Category Archives: Tips & Tricks

Lookup Mania

Here’s an interesting new add-on that easily allows you to do just about anything you can imagine with text highlighted in Firefox. Simply highlight your text and up pops a hand menu with a plethora of options to look up, translate, convert, email, copy, print, blog, format, and otherwise use that text. This concept may at first seem simple, but it turns out to be surprisingly powerful. Perhaps the best way to appreciate it is to view a short demo or [snip...]

Terrific Windows Tip of the Day: “No to all…”

After an operating system like XP has been out for — what is it now? 17 years? — it can seem as though all the great little tricks and tips have been exposed. Well, it can seem this way to me, anyway, since I do this for a living.

But sometimes there’s a little nugget that happens to arise out of the blue making you wish you had know about it years ago. To wit:

When copying a folder from one location to another, if any files [snip...]

Find people fast with Firefox

There are numerous ways to look up Dartmouth community member’s phone number or email address. The one I use the most for phone numbers uses Firefox and its built-in “Smart Keywords” feature.

Setting it up is really easy, no special plug-ins are required.

First load the Dartmouth People Finder web page. (click the link to open in a new window)

Now ctrl-click or right-click the search field.

In the contextual menu, select “Add a keyword for this search…”

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Leopard - First Take

As most Mac owners know, yesterday Apple released OS X 10.5, code-name Leopard. Some lucky customers, including those of us in Computing Services here at Thayer School received our copies and have begun installing and playing. I have successfully installed it on my MacBook Pro, but have run into a few software issues that I thought I’d document in the hopes that it may save someone some time and effort somewhere.

  • Cisco VPN
    I know this is an odd one to have first, but I use this

[snip...]

Ditch ads while browsing the web

Stop AdsIf you are already browsing the web with the excellent browser Firefox, do yourself a favor and install Adblock Plus… especially if you are stuck on dial-up or satellite internet at home.

Adblock Plus not only hides annoying ads, but also prevents them from even being downloaded. You can block ads by hand by right-clicking on the ad and selecting, “Adblock Image”. Or better yet, you can subscribe to a filter list and let someone [snip...]