Archive for February 2012

How to customize command Prompt in Windows 7

February 10, 2012 Add Comment

How to customize command Prompt in Windows 7




You can customize the appearance of a Command Prompt window, changing its size, font, and even colors. And you can save these settings independently for each shortcut that launches a Command Prompt so that you can make appropriate settings for different tasks. 

To customize a Command Prompt window, you make settings in the Properties dialog box that you can reach in three ways:

Right-clicking on a shortcut for a Command Prompt provides the Properties option. Changes you make here affect all future Command Prompt sessions launched from that particular shortcut.

Clicking the Control menu icon in a Command Prompt window offers access to the Properties dialog box. (If Command Prompt is running in full-screen mode, press Alt+Enter to switch to window display.) Changes you make here affect the current session. When you leave the properties dialog box, you’ll be given the option of propagating your changes to the shortcut from which this session was launched. If you accept, all future sessions launched from that shortcut will also use the new settings.

Clicking the Control menu icon in a Command Prompt window and choosing Defaults from the Control menu lets you make changes that will not affect the current session but instead will affect all future sessions (except for those launched from a shortcut whose properties have been customized). These changes also affect future sessions in character-mode, MS-DOS-based applications that do not have a program-information file (PIF) and do not store their own settings.

Tweaking Edit Options


The Options tab offers a variety of options that affect how your Command Prompt window operates. Notably, you can enable or disable Quick Edit Mode. This option provides an easy way to copy text from (and paste text into) Command Prompt windows with a mouse. If you don’t select Quick Edit Mode, you can use commands on the Control menu for copying and pasting text. You can also enable or disable Insert Mode. This setting (which is on by default) allows you to insert text at the cursor position. Clearing the Insert Mode check box setting will allow you to over strike characters instead. 

Note that when you use the third method, choosing Defaults, you also get the option to enable and disable the Auto Complete option, which is enabled by default. 

IMS ( Internet Monitoring Software) for Parents

February 07, 2012 Add Comment

IMS ( Internet Monitoring Software) for Parents



Internet monitoring software helps parents supervise their children’s online activities. There are various ranges of software available that limit access to inappropriate sites, control e-mail use, block chat rooms, and enforce access time. Similarly, schools and public libraries also make use of internet monitoring software.

After all, children are a significant part of society and their upbringing should be perfectly done so that society can prosper in the long run. Following is the range of most popular software for monitoring children’s internet activities:

Parental Control Bar

It is a free service. Parents can use this software to control the internet activities of their children. Along with its free public service, its installation procedure is really simple that consists of only three steps. Therefore, parents can install it even if they are not that used to computers.

If a website address is inserted by your child on the address bar of a browser, the Parental Control Bar compares the website with the settings you made. This way, it finds out whether the website needs to be blocked or allowed.

K9 Web Protection

It is an internet monitoring software that uses an advanced technology for filtering the Web. It is also used by governmental institutions and other organizations worldwide. It offers an interface that is user-friendly so that parents can easily make use of it at home. Its usage means that you will block content that is inappropriate for your children.

SocialShield

Besides tracking your child’s online activities, SocialShield has something more to offer for your child’s social safety. It identifies your child’s online friends. The software compares the names of your child’s friends to a set of databases to ensure that they have no association with unlawful online activities. If your child is involved in such activities, SocialShield sends you alerts so that you can take action.

It posts less threatening issues in the parent dashboard. Although it tracks all discussions your child has, it highlights only those issues that are important for your consideration. This way, you are not required to affect the privacy of your child. Moreover, you can use SocialShield to track pictures that were posted by your child. It will cost you $10 per month.

Big Mother

Big Mother safeguards your children by providing an interface that protects the password along with multifaceted features. By using these features, you can block access to things that tempt your children the most. For instance, some illicit online activities that it can block are to upload and download data, games, e-mail, chats, and websites.

If you think that giving your children limited access to the internet is fine, then you can develop different schedules in which you can allow internet access for some time.  Big Mother has an edge over many of its competitors, i.e. it enables you make restrictions on uploads and downloads according to their size.

NetNanny

NetNanny is considered to be the market leader in terms of internet monitoring software. It has been in the market for over 10 years. Due to its popularity, parents can download it instantly. It costs $39.95. Unlike others, NetNanny had a clear purpose before its development. It was developed with the help of child advocates, law enforcement, and parents. Furthermore, it helps you monitor and control access to the internet.

Although it is available with monitoring features that are set as default, you always have an option to customize your settings according to the unique needs of your family. NetNanny has integration with Safe Search options. It indicates that these options limit your children’s search on a search engine. These options are also found in famous search engines such as Yahoo, MSN, Google, AltaVista, Lycos, Dogpile, and AllTheWeb.

PC Pandora

Like other internet monitoring software, PC Pandora is reliable software that monitors your children’s online activities. Along with that, it sends you warning alerts so that potential problems can be avoided. PC Pandora tracks all those websites your child visited, chat interactions, keystrokes, and emails. Therefore, it lets you have access to all online activities of your child.

Additionally, it also provides you access to Login IDs and their passwords. If you feel something wrong is going on, you can handle the problem immediately. This way, parents are always on track in terms of what their child in up to. PC Pandora will cost you $69.95. It is available from different retailers.

Synchronize Firefox addons using Drop-box

February 01, 2012 Add Comment

Synchronize Firefox addons using Drop-box



I wanted to blog about this a while back but I've been to lazy to do so. I've done this a couple of month ago irritated on the fact that Firefox was unable to sync my addons across computers and I think it was a mistake on their part.

Anyway, this is very easy to do using Dropbox.

First close down Firefox and then go to:

~/.mozilla/firefox

You can use Nautilus for this, is probably faster and easier too. In there should be one folder for each user in Firefox. Go to the one you want to sync the addons with. Probably will be the one with "*.default" in it if you don't have any users in Firefox.

Within that folder will be another folder called:

extentions
Will be this folder the one we are going to sync. Cut this folder on place it in your Dropbox folder. I place mine in:

Dropbox/App_sync/Firefox

Once you pasted the folder in the right place, right click it and select
Make link
Now cut the link and place it on the folder where we got the original "extensions" folder. Once you placed it in the right place rename it with the original name and that's it.

The only drop back with this method is that Dropbox is not very good at syncing multiple computers at the same time. If you have multiple Firefox opened in different computers and start installing/removing addons at the same time it may give you a problem.

Protect Your Organization's site by Google Alerts

February 01, 2012 Add Comment

Protect Your Organization's site by Google Alerts


Back in the day, if you were really serious about keeping a handle on your image or the image of your company, you subscribed to one or more clipping and news monitoring services. Those services still exist, and they can be part of a coordinated effort to maintain the public face of your business. However, if your budget won’t allow for comprehensive news monitoring, you still have options. One powerful tool, Google Alerts, gathers news stories, videos and other web content concerning your company and delivers the results to your mailbox or feed reader – for absolutely no charge.

What Are Google Alerts?


Companies concerned with their images can use Google Alerts to keep track of how they are being covered by mainstream news media. Google Alerts can also monitor content on social media such as blogs. Image-conscious companies also use Google Alerts to avoid having potentially harmful content go unchallenged. 

For instance, if a blogger is making derogatory but untrue claims about your company, Google Alerts will inform you, so that you can present evidence to disprove the accusations. Google Alerts will also give you a heads-up if customers or clients post complaints about your company.  A large number of complaints about an incident or aspect of your business may indicate potential trouble that your company should address.

Basic Set Up

Google Alerts harness the power of Google’s search engine to seek out result based on search terms that you establish.  Basic set up is simple.  Enter the word or phrase for which you want to establish a search.  Enter your email address, and then confirm the search.  If your company does not have a Google account, you will receive a confirmation email before the alert goes into effect. Establish a separate alert for each keyword or phrase for which you wish to monitor.

For instance, you can set up a simple alert with the name of your company.  A second alert could monitor mentions of a product or service your company makes. Other alerts could monitor the names of prominent officers within the company. 

Google Alerts can also alert you to negative publicity or coverage or the possibility of derogatory coverage or remarks you may be aware of or that you may suspect may be a problem. In this case, setting up Google alerts for the phrases related to the controversy allows your company to respond before circumstances get out of hand...




Advanced Options


Advanced options for Google alerts allow you to control each alert individually. You can set preferences for how often you receive alerts, what sources the alerts monitor, how you receive the alerts and an option to export your alerts in CSV forma that can be opened by Excel or another spreadsheet program. If you prefer, you can also opt for alerts to be delivered by RSS feed that you can read in any feed reader.



For instance, if there is a known issue with a product or service your company provides, you can set a Google Alert for  the keyword phrase “[Your Company Name] complaints” to search for all sources, with results to be delivered as they occur to your email inbox or RSS feed. For less critical keyword phrases, you can set alerts for once per day or once per week. You can also specify that results should be limited to Google News Search, Google Web Search or Google Blog Search.

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