Play Classic Arcade Games Online for Free

Like to play games? Here's a great site where you can play classic arcade games online for free. These are flash based games you play right in your browser using your keyboard. Some classics include Pac Man, Frogger, and Donkey Kong. Dozens more are available including puzzle games, fighting games, and sports games. It's a simple and fun getaway to clear your mind when you become overloaded or simply need a temporary distraction from reality.

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Browser Keyboard Shortcuts

Using browser keyboard shortcuts keep your hands on the keyboard improving productivity and efficiency while surfing the Internet. Here's a great reference to popular browser keyboard shortcuts which includes the top browsers as well as keyboard shortcuts for popular desktop applications for Windows, Mac, and Linux users. One of my favorites is "alt + home", which takes you back to your home page in Firefox, and pressing "alt + arrow left/right" will take you back or forward one page.
The mouse is still a necessity in many situations. Did you know that clicking the mouse wheel will open a link in a new tab? This mouse shortcut is a great time saver and works in all the top browsers including Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome. Print a copy of your favorite browser keyboard shortcuts and post them near your computer. Experiment with these shortcuts and eventually they will become like second nature and save you a lot of time in your everyday computing.

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Portable Applications for Flash Drives

Ever wonder if you could take an application with you and use it on another computer? A program is typically "installed" on a PC. This means that the application is integrated with Windows making changes to the Registry and altering the operating system thus preventing you from using the app elsewhere without installing it again. If you copied the app to a flash drive and tried to run it on another computer, it wouldn't work.

A portable application is a specially designed app that allows you to use a program on different PCs without having to install it. These apps can be loaded on a flash drive and won't alter the Registry or leave any trace of themselves behind on the computer. You can carry both your programs and the files that use them with you and use them anywhere with ease. There are many portable programs available and most of them are free.

PortableApps.com is an open source development web site that allows you to download many useful portable applications for flash drives and they're free. You can find portable versions of browsers, games, media players, graphics editors, utilities, and programming tools. Some popular applications that are available include OpenOffice (a Microsoft Office alternative), Audacity (an audio editor and recorder), PDFTK Builder (a PDF document processor), and portable versions of Google Chrome and Firefox browsers. Portable applications for flash drives will bring convenience and simplicity to your busy mobile computing life. Check it out!

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Printer Ink Level Monitor - Don't Believe It

The cost of printer ink can be substantial, especially with inkjets. It's no secret that printer manufacturers make their money on the back end with sales of proprietary ink cartridge refills. This fact is surely related to the fact that the printer ink level monitor in most printers is grossly inaccurate. For example, I use an HP Deskjet 6940 inkjet printer and my printer ink level monitor has been telling me my ink cartridge needs replaced for about a month, yet my print quality is still the excellent.

Unfortunately, there not much you can do about this problem. Replacing cartridges with ample ink still in them is both uneconomical and environmentally unfriendly. I just print until the the quality starts to fade and then I replace the ink cartridge. I keep one backup ink cartridge refill (one black, one color) on hand at all times. I recommend always recycling your empty ink cartridges as well. Most ink cartridge manufacturers will supply a prepaid postage envelope to mail your empty cartridge in for recycling. Bottom line: don't trust your printer ink level monitor. Save money and the environment by replacing ink cartridges only when print quality becomes unacceptable.

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