CCleaner

I've been using a great program for Windows for a while that I thought I'd tell you about. After all, everybody loves free programs that actually work.

CCleaner is a great free alternative to programs like WindowWasher. It cleans all of the hidden cookies, temporary files, prefetch data, MRUs, and other junk that accumulates through time. Basically, it's a housekeeper that cleans the cobwebs out of the corner you often forget about.

More impressive is that also fixes registry issues such as data and registry keys that stick around after installing or uninstalling programs, and updating. Many times just uninstalling a program will not delete all the silly little files that come with a program. This fixes that. The program allows you to back up the registry in case anything happens in the cleaning. I've been using this for about a year now and have never had a registry issue.

CCleaner also allows you to uninstall programs much more easily than the standard Windows Control Panel/"Add or Remove Programs" will.

So there you go. Enjoy.

Fun with PCs

My church gave me a Dell Dimension 4300s that they weren't using any more because I am the webmaster for the church website. It had an 18 gig hard drive but had a faster and newer processor and a better video card.

So, I borrowed a external hard drive and copied everything from my old computer onto the drive. I formatted the 80 gig hard drive I had on that machine and put it in the new one. I found my copy of Windows XP and loaded it. So far it's running much better than the other machine ever did. I'm going to take the 18 gig hard drive and use it as a secondary drive.

I also took some ram from the other computer and combined it with the ram on this computer. It now has 512mb of ram. I actually have a bunch of ram cards but the silly Dell people only put two card slots on the 4300s so I can't use those. I'll probably buy two 1gig cards soon.

I've heard lots of horror stories about the Dimension 4300s so I am very hesitant, especially after all the trouble I had with my Inspiron 5150 laptop. But it's working well for now and I have everything backed up.

Since I couldn't find my MS Office CD I decided I didn't really care that much.

I downloaded Mozilla Thunderbird as an alternative to Outlook. I like it a lot and it's very similar.

I'm also using Open Office. It's FREE and is nearly exactly like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. It's incredible and did I mention it's free?

I'm going to get a firewire card for video editing and for a firewire external hard drive I have. I'm also going to get a DVD burner for this machine....hopefully a lightscribe. Those things are really cool.

Pimp My Firefox

By now you've probably at least heard about Firefox. If you haven't started using it instead of Internet Explorer or Netscape you should.

It's safer and way cooler. For instance, you can open up several websites in one window using tabs rather than having to open up several windows.

But for those of you who have, the extensions you can get for Firefox are amazing.

Here are some that I really love:

1. COOLIRIS PREVIEW - Have you seen that monkey commercial for ask.com? Pretty cool that with ask.com you can preview a website before actually entering it. But come on, everybody knows nothing compares to Google, right? Guess what. With this extension Firefox you can now do this in Google.
   
   Check out the Cooliris Preview extension. After the next update come out you will also be able to use it for other sites like Ebay and Craigslist.
   
   
2. GOOGLE PREVIEW - Another cool Google tweak that simply allows you to see a thumbnail image of the websites in your search results.
   
   
3. GOOGLEBAR - Just like in IE but with more features. There are several versions of the Googlebar. This is the official one. I’m still trying to figure out which one is best.
   
   You may be thinking, I don't need this because there is a google search already built in to Firefox. This one just has a lot more features (Froogle, maps, search within site, etc.). While we're on the subject of the built in search bar - if you haven't noticed, you can add a lot of engines to search other websites with the handy built in search bar. It'll let you search Ebay, IMDB, and Dictionary.com among other.
   
   
4. CUSTOMIZE GOOGLE - This is a cool tool and you can do a lot of things with it. The best thing for me is the ability to get rid of the paid links and ads that pop up at the top of your Google search results.
   
   
5. MYSPACEBAR - For those of you like me who are addicted to MySpace (it's actually a HUGE part of my job as a musician these days), a tool like this is invaluable. You can go straight to your mail, blog, groups, music, search...anything you can imagine.
   
   
6. IE TAB - There are some websites and functions that just won't work without Internet Explorer (Microsoft Update/Windows Update, Panda's free virus scanner, etc.). This is a great tool to enable you to continue working in Firefox but pull up IE in a separate tab.
   
   
7. NOSCRIPT - This is a very important tool that can be a little annoying and hard to get used to at first. I love it now though.
   
   Don't you just hate all the ads in MySpace and other sites? You know, the flash animated things where if you can tell which actress is Angelina you'll win a new iPod every year for the rest of your life? They're not just annoying, they can be dangerous. If a company who pays a website like MySpace to put their ad up puts a cookie or two in their ad, they can get all sorts of info on you. The easiest is of course your email address because you entered it into the same page the ad is on!
   
   This is a great way to get rid of that junk without losing other java or flash elements you actually need on a page. Once you download it you have to right click on the page and click the no-script to allow java or flash or other scripts to be shown for that page (for instance if you're on MySpace you would click to allow myspace.com but not advertising.com and all the other garbage on there). You only need to do this once per website because NoScript remembers for you.
   
   The annoying thing when you start is remembering you have to do that. It takes a little getting used to and can be frustrating when you want to see the weather on WSMV.com and think, "now, why is that map not popping up? Oh yeah, I have to okay this site!" But it's a great tool.

So, there are some of the hundreds of great extensions for Firefox. I wonder what your favorites are.

Google Bombs Away for New Year's Day!

So thanks to Julie and Jennie I've become fascinated by "google bombing" again. Google bombing is the act of linking a particular word or phrase to a particular site so that when you search google using that word or phrase that site rises to the top. It only takes a few sites or blogs to make that happen. This is why when you google the word failure or miserable failure the whitehouse.gov bio of President Bush pops up first (just below it are Jimmy Carter's bio and MichaelMoore.com).

So, I want to try an experiment. Hmmm... how about best band ever? Oh, well yeah we're not... but it would be pretty nifty to see that pop up on Google.

Now, I will link it a few more times from other sites and see what happens. I've found Blogger is actually the best way to get into Google's directory though. So: best band ever, best band ever, best band ever, best band ever, best band ever. There, that oughta do it.

Stay tuned. Oh and try linking that to http://www.knapsackheroes.com. Humble boys are we.

Dude, I don't got a Dell

Well the Dell stopped charging...so I can't check emails much....

Update on my Dell

So here's the deal with my Devil 5150. It's a collosal piece of crap. Here's some proof. Take a look at all the people worldwide who have had problems with this thing.

I had my motherboard replaced several months ago (right around 1 year of ownership). Dell tells me I may need to do this again. But, as I stated in my last blog on this issue, I no longer have a warranty.

Bottom line? Now, in addition to the battery not charging, the screen doesn't work! I'm using it with an external monitor right now. All of this means I can't use SongShow Plus until I get it fixed. I'm leading worship at a retreat this weekend and can't use the stupid computer for the very reason I bought it!

Yes, Gavin, I think I'm going to Mac. But when? Because I was an idiot and bought this thing on credit (which Dell jacked waaaayyy up after I bought it without telling me), I now owe more than than the retail price of it. Never again. And yet, what the crap am I supposed to do now? I have to have a laptop. It's part of my job. So what the heck am I to do? Pray I suppose.

Camp Wireless

I led music this weekend for the Smyrna First UMC youth group at Beersheba, the Tennessee United Methodist camp. I am excited to say that by the end of the week the entire camp will be set up for wireless internet!

The retreat was wonderful as is always the case with Smyrna 1st.