Process Scanner

Now you can harness the power of the industry's leading and most definitive process listing with just one single click! Process Library now lets you search for and identify all the processes that should - or should not - be running on your computer. What's more it's fast, comprehensive and FREE to all PC users.

On occasion I would look through the running processes on my system to see what was going on. Every time I found something in question I would hit Process Library to get the details. Well, Process Library has made it very easy to find out details on all processes in one swoop with their Process Scanner software. This makes it easy to clear running processes that can slow a system down.

Link:
http://www.processlibrary.com/processscan/

Common reason for a slow running computer

Is having too many applications (or processes) running in the background. Most of the running applications come from applications running at Windows startup and silently hiding in the background churning away using those precious processor cycles. Want to know whats running and what is safe to kill? Read on...

What is currently running or will run at startup:
AutoRuns: The most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor, shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them.

How to watch for applications trying to register to run automatically:
StartupMonitor: A small utility that runs transparently (it doesn't even use a tray icon) and notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup. It prevents annoying programs from registering themselves behind your back.

What is safe to kill:
Process Library: One of the best active databases to find out what is what and what is safe to remove from the startup process.

Cool world clock

Link:
http://www.sonnyradio.com/worldclock.htm

Learn Apache mod_rewrite: 13 Real-world Examples

Link:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/apache-mod_rewrite-examples

NetTools v5.0

Net Tools is cutting-edge security and network monitoring software for the Internet and Local Area Networks, providing clients with the ability and confidence to meet the challenges of tomorrow's technology. Keeping pace with the industry trends, we offer professional tools that support the latest standards, protocols, software, and hardware for both wired and wireless networks. The main goal is the creation of high quality software. Net Tools is a very strong combination of network scanning, security, file, system, and administrator tools useful in diagnosing networks and monitoring your PC and computer's network connections for system administrators.

Link:
http://users.pandora.be/ahmadi/nettools.htm

Video: Extreme whiffle ball

Extreme Whiffle Ball

You Convert It

YouconvertIt.com, the world's first and most complete conversion website allowing internet users to convert audio video images and documents into an array of formats.

YouconvertIt.com’s service is free, instant, and does not require any tedious download and software installations.

Link:
http://www.youconvertit.com

Find Out If Your Computer Is Secretly Connecting to the Web

If you are trying to track down why your computer is running so slooowwwly, try using this simple DOS command from Digital Inspiration to uncover a possible problem:

• Type cmd in your Windows Run box.
• Type "netstat -b 5 > activity.txt" and press enter.
• After say 2 minutes, press Ctrl+C.
• Type "activity.txt" on the command line to open the log file in notepad (or your default text editor)

Or
Use TCP View from SysInternals

As found on LifeHacker:
http://.../find-out-your-computer-is-secretly-connecting-to-the-web

More tools for SEO

• Page Strength Checker: Gives information about any URL that let you determine the strength of a page. Age of the domain, number of backlinks and PageRank are displayed.
• PageRank: Check the PageRank of any page at 37 Google data centers. Gives a great overview of how Google's data centers see your PageRank.
• SEOMoz Tools: A great collection of some very useful tools like: Back Anchor Text Analysis, Crawl text and many more.
• Xinu: An all in one page information tool. Enter a URL and get everything you can imagine about the web page.

More tools:
http://.../the-top-15-free-seo-tools.html

Note-it gets a needed updated

Note-It is one of my most popular applications. This is a very simple, easy to use post-it type application. This update adds the ability for a new notes will be prompted to be saved if needed. This means when you start a note you won't lose what you typed if you forgot to save.

It's Freeware, actually Postcardware (send me a postcard if you like the application) but same difference.

Link:
http://www.veign.com/application.php?appid=102

What is your domain worth?

After reading up on how to value a domain, then check out the online domain appraiser from LeapFish. This online domain appraiser is totally garbage as it just doesn't produce a value that is even close to being correct - its says Google is worth $130 (I'll take two, thank you).

A slightly better one is over at dnScoop.com. This one provides a breakdown of what it found out about your domain, which is actually pretty useful. It still under values the domain but at least the result has some meaningful information besides the value..

So, read this:
http://.../what-is-my-domain-name-worth/

And check out this:
http://www.dnscoop.com/

Color Blindness: What Does It Look Like?

Ever wondered what the world looks like to people with color blindness? Curious minds often wish to see through the eyes of others.

Link:
http://www.colorjack.com/articles/vision.html

Guide to Applying 301 Redirects with Apache

Utilizing the power of the apache module mod_rewrite, however, we could match specific patterns for entire folders and redirect them to their new URLs without having to go through every PHP script. Also, several of our pages were static HTML and it was not practical to use javascript or META tags for redirection.

Addition Redirect options can be found in my 301 Redirect Help page.

Link:
http://.../guide-to-applying-301-redirects-with-apache

How Windows Update Keeps Itself Up-to-Date

There have been some questions raised about how we service the Windows Update components and concerns expressed about software installing silently. I want to clarify the issue so that everyone can better understand why the self-updating of Windows Update acts the way it does.

Link:
http://.../how-windows-update-keeps-itself-up-to-date.aspx

Webmaster Tools gets an update

• No more tabs! Navigate through the new sidebar.
• Breadcrumbs in the page title for easier product navigation.
• A sidebar that expands and contracts to show and hide options based on your current goal.
• New sidebar topics: Overview, Diagnostics, Statistics, Links, Sitemaps, and Tools.

Link:
http://.../2007/09/subscriber-stats-and-more.html

SiteLock 1.14 Template for ActiveX Controls

Enables an ActiveX developer to restrict access to a control in a predetermined list of domains, or for a certain length of time. Includes a simple utility that displays the site list and expiration date of a site-locked control.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx...

An Exhaustive List of Search Engine Based Keyword Research Data

A solid list of every which way you can look at a keyword to get an idea of metrics, value and potential from the engines themselves (rather than services like AdWords, YSM, Wortracker or KW Discovery). This is more of an "expert" level post, as you'll need to use these searches/tools yourself to figure out exactly how they apply to your business, but it's stil valuable to have all of this collected in one place.

Link:
http://.../exhaustive-list-search-engine-based-keyword-research-data

5 Regular Expressions Every Web Programmer Should Know

Here are the five regular expressions that I [immike.com] have found the most useful for day-to-day web programming tasks.

Link:
http://.../5-regular-expressions-every-web-programmer-should-know/

Great Photoshop Tutorials

Not a huge selection but they are very well written and produce some very cool effects. For all you Photoshop freaks out there this is a website to bookmark.

Samples:

• Advanced Glow
• Snow and Ice
• Chrome
• Message Strip
• Old-world look

Link:
http://psdtuts.com/

warning: the site may be slow due to heavy traffic

Windows Server 2008 Step-by-Step Guides

Windows Server 2008 Step-by-Step Guides: "These step-by-step guides help IT Professionals learn about and evaluate Windows Server 2008."

Sad if True: Rally champion Colin McRae dies

THE former rally driving champion Colin McRae was killed and his five year-old son feared dead in a helicopter crash yesterday afternoon. The aircraft came down in Jerviswood, Lanarkshire, half a mile from the family's home and burst into flames just after 4pm.

Very sad as he was a great driver and a great person.

Link:
http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article2461339.ece

How many pages

A quick search for page file types in Google yielded these results:

• HTML: 3,810,000,000
• ASP: 860,000,000
• ASPX: 475,000,000
• PHP: 1,100,000,000
• PDF: 230,000,000
• CFM: 399,000,000

HTML is first followed by PHP.

In case you wondered about the advanced searches on Google.

Website Security Information

Email Injection:

http://www.securephpwiki.com/index.php/Email_Injection

Cross-site Scripting (XSS):

http://ha.ckers.org/xss.html

SQL Injection:

http://ferruh.mavituna.com/makale/sql-injection-cheatsheet/

Top 15 free SQL Injection Scanners:
http://.../top-15-free-sql-injection-scanners

SQL Injection Walkthrough:
http://www.securiteam.com/securityreviews/...

CCleaner v2.0

CCleaner has released v2.0 of its very popular system cleanup tool. Better and faster is what they claim. I installed it and so far so good.

Whats New:

• Complete rebuild in C++
  With the requirements for a portable version, 64-bit compatibility and Windows Vista increasing against the limitations of the old architecture. We decided to rebuild the entire CCleaner application in highly optimized C++.
• Faster analyzing and cleaning
  Each scanning process was rewritten from scratch and fully optimized. The result being a noticeable speed increase in all areas.
• Portable
  CCleaner can now run from a USB thumbdrive and be installed/run on a computer without a complicated setup process.
• Compact
  The rewrite removed all external file dependencies, so the main EXE is now half the size of the original program and support files.
• Redesigned User Interface
  The original CCleaner user interface was looking a little dated, so the GUI was redesigned with a modern look, but without sacrificing speed or usability. New icons were created for the interface and the main program icon was updated with a more modern style.
• Exclusions
  It is now possible to specify files, folders and registry keys to ignore from the cleaning process.
• Loads of little tweaks
  Too numerous to mention them all separately, we've tried to improve CCleaner in all areas.

Link:
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner-20

Rumor: Winamp to release a 10th anniversary edition today

I have heard that Winamp will be releasing a 10th anniversary edition today, versioned as Winamp v5.5. Is it true?

Here's what its supposed to contain:

Album Art Display
Enhance your music collection with album art. Winamp finds it, you enjoy it

The Media Monitor
Enjoy the best music on the web. Save it, playlist it. It’s music to your ears

iPod and other MP3 Player Support
Manage music and videos and create playlists on your iPod or other MP3 player

Dynamic Song Recommendations
Get a custom playlist of songs like your current favorites with a single click

Artist and Song Smart Search
Get instant concert news, artist bios, web videos and more with Smart Search

Acoustic Fingerprinting
Get the most accurate information about your music with acoustic fingerprinting

MP3 Surround Sound Support
Get the full effect of surround sound music with MP3 Surround

Winamp Remote: Access Your Music and Videos - When and Where You Want
Enjoy your media on the web, on mobile, on TV through the Wii, and more

Winamp Toolbar: Control Winamp From Your Browser
Play and manage your music and videos from your browser toolbar

Access Thousands of Online Radio Stations, Videos and More
The fun never stops with thousands of Radio stations, videos and MP3 downloads

Beta version may come out here:
http://beta.aol.com/projects.php?project=winamp&loc=0

Free Fonts

More free fonts for your designs:
http://.../free-fonts-of-the-month-revalo-nadia-serif-qlassik/

Font Manager:
http://www.cfontpro.com/

HowTo: Run a website or blog on a USB flash drive

Of all the good things we can do with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) flash drive, I think running a website is one of them. This is a perfect solution for web designers who need to cart along a whole bunch of designs to show potential clients.

Link:
http://.../running-a-website-or-blog-on-a-usb-flash-drive/

Image Compression: Seeing What's Not There

In this article, we'll study the JPEG baseline compression algorithm using the image on the right as an example. (JPEG is an acronym for "Joint Photographic Experts Group.") Some compression algorithms are lossless for they preserve all the original information. Others, such as the JPEG baseline algorithm, are lossy--some of the information is lost, but only information that is judged to be insignificant.

Link:
http://.../archive/image-compression.html

Simple and Effective Photographic Results for Beginners

A great little article to get a bit more from your digital pictures. When the quality isn't working for you this article comes in and teaches you how to enhance your images. Good read.

Link:
http://.../simple-and-effective-photographic-results-for-beginners/

Quick Thumbnail: Online Image Resizer: "The fastest way to resize your pictures and images."

Quick Thumbnail gets even more new things:

• More filters. Quick Thumbnail now supports: Greyscale, Sepia, Negative, Emboss, Blur, Sketch, Edge
  
• You can now resize images from a URL

Have an idea for an improvement then contact me or leave a post on the Quick Thumbnail Forum.

Online Image Resizer

Excel 2007 Web Data Add-In

The Excel 2007 Web Data Add-In makes it easy to use a Web page as a data source in Excel. The add-in plugs into Excel 2007 seamlessly, its entry point located on the Data Tab under the From Web option. The system extracts data by learning from a user’s selection of data they wish to capture into Excel. The more selections, the more the system is trained. An example scenario: You wish to import and track data from MSN's weather page. Visit the site using the tool, enter Data Capture mode, and select a row or two of data from the table. Then click Select Similar, and the system will find similar data based on your previous selections. You then can click Import and leverage Excel's rich data-editing capabilities, including the Refresh command, which will revisit the Web page and extract potentially new, updated data.

Link:
http://research.microsoft.com/research/downloads...

EDraw Flowchart

To create flowcharts, organizational charts, and other diagrams for business and technical processes rapidly, designing does not need to start from scratch. Abundant flowchart templates, symbols and samples provided along with the software will help to quickly create new flow diagrams. Numerous colors, fonts, shapes, styles, and symbols for each object of the flowchart are usually available to create ones own template that can be saved for future use.

After much looking and evaluating other flowchart software I came to the conclusion that this application is by far the easiest to work with. I read no help file and was creating flowcharts in a matter of minutes. The interface is clean and setup pretty well. All in all, for the $49 price tag, I would not hesitate to recommend this to anyone looking for a solid flowcharting application.

Link:
http://www.edrawsoft.com/flowchart.php

Windows passwords safe? - Rainbow Hash Cracking

To understand how rainbow tables work, you first have to understand how passwords are stored on computers, whether on your own desktop, or on a remote web server somewhere.

Passwords are never stored in plaintext. At least they shouldn't be, unless you're building the world's most insecure system using the world's most naïve programmers. Instead, passwords are stored as the output of a hash function. Hashes are one-way operations. Even if an attacker gained access to the hashed version of your password, it's not possible to reconstitute the password from the hash value alone.

But it is possible to attack the hashed value of your password using rainbow tables: enormous, pre-computed hash values for every possible combination of characters. An attacking PC could certainly calculate all these hashes on the fly, but taking advantage of a massive table of pre-computed hash values enables the attack to proceed several orders of magnitude faster-- assuming the attacking machine has enough RAM to store the entire table (or at least most of it) in memory. It's a classic time-memory tradeoff, exactly the sort of cheating shortcut you'd expect a black hat attacker to take.

Link:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000949.html

Super crazy Tetris

Watch this to the end, its gets crazy around the 4min mark...

Webserver On Stick (WOS)

WOS Portable: "WOS stands for the three letter abbreviation Webserver On Stick and makes it possible, to run a webserver based on Apache, MySQL and PHP from an USB Stick or any other writable media (harddrive, flash cards etc.) without installation under Windows (98 to Vista). There are three different versions of WOS:"

This is a great way to showcase a PHP website when you have no control over the location. Simply place the website on a USB drive, carry to the location, showcase your work and accept pat on the back.

Link:
http://www.chsoftware.net/en/useware/wos/wos.htm

Two services to locate someone

Intelius People Search: People Search Includes: Current phone number, address history, age, birthdates, household members and more...

ZabaSearch: Free People Search and Public Information Search Engine

FreeThesaurus.net

FreeThesaurus.net is a new online thesaurus service offered by DonationCoder.com. We expect it to deliver fast, fine, free thesaurus search results to English language lovers around the globe in their continuous quest for the right words.

If you're like me and seemed to get stuck using the same word over and over then FreeThesaurus.net is for you. Not only are there over 30K entries with over 2M synonyms but the interface and usage is very clean and well designed.

Link:
http://freethesaurus.net/

Quick Thumbnail on the Kim Komando Show

Congratulations! Your Web site is being featured in The Kim Komando Show Cool Site of the Day on September 7, 2007.

Just received this email. This will generate some great traffic for my Online Image Resizer. Very cool!

Quick Thumbnail:
http://quickthumbnail.com/

Kim Komando:
http://www.komando.com

Process Explorer for Windows v11.0

Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.

The Process Explorer display consists of two sub-windows. The top window always shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom window depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in: if it is in handle mode you'll see the handles that the process selected in the top window has opened; if Process Explorer is in DLL mode you'll see the DLLs and memory-mapped files that the process has loaded. Process Explorer also has a powerful search capability that will quickly show you which processes have particular handles opened or DLLs loaded.

Link:
http://.../sysinternals/utilities/processexplorer.mspx

Look what I can do (my g/f's brother)

A little break from tech today. This is my girlfriends brother.

Pretty Amazing....