the years. You'll need a Flash enabled browser for most of these sites.
Have fun,
Rhiannon
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