Archive for the ‘Blog Announcements’ Category

How to Type in Foreign Languages

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Have you ever wondered how Chinese type?  Have you ever wondered how websites in Arabic are possible?  It used to be through expensive software.  But now the language tools for many different languages come built-in with Windows Vista, all you must do is activate them.  Activating languages on Vista is a snap; as with almost every setting, you’ll find the controls in the ‘Control Panel.’  Open the control panel and click the ‘Regional and Language Options’ icon, then click the ‘Keyboards and Languages’ tab.  Click on ‘Change Keyboards’ to bring up the list of available languages.

Windows Vista allows users to type in a variety of languages

Windows Vista allows users to type in a variety of languages

To activate a language, click on the ‘add’ button to the right of the new window, a list of languages will appear.  Find the language (or languages) that you want to add to your computer, then double click it to expand the list of input options.  Check the different methods of input that suit you best.  Repeat for each language you want to activate.  When you are finished, click the ‘OK’ button to close the list of languages, and click ‘OK’ to in the language settings window to save your changes and close it too.  Now you just need to switch your computer to type that language instead of English.  First, open the program you want to type in.  There should now be a new button near your computer’s clock, in the lower-right corner of your screen that says ‘EN’ on it.

Switch between languages at your convenience

Switch between languages at your convenience

Next, click the button, and select the language you want to type in.  The language abbreviation should change from EN to the language you are typing (i.e. CH if you are typing Chinese).

New eBay Policy

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

It has come to our attention, and has been confirmed, that eBay has a new policy whereby they may add your photos to a ‘catalog’ for other users to use in their listings (but will attribute the photos to you with a link to your user page).

PC-Mole thinks this policy will ultimately hurt eBay, depending on which photos they choose to share.  If they take ‘home taken’ photos, then people may assume that the photos are of the actual item they are bidding on, and be dissapointed when the item arrives.  However, if eBay is judicious in which photos they decide to open up to other eBay-ers, the policy will actually make eBay easier to use, providing photos for those who either don’t have a camera, or are just too lazy to upload their own photos.

eBay mentioned this policy change briefly in an email on July 27th.  The new policy officially goes into effect on August 31st.  The small notice is a little unfortunate, but PC-Mole still thinks eBay is cool, “We forgive you eBay!”.  If you aren’t a professional photographer who sells his/her photos, you don’t need to be concerned.  You’ll even get a little free advertising!  However, if you want to keep your photos to yourself, here’s how to opt-out of the new program:

1.  Log into your eBay account and go to ‘My eBay‘ via the ‘My eBay’ tab in the upper-right corner of the page.

2.  Move your mouse cursor over to the account button, but don’t click it.  A menu of options appears.

3.  Click the ‘Site Preferences’ option.

Move your mouse cursor over the 'Account' button, then click 'Site Preferences'

Move your mouse cursor over the 'Account' button, then click 'Site Preferences'

4.  You’ll see a list of settings.  Find the one that says ‘Share your photos’ and click the corresponding ‘Show’ button on the right side of the page.

5.  You should now see the text ‘Consider photos I upload in the listing process for inclusion in the eBay product catalog and other product offerings. Yes’ in the ‘Share your photos’ box.

6.  If there is a ‘No’ where the ‘Yes’ should be in the

text, then you’re good to go, and eBay won’t share your photos with others; if not, proceed to step 7

7.  Click the ‘Edit’ button directly under the ‘Show’ button you clicked earlier (it should be on the right side of the page).

8.  Check the little box with your mouse, and then click ‘Submit’.

You’re done!

Bump Top Provides a 3D-Rich Way to Manage Desktop

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
Bump Top allows you to manage your desktop as you would a 3D storage room, you can even decorate the walls.

Bump Top allows you to manage your desktop as you would a 3D storage room, you can even decorate the walls.

Bump-Top is a free program that essentially takes over your desk top and allows you to organize it in 3d.  Don’t worry, you can still exit Bump Top and resume your old, reliable 2D way of life at any time.  You can drag items around in Bump Top, the same way you do on your desktop.  you can also delete and add items in basically the same format as your desktop with a few added features. In Bump Top, you can make ‘piles’ of icons which function like folders and can be expanded, or fanned out to view the contents.

In Bump Top, you can change your folders into Piles that allow you to quickly view the contents by fanning the items out (like the Mac Dock) or in a grid.

In Bump Top, you can change your folders into 'Piles' that allow you to quickly view the contents by fanning the items out (like the Mac Dock) or in a grid.

For those who like to customize every aspect of your computer’s interface, Bump Top is not dissapointing.  You add sticky notes and photos to the walls, as well as your favorite background photo.  You can also enlarge the icons you use the most and rotate the view for a direct look at each wall.

Overall, Bump Top adds a revolutionary new type of interface to the history of graphical user interface (GUI).  However, advanced users who are used to the standard 2D desktop will balk at Bump Top in several respects.  First of all, Bump Top edits your underlying 2D desktop along with the 3D one.  For example, if you create a folder or pile in Bump Top, the folder or pile will also appear as a folder on your 2D desktop.  Deleting items in Bump Top, will also delete the items on your desktop.  Bump Top’s interface also aims at the new and inexperienced user and is meant more at organizeation and structure than streamlined quick access.  The system resources demanded by Bump Top’s 3D look are enormous and will slow down your computer’s performance, even when it’s running in the background, unless you have lots of RAM and a gung-ho processor.  However, many who recently bought a new computer and don’t regularly use it for video editing or graphics design will find Bump Top just the thing to make their day.

Bump Top is currently only available for Windows users.  You can download the free version, or if you’re a serious Bump Top fan, buy the premium version here.

-Robby

PC-Mole is now on Twitter

Monday, June 29th, 2009

As of today, PC-Mole is now on twitter at www.twitter.com/pcmole.  For those of you who don’t know what Twitter is, it’s a ‘micro blogging’ site which means that you have to get your point across to your audience in only 140 characters (or you can just type up multiple posts).  Twitter is incredibly easy to use, you can use it to keep up with current events, and/or share your life and opinions with the rest of the world.  Unlike Facebook, Twitter doesn’t require any sensitive information to join.  You can join Twitter at www.twitter.com.

Swoopo and Bid Cactus Introduce Revolutionary Auction Sites

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

Is it gambling?

An Iphone on Swoopo Approaches Crunch Time

An Iphone on Swoopo Approaches Crunch Time

No.

Is it like EBay?

No.

Is it a scam?

No.

What is it?

It’s Swoopo (Bid Cactus is the same concept as Swoopo, only different prices and items).

It’s a new format of auction where the average item sells brand new, strait from the manufacturer for an average of 60% less than it’s retail value.  Instead of having users sell items on Swoopo, Swoopo sells it’s items much like a retailer: straight from the manufacturer.  Swoopo auctions off all of it’s items starting at $0.00.  How is this possible?  Well, it’s not a scam, but there is a hitch.  The key question is: “How does swoopo afford to pay 60% percent for everyone’s electronics wants?”  To bid on swoopo, you must purchase virtual bid tickets in packs of 30 to 500 at 75 cents apiece.  Placing a bid on an item will raise the bid by 15 cents and add 15 seconds to the auction time.  Even while buying bids at 75 cents apiece, people can still save a killing, in many cases over 50% of retail price.

Using simple math, you can figure out how much Swoopo can make selling an item: let’s take an 8 GB Ipod Touch (retail $229).  Let’s say that the bidding ended at $53 (an actual ipod sale on swoopo).  Divide the sale price by 15 cents to find out how many bids were placed on the Ipod and you get about 350.  Then multiply 350 (the number of bids placed on the item) by .75 (the cost of each bid) to find out how much swoopo took in on bids.  The result: $262.  Wait a minute, we aren’t finished; we still need to add on the $53 that swoopo got from the sale price of the item.  Our total is $315.  Swoopo gave away a $292 ipod and took in $315 for a profit of at bare minimum $86 (remember, these guys are probably Apple dealers, so they probably buy Ipods at a wholesale price).  Swoopo also offer’s what are called ‘penny auctions’.  This means that your bids only up the bid by 1 cent, so the prices don’t go as high, so the winners win more, and the losers lose more.  The entire swoopo site is automated, so it could probably be run with less than 10 full time employees.  The overall profits must be staggering.  Basically, the way Swoopo works is the losers pay for the winner to get a discounted item.  So if you do decide to go and buy a cheap item on Swoopo, just be absolutely sure you don’t lose.

www.swoopo.com

www.bidcactus.com