There’s ads, and it’s based on the phpBB3 script, and it’s empty at the moment. Only me and me are there. (Cries).

Linky.

The website will be recieving its update soon, do not worry!

Douglas

And, today, I have found out that Movie Maker and DVD Maker under Vista can support unencrypted VOB files. Yay! Except I’ve had trouble with the last part of the VOB file (it seems to think they go for 24 hours).

Well, Must dash.

Douglas

Douglas

Anyhoo, I’m going to be reviewing tech books for you. Yay!

I myself read tech books, I especially enjoy the For Dummies range, if not for their good wit. Dan Gookin’s and Any Rathbone’s works are excellent reads, both content and humour wise. If you are humourly challenge, find yourself a nice textbook. And besides, why are the humourly challenged here? This is funny stuff (IMHO), people!

I recently read Dan Gookin’s Naked Office. It’s not a book aimed at noobs, but at the intermediate user of Word, Outlook, Powerpoint and Excel. I learnt a few things from it, and I’m more of a power user than anything! If you haven’t read it, do so – you may learn something. I’ve yet to read the Naked Windows XP book, but it’s up there on the list. Although, I must confess, the Naked Office book really isn’t applicable to me anymore, as it doesn’t (yet) cover Office 2007. Hopefully it gets updated, as it is a brilliant book. At present, it covers Offices 2000, XP/2002 and 2003, and claims to work with Office 97, although it’s not tested with it.

The NEW DouglasQual Quality Rating System: 8/10
My Comments: It’s good, witty, but, until it is released with Office 2007 information, then it can’t have the elusive 10/10 marking, or even 9/10. (Sorry, Dan!)

[ÿ]+[T]

Pressing this combination in the same manner as Alt+Tab (i.e. Press both at once, release T, press T to scroll), you can scroll through the windows on the taskbar in thumbnail form. Ingenious! When you find one you like, let go of the Windows key, press Space, and it comes to your screen. Brilliant!

I stumbled upon this by accident yesterday, and forgot about it until just then. I then had the sudden urge to blog it. And I’m done, in only 134 words! Not bad for a useful tip, and considering the last post was about as long as I am high!

Well, today I (finally) put my signature in my email signature. I felt it fitting. So, I thought I’d share with you how I did it.

First, you need a scanner, or a friend who’s got one who is willing to co-operate for about a quarter of an hour, although seeing as I can buy an Epson Multifunction from my computer store for about AU$89, there’s not many reasons not to have one (I recommend Epson, because the software is intuitive, the cartridges are ‘smart’, the nifty built-in Print Preview utility can be set up to preview the document before printing, and they have an excellent website).

Next, you need white paper. I got a piece of A4 paper from the printer (my brother is visiting, saw me with it, and accused me of wasting paper. I had a sudden urge to doink him on the head one, but I resisted the urge to do so <insert Standard Borg ‘Resistance Is Futile’ Line Here>). Then I found a nice, fine-pointed-but-overly-so black texta – a black pen will not cut it. Good examples include a new Sharpie Fine Point texta (I like the retractable ones myself), although any colour would be socially acceptable if your scanner had black and white mode, in this case, a darker colour would be preferred (i.e. not yellow, but, say, green or blue). Now, sign the piece of paper in a large format, but not overly so, i.e. not as if though it were a credit card, and not the entire page – about 2cm-3cm (1ish to 1.5ish inches for you Imperialists out there). Now, scan it in. I have an Epson Multifunction, and, thus, use Epson Scan. We’ll use that here, but programs out there should have similar methods of doing so. If in doubt, refer to the owner’s manual.

Firstly, place the original down in the appropriate manner on the glass. Change the scanning mode to ‘Black and White’, ‘Line Art’, ‘Text’, or the equivalent. Do not choose greyscale. This introduces the unnecessary 256 shades of grey (I think there are 256 at any rate), and, especially if you didn’t use a black texta, this could lead to some undesirable results. 300dpi should be sufficient, seeing as how your signature will be reduced in size greatly later on. Here is how my Epson Scan window is set up (I use Home Mode, selectable via the top right dropdown box, because it is cuddly enough, but not overly cuddly that you can’t be nitpicky whenever you feel the need to do so):

As I said, every program will be different – refer to the manual, (un)help file, or to a knowledgeable friend for more assistance. Of course, one assumes, at this point, that the scanner:

• Is Plugged in,
• Is Turned On,
• Has had the driver installed on the computer you are using,
• Works,
• And actually is a scanner.

If one or more of the above requirements aren’t met, fix them before you start, otherwise it won’t work.

Once you’ve got the program all set, click Preview. The scanner should whirr, flash a pretty light at your document and somehow figure out what’s on the paper, interpret it as lots of ones and zeros, and sends it to your computer as an image. Huzzah!

Now, you will want to select the general area around the signature, and find a Zoom button to get some more detail. In my version of Epson scan, it is labelled Zoom, funnily enough.

Now, select the area around the signature, and click Scan, Save, or whatever appears to be the logical choice at this point. Save it into My Pictures, or, under Windows Vista, in your Pictures Folder (should be in C:\Users\<Username>\Pictures).

Now, if you were to preview the image, you would notice that it was around the same size as it was on paper (for me it was, at any rate). We’ll need to resize it. If you have Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007 (and maybe XP, not so sure_, then you have an adequate tool at your fingertips for resizing, and it is not much talked about: Microsoft Office Picture Manager. If you have something else you’d rather use (i.e. Photoshop, IrfanView, etc.) you can use that too. I’m really not fussed either way. Open Picture Manager (should be under Start à (All) Programs à Microsoft Office à Microsoft Office Tools à Microsoft Office Picture Manager – you can see why it’s not talked about much, because it’s hidden like a needle in a haystack). Navigate to the signature, double-click it, and click Edit Pictures on the Toolbar. Click on Resize in the task pane on the right of the screen. Click the bubble next to Custom Width and Height, and in the boxes underneath, type in a size in the right hand box of no greater than 100-150 pixels. Click OK, and then click File à Save As, and save it as a new file. Do not overwrite your original image file.

Open your Email client, and add it to your signature. Again, friends, the internet and the (un)help file can help you (the latter may not). I am not sure if Windows Vista Mail or Outlook Express can do images in signatures.

Here’s mine:

I blurred out my email address, and put “Specimen Only”, just in case you wanted to sign me up for spam email, or you wanted to take out a home loan or two in my name. It’s just a healthy case of paranoia!

And there you have it! A simple, tasteful addition to your signature (Quotes are good as well, too. I used to have a humorous quote from the TV show, Will and Grace, in mine, until I assumed that everyone had gotten bored of it).

Wow This is a long post, at a whopping 1,011 words! Wow! (Excluding pictures, of course J)

There’s a small problem with it (a strange piece of text has appeared, but I’ll sort that out tonight), but it’s a work in progress.

Also take note that this blog o’ mine is also now a blog for me to post random musings, etc.

VLC Media Player is a non-DirectShow player. I have no idea what that means, but all I know is that it plays almost any video or sound file. Also good for DVD’s that aren’t for your region, but you’ve changed your region code too many times, as region codes are irrelevant to it.

However, it’s not too good with RealMedia files: I can only seem to get audio out of them (try the Real Alternative mentioned last week). Don’t know why.

You can download it from here.

Okay, now that we’ve ejected those who have no purpose in being here, it’s a bit sad. For me, at any rate. You might all go, “Ha ha!”. But don’t post comments like that, thank you. I will delete them, or mark them as spam (probably the latter).

My dog of 12 years, Jessie, had to be put down today. She was unable to walk, and the vet said that her bones were all collapsing, and a cortisone injection could help, but we’d be prolonging the inevitable. We feel our recent hot weather had something to do with it, because she really couldn’t walk. So, we did what was right. And some will argue this point. I am against this kind of thing unless it absolutely necessary. In this case, it was (To be honest, whenever a news story comes on about human euthanasia, I have to change the channel. Good thing Star Trek is on at news time. There were two stories about it last week).

It’s a bit sad, for a while it will be like living without my right arm. But, life goes on.

Jessie was a pure-bred Rottweiler, a female, and a damn good dog. She never attacked anyone (she loved my 18-month old niece, lots of interesting smells and good to lick!), unless biting my finger when taking away some food counts (my fault, really. If you took my food, I’d be a bit cross, except I wouldn’t bite).

No picture at the moment, because they are all on the old ME box. When I get one, I’ll post it for you all to see.

It just goes to show a few things:

1. Humans become very attached to pets. They don’t like
2. Rottweilers are not bad dogs, they just get a bad reputation because they attack people. I cannot see anything wrong with them – just get a female, and do not train it to be a guard dog – this is what causes attacks.

Well, apart from putting a picture up, the next post will be tech-related (Part Two of Never Buy an Under-Speced Computer). But that might be a while. So, don’t get too impatient.

So, sorry to my readers who expected a tech post.

(And, no, I expect no sympathy. I expect that some people out there don’t like dogs, thus, will not care about this post. Go figure.)