It’s that time again. The time when everything seems to pass slowly. Very slowly. The time between projects, the time before lunch break – the time at work when you just aren’t working. If you’re in a data-induced stupor or just bored to death, there has to be some way to make the minutes pass faster.

Your cubicle at work may seem like a reinforced prison cell at times but it can be a place of fun and amusement too. There are lots of things to do on slow days – you just have to find them.

Chatting with Pidgin can provide lots of amusement. Pidgin is a handy little instant messenger that puts all of your contacts from other chat programs in one place. Just grab all of your account information from the other chat programs and add it into your Pidgin account. Then you can set your status in Pidgin and it will notify all of your friends no matter what programs they’re using.

• If your contacts are using Pidgin too, you guys can open a doodle board and play out fierce games of tic-tac-toe or even draw mazes for each other to maneuver. The possibilities are endless. You can also use Google translate to change what you said into a random language. Who knows? You might pick up a few words.
• You could play a word game with your Pidgin friends. Tell one of them the beginning of a sentence like “This is…” and then who to pass it on to. Have them add their names to the “sent to” list at the end of the message so it will go full circle. Example: “This is a big… (Sent to: Paul>Jim>Linda>Jane).”
• Update your status with what you just did (like getting a drink from the water cooler) and report it in spy-like code. Use your “secret” codename. “Dingo-Benny reporting in. The cooler has been drained. Repeat: cooler has been drained. Requesting refill!” This works with Facebook or Twitter too; you can even get your friends to be other spies, enemy spies or HQ.
• While chatting, why not play a free online game? You may be burnt out on this already, but try playing games you usually pass up like Sudoku or Mahjong. Or you can take on something a little more action-packed like Desktop Tower Defense. Challenge co-workers and make the loser get coffee for everyone.
• Design a code or use one online to encode something very plain and boring like Chinese fortunes or your recent tweets. Hide the encoded message in a co-worker’s desk in an envelope marked “TOP SECRET” and update your status to let them know what they get if they find it and decode it before lunch.
• Speak in a foreign accent. Research the country to make it seem more authentic and use common slang from the language. No one will guess you’re cussing when it’s in Esperanto.

Stop dozing now and start amusing yourself. There are far more stimulating things than counting how many times you yawn. Chatting can keep you from getting too groggy, especially later in the day. Hurry before you become another paper-pushing mindless zombie!

1. Be-at.tv

If you are the kind of person that lives to listen to music but doesn’t like to go to overcrowded concerts and other musical events then be-at.tv is the perfect place for you.

To watch the world’s top DJ’s and other artists performing live, all you need to do is register with be-at.tv. Then you can just sit back and enjoy the live recordings that get streamed on the website.

There are hundreds of live events being streamed on this website at any given time and you can pick and choose depending on your taste of music. Each event is streamed with the audio and four different camera angles.

This is not only a site where you can watch and listen to music, but you can also meet people with similar music tastes and share your thoughts and ideas about live music. It works like any other social networking website in that aspect and helps you meet more people, while you enjoy live events.

2. Grotrian.de

For people who like to create their own music but don’t have the artist in them, grotrian.de makes making music a very interesting game.

Here is how it works, each user has to register with the website and can then play a game to create their own musical masterpiece. The game consists of dragging and placing different musical notes in the games arena. They can also increase or decrease the speed at which each different note is played.

To create your music and play this game you’ll need either have a flash player or play it on html.

3. Pandora.com

Back to the good old radio days. Pandora.com provides free internet radio service along with a number of music recommendations.

The website offers easy access to all genres of music. To find the music you are looking for you need to just search for the artist or the song on the websites homepage. The homepage is divided into two halves. The right side is dedicated to music while the left is dedicated to advertisement. You can pay a nominal fee and get rid of the advertisement half, if it really annoys you.

After you finish listening to your favorite song, the website will select the next song based on 400 different musical attributes, such as harmony, keys, tone, etc.

Facebook.com fans and users can easily add the Pandora radio station application to their Facebook page and enjoy non-stop music.

]]> http://www.geeksvsnerds.net/top-3-websites-for-music-lovers/feed/ 0 http://www.geeksvsnerds.net/geek-motivational-poster/ http://www.geeksvsnerds.net/geek-motivational-poster/#comments Sat, 25 Sep 2010 19:41:54 +0000 admin http://geeksvsnerds.net/?p=323

There are tons of programs out there that do the same thing your paid or ad covered ones do for free. Or if you are a windows hater rebel who refuses to follow the crowd these are perfect for you. I challenge anyone who feels a free version can never be as good as a paid version of a program to give these alternatives a shot.

Pidgin

Most IM clients are already free but popular ones like aim are covered in annoying advertisements and always open up the aim homepage when they open. Pidgin has no ads, is much lighter on system resources and also handles a large number of clients so there is no need to have 5 different ones installed on your pc

AbiWord

A much more light weigh word processor with more features and less system use, it sounds too good to be true. Running Microsoft word takes around 30mb of RAM where AbiWord uses less than 6mb. One of the best features is as the window you are using it in is made smaller so you can multitask the text is made smaller so you never have to scroll left and right to see the whole document.

Gimp

Switching from Photoshop to gimp is very easy, most all of the same tools are there but just sorta tucked away in a new location. A few hours learning curve is worth the few hundred dollars you will save and there are some neat extra features that photoshop doesn’t have as well.

ThunderBird

There are probably a thousand reasons why you should not use Microsoft Outlook. Besides all the design flaws, low productivity, and exorbitant price it is a not so secret passage for viruses onto your PC. When worms and viruses are being created and embedded into image and attachments they are created to exploit wholes in Outlook to get into your machine. Thunderbird is much more secure and a smaller user base so less viruses are created for it.

Open Office

A free, open source complete office suite with all of the same features as Microsoft’s but with the better system performance that comes from open source engineering. Microsoft Office is pricey to start with but when you consider the costs of upgrading to the newest version every few years it’s outrageous. All Open Office updates are free and completely compatible with Microsoft Office.

FireFox

Firefox has grown so much in the last few years that it is practically main stream but it is still worth noting.  If you are still using internet explorer hurry up and pull your head out of the ground and download it. Everything will explain itself in the five minutes to follow.

AVG Free

Tired of those annoying pop-up telling you that your Norton Antivirus subscription has ran out and it is time to pay to download the newest version. Well uninstall it and try out AVG Free. It has some of the largest virus definition files available and is actually more accurate at identifying viruses than Norton.

7zip

If you don’t like the way windows handles its own zip files or are tired of hitting the button that ask to find a program that can open this file on the internet try this file extractor that handles many different file types.

Foxit Firefox PDF Plug-in

Adobe reader takes forever and a day to load and uses a ton of resources. When you are trying to view a pdf on the web you have to wait for it to start. Foxit is a pdf plugin for firefox that allows you to quickly view pdf’s within the browser.

Ubuntu

When you are finally tired of all the over priced programs and ready to be done with it for good it is time for Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a Linux based Operating System. 98% of the software made for it is free and open source so you would actually have to hunt for a paid version of most programs

1. New age video streaming by Justin.tv

We’re already in the next generation of the internet age. If you’ve read Ben Elton’s futuristic novel Blind Faith then you’ll know what I’m talking about. In the novel Ben Elton portrays a world where privacy is an evil and everyone is streaming their lives on the internet.

This is how Justin.Tv works as well. This website came to life when an American, Justin Kan living in San Francisco, came up with the idea of streaming every minute of his life by setting up a web camera on his cap. This innovative idea by Justin soon became a huge success with people around the globe. Today, there are thousands of members who view videos, broadcast themselves and communicate with other members of Justin.tv.

The members on Justin.tv can do a lot more than just broadcast themselves. A number of shows can be planned by using channels on the website. These channels stream videos of the show and also provide a chat window which allows members to communicate with each other.

A lot of times the streaming videos may just be random queer stuff which makes no sense. Also, because of its setup Justin.tv is open to pranksters who spread rumors or play silly pranks on the community.

Logon to Justin.Tv to find out more and even experience this unique site for yourselves.

1. A new One stop community website – Friendfeed.com

After the success of social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter, Friendfeed.com is today’s hot topic. It is an all in one website. What does that mean?

Once you create an account on Friendfeed.com you can share your feeds with your friends on various networking websites and you can also view their feeds on this website.

You may think that this website is worthless, but let me remind you that, that is exactly what most people said about Twitter when it was launched. Friendfeed.com is designed and made by Ex-Google members who came up with this innovative idea of a one stop social networking site.

When you register yourself on Friendfeed.com make sure that you check the option that makes your feeds private, unless you want your feed to be read and seen by everyone on the network. Also, while creating your account you can opt to subscribe to a list of popular channels on the website.

Once you’ve created your account all you need to do is connect your Friendfeed.com account to your Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Stumbleupon and other social networking website accounts.

If you’re on top of the latest shoe and boot trends for fall 2010, you’ll know that short ankle boots are back in a big way. Whether you wear them with a short wool dress at the office or leggings and a sweater for a shopping excursion, you’ll be right on top of style. However, if your legs are shapely, avoid short-cropped leggings or pants. Matching your body type with a trend is important. If you’re planning to combine a long skirt with a pair of short boots, don’t plan to show any leg at all. The skirt must come to the edge of the boot, or wear leggings to cover the distance.

In contrast, the over-the-knee boot will vie for your attention and look best with a short skirt and cinched-waist jacket. The heel size doesn’t matter, so go for what looks good on you or adds the height you want. Leggings are popular and they look smart with thigh-high boots and a cinched-waist jacket.

Another great trend is a flat or low-heeled slip on for casual slacks or jeans. Flats are great when you spend a lot of time on your feet. The drawback is that flats make your legs look shorter, so petite ladies may want to avoid this shoe. Ballerina flats come with colorful bows and crystal embellishments for a dressy look. This shoe is great for shorts, short denim skirts and a Capri pant. Avoid pants that are too long and pleated pants that narrow at the bottom. Your mid-section will balloon and that’s not a good look for anyone.

You can always switch to the stilettos or platforms making a huge splash this season. Slipping into a high heel for drinks at the local corner bar and restaurant will give you the sophistication you’re want. Miss-matching colors is still the rage with red shoes and a tiger-striped skirt.

The used car parts business is so complex that it has slowed down business methods used in other industries. Europeans sell twice as many car parts than us, so we have a lot of catching up to do. We have to reach the consumers.

Where are the consumers? On the net, most of them are on EBay. Any consumer who wants used car part eventually turns to EBay.

What are the advantages of this site?

It’s a sure bet. Whatever is that I want, I am sure to find it on EBay, unless it is on some negative list or something. Thus it’s worth taking a shot.

Photos are available: Whatever I want to buy, I want to see a picture. As I do not know from whom I am buying.

Apt description: Good EBay sellers will include a good description of the product, about all its features, pros and cons. This will whet my curiosity and anxiety.

It makes for Trust. With EBay and making payments with Pay Pal, I am reassured about the transaction because of the trust in the agency. For example, I have had the experience of returning damaged goods and being repaid in full within a few days.

It has got Feedback: Sellers are graded, so I am able to judge a seller by the feedback he received. For example, you feel confident to buy from a seller who has got 10,000 responses and is 99.5% positive.

Price is desirable: Price advantage is generally perceived and most customers are on EBay to make a bargain.

Simplicity is attractive: Click and pay is an easy, simple method to do business. No phone calls, no wait times make the deal simple and efficient.

Payment: Rather than give credit card numbers over the phone it is safer to do online transactions.

EBay is a giant market place which sells everything under the sun. It is a huge “Flea market” where you can buy real or fake, old or new, according to your taste and budget.

But there are three major problems with EBay with regards to used car parts:

1. Availability: There are only 280,000 used and new car parts listed on EBay. This amounts to the inventory of a single Yard with 1000 vehicles and 300,000 parts with 35% availability. Thus odds are that a user is not going to find the part he is looking for on EBay.
2. Used and New Jumbled up: EBay is likely to show cheap new Chinese parts when used parts are not available and the consumer will be taken in by the bargain.
3. Search is clumsy: Search terms may not match the exact part requirements. So by searching with the wrong words, the customer may not find the parts he is looking for.

EBay is still the best way for consumers to find used and recycled parts. But it has its flaws. The industry needs an alternative which has all the advantages minus the flaws of EBay. An intelligent solution is possible, but it will take time.

Building a good website takes a lot of time and effort. Although, there are a lot of online companies that say that you can build a website within minutes or hours, you still have to spend some time carefully building your website. People spend so much money, time and research in buying some space on the web and carefully turning that space into a workable and possibly, a money earning website. Let’s assume that you’ve done all your research and selected Godaddy to build your website because you feel that it’s the cheapest and fastest option for you; you will still have to set aside some hours working on the steps involved.

Setting up your website can be an exciting process if you do it yourself instead of letting someone else do it for you. There are many options on the Godaddy website with which you can select the method to build your website. You go to the register page and register yourself, open a website account using the site builders menu and you’re on the way to building a website for you. Your choice of colors and the number of pages will be decided by you based on the purpose for which you want to create your website. Now, if you want your website to reflect what you are…you have to be present in every stage of the building process. This is not the case with Godaddy alone; you have to be involved in the process of building your website if you want to enjoy the excitement of building your own website and if you want your website to be exactly the way you want it to be.

Being there every step of the way when building your website is easy if you’re at home, or at the office, but what do you do if you’re traveling? Mobile broadband can help you build your website on the move. There is no need to miss out on the excitement of building your own website when you’re traveling. Now, you can build your website step by step even while moving from one place to another. Super fast download and upload speeds on mobile broadband will help you savor the excitement of seeing your website turn into a well designed one. That’s not all; you can stay on top of your work regularly even after your website is built by being seamlessly connected to the Internet and your website through mobile broadband

How often should you buy a new computer? Well, the answer to that question is—it’s entirely your own prerogative. Having said that, there are some basic guidelines that you should adopt to decide if you need a new computer, and also some obvious signs that you should not miss noticing, which tell you that you’d be needing a replacement pretty soon. Let’s look at the things that tell you that you have an expense coming up your alley:

• You switch on your computer, and you go to the toilet, take a bath, shave and come back to see your desktop slowly sputtering to life; it’s time to buy a new computer.
• You turn off your computer, and you find that you have all the time to do the same things above before your computer switches off completely; get yourself a new computer.
• You get funny sounds from your computer all the time, and your CPU fan sounds like a bulldozer at work; it’s time for change.
• You are working on your computer, and you feel there’s no need to switch on the heating system inside your room despite the biting cold outside. You feel your computer is enough to heat up your whole room; contact the computer dealer you know or go online to search for a new computer.
• Your computer is so slow in comparison to that of your friends, and you feel like you’re better off working with the abacus and stone tablets—time for a change, definitely!
• Your computer keeps hanging up frequently, and you have to restart your computer more than one time daily; get a new computer, fast!
• You are happy with the computer you have, but you see Best Deals and Promotions during the holiday season, don’t miss the chance to get a good deal on a new computer.

Although, experts say that on an average, a computer can last you for three years, and you can prolong its life by maintaining it well and upgrading when necessary; new software and hardware developments make it mandatory for you to stay on par with the rest. Moreover, there’s no harm in having a backup computer; so, if you spot best deals and promotions on computers anywhere on the Internet, don’t wait for all the signs above to show up—just go ahead and buy yourself a new hp computer with these hp coupons!

Microsoft Excel is an awesome tool for organizing and figuring huge amounts of data. With plenty of useful features it offers it is easy to get lost especially for a non-expert or a newbie. So here are 12 useful, easy-to-implement tips for you to take advantage of (as long as you don’t lose your excel password):

1. Switch between multiple Excel windows using FireFox-like tabs:

OfficeTab (via MUO) is an awesome tool that gives FireFox feel to Office applications. With it you can switch between active Office apps within one window which is much more convenient than having to hit the task bar. And if you set it to work for Excel only, you will get a much handier way to switch between multiple open Excel docs. The nifty features include:

• Opening the new tab (i.e. new Excel doc) by simply double-clicking the area where the new tab would appear (just like in FireFox).
• Marking unsaved docs with a star (*) for you to see which docs you need to further work on.

2. Apply formats to a range of cells depending on their value

To apply formats to a range of cells depending on the value of the cell or the value of a formula you will need to use Excel tool called Conditional Formatting (Example: you can make a cell appear bold only when the value of the cell is greater than 10). Here’s a detailed tutorial on how to use the tool.

3. Filter out and get rid of duplicate data

To filter out cells with duplicate data, go to “Data” menu, select “Filter“, then Advanced Filter, click “Copy to new location“, leave the “Criteria” field empty, and make sure you have checked “Unique Records Only” (via)

4. How to analyze your data using Pivot tables

What’s the best way to learn to use complex Excel tools like Pivot tables? By examples, I guess. Here’s a great tutorial which shows how to use Pivot table to re-arrange and analyze data by 4 actionable examples.

5. Create a linked picture of a range

Here’s a great tip on using a hidden Excel option of creating a live “snapshot” of a range of cells and placing it anywhere you like.

To find this option:

1. Select a range of cells
2. Choose Edit, Copy
3. Hold down the Shift key, and then choose Edit, Paste Picture Link.

The result is an image of the selected range that will reflect any subsequent changes to the source.

6. How to filter data by multiple criteria

DigDB (paid with free trial) is a cool add-in for Excel that makes it easier to process huge amounts of data.

7. Search Excel newsgroups with Google.com right inside Excel

This add-in allows to search directly from within Excel the Excel newsgroups via Google.com for answers to questions you may be wrecking your head over.

8. How to import a text file into a spreadsheet

To import a text fil into a spreadsheet, select Data, then Import External Data, Import Text File. In the dialog box select a text file, in the Text Import Wizard specify how Excel should import the data. Finally, in the Import Data dialog box, you can specify the desired worksheet destination (via).

9. Create an in-cell chart to illustrate a percentage

Here’s a great guide decribing how to create in-cell charts in column C that will illustrate the percentage in column B. Moreover, when the value in column B is changed, the chart will be adjusted accordingly:

10. How to insert in-cell line break

There are many people who have been using Excel for years and still don’t know how to insert a line break within one cell (as “Enter” changes the active cell). The solution is simple: press Alt-Enter to insert a line break.

11. Create automatic list numbering

Here’s an easy way to make Excel add numbers to your list automatically (ignoring the empty rows). Just grab this formula:

=IF(B1<>"",COUNTA($B$1:B1)&"."

and copy it down to
(all) cells in column A. The formula displays the next consecutive item number if the corresponding cell in column B is not empty.

12. Have a picture pop-up when you hover over a cell:

Really simple, but many people are just anaware of this option. Comments pop up when you hover over the cell, so you just need to insert an image in the comment to make a picture pop up on mouse-over:

• Right-click on a cell and insert a comment.
• Left-click on the diagonal lines surrounding the comment to changes the border to dots
• Right-click on the dots and choose Format Comment
• Go to tab called Colors and Lines
• In the Color dropdown, choose Fill Effects
• Choose Picture and then Select Picture
• Choose the picture and click OK