Richard Lennox
- setting rather than resetting CSS styling: http://bit.ly/drvmMK
- does anyone know if Windows 7 starter (netbook) can use an external projector?
- Why do some e-commerce platforms get Javascript so wrong? http://bit.ly/awXZvZ from @econsultancy
Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Productivity Part 2: Slickrun
For the second installment in my mini series on Productivity and those tools that I use to increase mine, I am going to talk about the merits of a simple launcher program – SlickRun. You can find it at http://www.bayden.com/SlickRun/. This free floating command utility for Windows launches programs, specific files or documents and folders based on magic words.
It is simplicity in itself. I hit "Windows key + Q" start typing something that makes sense to me, and hit enter. My file, program or folder launches as if I had gone through the effort of moving my cursor to the stat button, clicking it, selecting all programs, finding the right program in the list and then launching it. I have tens of "magic" key words, and I barely have to type 3 or 4 characters as the little utility auto completes for you.
It is immeasurable how much time this little tool saves me but I can say it will be a couple of seconds for every file, program or explorer location I use on a regular basis so I would expect that it adds up to quite a lot of time.
Productivity Part 1
Spending most of my days in front of computer screens I have manged to compile a list of tools (some of which I may have mentioned previously) that assist in my productivity. Many of these may only shave seconds off a task but if I was to add up all those seconds I believe I would have saved myself at least an hour a week. That may not sound a lot but is at least 52 hours a year which is (or at least should be) more than 1 working week. While in no way has this been scientifically measured, I am fairly certain about how these tools help me.
So I begin, with the first part of an unknown number of posts about the tools that increase my productivity when in front of my computer screens.
You may or may not have noticed that my last paragraph ended with the plural of screen. This was not a mistake, I have 2 per machine (1 at home and 1 in the office). I cannot equate in time the amount of effort this saves me in a day. I liken it to spreading out over a physically wider work area, allowing me to have more organised and smaller "piles" for my work.
Take a program like Photoshop. Not something I use often (not being a big designer or photographer) however it has all these floating palettes and tool bars that while aiding usability, simply take screen real estate away from what I am working on – the photograph. With my 2 monitors I can fill one whole screen with my photograph and have the palettes and toolbars on the other, giving me more room to work on the image itself. This also is reflected in my work as a Software and Web developer.Much of this requires a minimum of 2 windows open – the development environment (in which I write my code) and maybe 2 or 3 browser windows for web work. On 1 screen I would be constantly flicking between windows and it doesn't help me at all. On 2 I can have a quick glance at how my work is going without too much effort.
However, as a Windows user multiple monitors although well supported are less easy to manage. The task bar does not stretch over and you still get the piles of open windows stacked high there. Moving the windows between the 2 monitors is also a pain, they need to be resized smaller than maximum the dragged across the screen.
Ultramon sorts all of this out. It adds a task bar to the other monitors making it much easier to use. It adds buttons to the window for switching program windows between monitors. Alternatively there are the keyboard commands to do the same and also to move the mouse cursor form one monitor to the other.
I cannot stress how these two simple things increase my productivity massively, so together they come top of my list!
Re-CAPTCHA anti spam
I have just installed the Wordpress plugin from the guys at Re-Captcha as part of my ongoing attempt at blocking spam. For those of you who do not know a CAPTCHA (or Completely Automated Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) are the little images you see on the end of forms with blurred and distorted sequences that you have to enter to correctly complete the form. It is an anti-spam technique as these tests are supposed to prevent automated spamming software from completing the forms meant for humans.
As a Wordpress user, I use Askimet as my main anti spam techinque, however I wanted to augment this with a CAPTCHA for a bit more security. I heard about re-Captcha in an article or blog post somewhere and think it is great. It uses the same principles of a CAPTCHA and puts it to good use helping to digitise books. The digitalisation of books (particularly those from before the digital age) uses Optical Character Recognition to parse a scanned image of a book into its constituent letters and words. However OCR is not perfect particularly when the scanned characters are distorted or not uniform. This is why a CAPTCHA is a good anti spam technique (at least for now!).
The digitalisation has many many unknown words and re-Captcha helps solve this. This special CAPTCHA gives you two distorted words, 1 known word and 1 unknown word. The likelihood of a person entering both words correctly increases dramatically if you enter the known word correctly making this an ideal way to help in the digitalisation of books. Add a comment to see the CAPTCHA in action and visit re-captch for your own plugin at http://recaptcha.net.
SlickRun
Just a quick post to share a little Windows app named SlickRun. This saves the right hand moving away from the keyboard. Enter a "Magic Word" into the little box and run the command associated with it. I open it by select "Windows + Q" and then hit the first letter of the program I want, SlickRun auto completes the magic word and up pops my program. I simply type "Mail" now and Outlook opens. Sweet!
100 million IPods but one big design mistake.
This week sees the sale of the Apple IPod reach over 100,000,000. Yes that is 100 million. To be honest my IPod is not a statement or fashion accessory, it is a tool I use day in day out. It helps me relax and concentrate at the same time. Well, the music does that but the IPod brings it into my everyday life. Even my "bulky" 30GB Video is thin and usable, supplying me with all my music to choose from in one fell swoop.
But there are some people who rely on technology for survival, but their technology is not as aesthetically pleasing as my IPod, nor as easy to use. On her own blog Amy Tenderich has written an Open Letter to Steve Jobs (of Apple fame) asking him to address this. I will let her tell you how it is.
I believe in good technology design and, while not afflicted by any such conditions, I support her letter. Good technology and good design should not be restricted to those things that make a pile of money or that are iconic gadgets. Good design, should be applied to all technology but especially to those things that are essential. This post may be better entitled 100 million IPods but 100 million design mistakes!
System Rebuild
I have spent the last couple of days rebuilding my machine. Reports of internal organ failure were slightly premature, it was more like a life threatening internal bleed than complete internal organ failure! My rebuild consisted of 3 components:
- Format the HDD.
- Clean reinstall of Windows.
- RE-install all my applications and data.
Luckily I have my Netgear Storage Central (little box connected to my home network that adds hdd storage to the network!) that still has a backup of the majority of my important data. I didn't have too much to lose just my time.
I was impressed with the support I got over the phone from the supplier of my machine, pcoption.co.uk. We had a chat and decided that while it may have been the hardware, there was no reason not to try a clean install of Windows (steps 1 + 2 above). If that goes ok, then maybe it was a corrupt Windows installation. Luckily this seems to [touch wood or forehead here!] have been the case as over the last couple of days the Windows installation has appeared stable. I am still a little nervous about it but am assured that any problems will be covered by the warranty!!
Next on my list will be an upgrade of this Wordpress installation, scheduled for Monday!
The Legend of Dominoes
So this was the submitted project for the Multimedia module of my Computer Science course. The task was to cram in as much "Multimedia" into something different. It was a bit of fun in what if I remember correctly was 3rd year! It is now a legend in the CS department at Heriot-Watt.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7859165005347940422