How To Quickly Create A Desktop Shortcut Of A Website In IE & Firefox

Creating a desktop shortcut of a frequently visited web site saves you lot of time. In Firefox there is no direction menu option to create a desktop short but Internet Explorer 7.0 allows you to create one by following the menu path File->Send To-> Shortcut to Desktop. This is a traditional way. Now lets see another quick option that works in both IE and Firefox to create the desktop short cut.

1. Open the browser (IE/Firefox) and browse to the page that you want to create a short cut
2. Resize the browser so that you can see both desktop and browser
3. Drag and drop the small icon on the left of the address bar on your desktop. The shortcut will be created.

Now all you need to go to favourite website is to double click the desktop icon. You can even consider assigning a keyboard shortcut to the desktop shortcut icon to launch the favourite in much faster way.

Happy browsing!!

http://www.techdreams.org/

Reclaim Your Hard Disk Space By Deleting Garbage Using CCleaner. I Reclaimed 6 GB+

The amount of garbage accumulated on the computer keeps growing as we install/uninstall applications, updates and browse the Internet. Few application un-installers does not remove all the files properly, application crashes leaves memory dumps, browsing Internet adds media files, cookies and other junk to cache folders. The garbage not only eats up our valuable Hard Disk space but also slows computer performance.

Here comes CCleaner, a free application to rescue our computers by deleting all the unwanted files. CCleaner scans the computer for unnecessary files like temporary logs, memory dumps, thumbnail cache, Internet and other useless files and deletes them permanently with a single click.

When I executed this application first time, I was surprised by the amount of garbage CCleaner identified on my personal laptop. It is 6 GB +. Yes, garbage on my laptop eaten up 7.5% of valuable 80 GB hard disk space. Here is the proof

Apart from deleting garbage from hard disk drive, CCleaner can also clean the registry by removing the unwanted entries.

Very quickly CC Cleaner occupied my list of most frequently used maintenance utilities. I often run this application to make sure that my computer is clean.

With very good intelligence of identifying useful files and very easy to use user interface, CC cleaner makes it a perfect cleaner.

Download CCleaner

Tip: By default CCleaner removes your web browser history, saved passwords, cookies and auto-completion settings. If you would like to keep all your web browser related settings and history, uncheck Internet Explorer from Windows tab and Firefox & Opera from Application Tab of CCleaner.

Note: While installing CCleaner make sure that Yahoo Tool Bar installation is unchecked if you don't like to install Yahoo Toolbar along with CCleaner.

http://www.techdreams.org/

Automate Your Desktop Wallpaper Switching With Latest Flickr Photos

It's probably the most important image on your computer, so do it justice… Here is the very tiny and powerful tool to take your simple desktop wallpaper to the next level!

According to Hitwise, Photo sharing site Flickr is now the 2nd largest photo site behind Photobucket. No surprise then that it's an excellent resource for beautiful wallpapers.

So, we've gathered you up a free tool that can automate the whole process of fetching and decorating your desktop with latest online photos from Flickr.

Settings can be for just about every time setting you can think of.You can pick where you want to choose photos from using the buttons on the left side buttons of the settings window.The tray icon also lets you to pause switching, view all downloaded photos.

Your background can show one image, four images in a 2×2 grid, or hundreds of thumbnails at once. Images can change after a specified number of minutes, hours or days, or even at a specific time of day. And if you have multiple monitors, it can show different images on each display.

Download the Application

http://www.techdreams.org/

Deleted Files Accidentally? Here Are 4 Best FREE Tools To Recover Them.

How many times have you deleted important files permanently or emptied recycle bin, and then had a sinking feeling? I bet we all have done that at one time or other. And I've done that today at work.

But before hitting the panic button, I Googled few minutes and recovered the deleted files. There are many number of free applications that recover the deleted files. But here are the four notable applications that do the job very easily

1. Undelete Plus

Out of all the freeware application that recovers deleted files, Undelete Plus is my choice. The user interface is very simple and straight forward. The excellent grouping and filters provided in the left side panel allows us to easily locate the beloved file to recover.

Download and Install Undelete Plus

2. Restoration

Restoration is an easy to use application that does not even required installation. You can download it and launch the executable file to scan and recover the deleted files.

Download Restoration

3. PC Inspector File Recovery

Even though the user interface of PC Inspector File Recovery is not straight forward and friendly, it is very powerful in detecting and recovering the deleted files. After scanning the drive it presents the deleted files organised as folder structure for easy navigation. From the tree structure you can navigate and choose the deleted file/folder and click on the save icon ( the second icon in the left panel) to recover them.

Download and Install PC Inspector File Recovery

4. Recuva

Recuva pronounced as "Recover" has a step by step wizard user interface to guide the users to locate and recover the deleted files. The basic mode interface is very simple that shows the list of deleted files that can be recovered. When you switch to advanced mode you get options to view information of the delete files and re launch the scanning operation.

Download and Install Recuva

Source

Widescreen VS Full Screen

Or: Why "This movie had been formatted to fit your screen" is the most evil phrase in home movies.

I know this doesn't directly apply to drive-ins, but as a movie fan, I thought this needed to be explained. Many times while in the video store, I hear people talking about getting the "Full Screen" version of a movie because they didn't like the "black bars" at the top and bottom of the screen. What many people don't realize is that the black bars aren't covering anything because there wasn't anything there to begin with.

Next time you go to the movies, take a look at the size and shape of the theater screen. With most indoor and outdoor theaters, the screen is significantly wider than it is tall. Then take a look at your TV. If you notice that while it is also rectangular, it is nowhere near as wide as the theater screen is (relative to its height).

 

Typical theater screen (some may vary)

 

The typical TV (except for WIDESCREEN TV's)

 

To make another comparison, the following pictures are taken from the movie Mad Max. The images show the difference between WIDESCREEN / LETTERBOX compared to FULLSCREEN / PAN and SCAN.

 

This is the movie in WIDESCREEN format

 

This is the movie in FULLSCREEN format

 

As you can see, not everybody is visible in the FULLSCREEN version of the movie. By expanding the image to fill the screen, unfortunately the sides of the image are cut off. On average, about 30% of the picture is cut off on the sides, especially on movies filmed in 2.35:1 format. Movies like Star Wars and Mad Max are filmed in 2.35:1 format.

 

What that means is that the movie is 2.35 times wider than it is tall. Your TV is more like 1.33:1 or 1.33 times wider than it is tall.

 

After showing the differences, wouldn't you rather buy the whole movie instead of only 66% of it?

 

What to look for when buying videos (Laser Disc, DVD, or VHS):

Widescreen

Letterbox

Enhanced for Widescreen TVs

16:9

2.35:1

1.85:1

 

What to avoid when buying videos (Laser Disc, DVD, or VHS):

Fullscreen

Pan and Scan

1.33:1

Formatted to fit your screen.

 

Note: Many early movies were never filmed in a widescreen format. Examples are "Gone with the Wind" and "Wizard of Oz". Back then, the theater screens were not as wide as they are today, so the movies were never filmed any wider than that.

15 Awesome Tutorial Websites You Probably Don't Know About

If I were forced to choose an aspect of the internet that made it simply indispensable, it would definitely be its availability as a huge learning resource. 20 years ago, who would have thought that one would have easy access to already completed business documents, research papers of world class universities, free encyclopedias and some great books, no matter where he or she is located in the world.

The internet also boasts of accommodating tutorials to absolutely anything. Here are 15 such super-useful sites which aim to provide you with all the tutorials you'd ever need.

1. How Stuff Works
   How Stuff Works is probably the best known How-to tutorials site. It has has a vast and diverse collection with topics ranging from food, health, computers, etc. One of the best things about this site is that it explains even the toughest tutorial in a very simple and easy to understand language.
   


2. YouTube
   Surprised? Well, it shouldn't be if you use YouTube a lot. Yesterday my younger brother bought a new guitar and the very first thing he needed to do was to tune it. So he just logged on, went to youtube.com and searched for "How to tune a guitar". And there you go! He had a nice video explaining the process step-by-step.


3. eHow
   eHow is another comprehensive tutorials website with detailed instructions on how to do just about anything. Like How Stuff Works, this site also covers a wide range of topics.


4. About.com's Video Tutorials
   About.com's video tutorial site has a collection of very informative how-to videos and screencasts on topics which include Parenting, Style, Electronics and Gadgets, etc. I found the collection to be very comprehensive and probably better than You Tube's collection of similar videos.


5. wikiHow
   wikiHow, as it says, is an editable How-to site with 40,100 articles contributed by volunteers from different parts of the world. You're sure to find some nice tutorials here too.


6. Instructables
   Instructables is a cool Do-It-Yourself site that has an extensive collection of user submitted how-to articles and easy instructions complete with videos and photographs. It's a community driven website where you can submit content, vote and comment on existing content.


7. Wired's How-To Wiki
   Wired magazine's how-to wiki has some very elaborate and detailed tutorials focussed primarily on topics like Gadgets, Technology and Computers. You can also subscribe to its RSS feed to get them the new how-to articles directly in your feed reader.


8. PC World's How-to Site
   PC World, one of the best tech journals available, also has a how to site that publishes technology focused tutorials related to various electronic gadgets, hardware and software applications.


9. VideoJug
   When it comes to how-to video tutorial sites, VideoJug is probably the largest and most comprehensive. It has videos on varied subjects like choosing a new hairstyle, playing golf, installing windows or how to kiss someone passionately.


10. W3Schools
    W3Schools is a first class web development tutorials website which provides easy reference guides on languages like HTML, XHTML, CSS, PHP and JavaScript. All the tutorials are free and nicely explained through various examples.


11. NETTUTS And PSDTUTS
    NETTUTS and PSDTUTS are sister sites, in fact blogs, and definitely one of the best online resources on web development and Photoshop skills. NETTUTS explores web development and designing in detail while PSDTUTS provides some world-class Adobe Photoshop tutorials.


12. 5min
    5min is a video tutorial site with a difference- the videos are short and no more than 5 mins. Like other video sites, this too covers a wide range of topics, however it's yet to take on sites like VideoJug in the online video tutorial space.


13. SuTree
    Sutree aggregates the best video tutorials from other video sites and covers a variety of topics like softwares, games, pets & animals etc. Like instructables, SuTree is also a community driven website and lets you find videos through tags and subscribe to the RSS feed of the site.


14. VTC
    Although VTC is not entirely free to use, it does provide some nice tutorials on software and business applications. Out of around 66,000 tutorials, it provides 12,500 for free.


15. Good Tutorials
    Good Tutorials has a nice collection of graphic design tutorials which it aggregates through various web design sites and blogs. And yes, it's free to use !

So overall, with the exception of VTC, all the other sites are completely free and can certainly fetch you any tutorial you can ever imagine. Hope you enjoy using them. :)

File Attributes

Each file is stored in a directory, and uses a directory entry that describes its characteristics such as its name and size. The directory entry also contains a pointer to where the file is stored on disk. One of the characteristics stored for each file is a set of file attributes that give the operating system and application software more information about the file and how it is intended to be used.

The use of attributes is "voluntary". What this means is that any software program can look in the directory entry to discern the attributes of a file, and based on them, make intelligent decisions about how to treat the file. For example, a file management program's delete utility, seeing a file marked as a read-only system file, would be well-advised to at least warn the user before deleting it. However, it doesn't have to. Any programmer that knows what it is doing can override the attributes of a file, and certainly, the writers of viruses do this as a matter of course!

That said, most operating systems assign definite meanings to the attributes stored for files, and will alter their behavior according to what they see. If at a DOS prompt you type "DIR" to list the files in the directory, by default you will not see any files that have the "hidden" attribute set. You have to type "DIR /AH" to see the hidden files.

A file can have more than one attribute attached to it, although only certain combinations really make any sense. The attributes are stored in a single byte, with each bit of the byte representing a specific attribute (actually, only six bits are used of the eight in the byte). Each bit that is set to a one means that the file has that attribute turned on. (These are sometimes called attribute bits or attribute flags). This method is a common way that a bunch of "yes/no" parameters are stored in computers to save space. The following are the attributes and the bits they use in the attribute byte:

Attribute	Bit Code
Read-Only	00000001
Hidden	00000010
System	00000100
Volume Label	00001000
Directory	00010000
Archive	00100000

The attribute bits are summed to form the attribute byte. So, the attribute byte for a hidden, read-only directory would be 00010011, which is simply the codes for those three attributes from the table above, added together. Here is a more detailed description of what these attributes mean (or more accurately, how they are normally used). Note that each of the attributes below apply equally to files and directories (except for the directory attribute of course!):

• Read-Only: Most software, when seeing a file marked read-only, will refuse to delete or modify it. This is pretty straight-forward. For example, DOS will say "Access denied" if you try to delete a read-only file. On the other hand, Windows Explorer will happily munch it. Some will choose the middle ground: they will let you modify or delete the file, but only after asking for confirmation.
• Hidden: This one is pretty self-explanatory as well; if the file is marked hidden then under normal circumstances it is hidden from view. DOS will not display the file when you type "DIR" unless a special flag is used, as shown in the earlier example.
• System: This flag is used to tag important files that are used by the system and should not be altered or removed from the disk. In essence, this is like a "more serious" read-only flag and is for the most part treated in this manner.
• Volume Label: Every disk volume can be assigned an identifying label, either when it is formatted, or later through various tools such as the DOS command "LABEL". The volume label is stored in the root directory as a file entry with the label attribute set.
• Directory: This is the bit that differentiates between entries that describe files and those that describe subdirectories within the current directory. In theory you can convert a file to a directory by changing this bit. Of course in practice, trying to do this would result in a mess--the entry for a directory has to be in a specific format.
• Archive: This is a special bit that is used as a "communications link" between software applications that modify files, and those that are used for backup. Most backup software allows the user to do an incremental backup, which only selects for backup any files that have changed since the last backup. This bit is used for this purpose. When the backup software backs up ("archives") the file, it clears the archive bit (makes it zero). Any software that modifies the file subsequently, is supposed to set the archive bit. Then, the next time that the backup software is run, it knows by looking at the archive bits which files have been modified, and therefore which need to be backed up. Again, this use of the bit is "voluntary"; the backup software relies on other software to use the archive bit properly; some programs could modify the file without setting the archive attribute, but fortunately most software is "well-behaved" and uses the bit properly. Still, you should not rely on this mechanism absolutely to ensure that your critical files are backed up.

Other's version available

RTM or RTW

The term "release to manufacturing" (RTM) is used by Microsoft and others to indicate when the production version has been sent to a product manufacturer, in preparation for physical distribution (e.g., DVDs/CDs in retail boxes). RTM can also refer to online distribution, though the term "release to Web" (RTW) is usually used in this context. Typically, RTM happens weeks or months before a public release because of the time needed to produce boxed copies of the product and send them through retail distribution channels.

GA

General Availibility (GA) is used as a synonym for release to manufacturing.

Box copy

A box copy is a physical version of the final product, printed on a disc that is complete with disc graphic art. This term is used mostly by reviewers to differentiate from other forms of the released product (e.g., a downloaded copy). A box copy does not necessarily come enclosed in a box; it refers to the disc itself.

Stable or unstable

In open source programming, version numbers or the terms stable and unstable commonly distinguish the stage of development. The term stable refers to a version of software that is substantially identical to a version that has been through enough real-world testing to reasonably assume there are no showstopper problems, or at least that any problems are known and documented. On the other hand, the term unstable does not necessarily mean that there are problems - rather, that enhancements or changes have been made to the software that have not undergone rigorous testing and that more changes are expected to be imminent. Users of such software are advised to use the stable version if it meets their needs, and to only use the unstable version if the new functionality is of interest that exceeds the risk that something might simply not work right.

In the Linux kernel, version numbers are composed of three numbers, separated by a period. Between versions 1.0.0 and 2.6.x, stable releases had an even second number and unstable release an odd one. As of Linux 2.6.x, the even or odd status of the second number no longer holds any significance. The practice of using even and odd numbers to indicate the stability of a release has been used by other open and closed source projects.

32-Bit Computing: What's It All About?

What Does 32-bit Mean?

A binary digit, or bit, is the smallest unit of data that a computer
can process. All other things being equal, the more bits your computer
can process at the same time, the faster it is.

Most desktop computers manipulate bits in groups of 16 or 32. If you
have two computers whose clock (processing) speed is identical, and one
processes 32 bits at a time while the other processes 16, the 32-bit
computer will be about twice as fast.

Advantages

One advantage of 32-bit systems is speedier processing for resource-
hungry applications such as math packages, graphics and publishing
programs, and network operations.

In addition, when a machine's internal addressing scheme uses 32
bits, it can address much larger amounts of memory and hard disk space.

Yet another advantage of 32-bit systems is faster multitasking, where
two or more applications run at the same time. An operating system
performs multi-tasking by sending different parts of many tasks to the
CPU at different times. Of course, the faster the system, the less
likely it is that the user will notice what's going on behind the
scenes.

what is Volume License Key (VLK)?

Volume License key (VLK) is a term used by some computer software companies to denote the product key used when installing software licensed under volume licensing, which allows a single product key to be used for multiple installations. This form of licensing is typically used in business, government, and educational institutions, with prices for volume licensing varying depending on the type, quantity and applicable subscription term. For example, Microsoft software available through volume licensing programs includes Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Office 2007 and many others.

Volume Activation 2.0

Starting with Windows Vista, VLKs have been replaced with Multiple Activation Keys (MAK) or Key Management Server (KMS) keys. MAK Activation may occur independently (by means of connection to Microsoft through internet or telephone activation) or through a proxy using Microsoft's Volume Activation Tool (VAMT). Hosts activated via a KMS have to report back to that key server once every 180 days.

Do you want to see what is going on behind the Windows XP splash screen ?

Do you want to see what is going on behind the Windows XP and 2000 splash screens? When Windows first starts up it displays a screen with the Windows logo known as the splash screen. To see what is going one behind it use notepad to edit the C:\boot.ini file (to see the file listed, you may need to set your Windows Explorer, Tools, Folder Options, View to see hidden files and folders, and to unhide protected system files). You'll see a line that looks similar to this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

Add a space and /SOS to the end of the line so it looks like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect /SOS

The boot.ini file can also be edited in Windows XP by right-clicking My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Startup and Recovery, Edit.

what is OEM ?

What is OEM ?

OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. OEM software is sold by the software creator to a hardware manufacturer. For example, Microsoft will sell OEM versions of Windows and Office to companies like Dell or Gateway, at volume discounts. Dell and Gateway are then able to sell you the PC, complete with software, at a reasonable price. If you bought a PC from one of these companies, chances are that in the box, you found a handful of CD-ROMs with all kinds of software on them. No manuals, no instructions - just the CDs. These CDs are OEM software.

Sometimes, people and/or companies will not use the OEM software that came with their computer, and so they decide to sell the software, usually very inexpensively. If you need the software, it's a great way to save tens or hundreds of dollars off of the retail, boxed version you would buy in the store.

There ARE restrictions, however. Some OEM software comes with a restrictive license that says it can only be used with the hardware it originally came with. So, if you got an OEM version of CD-burning software, the license may restrict you to using the software ONLY with the CD-burner that came with your PC. These licenses, while restrictive, are also unusual.

There are two types of OEM when it comes to operating systems. The first is when a pre-built computer is purchased, there is an OEM disk that comes with the system, which can not be transferred to any other system, because that disk is designed to run only with the specific system components. The second type of OEM operating system is one that can be purchased, and that can be transferred to any other system, without the dependence on the systems components. The main difference between the two is that one is only meant for that specific system, and the other can be used on any system.

Academically priced software OR student editions is a software package offered to students and teachers at a substantially discounted price compared to the software's retail price. "Academic Discounts" or "Education Discounts" allow students and teachers alike the opportunity to own the software they need at much more affordable costs. The discount varies and can be as high as 80-90 %.

Academically priced software benefits the student by allowing them to become familiar with the technology prior to using it in a for-profit setting, and benefits the software company because students who use their software while they are in school tend to favor the same software they used in school, when they enter the working world.

Academically priced software is generally identical to the commercial version of the software, except that academically priced software is typically not licensed for commercial or for profit use (i.e. it can only be used in an academic setting). Engineering software will often print with a watermark around the border of a page, noting that the software is for "Education Use Only."

Academically priced software packages can come with little or no printed instruction manual, with the understanding that students using the software will be taught how to use it by professional instructors, and therefore have less need for a printed manual. This provides a cost savings for the manufacturer, who can then pass the savings on to the student. An electronic manual is typically provided in lieu of a printed manual.

Academically priced software is sometimes not eligible for upgrade and crossgrade discounts, though in many instances there are upgrades to the commercial version available as well.

Top 10 Linux financial tools

Many people don't realize the wealth of applications available for Linux — and that includes financial software. Jack Wallen introduces 10 Linux apps that will meet your financial needs, whether you just want a digital replacement for your checkbook or you're looking for a full-blown accounting package for your organization.

Many people don't realize the wealth of applications that are available for Linux. I am asked all the time about X and/or Y application on Windows and whether there's an equivalent on Linux. Most of the time the answer is yes.

The arena of finance is no exception. Plenty of outstanding financial applications are available for the Linux operating system. From personal finance to business finance, there is an application for nearly every need. Let's take a look at the top Linux financial applications.

#1: Gnucash

I start off with this application simply because it's my financial application of choice. Gnucash is released under the GPL so it is fully open sourced and is available for Linux, BSD, Solaris, OS X, and Windows. Gnucash features double-entry accounting, stock/bond/mutual fund accounts, small-business accounting, customer/vendor/job invoicing, QIF/OFX/HBCI Import/Transaction matching, reports/graphs, scheduled transactions, and financial calculations. Gnucash is incredibly easy to use and handles multiple accounts. Importing QIF files is simple, and entering transactions is intuitive. Gnucash can export to TXF format for tax preparation programs.

#2: KMyMoney

This is a finance application often included in KDE. KMyMoney has a user-interface similar to Quicken. In fact, those familiar with Quicken will find themselves right at home with KMyMoney. The biggest difference between KMyMoney and Quicken is that KMyMoney can't communicate directly with financial institutions. You can import QIF and Gnucash data, but the only format that can be exported is QIF. KMyMoney is also licensed under the GPL.

#3: Moneydance

Moneydance is proprietary software that's available for Linux, OS X, and Windows. Moneydance is one of the more fully featured financial applications available for Linux and includes such features as online banking and bill payment, budget management, scheduled/recurring payments, portfolio tracking, report generation, Quicken and Money data importation, encryption, and international support. Moneydance does require Java. Fortunately, there are versions of Moneydance that come prepackaged with Java, so those who are a bit weary of the task of installing Java (especially on a Linux machine) don't have to worry. The interface is very intuitive. Moneydance costs $39.99 per license. There is no corporate or individual licensing.

#4: Appgen MyBooks

If you're looking for commercial or accounting level software, this might be just what you need. Written for Linux (Linspire, to be exact), OS X, and Windows, this software package is double-entry and fully audited and conforms to the standards of GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles.) MyBooks can be purchased as a single-user license, two-user license, and 10-user license. It can be set up as a single system or as a client/server network system. A free trial version of MyBooks is available. This package also handles inventory (including perpetual inventory), service-based businesses, charting, statements, batch entries, ODBC, and vouchers.

#5: Nolapro

Don't let the free price tag of Nolapro fool you. This is for serious business. Although not open source, this package is free to use in any size environment and handles everything from inventory, accounts receivable, general ledger, POS, vendors, customers, B2B, online shopping cart, and payroll. Nolapro does require a database installation, but other than that, installation is simple. Nolapro is designed to be a network installation so the server can be accessed by multiple clients via browser. The license is unlimited users, unlimited companies, and unlimited books. For personal finance, you might want to skip Nolapro — its feature list will probably overwhelm you.

#6: Linux Business Accounting Systems BasicBooks

Linux Business Accounting Systems offers BasicBooks General Ledger for Linux. This application features complete financial reporting, support for all decimal-denominated currency, and unlimited transactions. BasicBooks uses the PostgreSQL database and is easy to use and learn. One of the nicest features of this package is that transaction databases can be loaded into spreadsheets for report creation. System requirements are low (Linux OS with GTK+ library and PostgreSQL; the program requires only 373K bytes). BasicBooks costs $20 per CPU and is available in binary package form (for RedHat, Fedora, SuSe, Ubuntu, Vector, and others), which includes the user reference manual.

#7: Quasar Accounting

This particular package is part of a full-fledged POS package that can be run as stand-alone accounting software. Quasar is not open source (although a purchased commercial license provides full access to the source code) and is available for Linux and Windows. Features include international support, outstanding GUI, simple data entry, error correction, backup/restore, online help, multi-company support, data import, mailing labels, user-level security, chart of accounts, statement printing, journal entries, customer quotes, sales orders, invoicing, multiple taxes, discounting, price management, accounts receivable, and cash reconciliation. You can download an evaluation version. A free single-computer edition is also available.

#8: SQL-Ledger

This is one of the oldest Linux accounting/ERP systems. SQL-Ledger is a double-entry accounting system that has an amazing list of features, such as accounts receivable, accounts payable, voucher system, general ledger, inventory control, billing, time cards, POS, check printing, purchase/sales orders, taxes, multi-user/company, audit control, SQL server backend, templates, customers, vendors, chart of accounts, and financial statements. SQL-Ledger is often considered the "best of" for Linux accounting. Obviously, this is another package that's far more than a financial tool. Someone looking for single-user financial software might want to look elsewhere. But if you need a small to midsize financial solution, you should look here first.

#9: Rapid Graphing Software for Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities

If you don't have or follow stocks/stock portfolios, you won't know what Rapid is for. Features include candlesticks, OBV, moving averages, Macd, Stochastics, RSI, Wilder DMI, Fibonacci, and Slope. Rapid will import text data and includes multiple journals that allow you to record your trades, graph trading performance and calculate totals for tax purposes. The Linux version of Rapid can print and share charts over the Net. Rapid is free to use and simple to install.

#10: Crossover Office

Those of you who can't live without Quicken or Money can always use Crossover Office and install either of those applications. You will have to pay for both pieces of software, but if you need Quicken's (or Money's) features, you're in luck.

Linux can handle nearly every financial need you can think of. Whether you're a single user wanting a simple digital replacement for your checkbook or a company looking for a full-blown accounting package, Linux has you covered.

Clean your computer

I have a dirty secret. I've never cleaned my computer. Sure, I've dusted my monitor, but I haven't taken off the cover or tried to reach the crumbs lurking inside my keyboard.

"Your computer could fry if you don't keep it clean," says Jonathon Millman, chief technology officer for Hooplah Interactive.

Dust clogs the vents behind your computer, which causes your CPU to heat up—and heat is the biggest cause of component failure in computers. Regular cleaning could save you costly maintenance fees down the road.

Keep your computer in tip-top shape by following Millman's guide to a spotless computer system.



Preparation

You'll need:
• screwdriver
• can of compressed air (available from computer dealers or office-supply stores)
• cotton swabs (do not use a cotton ball)
• rubbing alcohol
• paper towels or anti-static cloths
• water

Always turn your computer off before you begin and unplug all the cords.

Step 1: Inside the case

Using a screwdriver, remove the side of the case that's opposite your motherboard. Touch as little as possible inside the computer, keeping fingers away from cards and cords.

Blow air around all of the components and along the bottom of the case, keeping the nozzle four inches away from the machine. Blow air into the power supply box and into the fan (from the back of the case). Lastly, blow air into the floppy disk and CD drives. Wipe the inside of the cover with a lightly moistened cloth before replacing it.

Millman recommends doing this every three months if your case sits on the floor, if you have pets that shed, or if you smoke. Otherwise, every six to eight months is fine.

Step 2: Outside the case

Run a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol around all of the openings on the back of your case. Give them one swipe with the damp end of the swab and one swipe with the dry end. Do this as often as you clean the inside of your computer.

Step 3: Keyboard

Turn the keyboard upside down and gently shake it. Most of the crumbs and dust will fall out. Take a can of compressed air and blow into and around the keys. Next, take a cotton swab and dip it in rubbing alcohol. It should be damp, but not wet. Run the cotton swab around the outside of the keys. Rub the tops of the keys. If you have a laptop, follow the same procedure but take extra care with your machine. Do this monthly.

Spills — If you have kids, you're worried about spills. If it happens, disconnect the keyboard immediately and flip it over. Blot the top with a paper towel, blow compressed air between the keys and leave it to air dry overnight. For laptops, liquid can easily penetrate the hard drive so turn the computer over immediately and leave it in that position until it dries.

Step 4: Mouse

Rub the top and bottom of your mouse with a paper towel dipped in rubbing alcohol. Open the back and remove the ball. Wash the ball with water and let it air dry. To clean inside the mouse, dip a cotton swab in rubbing alcohol and rub all of the components. Scrape hard-to-remove grime with your fingernail. Finally, blow air into the opening. Replace the ball and the cover. Do this monthly.

Step 5: Monitor

Moisten a paper towel or a soft, lint-free cloth with water. (You can also buy monitor cleaning products at computer-supply stores.) Don't spray liquid directly onto the screen—spray the cloth instead. Wipe the screen gently to remove dust and fingerprints. Never touch the back of the monitor.

For laptop screens, Millman suggests buying a special cleaning solution available at computer stores. Do this weekly.

Finally, make sure that everything is dry before you plug your computer back in.

What are Passwords?

Passwords are strings of characters used to authenticate computer system users.

Computer users are normally asked to enter their username (or login name) and their password (or pass phrase) before they are give access to a system.

If the person knows the username and the password, the computer systems trusts that they are the account owner and grants them access to their data.

Selecting a good password

Choosing a good password is critical for personal security, requiring password crackers to take additional time and resources to get access to your personal information and computer credentials. A poor password creates a false sense of security, and may endanger your personal information, access to computer resources, or even allow another individual to spawn attacks and viruses using your personal credentials.

Password Construction

Password crackers have many tools at their disposal to cut down the amount of time it takes to crack your password. Selecting a secure password will help to ensure that the password cracker must take as much time as possible to guess or otherwise identify your password. No password is ultimately secure, but if it takes the password cracker longer to crack the password than it takes for the password to become useless, you will have succeeded in thwarting the cracker's attack.

Insecure methods

• Passwords should not be created using personal information about yourself or your family. A password cracker with incentive to break your personal password will use this information first, making these passwords the least secure passwords. Examples of bad passwords of this type are: your name, birthplace, nickname, family name, names of pets, street address, parents names, names of siblings and the like.
• Passwords should not be formed of words out of any dictionary or book. Longer words do not generally add much protection. Using known words in any language allows the password cracker to take shortcuts in his password cracking schemes, allowing him to guess your password in a very small fraction of the time it would take otherwise. Examples of bad passwords of this type are: dragon, secret, cheese, god, love, sex, life and similar words.
• Passwords should not be composed of proper nouns of places, ideas, or people. These words are commonly found in password cracker databases. Examples are: Jehovah, Tylenol, edutainment, Coolio, beesknees, transformers.
• Passwords should not be simple variations of words. Although these passwords don't appear in a book or dictionary, it is a simple matter to generate a replacement word list automatically. These passwords are more secure than the above two examples, but not significantly more secure. Examples of passwords of this type are drowssap, l0ve, s3cr3t, dr@gon, and similar word-like terms.
• Passwords should not be a concatenation of two words commonly following each other in a sentence. These passwords are more secure than the above password concepts, but still fall far short for password security. Examples of these kinds of passwords are: whatfor, divineright, bigpig, ilove, farfetched, catspajamas.
• Do not reuse recently employed passwords again. If you find it difficult to pick a new password, you should wait until you changed you password at least 5 times before reusing an old password, or 12 months if password changes are common.

Secure methods

• Always change your password immediately if you feel that your password has been compromised. Always do this directly. Never follow links sent to you in email, through an instant messenger client, or from a phone call you received. Ask for administrative assistance if you have trouble changing your password.
• Do not write your password down where others may find it. If you must write it down, ensure it is in a locked location that is only accessible to you. Hiding your password in places you feel it is unlikely to be found is not helpful. Password crackers have a criminal mind, and generally know where to look.
• It is important that you change your password on a regular schedule, at least every six months. This assists you by throwing off any cracking efforts that might be in progress, but have not yet been completed. It also helps you if somehow you have compromised your password in some other way without knowing it.
• Select passwords that use a mixture of capital letters, numbers, and special characters. Take heed however, some systems do not allow you to use some or any special characters. Make sure you check the password criteria for the system you are using ahead of time, if possible.
• Use substitution of numbers for letters and letters for numbers in your passwords. Although this is not a primary method of securing your password, it will add another layer of security on top of a good password, and will prevent the accidental guess of your password due to circumstances.
• Where it is not possible to use many characters in your password (less than 14), it is advisable to create a password by creating a passphrase, and selecting letters in a specific position in each word. An example of this is "jJjshnImn2". As you notice, it's unlikely that any cracker would guess this password; however, it is easy to remember when you note the passphrase "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, his name is my name too". Notice the use of number substitution and capitalization in the password.
• The best passwords are complete phrases if the system will allow them. They are sometimes called "passphrases" in reflection of this. For example, a good passphrase might be "I clean my Glock in the dishwasher." You can also use number and letter substitution on passphrases as well. Longer passphrases generally mean better password security.

Password Secrecy

Passwords are useless if they are distributed to other than to their intended users. Below is a list of methods to keep your passwords private.

• If you have a large number of passwords to remember, or you don't feel you can remember important ones, you can use your computer to assist you in the storage of passwords. You can encrypt your password list with an acceptable master password using reliable encryption software. Many password managers are available for this purpose. For experienced users Gnu Privacy Guard and Pretty Good Privacy are free for individual use. Ensure you know how to use encryption properly; improper use of encryption technologies may defeat the whole purpose of using encryption in the first place. Seek help from an encryption expert, or purchase commercial encryption software if understanding is not forthcoming. Do not store your encrypted passwords, or your encryption keys, somewhere that another person may gain access to them.
• Refrain from using the same password on multiple systems, especially systems that do not serve the same function. Never use passwords you use on Internet forums, games, websites, or otherwise for any important password. It is trivial for the owners of these systems to extract your passwords if they are willing.
• Never tell another a password through e-mail, instant messenger clients, chat rooms, forums or other shared environments. These conversations are almost never entirely private. Do not tell someone your passwords over a cell phone or cordless telephone, as these are insecure mediums for conversation, and may easily be monitored. If you must tell someone a password over a telephone land line, make sure the party you are speaking with is the only listener. You may want to validate that additional parties are not listening in by calling the original party on a number you know is owned by them.
• Do not use shared passwords unless it is entirely unavoidable. Passwords shared between multiple users prevents the determination of which user performed which actions.
• Of course, never tell your passwords to anyone. Once you tell someone else your password, you no longer have control over the scope of password knowledge. If you absolutely must share your account access to a computer system, change the password to a new password first before sharing it, and then change the password back to its original form once the other users are done performing the necessary efforts.

Two-Factor Authentication

The original password concept has been proven to be insecure. There have been cases where passwords have been compromised without a users knowledge, through coersion, or because they were conned into revealing it. The core problem with legacy passwords is that it is very difficult or impossible for an administrator or a computer system to differentiate between a legitimate user and illegitimate user gaining access through the same password. Because of this inherent flaw in the original password system, Two Factor Authentication was invented.

A password is "something you know." This information is understood to be known by a single individual. Two-factor authentication systems add in another factor, "something you have", electronic card key, electronic token, dongle, fob or some other physical item you keep in a secure place when not in use. A common stand in replacement for this second factor when higher levels of security are needed is "something you are". A biological fingerprint, retina pattern, person's weight, specific vital signs or a combination of these items is used in place of the electronic device. The biological factor for authentication and authorization has been found to be unreliable, but not in that it permits those that should not be permitted when used properly, but because there is a tendency for it to deny legitimate users access due to sickness, physical body changes, or other physical impairments.

There are two common methods of authentication when users use electronic components for two-factor authentication, response-only, and challenge-response systems.

Response-only systems require a user to present your electronic device to an electronic reading system, or for you to enter data displayed on the electronic device without user input. The user must provide a username or pin that is not known to outsiders, and then enter specific credential data generated by the electronic device when prompted. In many cases, this mechanism returns the user back to a single factor authentication, where the user does not need to know something, but just posseses the item in question. An example of this is the standard electronic card key used to enter a facility or building perimiter. The user need not provide any other factor to prove their identity.

Challenge-response systems require the user to enter a specific passphrase or pin into the electronic device first, before the device responds with the proper access credentials data. This varient is always considered two-factor authentication, since the user must provide both "something they know" (the pin), and use "something they have" (the electronic device).

Both the response-only and challenge-response systems can be defeated if the user both reveals the private information they keep secret, such as their username or pin code, and the attacker takes ownership of the electronic device. Due to this weakness, the bioligcal factor was invented.

Biological factors have been in use for several decades, and have proven to be reliable and secure ways to prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to secure systems or environments, regardless of the privacy of their passwords used. Systems monitor fingerprints, eye retina patterns, weight, ambient temperature, and other biological signs to determine the authenticity of the user requesting access. Movies have been touting methods of defeating these systems by cutting off body parts, using retinal masks, or forcing legitimate users into bypassing the authentication mechanisms for the attacker. These are largely Hollywood schemes and rarely work in the real world. In most cases where this level of security is required, local or remote monitoring of entry points through cameras and security personnell is common. Deadlock portals, remote activated magnetically controlled entranceways, and visual idenfitication are the norm.

Many simple methods have been devised to defeat weakly designed biological factor systems, so be sure you thoroughly test the security measures you plan to put in place before implementation.