Microsoft Excel

MS Excel is a fascinating tool that most people use in their daily day-to-day activities from accounting to data management. Its simple to use and can do just anything provided you have the instinct for it. Did I say anything? Well yes anything. Look at this village.

Personally speaking I am no big fan of MS tools but I do use them to ease my day and it helps. I am no guru either and there are hundreds of resources out there that the true fans of Billy boy might have in store for you. I enjoy sharing and thats what I am going to do here. Share the excel tip files that a few generous and kind people have created to help people like us. Thanks to their efforts.

EXCEL SHORTCUTS

EXCEL TIPS

Note: If you have a smaller budget and cannot use MS products then you should not bother and use Open Office. Its neat and compatible with some MS file extensions as well. I have tried it and you should too, infact teach your children to use the community, and help it grow as well.

Selfless Care is Seldom Acknowledged

CrossLoop - Simple Secure Screen Sharing

What is Crossloop?

CrossLoop is a FREE secure screen sharing utility designed for people of all technical skill levels. CrossLoop extends the boundaries of VNC’s traditional screen sharing by enabling non-technical users to get connected from anywhere on the Internet in seconds without changing any firewall or router settings. It only takes a few minutes to setup and no signup is required.

CrossLoop's underlying technology was created to simplify the process of securely working with others located in different physical locations across diverse network environments. CrossLoop enables you to see the screen and control the mouse and keyboard on a remote computer. It is as if you are working side by side at the same PC. CrossLoop is a powerful productivity tool that enables you to quickly collaborate in with anyone in the world.

CrossLoop is powered by the proprietary CrossLoop VIP Tunnel, a secure peer-to-peer data transmission system. CrossLoop encrypts all files and messages exchanged on our network to ensure user privacy. Only you and your invited friends or family can view or share control of your computer. A CrossLoop session can only begin on your computer by explicitly inviting them to begin a session. All data sent over the CrossLoop network is encrypted at the endpoints using a 128-bit Blowfish encryption. For more detailed information on CrossLoop security, visit our security page.

We have gone to great lengths to ensure that CrossLoop is secure and have designed the application from the ground up with security in mind. If you have any questions regarding CrossLoop security please contact us at info@CrossLoop.com.

The Windows version of CrossLoop uses the TightVNC software plug-in for screen sharing. We have included a binary distribution of the TightVNC program in the installation software of the Windows version of CrossLoop to save you the trouble of separately downloading and installing TightVNC. If you have any questions about your rights related to TightVNC (which is licensed under GPL), please see our detailed description of how we use VNC.

Starting a Session

After installing CrossLoop, you will see a welcome screen with two tabs. Select the Join tab if you would like to connect and control a friend's PC. Select the Host tab if you would like to temporarily share access to your PC.

If you have not already done so, download CrossLoop.

Run Google Talk in Firefox Sidebar

Firefox is the coolest browser I have known. The best think I link about it is that it has a wonderful tab browsing system along with security that can be said to match no other. Its faster then other browsers and its add-ons are just superb.

Greasemonkey is something you will love while browsing the worldwide web. It can practically change the looks and feel of the sites you browse to what you like to see. I mean customization of sites. What a great thing, userscripts.org has tons of scripts that can help you browse the web the way you like it. You can practically change the looks of your favorite Gmail Inbox and have it display the attachment that a message carries without opening it. You can write your own scripts, too. Mark Pilgrim's definitive Greasemonkey guide, diveintogreasemonkey.org will show you how.

One of my favorites is the GTalk add-on in Firefox. You can run the neat messenger in the sidebar of Firefox, without having to install it. Give it a try, download the gTalk Sidebar

Access any site while sitting behind firewalls, office systems etc

Many people have problems accessing sites like orkut, myspace, rapidshare, etc. cause they are blocked by their offices, schools or firewalls.

There are many methods described here but the best would be using proxies

to get daily proxies follow these steps

1. Go to http://www.google.com/reader/
2. Login in with your google account
3. Click on manage subscriptions
4. Click on Import/export
5. Download this file
6. Unzip, note the location
7. Browse to the location from google reader's import/export
8. Upload the OPML file
9. Get daily updates of proxy lists via rss
10. There is no 10th step

Then chose a proxy and apply it in the following way

in firefox >>
Tools > Options > Advanced > Connection Settings > Manual Proxy configuration
Here enter the proxy ip and port
Presto visit almost all sites anonymously

For the people whose port 6969 is blocked (like mine) use SOCKS4/SOCKS5 Proxies

The soul would have no rainbow, had the eyes no tears......

Grief is a natural and normal reaction to a loss of any kind. It s a journey of experiences and feelings in response to that loss, and an adjustment because of that loss . Grief is not a option but a necessity. It is a necessity not only because of the loss but because of the love that is the basis of the relationship /experiences before that loss.

You feel grief all over. It is physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological and social. It is a very personal journey or experience (there are roadmaps but no guidelines or specifics) and it demands a lot of hard work! The deeper the feelings toward the person or object lost the deeper the need to grieve. Grief hurts because of the love behind it.

Grief is a process or journey that is not completed. You do not "get over" grief. You do recover enough for some movement in life. It is an experience based on many things (your lifestyle, history, past experiences, faith, and family network), involves many feelings (like anger, love, bitterness, despair, doubt and guilt) and often can include depression, physical and behavioral changes and changes in interests and lifestyles.

Grief is a process or series of actions, reactions and the making of new pathways to travel. It affects our attitudes and feelings about ourselves, our situation, those around us and the one who is lost. The process of grieving is not a straight line but s series of steps forward, sideways, upside down and backward until something called recovery is reached . There is not timetable.

Be gentle with those who are in grief and with yourselves if you are a caregiver.

May Allah grant Maula TUS a long, healthy life ta qayamat. Ameen

Amte Syedna TUS
Alifyah Saifuddin

Posted on:
Dawoodi Bohra Net
http://www.mumineen.org

Convert Audio Cassette Tapes to MP3 files or CD

Audio cassette tapes, once the primary audio storage medium, are now disappearing quickly from the music store shelves to be replaced with Audio CDs. If you still own a pile of audio cassettes, now is the perfect time to convert them to MP3 files or Windows Media Audio before they're gone forever.

Digitizing analog tapes essentially involves playing the tape on the taperecorder deck, capturing the audio on your computer and finally converting the .wav files to mp3 or wma formats using software like LAMP MP3 encoder or Adobe Audition. The audio cable is connected to the line-in jack on your PC's sound card.

Now there are various options to transfer your audio tapes to CD depending on your OS platform and budget. Let's look at expert opinion on the web:

Using MusicMatch - Connect the to your sound card's line-in terminal with a 1/8" mini-jack and record the contents of your tape as a WAV file. Just set MusicMatch to record the line-in channel, press play on your tape deck, and then press the record button on the MusicMatch Jukebox.

Tips for better recordings - If your tape of a favorite live concert begins with a few minutes of audience murmuring, delete it. If you’ve recorded multiple songs, split your single recording into separate files. That way, you can make each song or section a separate track on an audio CD or on your iPod. Some software can detect silence between songs and divide them for you.

Using Audacity on Mac - Audio I/O: Recording should be set for 2 channels (stereo) and both the playback and recording devices set at Built in audio controller. Audio CDs sample sound 44,100 times per second. The standard sample format (number of digits in the digital representation of each sample) is 16-bit. Audacity’s defaults are a 44 KHz sample rate, but 32-bit sample format.

Using External Audio Capture Device - Consider using an external audio-capture device such as the plug-and-play USB M-Audio Transit instead of your sound card; it will record a much cleaner signal.

Remember to set your audio software’s volume controls according to the loudness of your tape or record. Proper volume is vital to getting good sound. Set the levels too low, and your audio will be too soft and prone to noise. Set levels too high, and loud portions of the recording will sound horribly distorted.