Unable to create BootCamp partition with Snow Leopard

Recently I was trying to install Windows on my Mac to run SolidWorks (yes, it's Windows Only). However, for some reason, Snow Leopard's bootcamp assistant refused to create a partition for me. It kept saying:

The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved.

Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again.

I had created a Bootcamp partition once before with Leopard so I was puzzled when something Mac wasn't working! (Okay, no, Apple's computers are just as fallible as other computers). And there was no was I was going to go through formating the hard drive again, installing Windows would take long enough!

However, after trying several different things I was finally able to get Snow Leopard to partition the hard drive so that I could get Windows 7 to work. I'm not sure what worked, but I'm pretty sure that others are likely to have similar problems, which is why I took the time to write this post.

Step 1: Verify and Repair thy hard drive

First I put in my Snow Leopard DVD (this should also work for Tiger and Leopard) and pressed C on my Mac after restarting the computer to boot from my Snow Leopard DVD. After choosing English as my language:

• I clicked Utitilities in the menubar
  
• Clicked Disk Utility
• Selected my hard drive (Macintosh HD) in the drives list on the left hand side
• Clicked on the First Aid tab and clicked Verify Disk
• After it verified my disk I clicked Repair Disk

Disk utility then took the time to do some stuff and told me that it repaired some corrupt volume headers. And it also told me that the file count was wrong, and it repaired that as well. Then I restarted my comptuer normally into OS X, and tried BootCamp assistant again. Your quest to seek a Windows partition might here, if a mere repair disk was necessary. If not continue reading...

Step 2: Behold the power of fsck!

So after restarting into OS X, BootCamp assistant still didn't want to partition my hard drive so I tried fsck (a command-line utility to repair disks) to repair my disk drive which ultimately did the job!

If you want to read more about fsck and how to use it, you can try Apple's help page or just follow my (foot)steps. Here's what I did:

1. Restart the computer, and while it's restarting (before you get the Apple logo boot screen!) hold down "Command (or the Apple Key) and S" together to start up your computer in "single user mode"
2. Don't worry about the black text, you're computer is still ok
3. When OS X gives you a cursor and asks you what to do next, type in:
   

   /sbin/fsck -fy

4. Press enter
   
5. OS X will do its thing and tell you after it's done
6. Type in
   

   reboot

7. Press enter
   
8. Your computer will restart into OS X the normal way

Now try BootCamp again. This time BootCamp assistant should work, or at least it did for me! After looking around on a couple of forums, it seems that using a professional "disk defrag" tool for a Mac (yeah, defrag a mac!) seemed to have worked for a few people. But I personally like the free options ;).

Happy camping!

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Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook error

Although I'm not a big fan of e-mail clients, I did start using outlook recently because I could use it to sync calendar items with my phone (through Sony Ericsson's Sync Tool and sync to Google Calendar Online). However, it turns out that one fine day, Outlook refuses to open.

Here's an exact version of the error (Copied by pressing Control + Insert keys) I recieved when I tried to open Outlook:
---------------------------
Microsoft Office Outlook
---------------------------
Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. Errors have been detected in the file C:\Users\Rishi\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst. Quit Outlook and all mail-enabled applications, and then use the Inbox repair tool (Scanpst.exe) to diagnose and repair errors in the file. For more information about the Inbox repair tool, see Help.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

Turns out that the .PST file itself was corrupt, so Outlook had problems opening it. What I did to solve it was to close outlook, and simply delete the file. When outlook started up again, it seemed to work properly.  Of course, I did have to setup everything again, so I'd recommend deleting the PST file only if you don't mind doing this. Also, you'll probably loose all of your email address autofill data, so deleting the file is not always recommended.

Some other alternatives to this may be to use the Scanpst.exe tool, and see if that can help solve the problem.

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Adding a deskbar to Ubuntu 9.10's panel to search files and other things

Interestingly enough, my trusty deskbar applet seems to have gone missing in this latest flavour of Ubuntu 9.10 (aka Karmic Koala). Usually, you would be able to right click on the main panel (The bar on the top of the screen that has Application, Places and Systems and so on) and add the panel called "Deskbar" to your computer.

Why deskbar you ask? Because deskbar is to ubuntu as spotlight (or Windows Start menu search) is to Mac OS X (or Windows 7). It helps you quickly find the files that you need on your Ubuntu partition or your PC partition, and helps you do stuff like quick math, searching the dictionary and searching the Interwebs.

So anyway, turns out that you have to install deskbar manually on 9.10. To do so, open a terminal window and install it by hand.

1. Click Applications > Accessories > Terminal
2. Type in
   
   
   

   sudo apt-get install deskbar-applet

3. Type in your password if Ubuntu asks you for one
4. Restart gnome panel by typing in (note: typing in gnome-panel after the first line may not be necessary, as ubuntu is smart enough to restart it automatically!):
   
   
   

   killall gnome-panel
   gnome-panel

5. Then right click on the panel where you'd like deskbar, Click Add to Panel, drag and drop deskbar whever you like

Oh, and you might want to remember the handy shortcut Alt+F3 to access deskbar if you need to.

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Unable to find an application to support "mailto" navigation

While using Windows 7 (professional edition) I ran across this little bug that might cause you a lot of grief. The reason I ran across this bug was because I was trying to use Microsoft Groove to send "my contact info" via e-mail. However the error kept coming up whenever I tried to use the "mailto" link in groove.

I'm also assuming that this is the case for any mailto: link that might be in an address across the operating system. This error has most likely resulted because Microsoft decided to ship Windows 7 (which most people will be getting on October 22nd by the way) without a mail client. Therefore, Microsoft presumed that people will download Windows Live Mail or something else like Thunderbird for their e-mail needs.

In my opinion letting the users choose their desired mail program (instead of something like having Windows Mail in Vista and most people downloading Windows Live Mail because it was superior to Windows Mail anyway... causing a duplication of effort) is a good idea. But this also means that the operating system for some reason doesn't have a 'Default' mail program to go to in order to open mailto: links.

As such, to open mailto links, you'll first need to set Windows Live Mail or whatever else you plant to use as your default mail program.

How to set an application as the default mail program in Windows 7 (and solve the mailto problem)

1. Click on Start
2. Click on Default Programs
3. Click on 'Set program access and computer defaults'
   
4. Click on the chevron (arrows) beside "Custom"
5. Under "Choose a default e-mail program:" choose 'Windows Live Mail' or any other program you wish to use. If you don't have any other program under the options, you probably need to download and install one. I'd recommend you give Windows Live Mail or Thunderbird a try.
   
6. Click OK.
7. Close the window
8. Try clicking on the mailto link again.

This time it should work as it was supposed to!

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Open PDF files inside Firefox on Macs

One thing that I find annoying on a default Firefox installation is opening PDF files. Interestingly enough Safari seems to open them fine right inside the browser. However, Firefox by default requires you to download the PDF file first and then open it.

The downside to this of course is that if you need only simply "view" several files a day, each file you view adds to the clutter of the "download" folder on your computer. Of course, when you have a mix of necessary PDF downloads and unnecessary "temporary" downloads, the result is not optimal.

On the other hand, Firefox does have a plugin for Intel or PowerPC macs which will enable inline PDF viewing, a great tool if you view a lot of PDFs in a day. Simply go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7518 to install the plug-in for Firefox.

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Fix the “programs still need to close” problem in Windows 7

One sad thing about Windows 7 is that sometimes, it gets a little confused. Especially if you have applications like Norton or any similar anti-virus programs (which Windows 7 still needs by the way) installed.  And often, when you try to restart or shut down your progam, you’ll get a window that says:

Programs still need to close – Force Restart or Cancel

Of course, the easy way out of this would be just to click Force Restart all the time. Plus, if you see an open Microsoft Word document that you forgot to save, this screen will no doubt remind you of something you’d better save before restarting. But that won’t help when you don’t have any programs that you can save data in.
The ideal solution in such cases, in my opinion, would be to wait for a couple of seconds till the notorious programs close and then restart. But if you’re running something like Norton that doesn’t seem to be the case.

However, fear not! Because Windows 7 is still Windows, there are some great tricks were discovered 10 years ago, namely registry hacks, that can still be applied to Windows 7.
So without further ado:

How to automatically force restart your Windows 7 computer for a 1-click-quick-restart experience

Okay, yes, I really am that lazy. An extra click sucks. Nevertheless, it might save you time. So here’s how you can tweak your registry to force a restart as soon as possible. Essentially, what you need to do is set the ‘WaitToKillServicesTimeout’ parameter to a very low number so that the computer will kill (in terms of code execution of course) any open programs quickly and move on.

1. Log in with an administrator account
2. Click Start (blue windows orb)
3. Type in regedit where it says search in the start menu and click on it when it shown up in the start menu
4. Then, using the columns on the left hand side, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control
5. On the right hand side, double click on WaitToKillServiceTimeout
6. Type in 1000 (this will set the time to 1000 ms (which = 1s)) in the box that pops up, under ‘Value Data’
7. 
8. Click OK
9. Close Registry Editor
10. Restart your computer (note you might still get the force restart button this time, but you won’t ever get it after you restart).

Then, simply enjoy the faster restarts/shutdowns! But make sure you remember to save your work before you click on shutdown or restart!

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Snow Leopard - A highly uncritical review

The good news/features

Faster + More Space + 64 bit computing

Yup. Snow leopard is more faster and occupies less space. Plus it uses 64 bit computing. Enough said.

Little Things

Plus, I love the little things, like ability to resize icons, and to play movies and video files right form the icon. It's pretty handy, and makes Quicklook look a bit useless for media files (although it is a totally useful feature when it comes to documents).

I especially like how the circle around the play icon for music and video files indicates the information of how much music has already been played. It's great to be able to listen to music without even waiting for QuickTime to open.

I also like how QuickTime has a screen recording features. Read more about Quicktime in the "cons" section...

Plus, other changes like naming screenshots with the time and date (for example: "Screen shot 2009-08-31 at 12.51.52 AM.png") are also useful, instead of simply having a generic name like "Picture 1".

Apart from the other little changes, mentioned in various websites on the interwebs, the only other really noticeable change is most likely the wallpaper.

The bad news

Although the new release is great, there are a few bugs I discovered right off the bat. Perhaps they should have let me beta test it.

Notice anything wrong in the screenshot above? No, it's not that my desktop is empty (I did a clean install). Yes, the menubar looks a bit different. What are all my menubar icons doing in the middle of the screen? Shouldn't they be near the end of the screen?

How on earth did this happen you ask? Well, I guess I must qualify this "bug" (which didn't exist in the previous versions since Tiger by the way), by saying that I use 2 monitors. One 19 inch monitor in portrait mode (i.e 1280 x 1024 instead of 1024 x 1280) and the second is the MBP screen.

Turns out that if I unplug my DVI cable from the MBP, Snow Leopard will automatically recognize the change and move my main monitor (the one with the menubar and the dock) from the now disconnected 19" to the MBP screen, however the position of the menubar icons will still reflect the position they were in when they were on the portrait monitor.

Is this a big problem? Not really, but it certainly is a problem that didn't exist before. Perhaps I'm the only one experiencing it, but I don't think that a special case still justifies the bug.

Similarly, Quicktime has lost all it's previously touted features. Although it is easier, the ability to customize settings for the power user have been removed. However, it's not such a big deal since people can still download the older versions, and choose Quicktime 7 during the installation. Nevertheless, I still feel that there should have been a preferences menu at least, since I found it to be highly useful while using my laptop to give presentations.

Another thing that I've found to be interesting is the feature called "Put Back". It was available in previous versions of OS X, but disappeared for a while, and now it's back again. Essentially, it allows a user to right click a file in Trash and "put it back" to the location from which it was placed into the trash. A feature I'm sure Windows users are all to familiar with. However, the problem with this is that if you drag a file from a stack (say the download stack, which is conveniently located right beside trash) and drop it into trash... you won't be able to use the 'put back' feature! It only works when you drag something from Finder!

Apart from these three "bugs" Snow Leopard is great. I'd recommend it to anyone who is running Leopard.

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Free Norton Antivirus, Internet Security and 360 download alternatives

Photo Credit: Sophos Germany via flickr.

Security measures every Windows user must take

Let's face it - viruses exist. Whether one chooses to accept this or not, malicious software can do a lot more damage that you can imagine. Your computer can be turned into a zombie to attack other computers (see botnet) and can be compromised so badly that a malevolent person can track every key stroke and every move that you make (yes, this includes all your e-banking passwords, credit card numbers and e-mail passwords). It's almost as though you are leaving a blank cheque in a public place, free for any person with a malicious intent to take advantage of.
Given this scenario, I'm sure you'll agree that virus protection is necessary. So spending a few dollars to protect your information should be justifiable. However, let’s say that you feel that you’re not such a heavy computer user, and would like to resort to using a free antivirus program. In that case I provide a few free alternatives to paying the yearly fees charged by most commercial security companies.

#1 – Common Sense Antivirus

Yes, that’s right. The number one antivirus that you can use to protect your computer is, well, yourself! Common sense is all it takes as the first line of defense. This means staying away from any questionable content, questionable websites, and suspicious e-mails.

• Don’t download music - The number one source of viruses is – illegal downloads. The music that you can illegally download from Limewire and other such peer to peer services is free for a reason. That reason is hidden malicious content within the downloads. Similarly downloading copyrighted from sources such as bittorrent is also not advisable, for the same reason – trojans, spyware and other bad things are hiding inside the downloads. Downloading things like the latest Ubuntu distro is, in most cases, perfectly fine but if you’re thinking about downloading “Microsoft Office 2007”, think again.
• Don’t visit “bad” websites - Visiting “questionable” (yes, you know what I’m talking about =) websites is also not recommended. These websites will often show you links to downloads that are hazardous to your computer’s health, and can cause a great deal of harm to you.
• Don’t download .exe and other unknown attachments. Most e-mail providers now scan the files for malware, but sometimes the malware escapes the careful watch of the security guards. Even if you get an e-mail from a trusted friend or a relative that contains files like “Photos.exe” or “FreeStuff.doc” don’t open it immediately, ask for a confirmation first. Chances are your friend didn’t send it.
• Don’t click on messenger spam links. If you get a message saying “Hey, click here, I found a picture of YOU!!!” don’t get lured in.

#2 – AVG / Avast / Avira Antiviruses

AVG Free / Avast Home Edition / Avira AntiVir Personal
After common sense, your second line of defense should be a fairly well known antivirus. Keep in mind though that by using a free antivirus, you’ll have to rely more on your common sense as the manufactures of free antivirus usually reserve the most latest updates on malware for only their “premium/paying” subscribers. So even though you have an antivirus scanner, searching for malware, it might not be able to prevent your computer from getting infected.

Furthermore, make sure to update your antivirus on a weekly basis, as most of these scanners will update more “passively” than their paid cousins. Sometimes, it might also be necessary for you to run a scan on a suspicious file by right clicking on it and choosing the scan function, as the heuristics in the free versions is not the best available, although it does suffice for simple things like the eicar test string. Remember though, choose one that you like, and only run one at a time. Each has their own features and minus points, but for the average home user, any one of them should be fine.

#3 – AntiMalware Downloads

Apart from anti-virus applications, you’ll also need some kind of spyware/malware/adware removing applications. Here are some of your best bets:

Malwarebytes Free

Malwarebytes is great to remove spyware from your system, but it doesn’t actively scan your computer. So, whenever you download something new, make sure you run a scan through the “right click” context menu. It’s great for removing trojans and spyware.

SuperAntiSpyware Free

The free version again does the same things as Malwarebytes free. It’ll stop malware only if you scan your computer, but it won’t stop you from downloading anything bad to your computer. So download a copy and run it periodically, just incase your antivirus program didn’t do it’s duty (which happens quite a lot in the case of newly released malicious software).
Although you can use more than one malware remover, I’d recommend choosing the two above, and use them monthly or weekly. However, ensure that you update them every time before you run your scans.

#3.5 Use a Firewall

Yes, firewalls are annoying. That’s because it’s hard to predict the culprit from tons of legitimate looking internet traffic. Download a free firewall and turn it on. Enough said.

#4 – Update your computer

Turn on automatic updates and visit Windows/Microsoft Update (through the start menu) once in a while (if you’re using Windows XP that is, Vista gets all hardware updates from Windows Updates already) and make sure that all software is up-to-date on your computer. This will ensure that all security holes are patched up and software like Conficker can’t take advantage of unpatched “boo-boos”.
If you follow the advice above, I’m sure that your computing experience will become less painful. Plus, your wallet will thank you too!

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How to enable Hibernation on a Mac

Did you know that you can still "hibernate" your mac (as in shut down the machine and save all the information in your ram to your hard drive) instead of just putting it to sleep (where the ram is still powered on, and the machine can randomly wake up when it detects change)?

Turns out that Macs also have the hibernate feature. Except, it's not available by default. This is most likely because Apple just wants you to use their sleep feature instead of shutting down the computer all together.

Nevertheless, ever since OS X 10.4.3, all Macs can go into what is called 'Deep Sleep'. How you ask? Very simply put, all you need to do is use this widget called Deep Sleep. Once it's installed (and authenticated) merely clicking on the widget will put your Mac into a deep zzz... To install all you need to do is download it and agree to the prompt that asks you to Install the widget. Then, for your first use, just open Dashboard, and click on the widget. The first time you use it, you will have to authenticate it by providing your administrator password. Thereafter, all you need to do is just click on the moon!

Note: If you have a Intel machine, it should work flawlessly. However, if you have an older PPC machine, you'll have to read the user manual to see if you're in luck.

Alternatively, you can also tinker around with the Terminal if you wish to do so. Normally, this is what the mac uses:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3

However, you can change it to:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 1

to enable DeepSleep.

Happy Zzzzzing!

On a side note: the way I came across this feature by "accident" was when my battery ran out of power. So I removed the battery from the computer and plugged in the computer without the battery installed. Interestingly enough, the computer booted into a state that was exactly they way I left it before my reserve battery power ran out. Knowing this fact piqued my curiosity regarding a possible Windows like hibernate feature on the mac, leading to the discovery of the wonderful widget.

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Best Study Music

I find that there are two categories where music often helps. The first is when you are working out, and need a something to "motivate" you to stay on that treadmill/road for a couple of more minutes. The second is usually when you are trying to study and you just need a little something to improve your concentration. Although I usually prefer silence when I'm trying to learn something, there is the occasional subway ride where having something to listen to in the place of someone showing off their "awesome" guitar playing/singing skills.

As such, I scoured the net to search for some songs other people listened to, and added some of my own favourite songs to the list. This list is by no means complete and will forever be a work in progress, so I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments below, or link to a post in your own blog! I'll be sure to read it.

Anyway, here's what I find I like to listen to:

Best study music/sounds

1. White/Pink/Brown Noise - Sometimes, what you need is not music but noise. Calm, soothing, and unrecognizable noise. I'd recommend that you either get a loop of white noise, or use a web service like SimplyNoise (you can get white noise loops here too) to listen to what most people refer to as "static".

Listening to something, but not something distracting, something you can hum along with or something that might make you think/laugh is, in my opinion, the key to good study music. If it's something that you really like to listen to, you'll probably hum along with it or sing along in your mind. If you something too fast, you might feel like dancing instead of studying. If it's too slow you might fall asleep!

2. Ambient Music - Something like DI.fm (it's a iTunes radio station... and the free version is free for all with an internet connection)is what I'd listen to if I want to listen to music but not listen to music that is going to distract me. Although DI.fm does have the occasional upbeat song, it's usually paced slow enough to make sure that I don't feel like dancing.

3. Misc Albums/Songs:

• Music for Airports (via Lifehacker) - By Brian Eno
• Lost Horizons - By Lemon Jelly (and check our some of their other works as well)
• Instrumental Music - I prefer something with drums (or the tabla) and something medium paced. Some people say that they prefer classical music like the Four Seasons from Vivaldi, or one of Beethoven's Symphonies (especially the 6th symphony Pastorale).
  

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Automatically login into Windows 7 when computer starts

If you are the only user that is using your computer at the moment, chances are that the Windows 7 login screen is just plain annoying. If you want to log on to windows without typing in a password every time, or without clicking on your user name at the log in screen, here’s what you can do.

But keep in mind though that every time your computer starts up, Windows 7 will automatically logon into your account without paying attention who who is actually using the computer. So you will have to be careful about all the passwords you store in your browsers and the types of files you have in your computer in case you leave it somewhere and something happens to it.

However, if you only use your computer in the comfort and safety of your house then there is generally nothing you need to worry about. So this tip is perfect for desktops.

How to Enable auto log-on in Windows 7 to load your user account automatically when you log in

To be honest the process is similar to that of enabling automatic logon in Windows XP/Vista, except you can’t access the ‘Run’ box from the start menu anymore.

1. Press the Windows Key + R key and type in control userpasswords2 in the box that appears like so:
2. 
3. Then in the window that appears, uncheck ‘Users must enter a username and password to use this computer’
4. 
5. Click OK
6. Finally type in your username and password for the user that you’d like to have automatically logged in when Windows 7 starts.
7. Click OK

That's it! On your next restart you should automatically log into the user account of your choice.

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Download Free Parallels and VMware Fusion alternative for Mac

Have you checked the price of Parallels lately? It's going to cost you about $80 dollars (USD) plus taxes. The price of VMware Fusion is also the same. If you're like me, and paying for virtualization software just isn't an option (I mean, you already paid for the operating system you'll be running on it... except if that operating system is Linux), you'll want to look into something else to help you run Windows, Linux, Solaris, etc. and Mac OS X at the same time on your computer, without having to use BootCamp and going through its cumbersome install process.

Turns out that you don't have to pirate virtual machine software to be able to run a virtual machine. I just came across a great FREE virtual machine program for the Mac Desktop developed by Sun Microsystems called Virtual Box that does the exact same thing. It even has support for expandable virtual machine drives, and provides virtual machine tools (so all you have to do to use the mouse in the virtual machine is hover your mouse over the VM window, and to go back to your Mac just move you mouse away from the mouse window).

All you need to do start using VirtualBox to take the place of VMware Fusion or Parallels desktop is your Windows/Linux/Solaris/etc. DVD/CD or even just an iso image (so you can technically test out Windows 7 on your mac too although Aero won't work!). When VirtualBox opens up it'll give you the opportunity to create a new hard drive for your VM and allow you mount your .iso image or use the CD drive to install windows onto the virtual hard disk.

On top of that VirtualBox supports other features too that parallels does. For example, you can use Fullscreen mode and increase the size of the window to increase the resolution of the screen. You can also share folders between your Mac and the Windows or Linux virtual machine. Beware of viruses though, because they can still infect your mac partitions through the shared folders (provided they were written to take advantage of this). So you'll still have to keep your virtual machine updated and tuned up.

The only feature that VirtualBox does not support is 'Unity' mode or 'Coherence' features that allow you to run Windows applications just like a mac application without having the ugly windows desktop behind it. So you can minimize Windows applications to the dock and move them around just like a mac application. However, for the price you are paying (nothing!) I think its a great trade off. Besides, I was never a fan of that feature anyway.

If you want to run Outlook, Photoshop for Windows or any other windows specific application, or just want to test out things on the windows side, Virtual Box should be able to handle anything you can throw at it. In fact the configuration screen looks just like the VMware Fusion or Parallels configuration screen. The only downside is that if you ever upgrade to VMware or Parallels, the applications will not recognize the virtual machine hard drive created by VirtualBox, and you'll have to start from scratch.
So if you are looking for a great free (and karma free too) way to get Parallels Desktop/Parallels Workstation/Parallels Workstation Extreme on your desktop, look no further than VirtualBox - the ultimate free VM solution!

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Tech Resume Tips: How different people read your resume

(Click to enlarge above picture!)

Although the above picture is humorous, there is some truth involved in the fictional "statistics". I recommend that all job hunters keep this in mind when they are searching for a job, because frankly, I think the descriptions of the problems and the things you can do are quite true!

Oh and as the list states, I think I'm going to cover programming topics from now on. It's +8 points! And I'll probably learn Latex too, and compile my own OS called BSOS (you know what the BS stands for!)

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Download Free Windows 7 Copy!

Just like the free Windows Vista copies Microsoft was giving out 3 years ago, Microsoft is now giving out free copies of Windows 7 to anyone who is willing to give it a go. The offer that started a while ago is going to continue on till August 15th apparently, and anyone who has a broadband connection can take advantage of it.

To get your free copy of the Windows 7 release candidate, head on over to Microsoft’s Free Windows 7 download website, scroll down, choose your language under the proper heading and click Go. You’ll need a Windows Live ID (sign up for one here) because it’ll ask you to log in first so that you can get the download link and the product key. Oh and as Microsoft says, do not try it on your main computer, because chances are it isn’t going to work right (so technically Microsoft just wants a bunch of free beta testers, a.k.a. guinea pigs). The Windows copy will stay valid till June next year, so you’ll have a while to see how much you like it.

 

Also, you’ll need to either burn the .iso image that you download from Microsoft, or you can probably write the image to a USB drive and then boot off the USB drive if you’re cheap like me. To burn it either use software like Nero or download (as Microsoft says) ISObuster or some other freeware like CDBurnerXP to burn it to a DVD. You’ll also need to have a DVD burner to do that though, but chances are that you already have one, since you want to run Windows 7 on that machine.

Furthermore, according to Microsoft, you wont be able to upgrade from the Windows 7 RC to the final version. You’ll have to start all over again with a clean install. So keep that in mind as well. But for the purposes of just testing out the operating system and all its little feature, it should work quite well. You could also of course, just use a Virtual Machine like Microsoft Virtual PC to run it on your current Vista or XP installation, provided you have quite a bit of RAM on your computer.

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Search for a word that is at the tip of your tongue

How often have you realized that there is a word that is at the tip of your tongue, but just isn't coming out? While similar to writers block, this can be just as deleterious. But fear not, there is an online web app that can now help you find the word that you are searching for.

Instead of having searching the word database like you would in a conventional dictionary, you can now search on on other factors like "Sounds like", "word meaning" and the letters the word contains. The app is called Tip of My Tongue, and I guarantee you that if you are a blogger or a writer, you'll be using this online web program more than once.

Of course, it's not perfect yet, but it's just a matter of time before it becomes more robust, or a web engine like Google picks up the idea. Typing in say 'eek' and using the sounds like box to refine the search actually yields several results, even those that are distant from the pronunciation of the word 'gawk', and to narrow it down, you'll have to give the app more input.

The app uses several online dictionaries, mostly wordnet apparently, and a host of other websites. However, in my brief inspection of the site, I've noticed that some words, especially those associated with idioms and containing other meanings are not present when you use the 'Word Meaning' feature, and the results from the letters features can be quite overwhelming. Nevertheless, while the app is no substitute for a proper dictionary or a thesaurus, it will sure help you find the word that you already know and is on the tip of your tongue.

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Use Problem Recorder to Write Tutorials For Windows 7

Windows 7 has a great new feature called ‘Problem Steps Recorder’. It’s main purpose was, of course, to record the steps taken by the user to reproduce the problem so that someone else could see what the user is doing and help them out, especially through the get help from a friend feature.

However, another use for the feature is that one can use the ‘Record Steps to Reproduce a problem’ feature to record steps to make a tutorial! This is because what windows essentially does is makes note of everything the user clicks on as well as takes a screenshot of the desktop and places it in the HTML file as shown below. So it is somewhat better than a plain text tutorial and almost as good as a screencast.

So, all you need to do is replace the words ‘Problem’ in the file with a blank (a simple Find and Replace in the HTML should take care of that) and get rid of the timestamp and additional information that the problem recorder tool adds. Plus, if you have multiple desktops, you’re probably going to want to turn off the extended desktop, or else Windows will take a screenshot of that too like it did on my desktop.

To start using problem recorder simply search in the start menu for ‘Record steps to’ and you should see an entry to open problem recorder. Alternatively, you can also search for Problem Recorder/Problem Steps Recorder and click on the ‘Record steps to reproduce a problem’ when it opens.

Finally, just click Start Recording to start recording all the steps and the screenshots.

I can’t wait to use this new feature to record the steps to extremely cool (or at least I”m hoping I can do something extremely cool in Windows 7) things in Windows 7!

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Windows 7: Get Help From a Friend Feature

If there is one feature in Windows 7 that makes me scared, the ‘Get Help From a Friend’ feature would probably be it. In fact, this feature, so prominently displayed in the Control Panel should scare every techie and semi-techie (if there is such a thing). Imagine the frantic calls you’ll get from someone who doesn’t have a clue about what they are doing… who expect you to use this feature to save their computer. I can only say that the future does not look so bright if Windows 7 starts throwing a tantrum.

Worst case scenarios aside, I actually see a tool that might just help all those who don’t understand what is happening to their computers. I can already see several demographics, especially the baby boomers using this tool to call their grandchildren (and dare I say great grand children) for help.

How to use Get Help from a Friend Feature

To access this tool, however, you’ll first have to go to Start (a.k.a. Orb) > Control Panel > Troubleshooting > Additional Information. At least, this takes out the possibility of those who don’t know how to use the control panel to contact you for help. However, if they do, or just call you for help, you can be sure to direct them to this feature. Just tell them to Open Control Panel and search for Get Help from a Friend. Then click on ‘Invite someone to help you’ and choose from one of the three options that most techies prefer – e-mail, e-mail or ‘Easy Connect’.

Then, through the wonders of Remote Desktop and the Interwebs, you can easily fix their computer, provided you know what you are doing.

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Readable - A web app that makes it easier for you to read webpages

Let's face it... Although we've come a long way from the first webpage on the internet the most used method of communication on the web is text. Yes, we have videos, images and other interesting content (ex: ytmnd) out there on the interwebs, but just like I'm communication with you right now, text is essential.

So, what do you do when you can' t read the text clearly because there is a picture of a jumping rhino on the background that doesn't provide contrast or the web designer though it was cool to have a really small 7px font size?

Or to be more true to life, let's say you stumble onto a website like CNN that's littered with ads all over the place, and it makes it really hard for you to find your content. What do you do then? Until now, you'd either have to download it to tweak the html or use a text only browser to view only the text and get rid of everything else.

However, now there is a cooler web app in town called Readable that is going to be your best friend. It uses javascript to extract the text out of a page, and display it in an overlay that you can customize to your liking. For example, all you can make the size of the text bigger, have a grey background with black text, and get rid of annoying ads on web pages. Take a look at how a post in beyond teck displays:

Plus, all you have to do is click a bookmarklet in your bookmarks toolbar, and Readable will do the rest. If it has problems finding the text on the webpage, it'll ask you to click on the text, and then take care of the rest.

Here's a little demo from the creator of the app:

So if you tend to use the internet a lot, especially to read news and other blogs, Readable might soon become your best friend.

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Make opening new windows and tabs in Safari faster

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the fact that opening new tabs and windows in Safari takes way longer that it used to? Especially when you are running a lot of other applications on your mac, or are using battery power? I for one think that Safari is not the fastest browser, to open or to use anymore, and sometimes FireFox even seems faster than it. I remember using the older version of Safari (version 3) and remarking how fast it opened on a Mac compared to Firefox. However, the newer version just seems a whole lot slower.

I think I have stumbled upon the main culprit – Top Sites. It seems as though Apple has tried to imitate the look and feel of Google Chrome and/or Opera. In fact, the beta versions of Safari 4 reminded me of Google Chrome, given the tabs at the top and the top sites feature that popped up when you opened a new window. Unfortunately, in imitating the most visited websites (or as Opera calls it... Speed dial) Apple has slowed down the speed of Safari. Of course, copying ideas is always good, because that means more competition. However, Apple has sacrificed speed for aesthetics, and turned the browser into a resource hog with its almost useless zooming effects and reflections. What I do find cool is the coverflow history pane. Now that is something beautiful and efficient.

However, luckily, there is a way to get rid of the beach ball of death that comes up whenever you open a new window or tab... disable Top Sites. I for one have found that Safari's speed has improved tenfold, and opening a million new tabs doesn't slow it down anymore. Of course, if you don't feel like disabling Top Sites has caused an improvement in speed, you can always switch it back. What I plan to do, as soon as I get some more time is to create a HTML page which you can use as the 'top sites' features. However, you'll have to pick and choose your 15 - 20 sites before hand and hard code it into the html. Nevertheless, that way you can have the top sites feature, and make sure that you wont be getting the spinning rainbow coloured ball as your cursor.

How to disable Top Sites in Safari for new windows and new tabs

Thankfully, disabling this feature is really simple.

1. Open Safari and Click on Safari in the menubar
2. Then click on Preferences...
3. Under the General tab, change 'New windows open with:' to Empty Pages using the drop down menu and do the same for 'New tabs open with:'
4. Close the Preferences window
   

That's all there is to it. Plus, if you still want to use top sites,you can! All you need to do is click on the top sites button in the bookmark toolbar (shown below in the red box with the arrow pointing to it), and top sites will open up in the current tab.

Now Safari should run faster and you'll still be able to use top sites!

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Useful key combinations to use Gmail on the Web

Turns out, merely muting a conversation in Gmail isn't the only thing you can by pressing keyboard keys in Gmail. There's a whole list of other things that you can do. If you're like me and use a bazillion operating systems, you'll find using a e-mail client a bit cumbersome. Although I still use it because I don't have to check my bazillion accounts every minute or so. Nevertheless, the preferred way for me, still, is using a simple web interface to write my e-mails.

So without further ado here are some shortcuts you can use to navigate through g-mail. I've also created a printable list so you can print it out, and stick it next to your computer, or you can write it on a sticky and keep it around as a reference.

First though, make sure you have Keyboard Shortcuts enabled in Gmail. To do this, go to Settings > Under General tab you can set keyboard shortcuts to be turned on. Beware however, if you accidently press a key, you might trigger the function of the shortcut and accidentally mute an important conversation.

List of basic Gmail Shortcuts and their functions (or rather symptoms, if you accidentally pressed the shortcut)

(Source: Stolen from Google's Documentation and improved to suit my needs, visit documentation for full list).
To save this shortcut list (it's a png file) onto your computer simply right click and save as. Also, feel free to hotlink to it. I think the simpler version is going to encourage me to use the keys more...

Gmail Shortcut Cheatsheet

To download the shortcut cheat sheet, head on over to Evan William's Website, and download the cheat sheet. Here a hotlink to the cheat-sheet, on which you can right click and click Save As.. or Save Link As.. etc.

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Muting and unmuting emails (conversations) in Gmail

I was browsing through my gmail archives and I came across an e-mail that had "muted" written beside it to the left of the subject line. Unbeknownst to me I had accidentally muted the e-mails chain (called a conversation by Google, since it involved sending e-mails back and forth, kinda like instant messaging with e-mail) so every subsequent message that was sent to me directly went to my archive without even showing up in my e-mail inbox on Evolution

Yes, I know, I'm using Evolution on Ubuntu for now. However I'll most likely be switching to something more robust like Thunderbird soon, but evolution seems to fit the bill quite nicely for now. But I digress. Luckily, the conversation was unimportant, and it was kinda good that it actually went unnoticed, since it would have just been an extra boring e-mail for me to read anyway.

Turns, out, that you can mute a conversation just by pressing a key combination and then to unmute it you have to click a button. Weird. Anyway, if someone else is wondering why an e-mail they were supposed to receive is not in their e-mail client's inbox... check if you accidentally muted the conversation from Gmail's web interface.

How to check for muted e-mail in Gmail

Luckily, checking for muted e-mail is easy. Just search for is:muted using gmail's search box and gmail will show all the conversations that are muted.

How to unmute muted conversations in Gmail

To unmute conversations, you must open up the muted gmail conversation first, and then move the conversation back to your inbox. Doing so, for now, seems to be the only way to unmute a gmail conversation.

How to mute a gmail conversation

This is the part I dont like (sorta) because it makes it really easy for anyone to accidentally press the combination that is going to mute the conversation. How do you mute it? Press the M key, and the conversation will be automatically muted. Although Gmail will give you a message that the conversation was muted in its classic yellow "information" bar above the message area, I'm sure most people wont understand what just happened (including me!). I fear this might become a problem like the Firefox cursor blinking continuously, except the symptoms will be far less noticeable.

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Mac Tip: Use Nocturne or a shortcut to make your screen dark

Here's a great little mac tip that'll help you if you feel that having a screaming white background for all windows on your screen is a bit too overpowering for your eyes. Instead of having a white background, that hurts your eyes and perhaps is not as conducive to your creativity (citation needed...) why not turn the background black and the text white! May be, you'll even save a attowatt of power in the process too (again, citation needed...).

Anyway, here are two tips that you can use to turn down the brighteness of the screen by inverting the colours of your screen to get a much darker background.

Method 1 - Use a shortcut to invert the screen colours on mac

For the first method simply press Command (the key with the apple logo) + Control + Alt + 8 to invert the colour of your screen. It'll make all the white colours black, and all the blue colours orange. However, if you'd like to invert the colours on your screen a bit more gracefully, I'd like to recommend Nocturne. Nevertheless, here's what you get for using the default "accessibility" option provided on your mac without downloading anything: (note: image was similated using Photoshop.. so that you can get an idea of how it looks)

Method 2 - Download Nocturne and Switch to Night

Nocturne

(Free, Mac Only) is a little app that you can use to gracefully invert the colours on the screen to get a much darker background. When I say gracefully, I mean that Nocturne wont just invert all the colours on your screen, but only the desired ones. For example, blues will remain blue and wont be inverted to orange. The same goes for other dark colours like green and so on. You can also do other things like switch the screen to grayscale and pretend like you are using a computer with a monochrome monitor from the past, except its a million times faster. Likewise, you can tint colours to suit your liking and use the light sensors on your Macbook/Macbook Pro to trigger nocturne, and hopefully reduce the stress on your eyes.

Although you might not need it all the time, nocturne is a great little app that is worth the download. Plus, it barely hogs any memory so its great to have it sitting around on the menubar in times of need. It's quite a big step forward from the default inversion tool, and its FREE!

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The plan for summer

So summer has started, at least it has for most students in North America. This summer is different. I can almost feel it (interestingly enough there is a heat alert today in Toronto, and I can reacall that there was a snow storm warning only a couple of weeks ago). This year I don't want to waste my time watching movies, horsing around and wasting time on social networking websites. Instead, I want to do something productive with my time. So, I've decided to start a new "initiative" as it were to improve my knowledge and to share it with everybody (well everybody who can afford electricity, computers and an internet connection).

This summer I'll try to post 10 1-2 posts each day, with varying number of posts in each topic. Although there are no guarantees, I will also consider the post ideas given to me by other readers. So if you have any ideas please e-mail them to beyondteck@gmail.com. My main focus areas as usual will be computers, cars, cell phones and anything thing tech. But already it seems like getting posts only in these categories might be a bit too much (because I'll still have to blog about something worthwhile, unlike most other bloggers =), even for a tech addict like me.

Additionally, I wanted to mention that I'm finally planning to open up NetNewsWire and subscribe to some blogs. So if you too have a blog (preferably related to technology, as I really have no idea about basket weaving)... send me a link or post it here, and I'll be sure to subscribe. Interestingly enough, I have 1990 new posts to take care of right about now, which shows my lack of knowledge regarding what is happening in the tech world right now. So, while you browse through the new category page (built by hand sadly, since blogger's labels widget really sucked) on this blog, I shall go read something.

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(k)Ubuntu with compiz has lines on screen after rebooting from hibernation or suspending

Interestingly enough, I ran into another problem while using Ubuntu yesterday. I was using my laptop for a while, without the power cord, and I got a message from Ubuntu saying that my battery was about to die out. So, I promptly decided to hibernate my computer for the night and then plug it back into the power cord once I found it in the morning.

Finally, I woke up today morning, found the power cord, plugged it in and started Ubuntu. Sure enough, everything worked great. Ubuntu read the 'waking up the computer' message while it was booting and once if finished booting, it asked me for my password (although I have automatic login turned on, I guess it doesn't apply to login after wake up from hibernation or suspension) and after typing it in ... Ubuntu opened my desktop, just as I had left it the night earlier.

However, the first thing I noticed after booting in was the lines or I suppose you can call them artifacts that appeared around the screen where the "compiz reflections" were supposed to be. So even when I opened a tool tip, all I'd get were lines. As shown below:

click picture to enlarge it and see the lines around the windows, desktop and tooltip.

I'm guessing that this is a video card problem or a compiz coding problem. It might also happen after you wake up your computer after suspending it. Although I realise that suspend might not be the same as hibernate, and even after repeatedly trying to reproduce the problem, it might occur after suspension. Nevertheless, I'm going to include the possibility and mention it in this post, in case someone else out there is experiencing the same problem.

Anyway, fixing the problem is simple. Restart compiz. Once you restart compiz, your screen will flutter for a second and then fix the lines that occur without changing anything else on your computer.

How to restart Compiz

Update/Tip: Turns out you can also do this by pressing Alt + F2 and typing in compiz. Then just click run and compiz should restart...

1. Press Alt + F2
2. Type in: gnome-terminal
3. Type in compiz in terminal
4. Wait for a second and let compiz restart
5. Quit terminal

Once you restart compiz, you can then go back to playing with the wobbly windows without the weird lines.

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Video Player Quickly Closes, Crashes or flickers for video in Ubuntu?

After a fresh install of Ubuntu on my laptop (it's a 3 year old Dell Inspiron 6400 w/ ATI Mobility Radeon x1400 video card), I tried opening a video of Freedom Fry after downloading it to my desktop. To my surprise, and this is definitely the first time it has happened to me as I recall, the player quit!

I tried double clicking on the video again! Movie Player opened for a couple of seconds, opened and then quit again. I repeated the processes a couple of times, in vain of course. Then I remembered that I might have missed some codec (well, the Stephen Fry's video was in .ogv format, that was supposed to be supported right out of the box) so I added Gstreamer codec packs onto Ubuntu.

In case someone out there is curious this is how you Add GStreamer Codecs to play MP3s and MPEG and MOV files on Ubuntu's default Movie Player... First click on Applications > Add or Remove > Search for GStreamer > Check the checkbox beside the plugins you think you might need > Click the Apply Changes button below > Follow instructions.

However, doing so didn't fix the problem. So I repeated the same process above to go to the Add or Remove window and download VLC. VLC is one player that can play virtually ALL video files out there. Then I double clicked on the video.......... VLC opens..... closes in 0.5 seconds! Still no luck.

Then, I remembered that I had come across a similar problem a while ago, except the problem lead to the video fluttering and flickering when it was played. The solution was to use the X11 form of video output in VLC. And I came across this helpful post in the Ubuntu forums as well where the video player immediately crashed for some other people as well.

So in case you don't know how to change the output format to X11 in VLC, here's how you can do so. Of course, you'll need to get VLC first. Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to change the output format in the default movie player in Ubuntu, but if someone else knows about how one can do so, please post in comments below.

Changing output format in VLC to prevent it from crashing or flickering when opening video

1. Go to Applications > Sound & Video > VLC media player
   
2. Click Tools > Preferences
3. Choose Video from the left hand 'pile-on list'
4. Beside output choose 'X11 video output' like so:

Then just click Save and try opening the file again.

Everything should work flawlessly now!

Why does this problem occur?

The flickering problem in my opinion is some by-product of bad ATI drivers and Compiz code. Some times, if you turn off all compiz effects and switch you appearance settings to minimal, you can get rid of the rapid flickering. I doubt it has anything to do with the codecs or the player as there is no degradation in the audio.

As for the video automatically closing/crashing the player problem, its most likely the graphics card driver. Since the drivers for graphic cards are proprietary (especially if you're using Compiz, you have to switch to the ATI proprietary drivers...) it's likely that there is some 'broken telephone' going on between the OS and the drivers and the hardware causing the problem.

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OpenBlu - a presentation theme for OpenOffice Impress/IBM Symphony

The great thing about open source is that it motivates everyone who uses the software to give back to the community. In fact, I this is the very reason I'm giving away my latest theme designed for OpenOffice Impress entirely using Open Source software (Ubuntu + Gimp + Impress) - OpenBlu.

What is OpenBlu all about?

OpenBlu is a theme that was designed to rival that of themes available for other software in the market, namely Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple Keynote. Now, with OpenBlu you don't have to feel that by using OpenOffice Impress (free and open source software - learn more here) you have to use themes that aren't as pretty and functional as themes that come with paid software.

For more themes like this (but not designed by me), you might want to see this post.

Download OpenBlu

OpenBlu can be downloaded from dropbox:

Click here to Download OpenBlu

Also, I've included the .png background files as well as the GIMP .xcf files so feel free to modify the theme. If you do modify it though, please do let me know if possible... I'd like to see what other are doing with OpenBlu.

How can I use OpenBlu?

Simple:

1. Download the .zip file from the link above
2. Unzip the contents of the .zip file
3. Double click on Blu.odp and use it like the template presentation to form your presentation
4. Edit/Add/Modify etc.
5. Save the file as your own presentation.
6. Optional: Share it with others and encourage them to use OpenOffice as well.
   

Note: To use OpenBlu you'll need either OpenOffice or IBM Symphony.

License

OpenBlu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. This means that you can download it, share it and modify it. In fact, I encourage you to download it, share it and modify it to suit your own needs. However, you can't sell it for monetary value (this is mainly to keep the spirit of free and OpenSource alive).

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How to search the web faster with Inquisitor

Have you ever wondered if there was an easier way to get to your search results without having to actually see the search results page? If you ask me... there is! It's free, download-able for Windows and Mac (and iPhone!) and it's called Inquisitor.

Originally, in order to search the web, you'd have to go to a search engine first. Like Google, Yahoo or MSN for example. Then you'd have to type in a query, and hit enter, and search the best results from a list of 6 billion search results (although you see them 10 at a time, there are a LOT of search results). Then you'd click the 3rd or 4th or may be even 1st link to go to the website.

Then came the advent of toolbars and inbuilt search bars, from where you could search the web without having to go the search engine website first. Plus, with the search query features you didn't even have to type in the full "thing" that you would have liked to search for.

Now there is a better way to search the web faster:

Instead of going to the website, inquisitor (sponsored by Yahoo I must say) takes the place of the normal search tool in your browser (currently it only supports Safari, Firefox and IE). However, the most important feature that inquisitor has is - it displays the SEARCH RESULTS of top 6 results from search results page right in the drop down menu! So, you don't even have to visit the search results page in most cases. You can directly go to the search results page without ever having to visit tie middle man. Plus, it also finishes your queries for you if you want, and gives you the option of searching similar queries in different search engines. Plus, it tells you the websites you've already visited, so if you're searching for the same website again, you can go to it instantly!

So the next time you want to search, you'll not only be saving time, but you'll also be saving some mouse clicks.

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How to play tetris on your Mac with Terminal

Today, I noticed that it's the 25th anniversary of Tetris, through a Google doodle (you can learn some amazing things from a Google logo as it seems). So I figured, that it was only fair that I download tetris and play it since the last time I played it was ages ago. Turns out, if you use a mac, you don't have to download tetris.

Did you know that your Mac has another game besides chess that comes pre-installed with every Mac? Yes, your mac also has tetris, as it turns out. Although its not as easy to access as chess, and you'll admin privileges to do so, it still is a great time waster as TUAW (although the instructions on TUAW are kinda wrong.. they say tetrix instead of tetris... ) puts is.

So here's how you can start playing tetris on your mac. It's harder than normal tetris though, because it doesn't really give you a lot of options, but nevertheless, it's free.. and you don't have to download anything.

So heres what you do to open it:

1. Open Terminal (Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal or Alt + Space , then type in "Terminal" and press enter)
2. Then type in:
emacs
3. Then press the enter key, and after emacs loads, press the Escape key
4. Then type in:
x
5. Your cursor will start blinking beside the blue text, after which you should type in tetris and press enter!

To control the game: Use the up and down arrow key to change the block configuration, and obviously use left right keys to change the location of block. And press the spacebar to let the blocks come down quickly. Press the p key to pause.

Pretty cool huh?

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How to improve your comprehension/vocabulary score for SATs, ACTs and APs

Here's something for fellow students who might be practising for a standardized exam (to the older readers: yes, remember those?). Learning vocab words and lists for standardized exams isn't what most people consider to be an enjoyable task. But I've recently figured out that it can be enjoyable... if you know what to do. People always ask me about how I have such a great vocabulary (ok, not really... but pretend that they did) and this is what I always tell them:

The best ways to improve your vocabulary are...

1. Reading (my english teacher swears by this one - according to her, you'll retain 5% of the vocabulary from anything you read):
I for one hated reading. Especially the "romance" novels that are supposed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Why? Because first off... they make so sense, and second, they take too much time (and did I mention, they never have any pictures in them?!) So often, I just ended up reading the first few chapters, and then never touching the book ever again.

But the truth is, you don't always have to read "the classics" or "the quintessential Socrates series" if they don't make any sense. There are several other, dare I say enjoyable, sources of inspiration that you can plunge into. Especially if you like technology, there are several other things you can read, to improve your vocabulary and improve your comprehension skills. Remember though. If you come across a word that stumps you, you might want to check out what it means (I recommend using one of the dictionaries mentioned in this post) before continuing.

Here are some "good" websites where you might find interesting (if you don't like Harry Potter and all that kind of stuff that is...)

The Onion (America's Finest News Source!) - A great news source. Although, I advise that you take everything you read on that website with a grain of salt.

e-Books online - There are a ton of e-books that you can potentially download (or even read) online. If you get board with one of them, why not just switch to another. It's easy, and who knows, you just might find something interesting.

News Websites (NYTimes, Globe and Mail and even CNet sometimes)- Like The Onion, news websites are a great source of information, provided the english they use is good. However, I would stay away from the depressing kinds of news though... you don't want any nightmares.

Crossword Puzzles - Crosswords are a great way of improving your vocabulary, especially when it comes to big words.

Write! - The best way to learn how to read, is to learn how to write. Try to use big words when you're writing though so that you get a feel for certain "esoteric" words. If you want, you can publish them online (in a blog), and if you have something to say (like I always do) I'm sure you'll build your own group of readers as well. This is good, because you'll be able to get feedback, and also do well on the writing portion of the standardized tests. Although I recommend that you practice writing too, because unless you're taking the MCAT, you'll be using a pen, and not a keyboard.

Vocab Lists - Vocabulary lists are the least preferable method of learning for me. That's because rote memorization almost always never works unless you're a savant. However, if you feel like you need to brush up on a little bit of vocabulary, here are some tips concerning vocab lists:

• Never simply memorize the words. You'll be memorizing them for 5 minutes and then you'll forget it all!
• Instead, what you want to do is put the word in a memorable sentence of some sort, and "use the word". This way, you'll retain the word better, and hopefully you'll be able to recall it when necessary. [Rinse and Repeat!]
  

Bonus: If you're Canadian, you might want to check out some columns by Rex Murphy. Even though he is from Newfoundland he never uses a word that smaller than 9 syllables.

In my opinion, there is no substitute for reading. So incase you're wondering what to do a year before the standardized test, I suggest you start reading first and then try the other tips I've mentioned here!

Good Luck!

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