Computer and internet briefs 10 January 2010

Sun, 10 Jan 2010

Washington - New tabs in Internet Explorer take you to a blank, useless page by default. You can change that behavior, though, by opening the Tools menu and clicking Options. From the Options dialog box, click the Settings button in the Tab section. Finally, from the "When a new tab is opened" drop-down list box, select the type of page that should be displayed when you open a new tab.

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Washington - You can pay a lot of money for image browsing and cataloging applications. Or you can download the free IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com). This tool, now at version 4.25, has been around for years and has garnered a solid reputation among photo enthusiasts. Among its many features are multiple thumbnail and preview options, support for RAW camera formats, as well as email and batch conversion options.

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Washington - Firefox users have an advantage when it comes to reading webpages in foreign languages, thanks to the BabelFish plugin (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/add-on/7004). BabelFish provides instant access to two translation services, enabling users to get almost instantaneous translations of webpages in languages they do not know. The plugin is free.

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Washington - Want control over open Windows applications with your keyboard? The Alt-Spacebar key combination is one of the least used but handiest ways to access a program's control menu, from which you can minimize, maximize, resize, close, or move an application without ever touching the mouse. Get used to this shortcut and you'll find that it's far faster than performing the same actions with the desktop rodent.

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Washington - What's the difference between a directory and a folder in Windows? Nothing! Both terms are used synonymously to describe a location on your hard drive in which files are stored. In the old days of the command-line DOS, the term "directory" was used exclusively. When Windows came along, the word "folder" was introduced, with the idea that the concept of a file folder as a place where documents was stored was easier for new computer users to grasp.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/302906,computer-and-internet-briefs-10-january-2010.html.