So you have Vista...

And you quite like it, despite the fact that you've read all kinds of shit on the internet that it sucks the sweat off of a dead man's balls, but you wish it was a bit more, well, you.

So what do you do? Do you start trawling the net in a vain attempt to find an uberhacker who is willing to show you the zen art of white hatting so you can customize your computer to look like you want it. (After all, showing off your individuality is one of the joys of computers and t'internet.) Or do you use the following tools and tricks to improve your computing experience.

So you'd like your desktop to look all cool and skeezy but you're not the arty type and don't know one end of photoshop from the other. This is where Deviantart comes into play. Deviantart is so full of wallpapers you will be stuck for choice for what to put into your wallpaper file.

But what if you're the type that would like a really trick desktop? Well here's a handy little page that shows you how, with very little tech knowledge, you can have an even cooler desktop that shows a loop of any movie file. (If you are familiar with movie editing you can also create your own if you want.) Here's one I made from a small loop from the TV show Dr Who.

(If you want a copy of the file click here.)

Next up on the list of handy little tricks you can do with vista is thanks to the Winvistaclub website which has a very nice little program that allows more than 130 different tweaks you can easily apply with only a few mouse clicks. Included in the tweaks are several different personalization tweaks, security tweaks and several more.

The final site for customizing Vista is howtogeek which has a huge list of tweaks and tips for windows Vista, Firefox, Windows XP and also has tweaks for Ubuntu, Linux and Microsoft office.

(Remember to always backup your computer before attempting any tweaks, keep a copy of any files you remove just in case it all goes a bit Pete Tong and set system restore points before any major modding.)

Have fun.

Backing up your blog...

Has never been easier than the little gizmo bloggerbackup from those lovely people at Codeplex.

Drop by if you want an easy way to backup a blog.

How to use Pazera Video Converter...

Ok so you have a nice shiny Ipod and want to put movies onto it. Here's how...

First, get over to www.download.com and download a copy of Pazera Video to Ipod Converter.

Start Pazera Video to Ipod Converter. You'll get a box like this...

Next you need to add the movie files from wherever you have them on your hard-disk. To do this click the Add Files button in the top right of the program.

A box will appear showing you links to the folders on your computer.

Find the file you want to convert and select it.

Pazera Video to Ipod Converter will add the file to the list of files to be converted.

The next step is to tell Pazera Video to Ipod Converter what type of file you want it to be converted to. To do this click the drop down box with profile written on it at the left hand side.

In the drop down box click the settings that you wish to use (Go for the Mov - Ipod/Iphone - Best Q - MPEG4 - 1500kbps - AAC 160kbps - 640x480 option.) and select it.

Click the button that has <-Load written on it.

The Video Converter will load the settings needed.

Make sure you have the output directory pointing to the directory you want to save your converted file in otherwise Pazera is set to save the file in the original directory by clicking the Browse... Button

Find where you want to save the file and select it. As you can see above I have selected the directory G:\Ipod Videos.

Done all that? You should now have a screen that looks a bit like this.

Finally check that the program knows all the information it needs to do the job you want it to. In the image below I have highlighted the things you have to do in order for the program to complete as desired.

Check that the File/s have been added.
Check that you have the right directory to save the converted file in.
Check that the profile settings are correct.

Done all that? Good. Now all there is for you to do is for you to click the Convert button which is located to the right of the Add File button you used to add the video you want to convert.

A screen like the one below will pop up and your video will be converted.

...Note... This is not an instantaneous thing so have some patience and wait until the program tells you it is finished. You'll notice a small bit of text, just below the black part of the screen with the video information that says Done, when it is.

To finish just hit the close button and shut the program down. And that, as they say, is that. You have now converted a movie file to a file that can be uploaded to your Itunes library.

Enjoy.

*Software used in this demo...

Pazera Video to Ipod Converter.

Play by FoxSaver®

Ever needed to resize a picture?

But don't want to bother with all the associated nonsense in photo shop?

Well, help is at hand with Picresize.com a site that allows you to upload the pic and re-size it there and then. Easy to use and practically foolproof I highly recommend this site.

Aint' this cool...

It's a tool that helps you to up your reading speed.

Spreeder.

"But I can't speed read." I hear you say.
"I disagree." Say I, in disagreement.
"I can't." You say.
"Don't argue with me." I reply, as you go off and learn that you can speed read if you know how to.

Simply copy and paste the text you want to read, sit back, hit play and off you go. Customisable so you can alter the speed of the text you can train your brain to accept higher wpm rates.

How to make a music ringtone for your phone...

Over the last month or so I've been getting a lot of hits from people searching for how to make a mobile ringtone from an mp3 file. Here's how to do it.

What you'll need.

• Koyote Software's Free MP3-WMA converter. (Available by clicking here.)
• Windows Sound Recorder. (Or similar sound editor software.)

Step 1.

Install Koyote Software MP3-WMA converter.

Step 2.

Start Koyote Software MP3-WMA Converter.

Step 3.

Add the MP3 file of your choice to Koyote Converter.




















Step 4.

Change the Output Path to your desktop and the Output Format to Wav. Click CONVERT.




















Step 5.

Koyote Converter will then convert the MP3 sound to a Wav sound.




















Step 6.

Close Koyote Converter and open Sound Recorder.
Open the newly created Wav file using Sound Recorder.












Step 7.

Edit the Wav file by using the Delete Before/After Current Position button.














Step 8.

Save your newly cropped file and exit Sound Recorder.

Step 9.

Open Koyote Converter and add the cropped Wav sound file to the converter.

Step 10.

Convert the Wav file to an MP3 file. (Output Format = MP3.)

Step 11.

Upload your new MP3 ringtone to your mobile phone.