moved

9 Sep, 2009  |  Written by Tara  |  under tech
1 Comment

Update your feed readers, kids. I’ve moved from tara.elmadera.com to tara.aukerman.org.

A huge and MAJOR thanks to Steve E. for hosting me and David these past years – and for continuing to let us mooch some space. You’re the best!

How to Delete Audiobooks from Your Zune

15 Apr, 2009  |  Written by Tara  |  under howto
13 Comments

For those of you Zune owners who don’t know how…

Since Zune software doesn’t actually put your audiobooks onto your Zune, it won’t help you pull them off when you’re done. You have to use the program that transferred them in the first place – for me, that’s OverDrive.

Here’s how to remove audiobooks from your Zune.

  1. Connect your Zune to your computer.
  2. Open OverDrive.
  3. Click on one of your active books (doesn’t matter if you’ve already transferred it or not).
  4. Click the Transfer button:
    overdrive-transfer3
  5. Click the Next button.
  6. Click the Advanced Options button:
    overdrive-advancedoptions
  7. Click the Browse button:
    overdrive-browse
  8. Right-click on your OverDrive folder and click “Delete“:
    overdrive-delete

All of your audiobooks will be removed from your Zune. That’s exactly what I wanted to do, but if you’re interested in only deleting one book, you can open the OverDrive folder and right-click/delete individual files.

Kinda kludgy, but if you’re like me, you’re really just excited that there’s a way to get these files off of your Zune.  =)

woohoo!

17 Jul, 2008  |  Written by Tara  |  under tech
4 Comments

So, I use iTunes almost exclusively as my media player. I also have an HP laptop (a dv6000) that has QuickPlay buttons. These buttons work to control media players from my keyboard (instead of having to find the application window and use the play controls from there).

The catch: these buttons only work with software that comes installed on a new HP. Not with iTunes (unless iTunes is the active – on-top – window). Such a pain!!

So, after a day of searching, I found what I was looking for – an iTunes plugin that allows you to use your Quick Launch/QuickPlay buttons as play controls!

Most of you don’t care, but for the few folks as ANNOYED as I have been, I present to you the easiest solution:

mmkeys.dll

Voila!!

right-to-left

29 Feb, 2008  |  Written by Tara  |  under tech
3 Comments

I’m a girl who doesn’t use a mouse if she can help it.  I prefer using keyboard shortcuts – it saves me a lot of time (and some wrist pain).

Sometimes, though, I inadvertently command the computer to do something that makes a drastic change.  Case in point:  while working in Notepad (I was stripping formatting or coding some html/css), I accidentally set my computer to display ALL text right-to-left, instead of the American/European default of left-to-right.  I gotta tell you, it’s bizarre trying to type like that.  And frustrating when you don’t know what key command caused the behavior.  Or how to reverse it.

Fortunately for you folks, I’ve done it several times more.  I use CTRL and SHIFT + arrow keys quite a bit when I type (for selecting text).  Here’s what I learned:  Holding down CTRL + the right SHIFT key will toggle right-to-left typing/reading.  If you accidentally set your text to read RTL, just hold down CTRL + the left SHIFT key to reset.

I discovered another way (one of many) to toggle between RTL and LTR -

  1. Open an Explorer window to view the contents of “My Computer.”
  2. Right-click on the words “My Computer” in the address bar.
  3. Select (or deselect) “Right to left Reading order” from the menu.