Brandon Dimmel

How do you feel about color? Does black depress you? Does yellow lift your spirits? Does red make your brain scream, 'alert!'? According to a recent study, color might actually have a significant impact on the way we feel and the way we work -- and ... the findings might even help companies improve productivity as the economy continues to struggle . In a fascinating study unveiled by University of British Columbia (UBC) researchers this week, certain colors were found to have drastically different effects on cognitive skills and even creativity. According to the group's findings, participants ... (view more)

Monkey Tools Monkey Tools is a set of utilities designed primarily to aid in the creation of scripts, and includes some GUI tools as well. Some of tools allow a user to retrieve text from a webpage, pause a script for a specific amount of time, or ... customize alert messages. Handy stuff! http://www.mad-monkey.co.uk Net Check DiamondCS NetCheck allows you to quickly and easily test the status of your Internet connection by attempting one (or more) connection tests. The DNS test allows NetCheck to test if your system can currently resolve Internet addresses to their respective numeric IP ... (view more)

Ie7 Pro IE7Pro is a must have add-on for Internet Explorer (IE) that includes a lot of features and tweaks to make the browser friendlier, more useful, secure and customizable. IE7Pro includes Tabbed Browsing Management, Spell Check, Inline Search, ... Super Drag Drop, Crash Recovery, Proxy Switcher, Mouse Gesture, Tab History Browser and even a Web Accelerator. http://www.ie7pro.com Grand Central Grand Central is the new way to use your phone. Now owned by Google, Grand Central allows you to use one number and one inbox for all of your cell phones. Sign up for the brand new beta today! http:// ... (view more)

Yet another major tech company has announced severely depressed quarterly profits . Cisco Systems, the network and communications giant that employs 66,000 people, recently revealed that it saw profits fall 27 per cent as the global economy ... continues its slide. According to Cisco, for the three months prior to January 24 the company saw profits dip from $2.1 billion in 2008 to just $1.5 billion this year. As one might expect, quarterly sales were also down, dipping 7.5 per cent from the same period last year. (Source: bbc.co.uk ) Company shares are down, too. Cisco earnings per share floated ... (view more)

Now that the news of Windows 7 beta is starting to wind down, more details about Microsoft's next operating system are starting to become available. Juicy news on the wire this morning includes word that Windows 7 will ship in several different ... versions, much like its much-maligned predecessor. One of the big complaints against Windows Vista, released to the wider public in 2007, was that it came in too many different packages. The system was confusing for many, particularly those roped into buying Vista Home Basic , a skeletal version of the operating system that offered only a fraction of ... (view more)

Flashrom Flashrom is a utility which can be used to detect, read, erase, or write BIOS chips (DIP, PLCC, SPI). In general, it is very likely that flashrom works 'out of the box' even if your main board is not listed. http://www.coreboot.org Folder ... Guide Folder Guide is a free, handy utility that provides fast access to your frequently used and favorite folders. It can operate as the part of your context menu in your Windows Explorer. After quick install it will appear in context menus of Windows Explorer and Open/Save dialogs as "Folder Guide" item. With Folder Guide, you no longer ... (view more)

With the next big Microsoft operating system already looming in the form of a Windows 7 beta, many home and business users are beginning to look past Windows Vista. However, a controversial new report from Computerworld suggests that the fat lady ... may not have yet belted out her final note. In a recent article, Computerworld columnist Eric Lai suggested that at least two significant segments in the tech population have begun to adopt the maligned 2007 operating system . Lai cites a survey last month by Valve Corporation, which found that more than one-third of gamers playing online are using ... (view more)

Proxomitron Proxomitron is a free, highly flexible, user-configurable, small but very powerful, local HTTP web-filtering proxy. Proxomitron's rules aren't "hard-coded". You can look at them, modify them, even write entirely new ones! If you know ... some HTML, you'll find Proxomitron allows you to personally customize just about any web page you view. Even those notorious "cookies" can be deleted or modified if you wish. http://homepage.usask.ca Irotate iRotate provides convenient access to the native rotation capabilities present in contemporary display drivers, via a popup menu accessible from ... (view more)

Hoping your honey sends you flowers this Valentine's Day? Here's hoping people invest their time and money in more traditional gifts, rather than virtual ones, given the fact that an old Valentine's virus may very well be making a resurgence this ... year. Let's face it, there will be guys (and girls) sending electronic Valentine's cards this February 14. With that in mind, it's important everyone is aware of spam masquerading as a sweet love note. Hoping to dupe web users into downloading the dreaded Waledec bot , spammers have in the past sent emails entitled "short and sweet," "Me and You," ... (view more)

Boot Racer BootRacer allows you to check your Windows boot speed and provides you with a 'boot rating'. If your computer boot time is less than one minute you will get an Excellent rating -- otherwise, you need to speed up your Windows boot! ... http://www.greatis.com 57 Useful Google Tools If you're like most people, you use Google's products several times a day to search for information or check email. Most people don't know, however, how many useful tools Google have made research and time management much easier. Here are just a few of the products Google offers that may be worth trying ... (view more)