When trying to open Control Panel,its just opened and disappear again before even showing any Icons ,and dis appeares the printers icons also.after several restarts, it works for a while then returns the same problem....
Solution :-

Download and install the following Vista hot fix.

Today i have installed three Hp 4600n printer in a network,and configured it in windows vita clients.on next moment i got calls from users , they are facing problem when printing multiple pages ..prints only first page then giving message to select tray with red light..when pressing green button to continue the job, prints a error page (Unable to store job..) rather than the rest pages.
Hard to figure out the problem.Vista auto detects the driver.played in printer setting ,disabled ram disk .... but no hope.printer acting strange things ..at last i figured out that the problem is in driver. Vista auto detects only the PCL5 driver ..no way to update the driver.
so i installed printer in server as share printer ...when trying to access printer from clients , automatically installs the PCL6 driver in clients too. choosed PCL6 driver instead of PCL5... ..
now printers are working greatly...........

This policy is enabled default on workstations and servers that are joined to a domain.
Using the following command can disable this policy ....

Go to Start > Run and type "control passwords2" without quotes.
From the user accounts menu go to advanced tab then disable "require users to press Alt+Ctrl+Delete"as shown in figure..

While setting a single home page (other than MS) in Internet Options, it fails.each
time IE starts up, it goes to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=74005
rather than the home page which is set manually. Once IE is up,it will work by clicking home icon.

To solve this issue, save the part between the lines below and paste into
Notepad. Save as Runonce.reg

---------------------Runonce.reg--------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"RunOnceHasShown"=dword:00000001
"RunOnceComplete"=dword:00000001

-----------------------------------------------------

Right click Runonce.reg and choose Merge.

To change all Windows users at once use

---------------------Runonce2.reg--------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"RunOnceHasShown"=dword:00000001
"RunOnceComplete"=dword:00000001

John William Draper
A history of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Vol. 1

· "Four years after the death of Justinian, A.D. 569, was born at Mecca in Arabia, the man who of all men, has exercised the greatest influence upon the human race…Mohammad…."

Major Arthur Glyn Leonard
Islam – Her Moral and Spiritual Value, London 1927, p.20-1

· "Mohammad was no mere spiritual peddler, no vulgar time-serving vagrant, but one of the most profoundly sincere and earnest spirits of any age or epoch. A man not only great, but one of the greatest ( i.e. truest), men that humanity has ever produced. Great, not simply as a prophet but as a patriot and a statesman: a material as well as a spiritual builder who constructed a great nation, a greater empire and more even than all three, a still greater Faith, true moreover, because he was true to himself, his people and above all, to his God."

· "The theory of Islam and Sword for instance is not heard now frequently in any quarter worth the name. The principle of Islam that there is no compulsion in religion is well known. Gibbon, a historian of world repute says, "A pernicious tenet has been imputed to Mohammadans, the duty of extirpating all the religions by sword.This charge based on ignorance and bigotry, is refuted by Qur'an, by history of Musalman conquerors and by their public and legal toleration of Christian worship. The great success of Mohammad's life had been effected by sheer moral force, without a stroke of sword."

Prof. K. S. Ramakrishna Rao,
Head of the Department of Philosophy,
Government College for Women University of Mysore, Mandya-571401 (Karnataka). Mohammed The Prophet -Re-printed from "Islam and Modern age", Hyderabad, March 1978.

· "The personality of Muhammed, it is most difficult to get into the whole truth of it….There is Muhammed, the Prophet. There is Muhammed, the General; Muhammed, the King; Muhammed the Preacher; Muhammed the Philosopher; Muhammed the Statesman; Muhammed the Orator; Muhammed the Reformer; Muhammed the Protector of Slaves; Muhammed the Emancipator of Women; Muhammed the Judge; Muhammed the Saint. And in all these magnificent roles, in all these departments of human activities, he is alike, a hero."

Jules Masserman
U.S. psychoanalyst, Time Magazine, July 15, 1974

· Leaders must fulfill three functions – provide for the well-being of the led; provide a social organization in which people feel secure and provide them with a set of beliefs.

· People like Pasteur and Salk are leaders in the first sense. People like Gandhi and Confucius on one hand and Alexander, Caesar and Hitler on the other are leaders in the second and perhaps the third. Jesus and Buddha belong in the third category alone.

· Perhaps the greatest leader of all times was Mohammad who combined all three functions."

· "Some one has said that Europeans in South Africa dread the advent of Islam -- Islam that civilized Spain, Islam that took the torch light to Morocco and preached to the world the gospel of brotherhood.The Europeans of South Africa dread the Advent of Islam. They may claim equality with the white races. They may well dread it, if brotherhood is a sin. If it is equality of colored races then their dread is well founded."

Mahatma Gandhi

in Young India

· "I become more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days.

· It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard fro pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers and his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission.

· These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle."

Dr. Annie Besant
The Life and Teachings of Muhammad

· "It is impossible for anyone who studies the life & character of the great Prophet of Arabia, …., to feel anything but reverence for that mighty Prophet, one of the great messengers of the Supreme. …I myself feel whenever I re-read them, a new way of admiration, a new sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher."

Sir George Bernard Shaw
'The Genuine Islam,' Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936

· "I have studied him – the wonderful man – in in my opinion far from being an anti-Christ he must be called the Savior of Humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving the problems in a way that would bring much needed peace and happiness.

· I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today."

Rev. Bosworth Smith
"Mohammed and Mohammedanism", 1874

· "By a fortune absolutely unique in history, Mohammed is a threefold founder, of a nation, of an empire and of a religion.

· He was Caesar and Pope in one, but he was Pope without the Pope's pretensions and Caesar without the legions of Caesar: without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a palace, without a fixed revenue, if ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by right Divine, it was Mohammed, for he had all the powers without its instruments and without its supports."

Alphonse de Lamar tine
Historie de le Turquie, Paris 1854, Vol.11.Pages 276-77

· "If greatness of purpose, smallness of means and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who would dare to compare any great man in history with Muhammad?

· Philosopher, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational beliefs, of a cult without images, the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and one spiritual empires, that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?"

Dr. Sarojini Naidu
IDEALS OF ISLAM, vide Speeches & Writings, Madras, 1918

· "It was the first religion that preached and practiced democracy; for, in the mosque, when the call for prayer is sounded and worshippers are gathered together, the democracy of Islam is embodied five times a day when the peasant and king kneel side by side and proclaim: 'God Alone is Great'... I have been struck over and over again by this indivisible unity of Islam that makes man instinctively a brother."

Thomas Carlyle
On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History, London 1888,p.61

· "His household was the frugalest; his common diet barley-bread and water; sometimes for months there was not a fire once lighted on his hearth. They record with just pride that he would mend his own shoes, patch his own cloak. A poor, hard-toiling, ill provided man; careless of what vulgar men toil for.

· No emperor with his tiaras was obeyed as this man in a cloak of his own clouting. During his three and twenty years of rough trial, I find something of a veritable hero necessary for that of itself."

Credits,

yawarbaig@gmail.com

We've all been there: The CD or DVD drive on your PC gets stuck and traps your disc. Before you call tech support, try this simple trick for opening a jammed drive.

The SW Load on the Pilot DVD assumes that the “ATA control mode” setting is

“compatible”, which is default in the current pre-series BIOS version 0.12.

For running the SATA hard disk with all SATA features, BIOS has to be enabled for

AHCI mode of SATA hard disk.

If BIOS are in AHCI mode and the AHCI drivers are not installed in the OS, a “blue

screen” at boot will occur. Same for the other way around, AHCI driver installed and

BIOS with AHCI disabled.

BIOS setup Press “F2” at boot to go to BIOS settings. AMILO Pro V8010: Choose

“Advanced”. Set “ATA control mode” from “Compatible” to “Enhanced” and leave

“AHCI Configuration” setting “disabled”. LIFEBOOK E8020: Choose “Advanced”. and

then “Internal Device Configurations” Set “AHCI Configuration” setting “disabled”

1) Install Windows XP with SP1 or SP2 and make sure that the AHCI feature is

disabled in BIOS.

2) Reboot

3) Open Device Manager

Device Manager shows additional IDE/ATAPI controller entry:

“Intel® 82801FBM Ultra ATA Storage Controllers-2653”

Select tab: “Driver”

Click Button: “Update Driver”

Connect to Windows Update? Choose: “No, not this time”

Click Button: “Next”

Choose: “Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)”

Click Button: “Next”

Choose: “Do not search. I will choose the driver to install.”

Click Button: “Next”

Click: “Have Disk”

Click: “Browse”

Select directory: “My Computer / SYSTEM (C:) / WINDOWS / Drivers / SATA” or

where you have placed the SATA AHCI driver.

Choose: “iaAHCI.inf”

Click button: “Open”

Click Button: “Ok”

Choose: “Intel® 82801FBM SATA AHCI Controller”

Click Button: “Next”

Update Driver Warning: Click: “Yes”

After processing click: “Finish”

Click: “Close”

Click: “Yes”

System does reboot!

3) Press “F2” at reboot for BIOS

Choose “Advanced”

Set “AHCI Configuration” to “enabled”

Exit saving changes

System reboots now in “enhanced mode AHCI enabled”

Device Manager IDE/ATAPI controller entry:

“Intel® 82801FBM SATA AHCI Controller”

Note: If you want to change back to compatibility mode the similar procedure applies.

The location of the enhanced ATA driver is

“MyComputer/system/windows/drivers/IntChip”

and the model is

“Intel® 82801FBM Ultra ATA Storage Controllers-2653”

After reboot the BIOS setting can be changed back to “AHCI Configuration” setting

“disabled”

here you will learn how to add music or song to a power point presentation and how to get it to play across multiple slides.
(also see below How to Embed mp3 Sounds )

Step 1. Choose your file which u need to add power point presentation.
MP3 format is the better file format for power point presentation . This has the smallest file size. However there is one big problem with mp3 files that you can only link but not embed mp3 files into PowerPoint.

Custom Animation

Then select Multimedia Settings afterwards and make sure that you have selected While Playing >Continue Slide show You will then need to set the Stop Playing button and enter in the Stop Playing > After number slides the number of slides that you would like the music to play for.

If you are using PowerPoint XP the procedure is slightly different

Custom Animation > Right Click on Media and select Effect Options

You will then need to set the Stop Playing button and enter in the Stop Playing > After number slides the number of slides that you would like the music to play for.

Step 4. (Almost there). How to embed music in your presentation

The last gotcha in the process is that the music may not be embedded in your PowerPoint presentation. This means that is you save your presentation onto a CD or you are to email it, then the music may not automatically go across. It all depends upon the file size of the music.

If you want the music to be embedded in the presentation you will need to follow a couple of steps.

1. Make sure your music is in WAV format (mp3 files can only be linked and not embedded)
2. Increase the value in the Link sounds with file size greater than box to a value greater than the file size of the MP3 file. For example if the file size is 4.5MB then you will need to include a value higher than 4500. A good general purpose size that should incorporate most song files is 6000 as most mp3 files are less than 6MB. Be careful as some classical music tracks could be longer than this.

The only downside is that the file size of the final file could be quite large.

There is a 50 Mb limit for embedding WAV files. For eample if you had two WAV files of 34 MB the you will be able to embed them, but it would make your file size over 68MB.

The second question that we get asked ........

How to Embed mp3 Sounds

Most places will tell you that only wav files can be embedded in powerpoint. All other sound formats are linked. Since mp3 files can be 10 x smaller it would be very useful if you could embed them. Linked files can cause problems .

You can and here's how:

The technique is to add a header to the .mp3 file that will convince PowerPoint that it is actually a wav file. Although this will change the file name to "something.wav" the file remains an mp3 file, the same size as the original and will play in PowerPoint as an mp3 file. NOTE this only seems to work with PCs not with Macs.

You will need to download a free program called CDex to add the header. You can get it here CDex. The download page is a little confusing but the file you need is the windows exe version (cdex_170b2_ enu.exe)

With CDex use "Convert > "Add a RIFF wav header to mp2/mp3" to produce a file that will be virtually identical to the mp3 file but will have the .wav suffix and can be embedded using either of the techniques in Embedding Sound Files. The headered file should be found in the same folder as the original mps file.

If you are starting with a wav file and want to coonvert it to mp3 to reduce it's size then CDex will do this too. Choose convert > WAV files to Compressed Audio. Before you do this check Options>Settings > Filename tab and make sure you know where the converted file will be saved!

Many people speak of RIFF wav files as a special type of wav file. This is not the case RIFF stands for "Resource Interchange Fle Format" and applies to all wav files . You have not converted the mp3 to a RIFF wav merely convinced PowerPoint that the mp3 IS a normal wav file. RIFF wav has however slipped into technically incorrect common usage to mean an mp3 file with a wav header.


Credits,

John Wilson Microsoft MVP
http://www.PPTAlchemy.co.uk

Amazing .......................

It is an interactive search engine which i found recently on the web. it was a great idea with very flawed execution.and the web site is still in the beta stage(but seems it may give a stiff competition to google)

Have a look on what they are says about chacha :

ChaCha is the ultimate fusion of computer technology & human intelligence. Live human guides are available to provide additional assistance. - The human brain.

ChaCha's goal is to provide a better search experience by combining results that are hand-picked by our knowledgeable human guides with the best computer-generated search results. In those cases where you can't find what you need with our instant results, ChaCha will connect you with a live human guide who will find the information for you through an instant messaging-style search session.

Scott Jones and Brad Bostic, two dynamic entrepreneurs who were not satisfied with millions of irrelevant search results provided by first generation search engines, believed a better experience could be created by tapping into human intelligence. Since starting ChaCha, they have been hard at work with the ChaCha team to create:

• A smart search engine that "learns" by tapping into human intelligence so its results are always improving
• A place to find exactly what you're looking for instantly
• Help from people who are knowledgeable about the very thing you are looking for when instant results don't have the answer

KoolWire is a new and wonderful email based file conversion service to help you convert your Microsoft Word (.doc), Powerpoint (.ppt), Excel Spreadsheets (.xls) or even pictures into Adobe PDF documents.

Just compose a new email message, attach document(s) that have to be converted into PDF and send the email to pdf@koolwire. com. The PDF file(s) should arrive in your inbox the next moment.

The big advantage is that Koolwire PDF converter requires no software installation and, unlike Google Docs or PDFOnline, you don't have to upload documents to any webserver in order to print them as PDF - just send them across as email attachments. PDF creation couldn't be simpler.

Best of all, you can attach multiple documents / images to the same email message and Koolwire will batch convert them into PDF. Don't think any free PDF writer software offers such a convenient option to create multiple PDFs in one go.

What Qualifies as A Virus

Uses Up Massive System Resources

DDOS "Zombies" viruses can use up tons of your CPU space while they send looping pings of invalid lengths to their coordinated servers of choice. They're no match to Norton AntiVirus though, which can easily use 40% of your CPU and a gross amount of Memory.

Fake Error Messages & Getting Your Credit Card Number

If you do not choose to activate the trial version of Norton. You still have their disgusting services activated and eating your computer resources. Every startup you will be hassled with "You're NOT PROTECTED AGAINST THE HORRIBLE PROBLEMS THAT AWAIT YOU!! ACTIVATE THE TRIAL". This mortifies the average computer user that feels no confidence.

Once your trial period is up, you'll be given the same grossly inaccurate message once again that you need Norton AntiVirus or your computer is completely insecure. Either give norton your credit card number or face being scared into giving them it with each subsequent logon. Most computer users are not confident enough to delete their antivirus and don't know how to disable norton from startup.

Is Your Computer Secure Without Norton?

YES. You can use a powerful cocktail of programs that's even more secure and faster than the bloat ware that is norton. You should really ask yourself, "Is it worth having my computer go slower to have Norton AntiVirus scan every file I look at and every program I run." Many people confuse hardware problems for their old computers as viruses and anecdotally fear removing the antivirus even if they don't download anything risky.

Security Recommendations

• Delete Norton: They have an uninstall utility if normal uninstall fails. It can cause serious issues if improperly uninstalled or installed due to its need to have rabid control over EVERYTHING.
• Disable Windows FireWall And Defender: Sygate as a firewall and adaware+syboy do the same thing, only better.

• Install ClamWin and FreeAV: Two Free AntiViruses that are very lightweight
• For those who just worry about certain files from p2p networks Jotti and Virus Total provide the ability to scan with several different virus scanners with one upload.
• Install Sygate Personal Firewall: Very small firewall that does the job, it's completely free.
• Install Adaware and Spybot: Free anti spyware programs with a great reputation.
• Install SiteAdvison: Extension for firefox. It alerts you of the good sites and the bad sites. Don't ever click on google sponsored ads when looking to download software.
• Scan with Windows OneCare: Good spyware / vulnerabilty scan by microsoft.
• Checkout this list of online free virus scanners

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -----

Free AntiVirus

ClamWin

AntiVir

AVG

Free Online Scans

BitDefender

Panda

Avast

McAfee

Trend Micro

KasperSky

Symantec

WindTrojScan

CA

Nod32

F-Prot

Free Trials

Cleanup Spyware

Adaware

Spybot

Windows Live

AntiSpyware

Spyblaster

Trend Micro

Webroot

Yahoo! Toolbar

SysShield Toolbar

Spyware Doctor

Bazooka

Pestpatrol

Good news YouTube fans - you have one less username / password combination to remember since you can now move your YouTube data to Google account.

And if you have never signed-up for YouTube before, you can now create a new YouTube account with your existing Google Account. [you'll still need to supply an additional YouTube username though which is kind of strange]

Everything remains the same except that a new YouTube icon will show up in your Google Account Services page.

What's a Google Account - if you are on GMail, Google Groups, Adsense, iGoogle, Google checkout, etc - that's your Google Account - it may not necessarily be a @gmail.com address.

Sign Up for YouTube with Your Google Account

If you would like to unlink your YouTube and Google Account association, goto youtube.com/ my_account_ unlink - If you unlink your accounts, you will no longer be able to login to YouTube with your Google account. Your YouTube account will stay the same otherwise, and you can still login with your YouTube username and password

IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is a system where a digital television service is delivered by using Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure, which may include delivery by a broadband connection. A general definition of IPTV is television content that, instead of being delivered through traditional broadcast and cable formats, is received by the viewer through the technologies used for computer networks.

Over the last decade, the growth of satellite service, the rise of digital cable, and the birth of HDTV have all left their mark on the television landscape. Now, a new delivery method threatens to shake things up even more powerfully. Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) has arrived, and backed by the deep pockets of the telecommunications industry, it's poised to offer more interactivity and bring a hefty dose of competition to the business of selling TV.

IPTV describes a system capable of receiving and displaying a video stream encoded as a series of Internet Protocol packets. If you've ever watched a video clip on your computer, you've used an IPTV system in its broadest sense. When most people discuss IPTV, though, they're talking about watching traditional channels on your television, where people demand a smooth, high-resolution, lag-free picture, and it's the telcos that are jumping headfirst into this market. Once known only as phone companies, the telcos now want to turn a "triple play" of voice, data, and video that will retire the side and put them securely in the batter's box.

For millions of people, Google is an indispensable search tool that they use every day, in all facets of their lives. From work or school, research, to looking up movies and celebrities to news and gossip, Google is the go-to search engine.

But instead of just typing in a phrase and wading through page after page of results, there are a number of ways to make your searches more efficient.

Some of these are obvious ones, that you probably know about. But others are lesser-known, and others are known but not often used. Use this guide to learn more about, or be reminded of, some of the best ways to get exactly what you're looking for, and quickly.

1. Either/or. Google normally searches for pages that contain all the words you type in the search box, but if you want pages that have one term or another (or both), use the OR operator -- or use the "|" symbol (pipe symbol) to save you a keystroke. [dumb | little | man]

2. Quotes. If you want to search for an exact phrase, use quotes. ["dumb little man"] will only find that exact phrase. [dumb "little man"] will find pages that contain the word dumb and the exact phrase "little man".

3. Not. If you don't want a term or phrase, use the "-" symbol. [-dumb little man] will return pages that contain "little" and "man" but that don't contain "dumb".

4. Similar terms. Use the "~" symbol to return similar terms. [~dumb little man -dumb] will get you pages that contain "funny little man" and "stupid little man" but not "dumb little man".

5. Wildcard. The "*" symbol is a wildcard. This is useful if you're trying to find the lyrics to a song, but can't remember the exact lyrics. [can't * me love lyrics] will return the Beatles song you're looking for. It's also useful for finding stuff only in certain domains, such as
educational information: ["dumb little man" research *.edu].

6. Advanced search. If you can't remember any of these operators, you can always use Google's advanced search.

7. Definitions. Use the "define:" operator to get a quick definition. [define:dumb] will give you a whole host of definitions from different sources, with links.

8. Calculator. One of the handiest uses of Google, type in a quick calculation in the search box and get an answer. It's faster than calling up your computer's calculator in most cases. Use the +, -, *, / symbols and parentheses to do a simple equation.

9. Numrange. This little-known feature searches for a range of numbers. For example, ["best books 2002..2007] will return lists of best books for each of the years from 2002 to 2007 (note the two periods between the two numbers).

10. Site-specific. Use the "site:" operator to search only within a certain website. [site:dumblittleman .com leo] will search for the term "leo" only within this blog.

11. Backlinks. The "link:" operator will find pages that link to a specific URL. You can use this not only for a main URL but even to a specific page. Not all links to an URL are listed, however.

12. Vertical search. Instead of searching for a term across all pages on the web, search within a specialized field. Google has a number of specific searches, allowing you to search within blogs, news, books, and much more:

o Blog Search

o Book Search

o Scholar

o Catalogs

o Code Search

o Directory

o Finance

o Images

o Local/Maps

o News

o Patent Search

o Product Search

o Video

13. Movies. Use the "movie:" operator to search for a movie title along with either a zip code or U.S. city and state to get a list of movie theaters in the area and show times.

14. Music. The "music:" operator returns content related to music only.

15. Unit converter. Use Google for a quick conversion, from yards to meters for example, or different currency: [12 meters in yards]

16. Types of numbers: Google algorithms can recognize patterns in numbers you enter, so you can search for:

o Telephone area codes

o Vehicle ID number (US only)

o Federal Communications Commission (FCC) equipment numbers (US only)

o UPC codes

o Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airplane registration number (US only)

o Patent numbers (US only)

o Even stock quotes (using the stock symbol) or a weather forecast regarding the next five days

17. File types. If you just want to search for .PDF files, or Word documents, or Excel spreadsheets, for example, use the "filetype:" operator.

18. Location of term. By default, Google searches for your term throughout a web page. But if you just want it to search certain locations, you can use operators such as "inurl:", "intitle:", "intext:", and "inanchor:". Those search for a term only within the URL, the title,
the body text, and the anchor text (the text used to describe a link).

19. Cached pages. Looking for a version of a page the Google stores on its own servers? This can help with outdated or update pages. Use the "cached:" operator.

20. Answer to life, the universe, and everything. Search for that phrase, in lower case, and Google will give you the answer.

More info:
For more on Google's search syntax, see this one.

For millions of people, Google is an indispensable search tool that they use every day, in all facets of their lives. From work or school, research, to looking up movies and celebrities to news and gossip, Google is the go-to search engine.

But instead of just typing in a phrase and wading through page after page of results, there are a number of ways to make your searches more efficient.

Some of these are obvious ones, that you probably know about. But others are lesser-known, and others are known but not often used. Use this guide to learn more about, or be reminded of, some of the best ways to get exactly what you're looking for, and quickly.

1. Either/or. Google normally searches for pages that contain all the words you type in the search box, but if you want pages that have one term or another (or both), use the OR operator -- or use the "|" symbol (pipe symbol) to save you a keystroke. [dumb | little | man]

2. Quotes. If you want to search for an exact phrase, use quotes. ["dumb little man"] will only find that exact phrase. [dumb "little man"] will find pages that contain the word dumb and the exact phrase "little man".

3. Not. If you don't want a term or phrase, use the "-" symbol. [-dumb little man] will return pages that contain "little" and "man" but that don't contain "dumb".

4. Similar terms. Use the "~" symbol to return similar terms. [~dumb little man -dumb] will get you pages that contain "funny little man" and "stupid little man" but not "dumb little man".

5. Wildcard. The "*" symbol is a wildcard. This is useful if you're trying to find the lyrics to a song, but can't remember the exact lyrics. [can't * me love lyrics] will return the Beatles song you're looking for. It's also useful for finding stuff only in certain domains, such as
educational information: ["dumb little man" research *.edu].

6. Advanced search. If you can't remember any of these operators, you can always use Google's advanced search.

7. Definitions. Use the "define:" operator to get a quick definition. [define:dumb] will give you a whole host of definitions from different sources, with links.

8. Calculator. One of the handiest uses of Google, type in a quick calculation in the search box and get an answer. It's faster than calling up your computer's calculator in most cases. Use the +, -, *, / symbols and parentheses to do a simple equation.

9. Numrange. This little-known feature searches for a range of numbers. For example, ["best books 2002..2007] will return lists of best books for each of the years from 2002 to 2007 (note the two periods between the two numbers).

10. Site-specific. Use the "site:" operator to search only within a certain website. [site:dumblittleman .com leo] will search for the term "leo" only within this blog.

11. Backlinks. The "link:" operator will find pages that link to a specific URL. You can use this not only for a main URL but even to a specific page. Not all links to an URL are listed, however.

12. Vertical search. Instead of searching for a term across all pages on the web, search within a specialized field. Google has a number of specific searches, allowing you to search within blogs, news, books, and much more:

o Blog Search

o Book Search

o Scholar

o Catalogs

o Code Search

o Directory

o Finance

o Images

o Local/Maps

o News

o Patent Search

o Product Search

o Video

13. Movies. Use the "movie:" operator to search for a movie title along with either a zip code or U.S. city and state to get a list of movie theaters in the area and show times.

14. Music. The "music:" operator returns content related to music only.

15. Unit converter. Use Google for a quick conversion, from yards to meters for example, or different currency: [12 meters in yards]

16. Types of numbers: Google algorithms can recognize patterns in numbers you enter, so you can search for:

o Telephone area codes

o Vehicle ID number (US only)

o Federal Communications Commission (FCC) equipment numbers (US only)

o UPC codes

o Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airplane registration number (US only)

o Patent numbers (US only)

o Even stock quotes (using the stock symbol) or a weather forecast regarding the next five days

17. File types. If you just want to search for .PDF files, or Word documents, or Excel spreadsheets, for example, use the "filetype:" operator.

18. Location of term. By default, Google searches for your term throughout a web page. But if you just want it to search certain locations, you can use operators such as "inurl:", "intitle:", "intext:", and "inanchor:". Those search for a term only within the URL, the title,
the body text, and the anchor text (the text used to describe a link).

19. Cached pages. Looking for a version of a page the Google stores on its own servers? This can help with outdated or update pages. Use the "cached:" operator.

20. Answer to life, the universe, and everything. Search for that phrase, in lower case, and Google will give you the answer.

More info:
For more on Google's search syntax, see this one.