Everything But the Kitchen Sink

If you're like me, you have literally thousands of files spread all over your computer's hard drive...and you never exactly remember the name of the one you want. Here's a great free utility that can index your hard drive in seconds...it's called Everything and the name makes perfect sense.

It's All in the Process

Process Explorer is one of the staples of the hard-core Windows geek. It's a Task Manager replacement which does so much more; some would say it does too much. It's produced by Microsoft-acquired Sysinternals, which have been making some of the best in-depth system utilities for Windows even before Microsoft bought them out (years ago).
One of the best features in the new update is that you can now hover the mouse over any "svchost.exe" entry and get a whole list of services running under that process ("Group Policy", "Task Scheduler", etc.). That's very useful for trying to narrow down on what specific service is taking resources, even though a single svchost process can contain several services.

Singing In The Rain

The best browser you've probably never head of -Opera- has just hit the 100 million user mark. This company is no joke and in my informal testing, I find their browser to be the zippiest.

Mama's Got a Squeezebox...

We've set up a number of audio services in dental offices over the years. My favorite is the new Squeezebox Touch. It allows you to play music throughout the office from multiple sources: your music collection, free Internet radio, paid services...you name it. At $300, it won't break the bank either.

Font-tastic

Did you know that using a different font for your printing can help you save up to 30% of your ink when you print? (Nope, neither did I!). Here's a report that shows that using Century Gothic can save you a ton on your printing costs.

An APPle a Day

There's little doubt that for the new iPad to succeed, there has to be a lot of usable apps. Fortunately for the, that appears to be the case. Here is an iPad Buyer's Guide-Essential Apps.

Finders Keepers

One of the (supposed)improvements in Windows 7 is the improved Taskbar, called a Superbar. One of the things you can do with this Superbar is to make it easier to find files and folders...with a little bit of extra work. Here are Four Ways to Add Fast, Easy Access to Files and Folders.

Online Forms

Here's a press release for a company that provides patients an easy way to complete their intake forms online:

New Website Launched for Patients to Submit HIPAA & Health Histories Online


SubmitPatientForms is a tested, affordable Internet service [$49 a month for an unlimited number of patients] that makes it easy for patients of medical and dental practices to fill out their HIPAA forms, personal and insurance information, and medical histories online, in the privacy of their homes.

Offices can validate the patient’s insurance coverage and “red flag” any medical problems before the patient arrives. Practices save time and money by eliminating careless clerical errors and having to scan or retype information from illegible handwritten forms.

See how the process works. Go to Submitpatientforms.com and click on “Quick Tour” to watch a 7 minute video or click on tp://submitpatientforms.com/themes/theme277/gallery/SPF-demo.swf .Practices can link the forms directly from their website or can use this service without having a website.

The practice gets an e-mail notification that a patient has registered; a staff member then logs onto a password protected management account and can either view, print out a hard copy or download the completed forms in PDF, JPEG, TIFF or Excel format into electronic medical records.

SubmitPatientForms conforms to the HIPAA regulations for privacy and all the online information is secure with advanced Internet encryption. An article at the SubmitPatientForms’ website describes in great detail how all the data is secured and protected.

Call 888-385-1535 (outside the US at 1-516-593-3806), info@SubmitPatientForms.com or visit www.SubmitPatientForms.com to learn more and view some sample forms.

Up and Coming

Don't look now, but Google Chrome is growing faster in popularity than any other browser that I've ever seen...it now holds over 6% of the market share. It's a nice, zippy browser that is worth a look.

Cleaning Up

Many of us who use computers on a daily basis find that we get get disorganized with our data: icons all over the desktop, folders all over the place...it can get very messy. One easy way to handle that is a program called Belvedere, which automates the process of organization and cleaning. Definitely worth checking out.

Share and Share Alike

For most of us, we want an easy way to share files among friends and family and colleagues, or to have access to our files from multiple locations. Here are the Five Best Online File Sharing Services.

Pass the Buck

While I try to change my passwords on a regular basis, like many of you, I often forget to do it. That could be a big mistake. Here's a great read on how one expert would crack our weak passwords...pretty sobering info!

Start Your Engines!

StartupSelector is a small utility that allows you to save and load different startup configurations so your system is ready to tackle any task at hand with the right tools running depending on what's on your plate.

StartupSelector works by saving startup configurations as separate profiles. That means to create different profiles, you'd need to edit your startup applications. Unfortunately StartupSelector doesn't have a built-in tool for doing that, so you'll need to use something like Windows' msconfig utility (Win+R, type msconfig, hit Enter) or the popular cleaning program CCleaner. So to get started, you'd likely want to save your current profile, then create a whole new set of startup applications using your startup manager of choice based on another task you'd want to tackle, and so on, until you've got a set of profiles to match your needs. Once you've got all that set up, you can use StartupSelector to swap between startup configurations by simply choosing what you want from the app's drop-down.

Speedy Gonzales

Were you under the impression that Internet speeds in the US are the fastest out there? Hardly...we're not even close. Countries like South Korea are 4 X as fast and almost 1/2 the cost! Here's a good report that explains why this is the case....it's a good read.

i-Options

With all the buzz about the new Apple iPad recently, it would be easy to forget that not only were they not the first to market this concept, but many great options still exist. Here are The Past, Present, and Future Alternatives.

Who What Where

One of the challenging things for me when I was in full-time practice was trying to figure out what implants I was seeing when I looked at an x-ray. Here's an excellent new website that looks to solve that problem:

whatimplantisthat.com - Free online resource for radiographic implant identification

Have you ever looked at your patient's radiographs with the question, what implant is that? The free online resource, http://whatimplantisthat.com, was created to solve that ever-growing problem. There are hundreds of implant companies with thousands of implants. Patients are more mobile than ever before, so we are often restoring implants we did not treatment plan.

Columbus, OH (March 31, 2010) -- The whatimplantisthat.com website has a large database of implant radiographs linked to characteristics of those implant images. Doctors, or even their staff, can take the patient's radiograph and compare it against images on the site. Through describing the characteristics of the patient's implant, one can filter through the many images in the database.

Once you find the right implant, you can access information such as the proper driver size, links to the company's website and catalogs, and additional images.

This is a free resource for everyone, which makes it crucial for all to help make it a better resource. Many implant companies have been contacted, most have been very willing to support the project. The best thing that we could ask for is that dentists ask their implant companies to visit the site and confirm they are well represented.

We all know this is a problem we will often deal with throughout the years. I hope we can all work together to get implant companies contributing to these efforts.

About whatimplantisthat.com:

This website has been created by Dr. Nate Farley, DDS and Dr. Kent Howell, DMD. For those willing to help build the database, visit http://whatimplantisthat.com/help/ for some ideas on how you can participate.

Contact:

Nate Farley and Kent Howell
Email: support@whatimplantisthat.com
http://whatimplantisthat.com

Drop Kick

I've written about one of my favorite utilities, DropBox, in the past. It allows you to have a shared folder of files across many computers. However, it can really do a lot more than that. Here are Essential Tips for Every DropBox user.

Printer Madness

Printers are easily one of the most boring items in a dental office...but they don't have to be. Here are 15 Amazing Concept Printers.

Four on the Floor

Many of you have probably heard of the new 4G wireless phone networks. The problem is that...umm..they don't really exist. Here's a good article about the lies being propagated by the telecommunications industry.

Not So Fast

Have you ever wondered why your Internet seems to be slower at different times? Or, why it seems to be slower than what you are paying for? if so, then read this article.

Make It Great

The problem with many DVD rippers is that they can't handle Blu Ray and many only work on a PC. Enter MakeMKV, a free program that works great with Blu Ray and will work on PCs, Mac, Linux...you name it.

Keeping Up with the Joneses

One of the biggest challenges for computer users is making sure they have all the latest software and patches for your computer. Here's an excellent guide on The Definitive Guide to Keeping Your PC Up To Date.

Back in Black

As much as I'm a huge fan of online backup, I know it's not for everyone. Here are the Five Best Offline Backup Tools.

Thanks for the Memories

With the glut of new websites that pop up every day, it's always a good idea to take a look back to see where it all began. Many sites have pretty much changed the Internet for good, here are 15 Noteworthy Sites that did.

Flash Forward

There a lot of great technology coming down the pike this year, a few which I've mentioned previously in this blog. Here are The Top 10 Upcoming Technologies in 2010.