Good Stuff In A Bad World

Like many people, I'm sure, I get really annoyed everytime I accidentally turn the "Caps Lock" key on. Short of physically removing the damn thing I did a quick search to see if could be disabled in any way.

The good news is that this is really quite easy to do, providing you are running either Windows 2000 (with Service Pack 3 installed) or Windows XP. For full instruction please go to the following web page:-

Disable Caps Lock

Please note that the files provided at the above link will alter your Windows Registry, so please read the warning shown there before you attempt to change anything. Having said that I ran one of the files, re-started my computer and - hey presto! - my caps lock key now operates just like a shift key. No more anger management classes for me (not because of this little annoyance anyway).

All you really need to do is save one or two files to your desktop and double click them from there. The one I used was "caps_lock_to_shift.reg", which makes your caps lock key work as a shift key. There is another file which will disable the thing altogether, and another one (which you SHOULD ALSO SAVE) which will undo your changes, should anything go wrong.

I hope you find this as useful as I have.

Archos make great toys - I've owned three and I wish I had the money to buy this, in fact I would buy one IF they'd gone a little further with it - maybe next time.

My first Archos was the Jukebox Multimedia 20GB on which I'd stored all of my MP3 music files. It was a bit bulky but the sound quality was the best, and I mean THE BEST I've ever heard from a portable player. Not only that, but it had a colour screen which allowed you to view your photo collection too. It could also play videos but I never got around to using it for that - I was burgled once and it went the same way as the rest of my valued possessions.

My next Archos was the Gmini player which was a stripped down version of the same, only cheaper (no colour screen, photos or videos and also the sound quality wasn't as good). This one lasted about a week until I dropped it on the kitchen floor. I guess it wasn't very shock proof either. R.I.P. Archos #2!

My current Archos is just a plain old 20GB USB hard drive. It doesn't even have a headphone socket - it's purely a storage device but I travel around quite a bit so this is really something to save me lugging a laptop around; I just use whatever computer is available wherever I go and plug the thing in. It works for me.

You can see I've been going against the general upgrade, upgrade, upgrade trend here!

But now - enter the fray the rather cool looking Pocket Media Assistant PMA400 and, well, it's kind of whet my appetite for reversing that trend. At around 800 bucks it's not cheap, but for what you get it's not really all that expensive either. So, what do you get for your money?

For starters you get something which looks a little different to your common or garden iPod...



According to the blurb on the Archos website this is the first Linux-based 30GB HDD device to:

Record directly from TV (thanks to the included TV Cradle), and playback video
Browse the Internet and stay connected
Record and listen to music
Store and view photos
Manage your agenda, contacts, tasks list and read PDF files
Add or develop other applications

You can read a review of this machine at CNET. The general opinion seems to be that it's great for people who travel around (you can send/read e-mails on the move at any Wi-Fi point) but the connection speed is a bit slow. Also the small screen makes viewing PDF files etc. a little difficult. The battery life seems a bit too short for my liking but, all in all, it seems to be streets ahead of anything else on the market.

Now, if it had a camera built into it, a larger hard drive (maybe 80GB) a longer battery life, and a faster internet connection speed I would be salivating, right here, right now. I was going to add "telephone" to that list but really, it kind of has one already. I use an internet telephone service to talk to people around the world for "not a lot of money" so I can see a way where this little gizmo (given that you are close to a Wi-Fi point or a hard wired internet connection) could be used as a telephone. Ok, so you wouldn't be contactable when you're offline but, in my book, that's a blessing not a curse. I'm full of praise for the way Archos really think about what people want in a product, and I'm sure they're heading where others must surely follow.

Keep them in mind.

Every once in a while you come across a little joke which just tickles you. Here's one I found:-

Prince Charles was driving around his mother's estate when he accidentally ran over her favorite dog, a Corgi, crushing it to a pulp.

He got out of his Range Rover and sat down on the grass totally distraught. The whole world was against him and now his mother would go ballistic.

Suddenly, he noticed a lamp half-buried in the ground. He dug it up, polished it and immediately a genie appeared. "You have freed me from thousands of years of imprisonment," said the genie. "As a reward I shall grant you one wish."

"Well," said the Prince, "I have all the material things I need, but let me show you this dog." They walk over to the splattered remains of the dog.

"Do you think you could bring this dog back to life for me?" Prince Charles asked. The genie carefully looked at the remains and shook his head. "This body is too far gone for even me to bring it back to life. Is there something else you would like?"

Prince Charles thought for a minute, reached into his pocket and pulled out two photos. "I was married to this beautiful woman called Diana," said the Prince, showing the genie the first photo. "But now I love this woman called Camilla," and he showed the genie the second photo. "You see Camilla isn't beautiful at all, so do you think you can make Camilla as beautiful as Diana?"

The genie studied the two photographs and after a few minutes said, "Let's have a look at that dog again."

A bit like this (so long as they could deal with all the clouds too!

Beware this is a pretty big file. You can see a smaller version with an explanation here.

Check out Astronomy Picture of the Day daily for some more great pix!

I remember seeing a great picture of the earth devoid of its atmosphere, on a BBC series called "The Planets", a few years ago. If anyone knows where I can find it on the web I'd appreciate the tip off.

I must admit that at least 50% of the e-mails I receive these days have a virus attached to them. I've come to accept it. Most people I know seem to be locked in to buying annual subscriptions to one anti-virus program or another, and they seem to think that all of these spyware removal tools are a neccesity in this day and age. Let me tell you - they're not!

In fact, there's no need to spend any money at all to stop your computer from getting infected. Want to know more? Then read on!

First off let me say that I use MS Windows as my operating system - I might change to something better one day but I move around a lot using different computers so, for now, it's a case of "better the devil you know". However Windows isn't all bad and, having used a few different versions of it I reckon that the one I'm using now, Windows 2000, is probably the most stable version I've ever used. I have XP Pro and Millenium Edition installed on other machines but for me Windows 2000 is the one which keeps my blood pressure down!

For my browser I use Opera Version 7.54. I remember trying it when it was Verion 1 and it's come a long, long way since then. I stopped using Microsoft's Internet Explorer about five years ago and started using Opera from about Version 6 onwards. There is a new version of Opera coming out (Version 8) which you can control by talking to it - I've tried the preview version and it seems to do what they say, but I hit a few problems running it at the same time as my current version so I've stuck it on the back burner for now. You can download Opera here if you want to try it. Check the Include Java box before you download it. You might not need it but it's there if you haven't.

So why use Opera?

Because it's the fastest web browser in the world, it's free, and it has some great features such as mouse gestures and a page zoom facility. I'm sure some of the other browsers have such features too, by now, but I like to think of the Opera people like I used to think of the Sony people - great innovators with great products. I wouldn't use anything else.

And??

Well, in addition to Opera I also run a great little program called "The Proxomitron". What it is, in non-technical terms, is something which sits between you and the outside world and, amongst other things, strips out a lot of the ads from web pages, stops all of these animated pictures from, well, doing anything, and basically lets you surf the web with less stress than you would without it. It doesn't always do what it should - sometimes you need to turn it off to get a web page to do what it's supposed to - but this doesn't happen very often. Opera, on it's own, can block pop-ups and the like but, for that added bit of happiness I would recommend installing the Proxomitron. You can read more about it here and download it RIGHT HERE.

And???

Well, apart from the roads, and the sanitation ...oops! wrong script! Apart from Opera and the Proxomitron I also use Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition which does exactly what it says on the tin. Every computer I start using which has Norton Anti Virus installed, gets Norton Anti Virus uninstalled quick-sharp, and AVG installed in its place. I installed it on my mother's machine (she's in her late 60's and get's easily confused) and even she has no trouble with it - install it and you can just about forget it because it'll update itself when it needs to, and run a daily check on your machine.

So, is there anything else?

The only other thing I do is to use the e-mail system which comes with Opera. I can retrieve and send e-mails via my web based e-mail account, no problem, and AVG takes care of any "nasties" which people try to send me. I never use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express anymore - I used to but it seemed that so many of these virusses were spread through the exploitation of people's Outlook address books that I decided to ditch it forever.

Finally, there is nothing better than a bit of common sense. If an e-mail looks suspect then it probably is. At the risk of this sounding a little like an electronic version of telling children not to talk to strangers, you really are better off deleting stuff you're not sure about. Beware anything which looks like it's come from your bank, asking you to go to a web page to confirm your password or to divulge any other personal information. If in doubt call the purported sender of the e-mail to verify it's authenticity.

Hopefully some (or all) of the tips in this article will be of use to you. I won't get into any sort of debate about which browser is the best, and so on and so forth, but this all works for me, and it some of it works for you then fine. If anyone gets stuck installing or using any of the software mentioned here then leave a comment and I'll be glad to help.