Remembering complicated, hopefully strong, passwords is a pain. Writing them down or saving them in some kind of file defeats the object, especially if you work in an open office or do not password protect said file. The best passwords…

Wondering how fast your Internet connection really is? Those ISPs might not be giving you as broad a band as you are paying for Try this neat little site for a quick and dirty speed test. It told me that my…

Hot on the heels of the new Microsoft Calculator Plus is Microsoft Time Zone. This tiny applet sits in your system tray and provides almost instant access to the time in different times zones (in case you could not guess from…

I work with a lot of scientists, who when asked for print quality images for publication in a paper or magazine often send me a Powerpoint slideshow or an Adobe PDF file. Occasionally, I’ll receive a half inch Gif they…

Over on the BadLanguage blog, a comment from James Staut suggests using 321-Call-Log as a great way to get better service when you call so-called Customer Service at any company you have to deal with. You register with the site and…

Today is Shutdown Day, so what may I ask are you doing here, reading the Sciencetext blog, if you’re able you should be outside enjoying the fresh air or mooching about doing something else that requires no electricity. And, just…

Forget 24. Check out 23! 23 is a fascinating number, a significant figure in fact. First off, it is a prime number. A number that can only be divided by itself and the number 1 to give a whole number…

Apparently, 2006 saw the digital universe pass 160 billion gigabytes (that’s 160 exabytes, for more on the exa prefix and its congeners check out this sciencebase article). That’s an awfully large number of digital photos, mp3 files, documents, and other…

Publicizing your blog’s subscriber base with one of those cutesy Feedburner animations, could be the worst thing you do for your blog unless you already have several hundred subscribers and even then some readers may simply feel your boasting. After…

Ever had to reinstall Windows, come on, stupid question, who hasn’t had to reinstall Windows? It’s a perennial favorite. Well, if you have and you’ve got your OS on CD but have to connect to the net to get all…

Someone sent me a link to a New York Times article on dark matter today, which was quite timely as I am about to embark on writing a feature of my own for another US publication on that subject. Anyway,…

Do you use Mozilla Thunderbird for email? Do you receive emails where your correspondent has purportedly highlighted text? Can you see the highlighting? Well, if you can let me know what settings you use to reveal said highlighting. If you cannot,…

Here’s a little trap that sometimes catches everyone. Modern email programs usually have an autocomplete address facility, start typing a name, “Bill….” say and the “Send to” field gets filled with the fullname and email address, plucked as if by…

Fellow blogger and self-professed root of all evil is giving away a Nintendo Wii as part of his latest blog-promotion scheme. To enter the competition, all you need is a blog and a spare post in which you can embed…

No, this is nothing to do with any kind of metaphysical epiphany, it is simply a post to introduce you to the excellent online units converter that we have made available to readers in the sidebar (to the right) courtesy…

If you’re looking for a significant figures calculator, this is the place to be. If you’re after information on Microsoft Calculator Plus then read on…

Here’s a virtual gadget from Micro$oft that the Sig Figs site should hold dear to its…

Wednesday March 15 is Pi Day, in case you didn’t know. So, here’s a little slice of that most infamous of irrational numbers.

The number pi, represented by the Greek letter, pi, is rather puzzling. As far as significant figures go,…

What is phishing? Put simply, it’s attempted fraud. It’s a method of conning someone, usually via an email, an instant message, or a website. It uses social engineering techniques to grab your passwords, credit card, and other personal details with a…

Do you submit stuff to Digg or have a particular interest in a site like ScienceText.com that you want to keep up to date with whether it gets Dugg?

Well, here’s a very simple way to search and then follow articles…

Everyone on a Windows machine knows how annoying it is that after a Windows update, the little dialog box repeatedly pops up asking you whether you want to Restart Now or Later. Well, I very rarely want to restart “now”…

I don’t know if I should be pleased or not. I just carried out the Earthday ecological footprint survey and discovered that if everyone lived like me we’d need 1.9 Earths. Now, that implies that I’m living well beyond the Earth’s means.…

Want a nice right-click dialog box that will allow you to move (or copy) files to any of a set of folders on your Windows machine that you care to specify, either in advance or on-the-fly? Well, Moon Software’s FileTargets could…

Do you ever get the feeling that your once vast hard drive is finding it harder and harder to squeeze in all those videos, digital photos, divx downloads and what have you? Me too! One way to free up space…

There are millions, well maybe not millions, thousands, perhaps, or is it hundreds…dozens, even? of blogs out there that do a far better job of offering tips&tricks on computing issues that ScienceText.com, I admit. But, please tell me it is…