As you probably know, your hard drive is the device which is most likely to fail. While a hard drive can fail at any time without warning, the S.M.A.R.T. sensors build into modern hard drives are a good indicator of your overall drive health. A very simple tool which allows you to view this data is Nirsoft’s DiskSmartView.

DiskSmartView is a small utility that retrieves the S.M.A.R.T information (S.M.A.R.T = Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) from IDE/SATA disks. This information includes the disk model/firmware/serial number, cylinders/heads, power-on hours (POH), internal temperature, disk errors rate, and more. You can use the S.M.A.R.T information retrieved by DiskSmartView to find out whether there is any significant problem in your disk drive.

When you launch the program, you are presented with a large list of raw number which are indicators of your drive’s health. For a breakdown of what these magical numbers mean, you can check out Wikipedia’s information on S.M.A.R.T. Additionally, there is a column called “Status” which will give you a quick indication of if the value is a warning sign.

DiskSmartView does not require any installation, so this is nice tool to include on your utility flash drive.

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Easily View The S.M.A.R.T. Information Of Your Hard Drives

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We’ve been told ever since we started using web browsers that it’s a good idea to clear out your cache and cookies periodically. This used to be a pain in the neck to get done, but with modern flavors of web browsers you can clear this information out easily. In IE8 and Firefox you can use the keystroke CTRL+SHIFT+DEL, then in IE8 choose to clear Temporary Internet Files and Cookies, and in Firefox choose Cache and Cookies.

But then there’s the SuperCookie. They are generated by that browser plugin we all love to hate, Adobe Flash.

The browser on its own cannot delete SuperCookies due to Flash not being a native component of the browser. No matter which browser you use on your PC, Flash will always store its own cookies.

And just where are SuperCookies stored? They’re buried deep.

On a Windows PC, launch an explorer window or Internet Explorer session. In the address bar, type %appdata%. When that window pops up, double-click Macromedia, then Flash Player, then macromedia.com, then support, then flashplayer, then sys and FINALLY.. we get to where the SuperCookies are stored.

Like I said, it’s buried deep. I wasn’t kidding.

You’ll notice a bunch of folders here, each with a setings.sol file in them. That’s the SuperCookie.

Where are SuperCookies stored on a Mac or Linux/UNIX?

I have no idea, but my best guess is that they’re in your user folder somewhere. If any of you Mac or Linux/UNIX users can find the location, please feel free to post a comment explaining where they are, because they are there if you use Flash.

How do you delete SuperCookies?

Adjusting Flash storage settings

This is, strangely, done via the Adobe web site.  Click on each one of these links to adjust the settings:

• Global Privacy Settings
• Global Storage Settings
• Global Security Settings
• Website Privacy Settings
• Website Storage Settings

Manual way

Close all your web browsers, then delete everything in the sys folder. Don’t delete the sys folder itself because that can cause problems. Just delete the content inside sys.

Automatic way

If using Firefox, you’re in luck because you can use the BetterPrivacy add-on. What this will do is delete all SuperCookies every time the browser is closed.

Do you have to delete SuperCookies?

Not usually. However if you use web sites that contain a good amount of Flash content and something “goes weird” periodically, chances are clearing out the SuperCookies will usually fix the problem.

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How To Deal With SuperCookies

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For those of you that have ever used JkDefrag, MyDefrag is what it has evolved to, and it’s still as great as ever.

When it comes to running a file defragmentation on your Windows PC, the only thing you truly care about is getting it done as fast as possible with no fuss. MyDefrag does just that.

What are the improvements over JkDefrag?

Here are five good ones:

1. It has an installer now

The entirety of JkDefrag used to be nothing more than a single executable file. It worked, but for some it was cumbersome to work with. The installer now puts things in their proper places. You get a Start menu entry, icon on the desktop and so on.

2. Easy-use defrag screen saver

This was one of the best parts of the original JkDefrag, however it had to be installed 100% manually. This is now part of the auto-installer. And yes, you can opt not to install or use if you wish.

3. Flash/SSD defrag option

Do file fragments happen on USB sticks and SSDs? You bet they do. MyDefrag is "smart" enough to have an option just for storage mediums of that type.

4. A help file

Yes, I know.. sounds simplistic, but hey, documentation is good and MyDefrag has it.

5. Scriptable

For those of you that like absolute control over what your programs do, you’ll be happy to know that MyDefrag can be scripted. The help documentation tells you exactly how to do it. And yes you can run MyDefrag completely from the command line if you like.

I personally give MyDefag the thumbs up as the best and most useful defragmentation program there is. For a freebie it’s tough to beat.

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MyDefrag – Have You Tried It?

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Whenever your anti-virus program fails or you are having to clean someone else’s computer, a way to clean your system is by using malware scanners. If you ever have the need for these types of tools, one you should take a look at it is a-squared Free.

Like most tools in it’s class, a-squared Free scans for the typical set of malware and cleans it appropriately. For the most part, scanners are better at detecting certain types of malware than others which means you can never have too many (within reason of course). One nice feature about a-squared is it designed to run along side other anti-virus programs without causing problems.

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Another Tool For Your Malware Removal Arsenal

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I use Google Reader as my RSS reader and am subscribed to enough feeds that I get approximately 100 new items daily. Obviously, this is way more than I can read so I need to make sure I am only subscribed to feeds that I actually read, otherwise the shear number of items becomes overwhelming. Google Reader has a tool available called “Trends” which gives you stats on exactly what you are and are not reading.

In the upper left corner, you will see a Trends link. It shows you a breakdown of the total number of feeds with the percentage of items read. There are also various charts which illustrate these stats. When you take a look at the numbers, you can really see what you are actually reading and potentially get rid of the items you are not.

At the rate some sites pump out posts, it is good to keep your RSS reader slimmed down to what you actually read.

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Tool In Google Reader Helps You Determine What You Are Actually Reading

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NNTR means No Need To Reply. Where this originated from I haven’t a clue, but it’s something that has been dormant for years that I believe needs to be used again.

Were I to hazard a guess, I believe NNTR came about due to one of two reasons. Either the fact email used to actually cost something, be it time and/or money, or to discourage useless replies. Or maybe both.

NNTR sounds rude but in fact it isn’t. An example would be, “I will attend the meeting @ 3pm. NNTR”

When you say something like that, it doesn’t warrant a reply. In fact, if you sent the above message to your boss, he or she would appreciate the fact that no reply is necessary.

Given the fact that we’re so much more mobile these days, NNTR once again has its place. If you text at all on a cell phone, you’ve probably run into your fair share of useless reply messages. These serve to do nothing but get in your way when you’re busy. If you introduce the people you communicate with frequently to NNTR, it can save a lot of time.

If you want to introduce someone to NNTR in email, the best way to do it is like this: “I will attend the meeting @ 3pm, NNTR (no need to reply)”

Explaining what NNTR means a few times should get the message across adequately, at which point you can drop the explanation.

If using NNTR using mobile means, you’ll probably have to tell the person that when you use NNTR that no reply is necessary due to character limitations.

Final note: NNTR isn’t used in article or blog comments, because that medium is supposed to foster replies and discussion.

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It’s Time To Bring Back NNTR

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If you seldom use graphics editors on your computer and only need them on occasion, using an online image editor may be for you. A tool which can fit this use quite nicely is Sumo Paint.

Sumo Paint can be run entirely within your browser and supports the ability to both save files to and open file from your desktop. Most all the tools you would need to create and edit graphics are included, such as:

• Various brushes/stencils
• Effects/blurs
• Sizing/rotation/cropping
• Layer support

Overall, Sumo Paint has a very Photoshop feel to it in both the GUI and menu layout. This is definitely worth a look if you ever have the need for a tool like this.

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Feature Loaded Online Image Editor

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This is a guest post by Elisabeta Ghidiu.

VPNs are a common subject these days and they are being used both by home users and companies. From a company point of view, when we think of a Virtual Private Network we think of an intelligent tunnel that encrypts data at the IP level and send the information from one network to another over a public TCP/IP network.

Like any other service, VPN technology has been developed based on customers’ needs. Companies crave for network security and remote access and that’s why VPNs were implemented. But more then network security other advantages of VPN usage are cost saving and scalability.

• Remote access. Remote access is an important reason why companies are using VPNs. This is a great advantage for everyone who needs to access data or to share files remotely while they are traveling or while they are out of the office.
• Enhanced security. Referring to remote access, people might ask if this is not dangerous or sensitive for the network. If users can access the network remotely than the network might become an interest point for hackers and malware. Well, that’s not really true because VPN provides advanced data encryption. All the information sent from and to another source is secured and encrypted. Only the sender and the receiver know how to decrypt and read the information.
• Cost saving. If a large corporation, with offices all over the world, implements a VPN service, this could save their cost from 30% to 80%. Once the VPN is created, the maintenance costs are also very low and the service providers will take care of the network setups and functionality.
• Network scalability. Common networks require leased lines in order to connect to different location. This happens when the company has more offices. If there are new offices added there will be a request for increased leased lines, in order to create a dedicated line between these locations. But a VPN service accepts simultaneous sessions and more users can be added without making important changes to the system at no cost.

What is important to remember is that when a company implements VPN service, there must be done a detailed analysis and see which type of VPN better suits the company and which is the best provider that can offer you the service.

Elisabeta Ghidiu is an Internet marketer and advocate blogger, writing about productivity and technology on Cyclope-Series – Let’s talk about productivity – a manager-oriented blog.

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How Can VPNs Secure Companies?

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Whenever you get a call from a number you don’t recognize, you can do a reverse lookup to find out a little more about who the caller is. So from that line of thinking, TinEye allows you to do a reverse lookup on an image file.

TinEye is a reverse image search engine. You can submit an image to TinEye to find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions. TinEye is the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks.

After playing around with this a bit, I found the results to be pretty good. For example, I went to Google Images and searched “computer” and pulled off the first graphic I found and then searched this image file on TinEye and it came up with lots of results with all the places it is being used.

I can see this being a great resource for web developers who want to make sure they are using (somewhat) unique graphic files. TinEye is still in beta, but this can be a very valuable tool.

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Wondering Who Else Is Using An Image?

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If you want to use multiple monitors, you either have to have a graphics card which supports it or a laptop capable of handling this. Typically this allows you to have two monitors plugged in at one time, but what if you want more? A device which makes this possible is is a USB to VGA/DVI adapter (NewEgg link).

I recently gave this one a shot with my laptop and it works really well (with an additional monitor plugged into the VGA output). One thing to note is USB 2.0 bandwidth is not as fast as VGA or DVI so monitors plugged into this device may not be as smooth as when they are plugged into a native VGA or DVI port. Just about all my usage is for business (Internet/email/Word/Excel/browsing/etc.) and I did not really notice a difference.

As long as you don’t intend on gaming or watching high quality movies on a monitor running through one of these devices it should do the trick. If you were to use it as a way to add a third (or more) monitor, it can do the trick nicely.

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USB Device To Easily Add Multiple Monitor Support

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