Archive for the ‘Frontpage’ Category

Back Up Pidgin Settings and Data

Pidgin stores the buddy list, pounces, preferences, and other data as XML files in a “hidden” directory in Windows. This data can be useful for transferring data between Pidgin clients without reentering your data each time.

To copy/backup your data, head over to C:\Documents and Settings\[your username]\Application Data\.purple\ and copy the XML files.

To transfer them to a Pidgin Portable installation, paste the files in \PidginPortable\Data\settings\.purple\ overwriting any existing files.

Pidgin also stores cached buddy icons in the icons folder of the same directory and HTML logs (if enabled) in the logs folder (which can also be viewed through the main window with Buddies → View User Log.

Three Ways to Get Gmail Redesigned

Gmail Redesigned is a free style that completely changes Gmail’s look by overhauling the color scheme and adding new graphics:

We’re going to detail three various methods to get Gmail Redesigned. All of these methods require Firefox. (more…)

Hold Online Meetings with Adobe ConnectNow

Adobe ConnectNow is a free service offered by Adobe as part of the Acrobat.com suite of tools, by far offering the easiest method to holding a meeting online. It features a number of tools, including screen sharing, collaborative whiteboard, chatroom, shared notes, and voice/webcam chat. We’ll show you how to set up your own meeting room, then show you a more in depth look at each of the features. (more…)

Custom Buddy Notifications with Pidgin

Alert yourself to events in instant messaging, such as a contact signing on or sending you a message using Buddy Pounces in Pidgin. Buddy Pounces allow you to notify yourself in a variety of ways, including playing custom sounds and running programs. We’ll show you how to setup a simple buddy pounce that will alert you when a contact signs on. (more…)

Disable “Phrase Not Found” Sound in Firefox

Firefox, by default, makes an annoying sound everytime you type an additional letter in the “Find” field which it cannot find. A quick trip to about:config will easily resolve this problem.

Type about:config into the URL bar and in the Filter, type the following:

accessibility.typeaheadfind.enablesound

One entry should show up, and the value should by default be true. Double click it to change the value to false. Restart your browser, and changes have been applied.

Demo Software in a Sandbox

Sandboxie, a free application, creates a virtual layer on your computer where you can run and install various software applications without actual changes to your true hard disk.

Simply, Sandboxie forces applications to write to the layer instead of the hard disk, and is able to wipe everything clean afterwards, perfect for demoing software. In this post we’ll be explaining the very basic usage of Sandboxie so you can run and install programs into a layer (sandbox). Download and install from here. (more…)

Deploy a Local Web Server on Windows

In this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to quickly deploy a local WAMP (Windows Apache MySQL PHP) server in a few minutes using XAMPP. Using a local webserver, you can install PHP web applications on your local computer (such as a personal wiki, chat, forum, etc).

For this tutorial, we’ll be showing you how to setup XAMPP using the self extracting 7-Zip file. (more…)

Sync Host and Guest Folders in VirtualBox

As a follow up to our seamless Ubuntu in Windows tutorials, we’re going to show you how to sync a Windows (host) folder to a folder in the Ubuntu (guest). You’ll need to have guest additions installed on the guest OS for this one.

For this tutorial we’ll be syncing the H: drive on Windows (yours will probably be C:) with /home/jason/windows in Ubuntu. (more…)

Configuring Synergy Server on Linux

In this tutorial we’re going to explain the setup of the Synergy server on Ubuntu. If you haven’t already installed it, open Terminal and type the following:

sudo apt-get install synergy (more...)

		

Free Windows Software Alternatives

I’ve guest blogged at Quick Online Tips, a technology blog which posts about blogging tips, Web 2.0, and computer software. You can read the article over here. It lists free software replacements for Windows built in software, such as Movie Maker and Notepad.

Since this is a mainly empty post, I’d also like to ask readers for any feedback or requests. I’d appreciate any feedback in the comments section of this post below.