This list only gives you a brief insight into some of the secrets of Google Search. If you want to find more tips, tricks or creative ways for using Google, try simply doing a search on... Google.

The most helpful phrase in this case would be "Google Hacks" or something similar.

After doing some research on Google and Sourceforge, I finally found a nice piece of software called Thingamablog. This program is free to download so I gave it a try and was fascinated about its features. Thingamablog is programmed in Java so you need to download the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) in order to run the application. You can use it either on Windows or Linux. You also need your webspace FTP account data to actually transfer your blog onto your webserver (you can also publish your blog posts locally on your harddrive for first testing the software). Thingamablog is a desktop blogging software and can be used like a content management system (CMS).

Setting up your own Blog

Thingamablog works with templates and so called template tags, which are filled with data like blog posts, the name of the author or description tags. After that the software generates Html-pages from these templates which are published on your webspace. When you start the application you will be presented with a wizard that guides you in setting up your blog. First you have to enter some informations regarding your webspace, namely the Base-Path of your blog (like "http://www.mywebsite.com/blog/") and the Base-URL (like "/htdocs/blog"). The Base-URL is the path where Thingamablog publishes your blog posts to, ask your webhost for more details regarding this adress. If you want to publish your blog on your local harddrive you must enter different paths. Your Base-Path should be something like "/C:/Mywebsite/blog" (notice the first slash before your actual path!), the Base-URL is the same adress plus the prefix "file://", so you would have "file:///C:/Mywebsite/blog" as your Base-Path. I know this sounds a bit difficult, but you luckily have to set it up ownly once.

When you proceed with the wizard, you have to type in your blog title and a description. Right after this you can enter some categories (or call it Tags) in order to arrange your different posts later. The same goes for blog authors, which is the next step within the wizard. You can assign different writers for the same blog. Next comes the design part, where you have to choose from a list of different templates provided with the installation of Thingamablog. You can also download different templates from the web (use a Google search for it) or even create your own one. If you want to develop your own template you have to play with template tags, so I would suggest looking into the help files that come with the installation. The last step before you can actually begin blogging is entering your FTP account data. Thingamablog needs your publishing path, your user name and password, which are all provided by your webhost. If you want to publish locally, simply select "local" in the drop-down list. Right after this you are ready for blogging and please notice, that you can change your blog configuration at any time, so if you made a mistake it´s no problem.

Start Blogging

Now you can start blogging. The whole process of writing and publishing posts is self-explaining. First you will write a new post, the you choose one or more categories. After this you can either save your post as a draft or save and publish it. Notice that you can change the posts Html-code, simply choose the tab at the bottom of the editor window. Play around with Thingamablogs features (I suggest you first publish locally to test out the software). There are a lot more things you can do with it. For example you can drive Thingamablog to ping different servers, use it as a feed reader to stay up to date or publish your pictures with it.

If you need further instructions, visit this nice tutorial about Using Thingamablog or this Forum, where you can also find informations about setting up commenting functions for your blog, which would be impossible without PHP or other scripting languages.

Getting started

When the flight sim window opens, you will be presented with some options before you can actually start flying. For the moment you can choose between only two planes, the jet fighter F16 and the propeller-driven aircraft SR22, which is much easier to fly for beginners. The next option is your starting location, you can fly from your current location or choose an airport in a drop-down list. There is also the possibility to fly with joystick support, simply plug in your controller and activate the option. If you don´t have a joystick, i recommend using your mouse instead of your keyboard, it´s much simpler.

Basic flight controls

My advice is to first start from an airport from the drop-down list. When you start the simulator you will be presented with a HUD showing you different informations about your controls. The horizontal lines in the middle of the screen are showing your elevation in degrees, positive values stand for upward, negative values for downward movement. On top of the HUD is the heading orientation. The left panel indicates your speed, the right one is for altitude. At the bottom left side you find a throttle display besides other informations like rudder or yoke. If you click in the 3D view, a cursor will appear.

First you´ll have to increase your throttle. Use PageUp to go faster. While on the ground you can control your moving direction with either left (comma key) or right (period key) wheel brakes. Once you reached a sufficient speed (for the F16 you have to go up to around 300) , move your mouse down to take off. Do this slowly and controlled. When your plane is in the air press G to retract your landing gear.

The best advice is to try it yourself. Once you are up in the air the actual flying isn´t that hard (as long as you do it slow and controlled). To fly a curve simply drag your mouse to on side while dragging it down slightly. For flying a straight line, keep your cursor around the middle of your HUD. The next big exercise would be landing the plane, but i´ll keep this for yourself.

For further informations regarding keyboard combinations you can go to the flight sim userguide or hit the help button on the main flight simulator window in Google Earth.

Finding nearly every song at the known universe

There is a giant number of songs out there at the World Wide Web. And there is Deezer! This site (formerly known as Blogmusik) has a tremendous database of them. In the search field you simply type in a song name and the music is on the way. Best thing all about is the possibility to store playlists from your favorite songs, so you can lean back and listen. Unfortunately there is no way to download these songs for "offline" use, but keep on reading, in the last paragraph i´ll show you a site where you can!

Finding the song that fits your mood

Say, for example, you search for a song that is relatively unknown. You keep searching and searching...but nothing to listen to. So you likely get angry about that. Thats wonderful! Because with Musicovery you´ll find exactly the appropriate song for your angry (and happy) feelings. Simply click on the panel that is showing on the left side. You can choose how the song should sound, more calm or energetic, positive or dark. Of course you also have the choice on different music genres and even the time from where the song should come to your speakers. Test it for yourself, it´s worth it!

Finding the song that´s ready for your hard drive

Last but not least i will show you Skreemr. As mentioned in the first paragraph this is the site where you can download songs. Basically it´s a search engine that permanently crawls the web for new MP3´s on webpages, blogs and so on. At the search results page you will be presented with a list of songs that you can directly listen to AND download with the link provided. Enjoy it.

Is this legal?

For the first two sites mentioned here, namely Deezer and Musicovery, i can say it´s legal because you can´t download the songs but only listen to them. Skreemr should be legal as long as you are just listening to the songs directly from the website, but if you download one to your hard drive it could be illegal!