This week’s tech tip came from a suggestion emailed to me by a somewhat anonymous viewer, who referred to themselves as “exploitationnation.” If you’re looking for a way to quickly edit a photo, without downloading or installing any programs, he has a solution for you. Pixlr.com offers two image editors for your free use: one, Pixlr express, that is fairly simple yet effective, and another, Pixlr editor, which is more in-detail and almost like an online version of Adobe Photoshop. I tried both out, and they’re actually really cool, and produce great results. I believe these two will even open Photoshop files (.psd). Again, Pixlr.com is where it’s at!

Alas, it is the end of a school year, once again, and we’re going to part ways for a while. Tis sad, I agree, but HEY, keeping in contact is easy nowadays! We have the Internet, computers, technology! I’m not sure if anyone still uses instant messengers like AIM, Yahoo, MSN, etc, but if you do, this week’s tech tip is for you. Pidgin (click on it to download) is a multi-network instant messaging (not massaging) client, that will do Yahoo, AIM, MSN, Google Talk, Jabber, IRC, and any other chat protocol known to MAN. Even better, you can get a portable copy of it from PortableApps.com, put it on your thumbdrive, and plug into any computer to have access to all of your accounts. CRAZY GOOD. Happy summer!

We all love our math, riiiiight??? Say, “Yes Maaaaaxx…” Good! Now, you can use that fancy math stuff to make ringtones and music, using Wolfram Tones. Made by the same people as Wolfram Alpha (go figure), Wolfram Tones uses these crazy mathematical formulas and stuff to generate music, and visually represent it using these colorful bars! Sorta like tetris, right? Well, actually, no. Anyhow, you click on what sort of theme you would like your ringtone to be based upon (such as hip hop, dance, blues, guitar, or hit random for a surprise!) and it will randomly generate a ringtone, using some crazy mathematical formula known only by some kid and his pet rat. Just kidding. Anyhow, give it a try, play around with it, change the parameters, see what you get out of it! Tones.wolfram.com will get you there… enjoy!

So, suppose you’ve met someone, and while getting to know them, you discover that they’re kind of annoying, and you don’t really want to be their friend. But then, they ASK FOR YOUR NUMBER! What to do?!?!? It’s ok, just give them the number for the Rejection Hotline, 212-660-2245! A friendly voice will explain to them the possibilities for you rejecting them! Know somebody who needs to brush their teeth more often? The Bad Breath Notification Number is there for you, at 631-960-7187! Too busy to keep up with a friend? It’s ok, you can outsource your friendship to India, just by calling 267-436-5128! HumorHotlines.com has tons of, well, humorous hotlines to help make your day just a bit more funny! Will this help you with your computer problems? Likely not at all, but I figured that it would be a nice, humorous departure for my normal program!

As most of us know, the social-networking site Facebook has become very popular in the last few years, and as it’s grown, its privacy policies have changed. What does this mean for you? Well, today, the privacy settings page of Facebook is massively extensive, confusing, and it may result in some of YOUR personal information being available to people you don’t want seeing it. Luckily, the Facebook Privacy Scanner at www.reclaimprivacy.org exists! Follow the instructions on the website, and it will evaluate your security settings to show you if any issues exist that put your privacy at risk.

So you broke something. What’s new, right? Time to call tech support in some overseas, foreign island nation that you’ve never heard of, only to be put on hold for about a bazillion lightyears. Wonderful, right? I think NOT! LucyPhone is a website that sits on hold, listening to the poor-quality canned jazz music for you, and calls you back when you reach an actual person! Lucyphone.com is the website… try it out!

This week’s tech tip came from a suggestion emailed to me by a somewhat anonymous viewer, who referred to themselves as “exploitationnation.” If you’re looking for a way to quickly edit a photo, without downloading or installing any programs, he has a solution for you. Pixlr.com offers two image editors for your free use: one, Pixlr express, that is fairly simple yet effective, and another, Pixlr editor, which is more in-detail and almost like an online version of Adobe Photoshop. I tried both out, and they’re actually really cool, and produce great results. I believe these two will even open Photoshop files (.psd). Again, Pixlr.com is where it’s at!

With all the downloadable music and such out there, it’s a wonder that some of us haven’t run out of space on our computers! If you’re getting close to full, however, check and see where you’re wasting space. The easiest way to do this is using Disk Space Fan, a program which shows you, graphically, how much space you’re using up on your computer, and in what folders. Then, using what you see in the program, you can better judge what needs to be deleted. For Mac, Disc Inventory X will also accomplish a similar feat. You can download Disk Space Fan at, simply, diskspacefan.com, and Disc Inventory X at derlien.com.

I seem to be on a thumb-drive and back-up kick lately, as far as tech tips go… So, why not combine the two? If you’re worried about things getting deleted from your thumb drive, or from your home computer, Back4Sure will relieve all your worries! Install it, and you can select what folders you want to back up to a thumb drive. It will do it automatically, even compressing the files to take up less space if you’d like! This is a good idea to do, as you never know when you may lose your thumb drive. They keep getting smaller and smaller!

Click here to download Back4Sure!

As you know, I’m always bringing you the latest and greatest in the tech world. Well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and germs, I believe this will perhaps be THE GREATEST tech tip to every grace this Earth. Late last night, delving deep within the tech resources of my la-bor-a-tory, I stumbled upon an ingenious concoction of technical serums and salts, and I believe I’ve found the greatest tech invention yet! What does it do? Nearly everything, my friends! Email, word processing, picture sharing, blog reading, financing, mapping, translation, video sharing… the possibilities are almost endless! Creatures of the earth, I present to you… without further ado… mankind’s greatest creation yet… the great… the illustrious… the magnificent… (more…)