Intrepid Hosts

CNet reveals Secret God Mode hidden in Windows 7. According to CNet Microsoft has some hidden some secrets in Windows 7.  By creating a new directory and renaming it the directory will turn into a control panel that will allow you to control all aspects of Windows 7 ala God Mode.  This is also supposed to work in Windows Vista 32 bit operating system but in the 64 bit version of Windows Vista will cause it to crash.

To get into the God Mode create a new folder in windows explorer and rename the folder to

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

The folder will change to an icon of a control panel and inside the directory you will find short cuts to all the administrative tools from formatting a hard drive, change default programs, change or get gadgets, to blocking cookies, and finding a missing start menu.

Most of these tools are available through different menus or control panels but it is handy having them all together in one place.

I have had my Android phone for a couple of weeks now and have had the opportunity to try out a few hundred apps and have come up with a list of Android apps that are my favorites.

Favorite apps
Shazam – Song tagging with links to artists Myspace page, Youtube videos and Amazon MP3 incase you want to purchase the song.

Astro – File manager

Anycut – Create shortcuts to anything on your homepage

Pandora – Streaming internet radio

Where – Location based search app that let’s you connect people, places and things near your location. Want to know the cheapest place to get gas near your location? Fire up Where.

WeFi – Automatically connect to the best available wi-fi network.

TV.com – Watch tv episodes on your android phone. CBS, CW, Showtime and other popular networks.

Goggles – Take a picture with your phone or scan a barcode and Goggles will analyze your picture or barcode and do a search.

QIK – Stream video live to the internet, public or private video. Share video link to friends via sms message or email.

Nav Launcher – Google navigation interface application.Makes using google maps navigation much easier.

WPtoGo – Wordpress blogging from your phone, and the app I am using right now to write this.

Please leave comments with your favorite apps

I posted about my new google android phone on my other blog at alanogden.com. After playing with it now for a few days I love it, I took a few screen shots so you can what it looks like.

I have some favorite apps that I will post about in my next post. But WPTOGO is definetely high on my list letting me post this blog entry from my google android phone.

Buddypress 1.1 for Wordpress Multi-Users (WPMU) was released September 30th turning any installation of WPMU into a complete social network.

BuddyPress is a suite of WordPress plugins and themes, each adding a distinct new feature. BuddyPress contains all the features you’d expect from WordPress but aims to let members socially interact.

With the buddypress plugin your WPMU adds the ability for your members to interact in a way they were not able to before. Adding groups, forums, friends, messaging, a wire (an instant commenting system), Status display and of course blogging.

Groups can be made for any topic with the option of being public, private or hidden. Each group then can have its own forum and wire assigned to it. Members can then join individual groups or be invited to groups. All site activity related to you can be seen in your members profile page.
The members profile page is setup so it is your home base for most of your social interaction with everything you have joined linked from there.

I was very impressed by the possibilities of buddypress I decided to give it a trial. You can take a look at buddypress in action at Go Gamerz Net and if you are a gamer join the Go Gamerz Net community.

Last week I received my invite from Google for Google Voice. If you havent heard of Google Voice it is a new service from Google allowing you that was created when Google bought out GrandCentral. Dont worry if you don’t want your girlfriends calls going to your home number you can assign which phones your contacts will ring. Example your friends ring your cell and home number, your work associates ring your cell and work number, your girlfriend only to your cell and those annoying sales and junk calls to go straight to voice mail wiht out ringing any phone.

Google will even send you FREE business cards to hand out with your new Google Voice number.

When I accepted my invitation the thing that struck me right off was the phone number you are assigned is not automatically assigned to you. You have a choice in assigning the number. Google Voice asks you to enter the area code you would like your phone number assigned to and a word or phrase. Google will then search all available numbers in your area code and matching your phrase and let you choose one of those numbers. If nothing matches your cosen word or phrase it will allow you to enter another word or phrase until you get a number that you like. Lets say you wanted a phone number that matched your business name of “GOOGLE”, you enter the phrase Google into the box and it comes back with

• xxx-946-6452 (xxx-9google)
• xxx-466-4526 (xxx-google6)
• xxx-246-6452 (xxx-2google)

You select the number you want and your set up with your new phone number for all your phones

After your done selecting your number you will enter the Google Voice interface. The interface is simple and easy to use like most google apps. First thing you will do is assign phones to your Google Voice number. You add ALL you numbers and assign them to groups. Each group you can assign which phones they will ring as I mentioned above. You can also assign a different greeting to each group and add new groups if one of the existing groups doesnt fit your needs. Now when someone calls your new google voice number they are directed to the correct phone even if it is a text message.

From the Google Voice app you will be able to view all your incoming and out going calls and texts and review your voicemails. Speaking of voicemails Google Voice has a few interesting tricks when it comes to voice mails. First of all when you receive a call and pick up your phone you are offered the choice of answering the call, sending it directly to voicemail or send to voicemail and listen in while they leave their message and if you decide you want to pick up in the middle of the voicemail you can hit a number and start talking. Allowing you to screen calls even on your cell phone. You are able to listen to and view all your voicemails directly from the google voice website app. My favorite thing about the google voice voicemail system is it will transcribe the voicemail and send you a text message with the full text of the voice mail that was left for you. I dont have to log into google voice to hear my voicemails since they are all sent by sms to my cell phone for me to read.

You are also able to make phone calls or send SMS message directly from the Google Voice app website. Chose a contact and click call and google voice will ring your phone then connect you to your contacts phone. Great if your contact lives on the other side of country, no long distance charges.

Google Voice also has a few widgets that let you various things like embed a voice mail to a web page. Below is my welcome message from Google Voice.

You can also add a “Call Me” button to a website and assign what phones the button will call, or send it directly to voice mail. The button below will allow you to leave me a message on my voice mail if you would like to try out the google voice feature, click on the “Call Me” button below and you can see how it works.

One simple plugin that comes with your wordpress installation can save you from comment spam hell. The plugin is called Akismet and is one of two plugins that are included with your Wordpress standard isntallation. It only takes a couple of simple steps to stop that comment and trackback spam in its tracks.

From your WordPress Admin panel navigate to your plugins and activate Akismet. After activation Akismet will ask you for your API key. You can get an API key for free from WordPress.com. If you don’t already have a free account at Wordpress.com. You can sign up for a FREE Wordpress.com account. After you have a wordpress.com account click on your profile on wordpress.com and copy your API key at the top of your profile page to the Akismet settings. Save and you will be 99% free of comment and trackback spam.

Now you can carry your favorite computer programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more with you.

If you regularly work both from your desktop PC and laptop like I do, you know what a chore it is keeping your files synced between your systems. Plus you need to have a copy of each of your applications installed on both systems. This is where PortableApps.com Suite and PortableApps.com Platform comes in handy. Allowing you to take your programs, email, bookmarks and settings with you and use them on any windows computer.

PortableApps runs from your usb drive, ipod, or portable hard drive. Allowing you to take your apps with you and always have them when you need them. Best of all PortableApps is FREE, has no spyware or advertisements. PortableApps is also open source.

After trying out PortableApps I am sure I wont go anywhere with out my usb drive and PortableApps again. My usb drive isn’t just for saving my data anymore, now it has all my applications loaded also.

PortableApps Suite comes with the following apps, which includes the portable version of my favorite Microsoft Office replacement, OpenOffice.org

• * Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition (web browser)
• * Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition (email)
• * Mozilla Sunbird, Portable Edition (calendar/tasks)
• * ClamWin Portable (antivirus)
• * Pidgin Portable (instant messaging)
• * Sumatra PDF Portable (PDF reader)
• * KeePass Password Safe Portable (password manager)
• * Sudoku Portable (game)
• * Mines-Perfect Portable (game)
• * CoolPlayer+ Portable (audio player)
• * OpenOffice.org Portable* (office suite)

• * The Light Suite includes AbiWord Portable (word processor) instead of OpenOffice.org Portable.

Besides the pre-installed applications PortableApps has many other apps and utilities that can be downloaded and installed into the PortableApps platform in the following categories.

* Accessibility
* Development
* Education
* Games
* Graphics & Pictures
* Internet
* Music & Video
* Office
* Operating Systems
* Utilities

See a full list of applications at www.portableapps.com/apps

Low Cost Reliable Webhosting by Intrepid Hosts

Web hosting starting at $3.99 a month

IntrepidHosts.com all our hosting plans include cPanel / Fantastico

“Webmaster’s Guide to cPanel”

There is much more to developing a Web presence than choosing a domain name, applying a template, writing some content, and adding navigation menus. There are a multitude of tasks related to developing, managing, and maintaining Web sites that are required. Often these technologies must be gleaned haphazardly from vast resources or learned by trial and error. On the other hand, most Web services hosting providers – those fine folks who make our sites available to the world – include control panels that allow us to easily manage and maintain our sites. The most popular control panel – cPanel® – includes an extensive array of features that when fully understood can save many hours of frustration.

John Pfost has released his new book “Webmaster’s Guide to cPanel”. This is a must read for any aspiring webmaster. Cpanel being the most used control panel available. If you host a website or are a web site developer this book will be invaluable to you.

cPanel User Guide and Tutorial: Get the most from cPanel with this easy to follow guide