Last time, there is a Firefox addon, that is MinimizeToTray. Since I am using portable Firefox, it requires some time to start. Using MinimizeToTray, I just minimize it without exit, so that I can open the Firefox later without starting the Firefox again. However, Firefox 3 does not support MinimizeToTray. This is sad.

But, I just found a powerful freeware, that is Tray It!. Using it, you can just minize any application to the system tray. I like it. Because I am using portable OpenOffice also. Like Firefox, it requires some time to start. Using Tray It!, both Firefox and OpenOffice can minimize to tray without using the space of taskbar.

當我注冊某些中文論壇時，總是遇到了一個問題，就是驗證碼不會過。不管試了幾次，都不會過。
When I was trying to register on some Chinese forums, I always met a problem. The verification code could not pass. Even I tried many times.

我所遇過的中文論壇，通常都會有AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML)，所以當你一輸入驗證碼後，就會自動幫你檢查驗證碼是否正確。縱然那裡顯示正確，當我一提交資料，還是會有驗證碼錯誤的訊息。
Most of the Chinese forums I visited, they are using AJAX. Therefore, after you enter the verification code, the AJAX will help you to check the code. Though it showed me correct, when I submit the form, there is a message said that my verification code is incorrect.

If you are targeting Windows platform, I suggest using Visual Studio Express 2008. To make it fully function, you will need also Windows SDK (for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5). Both are very large files. If you want to download for offline installation, I suggest using a download manager, and use only one thread, do not use multi-segmented (or multi-thread) to download the file.

Unlike Windows Server 2003 SP1 Platform SDK, the Windows SDK (version 6.1) provides the project solution of DirectShow BaseClasses. So, you can compile the DirectShow using Visual Studio C++ Express 2008. Besides that, you can also download DirectX SDK.

When I used OO3 Math, I found that the symbols like “equal” and “times” appeared as strange characters. And found that they are “windings font”. Therefore, I found the solution from the PortableApps.com forum. Click here to read the forum.

The solution is not difficult. You just need a file “opens___.ttf”. Yes, it is the filename “opens___.ttf”. You can get file from OO2 portable version. To solve the problem, you just copy “opens___.ttf” to OO3 as the path of OO2.

Even I uninstalled the Wizz RSS extension, “Wizz RSS” folder was still existing in Firefox 3 bookmark. Then I found this forum which explains how to remove the folder.

To inform, I am using portable Firefox. And besides that, I always make my Firefox profile corrupted because simply changing the data in the file using a text editor. Therefore, make sure you backup the Firefox profile, so that can be recovered later. Otherwise you need to install all the extensions again.

Since recently, because of Beijing Olympic, China topic is very hot. Just want to share some freeware from China.

Maxthon, a web browser. Which can used as the replacement of IE, but don’t uninstall IE, since it is still based on IE. Has a built-in download manager. Move your mouse to the image, it will pop up a float bar, and you can grab the image. Besides that, it has also a file sniffer, can download the flv and wma files. Very good.

When I wanted to find a free offline browser (or website copier, website grabber, website ripper), what I found is HTTrack. They said it is the best offline browser. I tried to use it many times, and found that very useless. But finally, I found it really useful, as they said, it is the best offline browser.

Why I said it was poor before?
Actually, the problem was, the website I wanted to grab was a very large site, with a lot of links. HTTrack always parses the links then download. Since there are too many links (about 18,000 files), the parsing used a lot of time. HTTrack unlike Teleport Pro, will not download the webpages immediately, so you cannot view the webpages immediately during parsing. That is why, I thought HTTrack didn’t download anything.

I like to read articles online. And I will save the webpages to my computer, especially programming tutorial. Sometimes I don’t have time to categorise what I have downloaded. So, I just drop them to some of the folders. But, when I want to search the file, there will be the problem.

We can search the content of a text file by using built-in “find” function of Windows. However, the searching will always slow because it searches file by file. Therefore, the files need to be indexed first. To do the indexing service, we just need to install desktop search software.

Actually, I personally prefer traditional chinese. Because the character is more complicate, and look prettier than simplified chinese. And besides that, the traditional chinese character provides better meaning in the presentation of the character itself. Especially the character “love”, 愛，in traditional chinese, the centre of it is 心，that means we love with our heart. However, the simplified chinese is 爱, which doesn’t have the 心 at the centre.

Another important reason is the surname. When I was young, I was taught to write the surname in simplified chinese, that is 钟. The traditioanl chinese of 钟 is both 鍾 and 鐘. While both meanings are different. Therefore, in computer, the simplified chinese of 鍾 becomes 锺, instead of 钟. So, that is why I prefer traditional chinese, because of the surname problem.

If you are editing image, what software you use? MS Paint? Adobe Photoshop? For me, MS Paint is fast, and only fast. Nothing special. Photoshop, is not free. If you want to install, it requires a lot of space.

So, I use 2 image editors, Paint.NET and GIMP Portable. Both of them support layer editing. Very nice. Actually, I prefer using Paint.NET. Because it is more usable (easier to be used) compare to GIMP. The interface is easy to understand. However, it does not as powerful as GIMP.