Text to Phone

Want to send a short email to a friend and get it delivered to his/her cell phone as SMS? If you know your friends’ phone numbers and the carrier they are on then you can easily send emails to their cell phones directly from your email program.

Here is how it works:

Most of mobile carriers offer free Email To SMS gateways which can be used to forward simple text emails to a mobile phones. And the good news, majority of those gateways are free and available to the general public.

You just need to know the number and the carrier of the recipient to start emailing them to mobile phone. Below we put together a table listing free email to SMS gateways for different carriers. You can use as quick reference both for US and international mobile numbers.

Virtually all of the major US cellular carriers use the 10_digit_number@cell.carrier_domain.com format for SMS to text capable cell phones, with a limit of 160 characters in the subject and message body (total).

Example: T-Mobile: 2125551212@tmomail.net

Carrier

Send Email to phonenumber@….

[where phonenumber = your 10 digit phone number]

Alltel

@message.alltel.com

AT&T

@txt.att.net

Nextel

@messaging.nextel.com

Sprint

@messaging.sprintpcs.com

SunCom

@tms.suncom.com

T-mobile

@tmomail.net

VoiceStream

@voicestream.net

Verizon

@vtext.com (text only)
@vzwpix.com (pictures and videos)

Dead simple and when people reply to the text it goes right to your email instantly!

I love simple tech tips and hope this helps some of you too.

A little Firefox fix

Something strange has been happening for me lately

I have been having some issues with my Gmail in Firefox, and in Firefox only, after the last security update. And as most of you know I am a HUGE fan of Gmail with Firefox.

What was happening is that my Gmail response was slow, Chat would disappear, and ‘respond’ and sometimes even ‘compose’ wouldn’t work making my productivity slow and frustration speed up.

This was only in Gmail not in iGoogle. And only in Firefox, all worked in IE and Opera.

So after doing loads of searching I found the fix:

It appears to have something to do with the additional security settings from the last Firefox update. And also may be related to the ‘Better Privacy’ add-on I use too.

To resolve the problem you can do the following

Open up a Firefox browser window and type in:

about:config

In the address bar.

Then click that you’ll be careful.

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Then type in:

dom.storage.enabled

into the Filter search window

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Double-click on the value to toggle from ‘false’ to true. [You can also right-click and choose ‘Toggle’]

Once the value is set to ‘true’ close any Firefox browser windows.

Restart Firefox and your problems should be gone!

Yay! Just thought I’d pass this gem along.

Using Opera Unite to share files and media

Here is another really cool and fairly secure way to share files and or content with people you choose. Or even just access your own files whilst away. It is called Opera Unite. It is actually built into the Opera Web Browser!

I am still a huge fan of LiveSync/Skydrive as I have previously written about here and here. And I use them as my primary means of ‘cloud storage’.

But to just share some files with co-workers, family or friends Opera Unite looks really cool. And some might find it simpler.

With Opera Unite, your friends view the content that is sitting on your computer. You can stream music or video or share actual files. Since this is a ‘live’ connection to your system you will be using internet bandwidth; this may be a consideration if your ISP has very low limits. Also since it is a live connection to your system you should consider all the security implications.

To run Opera Unite applications (File Sharing, Photo Sharing, Media Player etc.), you need an Opera browser version 10.10 or later from http://www.opera.com and an Opera account.

To view or access most of your applications, your friends can use any browser.

Operating systems: You can use those supported by the Opera browser; Windows, Mac, or UNIX/Linux.

To get started with Opera Unite, you just need to install an Opera browser version 10.10 or later, start an application, and then you can begin sharing and collaborating.

Opera Unite applications make it quick and easy to share content. There is no need to upload anything; you share the content sitting on your computer. And, you do not need to configure anything else, such as DNS services or complex access controls. For example, you can install the Media Player application on your home computer for your favorite songs. When you get to work, you can visit your Media Player application and listen to the songs directly from your home computer. No download, no fuss.

How Opera Unite is different to traditional data sharing

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With more traditional content sharing, you have to upload the content you want to share, and this is then stored on a central, third-party server, out of your control. Your friends access this stored content from the third-party server.

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Enable Opera Unite

To enable Opera Unite for the first time:

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From the menu, select "Enable Opera Unite". A welcome dialog displays.

Select "Next".

To use Opera Unite, you need to have an Opera account. This is an account that you use for My Opera, Dev Opera (Opera’s developer-community resource site), or Opera Link. Your existing username cannot contain any symbols or spaces to work with Opera Unite.

If you already have an Opera account that does not contain symbols or spaces, select "I already have an account", if necessary, and type your existing username and password. Go to step 4.

If you do not have an account, or have one that contains symbols or spaces, select "I do not have an account", if necessary, and complete your details to create one.

Choose a unique and easy-to-remember username without any symbols or spaces. The username will become part of the link (Web address) for your Opera Unite applications, which your friends will use to access your content or communicate with you.

Select "Show" to read the terms and conditions, and check the box to indicate that you agree with them.

Choose a computer name from the drop-down menu. This name identifies the computer you are using, to distinguish it from other computers you may use. It also becomes part of the link for your Opera Unite applications. Choose an option that best describes how you use your computer, or write your own.

Select "Finish".

In the panel at the left, highlight an application that you want to use, and select the Start button at the top of the panel. The application start

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Scroll down

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The official guide is here: http://unite.opera.com/guide/

And after creating all this I found this super video!

Enjoy.

Google Voice Tips Tricks and Tutorials

I am a huge fan of Google voice. I use it for both my personal, and professional life. I am able to set up rules for contact groups that define many different scenarios. I like that I can give my Google voice number to my family and close friends and know that I can be reached no matter where I am – I can and do ring multiple phones. For business I can ring my office AND my cell ONLY during business hours and then after business hours only my office line is rung or people are sent right to voice mail. The list of really cool things that can be done is just limited to your imagination.

I am constantly asked for tips on how I do all this so I put together as many good and simple tips as I could find in this post. There are sure to be many many more if you just search for ‘Google Voice Tips’.

BIG TIP: To edit or create forwarding schedules you need to us “Legacy Google Voice” which is the old format.
Under that format, you can forward calls on a schedule (calls, edit, advanced settings).

To get a Google voice number you will of course need a Gmail/Google account.
You can get that here

Then sign up for Google voice here

Find and choose a number locally (or actually in any area code you prefer). I recommend doing a search for something that has a mnemonic – like ‘coffee1’ (263-3331) or some other easy to remember number.

And before you ‘set up’ your Google voice  number check out these articles and walk through’s.

Great Google Voice information:

http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFVXAqFNgic&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4Q9MJdT5Ds&feature=player_embedded

http://lifehacker.com/5311254/how-to-ease-your-transition-to-google-voice

http://mycraniumdrain.blogspot.com/2009/08/more-on-google-voice.html

And here are some other excellent video demonstrations and how to’s. They are short, quick and easy to follow:

Call Screening:
Listen In

Block Calls

SMS

Place calls anywhere

Taking/Receiving calls

Phone Routing

Forwarding Phones

Voicemail Transcripts

Listen to voicemail

Notifications

Personalize Greeting

Share voicemail

Conference Calling

Call Record

Call switch

Mobile Site

GOOG-411

Manage Groups

Speed Up Windows 7 with ReadyBoost and Removable Drives

When your PC and especially a netbook goes low on memory (RAM), it is bound to slow down. It does try to get that extra memory from the hard disk, but that hardly enhances the overall performance.
Most netbooks ship with 1Gb of Ram, and many older netbooks shipped with even less.  Even if you want to add more ram, often they can only be upgraded to a max of 2GB.  With ReadyBoost in Windows 7, it’s easy to boost your system’s performance with flash memory.  If your netbook has an SD card slot, you can insert a memory card into it and just leave it there to always boost your netbook’s memory; otherwise, you can use a standard USB flash drive the same way. Also, you can use ReadyBoost on any desktop or laptop with Windows Vista or Windows 7; ones with limited memory will see the most performance increase from using it.

ReadyBoost is a feature in Windows which helps it make use of the flash memory of an external USB flash drive when it needs it. It can speed up PC when RAM goes over limit, and also works with multiple devices in Windows 7.  You may even notice better battery life when multitasking with ReadyBoost, as it lets you use your hard drive less.

So how much should you use? Microsoft recommends, “a 1:1 ratio of Flash to system memory at the low end and as high as 2.5:1 flash to system memory.” So if you have 4GB of RAM, you should pair it with at least a 4GB USB drive, but a 16GB USB stick would be overkill.

Here’s a step by step process to use this feature.

Insert an SD card into your card reader, or connect a USB flash drive to a USB port on your computer.  Windows should automatically ( via AutoPlay) see if your flash memory is ReadyBoost capable, and if so, you can directly choose to speed up your computer with ReadyBoost.

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If you don’t see that as an option, you may still be in luck.
Open Windows Explorer or My Computer and try configuring ReadyBoost by right-clicking the device in Windows Explorer, clicking Properties, and then clicking the ReadyBoost tab. The only configuration option is to configure the space reserved for the cache.

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Click Ok, and Windows will setup ReadyBoost and start using it to speed up your computer.  It will automatically use ReadyBoost whenever the card is connected to the computer.

You should choose at least 256MB. But according to Microsoft, for Windows 7 your flash drive should have at least 1 GB free space. For best results you should use flash drive with double the amount of RAM space available in your computer.

You can also click on the option “Dedicate this device to Readyboost”. This option will use maximum available space on the external media for Readyboost process.

If you need to remove your drive to use elsewhere, simply eject as normal. Windows will inform you that the drive is currently being used.  Make sure you have closed any programs or files you had open from the drive, and then press Continue to stop ReadyBoost and eject your drive.

If you remove the drive without ejecting it, the ReadyBoost file may still remain on the drive.  You can delete this to save space on the drive, and the cache will be recreated when you use ReadyBoost next time.

Worried about someone pulling out your USB stick and walking away with the files you’ve been working on for months? Don’t be. Information on ReadyBoost drives or disks is safe from casual hackers. All files on removable drives are encrypted with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 128.  In any case, while ReadyBoost stores data and programs as files, and not as raw data, you can’t access these files as if the USB stick was a normal drive.

Here is a short video from MS

Something to consider;

Unfortunately, not all SD and CF cards, or even USB flash drives, work with ReadyBoost. While some storage media advertise that they’re “enhanced for Windows ReadyBoost,” they may not actually be ReadyBoost worthy.

Here is a good list from NewEgg. One of my favorite technology sources.

If you have a netbook or laptop this can do a lot for your performance. I hope this helps.

Windows Live Writer WordPress 500 Internal Server Error

This problem cropped up and recently and really got me pissed.

I absolutely LOVE Windows Live Writer. If you post often to sites or blogs this is probably the best tool I’ve found for easy posting, short of a full fledged website/content management application or system [Dreamweaver, SharePoint or the like]. I will post much more in the future on all you can do with this application or you can just ‘Google’ your time away and look for tips.

But.
Basically what happed when I used Windows Live Writer to upload my blog post to one of my websites that has a WordPress installation I then got the error message with the xmlrpc.php:

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So I set out to find the solution with the best support tool around – Google

I tried this:
http://affiliate-minder.com/wordpresstutorials/livewriter-500-server-error-xmlrpc/
and this:
http://www.codedifferent.com/2009/01/12/solution-for-500-internal-server-error-after-upgrading-to-wordpress-27-at-1and1-server/
and this:
http://www.mindtweaks.com/wordpress/?p=233
and this:
http://ardentdev.com/fix-for-wordpress-xmlrpc-500-internal-server-error/
and this:
http://wordpress.org/tags/500-internal-server-error/page/2
and this:
http://www.43things.com/things/view/425695/find-out-why-xmlrpcphp-isnt-working-on-my-wordpress-blog
and a whole bunch of others.

I messed with php files, ini’s, mysql tables, and on and on.

NONE WORKED!

Then I found a site that suggested something silly:

“disable/deactivate all your plug-ins, try uploading and see what happens.”

Well dang if that didn’t work!!

I then just re-activated my plug-ins and all was good.

Maybe some of you might use this info one day.

Increase the performance of your Windows 7 netbook (or other Win7 PC)

I had a post about this previously but the HowToGeek just put up a simpler one.
If you are someone who has a Windows 7 Netbook or other Windows 7 system with limited RAM this is a great way to add some real performance to your system.
Again Netbooks will see the most dramatic increase in performance and even some batter life increases!
Check out the HowToGeek article HERE.

McAfee fix for killed XP machines

I am not a fan of McAfee security and AV products and haven’t been for years. Their software has become a huge drain on system resources and worse, seems to get more false positives than actually stoping malicious software. I highly recommend Microsoft Security Essentials. But if you are one of those that have had this issue I hope this helps.

McAfee recently put out an update that literally killed many machines.

If you are one of those people here is a possible solution.

1. If your computer is forcing you to shutdown (you are getting an error with a countdown), go to Start – Run and type cmd. At the command prompt type ‘shutdown -a’ without the quotes. [This will abort the Windows shutdown.]

2. Open up the McAfee console (Start -> Programs -> McAfee)

3. Disable Access Protection and On-Access Scanner

4. Double click your Quarantine Manager in that window, and restore the files there (right click on it and select restore).

5. Go to your services console (right click on My Computer, select ‘Manage’, and click on the services in the left pane). Make sure both RPC (Remote Proceedure Call) services are running.

6. Start (or restart if already running) the McAfee Framework service.

7. Back in the McAfee console, select Tools -> Rollback DATs.

8. Reboot and you should be all set.

Here is McAfee’s own solution:

http://vil.nai.com/vil/5958_false.htm

Creating Bookmarklets and Smart Bookmarks

Bookmarklets are small pieces of JavaScript code that can be bookmarked to perform the intended action later on any web page. The are a way of making your browsing and web searching much more productive.
With the advent of more applications being ‘cloud based’ the browser is becoming the ‘operating system or portal’ to most information and applications. Using bookmarklets to better perform repeated and common tasks makes lots of sense.
Bookmarklets and Smart bookmarks can be made and used in Firefox, IE and Chrome.
I primarily use Firefox so I will demonstrate how to create them there. The process is nearly identical in Chrome, and Internet Explorer.

Here is one way to create some custom ones.
Open up the Bookmarks Organizer by going to the Bookmarks Menu, and click the Organize Bookmarks option.
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In the ‘Library’ windows that pops up select the ‘Bookmarks Menu’
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Click the Organize Menu and choose the New Bookmark option:
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Now you need to type in whatever name you would like for the Smart Bookmark. In the location field, however, is where you will insert the specialized “URL” which we’ll cover in the next section. This screenshot shows an example location that will return the top 10 bookmarks you visit the most:

The Smart Bookmark that you just created should now be visible in the Bookmark Organizer, and you can place it wherever you would like. The content will dynamically change based on the criteria that you specified in the previous step.

The beauty is that you can create all kinds of specialized queries and actions.

As an example someone asked me about searching for films that certain actors or actresses have been in. Since IMDB is pretty much the place to start looking why not do a Google search OF the IMDB.COM site?

So just follow the steps above and call your bookmark ‘IMDBfinder’ or something and copy in this java code into the ‘Location’:

javascript:var searchterms = escape(prompt(‘Actor or Actress’));var query = searchterms + ‘ site:imdb.com’;window.location=’http://www.google.com/search?q=’ + query;

to make a Google search of that site.
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In action – when I click on that new bookmark I am prompted to enter a name
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and the results are then presented. Google searches only that specific site and returns all results from it.
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This can be really valuable for limiting searches to specific sites you may frequent.  I have some for Lifehacker, HowToGeek, Drudgereport, Mediafire and many others.

The really cool thing is that bookmarklets can run all kinds of code to do things like resize images, browser windows, do translations and much more! The limit is up to you and your creativity and willingness to learn.
Mozilla has some pretty good ones here:
http://mozillalinks.org/wp/resources/bookmarklets-collection/
Simply right-click and choose ‘Bookmark this site’ (in Firefox) or ‘Add to Favorites’ (in Internet Explorer).

Easy file transers with iGoogle/Google Talk

Over at the Google Blog today they’ve announced new file transfer capabilities in iGoogle and orkut. That’s fun! But what I’m most excited about is their promise of file transfer in Gmail Chat.

For now, file transfer only works directly in the browser for iGoogle and orkut, allowing you to send files without saving them as attachments in email. It’s also compatible with Google Talk software client, so you can share with desktop users as well.
It seems easy enough to use: once you’ve started a chat, just click on “Send a file…” in the “Actions” menu. The person on the other end of the line can then either accept or decline, depending on how they feel about you and the types of files you’re inclined to send.

I have sent a few large test files (30MB and 45MB) and the transfer is quite fast. Seems to work on both Windows and OS X. Haven’t tried it on Linux yet. Of course a lot would depend on your Internet connection speeds. For ‘one off’ transfers of large files I think this is a really neat tool to add to your file management box of tricks.