In the context of this article, "account" refers to anything on the internet that requires a username and password in order to access it, such as a web-based email account, instant messenger account, and so on.

There’s an old word (if you could call it that) that’s been used time and time again in thousands of different I.T. departments across the world, and that word is PEBKAC, pronounced "pebb-kack." It stands for, "Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair."

PEBKAC accurately states the #1 reason why people get their account(s) compromised, that being end user stupidity and/or lack of knowledge.

Here are some classic examples of PEBKAC:

"My husband/wife and I use the same email account because it’s more convenient."

Not good. One of you is going to inevitably make a major error that will lead to you losing the email account in some way. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve gotten away with it to this point, nor does it matter how much you trust each other. One of you will screw up, probably very innocently with no bad intentions whatsoever. And when it happens (and it will,) bye-bye email account.

Email accounts should only be used per individual. Shared accounts is just a bad, bad idea because there are way too many things that can go wrong just from normal use.

"I use the same password for my email as I do for my online banking account, because remembering passwords is just too hard."

Dumb. This means if one of your accounts is compromised, so are the others. Why? Because you probably use the same username as you do password for all your accounts.

Solution to problem: Use KeePass.

"I keep my account information in a Notepad text file on my desktop."

Not smart. Okay, so you’ve got the right idea to at least keep track of your accounts, but in the worst possible way. Anybody who goes in front of your computer can open the file up as its in plain sight. And even if you’re the only one who uses your PC, if your hard drive crashes, your account info is gone.

Again, KeePass it. Store the database on a USB stick. It’s encrypted.

Here’s a few other ill-advised methods for your consideration:

• Using the browser to store all username/password information. Bad because anybody who uses your PC has access to everything, and I guarantee you’re not backing up your credential information.
• Using a browser bookmark synchronization service to store all username/password information. Also bad. The bookmarks supplied with account credentials are still on your local drive. You’re at least backing up your stuff, but are still poising your account information to be compromised from the locally cached copy.
• Setting site preferences to keep you logged in for more than 24 hours. Thankfully, online banking prohibits this – even down to an auto-logout after 10 minutes of inactivity. But other web sites do not do this. There are some (like Gmail for example,) that have a small checkbox that state to keep you logged in. I strongly recommend against using features like this, because I guarantee you’re never clicking the "log out" link but rather just closing the browser. This means somebody else can simply walk up to your PC, open the browser, go into the history to see where you’ve been, then have complete full access to whatever you were signed into just by clicking a few links. It’s all right there.

If you exercise basic common sense when it comes to your account information, the chances of your accounts getting compromised decreases dramatically.

I’m not saying to get all paranoid and lock down your PC like Fort Knox. What I am saying is that you should be aware of the simple ways (as outlined above) not-so honest people can get to your information.

By individualizing account credentials, using an external means of account information storage and routinely clearing your browser history, these simple steps add a rather good level of protection. No, it will not protect you from all means of ways an account can be compromised, but it’s a really good start.

Note that this is for the web-based version of Hotmail. If you are using Hotmail with the Windows Live mail client, see this instead.

Hotmail does allow for the use of limited HTML in email signatures, and this does include the use of images as long as they are hosted in a public place.

All that’s required for you to do this is the following:

1. Use a free image hosting service and upload your image there.
2. Get the direct link to the image from the image hosting service.
3. Input this link into your signature using the HTML <img> tag.

Here’s how that’s done:

First, get your image. Use whatever image you want.

Second, host your image. For this example I will be using ImageShack because it has a super-friendly auto-resize feature. Simply check the box for "resize image" and select "100×75 avatar." This is absolutely perfect for signatures as it’s just the right size so it won’t annoy people you send mail to.

For my example I will use an image of a disgustingly ugly pair of dopey pants:

After you upload your image to ImageShack, you will see a screen for a "Direct link to image," like this:

Click the word "link" to the right of "Direct." You will then have the full direct link to the image in your address bar:

Leave this open for now because you’ll need to come back to it in a moment.

Open a new tab in your browser. This is done easily with CTRL+T.

Go to www.hotmail.com and login to your Hotmail account.

On the far right, click Options then More Options, like this:

Select Personal e-mail signature under Customize your mail, like this:

In the email signature editor, select Edit in HTML, like this:

In your email signature, type:

<img src="">

..like this:

Go back to your other tab where your ImageShack hosted image is. Highlight all the text in the address bar and press CTRL+C to copy.

Now go back to your email, click between the two quotes and press CTRL+V to paste.

It should look something like this when done:

Now click Edit in HTML and change back to Rich Text. Your image will now show in your signature. Click once after the image to see your blinking cursor, then type whatever text you want to appear.

Example:

When finished, click the Save button at bottom right.

At the top left of the next page, click Go to inbox to go back to your mail.

Click New to compose a new email.

You’ll see something like this:

..and that’s all there is to it.

A few quick end notes:

• If you’re thinking about using Flickr to host your email signature image, don’t. Having a direct-linked image with no link-back to Flickr is a violation of their community guidelines.
• Sometimes when loading your signature, the image may not show up instantly as it has to "call" it from another server every time it loads. This is usually just a very short pause since the image is small.
• Being that your image is hosted elsewhere, there is the chance that it will get deleted after a certain amount of time. This is easily remedied by simply re-uploading the image and re-editing your signature to reflect the new location. Be sure to save whatever image you use for your signature somewhere local (like a USB stick for example) just in case you have to do this.
• DO NOT direct-link from somebody else’s web site, because that’s just plain rude and it "steals" bandwidth. Either host it with a free image hosting service, put it on your own web site, or don’t do it all.
• No, those are not my pants.

Notes for Yahoo! Mail users:

I know this article is about Hotmail, but believe me, if there were a way to do this in Y! Mail, I’d happily instruct you how to do it. Y! Mail currently does not allow any HTML whatsoever in their email signatures, however, something in the back of my mind distinctly remembers that they used to allow it.. I’m pretty sure of that although I can’t prove it.

When Y! updated their mail system fairly recently, a few things in the mail signature section broke.

For example, if you try to insert an emoticon, which is a direct-use Y! feature, you get this lovely little message:

Yahoo evidently likes dangling the carrot for its mail users. The stationary (as in the last icon on the right in the signature editor) doesn’t work either, by the way. Gee, thanks Yahoo.

Using background images for web pages is something most people do not know how to do correctly. Typically most will use an image that is not suitable for the text on the web page, as some parts of the image will be light and others dark. In addition, the image looks terrible tiled.

A small tiled image is by far the best thing to use if you want a background image for your social profile, blog or web pages. Not only does it load very quickly, but also looks the same on all resolutions and with the right tile looks seamless.

But how do you create one of these? Where do you get ideas from?

That’s easy, use BgPatterns. It is an app that exists only in the browser and is super-easy to use. Many different types of tiles are available in all colors. You’ll have a perfect image for tiling in no time. See video below for details.

Also bear in mind creating tiled images works great for computer wallpaper as well, particularly on older computers with limited video display abilities. If the redraw speed on your video card is slow but you still want a nice wallpaper, a small tiled image is definitely the way to go.

Credit, love it or hate it, is something that’s necessary for many people to buy things. And I’m sure there are more than a few of you out there who have applied for credit online and been denied faster than you can say, "Hey! My credit rating is good! What gives?"

What gives is that you’ve been dealt the cold shoulder of a computer that deemed you unworthy of a credit line.

If you need credit for anything, my advice is simple: Apply over the phone or in person whenever the option presents itself. The rep you speak with on the phone has more of an interest in approving you compared to a non-human computer.

Lines of credit worth having for computer stuff

Apple Financial

Macs are frickin’ expensive. With Apple Financial/Juniper they have 0% for 12 months on any first (keyword there) purchase over $1,000 – which is unfortunately quite easy to rack up when buying Apple products.. (sheesh!) If you plan on buying Apple stuff, you’re going to need this unless you have really deep pockets.

Phone: 1-800-MY-APPLE

Dell Financial Services

Good for consumers and small-biz owners that specifically want to build credit. The nice part is that with DFS, they’ll allow you to finance just about anything – even for super-low amounts, and that’s an advantage.

Phone: Depends what type of customer you are. Info is here. If you’re just a regular consumer, call the main line 1-800-WWW-DELL.

Bill Me Later

Both NewEgg and TigerDirect accept this, as well as many other retailers. Granted, the interest rate sucks, but you get 90 days no-interest no-payment on any cart purchase over $250 in most instances. "Cart purchase" means that the items in the online shopping card meet or exceed $250. So if you buy a motherboard, CPU, monitor and lump it all into a single purchase that goes over $250, that’s financeable thru BML.

Note that you don’t have to apply for it. Just use it on purchase at checkout. However it is recommended you get yourself an account at the BML site to track spending better.

Windows Live Mail is a great email client, no question. But one very longstanding complaint is the way it renders fonts. Whereas in other mail clients it’s stupidly easy to make mails look a specific way for text, in Windows Live Mail (and the previous Outlook Express) it is, put politely, a challenge.

This tutorial is how to get the fonts to look monospaced (i.e. Courier New) everywhere for email content. And I’ll also instruct how to switch back and forth between monospaced and rich-styled HTML format.

Windows Live Mail by default hides the menu bar. To show it, just press ALT. If you want it to stay there permanently, press ALT+M (to bring up menu options), then M again. To hide it, repeat process.

Click Tools then Options, then the Read tab. You see this:

Check the box for Read all messages in plain text. Then click the Fonts button.

You see this:

Set the proportional font and fixed-width font to Courier New. Then set the font size to Smaller. Then click OK.

Click the Send tab. You see this:

Check the box for Reply to messages using the format in which they were sent. You do this so when anybody sends you an email with photos in it and you want to include those photos in the reply, there’s no special steps needed.

Next to Mail Sending Format, tick the option for Plain text.

Click the Compose tab. You see this:

Set the Compose Font for both mail and news to 10 pt. Courier New.

Click OK.

When viewing a mail, such as the PCMech Newsletter, it will look like this:

If you want to view this in the original HTML version, there are two ways:

1. Click View, then Message in HTML.
2. Press ALT+SHIFT+H

Then it looks like this:

You can switch back to plain text by closing and opening the email again.

Lastly, on replies if the message is in HTML, the compose window will load everything, including all images, custom fonts and so on. If you want to switch to a plain text reply in the compose window, click Format then Plain text, otherwise leave as is.

Why use the plain text only option?

It decreases the risk of having malicious code executed in your emails. Granted, WL Mail is very good at suspecting phishing attempts and does not allow images from unknown senders, but choosing the option to read in plain text only adds an extra layer of security.

Why change all the font settings like this?

Configuring WL Mail in this fashion gives all your emails a uniform look that’s easier on the eyes. The default way it’s configured makes some mails have huge text while others do not, with little consistency from mail to mail.

Don’t like monospaced? Use any font and size options you want.

For those with not-so perfect vision, using the above methods with a different font (such as Trebuchet MS) with a larger size (such as ‘Larger’ combined with Trebuchet MS 14pt) will make all your emails much easier to read and reply to.

In 2007 I did a video on how to share files/folders to Windows with Ubuntu. But since version 8 of that OS the way in which this is done has changed a bit. It is simplified somewhat, but the drawback now is that in order to change the Workgroup name you must edit a configuration file manually instead of having the ability to do it in the GUI like before.

In the video – and here on this post – I make the request that if anybody knows how to change the Workgroup name without manually editing the smb.conf file, please feel free to comment and explain how that’s done, because I couldn’t find it.

Granted, the command line is not a bad thing, but the point here is that you used to be able to edit the Workgroup name via the GUI and now that feature seems to be gone – unless it’s hiding somewhere where I can’t find it?

See video for details.

craigslist, love it or hate it, is a great site to find.. well.. anything. However you’re limited to searching just one local area at a time.

However you can search multiple areas via the use of a particular web site and an RSS reader (like Google Reader, Feed Demon or even Windows Live Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird) to get the job done.

The web site to use is crazedlist.org, but from the moment you visit that site a big nastygram appears in the middle of your browser (which is not an ad). It says you can either mess around with your browser to disable referrers, or use RSS feeds instead.

Trust me when I say the RSS way is much easier. And more convenient.

Let’s say for the moment you want to perform a nationwide search of craigslist. If you do this directly via the crazedlist.org web site, so much data will be pushed to your browser that it will crash it, and your IP address will be flagged as "bad" by craigslist.

Instead, you do a nationwide search this way. For demonstrative purposes, we’ll use Google Reader to handle the feeds.

From the top left drop-down we select all. You immediately get a warning:

Click OK.

For our example search, we’ll use "1967 camaro". Here’s how I filled mine out:

• Search for 1967 camaro
• in sale/wanted
• cars & trucks (all)
• No price selected
• "Pics" checked for "ads must have photos"

DO NOT click the Search button. Repeat: DO NOT do that.

Click the big orange Get RSS Feeds button instead.

You will see this:

In Firefox: Right-click "this link" and choose "Save Link As"

In Internet Explorer: Right-click "this link" and choose "Save Target As"

When the save screen appears, change Save as type: to All Files, and type in the file name as 1967 camaro.opml, like this:

Now all we have to do is import this into Google Reader.

Note before continuing: Just about every RSS Reader has the ability to import standardized OPML files. Whether you’re using an app or a web site, they all should have some ability to import OPML.

With Google Reader it’s very easy to import an OPML file. You go to www.google.com/reader, login with your Google account (such as a Gmail account), then click Settings at the extreme top right, then the Import/Export tab, like this:

From here you click the Browse button, go to the Desktop where you saved the OPML file and upload it.

In a US nationwide search, this results in 328 feed subscriptions. When you click Back to Google Reader, it will look something like this:

All subscriptions will be listed by state abbreviation then locale for "1967 camaro", all with photos.

Why is it OK to multi-search craigslist the RSS way and not direct via crazedlist.org?

It’s for the reasons crazedlist.org states. Having a mountain of data sent to your browser has a high tendency of crashing it, and craigslist is very wise to those who make unreasonable search requests from their servers. And yes, performing a massive nationwide search is considered unreasonable and they will block your IP in short order.

RSS feeds on the other hand are much more "civil". Furthermore they act as a saved search of sorts. Once you import it all into Google Reader or other feed reader, any new listings that match your keywords will show up.

This is going to be one of those "Duh, that’s common sense" things, but it’s amazing how many people still do this.

We’ve all heard that you should use different passwords for different accounts; that much is obvious. And you can use a utility like KeePass Password Safe to do it with (which I use personally). But I also suggest the use of different user names as well.

Let’s say your email address is JohnDoe@yahoo.com. You send an email to me. From the beginning of your email address, I can easily guess that you probably use JohnDoe for other services on the internet as well.

I go to Google, and search you. Wow, look at that, you have a MySpace page. And a Flickr account. Hey, look, now I have photos of you. I know what you look like. You also have an eBay account. Now I know what you’re buying and selling. Then on one of your profiles it lists your full name, town and state. So I go to www.pipl.com or www.123people.com. It turns out your name is listed in the phone book. Now I have your address, phone number, information on other people living in your household..

I got all this information just by your Yahoo user name alone, and it only took seconds.

There’s three things you can do to avoid being snooped like this.

First, exercise the use of different user names for different accounts you use.

Second, get your number out of the phone book. Call your phone provider and make it unlisted. When next year’s edition is released, your information won’t be public.

Third, go to every single internet directory you can find (such as AnyWho) and make a request to have your information removed. They will comply and it doesn’t cost you anything except a few minutes of your time.

"But I use the same user name everywhere and I’m used to it. What can I do?"

Not a problem. Examine your public profile(s), such as profiles.yahoo.com/YOUR-YAHOO-ID. Check your public Yahoo profile. Check your public eBay profile. Check all the services that have public profiles. If there’s anything there you don’t want people seeing, simply modify and make it private.

"How do I know what’s out there about me now?"

Search for yourself on Google by the user name you most commonly use. Then search by your real full name. Also use Pipl and 123people as linked above and search for yourself that way. Examine the results, and if there’s anything about yourself you don’t want public, take appropriate measures to make it private.

"I think you’re being paranoid about this. Who cares if my address and phone is public?"

Do you like telemarketer calls? Do you like junk postal mail? Do you like spam?

Obviously not.

You don’t make your information private to necessarily avoid people like you and me, but rather to avoid corporations looking to sell you crap you don’t want or need.

Your identity can also easily be tied to the user name you most commonly use.

If you keep a keen eye on your public profiles, make use of different user names and make your personal information unpublicized, you will command much more control on how much information people – or corporations (particularly the more seedy ones) – know about you.

Free is a relative term because it doesn’t necessarily mean "no money required". If to get the free access you must do something decidedly inconvenient, that costs you time and effort. But in these times, some are willing to be inconvenienced if it means saving a buck or two.

Method 1: Hotel parking lot.

Many hotels offer free wi-fi, and most have no security in place on access whatsoever. It’s completely open.

Method 2: Coffee shop, some restaurants

Shops like Panera Bread have free wi-fi. As long as you’re a customer you can sit with your laptop, have a coffee and check your email.

Other chains that have free wi-fi in most of their stores are Chick-Fil-A, First Watch and Hooters. Some independently owned Subway shops also have free wi-fi, but you have to call and check.

Method 3: RV campground areas

RV means Recreational Vehicle. Many campgrounds have free wi-fi on the premises. And no, you don’t need an RV to drive on one of these properties.

Method 4: Retail stores

All Apple stores have free wi-fi as do Office Depot stores.

Method 5: Airports

Most larger airports will have free wi-fi access.

Method 6: Vacation rental properties

Most of these rentals will openly state on the internet if the location has free wi-fi or not. All it takes is a drive over, start up the laptop and see if you can connect.

Method 7: Free Dial-Up

There are a few ISPs that offer dial-up for absolutely zero dollars. One of them is FreeDialup.org, available in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Method 8: Driving around (literally) using NetStumbler

I have not seen a better wi-fi scanner than NetStumbler for the Windows operating system. All you have to do is turn on the laptop, enable the software, set it on the passenger seat and just drive around slowly until your hear a tone telling you there’s a wi-fi nearby. When you hear it, take a quick glance at the screen. The software will tell you instantly whether it’s protected-access or not. For the open ones, save the settings for later use.

Disclaimer: Don’t do this. Using a laptop while driving is dumb.

Do I have to say it?

Spam.

Or at least that’s what Symantec says, so you can take that for what it’s worth.

Spam is one of those things that’s constantly changing to bust the roadblocks we put up against it. However we as email users are smarter now and we also have better tools to fight the junk.

What’s the best way to filter spam out?

This depends on how you get to your email.

With web-based mail, staying in the browser is the best way to filter the junk out. This mail environment is designed in such as way where the interface is in that "Let me do that for you" mode of operation. And yes, letting the environment take care of the spam on your behalf is the best option.

Using a client on the other hand requires more manual involvement. This is how I use email and I personally like it better. For example, in my setup I have SpamAssassin running on server-side. But I also have the built-in junk filter running on client-side with Mozilla Thunderbird. This combination of local and server is very effective. SA gets rid of most of it while the local filter catches whatever SA doesn’t (and not much gets through). Thunderbird also "trusts" SA which makes it work even better.

With a local client there are many ways to use junk filtration.

Here’s a few:

Mailwasher

There are free and pro versions of this. Works with Incredimail, Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Gmail, AOL Mail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail. It’s got all the bases covered.

OnlyMyEmail

This service does not require any software as its handled directly from the web site. Not free. It’s won several awards for its performance.

Cloudmark

Some of you may remember Cloudmark from the past. They’re still around and still doing a great job. Not free, but with a free 15-day trial.

POPFile

Free. Some say this is better than most paid email spam-blocker products. I can honestly say this is the "geekiest" of the bunch as it has a very powerful interface where you can control every single thing that happens. This is, said honestly, a spam filter on steroids. But for some, that might be exactly what you’re looking for. I strongly suggest reading the Quick Start Guide if you want to try it out.

In the way the US government provides services, a large portion of it cannot be advertised either because it a) wastes taxpayer dollars, b) simply isn’t in the budget or c) is prohibited from being advertised.

One such service that isn’t advertised (not by the government anyway) is government grant money. Thankfully there is a central web site for finding out just about anything you’d want to know about it, that being Grants.gov.

Did you know this web site has been around since 2002? It’s true.

Grants.gov is operated  by the US Department of Health and Human Services (better known as simply HHS).

What is the best way to navigate Grants.gov when looking for a grant?

The best place to start is by agency. While it’s true you could start by category, searching by agency will usually bring you better results. For example, I get many more listings just by clicking on what’s available for the Department of Defense or Department of the Interior rather than weeding thru the categories.

How do you apply for a grant?

See section Apply for Grants. There’s even a narrated tutorial on how to do it (note: the tutorial does take a while to load – be patient).

Other things you can do

Track your Application. We didn’t have this years ago. You’ll get the info on where your app went, so it’s not just "send it and hope it gets there" kind of thing.

Register yourself. You have to do this to apply for any grant. If you get confused when you see the "funding opportunity number" part, you have to search grants first to see those. For example, the DoD link above lists the "funding number" next to each grant that’s available, so this information is not difficult to locate.

What types of grant opportunities will you find?

Here’s a very short list as there are many:

Restoration/Recovery projects. Maybe you’ll help reconstruct a neighborhood, install some wiring, beautify a park with some landscaping services to give the local community something nice to see, and that sort of thing. One such example is any grant labeled as an RFA (Rural Fire Assistance), which is "Disaster Prevention and Relief". Tough assignment, but totally worth it.

Research. This is divided into several subcategories, but more of the research grants concentrate on environment and biological sciences. For the environment, you’ll find things like endangered species research and water control. For biological science, you’ll find things like breast cancer research.

Education. Grants of these types have many flavors. Too many to list here.

Is there any type of grant that will let me sit on my butt all day and mess around on the internet?

No. It’s an unfortunate truth that too many people see grants as "free money". It’s not free, and you will be expected to produce results should you get approved for whatever you apply for. Any grant money you receive is a privilege and you should treat it as such.

The best mode of thinking when it comes to government grants is to see it as a temporary job. You apply for it, have to be approved ("hired"), the project ("the job") has a specified time limit, you’re expected to produce results.

See it as another means of acquiring gainful employment, just in a different way.

Okay, maybe getting a grant isn’t my thing. How can I find local state jobs?

See www.jobbankinfo.org. Click your state, find your locality and go from there.

For those wondering where "America’s Job Bank" went, this ended operations in 2007, and was probably due to the fact states themselves do a much better job at listing opportunities as it eliminates a lot of red tape. JobBankInfo.org is more or less a pointer site, but it gets you where you need to go.

One would assume that clearing all the favicon.ico files out of Firefox 3 would be a simple task.

It isn’t.

Clearing your cache doesn’t work because the icons aren’t stored there. Rather it’s in a SQLite database called places.sqlite in your Firefox profile directory.

There are three ways to clear all favicons.

First method: Create a new Firefox profile. This is very annoying to do because you have to reset all your preferences for the new profile.

Second method: Delete all bookmarks, clear cache, start over. This is equally as annoying if not more.

Third method: Manually empty moz_favicons table from places.sqlite. With a Firefox plugin, this works and doesn’t require you to reset anything else.

(Fourth method: Use Favicon Picker plugin? Nope. This does not clear the cache for favicons all at once. Individual, yes. All at once, no.)

Here’s how to do the SQLite method:

Step 1.

Download the Firefox add-on SQLite Manager and install it.

Step 2.

Launch SQLite Manager by clicking Tools then SQLite Manager, like this:

Step 3.

From within SQLite Manager, click Database (top left) then Connect Database to bring the open dialog up. In the File Name field, type in %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox, like this:

Press enter once.

Above: Open the Profiles folder.

There should be one profile folder present with an "odd" name like aDPa7219.default. Open that one up. When you do, you should see something similar to this:

Above: If you see this, open up places.sqlite.

Step 4.

Right-click the moz_favicons folder on the left and choose Empty Table, like this. DO NOT use "Drop table" as that will delete it entirely. You DO NOT want to do that. Choose to EMPTY it.

Click Yes when asked if you’re sure you want to delete all the records from moz_favicons, like this:

Step 4.

Close the SQLite Manager.

Close Firefox including any other Firefox windows you have open.

Restart Firefox.

All favicons are now cleared. Every single one of them. It’s a beautiful thing.

Final notes

None of your bookmarks will be touched; they will all still be there.

The places.sqlite file will still be at the same size it was before. So if you were expecting the file to get smaller, it won’t. However the favicon cache is cleared and that’s what matters.

Happy browsing, everyone.

For a while now I’ve been using the Zune Windows XP theme (download). That one is by Microsoft and a complete theme compared to Royale which is incomplete (there are "rough" spots here and there).

I like the "Classic" XP theme but it’s a bit too bland. However there is an alternative called HmmXP. It is not by Microsoft and requires a DLL hack to get it to work.

Before explaining how it’s installed, this is what it looks like:

Above: The Start Menu is modified so "Start" is gone and replaced by a small flag icons, words are eliminated to show icons only. This is called the "Compact Menu".

Above: This is the "Normal Menu" view. Still minimal but more in line with how XP usually looks.

Above: HmmXP has several options on how the theme can look.

Above: With "Codename Whistler" selected, the top right of windows get a pixelated fading look.

Above: Applications in the taskbar do not have dividers, but it’s still easy to select anything you want.

I personally give this theme a thumbs up and have switched off the Zune theme to use this. It’s sort of like a "Classic Enhanced" of sorts. Looks very nice and is very functional.

HmmXP Download: http://fugacious.deviantart.com/art/HmmXP-2-0-1-5514034

But yes I did say this requires a DLL hack to get it to work.

The tool required to install this hack is  Uxtheme Multi-Patcher 6.0. You must run it, follow the instructions carefully and slowly, then reboot once.

Once you do that, you extract the HmmXP theme into the following directory:

C:\WINDOWS\RESOURCES\THEMES

This is what mine looks like:

"Luna" is the standard Windows XP theme everybody is familiar with, as is "Windows Classic". "Zune" is the one I downloaded prior from Microsoft, and the new one is HmmXP.theme along with its HmmXP folder that came with the archive file.

The archive file is a RAR file. You can extract with WinRAR or the freely available 7-Zip to "unzip" the file so you can extract it to the proper folder.

After the Uxtheme installation, the reboot and the extraction of the archive to the themes folder, you will be able to select it from Display Properties.

Final note: If this doesn’t suit your fancy and want to undo what Uxtheme did, just run it again and it will restore your old DLL for you.

FFMPEG is a command line utility that just about anyone who has used video in Linux is familiar with. It will convert FLV files to AVI, MOV, M4V (iPod), RockBox, etc. and do so easily.

However most people hate command line stuff, and I don’t blame you.

Most GUI-based FLV converter apps are absolutely terrible, save for one: WinFF.

Don’t be fooled by the title. WinFF isn’t just for Windows. It not only does Windows but Ubuntu, regular Debian, RedHat and openSUSE as well.

WinFF is, said honestly, an ugly app. But that doesn’t matter because it does the job it’s supposed to do.

Here’s a simple example of using WinFF Windows version. You most likely want to convert the FLV to WMV for editing in Windows Movie Maker. If that’s what you want to do, here’s how to do it:

First, you download an FLV.

Second, drag/drop the file into WinFF.

Third, select Convert To as WMV.

Fourth, select Device Preset at WMV2.

Fifth, select Output folder as the desktop.

Looks like this:

Hit Convert.

A command prompt window will appear while the file is converting. When done the window disappears and the conversion is complete.

That’s it. It doesn’t get any easier. The WMV will be made on the desktop and you can use it from there.

You’ve probably heard of web sites like KeepVid where you can direct-download the FLV file of any YouTube video you watch by entering its video URL. You don’t have to do this. You can use Firefox’s local file cache to do it also. Yes, it takes a little longer, but the plus is you don’t have to rely on another site just to download videos. Afterwards you can watch the video using the FLV player of your choice (I personally use WinAMP).

Note before continuing: Yes, I understand there are applications available that will do the same thing as what is instructed below, however it is better to do this manually rather than rely on an app which at some point will not work any longer.

Step 1. Locate your Firefox browser cache URL.

Type in about:cache in your address bar and press enter.

Three listings will be displayed, that being Memory cache device, Disk cache device and Offline cache device.

You want to pay attention to Disk cache device. The cache directory will be listed there. It will be something like this and be very long:

C:\Documents and Settings\[your windows  account]\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[your firefox profile].default\Cache

Step 2. Open up a Windows Explorer and load the cache directory

Note: Windows Explorer is not the same as Internet Explorer.

While still in Firefox, highlight the entire cache directory and copy.

Click Start then Run, type explorer and click OK.

A Windows Explorer appears, usually landing in My Documents first.

In the Explorer address bar, paste in the cache directory.

When loaded it will look similar to this:

When you see this, click View then Details.

Then click View, then Arrange Icons By, then Modified so the most recent file is listed at the bottom of the file list first. (If you want it listed at the top, just click View/Arrange Icons By/Modified again.)

Looks like this:

Before continuing, if you’re asking, “Why not just click List Cache Entries from about:cache?”, the reason is because there’s no way to sort cache files in Firefox, but with Explorer you can.

Leave this Explorer window open as-is and go back to Firefox.

Step 3. Go to YouTube and load up a video.

I will use this video as an example.

When you load the video there is a red bar at the bottom of the YouTube player as seen above. Wait until this bar is completely filled from left to right. When it is, this indicates the video is completely downloaded locally.

Step 4. Get the FLV and store it wherever you want.

Go back to your Windows Explorer and press F5 to refresh.

Assuming your file list has newest files listed at the bottom first, the newest file there will in fact be the video. It will be a somewhat large file compared to other cache entries. The video linked above should have a size of 4,606 KB and look similar to this:

Important note: The name of your file will most likely be different from what’s shown here.

Right-click the file and select Rename. Rename the file whatever you want and add the extension .FLV at the end. (If this does not work, click Tools then Folder Options, click the View tab and uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types”.)

Right-click the file again after renaming, Cut, minimize everything until you see your desktop, then paste the file direct on the desktop.

If all goes well, you’ve got your FLV downloaded locally to the Desktop.

For any other YouTube video you load in your browser, follow suit. Load the video, go to the cache directory in Explorer, F5 to refresh, look for the newest larger file, rename, cut and paste on the Desktop or anywhere else you want the file to go.

Does this work for other video sites as well?

Yes. Any site that uses the FLV format (which the vast majority of them do) will have the video file itself downloaded locally to your cache to view it in your browser. When that happens you just go to the directory as outlined above and grab your FLV there.