artiss.blog

Blog

  • Useful Acer Aspire One Software & Links

    As time has moved on I’ve become more and more impressed by my Aspire One. Yes, there are more powerful and bigger versions on the market, but they come at a price premium. For the money, I think the Aspire One was the best choice (stick that Dell!).

    However, I’m using it less at home as my main PC has been moved to the dining room but, conversely, more at work and as my employers clamp down more and more on non-work usage of the internet, etc.

    Anyway, I’ve compiled some useful software and sites specifically for the AA1, which I think might be of interest…

    a1ctl
    “a1ctl is a program able to control the fan speed of the Acer Aspire One netbooks, and do some useful other things.” Those other things include controlling processor speed and reducing hard drive noise. An excellent piece of software that I use myself.

    For this or the next application to work you may need to install the MSCOMCTL file.

    AA1 Fan Control
    This installs a desktop “widget” from which the AA1 fan is controlled based on current temperatures. I tried this and although it worked well, a1ctl does the same function with others as well.

    Aspire One Backup
    “AA1BACKUP is a backup solution for the Acer Aspire One based on free and open source software. It makes an exact copy of the drive, bit for bit, and therefore works with any file system, partition table or operating system. And to emphasize its operating system independence it can be installed from either Linux or Windows.” This is, unfortunately, no longer available.

    Forum wise, I’d recommend bookmarking AspireOneUser.com. Also, macles* is a useful blog dedicated to AA1 users. From here, for example, you can find a set of manuals to download, including a service manual.

    Obviously, don’t forget Acers download page, where you can pickup the latest BIOS and drivers.

  • Copy+ in What Sat

    The April edition of What Satellite (and Digital TV) magazine includes a step-by-step guide on how to upgrade the hard drive in your Sky box, using Copy+.

    Next month, they’ll be talking about +Extract.

    All of which is great publicity for this fantastic bit of software.

  • Useful Netbook Firefox Add-ons

    With their smaller display it’s important to get as much information on screen as possible when using a Netbook. Therefore a lot of the toolbars and status bars can get a little in the way.

    You can, of course, use F11 to view full screen in Firefox but this isn’t always the most convenient option. What if you still had everything to hand but could reduce some of the screen real-estate not used for browsing?

    All of the add-ons below can be downloaded as a special collection from Firefox.

    Smart Stop/Reload
    This replaces the separate Stop and Reload icons with a single icon – after all you can’t do both, so the use of this will change depending on the current page state. If loading, it will be a stop button, otherwise it will be a reload button. Simple.

    Sadly, this add-on is no longer available.

    autoHideStatusbar
    This will hide the status bar at the bottom of Firefox when not needed. About the only thing of use regularly is displaying the page load status, but that’s covered by the next add-on.

    Sadly, this add-on is no longer available.

    Fission
    Fission combines address bar and progress bar (like Safari already does). In a nutshell the page load progress is shown by a coloured bar in the background of the address bar.

    Hide MenuBar
    As the name suggests, this hides the main menu bar at the top. Pressing the ALT bar re-displays it.

    Personal Menu
    This replaces the various main menu bar options with toolbar alternatives.

    Tiny Menu
    This replace the standard menu bar with a tiny menu popup.

    Menu Editor
    Rearrange or remove menu items from the main context menu (right-click menu) and main menubar (File, Edit, View, etc).

    Sadly, this add-on is no longer available.

  • Microsoft Live Mesh

    Live Mesh Desktop
    Live Mesh Desktop

    Although I’d seen recommendations of Live Mesh, I’ve avoided it because, well, I didn’t think I’d like it. In the end, a week or so ago, I did try it and I was wrong – it’s actually quite good.

    Live Mesh is a simple concept – you can convert any of your folders into Live Mesh folders that are then instantly synched onto your online account (where they can be accessed), known as your desktop, or any other computer that you’ve set up. In my case I have it on my home PC and Netbook.

    Now, I don’t use it for more permanent stuff, but it’s useful if I want to move a file from one to another – the other day, for instance, I needed to put my CV onto my Netbook. I simply dropped it into a Live Mesh folder on my PC and it was transferred across.

    It’s simple to use (well, I say that, but it can be confusing at first when setting up a Live Mesh folder on one computer and it syncing across to others. Or maybe it was just me) and free.

  • Another useful Netbook application

    With the smaller screen resolution of Netbooks it’s often the case that program windows aren’t always visible on screen, in particular with the top bar hidden off screen so you can’t move it back in view, or it may be a window without a “dragable area”.

    Linux has a great function that allows you to move windows with the mouse when pressing the ALT key. Well, now, you can have this on Windows too thanks to AltDrag,  a small, free application.

    Not much else to say – it works a treat and gets the thumbs up from me.