Are you a TV addict? Want to find out what you missed in a TV show or the status of a TV show? Though tv.com was bought by CBS, it retains its neutrality and reports information about more TV shows than you ever knew were on the air (or were). It is the IMDB of TV…with character. Continue reading TV Addicts database: TV.com
Tag Archives: application
Tips for TripIt to Manage Your Travel Details with No-effort!
TripIt is an almost magical web service (with mobile apps available) that keeps your travel itinerary organized for you, automatically. If you travel, even a moderate amount, TripIt takes the load off your mind, secure in knowing that you have all the information you need while you travel. Here are some tips for using TripIt to consolidate all your important travel information with zero-effort!
TripIt basically does two things:
- Accepts travel confirmation emails and
- Build a detailed itinerary calendar
That is, you forward the travel confirmation emails from airlines, hotels, rental cars, etc. and TripIt builds an itinerary and maintains a personal calendar that contain all the relevant travel information from those emails.
This can be done without paying for TripIt. It has other features and TripIt Pro has even more features that maybe useful for frequent super-travelers.
No-Maintenance Usage Tips
To make TripIt into a no-maintenance tool, you should do the following: Continue reading Tips for TripIt to Manage Your Travel Details with No-effort!
Gmail “Anonymizer”: Using Gmail without others knowing about it
Free email is always popular. With Gmail having been out for a while and all those nifty Google services which require a Gmail ID as a prerequisite, Gmail is more popular than ever. Coupled with that, its great Spam filtering and it’s no wonder why so many people use it. Even if you have your own domain or other email mailbox, the Spam protection alone might be a reason to switch to Gmail. Other reasons: almost unlimited mailbox size, fast searching of all your email, a single place to organize all your email, a single view to your mail organization from any email client (via IMAP), and versatile mail management via labels.
So, if you are going to use Gmail, here’s some advice on how to use it right. Continue reading Gmail “Anonymizer”: Using Gmail without others knowing about it
Lost Windows’ Password? Simple, Just Delete It
Having one of those “senior moments” and forgotten the Windows login password you’d set? Or maybe you had to restart that old Windows machine and don’t remember the password that you’d used. Whatever the reason, it turns out to be amazingly simple to clear your password to gain access to your Windows machine. Once you regain access to your account, you can re-establish a new password (or the same one, if you can remember what it was).
Continue reading Lost Windows’ Password? Simple, Just Delete It
VMware: Running Your Apps Safely in a Virtual Environment
As a software/techy/geek, I love VMware Workstation for Windows (and Linux and Fusion for OSX). These products allow an operating system to run within the context of the operating system—a computer within a computer, so to speak. This allows a single machine to be used to run any applications without having to to use multiple machines, dual-boot, or reinstall applications. Continue reading VMware: Running Your Apps Safely in a Virtual Environment
Transferring iTunes Content
To retain all the playlist, podcast status, apps, and media organization in your iTunes setup do the following:
- Install iTunes.
- Make sure iTunes is not running.
- Copy all the media files from your old machine to the new. If all the media is in the standard iTunes location, copy to the entire iTunes directory.
XP: C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes
Win7: C:\Users\username\Music\iTunes
OSX: /Users/username/Music/iTunes
In Finder, navigate to Home Directory, Music, iTunes.
- Copy any media outside the iTunes area to their same paths on the new machine.
- Start iTunes and let it rebuild its database.
If you are using iTunes to sync your contacts and other personal information with your iPod’s or iPhone’s, then be sure that the application that holds the personal data is installed and up to date before syncing the device.
Migrating Skype Chat History
After installing Skype on a new machine, make sure it is not running. Then, the chat history from an old installation can be moved to the new installation. The Skype user directories in the new installation need to be replaced with the ones from the prior installation, adding them, if necessary.
| XP: |
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Skype\skypeuser |
| Win 7: |
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Skype\skypeuser |
Username is the windows login name under which the given Skype installation will run. Skypeuser is one or more Skype user ids that will log into Skype under the given windows login. If you are using Windows’ Explorer, make sure that “protected operating system files” are shown. (I replaced the entire Skype directory and that also worked).
See Move Skype History From Windows XP To Windows 7, but realize that it says that only the “chatsync” directories need to be copied over… that will not work, however, the entire parent directory (skypeuser) must be copied.
Finding Free, Useful Windows Applications
Everyone has their favorite set of applications. Over time, these applications accumulate to the point that you do not realize how many of these applications have actually been installed… until they need to be reinstalled, that is. But if you are starting from scratch, either you want to dispense with the past and start fresh or you simply do not know where to start, to cull through all the cruft you’d accumulated on your old machine.
There is a great site that helps with selecting and installing an initial set of high-quality free applications at Ninite.com. The web site presents commonly needed applications in categories and packages them up into a single custom installation executable that is downloaded and installed locally. After downloading, all the applications can be installed, running a single installation program. It’s also a great site to simply survey what applications you might want to consider.
AlternativeTo.net is another site for finding great applications. If you are familiar with an application but it is too expensive, its features not quite right, or it does not exist on the platform you need, this site will return all kinds of alternatives to the familiar one.
Continue reading Finding Free, Useful Windows Applications