Entries Tagged 'Technology' ↓

When doing any kind of web design the hardest thing for me to do is decide on the colors to use. I tend to fall into my typical color schemes, most specifically the navy and red of the Red Sox. However, I’ve now got a new (to me) tool in my toolbox. I was working on a new Wordpress theme, and going through my color troubles when my wife sent me the link to ColorCombos.com. At present they have 212 color pallet combinations, complete with the HEX codes for implementing these colors online. My job at picking colors just got a whole lot easier!

[tags]CSS, web design[/tags]

Found this today. This official list shows a ton of shortcut keystrokes that you can use in Mac OS X to do specific tasks. I also found this for those who are using Windows XP. Shortcut love all around.

[tags]OSX, WinXP[/tags]

If you are like me (and I know everyone is) you are curious about the reality of scrapping your expensive Microsoft Office software in favor of the free, online options that are cropping up these days…dubbed Office 2.0. This webpage has the most extensive listing of web-based software options, organized into categories, comparing the features and capabilities of each service. I look forward to playing around with them.

[tags]Web 2.0, Office 2.0[/tags]

I subscribe to Linux Watch because, well, I think he has some really good things to say. And most of all, he says them well. Recently he posted about 3 separate Microsoft “lovers” and their valid bashing of Microsoft. It’s not really pro-anything, mostly anti-Microsoft. Definitely worth the look.

[tags]Microsoft[/tags]

I made the switch today. That’s right, I joined the growing legions of people switching from Windows to Macintosh. What did I get, you may ask? I decided to go small. So far things seem to be going great. I didn’t really do a lot with it tonight. Just got it setup, including the installation of Firefox and all of my extensions and getting my iTunes library populated.

Why? Lots of reasons, but I’ll put this article out there as my first reason. Plus, with Apple changing to the Intel chip I thought this was a great time to make the switch. Every time I’ve used a Mac, even with my old Performa back in college, I’ve enjoyed working on it. Can’t necessarily say the same for Windows. I look forward to my new, mini friend. I hope you look forward to hearing about it
[tags]Mac, OS X, switch[/tags]

Once again my del.icio.us links have backed up some, so get ready for a random collection of links:

• Launchy - This is another application launcher, similar to Colibri (featured by me in this post). I stopped using Colibri because it took too long to get it started up. Launchy starts rapidly, and at present is taking less than 2 Meg of memory to run. Another benefit of Launchy is the ability to choose which directories get indexed for launching.
• WP-Notable - “Notable displays a series of icons below each post allowing your readers to easily submit you to many different social bookmarking and networking sites.” This allows for easy posting to social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, Digg, and Spurl, to name a few.
• Jacktracker - More stuff for those 24 fans. This is a Google Maps mash-up, set to the travels during a day in the life of Jack Bauer.
• Bullfighter - “If you think you smell something at work, there’s probably good reason — Bull has become the official language of business. Every day, we get bombarded by an endless stream of filtered, jargon-filled corporate speak, all of which makes it harder to get heard, harder to be authentic, and definitely harder to have fun. But it doesn’t have to be that way.” Let Bullfighter put your corporate mission statement in plain English for you.
• Fav Wordpress Plugins - Business Blog Consulting has put together their list of their favorite Wordpress plugins. Anyone who takes the time to list their favorite plugins is worth a read.
• Warriors of the Net - If you’ve ever wanted to watch a movie explaining in fairly easy-to-understand terms how data gets transmitted on a network (or the internet), then this is the movie for you.
• Nifty Corners - For those that fancy themselfs as web programmers, this Javascript/CSS combo allows you to make rounded corners without the need for specially created image files. My current theme is using Nifty for its roundedness.

That’s all I got for now.

[tags]Bullfighter, Launchy, 24, Jack Bauer, Google Maps, Nifty Corners, Wordpress[/tags]

I came across a new (to me) freeware product today, and it’s only for us unfortunate souls that have to use Windows and Outlook. DeskTask is a program that will put your Outlook calendar and task list on your desktop. As soon as I read about it I downloaded it, then I went and told a co-worker and he installed it too. You can customize the items it displays, all the way down to specific calendar categories. This is definitely on my Highly Recommend list.

via Lifehacker

[tags]Outlook, DeskTask[/tags]

I love tabbed browsing. I think it is the greatest thing since . . . well, a while ago. Ever since I started using Firefox I’ve become climatized to right-clicking to find the option to open links in new tabs. I just recently became aware that if I hold CTRL while left-clicking on a link it will automagically open it in a new tab. It’s still taking me some getting used to, but I like it a lot. Much easier than the “old” way I was doing it.

[tags]Firefox, tabbed browsing[/tags]

One day I was talking with Aj about something online, and she proceeded to type out the full web address for the site she wanted to go to. I asked why she didn’t use Firefox’s built-in web address auto completion feature. Simple answer, she didn’t know about it. I tend to take my geekiness for granted and assume that everyone knows all of the same tricks that I know. So, without further ado, here is how you use this extremely helpful shortcut.

What the address completion does is append the .com/.net/.org to the address, saving you the keystrokes. The first step is to type the center part of the web address into the address line i.e. google, amazon, comcast, webjive. Then, depending on the dot-type you have a different keystroke.

• For .com hold CTRL and hit Enter (google.com, amazon.com)
• For .net hold Shift and hit Enter (comcast.net)
• For .org hold CTRL and Shift, and hit Enter (webjive.org)

The CTRL+Enter .com completion works with IE as well, but the .net and .org completion only works with Firefox.

There are times when buildup is a bad thing, like when you have a buildup of that film on your teeth. I, on the other hand, have a good buildup of links that I need to pass along to you all.

• Get your Star Wars geek on with this video clip. Via GVOD.
• Do you miss your Commodore 64? You can now play all of those games online.
• Have you ever wondered what you can do with RSS feeds, beside syndicate news headlines? This site will help you with 12 other possible uses.
• Are you tired of not having a mouse with your laptop when you are away from your desk? The MoGo Mouse might be your solution. Bluetooth required for use.
• Do you want to learn how to do some of those fun Ajax web tricks? Let script.aculo.us be your guide.
• Windoze users, are you tired of having to dig through your start menu to open applications? Colibri is an application launcher that lets you launch your applications just by typing the name of it. I’ve installed this at work, and it’s coming in very handy. Definitely worth a look.

If you want to see all that I have in my del.icio.us bookmarks check it out.

[tags]Star Wars, c64, rss, MoGo Mouse, script.aculo.us, Colibri[/tags]