Saturday, August 7, 2010

And now for something completely different - buying books online

Recommended by one of my colleagues: The Online UK bookstore bookdepository at

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/

seems to have a great range of books at reasonable prices (no I don't have shares) and no postage fees!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Proxy Switching On/Off

One of the more annoying things when you carry a laptop between home and work is that you constantly have to turn the Browser Proxy on (for work) and off (for home).

If you don't know what a proxy is, Wikipedia starts out "In computer networks, a proxy server is a server (a computer system or an application program) that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers."  Proxy Server (2010) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server

In IE this involves...Tools > Internet Options> Connections>LAN Settings> then check the "Proxy Server: Use a proxy server ...". Then [Ok], [Ok], and then you can refresh your page. (Of course you can always do this by right clicking the Browser icon on the desktop and selecting Properties>Connections, etc...

Chrome uses the same Proxy dialog so requires Tools>Options>Under the Bonnet>Change Proxy Settings>Connections>LAN Settings> then check the "Proxy Server: Use a proxy server ...", then [Ok], [Ok]"

Firefox Tools>Options>Network Settings >Choose proxy type>, then [Ok], [Ok]

Its a shame browsers don't have a one click Proxy on/off.... BUT wait... others have realised this and fortunately there are one click proxy extensions.

Some one click proxy switchers  for Windows.

IE -  Proxy Pal http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Servers/Proxy-Servers/ProxyPal.shtml - very simple and seems to work brilliantly

Chrome - Switch HTTP Proxy  (https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/fajkpbphiejhldakjboejnabfchhccnn). There is another one to manage multiple proxys Proxy Switchy! ( https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/caehdcpeofiiigpdhbabniblemipncjj ) which I trouble with but others recommend it).

Firefox - QuickProxy ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1557/ ) watchout for this one that you get the correct one, I used the extension serch and came up with another one that didn't work :(

So thats about it.. enjoy.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Best/worst web sites page in wiki

Just added a best/worst web site page to my wiki. Feel free to add/comment (you will need to login first)

http://www.virtualmv.com/wiki/index.php?title=Multimedia:Design:Examples