Do I Have a Dead Pixel? is a simple and easy to use online utility which checks your monitor for defective pixels in a few simple clicks. To get started, just select the background color to test against and find out if there is any dead pixel in your monitor. Before proceeding with the test, make sure that there are no dust particles or smudges on your monitor so that it’s easier for inspection. After selecting the background color, just press F11 and it will show you if there is any defective pixel in a form of a small dot.

Features

• Free and easy to use.
• Test your monitor for defective or dead pixels.
• Inspect your monitor without installing any software.
• Similar services: Display Calibrator, ScreenPerfect, ScreenFix and Calibrize (Windows).

Check out Do I Have A Dead Pixel? @ www.doihaveadeadpixel.com (by Hammad from TechnicallyDigital)

Display Calibrator is a free and simple to use web tool that helps calibrate your computer’s display or phone’s screen. All you have to do is visit the website through your computer or phone and then adjust the device’s brightness and contrast to make the site’s black, white, and gray color shades and bands visible. A key to how the bands and shades should appear is provided in the site’s lower section. By calibrating your display using this website, you will ensure that all shades are displayed appropriately by your screen.

Features:

• A user-friendly web service.
• Lets you calibrate mobile phone or computer screen.
• Works for computer screens and smartphone displays.
• Provides a list of instructions.
• Similar tools: ScreenPerfect, ScreenFix and Calibrize (Windows).

Check out Display Calibrator @ www.newnmedia.com/~calibrate (By Umar from TechCityInc)

Sensr is a great website that lets you view your home remotely. Sensr monitors your house via a computer camera feed. It then keeps a look out for any motion. Any motion is picked up and provided online as snapshots.

You can have the service send out an email or text message each time it detects motion in the feed. You can also log onto the video feed URL provided to you by Sensr; this URL can be made public or private. By visiting the URL you can view the camera’s live feed and all the saved snapshots organized by date.

Features:

• A user friendly web service.
• Lets you remotely monitor your home through a computer camera.
• Detects motion and notifies you via email and text message.
• Takes snapshots of instances when motion is detected.
• Organizes these snapshots and lets you view them anytime.
• Provides a URL for the live feed of the camera.
• URL can be made public or private.
• Similar tool: HomeCamera, Vitamin D, HighlightCam, HomeCamera and UGOlog.
• Also check out our articles:
  How To Build A WiFi Home Surveillance System
  3 Most Effective Cell Phone Surveillance Apps to Monitor Your Kids
  How To Build A WiFi Home Surveillance System With Your PC

Check out Sensr @ www.sensr.net

AlertFox is a web monitoring service that uses the iMacros technology to monitor web actions in browsers, which gives it a more reliable reading of your website. This web monitoring service can also provide in-depth monitoring for websites based on ActiveX, AJAX, Flash, Flex, complex HTML, and Silverlight technology. With AlertFox, you will know why your website failed instead of merely guessing.

To use AlertFox, you need to first install the iMacros Firefox add-on and then record the website transaction that you want to monitor with it. Once you are done recording, upload the macro to your AlertFox account. You can then test the macro in AlertFox to check if it is working.

Once you are satisfied, click the “Update” button and AlertFox will now regularly run the macro. If the macro fails, AlertFox will then notify you of the error. If AlertFox detects an error, it will send the site owner a screenshot and a detailed error message to help identify the problem.

AlertFox is also the first web monitoring service that can monitor Silverlight and Flash applets.  AlertFox uses iMacros, a browser plugin that can record web sessions and automate web browsers, to check the performance of your website. This way, the errors actually experienced by users can be detected more accurately.

This service does not come without cost. Fortunately there is a free plan that offers 1 Firefox test with a 4-hour interval for you to try out.

Features:

• In-depth website monitoring service.
• Uses iMacros technology for a more in-depth result.
• Supports ActiveX, AJAX, Flash, Flex, complex HTML, and Silverlight.
• Monitors even complex websites YouTube and Google Docs.
• Worldwide checkpoints monitor your server 24/7.
• Multiple checkpoints reduces chances of false alerts.
• Transaction monitoring for Internet Explorer, Firefox, and iMacros browser.
• Receive screenshots when errors are detected.
• Monitors Flash performance.
• Offers 4 user plans with a free 30-day trial. Free plan also included.

Check out AlertFox @ www.alertfox.com

Spiceworks starts by scanning your computer and/or your IT network and making an inventory of all your hardware and software assets. This includes a detailed count of your work stations, servers, network devices, software and other peripherals. A quick environment summary tells you of any DNS problems, the number of alerts, errors and offline devices you have, a list of recently installed apps and even create an activity timeline for the complete network.

Spiceworks lets you monitor your network by letting you set up a variety of email alerts for any predictable or unpredictable activity. An awesome network map shows all the devices and their connection to each other while the help desk feature allow you to assign tickets to other users in your network, set their priorities and track their progress. The tool also has detailed reference material to help you learn more about your IT services and lets you generate quick reports for a variety of things including tickets, summary of machines with specific software usage, disk usage, schedules and much more.

In the beginning, the 25 MB of download would seem annoying to any user, but the depth of features and the fact that all this comes for free, makes Spiceworks a great software.

Features:

• Monitor your computer or network.
• Create a network map or detailed inventory of software and hardware.
• Create, assign and track tickets.
• Generate activity reports and set email alerts.
• Read reference material or get help from other users.

Download Spiceworks @ www.spiceworks.com

Change Detection is a web service which has been up since 1999, long before RSS and ATOM feeds became popular. You can use Change Detection to monitor any website automatically; when a change occurs on the site you are sent an email notifying you of the change. You can then check your email and visit the site to view the update.

You do all this by first creating an account on the site. With the account formed, you enter your site to be monitored, then the email address to send notifications to. This simple procedure can be very helpful particularly for old sites that get updated rarely such as school and college reunion pages.

Features:

• Website change alert utility online.
• Very simple and user friendly.
• Get email notifications for changes on a website.
• Changes are monitored through a change log ““ changes in the text on the site are monitored.
• Perfect for sites that do not support update feeds.
• Perfect for people who have gotten used to RSS / ATOM feeds.
• Business owners can use it for monitoring their competitor’s sites.
• Reliable service that has been around for a long time.
• Similar tool: Femtoo, Page2RSS, FeedMySearch and Feedity.
• Also read related articles:
  How to Monitor Websites that don’t have RSS Feeds.
  Monitor Just About Any Webpage For Changes with Diphur.
  Track Website Changes with Page Monitor for Chrome.

Check out Change Detection @ www.changedetection.com (by MOin from ThumbPress)

But how do you get those settings right? While there are a number of desktop based tools (and Windows 7 comes with one), ScreenPerfect is one of the few web based tools I’ve found for this purpose.

ScreenPerfect is a web based application that takes you through a number of steps that help you correct your monitor settings.

Features:

• Free to use and no registration required to use.
• Easy to understand wizard style interface.
• Includes simple instructions on what to expect and how to fix your monitor.

Check out Screen Perfect @ www.screenperfect.aperturegames.com

Photo Friday’s Monitor Calibration Tool is a webpage that guides you on how to properly calibrate your monitor online. Although it won’t tweak the monitor settings for you, it will certainly help you decide if your monitor is at its optimal viewing condition.

To calibrate your monitor with this tool, you need to dim the lights you are using and then set your browser to full screen mode. All you need to do is adjust the brightness and the contrast of your monitor until tones that are lighter than true black are clearly distinguishable from true black, and tones immediately darker than true white are distinguishable from true white. The webpage includes a palette of the grayscale tone, as well as some black and white graphics, to help you judge whether or not your monitor is already calibrated.

Features:

• Helps you calibrate your monitor.
• Set your monitor to the optimal viewing setting.
• Make true black and true white clearly distinguishable from other shades of gray.
• Free, no signup is required.
• Simialar tools: ScreenFix and Calibrize (Windows)

Check out Monitor Calibration Tool @ www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php

Some carriers send alerts via SMS to your device but now there is a service to monitor accounts and avoid extra charges on cell phone bill. The service is called OverMyMinutes, it is web based and it lives at www.overmyminutes.com. After you sign up and verify your account you will see a configuration screen that looks like this one (phone number and email address has been omitted on purpose).  It will monitor you account and  automatically alert you with a free text message or email when you are about to run into overages on your cell phone plan.

This is an awesome free service that can help your wallets and purses!

Features:

• Proactively monitors your cell phone activity.
• Gives you piece of mind that you won’t go over your limit.
• Alerts can be email based or text message based (SMS).
• Monitor text messaging limits.
• Daily alerts.
• Customizable alerts.
• Alerts sent as plain text or HTML.
• Website has been around for over 3 years.
• Free to home and small businesses.
• Simple enough that anyone from a pre-teen to a senior citizen can use it.

Check out OverMyMinutes @ www.overmyminutes.com

Using the interface is really easy: just input the numbers and click “Calculate.” While exact statistic for ideal television viewing isn’t a subject everyone would be interested in, it’s worth giving this site a shot to see if you can get more out of the equipment you have””or find out how new equipment might benefit you.

• Calculate ideal viewing distance and angle for your television.
• Easy-to-use web interface.
• Similar tools: DisplayWar and TvCalculator.

Check out Viewing Distance Calculator @ www.myhometheater.homestead.com