Super Awesome Blog

When I first started using Windows 7 I didn’t really care for the new Library feature. However, as I got more familiar with the new operating system I found myself really liking libraries, and increasingly annoyed that I couldn’t add network locations. 

For me this is especially annoying, because I use a central Linux server for all my files and access them from various terminals throughout the house. You can “sort of” make Windows 7 do this already by telling Windows Media Player to add these folders, but it doesn’t work very well.

Understandably I was thrilled I was when I found out that someone has created a utility that tells Windows it really is OK to index network locations and use them in libraries. Yay!

Kudos to the Washington Post’s Rick Broida for the excellent review, and to Zorn Software for their great Win 7 Library Tool!

Get it today! It’s simple and free!

The boyfriend and I bought a PS3 about a year ago, and besides playing Blu-ray movies and occasionally killing things in our few video games, it really doesn’t get much use.  We’ve been thinking about getting Netflix for a while, so when we heard that we could watch streaming videos on our PS3 I was pretty thrilled.

I went to Netflix and signed up for the free trial. Unfortunately the PS3 does not support Netflix streaming natively – you have to order a special disc. The disc came in about 2 days, and after I popped it in I did a quick verification and Huzzah! – it worked!

You can have up to 6 devices accessing Netflix at one time – I was able to test this on my PC, my laptop, and the PS3 – they all played different movies simultaneously. You can stream Netflix using Silverlight on your browser (I used Firefox) but if you have a version of Windows that supports it, you should really try out Netflix for Windows Media Center. It works really well, you can even browse their library and add items to your instant cue.

About.com has a nice guide written by Mark Baggesen: How to Setup and View Netflix Using Windows Media Center.

When I heard Mozilla was releasing Thunderbird 3 today I was delighted!  I quickly rushed to download it and try it out. I always liked Thunderbird – it’s fast, it’s easy to use, it’s mod-able with an ever-growing database of  plug-ins, and… it’s free!

However, it’s not pretty and it is clunky in many areas. Lightning is also clunky, but it’s great with Google Calendar, so I like it. I don’t currently use it, however. This is because of the sloppy look and the complete inability to use a normal, 12 hour calendar to input events, that is, I want to input events the way I do in Outlook where I can type in the date, and then set AM/PM.  Thunderbird makes you use a clunky, ugly 24 hour interface.

None of these problems are present in the latest release of Thunderbird. That’s because they chose to not even include Lightning, or any calendar application. Lightening isn’t even compatible with Thunderbird 3. Disappointing.

Picky? You bet. But when comparing Thunderbird to Outlook, one of the best schedule and email programs available, this program really needs to shape up. I’m absolutely perplexed that Mozilla would release Thunderbird when it’s not really finished. I’ll try this again when Lightening is updated to work with Thunderbird 3 – until then it’s recycle bin time.

I installed Windows 7 about a month ago, and I’ve been generally pleased with how well everything just works. In addition, it seems every couple of days I discover some new feature Windows has that makes my life easier. Yesterday’s discovery was Windows Live Writer.

It’s a WYSIWYG blog editor that is surprisingly easy to use and work with, and perhaps most importantly of all, interfaces (so far) seamlessly with Wordpress. If you’re running Windows you should really give it a try, so much stuff is faster and easier, including:

• Making bulleted lists, like this one.
• Inserting pictures, and adding effects to pictures, like the one on the right.
• Speed. I open the application on my desktop, publish it. Easy-peasy.
• Full blog access. I can look at old posts, create new ones, edit categories, set tags, set a date I want the post to be published.
• Familiar Windows interface – you can highlight text, right click, add a hyperlink, for example.

The only thing that doesn’t work perfectly is previewing in-application how my post will look. Live Writer tries importing my blog’s theme, but shows it very strangely.  It’s not that big a deal for me however, as I prefer writing and editing it with a white background and black text, like a Word document.

In summary, it’s how all my posts will be made from now one. Thanks, Microsoft!

Xkcd had this to say about Youtube Comments:

How devastatingly true.  YouTube is a great resource for videos on the internet, however for every great video, there is a Swamp of Sadness surrounding it – idiotic, poorly spelled comments making you lose your will to live.

But rejoice!  A Luck Dragon is here to help in the form of YouTube Comment Snob for Firefox!  You can select just how badly written comments have to be to be blocked, or you can set the filter to zero and effectively block every single one!

Download YouTube Comment Snob here.

I’m one of those people who is never quite satisfied with things, especially when it comes to the interface on my computer.  The Windows desktop environment has always been a somewhat chaotic environment, especially if you use the desktop as a “sort bin” like I usually do.  Luckily the folks over at Stardock have created some wonderful freeware (for now) software called Fences.

1. Download Fences from Stardock.

2. After installing Fences, right click and drag on the desktop. When you let go a box will come up saying “Create New Fence Here”.

2. Select “Create New Fence Here”.  A box will come up asking you to name the fence.  I’m organizing some of my roleplaying files in this example, so I’ll name the Fence “Roleplaying Files”

3. Click “OK” or hit enter, and you’ve made your fence!

4. Just drag the icons you want to add into the fence and they’ll be organized inside!

Fences is very customizable, you can change the color, opacity, show/hide label options, and you can even hide all the icons on the desktop with a double-click if you like.  The program is free and very lightweight so you don’t need to worry about it slowing your system down.  The program claims to be compatible with Vista and XP, however I have only tried it on Vista.

To try it yourself go to the Stardock Fences Site.

This is the closest you’re going to get to Auto Hiding the Vista Sidebar. My BIG problem with Vista’s Sidebar is the inability to conveniently hide/show the application, and the complete inability to auto-hide it.  Always having the Sidebar taking up desk real estate, and having to right click on the sidebar to hide it, and clicking elsewhere to open it was a serious pain.  I have been unable to find any way to make it more useful.

Until now!

I’m pleased to report that using a program called HotKeyP I currently have my Sidebar set to show/hide the sidebar and all gadgets using the Mouse combination of Control and Space.  You can set it to any combination though, including mouse ones.

Excited?  I was.  Here’s how you can Hide/Show Vista’s Sidebar with the Hot Key of your choice:

1. Download and Install HotKeyP.

2. Select HotKey, Insert New.

3. Use the settings seen in the image on the right, or under Command select Hide Application (you can select Hide Window, but then it won’t hide / show all the gadgets.) Under parameters paste the location of the Sidebar’s install.  You can set the hot key to whatever you like.  In this case I’ve set the hot key combo to be CTRL+Space.  Make sure you set the working directory to your desktop!

Please note that you should NOT use the right mouse key as any hotkey, as it will probably disable your ability to right click and drag drop.

4. That’s it! If you used the settings I selected, you can now open the Vista Sidebar by using a mouse combination, and hide it using the same combination.

5. Make sure you save your config and hotkeys or you’ll have to configure them all over again when you restart the program/your computer.

There are a few problems of course, namely this only works for gadgets running INSIDE the sidebar, not on ones floating on the outside.  If you use most of your gadgets inside the sidebar though, this should work just fine for you.

Enjoy!

Google has added an interesting and dubiouisly useful feature to their Image Search: a color filter.   A dramatic example is to do a Google Image Search for “clouds”.

What you normally get looks like this:

When you select “red” you get some pretty awesome looking sunsets/sunrises:

Nifty Google.  To make things even more intersting you can also narrow your search to things like faces, clip art, and more:

A Walk In The Clouds huh?  I guess this is one of those Google features that I probably won’t end up using, but is handy to have around.

I want to like Vista’s sidebar. I do!  I would love to have my desktop populated by easily accessible, eye-friendly mini-applications to tell me the weather, my calendar and mail schedule, etc.  Sadly, Microsoft seems to have gone the distance to make this an impossibility for me and many (most?) others.

Sidebar would be far more useful to me if I could set what hot key I want to show/hide it, or choose to have it hidden to the side of the screen. Some Microsoft programs already do this, such as the task bar (home of the Start Menu) which auto-hides quite effectively.   I’ve even tried looking for third party solutions to the auto hide, but so far the only solutions I can find are inadequate.  Solutions range from keeping the sidebar running and using Auto-HotKey to bring the sidebar on top of other windows, but no solution has been found to minimize/close to the system tray or auto-hide off the side of the screen.

Google’s Google Desktop has a sidebar which offers some of these features, but I find the program’s inability to separate itself from its indexing function to be worrysome from a privacy standpoint, and Google’s brand advertising on the Sidebar is insufferable: Google is clearly branded at the top AND at the bottom of the Sidebar and these brandings can’t be removed or skinned away.  Desktop Sidebar has some options, including autohide and many widgets, but the interface remains  unintuitive and sadly clunky.

If anyone knows of a trick, tip, hack, whatever to make Sidebar more usable please let me know!

I love customizing my computer, and recently I had the urge to change the folder icon I use for my Super Awesome Blog files to have a “Super Awesome” Icon!  After a little research I discovered that it’s suprisingly easy.  Here’s what you need:

The Easy Way:

1. Get a .PNG file that’s already to go. If you use PhotoShop like I do, you might find the Free Icon Plugin by Sibcode helpful, it lets you edit Icons in PhotoShop (pretty handy!)

2. Point Your Web Browser to ConvertICO.com, a free site where you can upload your image file and convert it to a high quality .ico file!

How I Made Mine!

1. Get your source files ready.  I simply used my Print Screen button on my keyboard, pasted it into photoshop and cropped out the window I wanted.  I found an empty Vista Folder Icon on Deviant Art.

2. I used the Skew to create a 3D effect, and sized it to what I wanted.

3. Then I made a duplicate layer. I changed the Opacity to 50% on the duplicate layer, and cropped out the original screen cap (the area that looks like it’s inside the folder. Once I was all done, I saved the file as a PNG.

4. Then I simply went to ConvertICO.com, uploaded the PNG, and voila!  You can test it by converting the PNG in this article.

Happy Icon Creating!