Has anyone else noticed this?

The weird thing is that if you then go to the Flickr site and upload the GIF image manually, it works instantly!

Memo to Flickr : Get your Uploadr application fixed!

Ever received a Word document with lots of hyperlinks? Ever clicked on those hyperlinks and then discovered that half of them were invalid so that caused you to trash your office in frustration? Looks like you need Document Hyperlink Checker (catchy eh?)

This free Microsoft Word add-on will scan all the hyperlinks in a document and then tell you the destination URL and if that URL is valid or not. Extremely useful if you have been preparing a hyperlink-rich report for months and you want to double-check all the links before finally sending it out to people.

At the moment, I am engaged in mortal combat with the deadliest of enemies - the German government. Like any other great monolithic bureaucracy, the German government thrives on paperwork and I am convinced that German civil servants get a sexual thrill out of saying "we'll get that paperwork in the post to you and you send it right back to us!". But now that Skype has faxing capabilities with PamFax, I am speeding the process up by faxing stuff to them instead.

The only downside to PamFax is that you can't have stuff faxed back to you. So I am currently on the hunt for a good online fax service that allows me to receive faxes. Doe anyone have any suggestions?

PamFax has a very simple plain interface where you select a file from your computer to fax and then when you enter the recipient phone number and send it, the cost of the fax is deducted from your Skype credit. Easy to use and perfect for small businesses if you need to fax over a signed contract to someone for example. It integrates nicely into Skype and is very easy to set up.

I was reading a very interesting post today about Google Talk and a previously unknown (at least to me) feature that allows you to set up group chats with multiple users. This has got me thinking about Google Talk in general.

I really like the Google Talk application but I only have three contacts on it. Not due to having no friends (!) but simply because I only know three people that use Google Talk for their instant messaging purposes. I think part of the problem is that Google does not really make much of an effort to publicise its chat program. I mean, it's there and it's freely available but Google's sparse main page ensures that there is no banner advertising urging people to use Google Talk. You can use it on Google Docs to collaborate on projects but do you see Google screaming from the rooftops about it?

Whereas in contrast, MSN and Yahoo both openly advertise their chat programs on their main pages and they have a much bigger user-base. They spend more time and energy promoting and pushing their chat programs and as a result, they have got further ahead in the instant messaging market.

I think it was a master-stroke by Google to integrate Google Talk into Gmail and to have Google Talk conversations stored in Gmail accounts as searchable messages. Notice how fast Yah00 copied this feature for Yahoo mail owners. But I prefer to use the standalone Talk application which has a nifty file-transfer capability, new mail notification (for Gmail accounts) and thumbnail photos of Gmail users who are on your contact list (assuming they have put a photo of themselves on their Gmail accounts). I also like the simple and sparse design (a famous Google trademark). Hell, they don't even have emoticons!

One thing has really irritated me though - I tried putting Google Talk onto Pidgin and it worked OK. But the problem was that everytime I emailed someone, their name would instantly appear on my Google Talk contact list (even if it was a newsletter that I had emailed to subscribe to)! So in the end, I had to uninstall GT from Pidgin and run GT separately. If you run the standalone GT program, you can choose to hide people who are not approved to be on your contact list. But if you attach GT to a Jabber chat client, then you will get everyone that you ever email popping up on your contact list. Rather annoying.

I have been a huge fan of Ad-Aware for years, ever since Spybot Search & Destroy really DID search out and destroy by nuking my Windows OS. Ad-Aware, on the other hand, has never caused me any problems and I have become a huge fan of the product - I like products that work like they say they do, without any hidden surprises. But after installing Ad-Aware 2007, I may have to revise that opinion quite a bit.

The first problem was that when installing the 2007 version, it didn't automatically over-write the previous version. So I ended up with two Ad-Aware programs on the computer. So I had to uninstall both programs and delete any relevant remaining files on the hard-drive including registry entries. I then re-installed 2007 on its own and it seemed to work - for a while. But to date, I have been unable to get the program to complete a full spyware scan.

When I ask it to do a full scan, it starts off promisingly enough but 15-20 minutes into the scan, it says it has encountered an "unexpected error" and it shuts the scan down, effectively forgetting what spyware it has found and going back to square one. This has been going on every day for ten days now and I am about to search out and destroy Lavasoft (the company that makes Ad-Aware).

I am seriously considering re-installing the older version. I normally don't like to do this but hey it worked for years without a hitch! Plus the 2007 version keeps bugging me to upgrade to a paid version which is seriously pissing me off. In my dictionary, "free" means "free of any charge". It DOESN'T mean, "free but only on the condition that we bug you every day until you upgrade".

Is anyone else having problems with Ad-Aware 2007? Please tell me I am not the only one going through this crap.

I recently blogged about Google Browser Sync not installing on my Portable Firefox on my USB stick. Well if it was only GBS not working then I would have just stopped using it and forgotten all about it. But ALL my Firefox extensions were not working on my Portable Firefox and that obviously needed to be fixed. Firefox is not the same without my extensions. I spend a lot of time customising my Firefox browser so I would like to be able to take it on the move with me.

At first I thought that it was the fault of the USB stick not reading the information properly. But then I was looking at the development website of John Haller (the man who developed the Portable Firefox application, as well as a whole host of other portable apps). It turns out that each portable app has its own FAQ and forum board and it was on the forum board that I found out the fix for getting my Firefox extensions to work on my USB stick.

All you need to do is go into your profile folder in your Portable Firefox and delete "extensions.rdf" and any cache files and any "ini" files. Delete them from the trash bin and then re-start Portable Firefox.

Bingo! My extensions started working and Google Browser Sync is good to go!

I love it when problems finally solve themselves and things start working again. You just can't beat that feeling.

I just have to give a honourable mention to Unlocker, a freeware software program that really is indispensable. Many is the time when I was ready to smash the computer in frustration but then Unlocker the Cavalry came riding to the rescue in the nick of time.

Basically when you open a file, whether it be an image, a document, whatever, many computer processes will be used to open that file, run it, and do whatever you need to do to it. When you close that file, those computer processes may still be running and so you will be unable to delete, move or rename the file until those processes have been shut down. This is where Unlocker comes to the rescue because by this point your blood pressure is starting to rise and you're giving serious thought to starting a new career as a serial killer.

If you get the above error message, then just right-click on the file and choose the "Unlocker" option. You will then get a pop-up window giving you details of the processes holding the file in place and an option to kill those processes. If you decide to kill the processes, you can do so at the click of a button and the file will instantly be free so you can delete, rename or move it. What a lifesaver!

Another tool which I have been playing around with over the weekend is WinPatrol. This is a nifty little robust program which basically monitors your Windows operating system and you'll soon realise that it is totally invaluable.

When you install a software program on your computer, more often than not, it gets added to your start-up menu. This means that when you boot up your computer in the future, that new program is going to load as well and so the more programs you've got in your start-up menu, the longer it's going to take for your computer to boot up properly. So it pays to keep your start-up programs to a minimum. So one of WinPatrol's biggest assets is that it gives you a complete list of what programs start up when you boot up your computer and it gives you the option to easily disable that program by clicking on them. This right away made my day because Apple Quicktime was constantly starting up even though I had constantly disabled it through "msconfig". But it only took one click on WinPatrol to disable that Quicktime icon from constantly popping up. I also disabled about half a dozen other useless system processes which were totally unnecessary and which were slowing the computer down. End result? When I booted up the computer this morning, it started up so fast I thought it was on steroids.

WinPatrol also acts as a kind of firewall, letting you know in a pop-up window when websites and software are trying to covertly install software on your PC, when a program is covertly trying to get into your start-up menu and it gives you the option of either granting or denying access to that program.

WinPatrol has so many features that I haven't even scratched the surface of yet. One of them is the ability to view and delete individual cookies on your computer. Another shows you the list of currently running programs and processes on your PC so you can disable or delete if you so wish. Anothet tells you what program is associated with a particular file type (so "doc" will be opened by Microsoft Word, "mp3" will be opened by Winamp, that sort of thing). You can even see files which are supposed to remain hidden on your system (mostly Microsoft files which help to run Windows).

In a nutshell, WinPatrol is ideal for cleaning all the crap which naturally accumulates in a computer over time and as a result, your computer will work faster and more efficiently.

The program even has a little Scotty dog icon which "woofs" at you when you open it. What more could you ask for?!

For the past few days, I have been playing around with a piece of encryption software. I have been looking for a reliable encryption tool for quite some time (as I am completely paranoid about hackers and other shady characters!) but I was always concerned that if I chose the wrong tool, then it would irretrievably ruin my hard-drive with an unbreakable, unmovable encrypted file. I mean, once you start messing around with encrypted partitions attached to one of your drives then you could be letting yourself in for a whole host of problems if you set it up the wrong way or if the software malfunctions or even something as basic as forgetting the password. Not to mention the mess of losing the files which are being held inside - some of which may be irreplaceable. So I have been procrastinating about this for a while.

The computer program I found a couple of days ago was TrueCrypt and so far, it seems to be working well. It was recommended by PC Magazine and I have always trusted their recommendations. I was particularly struck with how simple it was to set up. You get a PDF user manual in the software download and if you follow the manual's instructions to the letter then setting up your encrypted folders is mere childs play.

How it works basically boils down to this - you create a folder on your "C" drive, just a normal regular folder. You give it a name - let's just say for the purposes of this discussion that it's called FORT KNOX. This folder is where the encrypted files will be stored. You then assign a drive number to your folder and it in this drive that the TrueCrypt software will be installed and ultimately live in your computer. You then move the FORT KNOX to the TrueCrypt drive which is protected by a master password. Using the password, you can then "decrypt" your files and access them. When you don't need the files, just remove the FORT KNOX folder from TrueCrypt. The folder is then instantly encrypted again and totally unbreakable (or so the company claims). I would be interested to see how TrueCrypt's algorithims hold up against a determined brute-force attack.

But if you're just looking for basic no-frills security and a way to deter people from casually snooping on your files then TrueCrypt seems to be able to do the job properly. I can't begin to list all the possible uses for such a program. At the very least, you should have an encrypted drive on your PC for personal information such as bank statements, receipts, invoices, passwords, tax paperwork, address books, calendars.....sometimes it pays to be paranoid. Sometimes they really are out to get you.