The Best of the Free Intranet

Silly me. I used to think I had to PAY for a cool computing experience! While it's still true that you have to (hopfully customize) and purchase your Personal Communicator (my acronym for the PC, Personal Computer), you really DON'T have to pay for all that cool software! Why? Well, think about this for a minute. When you go to the store, to let's say, get some pain killers, how often do you actually buy the name-brands? I don't either - I go generic. Well, it's the same way in the Personal Computing world. There are the big players (Microsoft and Apple), and then there are all the little guys who's sole purpose in life is to make your life easier (for donations), not to screw your pocketbook over. They are your "generic" brands. They're the "friendlies." I'm listing below my personal favorites:

Operating Systems
Linux
Other OS
What to do when you already have Windows
How to have multiple OS on your PC

Office Software
OpenOffice (Sun)

The Best of the Free Internet

We used to have a saying: "The Internet should be free." It's still true, but I digress. I've found over the years that some free online services really just work better (for me at least) than others. Here they are:

Blogger's Blog Service (duh)
FireFox Browser
MSN's Hotmail or Yahoo's Email
MSN's Instant Messenger or Yahoo's Messenger
Yahoo's Photo Albums
Google Searching
FreeServers
NetZero
WikiPedia
Download.com and SourceForge.net
Real.com

For those using Firefox 1.5.0.5, here are some Extensions, Themes, and Shortcuts that will do you right:

Extensions
All-in-one Sidebar
Download Status Bar
Adblock
FireFTP
Web Developer
ViewSourceWith
View Source Chart
View Selection Source (Legacy and very cool.)
Selection Search
View formatted source
JSView
Open in this window (Legacy and very cool.)
Text to Image
SlimSearch
IE Tab
IE View
ShowImage
ImgTag (Legacy and very cool.)
Image Zoom
DOM Inspector (Windows)
JavaScript Console Plus
Console(2)
phplangeditor
XML Developer Toolbar
ShowIP
WebmailCompose (compose email from any popular web-based email program)
Yahoo Photos Easy Upload Tool (Instructions for Yahoo Photos accounts. Sign in using Firefox.)
Tenach Linkify (hooks up OT Bible verses to Hebrew word meanings)
gTranslate (translates any word on a web page into multiple languages)

Themes
Aquatint 1.6.4
geek 0.21
GrayModern 0.7
miniFox 0.7.4
Noia 2.0 (lite) 3.12
Tango Icons 1.4.8

Shortcuts (for Windows)

Ctrl+F.........................Simple Search Bar
Ctrl+T.........................New Browser Tab (hitting your Tab key after this helps you Google stuff)
Ctrl+[plus sign]..........Makes all text in a browser page bigger
Ctrl+[negative sign....Makes all text in a browser page smaller

Web Cheat Sheets

Creating a web site is simple in today's day and age. In the 1990's, it wasn't so simple. But that was then, this is now. Today, you really only need the following:

1. Dell, Apple Boot-Camp, GateWay, HP, or Sony *computer (I suggest a laptop).
2. Internet Access (I like PeoplePC or NetZero).
   
3. DreamWeaver, ColdFusion, or FrontPage (if you want to spend money, and I suggest you get all 3 if you want a site that REALLY rocks) or your PC's Start --> Programs --> Accessories --> NotePad program and the Cheat Sheets below (if you want to become a Web Developer/Programmer someday), or if you have FrontPage Express loaded on your PC, though it's hidious compared to the full FrontPage package, it's at least a place to get started.
4. **A FreeServers Account for basic HTML/graphics & a few neat add-ons ($5.00/month gets the ads removed) to get started (or around $8.00/month for use of PHP functionality plus everything else).
5. Or a DreamHost Account (around $8.00/month for a decent account) if you are going to want serious web-page interactive functionality using ***PHP and MySQL and phpMyAdmin and all kinds of other cool ad-ons.
6. Your PC's Start --> Programs --> Accessories --> Paint program and/or your PC's Microsoft Photo Editor program (if you have MicroSoft Office '97 installed). If you want to spend some seriouse cash, get the full Adobe Suite and the full Macromedia suite.
   
7. Cheat Sheets (at least for reference), see below.

Cheat Sheets

Dave Raggett's Introduction to HTML
W3Schools XHTML Tutorial
JavaScript Source & ****Thou's JavaScript Tutorial & W3Schools JavaScript Tutorial
PHP Tutorial & then W3Schools PHP Tutorial
(MySQL Cheat Sheets) PhpMyAdmin Tutorial & Tutorial - how to use phpMyAdmin

* At least 1 GB RAM, 60 GB dual hard-disk, yester-year's top of the line CPU (you really DON'T need today's top of the line CPU, trust me), top of the line DVD +/- RW drive/CD-RW drive, and (gasp!) skip the costly protection plans - you'll almost never in your whole life be glad you purchased them if you ever do. DO get a customized PC. Don't just run out to the store and pick up some old pile of junk that's $999 or $1500. It's just not worth it. Go online and get it customized. You'll spend the same money, but you'll pay for what you want, and not what you don't want. There ARE other brands and generic builds for computers and laptops out there, of course, but the 5 mentioned above are my personal favorites. I know that when I go to their sites, I'm going to be treated well. I DO advocate checking out all the myriads of other sources of getting yourself a computer, because sometimes you CAN find what you want elsewhere. The above 5 are just my top pics.

** Many of the above tutorials will tell you to get some kind of server software for your Windows machine. Been there, done that, and it was USELESS for me, a "lazy geek" who doesn't have the millions of hours or the gumption required to configure and learn to use those things. It's just easier to get a cheap hosting service with a good company and let them have all the headaches.

*** .ASP can be used with SQL instead, but I seriousely don't recomend it. I just like PHP and MySQL better.

**** (Please pardon Thou's dirty-talk if it happens to offend you [and pardon me if it doesn't]. He gets the job done and that's what counts.)

Smooth Moves

Want your laptop or PC to run faster? Try some simple tricks...

1. Before powering up, set your laptop on top of a fan of some kind, making sure that fan is upside down, the center of the fan doesn't grind against the grating on top of the fan, and that your laptop's fan hangs over the edge of your larger fan (so you don't wear it out by negating it's inward sucking action)...
   







2. Did you have trouble downloading those pics because you are on a modem? Chances are, it's not just your modem at fault. Open your Start --> Programs --> Startup folder and take out any programs that you are POSITIVE you don't want to load into your RAM when your computer starts. Don't be shocked if there's a long list of programs in there you've installed before, as well as 2 or 3 that you didn't install. Leave the ones you didn't install alone unless you are sure you want them gone. Of the programs you DID install, chances are, you don't need any of them to load as soon as your computer starts up.
3. Use OpenOffice from Sun. It's free and useful. If you happen to break your addiction to MS Office '97 and haven't upgraded to the newer versions (I still do find it useful from time to time), you'll save yourself some RAM heartache by uninstalling it so you don't keep accidentally opening your files with it, only to have your PC freeze up when it didn't used to do that.
4. Make sure you are using a good Anti-Virus program such as McAfee or Norton, and that it is enabled (not disabled).
   
5. Download and use AdAware SE (Free) on a regular basis. This cleans up unwanted adware that sucks up your PC's resources such as RAM.
6. Still too slow? Shut down all programs that you're currently using (save your work first!) and don't run any of them or any new ones until this whole process is over. Run your PC's Disk Cleanup utility (in your Start --> Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools folder). Choose which ever options you wish - none of them are going to hurt you, and it might be wise to just check them all.
   
7. Next run your PC's Disk Defragmentor utility in the same System Tools folder. Don't worry about the "Analyse" feature, just go in for the kill and hit Defragment. DO NOT ALLOW YOUR COMPUTER TO SHUT DOWN, GO TO SLEEP/HYBERNATE, ETC! This will interupt the defrag process and you could lose valuable data or corrupt important program files.
8. (Optional Step) Get someone who knows what they're doing to clean up your PC's Registry (someone who's a major geek, etc). Don't do this yourself unless you already know how. This is not an "easy learning curve" step and it IS optional. You don't HAVE to do it.
9. Use the Hybernate option when shutting your computer down - this will clear the RAM and allows for fast restarting of your PC, which will skip a lot of that old fashioned lag time between hitting your power button and actually being able to use your PC.
10. After powering up your PC, if you are in Windows XP (don't do this in other Windows environmnets unless you already know it works on them), use Ctrl+Alt+Delete to open your PC's Task Manager. Open the Processes tab, then click on User Name. Go down the list and, one at a time, right click on the program names, choosing Set Priority and then Low. When you come to the name of a program you know you'd like to use often while your PC is running, choose High instead of Low. This will only work for the programs that show up as being started by you, the user (compared to LOCAL SERVICE or System.)
    
    
    
    


11. If you see a program loaded (under your username) that you know you aren't planning to use at all, say realsched.exe, or something from iTunes/iPod, during this particular session, then right click on the program, choose End Process Tree, and this will shut down those services completely. This IS avalable for any software listed here. However, do be choosy, and ONLY end the process tree for a program if you are SURE you know what that program is and what it does. You might want a geek to show you how to do this if you are uncomfortable with it and have questions.
    
12. If you are using an ISP and a modem, be sure to set that ISP's program to High. Also, do this with the browser of your choice.
13. My personal suggestion regarding browsers is FireFox. It just doesn't suck up as much RAM as the other browsers seem to.
14. Use as few tabs in FireFox or as few Windows in IE as possible, to minimize the amount of RAM being used.
15. If using FireFox, get the Developer's Toolbar, (an add-on) and use it to block the downloading of images if you don't want to wait for them to load.
16. Use FireFox's or IE's anti-pop-up feature.
17. Use FireFox's Adblock feature (an add-on).
18. Use FireFox's FireFTP feature (an add-on) instead of other free FTP programs (and donate to the creators of FireFTP if you have the $$$) because it's got cooler features, quicker up/downloading times, and it's one less new program to start-up (and suck up your RAM).
19. Use FireFox's Tools --> Options --> History (tab) --> Settings (button) to customize your browsing experience. Setting the cache and the search history to empty when FireFox closes are two really great ways to save on the load time for this already small yet robust program. There are some other suggested "check this and don't check that" options as shown below:
    
    
    
    
20. More tips later!