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Steve Bass's Weekly Newsletter
TechBite's columnist Steve Bass writes weekly commentary on the technology products he loves, the strategies for getting the most out of them, and the gotchas that can cause computing misery. Plus a couple of weekly laughs.
6 Smart Google Tools; Backup IE and Firefox
In This Issue
6 Useful Things You Can Do with Google
PC Annoyance: Hibernation Blues
Tools of the Week: IE and Firefox Backup
Holy Mackerel: Who Has the Most Secure Browser?
Google Time Wasters
Time Wasters
Search Me!
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6 Useful Things You Can Do with Google
You use Google, sure, but if all you're doing are searches, you're just scratching the surface. Here are a few things you might not know about Google.
Life Magazine's Old Photos
You might see it as a time waster, but I love digging through Google's gazillion historic photos from Life magazine. Google lets you use the photos for personal use, so it's terrific for grabbing an image when you need something cute in an invitation or newsletter.
Search Me a Special Search
Google has search sites specifically for Linux users, a way to search on specific university, and another for those of you who can't get enough of Microsoft. Check out the rest of Google's special search sites. If you like poking around with Web tools, Experimental Search gives you five new ways to search, each aimed at tightening and focusing on specific results.
An exciting experimental search tool is Google Squared. Stick in a couple of words, or a short phrase, and watch Google try to create a spreadsheet of results. For instance, try entering California dog parks or earthquake and volcano types.
Alert me!
Google sends me an email every time it sees a new occurrence of "steve bass," "earthquakes," and keywords about my various hobbies and interests. If you haven't tried Google Alerts, you're missing out on a terrific service.
Thematic Google
I have a Google home page and the color scheme used to be white bread. I just switched to a very cool Jackie Chan theme and amazingly, my productivity soared (wife, please take note). Choose from truckloads of themes (click on Newest and Hottest for more). [Thanks, DolphinWoman.]
Spice up your Google home page.
Number, Please?
It used to be easy to remember area codes. ("212" is New York, "312" Chicago, and "213" Los Angeles.) That's history because area codes are added frequently, like every 20 minutes out so. Next time you're stuck trying to figure out an area code's location, give it to Google. Just type the three-digit code and you'll get a top of the search answer.
There's more: You can track FedEx, UPS, and U.S. postal service shipments just by sticking the tracking number into Google's search field; do the same with ZIP and area codes, vehicle IDs, patent numbers, airplane registration numbers, and even UPC codes found on products.
Look up an area code in a flash.
Calculate this
You can use Google Calculator to crunch numbers and figure out conversions. Try entering 12*12 and see what happens; you can also run more complex equations, like G*(6e24 kg)/(4000 miles)^2. Google Calculator handles conversions of all types, such as ounces into tablespoons, dollars into euros, or GB to MB.
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PC Annoyance: Hibernation Blues
The Annoyance: My wife came into my office complaining that when her system comes back from hibernation mode, some of her USB devices just keep on dozing. Sometimes it's the headphones, or maybe the mouse won't work. No dillydallying on this one; spouses get high-priority tech support.
The Fix: The problem is that Windows XP wants to conserve power, so it turns off the USB root hubs when hibernating. I fixed this by changing the default setting. Here's how: Open Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance (if in Category view), System, Hardware, and Device Manager, then click Universal Serial Bus controllers. Double-click USB Root Hub, choose the Power Management tab, and then uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. You'll have to repeat this procedure with each occurrence of a USB root hub. Try this trick on a notebook, though, and it'll cost you some battery life.
Tools of the Week: IE and Firefox Backup
Take a sec and use BackRex to back up IE's favorites, history, font settings, cookies, and saved passwords. You can schedule the backup for daily, weekly, or monthly intervals; you can also use the tool to migrate all your settings to a new version of IE. BackRex is a freebie that works in all current versions of Windows. If you're a Firefox fan (stand up and cheer!), grab the free Firefox Environment Backup Extension to keep a copy of your extensions, themes, bookmarks, preferences, cookies, user names, passwords, and other goodies.
Save all your Firefox goodies with FEBE.
Holy Mackerel: Who Has the Most Secure Browser?
NSS Labs tested four browsers to see which one was the most secure. Keep in mind that the tests were run with plain-vanilla browsers -- no add-ons or extensions.
Social engineering threats caught:
Microsoft Internet Explorer v8 (81 percent)
Mozilla Firefox v3 (27 percent)
Apple Safari v4 (21 percent)
Google Chrome 2 (7 percent)
Opera 10 Beta (1 percent)
Phishing threats caught:
Microsoft Internet Explorer v8 (83 percent)
Mozilla Firefox v3 (80 percent)
Opera 10 Beta (54 percent)
Google Chrome 2 (26 percent)
Apple Safari v4 (2 percent)
Ready for the punch line? NSS Labs is an independent security-testing firm, but Microsoft sponsored the testing. According to eWeek, "NSS Labs president suggested that Microsoft's security engineering team had originally commissioned the study, whose results were then picked up by Redmond's marketing department for use." Was NSS Labs influenced by Microsoft? No one knows, but it doesn't matter. I still like Firefox. [Thanks to Alex and Shanx for the lead.]
Google Time Wasters
Holy hot burrito domains, Batman! The folks at Google have some strange things planned for the future. Check out the weird domains they've registered. (You think I'm kidding, right? How about "thesecretofburritos.com," "googlereligion.com," and the intriguing "googlewarez.com.")
Google owns some weird domains.
Google plays with its logos, especially around the holidays. Here's a look at the ones it's rejected.
Google Loves M.C. Escher!
I wasted way too much time with The Image Quiz, a brain-straining game that has you guess the Google search term for a bunch of images.
Time Wasters
Have a deadline looming? What better way to start work than by watching Buddy, the famous Surfing dog do his thing. He's a Jack Russell terrier and obviously can't wait to get into the water.
Do you know where Bruce Lee lives? I didn't think so. But if you're itching to find out, visit the (oh, please, you know this was coming) "I Know Where Bruce Lee Lives" site.
I found three videos you've gotta watch.
The first video happens at the Central Station Antwerp in Belgium. The actors do amazingly well considering the small number of rehearsals. Next up is something similar, but more intriguing. It's "Life's for Sharing," a cell phone commercial taped at the Liverpool station in London. They used 400 dancers, 10 hidden cameras, and no one but the station employees and dancers knew what was going on. It's a great commercial. Finally, watch the making of the commercial. All three vids are here. [Thanks to Dave in Vancouver.]
I'm going on a diet. You might, too, when you browse through these "How Many Sugar Cubes Are In..." images.
You're going to be very surprised -- or maybe not.
Sure it's a little long and definitely sexist. But you've have to admit the Automatic Motorcycle Garage Door Opener is funny.
This is, hands down, the worst news TV reenactment ever. If you can't actually find the bear, or hire a local circus bear, use a cardboard cut-out instead. [Thanks, Judy.]
Search Me!
No, you really can. It won't matter, because I'll still ask you to forward my newsletter to your contractor, the guy who cleans your teeth, and the checkout clerk at Costco. If you can't forward it, point them to this subscription page: http://www.techbite.com. By the way, if you're enjoying this newsletter and getting something out of it, become a TechBite member by sending us some financial support using PayPal. I promise, good things will come your way... [top]
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Steve Bass is the publisher and self-appointed Chief Content Officer at TechBite; he continues to experience the cool feeling of having his own newsletter. Send him your feedback at TechBite. To sign up for TechBite's free Steve Bass Technology newsletter, head for our signup page.
Steve's also the author of "PC Annoyances, 2nd Edition: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things About Your Personal Computer," available on Amazon. You haven't purchased your copy today yet, have you? Don't wait, supplies are limited...
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