Ever find yourself sitting in front of a computer that's been locked down by an overzealous IT administrator who won't let you install any software or even open Internet Explorer or Firefox? If that PC is running Windows XP, there's a good chance you can still visit Download Squad (or other sites if that sort of thing appeals to you).
All you have to do is launch a Windows application like Calculator, and then click the Help button. Under Help, click "Help Topics," which will bring up a help window. Next, all you have to do is right click on the title bar and select "Jump To URL." Now you can type in any web address you like, but make sure to include "http://" at the beginning. Basically what you're looking at is Internet Explorer 6 inside a help window, but this version of the program isn't quite as smart as IE6. It won't automatically add the http:// for you. And of course, there's no bookmarking feature.
Log into Gmail today and you might see big red warning about Greasemonkey scripts. For those of you keeping score, Google has been spiffing up Gmail over the past few weeks, including a nice code overhaul, colored labels, group chat and AIM capabilities. Oh, and the tasty IMAP. Now it appears some scripts have become such a nuisance that Google offers a chance to "fix this" which we declined. Unfortunately, their help files have no specific info on Greasemonkey, so once you've dismissed this warning there appears to be no going back. What the "fix this" button does do is recommend you upgrade to Better Gmail 2.
Every version of Windows from 3.0 to XP used the same type of help file format. HLP files were basically modified RTF documents that could be viewed using the WinHlp32.exe application.
But Microsoft decided to leave that application out of Windows Vista to encourage developers to use more up to date help file formats. There's just one problem. When you buy a new computer or a new operating system you don't buy all new software. So there's probably more than a few applications you run that were designed for Windows XP or earlier. And you can't read their help files using Windows Vista. Not out of the box, that is.
It turns out there are two pretty simple ways to add support for HLP files to Windows Vista. First up, you can download and install an "update" from Microsoft. It weighs in at a hefty 601KB, so I can see why the company left it out.
If you've got an XP machine lying around, or if you're running a dual boot system, you can also just copy WinHlp32.exe from the Windows directory. When putting it on your new machine, you should probably stick it in Program Files or another directory, not Windows. In order to associate HLP files with the application, you'll need to find an old one, right click it and select "open with" to select the default program.
How many times have you been befuddled with a product, only to result to the dreaded 1-800 number in the manual to resolve your issue? Hours later only to find no resolution in sight.
Enter Fixya, a startup that has taken on the challenge of supplying online technical support, user guides and repairs by letting users help each other. In a few simple steps users get the help they need with their items by submitting product related questions from a catalog of over 700,000 current consumer products, ranging from baby items to electronic gadgets. Other users can then choose to answer questions to the best of their knowledge, with experts standing by. It's a very unique online service that I'm sure big brands would love to sponsor or be a part of. Can we say no more 1-800 in the neat future? Maybe!
Microsoft, you move in strange ways. I can't believe we missed this the first time around.
For all the effort they put into building operating systems that are backwards-compatible, they then go and choose not to include support for Help files that are built to use the old WinHlp32.exe program. This probably will not affect a huge number of Vista users, but the ones that it does affect are two important demographics, in my opinion. The people that are most likely to be relying on a program that still uses that old style help file are power users, and the not-so-savvy "nervous Nelly" users.
For example: a power user might have some utility that they absolutely can't live without. In Vista, they may find that the utility still works, but they can no longer view the contextual help for that program. This class of user can probably fend for themselves though; they can still go and download WinHlp32.exe from Microsoft and get access to those old help files.
But what about the proverbial elderly person who is happy with some ancient version of some program, and isn't willing to switch to a new or different one? When they buy that new computer, they will be completely lost when they can't get the help they need.
Okay, maybe it's not so big as all that, but it's definitely a pain in the ass. So there.
i-What, i-How's that now, I said, iPubble. What is an iPubble? Like a mis-pronounced iPebble, I guess. Beyond that, iPubble is in the business of helping website operators get the word out while helping you improve your site. Their experts will tell you what you are doing right or wrong with your site, with some good suggestions on how to improve your site. iPubble is a social voting site as well, so visitors can rate the sites they see and if your site is popular, it will receive more attention and traffic. I imagine that iPubble is a play on the term I publish, but I could be wrong. If I disappear mysteriously after this post, don't worry, it is most likely because I ticked off about half of Apple with all the I's in the first half of this post. I think they are pretty sure they own the letter I. Wait til Sesame Street finds out. Be aware that iPubble is technically in "beta," and it doesn't look like there is much content yet to speak of.
This is something I can't wait to check out. Helphee says that they can help users author and publish help documents online. Not only that, but in a five-minute timeframe or less. Come on! It has to take more than five minutes. I have never written a help doc in less than five minutes. Even if it was as simple as a 150 word description about setting up email signatures in Outlook for my Grandparents. If Helphee can indeed do this in five minutes, not only is it going to make a lot of people happy, I can see it putting a few people out of business. I have signed up for the launch from their homepage to try this out, and will let you know how it turns out. What's the shortest help document you have ever written? And how long did it take you?
Despite the risque title, Gspot is an awesome little app. For a while, I was sick of video files I would find and then try to play on my PC, so much so, that my chagrin was overloaded. If you have a video file that only plays audio, or won't play at all, Gspot will tell you what type of file, what codec you need, and whether you have it currently installed or not. It lists just about every other video file detail you can imagine including meta-data, bit-rate, fps, video dimensions, even the codec or test it thinks will fix your playing problem. Most of the time, you can just go download a codec and the file will play. It is very nearly brilliant (I can hear the Guinness guys in the back of my head, Brilliant!), and takes the frustration out of trying to get the bleeping thing to play.
Anyone eager to climb Google's pagerankings - listen up, as Google has just introduced a slew of tools specifically designed to allow webmasters to learn more about and interact with Google's crawling and indexing systems. Complete with a topic-specific blog, this new Webmaster Central service offers tools like a site status wizard (I thought we were getting away from 'wizards' in the industry), statistics, diagnostics and sitemap submission tools, as well as a discussion group and a webmaster help center for good measure.
I took a quick breeze through the offerings in Webmaster Central, and it looks like a fairly comprehensive set of tools. Of course, with Google's typical track record for pricing with similar services, everything under the Webmaster Central umbrella is free, so what are you waiting for?
Videojug is a service that lets users share information. However, it's sharing information in an extremely intuitive way: Sharing through the use of videos. It's a really neat concept that I'm sure will take off pretty nicely given its sometimes funny approaches.
Take for an example, a video recently posted on how to make naan bread. The user has put together a nice little directional video on how to actually make it. It's a visual help guide, helping get points across easier, and with a little more explaining and nice visuals. Videos can be uploaded, tagged and searched which makes it extremely easy to find what you need help on. Each video also has a feedback form, text version, and iPod and PSP formats. Current sections on Videojug include Food, Drinks, DIY, Home, Beauty, Health, and Leisure. Each with a nice drop down list of sub topics.
Wikis are useful
for a lot of things, but there are literally dozens of different wiki platforms out there all of which fulfill a
different set needs. For those dizzied by the array of choices, the Wiki
Choice Wizard from WikiMatrix looks like a good place to start. It asks you a few questions about your needs--e.g.
hosted or installable, WYSIWYG or otherwise, and so on--and then narrows your options to a few that match your needs
and lets you compare them in a grid.
Even
if you're an experienced computer user, stepping into Linux the first time can be disorienting. TechRepublic has an
article called 10 things you should know about every
Linux installation that begins, "There are numerous common features with
every Linux installation. This document lists 10 of the more important ones you should know about." It won't turn
you into a Linux Guru, but it will show you the basics of Linux's file hierarchy, package management, permissions, the
CLI, and more. Every little bit helps, right?
DevBoi is a simple and cool extension with a silly name by Martin Cohen. It's a sidebar for Firefox that gives you quick access to the documentation for HTML (plus entities), CSS, DOM, XUL, Ruby, and Ruby on Rails. All that's lacking is a modern XHTML 1.0 reference (and adding PHP, Java, Python, JavaScript, and so on wouldn't hurt), and perhaps an about:config-style filter box. Hopefully those will be included in a future release.
So you've played with SketchUp a bit and know you like it, but don't know what to do with it? This has been me as of late. I have wanted to know more about SketchUp and how to do some more complex modeling. On my inquisition, I quickly found a storehouse of knowledge to fuel my SketchUp frenzy. SketchUp offers a bunch of great video tutorials that can be downloaded as well as streamed. Perhaps I am late to this party, but no one else I have talked to who knew what SketchUp was knew they existed either. For those not in the know, I am getting your party started right now. The tutorials cover almost every drawing or modeling technique the beginner to intermediate Sketcher-upper would want and need to know. If you can't figure out how to do something in SketchUp, the method is probably covered in the videos. They load quickly and are very clear on how to do things. I felt like a guru when I left the video section of the site, having learned all my mind could hold for the day (I like my overload, thank you). Want to overload your noggin with SketchUp info, check out the videos. Enjoy with your favorite beverage.
Videojug
