From the Kim Komando (http://www.komando.com/) computer newsletter: Three Easier Ways To Do Screen Captures -- methods which are very easy and very useful. Realize you have to download a program and that program has to be on the computer that you are using. As long as you understand that you can only do her easy methods after you download the program on the computer that you want to use to make screen prints, then they might be very useful to you.
-- courtesy of Dennis (the flying DJ)

If you see this man around Austin, BEWARE -- you may be on WebCam!!!

Method #1

Sometimes you need a picture of what's on your computer screen. Every computer has the ability to take these screen shots. But that utility can be a pain to use. In Windows, you can take a shot of your entire screen. Just hit the Print Screen button. Or in Vista you can use the Snipping tool. But it's not exactly the most user-friendly tool. There has to be something better.

That's where Greenshot comes to the rescue. It puts a variety of screen shot tools at your fingertips. It runs in the background. And it adds keyboard shortcuts for different screens hot types.

Of course, you can still capture the full screen. But you can also grab just the window you're using. Or you can click and drag to capture a custom region. Save the screen shots wherever you want. Or modify them with the built-in image editor.

http://greenshot.sourceforge.net/

Method #2

Taking screen shots is very useful. You can grab anything you see on your screen. And you can save it as an image. Edit the image. Share it with friends. Or paste it in documents and e-mail.

Every version of Windows has a built-in screen shot tool. It's pretty bare bones. But it gets the job done. That said, there's a better way.

Screenpresso actually adds a bunch of handy features. But at the same time, it makes screen shots easier than ever. Just hit Print Screen (F13) to get started. And select any region to take a screen shot.

All shots are stored in Screenpresso history. From there, you can save, edit and e-mail them. And you can look through and work with past screen shots. You can also post shots to Twitter at the push of a button.

Cost: Free
System: Windows XP, Vista and 7
http://www.screenpresso.com/index.html

Method #3

Make copy and paste more useful

The clipboard is the unsung hero of Windows. It allows you to copy text from nearly anywhere. And then you can paste it somewhere else. This is useful for URLs, news articles, instant messaging, e-mail and more.

But the clipboard can only hold one thing at a time. You can copy a block of text and paste it somewhere else. Then you have to go back for the next block. To copy and paste multiple things, you have to go back and forth.

Ditto takes away this limitation. It allows your clipboard to hold more than one entry. So copy a URL and some text and a few e-mail messages. Then paste them wherever you'd like without going back and forth. Your clipboard holds it all.

You can copy and paste just like you've always done. But when you want to activate Ditto, just press Ctrl + `. You'll see a list of past copies. Just click on the one you want to paste. This is simple and useful.

http://ditto-cp.sourceforge.net/

Unlike other birds, hummingbirds get a portion of their lift during the upstroke of their wings. Because flying objects cannot generate lift without creating drag, birds close their wings partially and set their "angle of attack" (the wing's incidence to the direction of flight needed for generating lift) to zero during the wasteful but necessary upstroke. That minimises the drag and conserves energy.

They then get their lift and forward thrust using a high angle of attack during the downward working stroke. By spreading their tail feathers and curling the tips of their wings back as they bring them down, the large energy-loaded vortices spilling off the leading edge of each wing can be channelled in the required down-ward and rear-ward direction to provide both lift and forward motion.
By contrast, to get the extra lift needed for hovering, hummingbirds do not simply flap their wings up and down, but oscillate them through a figure of eight pattern. By angling their bodies near to the vertical, the lift-generating vortices are thrust straight down beneath them. The hummingbird is literally buoyed on a vertical jet of air, with its head held stationary as it uses its long bill to feed.

The wings create the main vortex with a high angle of attack on the downstroke. They then flip their wings around on the upstroke, so as to create another vortex on the other side of the wing.