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.

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! 

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.

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!

1. Format the HDD.
2. Clean reinstall of Windows.
3. 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! 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Telewest started off being relatively economic.  £30 a month for all 3, but that was limited to the basic packages but that simply didn't;t meet my needs, and only lasted 6 months anyway.  Now I am paying anything between £50 and £60 a month for a service that we both think is less than what we started with.  TV channels have disappeared from our package, not just the Sky channels but other channels too.  The broadband quality is just shot with download speeds of 17-35kBs when 400kB/s is more realistic for a 4mB/s service!!  To be fair, Virgin are refunding the cost of the broadband for two months but I need a decent service.  The phone is OK with only weekend UK land line calls free.

The loss of the Sky channels on Virgin prompted me to look at what other packages I could get for my money.  It seems Sky are offering a better quality of service for £26 per month with an extra £11 for a BT line rental.  This is some £20 cheaper than my current monthly costs.  While there are downsides such as download limits on the broadband and the requirement for a communal dish (on the block of flats) for the TV, £20 is a lot of money.  Virgin take note.

Any ideas?

I hate the new user interface. My first reaction to it was I don't want those buttons here, I want them over there where I am used to seeing them, and using them.  But I can't and no amount of searching has found a solution to my needs.  Maybe it is just an initial reaction to the change but I do not understand the reasoning behind it, it seems to break the mold of browser interfaces.  Maybe I am wrong and Microsoft interviewed and did fully user studies on what worked best for users but I feel that it is change for changes sake. 

As a well rounded computer and software user I could adapt to it if I had to, but I think of the people I know who would be strongly affected by the change.  Those without the Internet savvy of those of us who use it day in day out.  I can think of several people who will not like it because it is not what they are used to, and I know exactly who will get the calls when they get stuck looking for the buttons. 

I would like to think that Microsoft would listen to the calls to allow me to change the layout of the toolbars.  I would like to think that most application software that relies on toolbars in this way would allow me to change the position and placing of buttons so I can use it in a way that feels right for me and not for the guy that decided this was "better".