LogiGamer mouse profile software lets you assign keystrokes (or any other command) to all of your Logitech mouse buttons. Why Logitech doesn't let you do that in their own control panel, who knows... The program has two parts: a profile editor, and a lightweight profile switcher that can detect what's running and load the right profile for it. Be aware that the most current info seems to be in the forum, including the link to the very newest version. Read the first post in that thread, there are a few manual installation steps.

Tip: in Logitech SetPoint, go to the gaming tab, turn on Game Detection, and make sure that "keep keypress button assignments" is turned on. Otherwise, keystrokes assigned to mouse buttons don't seem to work.

This guy earned his $5 PayPal donation.

I used to use Proxomitron at home to filter web crap on my Windows machine. Then I switched to Privoxy, which does basically the same thing, except I run it on a FreeBSD server where it cleanses the web for all the other machines on the LAN. That said--I just started a new job, so I installed Proxomitron on the WinXP machine they gave me. Here we get to real point of this post: there seems to be an active Proxomitron user community at CastleCops.com, and user Grypen maintains a nice filter set. (There are others too, but Grypen's seems to have the most recent updates.)

1. Hit the filter set announcement page and download Proxomitron and the filter set.
2. Install Proxomitron, then quit it.
3. Install the filter set.
4. Restart Proxomitron.
5. In IE, go to Tools/Internet Options/Connections/Lan Settings. Change your proxy to localhost port 8080
   1. Once you have made this change, IE will not load pages unless Proxomitron is running. Remember that!
6. Enjoy the web without all the crap

Sad side note: while digging up this stuff I learned that the author of Proxomitron died in 2004.

Me and Google just had to figure this out so I thought I would share.

I have to use Outlook at work. The free Lookout plugin adds much better mail searching, making it easy to find old messages. It's free, it's stable, and it works, so try it already.

It must be good, Microsoft bought the company. Right? Guys? Hello?

"When you activate Windows XP, Microsoft stores the data in the Windows Product Activation database files wpa.dbl and Wpa.bak in the folder %systemroot%system32. If you change the motherboard or make significant hardware changes, XP will require you to reactive. But if you plan to reinstall XP on the same hardware, you can back up the activation status and then restore it after you reinstall and avoid the activation process."

Hit the source page for all the details.