Sunday, September 27, 2009
It Starts With Motherboards
The Moody Blues sang of great computers. Called it magnificent. The music soared..... and now so does the tech. I can afford an ASUS P5Q Premium motherboard. Not the hottest, sharpest razor on the block, but it was that and not so long ago. Now it's affordable, half off.
And it's mine. Or will be, once FedEx comes by tomorrow.
Monday, October 27, 2008
I built a 'puter! (long, full story)
http://geeks.pirillo.com/group/systembuilders/forum/topic/show?id=2300301%3ATopic%3A856540
Monday, February 19, 2007
Speed Search with Simple IE Hack
So, you're working away with half a dozen browser windows open and the curiosity bug bites you. Just how many episodes did Raymond Burr play Perry Mason? Now you know you can go to www.imdb.com, wait for the page to load and type in Perry Mason or Raymond Burr in the website searchbar as soon as you spot it. There is a quicker way.
Using the free TweakUIXP, currently available at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx or one of the other GUI registry editors,like X-Setup, under Internet Explorer, Search, add the following italicized aliases for instant fun in your Address bar. Typing the alias in the Address bar followed by a space and your search query word or phrase and hitting the Enter key will take you to the appropriate website and present you with your results without waiting for the site's homepage to load. So, you could just type "imdb raymond burr" in the Address bar and get right to it. Scrolling down we find that Raymond was in 271 episodes of the original series from 1957-1966. Whew! That was vital, curiosity bug swatted.
You can add your own aliases via TweakUIXP for any website with a Search box! Highlight and copy the search string from the address bar for any search you've made on that website. Replace your search word or phrase with %s and give it an easy to remember alias.
For example: At www.snapfiles.com, use their search box to search for "DVD Burn" The address bar changes to:
http://www.snapfiles.com/downloadfind.php?action=s&st=DVD+Burn
Highlight the contents of the address bar and Copy the string to the clipboard. In TweakUIXP, under Internet Explorer, Search, select the Create radio button and type in "snap" (no quotes). Paste the website's search string into the URL box, and replace DVD+Burn with %s, thus:
http://www.snapfiles.com/downloadfind.php?action=s&st=%s
Hit OK to exit from TweakUIXP.
Now, from any visible Address bar, (I keep one as part of my double line taskbar at the bottom of the screen, an advantage of 24 inch CRT goodness), you can type "snap media player" for instance, without quotes, and get the results you're looking for instantly.
Do you find yourself visiting websites with long URL names? Of course, you can mouse your way through the Favorites menu or organize these frequently visited sites in the Links toolbar (see previous article [plug mode on!] at: http://myotherhead.blogspot.com/2006/07/missing-linksfree-custom-start-menu.html). Why not alias 'em? There is one additional trick to make this work though. IE wants to be helpful and will use the alias as a search string or just try adding http:// to it. When you type the alias, you must add a space and any character at all. My own blog at http://myotherhead.blogspot.com/ is aliased to "head". I just type "head x" to go there quickly. To search on the blog "findhead" is aliased to:
http://myotherhead.blogspot.com/search?q=%s.
BONUS TIPS:Don't forget, type in the meat of a URL or website address, like "cnn" and hit Crtl-Enter to add the http://www/. and .com. Also, holding the Shift key when clicking on a web link will open the link in a new window, except when the link is javascript. (That will open a new window on its own, just check the status bar at the bottom of the browser window to see if the actual URL says java anything.)
My Favorite URL aliases:
pix or image find images on the web
http://images.google.com/images?q=%s
amazon search amazon
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=br_ss_hs/002-6940686-1537663?field-keywords=%s&platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dblended
ask ask.com search engine
http://www.ask.com/web?q=%s&qsrc=0&o=0&l=dir
def define words
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:%s
froogle find bargains on the web
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=%s&btnG=Search+Froogle
g google anything
http://www.google.com/search?q=%s
imdb search Internet Movie Database for popstars or movie titles, etc.
http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=%s
ms microsoft MSN search
http://search.microsoft.com/search/results.aspx?View=en-us&qu=%s
mskb Microsoft Knowlege Base
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=%s
random Random Wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Randompage
slang Definition of any slang words
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=%s
tor Find available bittorrent file downloads
http://www.fulltorrent.net/search.php?q=%s
wiki Find wikipedia article on specific subject
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%s&fulltext=Search
weather Weather report for any ZIP code (must follow alias with ZIP code!)
http://weather.gov/%s
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Jim's Quote of the Day:
""'My country right or wrong' is like saying, 'My mother drunk or sober.'" - G. K. Chesterton
from www.survivalblog.com
Monday, October 16, 2006
Big Head Press
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1830/2138/320/lns_tpb-tgn_cover.jpg)
THE PROBABILITY BROACH (Graphic Novel Edition) is online at http://www.bigheadpress.com/tpbtgn?page=0 . Don't miss this barnburner of a novel. It's got everything, pretty girls, gunfights, crooked bureaucrats and heroic heroes. Serialized until all pages are online, with new pages every Wednesday. Whyare you still here, click the link and go read it!
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Grazr makes OPML play nice
"Filed under: Text, Utilities, Web services
Marshall Kirkpatrick of TechCrunch notifies us of Grazr, a quick tool to browse your OPML files, no programming knowledge needed. I guess you could think of Grazr as a hierarchical exploded tree-menu explorer-type interface on some kind of weird custard that makes you say things like "dandy." For an example, check it out over at TechCrunch. Grazr, a sort of OPML browser makes RSS feeds pop and even plays video (like YouTube) and other media right in the browser. I love the slippery
Monday, September 25, 2006
Facts to Ponder
Facts to Ponder
(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is
700,000.
(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians
per year are
120,000.
(C) Accidental deaths per physician
is
0.171.
Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of
Health Human Services.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Now think about this:
Guns:
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S.
is
80,000,000.
(Yes, that's 80 million..)
(B) The number of accidental gun deaths
per year, all age groups,
is
1,500.
(C) The number of accidental deaths
per gun owner
is
.000188.
Statistics courtesy of FBI
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
So, statistically, doctors are approximately
9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Remember, "Guns don't kill people, doctors do."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN,
BUT
ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Please alert your friends
to this
alarming threat.
We must ban doctors
before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>
Out of concern for the public at large,
I withheld the statistics on
lawyers
for fear the shock would cause
people to panic and seek medical attention