QuickTime Alternative

Say, you have downloaded a Quicktime (.mov, .qt, .3gp, etc..) movie and you want to watch it. You don't want to use up too much resources of your computer. You don't have to install the QuickTime player if you don't like to. Like Real Alternative for Real Player, QuickTime has an alternative too. It's known as QuickTime Alternative, a codec that enables your media player to playback QuickTime movies.

This codec works well with Media Player Classic (one of my favorite media players).

Free Icons

Bored of your default computer icons? Time to change them to something new, spice up your platform. Previously, I've mentioned about Crystal XP. Now, you can get more free icons from the following sites.

Free Icons Download is a site that provides high quality royalty free icons for Windows, Mac and Linux, Offers Ico, Gif, Bmp, Png various icons format. It has many cute, funny icons from many categories that look like this:



Make sure to check it out.

Canon PIXMA iP1880 Orange Light Blinking

Have you encounter printing problems in Canon PIXMA iP1880? First of all, you have ensure that the cable is connected and the printer is on. Still can't print? Then you have to look for the "symptom", for instance, blinking light. There are 2 light signals for Canon PIXMA iP1880.  If the printer is ready and during normal status, only the yellow light will appear (it won't blink).

If you spot blinking light, means there is an error occur. When the orange light appear,  it's probably insufficient paper or something related to the ink catridge. When you get the orange light blinking all the way, eventhough paper is load, ink catridge is not empty, it is probably the printer recongized the ink catridge as empty (although it's not empty!).

Setting up Chinese Input in Windows XP

This is a simple tutorial dedicated to my friend, Mei Ling. I hope this tutorial can help her solve the Chinese character input problem in her Windows XP.

If you want to input Chinese character (or other Asian languages like Japanese or Korean), the first thing you have to ensure is your Windows XP has the additional language installed. First, you will have to go to the Control Panel.

Click on Start > Control Panel.



For the sake of this tutorial, I suggest you to switch your Control Panel to Classic View if you haven't. To do so, just click on the Switch to Classic View on the upper left of the Control Panel window.

Ubuntu Linux X Server Problem

You cannot complete your Ubuntu Linux installation and see an error message like this:

Failed to start the X Server (your graphical interface). It is likely that it is not set up correctly. Would you like to view the X Server output to diagnose the problem?

Then, you are given a "Yes" or "No" option, and you are stuck. What to do next? This is probably due to your graphical interface, meaning your graphic card driver. In Windows, you can easily install the motherboard driver which includes the onboard VGA driver.  Whereas in Ubuntu, you cannot do that with the motherboard driver given by the manufacturer (because most are built for Windows).

Join or Split with HJSplit

Have you ever seen files that end with .001, .002 ...as the file extension? These files are actually separated from one whole file for easy distribution / storage. Most of the time you will see such files when you are downloading files from Rapidshare or MegaUpload or other file hosting service.

They look something like this:



HJSplit is what you need to join these files as one.

What is HJSplit?

HJSplit is a popular set of freeware file-splitting programs created by Freebyte.com in collaboration with various programmers. HJSplit supports many platforms (Windows 3.x/95/98/ME/2000/NT/XP, DOS, Amiga, Java, etc.).

HJSplit will enable you to split the large file into smaller chunks, which can be much more easily sent and stored. HJSplit can join these split parts back together again, so that the original file is restored.

Manipulate Your Images with GIMP

Say, you have taken lots of photos using your digital camera and now you want to do some post-editing or manipulation to the photos. Adobe Photoshop can be your best choice, but it cost you money. We can get something similar for FREE.  You can signup an account in Adobe and use the free Photoshop Express to edit your photos. However, you will need to upload your photos to its server before you can edit it. If you just want to edit the color and contrast or some basic editing of an image, you would rather use the light-weight yet powerful IrfanView.

Paint.NET is another good alternative, however the .NET already suggested it is for Windows. Therefore, GIMP is the open source software that you may want to try it out (if you are not using Windows).

Delete Undeletable Files in Windows

Here is a scenario. When you want to delete a file or folder in your Windows, it is "undeletable". No matter how many times you delete, you always get an error message that looks something like this: (note: z is a folder)

Or other error messages such as:

• Cannot delete file: Access is denied
• There has been a sharing violation.
• The source or destination file may be in use.
• The file is in use by another program or user.
• Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

This is very irritating and normally we have to reboot our system before we can successfully remove that particular file or folder. No worries, you can now delete those unwanted files or folders in seconds!

End Not Responding Task Automatically in Windows XP

Sometimes an application will "hang" and stop working. In Ubuntu Linux, there's a feature called
. With this feature, the not responding application will quit within clicks. In Windows, to quit a not responding application, you will have to go to the Windows Task Manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del) to "End Task".



Sometimes, it takes even longer time than expected to end a not responding application, which is really very annoying. Now, you can make the not responding application end itself automatically (in Windows XP) by editting the Windows registry.

Know The Windows Error Codes

Sometimes it's really annoying to get error codes when using Microsoft Windows, yet we don't know what do those error codes actually mean. The easiest way is to get connected to the Internet, and Google for the meaning of the error codes for troubleshooting.

What if you don't have an Internet connection while having such error codes appear in your operating system? Now, you can straight away get to know what do the error codes mean by using the Error Messages For Windows 2.9.

It's a very light weight program which enables you to instantly check for Microsoft Windows error codes.

There's a list of error codes with the error messages along side.

Create PDF Files the Easy Way

I ever mentioned about several ways of creating PDFs for free, either by standalone application or online conversion. Today, I'm going to teach you a very simple and fast way to create PDF using doPDF.

Why doPDF?

• It's FREE for both personal and commercial use.
• Light weight, only 1.42MB.
• Able to convert Microsoft Excel, Word or PowerPoint documents or your emails and favorite web sites to PDF.

Creating a PDF using doPDF is as easy as ABC. Read on to find out how.

The Photoshop Anthology FREE E-book

Do you need some Photoshop solutions? Are you losing inspiration in creating your own good looking designs for your blog / website or for any other desktop publishing purposes?

SitePoint is currently giving away a FREE Photoshop e-book in PDF form namely, The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks & Techniques. It consists of 278 pages in full color with 9 big chapters available. It is a good tutorial for beginners. Covering topics from the basic usage of the Photoshop components to basic skills on creating web interface like buttons and backgrounds. Also on photo color adjustment and manipulation, concept of designing a website, as well as advance technique like creating watermark and many more...

10 XP Style Wallpapers

The default Windows XP Blue Luna theme uses the color combination of blue and green, giving us a soothing feel close to the nature. The theme comes with the default wallpaper named Bliss.

For nature fans, this wallpaper can be good enough. But we can easily get bored with the same wallpaper all the time. Today, I want to share some "XP Style" nature theme wallpapers with all of you.

Instead of using the old default Bliss wallpaper, you can try some new ones like these:

Here is a collection of 10 XP Style wallpapers. Most are suitable for 1024 x 768 resolutions. Now you can always get a new look for your desktop. :)

Download 10 XP Style wallpapers now.

Installing Canon PIXMA iP1880 in Ubuntu Linux

Not every hardware comes with driver that support other OS, especially Linux. If you are running Ubuntu Linux and going to connect it to a Canon PIXMA iP1880 printer, then good news to you as Canon does provide drivers for Linux.

This post is a guide for those who want to install Canon PIXMA iP1880 driver to Ubuntu Linux. The following method is being tested and proved working in Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04 (earlier versions are not working).

Canon PIXMA iP1880

foobar2000

Are you a Windows user? What media player do you use to play audio tracks? The default Windows Media Player is good enough for you to playback audio tracks but it consumes more resource, especially the latest Windows Media Player 11. I remember many years ago, WInamp is a very popular software to play mp3s. However, that is not really light-weight enough.

Introducing foobar2000 for your audio listening needs.

foobar2000 is a freeware audio player for Windows. It has the following features:

Crunchyroll: Your Asian Media Channel

YouTube is a great video sharing community. However, due to copyright issues, a lot of video uploaded will not be available after some time. I used to watch some anime episodes from YouTube. But right after it was sold to Google, they have really enforced the policies.

We are still hunger for more free media content. If you want to watch Chinese / Japanese / Korean dramas, listen to Asian music for FREE, Crunchyroll is what you need.

It's a streaming online video community that shares content like anime, drama, game trailers, music video and many more. Read to find out more...

Free Online Photoshop Express

This is really a great for Photoshop lovers. Adobe Photoshop is no doubt a very powerful photo editor yet it is very expensive. Now, it goes online and is free of charge. Adobe Photoshop Express is a free web based photo editor that has the ability to enhance your photo in just few clicks.

Uploading photos to Photoshop Express, before editing.

Create Your Own South Park Character

I love to watch South Park episodes. They are really cool, even though it's sort of "ugly" and seems "childish" or nothing special. But let me warn you, South Park content is more suitable for adults! It's really funny and nearly non-censorship. I love to watch many parodies in South Park.

Are you a South Park fan too? Now, you can create your own custom South Park character to represent yourself... Continue reading to find out more.

Photoshop-like Color Picker

Very often, I depend a lot on Adobe Photoshop when creating a piece of digital artwork or simply manipulating photos. Sometimes, I don't even need Photoshop yet I still launch the application, simply just because, I need to know the color codes for customizing my blog's CSS (cascading style sheet) setting.

Sometimes this is very frustrating as I don't have a powerful computer for this. It normally takes quite a lot of resources and slow down the CPU performance. I've found an alternative way to solve this problem. Now, I can easily choose the color I need and obtain the 6 digit codes easily.

Free Website Offer

One of the best things from the Internet is something which is FREE. Are you a web developer? A blogger? Or just someone who wants to have a free website with your own domain?

Yes, I mean own domain. You get something like www.yourname.com instead of something like yourname.blogspot.com. You can get all these for FREE! You can now host your blog, forums and many other free scripts available at no cost at all.

How? HyperWebEnable is the answer!

"Next generation services for connected world."

Free Best Wallpapers

Are you getting bored with your current desktop wallpaper? Don't know where to look for nice and cool wallpaper?

Do you want to have something like this as your wallpaper?

There is a collection of beautiful wallpapers of many categories to choose from. Just head over to Free Best Wallpapers to grab your desire wallpapers today!

HAPEdit: Free Editor

This is really a great tool for programmers. Recently I have to modify or even write my own codes, and my only editor is Notepad. To make life easier with extra features, HAPEdit is a great choice.

What is HAPEdit and what is the benefit of using it?

HAPedit is an acronym for Html Asp Php editor; a win32 text-mode editor useful for all developers of dynamic web pages.

Its main features are: syntax highlighting for html/php, html/asp, html, JavaScript, CSS and SQL; page preview in browser; project manager; php code "compilation"; edit html tags; code completion; preview images; SQL console; FTP Manager; Code Explorer and more.

Continue reading to find out more...

Create Your Own Windows Screensavers

Tired of the old screensavers available in your Windows PC? Yes, you can use the Windows default "My Picture Slideshow" as your screensavers setting. What if you want to share your own cool screensaver pictures with your friends?

Now, you can easily create your own Windows screensavers just within minutes!

Removing Sensitive Data

You don't want other people to access sensitive data which you are going to dispose. Do you know that your files still can be retrieved even if they are being deleted? Yes, even if you empty your recycle bin. It can be done by running any undelete utilities.

How is this possible? Every time you delete a file, only the location of the file is being removed from the index, and the content is still somewhere around your hard drives. That is why even when you delete a file, you are still able to retrieve it by using undelete software.

Worry not, as Eraser can make your day...

Make Interesting Collages For Free

If you don't already know what is a collage...

A collage (From the French: coller, to glue) is a work of art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. Use of this technique made its dramatic appearance among oil paintings in the early 20th century as an art form of groundbreaking novelty.

[Source]

Now, there's a free way where you can make cool, fun and interesting digital collages like this one:

Publish Yourself Online

Do you have nice documents to share with friends or even strangers from the Internet? Or, do you want to search for great documents for your reading pleasure, gaining extra knowledge or helping you to weave your ideas for your assignments?

Scribd.com is a great community. It's just like YouTube or Flickr where sharing of videos (YouTube) and photos (Flickr) are taking place among the community. Despite videos or photos, Scribd.com is a service or community for you to share your documents.

Read Your Favorite Manga Online

"Anime" is a term used to refer to Japanese cartoons. And the term "Manga" means Japanese comics. Are you an anime/manga lover? Famous anime such as Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Inuyasha and many others is now available for online reading.

One Piece is one of my favorite anime. I highly recommend this series to those who love adventures and comedies type of entertainment.