Error reporting is a feature of Windows XP, which is supposed to be used by Microsoft for getting information from the actual users so as to improve upon it. Whenever any Microsoft application crashes, the Windows XP operating system prompts you with a window, asking you to report the bug to Microsoft.

I don’t know what actually Microsoft does with the data, but sometimes I am really annoyed with that extra click, which I am forced to make. If you also get irritated, then you ought to know..

How to disable error reporting

It is simple five steps process.

• Right click on My Computer > Properties.
• Click on the Advanced tab.
• Click on the Error Reporting Button.

• Select Disable error reporting radio button and uncheck the box “but notify me when…”.

• Save your settings, and you are through.

Wordpress is simply great.

Besides providing the best SEO features, the type of flexibility it provides through its plugins, is simply unmatched by any other blogging platform.

The latest plugin found be my, is WP-Print, which allows your readers to get a print ready version of any of your post, with a simple click of a mouse. This plugin is specially useful for blogs, which regularly post articles about How-Tos and Tuotrials.

It will create a printable version of your posts by using its own CSS file, and it will automatically launch the printable page when the user clicks on the “Print this” link that you will insert on your blog. If you want to see a live example of WP-Print wordpress plugin, you can visit the Pick The Brain blog.

A nice useful plugin.

This seems too good to be true.

Microsoft is offering you a free web site with Microsoft Office Live Basics. It is totally free service from Microsoft, which offers you…

• A free domain name, registered in your name by an Australian affiliate.
• Free web hosting, which includes 500 MB of Web site storage space, 10 GB monthly data transfer rate, 25 company-branded e-mail accounts, regulr backups and much more.
• Easy-to-use Web site design tools, which will let you create your website in minutes
• Web site reports to enable you measure the performance of you website
• Search advertising tool with $50 credit (with terms and conditions)

Sounds too interesting. Yes it is.

So, what is the catch ?

Absolutely nothing. At least I could not find one. Only thing is that they also offer two types of premium accounts, which you might choose, if you want to access more features, or if your websites starts to get popular and grows big.

They require a credit card during the sign up process, which is not charged, until you choose to upgrade to their upgrade plans.

To give it a test ride, I also signed with them, and found the offer really interesting. The registration process is really simple, no deep knowledge of web designing or HTML coding is requried, and you can host images on the website.

There are a few things, which I wished, Microsoft would have added.

• Number of available page templates.
• Allow customization of the templates. In fact you cannot modify HTML or customize styles (CSS).
• Seems like the uploaded images are converted by some conversion tool, because the quality of uploaded image is not that good as the original one, specially GIF and PNG images.
• And if, in case, you want to switch the host, moving domain name can take a few days.

But still, for a really small website need, it is an option worth try.

BTW, did you started using the free useful tools from Google. If not, then

Firefox is known for its addons. They provide you the flexibility and customization, which makes foxfire a near-perfect browser (I know nothing is perfect). If you have not yet switched to Firefox, the preferred browser of millions, then .

But there are two sides of the coin. And foxfire addons are no exception.

If they make your life comfortable, they also make your browser window a cluttered space, with every new addition demanding its own space, leaving little for the actual web page.

How to get more desktop space

For this, follow these tips.

1. Hide all the unnecessary toolbars, which are not in use at present. You may not be willing to remove all the installed toolbars, but be honest, you certainly don’t need all of them simultaneously. Why not hide the unused one for now. If you need them later, you can unhide that. [e.g. your StubleUpon toolbar]
2. Customize the toolbars, and remove all the buttons, which you don’t use often. For customization, you can use View > Toolbars > Customization.
3. Merge the toolbars. This will save more space for you.
4. Use smaller icons for your buttons. This option in the form of a check box is available in the Customization window, which you got in step 2 above.
5. And finally, Use TinyMenu. This is a firefox extension, which rearranges the menu bar in a vertical drop down menu. The rest of the space in the menu bar can be used for merging other toolbars. TinyMenu is really useful. I love it.

How to take a screenshot

Taking Snapshots from the web pages is an activity, which I have to do often for my blog posts. And there are two applications, which I often use for it.

• ScreenGrab, the firefox extension for quick screenshots,
• SnagIt for detailed screenshots, where I have to tweak the image.

There is no doubt that SnagIt software is probably the best screen shot software as on date. But it is not free and your have to purchase it. [Although recently there was a promotional scheme going on, where they were giving version 7 of SnagIt for free]

However recently, I have found yet another firefox extension, named as fireshot, which is much much better that ScreenGrab.

Fireshot, the firefox addon

Fireshot, is a firefox addon, which allows you to easily tweak the screen shot image.

…this plugin provides a set of editing and annotation tools, which let users quickly modify captures and insert text and graphical annotations. It’s possible to choose whether entire web page or only visible part of this page should be captured. Screenshots can be saved to disk (PNG, JPEG, BMP), copied to clipboard, e-mailed and sent to external editor for further processing.

[Click image to enlarge]

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Definitely, worth giving a try.

Which is the most popular web tool for web page designing.

The answer is easy Adobe’s Dreamweaver and Microsoft’s FrontPage will definitely rule the roost. There have been a plenty of other applications also, but not very promising.

Recently, a new Mozilla based web authoring tool KompoZer has been released, which is free heir to the Mozilla Composer legacy and updated for today’s technology.

If you used Internet way back in 2003, you would remember that Mozilla used to ship the Mozilla Application Suite, which comprised of a browser, email/news client, IRC chat client, and HTML page editor. Later on, the first three components were started to get shipped as individual applications in the form of Firefox, Thunderbird, and ChatZilla. However the last component was sort of discontinued. The same platform has been used for KompeZer. It is available for download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

For the creation of a web page in Kompozer, you don’t have to delve deep into coding etc. Web page creation is just like writing a word document; simple text inputting, copy paste, insert images and you are through. It also has a built-in FTP client and a CSS editor.

Overall, a nice free web page creator for novices.

How many times it had happened that a person has got a PC problem and the expert is away at some remote location. First person is trying to explain the problem on phone, but not able to explain every detail, and wishes that it would have been better if he was able to share the screens live and the expert could have seen the action live, in front of his eyes.No issues, there are not one, but many applications for screen sharing.

These are all free, and besides rectifying the PC problems remotely, they can be used for collaborative working on with your friends and colleagues. They can also be used, if you want to access files on your PC from a remote location.

So, here we go,

Screen-Sharing and Remote-Collaboration Web tools

1. CrossLoop: Full functionality, simple and clean user interface and fast. I like it. Somewhere I read that it has been included in the best 10 downloads of the year, probably by CNET, (Update courtesy Techblissonline.com: PCWorld)

2. Mikogo: It uses industry-leading 256-AES end-to-end encryption and so is secure. It can be used by upto 10 persons simultaneously. Designed nicely, with a very user friendly platform.

3. TeamViewer: Full featured application. Many modes, the initiator can decide the level of sharing, whether full access or part. Data transfer is encrypted and secure.

4. Yuuguu: A useful application, for both Mac and Windows, and offers full functionalities of screen sharing, collaborative working and also remote access. It also has a chat functionality, which you can use while you are giving or taking help from somebody else. What’s more, it allows you to keep a record of all the conversation.

5. Unyte Lyte: A relatively simple web tool, which doesn’t offer any remote control feature. But a nice advantage is that you can itegrate it into your Skype client.

Besides, these screen sharing tools, there are other web tools also which give you remote access.

1. SoonR: It extends the remote access facility to your mobile also.

2. FolderShare: It supports both Windows and Mac. It si a free utility from Microsoft and with it you can share files upto 2GB in size. It has also been mentioned here.