The Everyman Tech Blog

Change Desktop Icon size in Windows Vista

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:46:00 +0000

Here we go with our first windows Vista Tip!

I recently upgraded my work PC to windows Vista from Windows XP. This opens a whole new realm of possibilities for topics.

For my first tip and suggestion, it's changing the icon size on the desktop. Anyone who has switched like I have may notice that by default, the icons are freakishly huge at any resolution. This may be some people's cup of tea, it's not mine however. I like to use as few icons as possible and make the ones I do use a discrete as possible.

The simple way to handle this, assuming you have a mouse with a wheel, is to first click the desktop, then hold "Control" or "CTRL" and then scroll the wheel. Scrolling up will make the icons even more freakishly huge. Scrolling down will make them ridiculously tiny.3

If you don't have a scroll wheel you can get a more comfortable size by right clicking on the desktop, then selecting View->Classic Icons. It's not as fun or dynamic however.

More Advice for Cleaner Excel Files

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:52:00 +0000

Another quick tip for Microsoft Excel. This one is especially good for files that you might be sending to other folk.

Excel will remember where you leave your selection box when you save a file. For example, if you make a series of formulas, then copy them down a column, then save the file as pictured below; the next time you open the file that same selection will be selected.

But if you select a blank cell off int he corner, you can get a much cleaner file next time you or someone else opens the file. (As shown below)

Just a quick bit of advice.

Google Chrome

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:38:00 +0000

Google has released a new web browser today called Google Chrome. I've posted a few links to some articles on the subject over on my normal blog here.

A web browser is what you use to get on the internet with. There are a few variations on the web browser already. Internet Explorer is what's included with Windows, Safari is the default for the Mac. Firefox is a common replacement for both due to the popular plug in ability.

You can download this new web browser here if you'd like to experience the web in a new way.

Know Your Hardware - The Mouse

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:38:00 +0000

The mouse is one of two primary interfaces for the computer, the other being the keyboard. While a keyboard has more buttons, they are pretty standard in layout and design.

The mouse is a bit more complicated, though not much. They generally look like the one pictured to the right. The design is made to fit in the grip of a person's hand and dragged across a flat surface. When gripped properly, the fingers landing on the head of the mouse (where the cord is on the one pictured) will fall on top of one or two or more buttons. Generally only Macintosh mice have one button though as Windows and Linux both heavily use two buttons. Your mouse might also have a scroll wheel like the one pictured here in between the buttons. The scroll wheel can usually be programmed to do various tasks but in most cases it's used to move the contents of a window or document up and down. The scroll wheel will also often double as a third button.

Some more elaborate mice will have additional buttons on them, usually situated along the left surface of the mouse and meant to be pressed with the thumb. These buttons are generally programmable as well to do special functions. The two main buttons almost always serve the same functions. The left button is the main "action button" and will generally activate whatever the courser is set to activate on the screen. The right button will generally open some sort of menu. This menu will vary depending on which program is currently in focus on the computer.

For example, if you're using a word processor such as Microsoft Word, the right click will open a menu for things such as cut and past and formatting. You would then select one of these items by pressing the left "action" button.

The mouse is by default configured to work right a person's right hand and sits on the right side of the keyboard. You can reconfigure this in the system menu for use with the left hand on the left side of the menu. The commands discussed in this article will end up being reversed if you use this set up. You can access this setting in Windows by pressing Start -> Control Panel -> Printers and Other Hardware -> Mouse. The first option is to "switch Primary and Secondary buttons". This is also where you can adjust other properties of the moue such as sensitivity and the pointer though I'll not be covering that type of detail today.

If you're choosing a moue to use, there are several things to consider. The first would be the type of interface with the computer. Unless you're using a very old machine, the mouse will interact with the computer through one of two methods, there is the older style PS/2 Ports or the newer USB ports. If you're buying a mouse you should check to see if you PC has a PS/2 port since many newer PCs to not have these anymore (though many do have them). It's not an obsolete interface but it is being phased out. The PS/2 port is a round port about a half inch in diameter that looks similar to an S-Video port. Often it is color coded, Purple for Keyboard and Green for the mouse.

You might also want to get a Wireless mouse, though the wireless mouse will still require a dongle of some sort to recieve the signal. This dongle will generally be USB based. The benefit of wireless si that you're not restricted by an ugly cable that runs across your desk. The downside is, you'll need to replace the batteries in the mouse fairly frequently.

There are also three basic types of mice. Ball Mice, Optical Mice, and the Trackball. Technically the trackball is a while differnt beast but it serves the same purpose as the mouse.

Ball mice are quicly becomming obsolete. A Ball Mouse uses a ball with several rollers internally to detect motion. If you turn your mouse over and it looks like th eone pictured, it's a ball mouse. These are prone to collecting dist whichinterferes with the sensors on the rollers. They are still reasonably common because they are cheaper to produce and buy.

Optical Mice use light to track movements. They also give off a "cool" glow effect. If you turn your mouse over and it looks like the one pictured here, it's an optical mouse. These are not prone to the same dust problem but they tend to be more expensive. Also in my experience they tend to last a shorter period of time than a Ball Mouse, though mice are cheap enough that replacing them isn't really an issue. An optical mouse is more costly than a ball mouse but you can still find one for $20 bucks or less.

Finally there is the Trackball. The Trackball is a special kind of mouse that provides a bit more precision in movement. They differ from normal mice in that the ball that interfaces movement is on top of the unit. Instead of sliding the mouse around, you roll the ball. These are often used by people who do editing for precision and are good for people who don't have the dexterity or mobility to slide the mouse around. The main drawback is that they tend to be pricey and take some getting used to, especially for people used to a normal mouse.

That pretty much concludes the basics behind the mouse interface. The best all around option is a USB Optical mouse with a scroll wheel. It's simple to use and provides the most versatility.

Clean up Excel Files with Single Sheets

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:40:00 +0000

Here's a quick tip for anyone who uses Microsoft Excel a lot. By default when installed, Excel files have 3 sheets in a workbook. Chances are, unless you're a power user of Excel, you never use these extra pages, heck you probably didn't even know they were there.

Go to Tools -> Options -> Then the General tab.

About halfway down is a box for default number of sheets. This will cut out the useless extra pages and help make your sheets feel and be a bit more streamlined. You might also save a few KBs in the process.

Three OSes in a Tub

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:57:00 +0000

Today I'd like to do a brief overview of different Operating Systems, or "OS"es. Which Computer and OS you use can be very important depending on what you want to do with your machine. There are three primary players in this field, though on of these three is kind of like a whole bunch of sort of mostly similar OSes.

Windows

We'll start with the obvious, most prolific, and most generic, Windows. Chances are, if you're reading this, you're running Windows. Windows is made of course by Microsoft and has something like 90% market share. That means that roughly 9 out of every 10 computers you see will be running Windows. It's certainly most dominant in office environments.

For what it's worth, Windows is my primary OS of choice and it's the OS I'll cover the most on this blog. It's not necessarily better than the other OSes in all aspects but it's the most versatile an compatible of the OSes. If you want software from a store, chances are there is a Windows compatible version available. Most games and hardware are also designed with Windows in mind making it the OS of choice for today's "hardcore PC gamer".

With hardware compatibility comes a whole slew of different PCs capable of running Windows. There is no standard design for a Windows machine. There is no way to tell if a PC runs Windows when you see one but chances are it does or can. Even newer Apple systems can run Windows.

Apple OSX

Apple used to be a fairly dominant player in the computer market. They were especially popular in schools during the early 90s. Somewhere along the way they lost market share but they are still the number two player in the OS market.

The main thing to consider about OSX, the current generation Apple operating system is that it will only run on Apple computers. Ok, technically with some hacker style ingenuity you can make it run on other systems but it's only DESIGNED to run on Apple computers, generally refereed to as "Macs". Mac being short for Macintosh.

Apple computers tend to be pretty distinctive and there are only a dozen or so different designs (though color may vary). They generally all have the large Apple logo emblazoned on the side or top and follow Apple's design philosophy of a very clean rounded sleek style. This is most obvious with their recently released ultra thin "Macbook Air" that will fit inside of a Manila envelope. Also in Apple's popular iPhone and iPod devices.

Like it's physical encasement, OSX also follows a very smooth sleek style in it's interface. The default set up is sort of an upside down version of Windows, the equivalent for the Windows "start" menu is on the top side of the desktop. OSX also uses the bottom of the screen for an animated quick launch style bar with a list of programs one can use on the Mac.

Apples' major downfall next to Windows is also it's best feature. It's very inward centric when it comes to compatibility. OSX generally requires special versions of software. It only runs on Apple hardware. This means your selection of software is limited but it also means more stability overall in performance. Unfortunately it also means a higher cost. Apple tends to charge about twice the cost of an equivalent PC running Windows.

What's it good for then with limited software and high cost? Well, it's stable. It's less prone to viruses. It's possibly a bit easier to use than Windows. Macs are also the system of choice for music and video editors. A Mac, especially one of their popular laptops, are great for people who like to blog or surf the net or in general, do things that "aren't gaming". While Mac has "limited software" the only real pitfall in that is the lack of games support, and even that is growing.

Linux

Linux is the smallest of the "big three". Ok, technically that's not "big three" that's "one huge giant, one mostly visible and one pinhead". Linux is excessively niche and last I checked they might have made 1% market share.

Linux is heavily based on Unix which is something like the "grandaddy of all Operating systems". Ok, that's probably not technically correct as I'm sure someone who knows more than me will point out but it paints the proper picture.

Linux is a very odd beast to describe. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, one of these OSes is sort of like a lot of smaller similar OSes. you can't go out and get "Linux", what you can do is go out and get Ubuntu, or Fedora or Debian or Knoppix or any one of hundreds of different "builds". There are flavors of Linux built especially for turning your PC into a fax machine or a media center or an alarm clock for your toaster but there are even more flavors designed to mimic Windows and OSX and create a normal usable PC.

Linux seems t fluctuate a bit on which build is it's current "mascot". Several years ago when I first started using Linux Red Hat seemed to be the version to use. These day's it's Ubuntu. Unlike Windows and OSX, Linux is free. It's build on the idea of "Open Source" which is basically a term for "free to modify and distribute (for free). While you can "buy" some versions of Linux, doing so more or less amounts to buying a support package for a certain build of Linux.

If it's free, why doesn't everyone use it? People love things that are free. The major shortcoming with Linux is that it can be confusing and difficult to use. This isn't helped by a literal split in it's core users.

There are huge sections of Linux advocates that will tell you that the Graphical User Interface is overrated and everything should be done with a command line. Suggesting to them that remembering hundreds of cryptic and archaic terms is an extremely stupid and inefficient way to run a computer will get you yelled at.

Still, there seem to be a large section of people coming around which is really helping Linux to gain momentum. Ubuntu helps this a lot. Ubuntu is extremely easy to use.

Another problem however with Linux gaining a foothold is that most computers come with some sort of operating system pre-installed. Setting up Linux can be more difficult than actually using it. The first time I installed Linux I ended up getting a stream of 1s across my screen when I rebooted it. I was locked out of my own PC. Still, this is becoming easier as well.

The final shortcoming is the software. If Mac has a shortage o software and game compatibility, Linux has already died of famine. While there is a massive amount of free open source software available for Linux, many of the programs are far disparaged from their primary market equivalents. Open Office isn't nearly as good as Microsoft Office. The Gimp has a clunky user interface next to Photoshop. The inconsistency in design philosophy of interface hurts things as well.

Linux advocates will tell you that you can run any Windows program using WINE or some other Windows Emulator but the set up process for WINE can be tricky and emulation tends to reduce performance.

Linux is really good at one thing however, servers. A server is a specialized type of computer that I'll cover in more detail in another post but Linux is definitely king of servers. Many websites run on Linux based servers. Linux servers are extremely stable and secure from outside attacks or software failure.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is there is no bottom line. I'm not going to recommend an operating system to you, that's not the purpose of this post, this is an informative post so that you the reader can have a better idea of potential unfamiliar concepts and terms I'll get into later.

A Return Post

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:27:00 +0000

I just wanted to say that I've gotten my server running again after several much needed upgrades.

What is this DRM Thing Anyway?

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:35:00 +0000

I've been downloading a lot of music through amazon.com lately and I noticed they are pushing that the music you get from them is 'DRM Free."

Now, I know what DRM is but I tend to follow such things. It occurred to me that many people have no idea what DRM means both as an acronym and for themselves.

DRM is and acronym for "Digital Rights Management." Digital Rights Management is a push by the entertainment industry to control digital media. The most common form of this media is MP3s, but DRM also works on other media including video files. Basically, it's encryption that only lets you say, play an audio file, on an authorized device, an authorized number of devices or even an authorized number of times.

DRM could be used to limit your number of plays on a certain music file or even to charge per play.

You see, the concept that the media industry likes to push is that you don't own music. Even when you buy a CD you don't own the songs on that CD. What you own is a piece of plastic that authorizes you to listen to those songs as the RIAA deems fit. That piece of plastic also happens to have those songs on it. In the eyes of the RIAA, ripping your CDs yourself is actually illegal since you're not authorized OT listen to music in that manner.

The largest peddler of DRM music is Apple with iTunes. iTunes music will only play on the iTunes player it's been authorized for on iPods it's been authorized to play on. Don't get me wrong now, I'm not trashing the iPod, in fact, I'd recommend the iPod if you want a nucer music player. i just don't recommend buying your music through iTunes. Get it from Amazon.com or some other DRM free music distributor and import it into iTunes.

So what is DRM free? It's just that, it has no encryption. You can copy it as much as you want to any number of computers and players that you want. Now, the tracks do contain some tracking information so you're not going to want to freely distribute these tracks to all your friends or worse, anonymous internet people with file sharing programs. But you can play them on pretty much any portable music player, including the iPod and copy them around to any of your laptops and PCs to listen at work or while traveling.

So when building your Digital Music library, be sure to shop smart and be aware of the possible pitfalls you may get into down the road.

Comments Enabled

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:09:00 +0000

I noticed yesterday that I had disabled comments on this blog. It was originally my intention to install a third party style comment system but it turns out the one I was planning to use is not compatible with a self hosted Blogger blog.

So, realizing this, I re-enabled the local comments.

For those who are not aware of what exactly comments are, here's the short explanation.

Basically Comments allow for discussion of a post within the post or blog itself. Comments are part of what makes a blog a blog. Without comments, you may as well be running a standard website. When you click to leave a comment, you're opening a discussion, not only with the author of the blog but with other commenters on the blog. It's a way to leave instant, public feedback on a blog and it's posts. I've gone ahead and turned on anonymous commenting as well so feel free to use that if you're wary about signing in with a name. I won't spam you in any way though and if it gets abusd i'll disable it.

Cloud Computing

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:51:00 +0000

Depending on how much you get around on the web, you may have heard the term "Cloud Computing". Today we'll cover the basic idea of Cloud Computing. You may already be doing Cloud Computing and not even realizing it.

This ties in some with the previous 5 Reasons to Get a Google Account post.

Basically, Cloud Computing is the idea of platform independent applications and storage. Applications are programs, storage is of course, where you keep your files. Most people think of applications as something that comes on a disk or in an exe file that the run and install on their PC. For example, you might install the application Microsoft Office and run it locally on your PC to edit documents and make spreadsheets.

Truth be told, you probably did not install this program at all. If you have it on your personal PC, it's possible it came pre-installed from the company that sold you the PC. If you're in an office environment, it was probably installed by your local IT department. The point is though, that it runs naively on your machine. When you open and save files, they are saved locally nd only accessable from that machine.

The Cloud Computing equivilant would be something like Google Docs. You visit this website and the application runs in your web browser. It'll work on most web browsers and run on any operating system. This is unlike Microsoft Office which runs on Windows or Macintosh only depending on which version you have and doesn't work in Linux at all.

The other benefit of Google Docs is that the files all save on Google's servers off "in the Cloud". This means that you could work on a document at home on your desktop, save it, then go work on it at your office later int he day, then again on your laptop from the coffee shop at lunch. There are methods of achieving the same sort of effect with Microsoft office but this si just one example of Cloud Computing and Google docs involves slightly less hassle.

Another good example of a Cloud Computing application is A.viary.com. While it's currently invitation only, it's effectively an entire editing suite of products that work "in the cloud" through your web browser. They currently only have a limited number of applications available but there's a whole world of possibilities.

Another benefit of working "in the cloud" is colaborative documents and file sharing. You can share a google document with coworker and both of you can make changes to it easily. Files created on a.viary can be shared with other members of the community who can then comment on them or follow your updates and files. This leads to another topic (for another post), Social Networking.

There are some limitations of Cloud Computing. For starters, you're generally limited ont he amount of file space available. The storage at many places is ususually pretty generous but if you do a huge volume of file production you may hit a roadblock.

Another limitation comes from development constraits and issues from working in a web browser. A web browser is not an operating system (yet and doesn't always alow for the same level of computing power that a dedicated locally installed application can provide. Google Docs is convenient and easy but it's still nowhere near as powerful as a real Office Suite.

That pretty much wraps up this little intro into Cloud Computing, I hope you've enjoyed it. We'll touch on this topic more in the future.

The Binary Number System

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:56:00 +0000

Binary numbers are extremely important to computers and technology. You see, a computer only understands electrical impulses. There either is a charge, or there isn't. It's either "on" or "off", 1 or 0 in mathematical terms.

This is called "Binary". Here's a short video on Binary.

He does a good job of explaining this. The computer uses these binary numbers to translate everything into something it can understand. You might occasionally hear the phrase "It's just ones and zeros" in reference to a computer file. Binary is where this comes from.

5 Reasons to Get a Google Account

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Fri, 30 May 2008 20:05:00 +0000

If you don't already have one, you should get yourself a Google account.

Maybe you already use Yahoo or Microsoft's online services. Maybe you already have an email account through your internet provider. I'm not suggesting you convert over to using Google's email client (called Gmail) though I do recommend that service.

What I'm suggesting is to sign up for a Google account. There are many many services you can use through Google, many of which I'll cover in some detail in the future. But for now, you should start off by creating a Google account i you don't have one already.

Just head on over through this link and click "Create an account now" down in the lower right hand corner.

Need five good reasons?

5) It'll let you more easily comment on this blog.

4) It'll give you access to Google Reader.

3) It'll allow you to make an iGoogle homepage.

2) It'll let you create an online Google Calender.

1) It'll give you access to Google's Gmail.

If you don't know what all of these things are, don't worry, I'll get to that.

Know Your Hardware - The Monitor

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:03:00 +0000

Ok, for many of you, this might seem obvious, but for others it surprisingly may not be.

That display that you're looking at, the one with the pretty pictures, is your computer's "Monitor". I mostly want to point this out because when my kids started using a computer they kept wanting to refer tot he monitor as "The Computer". If asked to shut the computer off, they would turn off the monitor.

That box that's likely on the floor under your desk, table, whatever, that's your Computer.

Typically Monitors come in two flavors.

The older models that you'll be harder pressed to find are the CRTs. CRT stands for "Cathode Ray Tube". they take up large amounts of space, eat up electricity and produce a lot of heat. Generally speaking, if you're getting a new computer or looking to upgrade, you don't want one of these. The advantage is that like many older technologies, they tend to be cheaper than the alternative.

The other option is a flat panel.

These slick guys are the wave of the future (and current) times. They come in several varieties and sizes and many newer ones come in a 16x9 "widescreen" ratio. As the world moves to widescreen high definition so do standard display sizes. The drawbacks to these are their cost and the fact that they tend to be prone to "dead pixes". Dead Pixes are when a single pixes or dot on a screen stops working. The result is a permanent, generally very small spot that will only irritate you occasionally when you think you've mistakenly added a period to the line of a document.

There are of course other alternative monitoring systems. Many modern televisions double as computer monitors. They still fall into these two basic categories.

A "Gig"? That's like a band get together right?

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:31:00 +0000

I noticed in my last post I was throwing around terms like "2.5 gigs". I realize that what this means may not exactly be clear. A "Gig" is a "gigabyte", a way to measure space on your computer's hard drive.

You might also see it called a "hard disk". The hard disk is where the computer stores all of the data it's not currently using (and a bit that it is using but mostly not). Think of the Hard Drive as the file cabinet where you keep all of your papers. Better yet, think of it as your entire room, or even your whole house. Part of your house has some basic files and paperwork (emails and Word documents), part of it has the tools needed to play games perhaps, a basketball or a set of golf clubs, part of it stores utilities that help the house go, your plumbing or even just your yard rake.

The point is, the Hard Drive is where the computer stores information. This is different than Memory, the subject of a future post. Memory is what the computer is actively doing, the Hard Drive is more like a storage bin for things the computer might use.

Most basic modern computers include a hard drive with around 80 gigs or gigabytes of space. A higher end computer might go up to 120 or 150 gigs of space. Chances are if you have more than that amount of space you've specifically opted to either by adding Hard Drives or upgrading your initial purchase. Either way, you probably know about bytes and gigabytes.

Back to Gigabytes, a gigabyte is 1 billion bytes (more or less). There's an extra complicated step involving kilobytes not actually being 1000 bytes and such but for this explanation we'll neglect that small detail.

So, like I said, a gigabyte is 1 billion bytes. A Megabyte is 1 million bytes. a Kilobyte is 1000 bytes, a Terrabyte is 1 Trillion bytes, a Pita byte is 1 Quadrillion bytes.

That's good enough for now. For the most part, people stick with Giga, Mega and Kilo. Anything smaller doesn't really matter, anything larger is for servers and specialized equipment.

Gigabytes really only come up for measuring hard drives as a whole or while installing large pieces of software or games.

Megabytes are really the most common form of measurement. Music files are generally 4-6 megabytes depending on the quality, digital camera photos tend to be about 1-2 megabytes unless you've got some sort of beefy SLR camera shooting in RAW format.

Kilobytes are pretty common too though with today's space and bandwidth their size is pretty negligible. Documents and emails run 50-100 kilobytes. For what it's worth though you could fit 10,000 100 kilobyte documents in 1 gigabyte. Even the most dedicated writer would have trouble filling an 80 gig drive with documents.

These measurements are generally abbreviated in a few standard ways. Gigs, Megs, Kilos (less common) are longer abbreviations. If you have a 5 meg download you're talking about 5 megabytes. Also you might see GB, MB, or KB floating around. Those stand for Gigabyte, Megabyte, and Kilobyte respectively.

Occasionally you'll see those without the "b" on the end but not often.

Empty Your Recycle Bin

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:29:00 +0000

Just a quick suggestion.

Empty your recycle bin!

I can't count the number of times I sit down at a person's PC and notice they have never or very infrequently emptied the recycle bin. This thing can account for some loss of Hard Drive space, and if it's never been emptied it can add up quickly.

So find that old Recycle Bin on your computer's desktop, right click it, and select "empty Recycle Bin". I recommend doing this AT LEAST once a week, preferably more. If you're feeling really ambitious you can turn it off completely and have all of your deleted files instantly fly into nothingness.

We all make mistakes sometimes though so I don't actually recommend doing this procedure.

If you're still feeling like a daredevil, right click the recycle bin and select "Properties". You'll get a menu like this.

Check the box there that says "Do not move files to the Recycle bin...". If you're limited on hard drive space you can also move the slider to shrink the available size of your recycle bin. Keep in mind this will cause some larger files to delete instead of being recycled. If your recycle bin has 5% of a 50 gig drive, anything over 2.5 gigs will automatically go straight to delete land. No easy recovery possible.

You can also select the check box to configure the drives independently. Maybe you never want to recycle files when deleting from your C drive but you have a 500 gigabyte D drive that you want to devote 50% of it's capacity to recycled files (why is beyond me but hey, whatever gets you going).

Now, let's say you've accidentally delete a file and it's gone to your recycle bin. This is your safety net, this is why the thing exists! Maybe in a fit of rage you went and deleted all of the poetry you wrote to your ex girlfriend but now you've decided you may want to reuse those clever bits for your next gal. Assuming you haven't emptied it, right click the recycle bin and select "Explore".

A windows should pop up showing all of the files in the recycle bin. Now, right click and select "Restore" on the files you want to keep.

They will return to their original location, unscathed. Note: If you've deleted an entire folder you'll need to restore the entire folder even if you simply want individual files.

On the off chance that you've deleted something critical you'll need to break out some more complex file recovery software (I have had good luck with R-Studio). that is however a more complex topic for another day.

Everyman Tech

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Miller) — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:37:00 +0000

Welcome to the Everyman Tech Blog. This is a tech related blog for people who are less than tech savvy. I plan to do my best to write posts in a manner that assume the reader doesn't nessesarily know what all of the elements are in the first place.

So what is a blog?

A blog is like a website that is easily updated by the author. It's sort of the evolution of the old style website that required the author to know bits of complicated code and programming languages in order to update static pages. A blog is dynamic and it keeps it's old content in an easily searchable archive.

You can subscribe to blogs and get updates to email or RSS (sort of an electronic newspaper and topic for a later post). Blogs are essentially the core of what is being called "Web 2.0" by, well, bloggers.

Blogs are often run by individuals or small groups of individuals. They are generally designed to be easily created and updated by anyone. They are generally created in a basic text style interface.

But this sint' a post about blogs, not yet, this is a post about a blog that is about Technology made Simple.