Use Windows Live Mail or Hotmail with Outlook 2007 or 2003

Now, you don’t need to have a Hotmail Plus account to use your free Windows Live Mail or Hotmail (or even MSN) e-mail account with either Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007. All you need to do is download and use Microsoft’s Outlook Connector to start taking advantage of your Hotmail account in Outlook.

Setting it up is pretty straight forward, and once you set it up, you’ll never have to log into your hotmail account again to see those annoying little ads and face the slow interface.

According to Microsoft, you can do the following with Outlook connector:

With Outlook Connector, you can use Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 to access and manage your Windows Live Hotmail or Office Live Mail accounts, including e-mail messages and contacts for free! Calendar, tasks and notes synchronization are not available on all services. If your service offers calendar synchronization, tasks and notes will synchronize as well. See the feature list for your service for details.
Outlook Connector enables you to use your Live Hotmail accounts within Outlook:

• Read and send your Office Live Mail/Windows Live Hotmail e-mail messages.
• Manage your Live Mail Contacts.
• Use advanced options for blocking junk e-mail messages.
• Manage multiple e-mail accounts in one place.

With a paid subscription, Outlook Connector enables these additional features:

• Manage, share, and synchronize your calendar in Hotmail from Outlook.
• Access your Tasks and Notes.

Not bad for a free e-mail account. However, there are a few things that I don’t like about this outlook connector thing. What it does essentially is pair up your hotmail and your other POP accounts together if you have more than one account (may be there is an option to turn this off… but I haven’t yet discovered this). So if you receive an e-mail in your POP account inbox, Outlook Connector will automatically upload a copy of the e-mail to your hotmail account. This of course is rather annoying for a person like me who likes to stay organized…

Speaking of staying organized, more on that coming soon. I feel as though I have way to many e-mail accounts and operating systems containing bits and pieces of my work here and there that I need to somehow come up with the ‘ULTIMATE’ solution to reduce the time I spend finding my stuff and sending a little e-mail.

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Free software to take better Windows Screenshots – Screenshot Captor

Sure, print screen is alright, but sometimes you just need something more when you’re taking screenshots. This could be the cursor, delaying the time between the screenshot, an arrow pointing to a button or even a helpful note to accompany the screenshot. Obviously, the default Print Screen button in windows doesn’t support all this, nor does the Snipping Utility in Windows Vista. However, there is one piece of completely free software that does help you take great screenshots.

It’s called Screenshot Captor, and although you do have to register to get a licence key (that expires after a while, but you can get a new one for free), it is completely free. Technically, its donation ware, but it’s a great idea to pay the author for creating such a marvellous screenshot tool.

According to the makers of the tool, the software has the following capabilities:

• Optimized for taking lots of screenshots with minimal intervention.
• Smart auto naming of files, and ability to embed textual comments in files.
• Good multi-monitor support.
• Highly configurable to make it work the way you want it to; stays out of your way in the system tray.
• Lots of capture modes: Multimon (multiple monitors), Desktop, Active Window, Region, Windows Object. Each mode has a hotkey for quick access.
• Unique Cool Effects, including automatic active window enhancement (see pictures below).
• Unsurpassed support for 3rd party user configurable tools, including file browsers and image editors; extend the program to do whatever you need by interfacing it with other programs.
• Slimline sidebar file browser provides full shell operations.
• Optional automatic image file versioning.
• Seamless integration with Unicode Image Maker tool.
• Automatically finds boundaries of non-rectangular/themed windows.
• Auto scroll capture for windows too big for screen.
• Deluxe thumbnail maker.
• Quick Post Capture Popup Dialog.
• Quick Screenshot Emailer Menu.

As you can see, you will soon start using this as a tool to take all the screenshots you need and also start annotating your pictures more. This tool combined with Windows Live Writer, which I like by the way, is great for any blogger who wants to write tutorials.

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Google Search has another new feature - SearchWiki

I just noticed today that Google has added a rather interesting feature that allows people to sort their search results as they like. Instead of just showing a static list of search results, users that are logged into Google can now interact with the results. Apparently, from what I can tell so far, the users can promote search results to a higher rank, delete search results from the list and even leave comments about search results.The little icons that appear beside the search results I guess are Google's way of using the people to improve their searches. For example, if you click on the chat icon, you can leave a comment that becomes public. I don't know if having public comments by all sorts of random people is a good thing or not, but it sounds cool anyway. 

Plus, getting rid of search results is a feature that I feel is going to be quite useful when people use the I'm feeling lucky button. Since the I'm feeling lucky button takes you to the top result, you can simply 'configure' the top search result to reflect the website you want to come first.

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Fox it PDF Reader better than Adobe Acrobat Reader?

Lets face it, PDFs are a part of life. With so many different file formats around, one format that has continued to stay with us is the PDF. They are essential to create many things such as forms, documents that need to preserve their formatting, and presentations that also need to retain their formatting. However, using Adobe Reader to open these PDFs is no doubt a pain. It's bulky, slow and inefficient. So, why not switch to a better and lighter alternative?

Enter Foxit PDF Reader:
As the website says, the PDF reader has several advantages over Adobe's Acrobat Reader.

* Incredibly small: The download size of Foxit Reader is only 2.55 M which is a fraction of Acrobat Reader 20 M size.
* Breezing-fast: When you run Foxit Reader, it launches instantly without any delay. You are not forced to view an annoying splash window displaying company logo, author names, etc.
* Annotation tool: Have you ever wished to annotate (or comment on) a PDF document when you are reading it? Foxit Reader allows you to draw graphics, highlight text, type text and make notes on a PDF document and then print out or save the annotated document.
* Text converter: You may convert the whole PDF document into a simple text file.
* High security and privacy: Foxit Reader highly respects the security and privacy of users and will never connect to the Internet without users' permission. While other PDF readers often silently connect to the Internet in the background. Foxit PDF Reader does not contain any spyware.

So try the Foxit PDF reader today, and you'll definitely like it.

If you're on a Mac, of course, you'll want to use Preview.app, which does pretty much the same thing. It also helps you reduce the file sizes of large pdf files, which of course is a plus if you don't have the $1000 Adobe Acrobat application.

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Microsoft's I'm a PC ads are going too far...

Finally, years after Apple's I'm a Mac campaign, Microsoft answers back. Their campaign is only a little different - and It's called "I'm a PC" campaign.

But it seems like they are taking this a bit too far. I just check their homepage today and it has a picture of Deepak Chopra, saying, that he is a PC and a Human Being.

Wow, I never knew that you had to be a human being to be a PC. But, what if you're not a human being, can you still be a PC?

To bad, many people out there, including Russia's President, USA's President(Elect) all use Macs.

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How to get inspired by a website

That's right, some videos out there are truly inspirational. I wonder how many people know about this already, but I for one have been cherishing this website for the past few years. It's called TED, and previously it was a conference limited to a select group of individuals. Now, its a website – full of inspiration!

Here are some of my favourite videos:

And finally, for a little more humour:

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Mac UAC?

Does this picture remind anyone of User account control in Vista? Pretty scary though isn't it?

Well, I'm pretty certain that Apple will never follow such things. Well... they did have a translucent menubar, but I guess that was just to poke fun at the translucent task bar in window? I mean, at least this one has a 'Always Allow' button, that's missing in Vista.

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How to reduce PDF file sizes on a Mac

Update: Doesn't seem like this method works well for all files, you may want to try out the link posted in the comments, as this seems to have worked for many users.

Okay, lets face it - using the PDF format is great, but when the file sizes get out of hand, its just not practical. This is especially a big problem when you have a large file of a presentation or a document and you have to e-mail it to someone, but its so large that it's not below 10MB. But you can't send them a PPT file, because they don't have powerpoint or KeyNote. So, the only way to work around this problem is to reduce the file size of the PDF.

But fear not, Mac OS X comes with the with all the tools (well.. it's actually only 1 tool - Preview) you need to reduce PDF file sizes.

How to reduce the size of a PDF file on a Mac

1. First, you'll have to have a PDF. In most cases you can do this through the application in which you created your document. For example if you're using Microsoft Word (the pic below if of Word 2008), you simply need to File > Save As > Choose PDF as the format. If you're using Keynote or Pages, you'll have to go to File > Export > PDF.
2. Once you have your PDF, you'll simply have to Open it in Preview.
3. Click File > Save As
4. Choose Reduce File Size as the Quartz Filter Option, and click Save!

5. Enjoy your fat-free PDF. The file size will be lower by a really large margin!

The PDF named MyBigPresentation.pdf was the original, the one below (named MyOptimizedPresentation) is the optimized one. The old one was 28 mb, the new one is only 2.3 MB! Plus, the difference between the two files is hardly noticeable!


Now, hopefully e-mailing PDF files around isn't going to be painful anymore.

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Quick Mac Tip: Do some spotlight math

Ever wonder if there is an easier way to do math instead of using the tedious old 'Calculator.app' application? Well... with Leopard there is. Apart from just using Spotlight to search for files and open applications (yes, Spotlight can now open applications thanks to its top hit feature, making Quicksilver rather useless if you mostly use it for applications).

All you need to do is press Cmd + Space, and then just type in the math. Spotlight can do simple math that calculator can do, but don't expect it to do anything involving variables and graphing. But you can do stuff like:

and:

and:

and even more interesting stuff like:

Pretty neat, huh? At least you don't have to use the calculator application or the calculator widget. And yes, putting the Canadian flag over there in the last screenshot was totally accidental =P

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Fix D-Link Wi-Fi Router Disconnection Problem

Yes, I have a fairly old D-Link router, and I'm afraid I'm not too happy with it. It keeps disconnecting form time to time, and somehow it manages to disconnect at the most inopportune time (like when I'm chatting with my friends... because our project is due in an hour and I still haven't started it) Well, of course, I got what I paid for. The router cost me about $5 bucks after those annoying rebates and plus I got a copy of CA Anti-Virus Suite for 1 year, but then again I barely use anti-virus at all.

Anyway, I think I've figured out a way to make it much more stable again. It's mostly router configuration settings, but it also has a little bit to do with router placement. The biggest factor that helped me solve the problem was relocating my router.

Now, I must mention here that my router was placed in a bedroom that is approximately 40 - 50 feet away from where I keep my laptop. I usually kept my router on the bottom shelf of the computer desk that I had in that bedroom. However, I realised that moving the router to the top of the computer desk might be much better, and it was! My signal reception improved significantly just by placing the router at the top of the table instead of the bottom. But that wasn't the end of the problems – I also had to take care of the settings below.

Fix D-Link (DI -624?) router with these admin settings

First, log into the administration page for your router (which is 192.168.0.1 by default unless you've changed it). It should look like this (click image to enlarge it of course!):


Then, as indicated in the picture above, switch to the Tools tab and choose Misc.

Now, change all settings from Enabled to Disabled as shown in the picture below. Leave the WAN select setting to 100 Mbps.


Finally click Apply, and let your router restart.

Next, change your Wireless Channel to something like 11 (but don't choose 6 obviously) by clicking on the 'Home Tab' and clicking 'Wireless' in the left sidebar'. If you're wondering which channel might be the best, take a look at the guide on how to improve your wi-fi settings.
Also, disable 'Super-G mode' if you have it on there. You might even want to disable your SSID broadcast, to ensure that no one else 'accidentally' tries to connect to your network.


Personally, I also turn off wireless security sometimes, because it allows for faster connection speeds and less interruptions while working. However, this is very unsafe, so if you're doing online banking with your laptop and a wireless connection I wouldn't disable security. But if you're like me, and don't really think anyone might be snooping around, then you might want to turn on MAC address filtering and then disable security.

Now, your router should reboot less often, and hopefully not overheat as much. Also remember to place your router in a better well ventilated area for optimal performance and minimal overheating.

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