macintosh tip: Halloween Goodies

Add some halloween flavor to your mac with these desktop backgrounds, icons and more!

Iconfactory

A great site to get free goodies!

macintosh tip: iTunes sleep timer app

iWannaSleep is a very simple, free application that allows us all to rest easier. For those that like to turn on their music as they head to bed, but don't want to get up to walk over and turn off the mac, this thing will put to sleep, or turn off your mac at a user specified time with just one click.

windows tip: Which Graphics Card?

> Here's a PC question for you: I've been looking into updating the video
> card on my PC ( a Dell) but it looks like I have to figure out whether I
> need a PCI, PCI Express or AGP card....
>
> What's the difference? How the heck do I tell which one my machine has in
> the first place?


AGP is probably what you want, unless you have a brand spanking new dell you probably don't have PCIe (express) which is pretty new. It's basically all just speed difference. PCI was first, then they made one slot dedicated to just a graphics card, AGP, then they speeded up that slot and made it universal for any type of card PCIe. AGP is still a good cheap buy for 95% of the people out there. But PCIe will be the next thing to get. But you can't get the card unless your computer already has a PCIe slot. :(

DELL SUPPORT
That link should take you to the dell support site and should tell you what you've got.

Geeks.com has well explained tech tip newsletters which talk about it too:
http://www.geeks.com/pix/techtips-16JUN05.htm

PCIe info:
http://www.geeks.com/pix/techtips-031005.htm

AGP info:
http://www.geeks.com/pix/techtips-030305.htm

Geeks.com is a great site for cheap stuff! And I would recommend their Tech Tips newsletter.

macintosh tip: THE best iTunes Widget?!

Widgets are a great new feature of Tiger, Mac OS 10.4. You can view weather, news, and more with just one click! Also there are tons of free widgets freely available to download.

One of the best recent widgets i've found is one for itunes called 'Album Art Widget' by liquidx.net.

With one click you can see what's playing, rate the song, and most importantly ADD album artwork to your itunes songs! This is a great feature for all those songs you have in your library that do not have cover of the albums attached which you get from songs you buy from the Apple iTunes music store.

To setup the album image grabbing be sure to click the 'i' in the widget to setup the preferences.

DOWNLOAD PAGE FOR ALBUM ART WIDGET

internet tip: Google on your phone!

You can actually google something from your mobile phone. It's very handy when you're running around and need to lookup something fast. It's FREE except for your normal text messaging fees you pay to your cell phone provider. Usually it's free or 10-25 cents. a LOT cheaper then calling 411 though!

Here's what it's good for:

• Get local business listings when you're on the road and want to find a place to eat.
  
• Obtain driving directions to get from point A to point B without having to ask for directions.
  
• Find movie showtimes and theater locations of movies currently playing near you.
  
• Check weather conditions and 4-day forecasts to plan your day.
  
• Study the latest stock quotes and stay on top of the market.
  
• Get quick answers to straightforward questions.
  
• Compare online product prices with ones you find in retail stores.
  
• Look up dictionary definitions to expand your vocabulary or prove a point.
  

How do I use it?

Enter your query as a text message.
Send the message to the US shortcode 46645 (GOOGL on most phones).
Receive a text message (or messages) with your results, usually within a minute. Results may be labeled as "1/3", "2/3", etc.
To get Google SMS help info sent directly to your phone, send the word 'help' as a text message to 46645.

More information

Download a TIP SHEET for your wallet!

macintosh tip: SECURE Trash delete!

So you have a file you want to delete, and you want to make SURE no one else ever sees it? Not even if someone else buys your computer five years down the road? You want it deleted, gone, eradicated, vanished!

Well you don't need to hire the mafia, you simply just chose 'secure empty trash' from the Finder's menu. Apple says, "Files deleted in this way are completely overwritten by meaningless data. This may take some time, depending on the size of the file. You may want to use Secure Empty Trash if you sell or give away your computer."

So be sure you want to delete it! It will be gone!

More info...