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Riding Shotgun with Rick

Removing one of the built-in search engines in Firefox

We love the Mozilla Firefox web browser because of its safety, speed, and customizability. One of my favorite customizations is the ability to add sites to the built in search engine that let me quickly search web sites I visit most often…weather, recipes, downloads, movies, etc. Occasionally, it is nice to be able to remove one that I'm not using any further or maybe isn't working at all. Here's how to do that:

  1. Close Mozilla Firefox
  2. Navigate to your Firefox Profiles directory (usually C:\Documents and Settings\<YOUR USERNAME>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\)
  3. There should be a folder that ends in ".default"; inside it you should open the searchplugins folder (if there are multiple ".default" folders, you may have to look in more than one. These represent different user profiles you have created in Firefox)
  4. In the 'searchplugins' folder, you'll see two files for each Firefox Search Engine you've added. (an image and a .src file). Be sure to get rid of both of them for each of the Search Engines you want to remove

 

Traveling with wireless Internet

If you travel with a laptop computer and like to use wireless Internet at hotesl, coffee shops and libraries, it helps to know a simple troubleshooting technique or two for finicky wireless connections.

  1. Make sure your wireless access is enabled. Many laptops have a button or switch that shuts the wireless network off. 
  2. Restart your computer. Many times, restarting the computer will allow the connection to happen.
  3. If still no connection, talk to someone in the building about your problem and ask them to restart their wireless router. If they aren't sure how, you can let them know that simply unplugging the power from the back of the router and then plugging it back in will do it. Takes about 20 seconds.

These three techniques will get you out of a jam more often than not and make you a happy wireless Internet traveler.

Spam on the rise again

I'm not sure what it it is about late summer, but I have noticed the last few years that my spam is at its worst in late July through September and then it tapers off again until the next summer. I have no idea what the correlation is, but it has been consistent the last three years. 

I don't worry about it, however, because my Inbox stays pristine with the help of Cloudmark Desktop. You have heard Adam and I rave about this product for nearly four years now. Without it, I would have probably given up email years ago! <

“I can’t find stuff on your web site”

We get this comment more often than we would like. I'm going to split the responsibility between our web site design and web surfing experience of the folks who tell us they have trouble navigating our site.

Our site has gone immense changes in the past year…for the better. If you might be in the camp who thinks that our current site is tough to navigate, you may have never returned to our old site after an initial visit. Our old site didn't have consistent menu navigation and had a horrible search engine. Our new site has the same menus on every single page that let you navigate to the main parts of our web site. You will find these menus at top right of every single page on our site.

Future proofing your new PC

We have talked at length about the upcoming Windows Vista on our show and eluded to it here on the site. Microsoft says that it will come out in the first quarter of 2007 which leaves us about six months give or take. Adam and I had our first look at Vista during this year's Consumer Electronic Show (CES). We weren't impressed. Since then, I have read many Vista articles, reviews, blogs and even downloaded the beta version of Vista. I'm still not impressed.

All that being said, at some point you may want to upgrade to Vista (or its upgrade). I don't recommend waiting for Vista before buying a new PC because I truly believe that Vista will be a flop for the first six or so months (putting us into 2008). BUT, when you are buying a new computer or laptop, you might as well plan a little for the future. Here's what I'm telling callers and clients this month about what to look for in a new computer.

When it’s gone, it’s gone

Adam eluded to a trend that he has noticed about failing computers and hard drives lately. Indeed, I have seen the same epidemic. My question to you is, do you really know what the hard drive is and what its function is?

Some computer users point to the box that sits on their desk or floor and call it a hard drive. Others know that it stores data. I think few understand how important and valuable the hard drive really is and why we spend so much time writing and talking about backup. The hard drive, in desktop computers, is roughly the size of a VCR tape. It is a mechanical piece of equipment that has motors, gears and bearings…none of which is made to last forever. Thus the reason for backup.

Control is Key

I can usually get a 'wow' from many computer users when I show them how to use the Ctrl (Control) key on the keyboard. In combination with other keys it can do fantastic tricks like copy (Ctrl+C), print (Ctrl+P), or save files (Ctrl+S) to name a few. Combine the Ctrl key with a mouse click and you truly get magic. Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on documents, email, pictures or other multiple to select multiple at a time.

No longer do you have to be relegated to deleting files one at a time or emailing pictures one at time. Use Ctrl+Click to select or highlight multiple options at the same time.

No Shade in Grand Junction

When I first started my business about 10 years ago, I drove a truck around that didn't have air conditioning. I'm not looking for sympathy, we had just moved from Seattle and there isn't much of a need for AC up there. The last couple of summers the Western Colorado desert has been HOT!! Thank goodness I now have AC.

One way I try to stay cool is carrying a 3/4 frozen (the other 1/4 is water) 1/2 gallon water bottle with me when I leave the house. I usually drink it all by the end of the day and sometimes have to stop and pick up another quart. When I stop at my customer's home or office, I place my water bottle on the floor in a place where I think it will stay shaded. After more than 10 years of performing this routine, I miss the shade about 7 out of 10 times! I start it in the shade, try to estimate where the sun will be moving and then place it accordingly.

Windows 98 vs. Windows Vista

I've seen a fair amount of Windows 98 machines lately and read many, many articles and reviews about the upcoming (six months?) release of Windows Vista. If a computer user doesn't load a Windows 98 machine with bloated security software (Norton) or too many background programs and utilities, it runs pretty darn well…even fast! Windows Vista, on the other hand, continues to baffle industry experts on exactly what the purpose of the 'upgrade' is. After simplifying the operating system choices and essentially having one version of Windows, there will be at least five versions to choose from next year!

Walking stick and Tripod

Life Span tripod

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A long time of customer of mine had this walking-hiking stick/camera tripod and I thought it was a great idea. I snapped a photo of the flyer with my Treo 650 so that I could remember the what it was and where to find it. This shows just one of the many hundreds of uses a Palm Treo 650 has. For a better photo than my Treo can provide, visit the manufacturer's web site .