Category Archives: Software

The Fastest Way to Empty Cache from Google Chrome Browser

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If you have ever tried to empty or delete cache from Google Chrome, you’ll know that it’s a multistep process. Google has a tutorial for it, so I won’t repeat it here. I’ve just found out a way to do it quickly, and it’s also easier to write instructions for the process.

  1. Copy and paste this string to the address bar and press Enter. 
    chrome://settings/clearBrowserData#cache
  2. The clear browsing data dialog shows up, click on Clear browsing data button. chrome-empty-cache

This works on Chrome version 27. If this does not work for some reason, you can try the longer version. My instructions differ from the tutorial provided by Google. Here they are, for your convenience:

  1. Click on the Customize and control Google Chrome icon on the top right corner and select settings. chrome-settings
  2. Enter cache in the Search settings box and press Enter.
  3. Click on Clear browsing data button.
    chrome-cache
  4. The clear browsing data dialog shows up, click on Clear browsing data button.chrome-empty-cache

How to Disable Java in the Chrome Browser

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Oracle has published yet another update over the weekend to address some critical vulnerabilities. If you are fed up with all these critical updates, you can completely disable Java content in the browser by using  the Java Control Panel. However, there are still quite a few legitimate web sites that require Java. If you disable Java in the browser, you won’t be able to visit those sites anymore.

Since I use Chrome most of the time, I decided to disable Java in the Chrome browser. That way, if I needed to visit Java-enabled websites, I could use a different browser like IE instead. Here is how you disable Java in the Chrome browser.

  1. Enter chrome://plugins in the address bar and press enter.
  2. Scroll down and find the Java Plug-in.
    chrome-disable-java
  3. Click on Disable to disable the Java Plug-in.
  4. Close Chrome and Open it up again.

How to Change Color Temperature (White Balance) of Photos in JPEG Format

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I recently took quite a lot of photos with wrong color temperature (white balance) settings. It is easy to correct the color temperature if the photos are in RAW format. However, all my photos were shot in JPEG format and they are not easy to change. Most image editing tools allow you to adjust the color level or saturation, but not color temperature. I found this GIMP script which does let you manipulate the color temperature directly.

The script is called colortemp and it works with GIMP 2.2, 2.4 and 2.6. Here is the site. To install it, just download the script file colortemp.scm and put it in the script directory of your GIMP installation. On Windows, this location is

32 bit:

C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\share\gimp\2.0\scripts

64 bit:

C:\Program Files (x86)\GIMP-2.0\share\gimp\2.0\scripts

Once you have it installed. Open up a photo that you want to modify. The information you need to enter is the color temperature of the original file and the target temperature you want to set. There are two ways to specify the original color temperature. If you know the original color temperature, you can use the slider to specify it. Otherwise, you can use the color picker to pick a white spot on your photo and the program would determine the color temperature for you automatically. For some reason, the first option did not work for me, while the second option worked pretty well.

Click on Filters -> Colors -> Convert Color Temperature to bring up the dialog box.

Click on the drop down box and select From foreground color. Click on the toolbox and select the color picker tool. Use the color picker tool to select a white or gray spot on your photo to set it as the foreground color. Now back to the dialog box and use the slider to specify the target temperature or enter it in the box. You can leave Intensity or Saturation unchanged. Click on OK and the script would change the color temperature for you. If you do not like the changes, simply press Ctrl + Z to undo it.

If you do not know what is the correct color temperature to use for the target temperature, you can read this article to get a better idea about the topic.

 

How to Resize Hard Drive on VirtualBox

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When I first created a Windows XP virtual machine using VirtualBox, I thought 20GB was enough for me. However, as I relied on the virtual machine for all XP related works, I soon filled up the hard drive with all the test programs. I wanted to increase the size of the virtual machine’s hard drive, but there wasn’t a GUI option to do so. I finally found a post about using a command line utility to resize the hard drive. Here are the steps on my Windows 7 machine, based on the information from the post:

  1. Shutdown the virtual machine if it’s running.
  2. Open up an elevated command prompt.
  3. Change directory to where your virtual machine’s hard drive file is.
  4. Type this command to resize the hard drive. Substitute the MyVirtualHardDrive.vdi with your hard drive’s file name and the number 40960 with the size you want in MB. 
    "c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" modifyhd  "MyVirtualHardDrive.vdi" --resize 40960

You will see the size increase the next time you boot up the virtual machine. Note that even though the hard drive size has been increased, the partition is the same. You’ll need to use a different tool to increase the partition to fit the hard drive. On Windows machines, you can use DISKPART to do it. Otherwise, the GPartED  is a great tool for Linux.

Free Daz Studio, Bryce and Hexagon for Windows and Mac

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Daz3d.com is offering its flagship products for free between now and February 29, 2012. Here is a list of the free products:

  • DAZ Studio 4 Pro (Including Genesis, winner of 3D World’s 2011 Software Innovation of the Year Award) : Retail $429.95
  • Bryce 7 Pro 3D Landscape and Animation Software: Retail $249.95
  • Hexagon 2.5 3D Modeling Software: Retail $149.95
  • 3D Photoshop Bridge: Retail $199.00 (Included with DAZ Studio 4 Pro)
[via DAZ3D]

Use 7-zip to Extract Files from ISO Images

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More and more software are being distributed as ISO images now. The ISO images are designed to be burned to a DVD or a CD. It is a good idea to have them on a form of media if you need to use them on a different machine. Unfortunately, it is not very practical if you just need to access some files on the ISO image. I have used a program called MagicISO to mount the ISO images as drives, so that I could extract files. However, it is a resident program, and I would rather have a program that can just open the ISO images and extract files as needed.

I found this the other day when I accidentally right-clicked on an ISO image. There are several options under 7-zip menu. If you right-click on an ISO image, click on 7-Zip and Extract files… . This extracts all the files from the ISO image.

If you just want to browse what is in the ISO image, you can right-click on the image and click on 7-Zip -> Open archive. This allows you to see the file names first, without extracting them.

HyperCam 3 Free Download Today Only

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HyperCam 3 – is a new version of the famous HyperCam, being jointly developed with Hyperionics LLC. It is an advanced utility for capturing screen actions and saving them as .AVI, WMV/ASF files. Though HyperCam may be used just for grabbing a movie or game, it has been chiefly acknowledged as an excellent tool for creating video presentations, tutorials or demo-clips. Stylish, intuitive and user-friendly interface, pre-defined hot-keys for recording actions, built-in video editor, comprehensive text notes workflow, various settings, command line interface, small installation size and more than affordable price – that is what makes HyperCam 3 a must-have tool.

The main advantages of HyperCam 3 over HyperCam 2:

- new skinned user-friendly interface
- able to grab video in overlay mode
- able to edit captured video with HyperCam Media Editor
- able to encode captured sound
- usefull, tiny HyperCam tray tool-bar
- visual managing by recently recorded clips
- ability to choose audio channel

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hypercam-3/