Lessfeet

The email from all of my account goes to Gmail so I have to go to different sites or open and email program. I go to Gmail and it’s all there.  See Lifehacker. But that’s not the tip!

Google does not check your POP account frequently so you may have your Gmail open but your not seeing all of you messages because they’re still on the server. You can go to “Settings”,  “Accounts and Import”, go down to “Check mail using POP3″ and click on “Check mail now”. This will import any new messages.

This method is very inconvenient. A better way is to turn on this new feature that checks your POP accounts whenever you click the “Refresh link” just above your messages.

At the top of the Gmail page click “Settings” and “Labs”. Find “Refresh POP accounts” and enable it. Now you can check your POP accounts with ease.

I’m always saying use good passwords. Use upper and lower case letters and numbers. I do all of this but one has to have an algorithm to remember ones passwords. The problem is in order to use the password algorithm it has to be easy. Something you can do in your head. My algorithm is so easy that if you discovered one of my passwords it would be no problem to figure out the rest. An algorithm that you can do in your head must be more difficult and hopefully you have the gray matter to use it or you must try something else.

LastPass is the answer. LastPass generate pseudorandom passwords for you and store them on a secure website. Then LastPass can auto-fill passwords as you need them. It can even log you in automatically. It took me a while but I generated all new passwords for all of my logins, they are all different and they are saved securely on the LastPass site.

If your still using the Windows XP or Windows 7 RC  (time is running out for the RC – release candidate) you might want to be thinking about installing your Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade that you preordered back in the summer of 2009 for $49. Didn’t catch that deal? I’m sorry.

There are several methods for upgrading. If you’re current using Windows Vista then the upgrade path is obvious. First make a backup of all of your data. While your computer is ON put in the Windows 7 disk. A setup screen will start. Just follow the prompts. Do not install the new OS over the vista install. You’ll want to start over with a clean install. After install is complete get all of the update then activate your Win7 installation. This is the easiest install. If your installing from Windows XP, Windows 7 RC or from a clean hard-drive gets more complicated. Here’s instructions from Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows.

Are you secure on the net? May you are! Maybe you aren’t! The Internet
is always being monitored by hackers, bots and other things looking for
computers that have open ports that can be attacked.

ShieldsUP is a site from the security and harddrive expert Steve Gibson at GRC.Com.

ShieldsUp scans your computer to see if there are any vulnerable ports
on you computer to exploit. See if you computer is vulnerable.

Steve along with Leo Laporte host a security podcast call Security Now which covers many advanced security topics.

I was discussing last night with someone about upgrading Ubuntu to a new version. I said I did not know much about it because I was alway trying new distros and I never keep a version long enough to upgrade. I also said I thought it was very simple. Just a few clicks and that it is done with little worry that it would break anything. I looked at the Ubuntu instructions for upgrading. It was just as I thought it is all done with no commandline or recompiling the kernel. I don’t know about it breaking stuff. I guess it’s like anything else. Some things could break.

Delicious – Organize, manage and tag your bookmarks (favorites in Internet Explorer) online. Share with others and search bookmarks of others. The best thing about Delicious is the Firefox plugin. I use it as my personal bookmarks manager on my computer.

Here is a recently restored photo that I have been working on. A lot of what was wrong with this photo was not fixed by Photoshop. It was very stained and very dirty. I had to remove the dirt covering the picture first. If you Google cleaning photos it will tell you much better techniques to do this. I was doing this for free so I did not want to spend any money so I used alcohol. I stared in a corner of the photo to see if there was any problems before using it before cleaning the entire photo. After cleaning the picture and scanning it into Photoshop as a color image I then used a “Hue and Saturation adjustment layer” to to take out the yellow cast. I used a second “Hue and Saturation” adjustment layer to adjust the the lightness of the yellow around the wheel area to remove a big yellow blotch. I fixed the contrast and brightness with a “Levels adjustment layer”. Then used the “Clone Stamp Tool” and finally the “Healing Brush Tool” to take out smudges, and scratches. That’s it! More Photoshop tips!

This tip from Gena Trapani of Lifehacker.

As you may know there is a new version of Windows (Windows 7) coming out October 22. What you don’t know is there are already books on the subject. One of these is Windows 7 Secrets by Paul Thurrott (co-host of the Windows Weekly poadcast on the TWIT network and creator of the Supersite for Windows). Windows 7 Secrets is one thousand pages of instruction, tip, tricks and (Can you believe it?) secrets. This is a great book for anyone that wants to learn all they can about Windows 7 or anyone who just needs a quick reference book.

Here’s a great Windows 7 tip from Veronica at Techzilla.