Friedbeef's Tech » Productivity http://www.friedbeef.com Solving Everyday Problems With Simple Technology - Freeware, Productivity, Useful Tips & More Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:28:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 en hourly 1 http://www.friedbeef.com http://www.friedbeef.com/favicon.ico Friedbeef's Tech How to Compare Measurement Units with Physical Objects http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-compare-measurement-units-with-physical-objects/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-compare-measurement-units-with-physical-objects/#comments Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:44:49 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/?p=573  units1

Telling me that 100m = 328 feet doesn’t really mean much to me. 

Telling me that 100m = 2 Olympic-sized swimming pools does.

SensibleUnits.com is a free unit conversion service which helps you understand how long, large, or heavy something is by equating it with physical real life objects which most people can relate to better.  Perfect for putting any measurement into context. 

 units3

units4

units2

Plus, if not for this service I would never have known that 16 human small intestines could stretch out to 100m :)

Do you use any measurement unit conversion tools?  Let us know in the comments!

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-compare-measurement-units-with-physical-objects/feed/ 3 Eco-Friendly Ways to Save Printer Ink http://www.friedbeef.com/3-eco-friendly-ways-to-save-printer-ink/ http://www.friedbeef.com/3-eco-friendly-ways-to-save-printer-ink/#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:46:20 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/?p=555 ink

Printers are getting cheaper all the time - but printer ink is still priced at a hefty premium.  Here are 3 great tips to save ink, save paper, and save the world all at the same time. 

1. How to optimize a web page for printing

 print

Ever print a web page only to find your printout is full of ads, empty space and other junk you don’t want? PrintWhatYouLike is a free web page editor that gives you control of how web pages look when printed.  All you need to is:

  • Enter the url of a page you wish to print
  • Edit the page until it contains only what you want to print
  • Print It! Only your modified page will be printed

There is nothing to download- everything runs in your browser, and it takes just a few clicks to remove the backgrounds or images.  Feel free to have a go at it as all changes are undoable.  You can even combine multiple web pages together - edit and print them as one document!

2. How to pick the best font for printing

ecofont

Ecofont is a project to optimize fonts for printing, without sacrificing readability.

Appealing ideas are often simple: how much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability? After extensive testing with all kinds of shapes, the best results were achieved using small circles. After lots of late hours (and coffee) this resulted in a font that uses up to 20% less ink.

3. How to automate optimization for printing

green

Greenprint is an interesting piece of freeware that scans through and helps to optimize the print layout.  With just a few simple clicks you can automatically tweak it so that you’re not wasting paper and ink.  The advantages to this over PrintWhatYouLike.com is that this works for printed materials outside web pages, but the disadvantages of it would be that you would actually need to install something not run it directly off the web.

Do you take steps to save printer ink?  Tell us in the comments!

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/3-eco-friendly-ways-to-save-printer-ink/feed/ How to Test The Strength Of Your Password http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-test-the-strength-of-your-password/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-test-the-strength-of-your-password/#comments Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:46:00 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/?p=547 lock

We all know how important a good password is, but how do you test how good it REALLY is?

Sure, many websites now come with password indicators which says ‘Weak’ or ‘Strong, but what exactly does that mean?

Well now you can get an answer :)

Hackosis has setup a calculator which estimates how fast your password would be cracked if it was run on a typical PC processor under ideal conditions.  Granted that the real world does not run in ideal conditions (with bandwidth limitations etc),but results are nevertheless - pretty scary.

lock2

Want to safeguard yourself?  Here are 4 password tips to get you on the right track.

What password tips do you have?  Tell us in the comments!

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-test-the-strength-of-your-password/feed/ How to Join Powerpoint Files Instantly http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-join-powerpoint-files-instantly/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-join-powerpoint-files-instantly/#comments Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:53:55 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/?p=486 jessicahagy

An easy way to store away multiple presentation files from a conference or event is simply to merge them all into one single Powerpoint file.  That way you:

  1. Reduce clutter in your folders
  2. Don’t have to wonder which was the one-of-20-presentations you were looking for

No, you don’t have to copy and paste slides from each presentation.  Just use Powerpoint Joiner, and it will run a script which will take care of all the merging of files with just a few clicks. 

Also useful if you have to regularly compile a standard set of Powerpoint files from various sources.

Do you like Powerpoint?  Tell us in the comments!

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-join-powerpoint-files-instantly/feed/ How to Generate Dummy Data - REALLY FAST http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-generate-dummy-data-really-fast/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-generate-dummy-data-really-fast/#comments Sat, 09 Aug 2008 04:38:37 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/2008/08/09/how-to-generate-dummy-data-really-fast/ generatedata

Need to populate a database with some dummy figures?  Here’s perhaps the fastest way you’ll be able to do this.

GenerateData.com is a free service which quickly generate large volumes of custom data in a variety of formats (eg. Excel, CSV, SQL, HTML).  What I like most about GenerateData.com it is you can choose the type of data to generate, for example - phone numbers, email, names etc.  Everything just gets neatly generated based on whatever you select and it really saves time trying to come up with quality dummy data.

Also, if you want this service to run on own server (in case you need to run some heavy duty data generation), the script is open and available for download on the site - for FREE.

Thanks Skeevs for sharing this :)

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-generate-dummy-data-really-fast/feed/ Universal Document Converter : A Review http://www.friedbeef.com/universal-document-converter-a-review/ http://www.friedbeef.com/universal-document-converter-a-review/#comments Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:42:33 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/2008/07/23/universal-document-converter-a-review/ udc2

Universal Document Converter (UDC) is a piece of software that will allow you to convert documents of any type can be exported into Adobe PDF or graphical files in 7 popular formats: TIFF, JPEG, PNG, PCX, DCX, GIF or BMP.  Once installed, UDC will be listed alongside your printers, so within any application, just click print and select UDC and you’ll export that document to the file format of your choice.

The good:

  • The fact that the application functions as a virtual printer means that you can convert files directly from any application which supports printing.  This saves an extra step of having to launch a separate conversion program every time you want to generate a file in a different output.
  • Support for less popular but industry formats like Autocad & QuarkXpress.  These file types are usually forgotten by many of the other converters out there.

  • High resolution. The ability to export documents with a resolution up to 2,400 DPI enables you to save all elements of design of advertising materials and the minutest details of drawings and electronic diagrams.

  • Automatic margin cropping. The function of automatic cropping of empty margins makes it unnecessary to edit graphical copies of tables and diagrams before placing them in presentations or text documents.

  • Scalability. The possibility to share Universal Document Converter over a network and use it from workstations allows for a significant increase in speed for the conversion of documents.

  • Ease of use.  The software is pretty intuitive, and the tutorials are very straightforward in case you every get stuck.  If all else fails, there’s also software support.

What could be better:

Price.  For the most popular conversions like document to PDF, there are free alternatives which function the same way (acting as a virtual printer) and work just as well.  Even for other conversions, PDF to picture etc. there are other alternatives as well.  With prices starting at USD$69, UDC can be too steep for most people.

Tipping point:

Is it worth the price?  The key consideration in this decision is - how often you convert files.  Due to its universal nature and software support, over a long run, this will save you time (and as a result - money) if you convert files on a very regular basis.   My advice would be to try out the demo version first, and then try the free alternatives for PDF writers (they another here), and and other converters.   - then make your decision.

Links: Universal Document Converter

What do you use to convert documents?  Tell us in the comments!

Disclaimer: UDC has paid me to test and review their service - and to give an honest opinion. Please note that all opinions expressed in this post are completely my own, and have not been influenced by UDC in any way.

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/universal-document-converter-a-review/feed/ How Supercharge Your Clipboard http://www.friedbeef.com/how-supercharge-your-clipboard/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-supercharge-your-clipboard/#comments Sat, 05 Jul 2008 03:25:18 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/2008/07/05/how-supercharge-your-clipboard/  

clipboardpix

Microsoft’s Windows Clipboard (The virtual space which stores your ‘cut/copy’ so you can ‘paste’ it), is perhaps one of the most underdeveloped features of Windows.  Its ability to only store ONE item at a time has been the bane of many a Windows user who just needed something more than that. 

Fortunately, the community has responded and there are quite a number of good tools out there which will extend the functionality of the clipboard.  I’ve tried several of these Clipboard managers, but after putting it to the test, Ditto is perhaps one of the most powerful of these such tools.

Among many others, here are some of my favorite features:

  1. Stores as many copied entries as you want
  2. Sort those copied items so you can use them later (e.g. Address details)
  3. Search as you type feature - which allows you to filter through all the items you copied to your clipboard
  4. Thumbnails for images on clipboard
  5. Portable and can be run directly from a thumb-drive

Ditto is also open source and completely free :)

What’s your favorite clipboard manager?  Tell us in the comments!

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/how-supercharge-your-clipboard/feed/ How to Streamline Your Right Click Context Menu http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-streamline-your-right-click-context-menu/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-streamline-your-right-click-context-menu/#comments Fri, 23 May 2008 22:16:38 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/2008/05/24/how-to-streamline-your-right-click-context-menu/ streamline

Just last month we talked about ‘Giving Your Right Mouse Button Super Powers’ where you were able to add a ton of features to your right click.   Some of you loved it, but some of you thought the extra options were just too overwhelming! 

For those of you in the latter group - here’s something which does exactly the opposite and helps you clean up and streamline your right click.   Think about it - whenever you right-click inside Windows explorer, you would typically only use only a fraction of the items on the context menu.

mmm

MMMFree is a piece of freeware which allows you to store these menu-items in a ‘rarely-used’ folder or hide them completely so you get to see only what you want to see all the time…  Perfect for a cleaner desktop!

Would you prefer ‘more or ‘less’ options in your right click menu?  Tell us in the poll & comments!

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-streamline-your-right-click-context-menu/feed/ How to Get Ahead: Top 5 Essential Web 2.0 Career Resources http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-get-ahead-top-5-essential-web-20-career-resources/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-get-ahead-top-5-essential-web-20-career-resources/#comments Mon, 19 May 2008 15:58:06 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/2008/05/19/how-to-get-ahead-top-5-essential-web-20-career-resources/ washer

Just how do you get ahead these days?   Here are 5 high tech tools to supplement traditional job-hunting site on the web like Monster or Jobstreet.  Hopefully they’ll give you that little extra edge you need to move ahead in your career.  Of course, nothing beats the traditional method of working hard and smart - but every little bit counts!

1. How to Compare Salaries

salaryscout

Don’t just wonder if you’re getting a fair deal - now you can find out for yourself.  Several websites now specialize in salary reports where you’re able to compare the salary ranges to see what you should be paid. 

My favorites?  PayScale and SalaryScout - Both offer excellent reports and a good user base to draw information from.  WageExchange is another salary site to consider, as rather than aggregating the details, it gives you individual snapshots of a complete pay and benefits package (user identity is masked of course).

2. How to Search Multiple Jobsites at One Go

recruit

Job-sites are becoming a dime a dozen these days, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to skim through listings across sites without spending an excessive amount of time doing so.  Enter recruit.net, an aggregator which searches, indexes and aggregates listings from job sites, as well as career pages of prominent companies, summarizing search results from all over in a single view.  

Currently only works for listings within Asia Pacific, but watch for expansion plans in the future.

3. How to Build a Professional Social Network

linkedin

LinkedIn has been around for ages, but I have never really gotten into it.  Billed as a professional online social network, it isn’t exactly the most exciting social network when you compare it with the likes of Facebook or Myspace.  Useful to note though that Linkedin profile pages are indexed in Google, and it may be a good way to showcase yourself to a future employer should they run a quick search on you. 

4. How to find extremely niche jobs

crunch

If you’re looking to score a niche job, try the job-boards on popular websites.  Often overlooked, this can be a great source of jobs you wouldn’t otherwise see advertised in mainstream job sites.  Examples of this would be the ProBlogger job boards, where you can get yourself a blogging gig, and CrunchBoard, where you can hook up with web 2.0 industry.

5. How to Discover Your Ideal Company Culture

jiibe

Pay, benefits, and scope are easily defined, but culture is so much less tangible, and hard to keep a handle on. New job site Jiibe does a magnificent job of matching your needs to a company’s culture. 

By asking you a series of questions, it builds up your personality profile by learning more about your current company culture as well as your ideal company culture.  You can then find companies which would provide the best possible environment for you to excel. 

What other career sites do you like?  Tell us in the comments!

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-get-ahead-top-5-essential-web-20-career-resources/feed/ How to get more space on your hard disk by cleaning out Outlook properly http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-get-more-space-on-your-hard-disk-by-cleaning-out-outlook-properly/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-get-more-space-on-your-hard-disk-by-cleaning-out-outlook-properly/#comments Sun, 06 Apr 2008 07:01:04 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/2008/04/06/how-to-get-more-space-on-your-hard-disk-by-cleaning-out-outlook-properly/ email 

If you’ve ever done a thorough cleanup of your Outlook inbox, you’ll find that permanently deleting files or emptying your recycle bin gets rid of the file - but doesn’t really do much in terms of saving space. 

To reclaim your hard disk, what you need to do is to compact your PST file.  If you’re not sure what exactly to do, within Outlook just go to Tools –> Options –>  Mail Setup –> Data Files –> Select your outlook PST file –> Settings –> and click ‘Compact Now’. 

The process may take some time if you have a large uncompacted file, so you may want to leave this running overnight.  The net result though - is an optimized outlook file, and potentially LOTS more free hard disk space!

What other hard disk tips do you have?   Let us know in the comments!

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-get-more-space-on-your-hard-disk-by-cleaning-out-outlook-properly/feed/ How to Resume Right Where You Left Off in MS-Word http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-resume-right-where-you-left-off-in-ms-word/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-resume-right-where-you-left-off-in-ms-word/#comments Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:45:52 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/2008/03/31/how-to-resume-right-where-you-left-off-in-ms-word/ documents 

Here’s a simple tip which will save you oodles of time!  Suppose you’re working on a long and complex MS-Word document which can’t be finished in a single sitting. 

When you get open up the document later - you don’t have to scroll through multiple pages to get to the part where you left off…

…Just press ‘Shift F5′, and bang!  MS-Word will bring your cursor directly to where it was before you saved the file, so you can resume work right away.

Fantastic :)

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-resume-right-where-you-left-off-in-ms-word/feed/ How to Convert PDF to Text http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-convert-pdf-to-text/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-convert-pdf-to-text/#comments Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:57:59 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/2008/02/21/how-to-convert-text-to-pdf/ pdftext

We’ve previously discussed ways to convert Text to PDF, but what if you wanted to do it the other way around? 

Typically, copying and pasting directly from a PDF file will result in messy globs of unformatted text, making it barely feasible large sections of text. 

PDF Text Online is a free web based service which helps you extract the text, and even reformat it so you can paste it neatly into Word documents and still preserve a lot of the original PDF formatting. 

Simple simple problem?  Simple solution.

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-convert-pdf-to-text/feed/ 7 Best Tools For Working With Fonts http://www.friedbeef.com/7-best-tools-for-working-with-fonts/ http://www.friedbeef.com/7-best-tools-for-working-with-fonts/#comments Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:48:42 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/2008/02/05/7-best-tools-for-working-with-fonts/ Want to make the most of your fonts?  Here’s how…

1. How to identify any font

identifont

Seen font which you’d like to use but don’t know what it is?  Answer a series of questions from Identifont and it will help you find out what it is and get your hands on it. 

2. How to determine which the most common fonts are

fonts2

It’s common knowledge that if you use a set of fonts that a user doesn’t have installed on their own system - your user will be looking at another font, which may or may not be aesthetically pleasing.  

How sure can you be that the font you specify will be present on the end user’s machine?  Codestyle has an ongoing survey which tracks the most commonly used fonts for every platform so you can best make that decision. 

3. How to preview every font on your system without installing anything

Want to take stock of what fonts you already own?  Web based STC fontBrowser scans your system, and with its user friendly interface allows you to preview all your fonts directly from your browser.

fonts1

4. How to compare fonts side by side

typetester

If you’re going to make tight decisions about which fonts to use, sometimes it’s better to have all the choices displayed next to each other.  Most sites only allow you to preview one font at a time - Typetester allows you to do 3 side by side.

5. How to make your own font from handwriting

fonti

The whole idea of using a ‘handwriting font’ revolves around adding that personal touch.  Well if that’s the case, you can’t get more personal that actually using your own handwriting as the font itself.  Fontifier is a service which can translate your handwriting into workable fonts.  Note that it isn’t free (USD$9), but considering the prices of competing products, it’s a good place to start.

6. How to find and download good fonts for free

fonts3

Free font sites are a dime a dozen.  1001fonts may not have the largest collection out there (Although it’s still pretty extensive) but what I liked about it was the usability of the whole site.  Sections on top rated, and most popular fonts, as well as different categories allows anyone to quickly pick up something they like.  

7. How to manage fonts on your computer

fonts4

Previewing and even using fonts is one thing… efficient management of fonts is something else altogether.  AMP Font Viewer gives you complete control over your fonts.  Here are some of my favourite features.

  • Installation of fonts from a folder (one by one or from a list)
  • Deletion of installed fonts
  • Organize fonts in categories and manage them
  • You can print a list (or selection) of installed fonts with an example of each font.

What is your favourite font?  Tell us in the comments!

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/7-best-tools-for-working-with-fonts/feed/ How to Remove Passwords From Protected Excel Sheets http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-remove-passwords-from-protected-excel-sheets/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-remove-passwords-from-protected-excel-sheets/#comments Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:10:16 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/2008/01/31/how-to-remove-passwords-from-protected-excel-sheets/ excel

What’s simplest way to stop an Excel sheet or workbook from being modified?  Just protect it with a password.  While this is great for stopping others from accidentally modifying certain sections of your Excel file, it certainly isn’t the safest way to lock up private data for the simple reason that it’s very easy to crack!

If you’re ever in a situation where you need instant legitimate access to a locked file, just download and run this Excel Add On.  Then just open up the file in question and you can unlock the workbook or any worksheets within it. 

Useful to note is that it doesn’t reveal the password, or brute hack it - what it does is just simply remove the entire password from the file altogether. 

Also, the program can’t remove file protection, i.e. if you are unable to open the excel file to begin with, this program won’t help you. You can however try Excel Key (this one is not free) to remove file protection.

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]]> http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-remove-passwords-from-protected-excel-sheets/feed/ How to Edit PDF Files Directly From The Web http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-edit-pdf-files-directly-from-the-web/ http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-edit-pdf-files-directly-from-the-web/#comments Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:50:34 +0000 James Yeang http://www.friedbeef.com/2008/01/14/how-to-edit-pdf-files-directly-from-the-web/ adobe

Want to make simple edits to PDF files and don’t want to go through the hassle of actually installing software?

 hammer

PDF Hammer is a website that allows you to edit your PDF files online for free. You don’t need to install any additional software, you can edit PDF documents right now inside your browser.  It’s as simple as that.

PDF Hammer is in beta and currently has the following features:

  • Reorder pages
  • Delete pages
  • Append PDF to another PDF

Note that this works best with minor edits as described above - and if the PDF file you wish to edit is small enough to upload and download quickly.  If you want a more powerful editor or need something computer based, you may want to try some PDF editing freeware which we reviewed previously.

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