Windows Media Player 10 drives me nuts. So I’ve uninstalled it and rolled back to Windows Media Player 9. I don’t have anything against MP 10 per se. Indeed, when it came out I wrote a positive post about it. It’s a good evolution of the player with lots of additional and improved functionality to […]
Category: Software
Little gems for customizing Windows
RSS really is an effective way to quickly find out about things. Thinking about the Windows look and feel – as you do from time to time – and just glancing through my RSS feeds this lunchtime turned up these two litle gems: Two posts, from Dvorak Uncensored and Scobleizer, took me to a really […]
New validation process for Windows?
In the previous post today, I wrote about the Microsoft Time Zone utility. Here’s a very interesting thing that happens when you go to download it. When you get to the web page and click on the download link, you see the following: Before obtaining the requested download, please take a moment to validate your […]
RSS: How to get up to speed quickly
Are you clear on what RSS is and what the benefits are? Even if you are, a handy guide to what RSS is all about could be what you need to find out more on how you can gain better business advantage from RSS to keep fully up to speed with the news and information […]
Firefox security update patch
Neowin reported today that Mozilla has released a security update for the Firefox browser. A notice on the Mozilla website urges users to upgrade to this latest version of the Firefox Preview Release. A patch is available for current Preview Release users. Mozilla | Important Security Update for Firefox Available
Google: No to browser, Yes to more search
Detailed report in today’s Financial Times about Google. On whether Google is going to launch its own browser: Speaking at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, [John Doerr, one of Google’s non-executive directors] denied recent speculation that Google was planning to launch its own internet browser, to compete with Microsoft’s dominant Internet Explorer. On […]
Get Firefox, but you still need Internet Explorer
I switched to Firefox a few months ago. Since then, I’ve not had a single case of browser hijacking that seemed to happen all the time with Internet Explorer. Every time I ran Ad-Aware (and I do that once a week), it would inevitably find a registry key, helper object or some such that had […]
How to use PowerPoint with skill and communicate better
Using a PowerPoint presentation effectively is one of the things many business people just don’t do well. How many presentations have you sat through where the presenter shows slides with 20 bullet points in 8-point type – and then proceeds to read each one out loud? Or slides with animated graphics, builds and transitions all […]
Windows your way
If you want your Windows without things like Windows Messenger, Internet Explorer or Outlook Express, here’s your opportunity. Dino Nuhagic, a programmer in Croatia, has written nLite Windows Installation Customizer that lets you install Windows 2000, XP or 2003 without including such components. The program’s still in beta and the usual caveats apply if you […]
Portable Firefox for your USB drive
Early last month, I posted info on how to run a normal Firefox installation from a USB flash drive. There’s now an even better solution – install a version of Firefox that’s been created specifically for running on a flash drive. John Haller, CEO of Rare Ideas LLC, has repackaged Firefox 0.9.3 and 1.0PR as […]
Google launches desktop search
Get it now – the Google desktop, a means to search through files, emails, instant messenger conversations and your browser cache. My quick run through with it last night shows that it knocks the socks off the search feature in Windows XP. In combination with Google’s web search capabilities, this desktop app could be a […]
Paint Shop Pro acquired by Corel
Jasc Software, maker of the venerable graphics program Paint Shop Pro, has been acquired by Corel, publisher of CorelDraw and WordPerfect. Jasc recently announced version 9 of Paint Shop Pro. Yesterday, Corel issued a press release announcing the acquisition. Corel also published a letter to customers on Jasc’s website, using it as an opportunity to […]
Cool RSS web stickies
Playing with an interesting little web app – Webnote. Here’s what it is: Webnote is a tool for taking notes on your computer. It allows you to quickly write something down during a meeting, class, or any other time that you have a web browser available. You start by creating a workspace and creating notes […]
Google Desktop looks a winner
Since the new Google Desktop search tool was announced last week (see post), I’ve been using it exclusively when I need to search for a particular file or email on my PC. No question – this beats Windows XP’s search function hands down, as I mentioned in my post last week. It’s pretty intuitive and […]
Two cool things re Gmail
Since starting with Gmail, I’ve found two very cool things: 1. Gmail address/signature graphic generator. I’ve noticed a little graphic on a number of blogs that shows an email address, all done in a nice way with the Gmail logo. I want one of those, too! So I found this great site that generates your […]
Making Windows how you want it
So I was reading a post by Jeff Sandquist, linked from Scoble, about the forthcoming Konfabulator for Windows, a port of the rather neat Mac OS X app that lets you run widgets on your desktop (details about Konfabulator here). Of course, Mac users have had access to such cool tools for ages. But so […]
Get your del.icio.us bookmarks into Firefox
If you have a bookmark/favorites collection in the excellent del.icio.us online social bookmarks manager, and you use the Firefox browser, here’s a very neat Firefox extension that enables you to integrate your del.icio.us collection into your Firefox bookmarks. Dietrich Ayala| Foxylicious – Firefox and del.icio.us bookmark integration Thanks to Robin Good for the news. Additional […]
Damn small Linux
Forget putting just Firefox on your USB flash drive when you can put the whole operating system on it. If you use Linux, you can do this. Tuxme.com: Your Linux Information Source | Linux on your USB key (Via Neowin)
Desktop widget for US elections tracking
With desktop widgets still on my mind – see my post last week about DesktopX and Konfabulator – I came across a rather neat and timely one that might be of interest to my US friends in particular. Here’s Political Meter, a Windows desktop widget that will monitor the predicted outcome of the US elections […]
New RSS reader targets bloggers
There’s a new RSS reader on the market – Blog Navigator. Folllowing beta testing for the past few months, Stardock – about whom I’ve posted on their Windows customization apps – released version 1.0 yesterday. From the press release: Blog Navigator is a program designed to make it easy for users who enjoy reading blogs […]