Tips and Fun Stuff

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Printing a Test Page

Go to Start, Control Panel, Printers and Other Hardware and choose Printers and Faxes. Once you're there, you'll see all of the printers you have installed on your computer. More than likely, you'll only have one or two, but click on the one you want to test so that it's highlighted. Then right click and choose Properties.

The Properties box for your printer will then pop up. Under the General tab, look toward the bottom of the box and you'll see a Print Test Page button, like this: Click on that and your printer will automatically print a page out for you. Don't forget to turn your printer on before you start or obviously, nothing will happen. That was pretty easy, wasn't it? Now, you can test your printer whenever you feel the need. Note: Keep in mind that all printers are different, but every printer should have this feature offered within its program. If you have trouble finding it, refer to your printer's manual.

OWL, the Online Writing Lab, gives you a way to look up the whys and wherefores of grammar.

The Phrase Finder is a handy thesaurus for phrases.

Need a fact checker? Refdesk.com has all the facts--or links to them--you'll ever need.

Visiting LibrarySpot is like walking in to the local library and walking into the reference room.

Let's say you've got 15 barrels of oil and need to know how many gallons that is. Digital Dutch Unit Converter can tell you it's 630. The site covers just about everything anyone could need to convert... you've just got to see for yourself.

One thing that Digital Dutch doesn't handle, though, is money. You'll need to go to XE for your currency conversions.

Handy Sites for Shipping Rates

RedRoller compares shipping rates of the Post Office, DHL, Overnite Express, and Eastern Connection.

Iship handles DHL, UPS, and the Post Office. That's better, but like RedRoller, it's missing FedEx.

Shipping Sidekick handles the four services I use the most: The Postal Service, UPS, FedEx and DHL.

ShipGooder is the fastest and easiest of the services I've tried, and handles the U.S. Post Office, FedEx, UPS, and DHL.

Time Wasters

Have you ever dreamed of being a stunt pilot? Here's your chance. Use the arrow keys to guide the airplane through hoops and perform other tricks.

Remember that "Drainage Fail" YouTube video I mentioned a couple weeks back? It's from a site called FailBlog that's packed with terrific still images too, like the recent Sign Fail. Go to the site and check 'em out.

I just love physics games--you've figured that out by now, I guess--and this one's a real winner. Pull out your Magic Pen and draw things that make your little circle hit the flag and score points. (Be sure to clear your schedule first.)

When you were a kid, did you ever play with a See 'n Say? You know, you move a pointer to a funny animal on a dial--say, a purple cow--pull a string, and voila! the cow moos. These pre-PC gadgets are still around... and they have no batteries, no computer chips, no nada. How do they do it? See for yourself.

What do all those error codes (like 404) mean?

400 - Bad Request - You probably typed in a URL wrong, the server has no clue what you're looking for, or you aren't allowed to have access. Usually, it's a matter of the URL being typing in wrong. Maybe you mixed upper and lowercase letters or something.

401 - Unauthorized Request - you tried to get to something on the web server you're not allowed to play with. In other words, you ain't on the party list.

403 - Forbidden - You can't access the page. You may not have access (it may require a password), or it may be blocked from your domain.

404 - Not Found - The page you were trying to look at was not found on the server. This is probably the most common error you'll come across. What has probably happened is that the web page you were going to has been removed or re-named.

500 - Internal error - Usually caused by a CGI error. You fill out a form, but the script used to process it is not working properly.

503 - Service Unavailable - The server may be overloaded, down, or have other similar problems. Try later.

key alarms for Windows XP & Vista

To turn the key alarms on in Vista, go to Start, Control Panel and click on the Ease of Access link. This is the same as the Accessibility Options in XP. From there, click on the link that says "Change how your keyboard works." Once you're in that window, go down to the middle of the page and checkmark the box that says "Turn on Toggle Keys." This will then activate a beeping sound every time you hit the Caps Lock, Num Lock or Scroll Lock keys on your keyboard.

Go ahead and give your keyboard a try. Hit the Caps Lock key and you'll hear a beeping noise. You can then do the same for the Num Lock and Scroll Lock keys. These are keys that we all accidentally hit every once in awhile, but with this alarm, you won't have to worry about messing up what you're working on (typing in all caps, for example). This gives you a simple warning and you can then go and undo the key you hit.

To turn the key alarms on in Vista, go to Start, Control Panel and click on the Ease of Access link. This is the same as the Accessibility Options in XP. From there, click on the link that says "Change how your keyboard works." Once you're in that window, go down to the middle of the page and checkmark the box that says "Turn on Toggle Keys." This will then activate a beeping sound every time you hit the Caps Lock, Num Lock or Scroll Lock keys on your keyboard.

Go ahead and give your keyboard a try. Hit the Caps Lock key and you'll hear a beeping noise. You can then do the same for the Num Lock and Scroll Lock keys. These are keys that we all accidentally hit every once in awhile, but with this alarm, you won't have to worry about messing up what you're working on (typing in all caps, for example). This gives you a simple warning and you can then go and undo the key you hit.