Posts Tagged ‘free’

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).

How to Clean that Computer Screen Once and For All

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Have you ever had a hard time keeping your computer screen clean?  Well here’s a way you can do it online, that’s right, online.  No cleaning supplies, saliva, rags or wipes necessary.  It’s also free!

http://www.raincitystory.com/flash/screenclean.swf

KMPlayer Offers a Practical, Down-to-Earth Perspective on Media

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

If you’re like most PC users, you probably hate quicktime movies, and hate the quicktime program even more.  Quicktime takes a long time to load, and it has almost none of the features the widely used Windows Media Player has.  The only hitch with Windows Media Player has is it’s feud with any and all file formats associated with Apple such as .MOV.  Fortunately, a method to skirt this unfortunate blockage of multimedia called quicktime has surfaced - it’s name is the KM Player.  It plays Apple’s Quicktime videos faster and smoother than Apple’s Quicktime player can, it has a simple, no-frills interface and it takes up only a modest amount of hard drive space, and plays virtually any audio or video files including the elusive .flv flash videos.  The KM Player even has transparency and playlist features and can float on top of other windows.  The best part about the KM Player is that it’s, like all other PC-Mole recommendations to date, totally free.  Works with XP or Vista.  Try out the KM Player at the links below:

Cnet Download:  http://download.cnet.com/The-KMPlayer/3000-13632_4-10659939.html

PC-Mole Download:  http://www.pcmole.com/uploads/The_KMPlayer_1434.exe

An Accurate Weather Source Available 24-7

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

If you’re tired of listening to an outdated weather source forecasting rainy and 60 while you’re looking out the window at sunny and 80, it may be time to check out weather.gov, the National Weather Service’s weather forecast

Enter your city/state or zip code to get detailed weather information for your area

Enter your city/state or zip code to get detailed weather information for your area

site.  Weather.gov has a history of being more accurate than most forecasts, and provides more details than broadcasted weather such as TV and radio updates.  You can find the current, and forecasted temperature, precipitation type, chance percentage, humidity, barometric pressure, and more at weather.gov.  Just enter your zip code or city and state and you’ll get results tailored to your specific location, as well as local weather alerts and warnings.

Weather.gov's weather forcast shows thumbnails representing an overview of the next few days so you can tell at a glance.

Weather.gov's weather forcast shows thumbnails representing an overview of the next few days so you can tell at a glance.

Free Tool to Convert iTunes Music to More Compatible MP3

Friday, July 10th, 2009
Magic M4a to Mp3 Converters simple interface allows for a quick transition from m4a to mp3

Magic M4a to Mp3 Converter's simple interface allows for a quick transition from m4a to mp3

Apple’s program ‘iTunes’ is a tool for managing music on your computer.  Every day, thousands of people download songs and podcasts from the iTunes Music Store, available only from the iTunes Program.  iTunes is provided free with iPods and is also freely available on Apple’s website.  There is only one hitch to the low-priced variety of music on iTunes, and that is compatibility.  When you download a music file on iTunes, it downloads in the Mpeg-4 (.m4a) format.  This poses a problem to everyone who wants to use iTunes music on a non-Apple mp3 player.  However, thanks to the ‘Magic M4a to Mp3 Converter’ you can now easily make an mp3 copy of all of your iTunes music in one fell swoop.  To convert all of your iTunes files:  First, download and install the converter using the link at the end of the article.  Second, run the program and click on the ‘add folder’ button and choose your ‘My Music/iTunes/iTunes Music’ folder, and then it will find all of your iTunes music automatically from there.  Third, select the ‘Mp3′ option near the ‘Convert’ button.  Fourth, in the ‘Save target as’ field, click ‘Change’ and choose a folder to put all of the new mp3 files in (remember, you get to keep your old music, the converter will make a new mp3 file for every m4a file you add).  It’s a good idea to keep all of your music folders under the ‘My Music’ folder (or just ‘Music’ if you have Windows Vista), that way, Windows Media Player will be able to find your music.  Fifth, click that big ‘Convert’ button and watch the fun.  Depending on the size of your music collection, the conversion process may take a while.  After it’s done, you can put the new mp3 files on any mp3 player (including iPods), and run them in any music program.

If you want to add your new music to Windows Media Player, then open it and click on the ‘Library’ button near the top, and click ‘Add to Library’ and then click ‘Ok’.

You can download iTunes here

You can download the ‘Magic M4a to Mp3 Converter’ here or you can download it from Cnet