Practical Tips: Cutting Onions- No more tears

Jessica told me that if you run water while cutting an onion you won't get teary eyed. I've tried it and it works, but why. Today I was watching the history channel and they explained why it works. Onions contain high levels of sulfur when you cut into an onion sulfer is released into the air and combines with the natural moisture on the surface of your eyes to create sulfuric acid. You tear to dillute this acid further. So in conclusion anything that can capture the sulfur vapor and combine it with water would effectively neutralize the sulfur enough so that it won't form sulfuric acid on the surface of your eye.

Tips: AOL Jacked your firefox search.

So you use the URL bar to search google, all the time. One day, after installing AIM, your search magically changes. What should have been Google results in Firefox are now AIM results. Your search has been hijacked by AOL. Not the first time they've done something shady but, fortunately there's a solution.

1. Open firefox, type in "about:config" in the keyword box
(where you usually type you web addresses).

2. Type in "keyword.url" at the top where it says "filter"

3. Right click "keywork.url" from the results and select reset.

That's it. Problem solved. You're welcome.

Tech: Removing Knight.exe

I bought a new flash drive from OCZ a beautiful 16GB flash drive. I connected it to a foreign machine and when I put it back into my computer, virus. No big deal AVG detected the virus and I selected remove. At first I thought it a bit odd cause the other machine didn't have access to any network or internet. I should have known better. The next thing I knew the flash drive stopped working. When I plugged in the drive I received a "mixed content" popup. The normal choices to open in folder view or to open selected files with a video player had dissapeared. I tried accesing the drive from my computer but it simply asked me to choose a program to open the "whole drive" with, as if it was an application. I stumbled across the directions below to remove "knight.exe" which still didn't give me access to the drive, and since I didn't have access to the drive I couldn't do one of the steps (Step 3b). I realized I might be able to access the drive another way. I opened the drive using izarc as if it were a zip file. I needed to open it directly through izarc's menu. Nothing shows up initially but if you choose, file type>all, you'll see the file autorun.inf. Delete that and you'll be done. I recommend you follow the instructions bellow in their given order until you get to that step. Paste a comment if this helps.

Note: You may be able to use any program to access the drive through the program's "Open" Dialogue, as long as the program has a "show all files" option. To delete simply right mouse click and select delete.

These instructions courtesy Precise Security:
1. Temporarily Disable USB Drive to autorun (Windows XP):

a. Open Windows Explorer or press the Windows + “e” key.
b. Right-click the drive of the USB Drive. Then select Properties. Drive Properties will appear.
c. Select the AutoPlay tab.
d. Choose Select an Action to Perform
e. At the bottom of the selection, click Take no Action, then click Apply.
f. Click OK to exit Drive Properties.

2. Show Hidden Files
a. Open Windows Explorer
b. Go to Tools > Options
c. On View tab, mark Checked the “Show Hidden Files and Folders and “Hide Protected OPerating System Files” Unchecked.

3. Delete the files manually
a. Go the USB Drive and delete autorun.inf
b. Go to C: Drive and delete autorun.inf
c. Go to C:\Windows and delete Disk Knight.exe

4. Modify Windows Registry
a. Go to Start > Run then type regedit
b. On Registry Editor, go to Edit > Find and type “knight”
c. Delete all entries it found.

5. Connect to Internet and update your AntiVirus

6. Reboot your computer in SafeMode
a. During BootUp process Press F8 continuously until selection appears
b. Use Arrow Up+Down to select SafeMode on the selections menu.
c. Hit Enter to proceed.

7. Scan your computer with an updated AntiVirus and delete all infections it founds.

Note: You may enable autorun of the USB Drive by reversing the process in Step 1.

Tips: Geotagging Photos with Picasa

Every digital image is encoded with digital information, EXIF, aside from the actual picture. That information holds interesting data: When the picture was taken, if it was modified and when it was last modified, Camera information, focal length, Camera make and model among other information.

We'll be focusing on one of the little known and little used fields called a geotag. A geotag allows you to identify the location where the image was taken using longitude and latidude based coordinates. This can be determined from the camera, external GPS device or embedded later. This gives you a new way to sort and search through your photo.

Another option is to wait until you've finished taking photos and add all the location details once you've downloaded the images to your PC. There are a variety of ways to do this, but one of the most straightforward uses a combination of Google's Picasa software and the company's Google Earth application.

This Excerpt is courtesy of Cnet (Click title for full article)

After downloading your photos into Picasa, it's simply a matter of clicking on the tools tab and selecting the 'Geotag with Google Earth' option. This opens the mapping application in which you navigate to the place where the photo was taken. A single click then embeds the relevant latitude and longitude details into the photo's EXIF metadata file.

Firefox Addons: Clipmarks

What can I do with Clipmarks? Save your clips on clipmarks.com. You can save clips publicly for others to see, post them to Facebook, or embed a widget of them on your own site. You can also save clips privately for your own viewing later. Your clip collection is searchable from any computer with an internet connection (including your iPhone, Blackberry, etc). Post anything you clip directly to your blog. It's by far the quickest way to update your blog with compelling things you find on the web. Supports Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, LiveJournal and more. Email anything from a web page without ever leaving the page. Import your contacts to instantly email friends and family interesting things from the web. The content you clip and a link to the page is automatically included with each email. Print just the parts of the page you really need. Save paper, save money, save trees.

Tips: Gas Tips

At the price of gas nowadays we can always use a little info on how to stretch the galon to get more bang for out buck. Below is an email I received from a friend. If anybody can give me verifiable citations I will gladly add it to the article. As it stands these tips really don't hurt to try.

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose, CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.


* Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.


* When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.


* One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Un ike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.


* Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up -- most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

Tweaks: DIE CTFMON.. DIE!

Okay, that was a little melodramatic, but this thing has been popping up, forever. If you're running a windows machine it's probably running right now (Ctrl + Alt + Delete then look at the Processes tab)

What is it?
Ctfmon is basically "Advance language options" seen mostly by the presence of the language bar. (That little microphone and question mark that show up on the right side of your task bar).

Why do I care?
It's wasted space, it uses my computer for no reason and slows down the time it takes my computer to start up. So far I don't need it and I don't think I'll ever need it but just in case I won't delete it.

How do I stop it?
To simply turn off ctfmon.exe go to
Control Panel>Regional and Language Options>Languages>Details>Advanced,
and check the box that says "Turn off advanced text services."
Done.

Found on a forum reference with this article. (Last post)

Firefox: Tips & Add Ons

Firefox Tips:

KeyBoard Shortcuts & Mouse Shortcuts

Move through tabs quickly:
Use Ctrl + Tab to switch between open tabs quickly. Hold down the Ctrl button and cycle through by tapping on Tab. Incidentaly you can reverse the direction by Holding down Ctrl + Shift while tapping on tab.

Keyboard shortcut to address bar & Seach Bar:
Atl +D, you can also hit tab to move to the search bar from here or use Ctl + K to go directly to the search bar.

Tips

Multiple Homepages:
Let's say you constantly visit the same 3 or 4 pages when you open your browser. All of us know that we can set a page as our homepage but most people don't know that you can set multiple pages (using tabs) as your home page.

Simply open up firefox and all the pages that you want as your homepages, each in their own tab. Then hit Alt + O (or go to Tools>Options) and hit the "use current pages button.

Add custom search engines:
You can add almost any search engine you wish to Firefox. Most of them are already made just click on the drop down for selecting searches and select manage engines. Here you can change the order of the engines and even add more search engines. Just click the link to add more search engines in the dialogs box that pops up. If you don't see the engine you're looking for on the main page just scroll down to "Additional Resources" and select the first option "Browse through more search engines at mycroft.mozdev.org" or just click the link above. If you can't find it there you can still create it.

Firefox Add ons:

1. All in one Gestures
: This little add on allows you to use your mouse more efficiently to move through the web and control tabs and window.

ie: You want to close the tab you're looking at. Hold down the right mouse button and draw an L anywhere on the screen. Move back: hold down the rt mouse and draw a line from right to left. Move forward: hold down the rt mouse and draw a line from left to right. New tab: hold down the rt mouse button and draw a line from bottom to top.

2. Tab Catalog
If you've used the latest version of internet explorer you'll notice that it has a feature that allows you to visually see what tabs are open. This extension does just that but takes it a step further. The extension allows you to see a grid off all the open tabs as thumbnails. You can see the page title and even click on a close button or links (You'd have to set some of this up in preferences).

ie: You click the right and left mouse buttons simultaneously or hold your mouse over the new icon that is to the right of your search bar. A grid with all open tabs will appear in thumbnail format. You may click on any thumbnail to switch to that tab. You may also hold alt + tab to see the grid temporarily.

3. Image Zoom:
This little extension simply lets you zoom into an image. It doesn't make the image clearer it just stretches it out so you can see a little more in the image. Although it's not perfect it does come in handy every once in a while when you can't see some detail in a small pic. You can even make images smaller, the type that fill your whole screen and go off the screen in some cases.

ie: Just hold down the right mouse and scroll the image will resize, up or down, depending on the direction you choose to scroll.

Helper Apps: Slickrun

There are several applications that I install almost immediately on any computer that I'll be working on. These applications make life easier and the best thing about it is that they're free.

Slickrun:
Without a shadow of a doubt this application is, by far, the most useful app that you will ever install. Slickrun is a command line interface that uses "magic words to expand its functionality. It's has an extremely small footprint, meaning that the filesize of the program is very small, in fact it's less than 1 megabyte (Small enough to fit on a floppy disk with room to spare.

What does it do?
In a word... Everything. I'm still trying. I've been using it for over 2 years and I'm still finding new things I can add.

You use keywords to launch things like
• Applications

Say I wanted to launch photoshop I just type PS and hit enter. Thunderbird, type mail and hit enter, Firefox, just type firefox and hit enter. With autocomplete built in you rarely have to type more than the first 3 letters.

• Websites

Before you even launch your browser you can type the address in slickrun and go directly to the page as the browser launches.

• Searches

You can search before you even reach a page. Let's say you wanted to search google for information on dogs. Simply type google into slickrun and hit enter. Another box will pop up for your search request. Enter "dogs" into the search and your browser launches with the results. This eliminates the time to 1, launch the browser, 2, navigate to googles site 3, wait for the result.

• Jot

Ever needed to take a quick note? With jot you can simply hit windows key + J and you will have a collapsible, searchable text file that autosaves. Before this I used to have my desktop littered with notepad files.

• Multi

Everyday we repeat the same repetative tasks. We open the same applications when we start our computers, write a paper, or do research. with multi you can now launch multiple applications at the same time.

Let's say every day you open Thunderbird, Firefox and AIM. Now you can launch all of these with one word. Once configured you can launch all three apps by typing in something like "morning". There is no restriction to the amount of apps you launch at the same time. You can even add delays to the launch and select the sequence that you wish.

Slickrun can be found at Bayden.com below is a URL to the download page.
Slickrun Download Page

Slickrun Tips:
Below you will find tips and tricks for slickrun.