Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Freeware – tinySpell

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This is a follow up to the September 21, 2006 post Blog – Lifehacker, after which I have tried out the tinySpell “Download of the Day”.

This little application has been a real help to me when using Notepad or NoteTab Light to draft my blog postings emails and drafts for newsletter articles.

There are two versions tinySpell and tinySpell+, the first being freeware and the second an enhanced version, which will remember the last error, let you added auto-replacements and lists of words to the dictionary, checks capitalization, ignores internet and email addresses, etc.

I have been using the freeware version.

I have turned off the beep notification, and just rely on the tinySpell icon in the system tray to turn yellow and catch my eye.

When the icon turns yellow, I just left click on it and it comes up with a list of suggested corrections, from which I can choose or be allowed to add the word in question to the tinySpell dictionary.

I have been impressed with this little application and recommend it to others as an option for those applications that do not have their on spell checking capabilities. Also, I have seen no conflicts with the spell checkers in Microsoft Word, Publisher and OpenOffice Writer.

The link for the version I have used and written about above is http://tinyspell.m6.net/. There are links to several reviews there as well.

Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

If you have some other helpful application and you think I should check it out, leave me a comment with all the particulars and maybe one day there will be a posting about it.

Email – Show File Extensions For Safety

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Set Windows to show file extensions to make it easier to determine attachment safety. By default Windows is set to hide file extensions and hackers have used this to hide the real extension of an attachment to look legitimate, as most users do not change the defaults.

As an example goodattachment.txt.exe would show as goodattachment.txt, unless Windows is set to show file extensions and, if opened would run the executable file with probable bad results.

Showing file extensions is a simple process:

  • Left click Start.
  • Left click Control Panel.
  • Double click Folder Options.
  • Select the View tab.
  • Un-check the “Hide extensions for known file types.” box.
  • Click OK.
  • Close Control Panel.

Sowing file extensions is one of the first things I do when someone asks me to help them with a computer problem and I explain why they should keep this setting. Not only is this a good precaution for email, it helps me understand what the different files are in the folders on the computer that is having problems, as most leave the file extensions hidden and I can not then determine whether a particular file is a data file, an executable, a zip, etc.

Do yourself and your computer repair/consultant personnel a favor and set Windows to show file extensions.

If you know of any other reasons to show file extensions, please leave me a comment.

Gmail – Overview

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Gmail from Google is a free, web-based, email service that I have been using for quite a while now, primarily for backup of important documentation, rather than a normal email service.

In this posting, I want to give an overview of my impressions and usage of Gmail, and later posts will deal with more specifics of how I have Gmail work for me.

All posts related to Gmail will be labeled Gmail for your convenience in locating them.

There are a lot of features in Gmail, but here are the ones most important to the way I use the service, in no particular order:

  • Storage – Currently 2,768+ megabytes, and increasing all the time.
  • Labels – Labels are used instead of folders, unlike most other email applications.
  • Attachment Size – Up to 10 megabytes of attachments are supported.
  • Searching – Very easy to find the specific email you are looking for.

Earlier in this posting, I said that I use Gmail more for backup of important documentation; I have several regular email accounts and use the Thunderbird email client for those.

The Gmail account, is what I use to send myself a compressed folder containing all data from work each day, as well as backups of newsletters, handouts, etc. from the BPCA and BRCS computer user groups.

This enables me to get the most current information I need, when I need it, from anywhere I can access the internet.

Gmail is by invitation only at this point. Luckily there are ways to obtain an invitation.

  • I have some invites available from my account, that will be available to BPCA or BRCS members, as long as the supply lasts, just send me a request.
  • Request an invitation from a friend, who has an account with invitations.
  • Do a web search for “gmail invitations”; there are many constantly changing listings.

In future posts, I will show you how to use various features of Gmail to organize your correspondence using labels and filters.

Current Gmail users are invited to comment with how they use Gmail to increase their productivity.