Tag: webapps

A day of microblogging continues

I’m using three new free applications that I think are worth sharing:

Rocketdock – creates a mac like doc for windows and is useful for uncluttering your desktop.
Launchy – is similarly useful – just open it and type the first few letters of any program you’d like to launch.
ProPhotoTool (requires Windows Validation) – newly launched Microsoft image metadata editor – useful if you have to manage an image library – like I do. 

 

September 23, 2008

Chroming

Google launched a browser today – Chrome. Pretty exciting. I’m using it right now. To type this email in my gmail to send it to my google blog.

Should I be concerned? So much of my life is tied to google – what if that “don’t be evil” maxim they celebrate actually is just a facade. Maybe Google is the precursor to the robots that took over the world in the Matrix… 
If this worst case scenario does end up being true – then at least I’ll go down in a blaze of blue and white efficiency blended with usability, utility and usefulness. It’s worth checking out. Just google it.   

 

September 3, 2008

Ubergeek

Thanks to my father I’ve spent the last few weeks (actually, probably my whole life) discovering my inner geek – thanks mostly to lifehacker.com.au –  which I mentioned a few weeks ago.

Anyway, in that short time i’ve significantly improved my “internet” experience through Firefox add-ons. If you’re not using Firefox 3 – you should be. Firefox’s strength is that it’s incedibly customisable. So here are my 5 favourite add ons:

1. Better Gmail 2.0 – makes Gmail more awesome by scripting out all the ugly, pointless stuff and applying funky skins.
2. Firebug – a funky little design tool that has been particularly useful for me and my wedmastery at work – it allows you to look at the elements that make up a page (design and content) and edit/tweak them in real time – any site, any time – which makes tweaking your own site, and stealing things from others a real breeze.
3. Piclens – a very, very cool image gallery viewing plug in. get it. Seriously cool.
4. Clipmarks – I’ve used this for a few posts lately – if you see something you like on a webpage you can highlight it and send it straight to your blog. Awesomeness. 
5. Ctrl + Tab – allows flicking between tabs within the browser in a breeze. I used to hit alt+tab trying to switch between tabs and would find myself increasingly frustrated when it changed windows on me. But no more.

Honourable mentions go to Delicious Bookmarks – which now make up the “what I’m reading” links in the sidebar, Facebook’s toolbar – which keeps you up to date on Facebooky goodness, if I could get it to work I’d love the FireNes plug in that brings about 1000 Nintendo Entertainment System games into your browser. I’d also recommend a number of plug ins that allow downloading from YouTube – but I’d have to pick the best.

I’m using the AeroFox skin in full screen mode and I feel like I’m in the future right now. There’s also a program out there that reskins Windows XP into Windows Vista like goodness – all the nice design elements without the performance sapping components.

I’ll probably put links up to all of these at some point – but right now I have to go. Farewell.

August 12, 2008

Very useful websites

I have been trawling the internet a little bit today – I’m in limbo on a couple of work related projects and I came across these two sites (well dad pointed me to one of them) – that are possibly the coolest sites on the internet. I can’t believe I hadn’t found them before. 

This one – is a series of step by step instructions to just about everything – from uber geeky through to ultra practical. 

This one – is mostly geeky but all about improving productivity and functionality of our tech filled lives. There’s also an Australian version

July 25, 2008