Tips for searching using Google

The Google search engine syntax offers a number of options for getting better results. You can search for a specific phrase, search only on a particular site, or exclude pages with certain words. You can use the advanced search page to make use of these or you can use these simple rules of syntax in the normal search field or on Google Toolbar.

To search for a specific phrase
Simply put the words in quotation marks. For example, "Lady Gaga"

To search on a particular site
Type in the keywords that you wish to sort with 'site:' followed by the address of the web pages that you wish to search. For example, if you wished to search this blog for the word Firefox you would enter firefox site:bloodycomputer.blogspot.com

You can also search particular classes of site. If you enter site:.co.uk football, Google will return only pages on sites that end .co.uk that contain the word football.

To omit pages containing certain words
If you preface a word with - then Google will not list pages that contain that word. For example, if you enter the terms linux -ubuntu, you will get a list of pages that contain the word 'linux' but not the word 'ubuntu'

You can use all of these options in a single search. If you wanted to search the BBC news site for all pages that contain the phrase 'Barrack Obama' but not 'Clinton' then you would enter site:bbc.co.uk/news "barack obama" -clinton

Link to Bloody Computer!

Even though I redesigned this blog some time ago, I still only offered my old link image rather than use the nice new one that my brother designed for me. I have decided that I should make available some new code for anyone who wished to link to this blog.

Simply paste the following code onto your blog or other website. If you need any help, or advice with this then please leave a comment.

<a href="http://bloodycomputer.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh148/stepterix/bcsign.png" border="0" /></a>

The link will look like this:

If you wish to use the old 'ransom note' style image click here.

Dropbox: Internet File Storage

There are a number of sites that offer you storage space to back up or share your files over the Internet. Many of them have a limit on the size of file that can be stored, but this is not the case with Dropbox. Dropbox offers 2gb of storage space for free. This capacity can be increased if you upgrade to one of the payment options.

Dropbox provide software that enables you to access your storage space as if it were a drive on your computer. This software is available for Windows, OSX, Linux and a variety of mobile devices. Alternatively you can use the Dropbox web site to upload and download files.

Files can be placed in a 'Public' folder so that other Dropbox users may access them, or they can be stored in your private area, in which you can create new folders. Dropbox also records any activity on your account. Just follow the simple registration procedure and you will have enough space to back up your essential files.

Top Three Web Based Image Editors

If you are using a computer that doesn't have a decent image editor program, then you can make use of a variety of web-based image editors. Having surveyed those that are freely available, I present a list of the top three. Each of these alows you to perform a variety of simple tasks upon an image, such as cropping and resizing. Each also includes the usual drawing tools as well as supporting layers. Please try them out and leave a comment to share your experiences.

Editor by pixlr.com
Editor enables you to create new images or open image files from your computer or from the web in the following formats: bmp, gif, jpg, png, psd and pxd (Editor's own format). You can save images as bmp, jpg, png or pxd to your computer or to Facebook. It offers a good selection of tools and filters.


Sumo Paint 2.0
Sumo Paint also lets you create new images and open files from your computer or the web. You can open files in gif, jpg, png and its own sumo format, and you can save as jpg, png and sumo. It has the best selection of filters and tools of the three here.


Splashup
Splashup will open bmp, gif, jpg and png files not only from your computer and the web, but also from Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket and Picasa. You can save files back to each of these in jpg, png, and the somewhat obscure fxo format. It has the most limited selection of tools and filters of those listed here.

Weekend Website: PortableApps.com

I have not run this feature in ages, but I decided to bring it out of retirement to feature an excellent site: PortableApps.com. With the increasing popularity of USB flash drives and memory cards many software producers are creating versions of their software tailored to run from these devices. This means that you can carry your favourite applications round with you on your portable drives and use them on whatever Windows computer you like.

PortableApps.com not only provide links to download free portable software but also have packaged the most popular software, which can be executed using their own menu. Applications available on the site include GIMP, Firefox, OpenOffice.org, and even a portable version of the antivirus software ClamWin. The site also offers support for all the available applications and has forums where you can join in discussions about portable computing.