Internet Explorer 7 freezes at startup? | How to disable add-ons for IE7

Last Friday I went to a friend’s place to take a look of their computer because they think it have viruses on it.  Their computer wasn’t as bad as I thought……but then again the computer was quite fast; so having a few viruses / Trojans running at the background probably won’t make much difference 😉  I ran a few virus / Trojan scanners on the computer and found a handful of spywares plus a Trojan!

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[University of Otago] Firefox’s Proxy Auto Detection Problem in Vista

The ability for web browsers to automatically detect proxy settings is really useful when you have to switch between multiple networks all the time.  With Internet Explorer, proxy settings are being detected in both XP and Vista, but things aren’t going so well with Firefox!  If you are using Vista and Firefox happens to be your default browser, you have to manually configure the proxy settings for it to work on our student network…which is NOT convenient at all! 

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Speed up your (Intel) Mac’s Restart / Shut Down process

It’s not he first time that I hear people saying:

If you install Windows (using Boot Camp) on your (Intel) Mac, it will make your Mac run really slow!

I always thought this is some kind of a joke because they (the two operating systems) are sitting on different partitions…so how can they interfere with one another? Well, it turns out that with / without installing Windows (using Boot Camp) on your (Intel) Mac DOES make a difference…at least it makes a difference on the Restart / Shut Down process.

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Controlling your Mac’s fan speed with SMC Fan Control (with step by step guide)

Before I got my MacBook, I’ve heard people complaining that their MacBook / MacBook Pros are getting a little too warm at times. After I got my MacBook…I’ve noticed that the default fan speed is a little too low…thus the CPU could get quite warm when you open up quite a few apps. My friend Chaks, who also owns a MacBook, recommended a software to me (thanks Chaks) 😀 Its called SMC Fan Control (SMC stand for System Management Controller). Here are some details about the software:

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A step by step guide on how to reinstall your Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard (附中文翻译)

Reinstalling your own operating system is kind of like a standard task nowadays if you are using your computer(s) extensively. No matter whether you are using a Mac or a PC, your operating system is kind of like “aging” everyday…getting slower and slower until the point you can’t stand it anymore and decide to do a reinstall.

Also…sometimes it takes less time to solve a problem by reinstalling the system rather than taking your time to find the solution itself…although you won’t learn much…but at least you will get the job out of the way.

Reinstalling Windows should be easy because most people are PC users; when you have a problem regarding your installation, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find someone to help you…but what if you are using a Mac?

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Adding dictionaries to the built-in Dictionary Application in Leopard

The Dictionary Application (Dict App for short) is really helpful at times when you are reading an eBook / web page. I even define my own shortcut key so that when I high light a word and press “Control + Command + A”, the dictionary app will come up straight away and show me the meaning of the word that I’ve high lighted.

But there is just one little problem…the Dict App only comes with a few built-in dictionaries…for instance if I want to know the Chinese meaning of a particular word, I’ll need to search online / use something else. It would be great if I can add more dictionaries and make it the “one stop” app that I’ll ever need.

Well, it turns out that with the help of DictUnifier, you can add all kinds of dictionaries to the built-in Dictionary Application in Leopard. Take a look of my list 😉 (I only use a handful of the dictionaries, others are for my friends)

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Viewing CHM files under Mac OS X

Most of the eBooks nowadays are in either PDF or CHM format. While Windows have native support for CHMs (of course…), Macs have native support for PDFs. If you want to read PDF files under Windows, all you have to do is to install Acrobat Reader, but what if you want to read CHM files under Mac OS X? Since a number of eBooks that I’ve got are in CHM format, I was conformed with the task of finding a CHM reader for my Mac. So I did a little research online and found an application called xchm.

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Changing the system language in Mac OS X

Changing the system languages in Macs are really easy. So if your friends / parents aren’t comfortable with your English system, you can always switch the language to suite their needs. Below is a step by step guide that will show you how to change the system language in Mac OS X.

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The Speech service in Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

I have been using Leopard for more than a week now…and I am discovering new things everyday…which is the same with any operating system really 😀 The “artificial voice” (think its called Alex) in Leopard sounds a lot better and is quite close to human voice (at most of the time), but you do laugh at times when it do sound like a robot 😉 Anyway, with the speech service, you can let your Mac read out documents / lecture notes / eBooks to you! Its great for lazy people like me 🙂

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Guided Tour of Mac OS X Leopard

Here is the latest video from apple.com. If you are interested in Leopard (specially those of us who doesn’t own a Mac yet but are interested), you can go ahead and download this guided tour to take a look of what apple has to offer in the new “big cat” OS 😀

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Launchy – Quicksilver for Windows

Quicksilver is one of my favorite apps on the Mac platform, but what about Windows? Is there anything we could use on Windows that acts more or less the same as Quicksilver on the Macs? Well, it turns out that there are quite a few! I personally prefer Launchy, which is an open source keystroke launcher for Windows 🙂

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Google拼音输入法简介 – 如何实现“自动同步用户词库与设置”

Google输入法的同步功能对于像我这样常常重装系统的人来说非常有用。 虽然不少输入法都有词库导出和导入功能，但有时候我们往往会忘记备份词库，导致重装之后以前的词组都没来 😦

下面的短文将会介绍如何实现Google拼音输入法的“自动同步用户词库与设置”功能：

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How to extend Vista’s trial period to 120 days.

If your friends are still not sure whether they should get Vista or not, then you can tell them to use Vista as a trial and experience this great OS themselves. But the initial trial period is only 30 days, and for some, that’s not enough, so what can we do? Reinstall every 30 days until we’ve decided to get it? That’s probably not the best option unless you’ve got lots to spare time to kill. Here is a simple tutorial to show you how to extend Vista’s trial period to 120 days, which is probably more than enough for most of us 😉

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Stay up to date with Google Reader!

If you have been using Gmail (Google’s web mail), you have probably seen the word Google Reader already (when you’ve got no mail in your Inbox, you will see it), but chances are that you are just like me, who sees it everyday but never actually click on the link they provided.  So what exactly is Google Reader and why should I care?  In order to answer this question, you have to ask yourself whether you are a person who reads news regularly and want to keep up to date on what is happening all over the world.  If you are that kind of person, then you should really consider to give Google Reader a try 🙂

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Showcase for Firefox (similar to Quick Tabs in Internet Explorer 7)

The Quick Tabs function in Internet Explorer 7 (IE7 for short) is really useful and innovative. If you are the kind of person like me who uses tabs a lot, you will find the Quick Tabs function will save you a lot of time. Instead of checking which page has finished loading, you can see all of them at the same time 🙂 But what if you mainly use Firefox as your web browser, does this means you have to go back to the old way of checking which tab has finished loading? Well, showcase for Firefox solves the problem!

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Work around regarding to the problem with Vista’s Windows Update

I was having a bit of problem with Vista’s Windows Update in the central library…I am keep getting the follow error message:

I didn’t know this until a few people ask me why their Windows Update won’t work on their Vista 😦 Since I am working this morning, I spent a bit of time and try to find the solution on the Internet.

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Switching Proxies in Firefox using FoxyProxy

In Internet Explorer, the proxy settings can be automatically detected, but that is not the case with Firefox. In Firefox, you have to manually set the proxy before you can use our Uni’s Network. Although the process of manually changing the proxy settings is not too difficult, it can be a pain if you have to do it every now and then. One of the good things about Firefox is that it offer developers the opportunity to develop Add-ons for Firefox to add more functionalities. With FoxyProxy, proxy switching in Firefox is only two clicks away 🙂 So…how do we set this up?

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Stay on Schedule with SMS notification from Google Calendar

I have been using the Google Calendar for some time now; mainly for organizing my time table. I have never noticed the SMS notification until I really had a good look into the settings during my winter holiday a few weeks ago. The SMS notification is great…but not too sure how much they are charging for this service. Last week I heard Brendan (my Head of Department) saying that he uses the SMS notification as well, and it seems to be free! To make things clear, I emailed Vodafone but I haven’t got any reply from them yet 😦 Anyway, here is how to set up the SMS notification in Google Calendar:

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