Category Archives: Technology

Newest Greatest Find

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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]

Firefox Tip #2

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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 of My Fav Firefox Features

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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.

Good Buildup

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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]

@43 u 1337?

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Are you leet, is what I was asking. Leet is short for “elite”, and leetspeak is taking words and replacing them with characters and numbers. An example would be /\/\1cr0$()ft.

I saw a new online aggregator, “the best online aggregator ever…”, a day or two ago which is what prompted me to give the short lesson in 13375p34k. t3h Blox0r is pretty slick. It gives a desktop aggregator feel right in your Gecko-based web browser. That’s right, this website only works with web browsers that use the Gecko engine, such as Firefox or Seamonkey (formerly Mozilla Application Suite). I’m just starting to play around with it. I think this look the most promising out of all the other non-Bloglines feeds I’ve tried.

[tags]Bloxor, feed, rss, aggregator[/tags]

Coincidence or Price Fixing

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Today Apple introduced their new MacBook Pro and an update to the iMac model. These are the first two systems to use the Intel processors that Apple announced they are switching to back in June 2005.

A little history lesson. In 1978 Intel released the 8086 processor. This is the processor that “fathered” the 286/386/486 lines and Pentium lines. In the personal computer world the 8086 is a founding father . . . the George Washington of micro-processors if you will.

In today’s stock market news — the day that Apple introduces their first Intel based products — Apple stock closed at $80.86. I know that price fixing on the stock market like this would be extremely difficult, and probably impossible, but still . . . it’s almost too strange to be a coincidence.

[Linky Love]

[tags]Apple, Macintosh, Intel[/tags]

Set it Free

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I’ve seen this story presented before. Basically, Boston’s Logan Airport has pay-for wifi access, which they gouge $7.95/day out of you. I know the size and importance of Portland Intl Airport is not that of Logan, but PDX has free wifi service throughout the airport.

Living in the northwest I know that there would be revolts against PDX if they *shudder* charged for wifi access. I can’t imagine paying $8 to browse the internet for the hour or two that I sit in the airport and wait on a flight. That’s just extreme. If I traveled for work more than 2-3 times a year I would seriously get into Continental’s Presidents Club for their free wifi. Dallas – Ft. Worth only has pay-for wifi access, Denver only has pay-for wifi, and O’Hare is just now getting setup with it. It’s not often that I feel like there is a reason to brag about PDX, but this is definitely a major bragging point for me.

[tags]wifi, Logan International Airport, Portland International Airport[/tags]

Tasty WordPress Links

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I’ve decided that I should pass along some links to my favorite things when it comes to WordPress.

  • Alex King hosted a competition for themes. He also setup a handy browser so you can see a demo of each theme.
  • Comment spam is a nasty thing. I originally used a captcha based spam blocker (where you have to type in the text from a funny looking image), but have since changed to something more discrete: Spam Karma 2.0. The goal of SK2 is to “stop all forms of automated Blog spam effortlessly, while remaining as unobtrusive as possible to regular commenters.”
  • If you are an AdSense user, this plugin may be what you are looking for.
  • If you use Google Analytics for site statistics, this plugin will add the necessary code without needing to hack up your templates.
  • This blog is all about blogging. Topics covered range from general blogging topics, to specific WordPress themes and plugins. There is also a post of his favorite WordPress plugins.
  • This site has an extensive list of WordPress plugins.

You can see my WordPress del.icio.us bookmarks here.

What are your favorite WordPress links?

Desktop Anywhere

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I’ve heard a lot of buzz surrounding web2.0 lately, but I think I finally have seen it. EyeOS is a browser-based operating system. I haven’t played with it much, but this is very cool, and I look forward to installing it on my server at home and playing around with it. It’s still in beta (version 0.8.7 is the current release) but it seems nice already. There are a couple of demo sites up, so go check it out.

Linky Love