tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54235672024-03-05T15:04:30.117+05:30Thinking in VisualsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-67539562731656857722015-09-21T11:45:00.001+05:302015-09-21T11:45:17.586+05:30It’s been a while..<p> </p> <p>I have been away blogging for a couple of years, maybe out of sheer laziness or lack of interest. Time to come out of that and start irritating the blogworld one post at a time.</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-27829036639151743342012-04-14T19:34:00.001+05:302012-04-14T19:58:42.547+05:30What I don’t like about iPhone<p> </p> <p>I have been using iPhone for a year now and had the opportunity to compare it alongside with my other phone which is an Android. I know I am going to offend a lot of Apple fans but I am going to say it as it is. Maybe my viewpoints are from a geek’s perspective and iPhone is more suited for a regular user.</p> <h2>Why the screen-full of icons?</h2> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-VG2JHKjqZq4/T4mDwFDZTFI/AAAAAAAACL0/eoNoKds0CFs/s1600-h/iphonecloseup%25255B12%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 12px 12px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="iphonecloseup" border="0" alt="iphonecloseup" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-CWw-GbAmoUQ/T4mDxkY2q_I/AAAAAAAACL8/UUkop_V-VEE/iphonecloseup_thumb%25255B10%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="272" height="207"></a>Given that at that time iPhone had a lot of innovations (multitouch, auto-rotate) but there was no innovation in UI. Almost all phones before iPhone had screen-full of icons. Frankly, I expected better from Apple. 5 phones later and the UI is still stuck in 90s, providing me very little information/details apart from a count badge and (thankfully) a swipe down notification center. Isn’t there a way to just switch on the phone and see my calendar, unread sms etc? </p> <p> </p> <h2>Who in Apple hates smallcase?</h2> <p>Seen iOS keyboard? IT’S ALWAYS IN UPPERCASE. No I don't mean<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-5U6-5PmxkgY/T4mDyzKU-LI/AAAAAAAACME/jWv27uUwWJg/s1600-h/KeyboardToolbar%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="KeyboardToolbar" border="0" alt="KeyboardToolbar" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-HddRnf6oXuc/T4mDz8sbjjI/AAAAAAAACMM/LHmrzyjNGSo/KeyboardToolbar_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="229"></a> the typed text but the letters on the on-screen keyboard always show in uppercase. This is like taking a step backward and no, don't you dare tell me “Why do you need to see small case on keyboard”. Apple is supposedly the king of UI and they cant understand a simple thing that if you are typing lowercase, the keyboard should also show lowercase??</p> <h2> </h2> <h2>Why can’t I go back, why do I always have to start from start?</h2> <p>I know someone loves the concept of a single button but human mind doesn't work like a single button. While reading a message if I come across a web link and I click it, expectedly, it opens Safari and opens the page. After reading the page, unexpectedly, I cannot go back to the message I was reading. </p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja0jRwokYAoIOaUnqKK9sFtw-E1OtfTQxSM0EV1gkKRWcJNBJ8DqUdFTtVJo-x3IEPfPTMZRay7-HuLMyqx7Wq3XRabiPoMC2ymaaMa_MO3vDZMlbMBY1TtXkor04V8MS9J_5QUQ/s1600-h/iphone3g_home%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="iphone3g_home" border="0" alt="iphone3g_home" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-HuvNbVGe_uk/T4mD2Q2YFxI/AAAAAAAACMc/Jg3r5GqKkmE/iphone3g_home_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" height="108"></a></p> <p>Why oh why do I have to press the Home button, scroll thru my apps, click on the message app again and open the message again, and this is suppose to be user friendly? Oh, don't tell me about double click the home and choose the app from the running apps… just give me a back button (ok, I know you cant give me more than one button, so just give me swipe gesture on the notification bar to go back).</p> <h2>Apple, where is the consistency?</h2> <p>I know that different applications have different features and therefore need for different UI, but even in similar apps (message, mail, phone log) there is no consistency of UI.</p> <p> </p> <p>Consider this:</p> <p>In phone log (recent), you can clear all record, you can delete one entry at a time (which wasn't possible until iOS5) but you cannot select multiple entries and delete them at one go.</p> <p>In messages (SMS), you cannot clear all messages, you can delete one at a time but you cannot select multiple entries and delete them at one go. However, if you open a message trail, you can clear all at a go, select multiple entries and delete them or (of course) delete a single message if you like.</p> <p>In mail you cannot delete all mail but you can select multiple mails and delete them. </p> <p>In contact, there is no way to select multiple, or for that matter single contact, and delete. You have to open the contact, tap edit, scroll down before selecting delete contact.</p> <p>Why can’t we have “Delete all”, “Delete Selected” and “Delete Single” consistently across all apps? </p> <p>The edit button too is not consistent in its placement. In phone (recent) it appears on the right, in messages (SMS) it appears on the left, in mail it appears on the right. </p> <p> </p> <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="491"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="264">App</td> <td valign="top" width="47">Edit</td> <td valign="top" width="52">Del all</td> <td valign="top" width="91">Del Multiple</td> <td valign="top" width="79">Del Single</td></tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="264">Phone (Recent)</td> <td valign="top" width="47">Right</td> <td valign="top" width="52">Yes </td> <td valign="top" width="91">No</td> <td valign="top" width="79">Yes</td></tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="264">Message (List)</td> <td valign="top" width="47">Left</td> <td valign="top" width="52">No</td> <td valign="top" width="91">Yes</td> <td valign="top" width="79">Yes</td></tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="264">Message (Thread)</td> <td valign="top" width="47">Right</td> <td valign="top" width="52">Yes</td> <td valign="top" width="91">Yes</td> <td valign="top" width="79">Yes</td></tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="264">Mail </td> <td valign="top" width="47">Right</td> <td valign="top" width="52">No</td> <td valign="top" width="91">Yes</td> <td valign="top" width="79">Yes</td></tr></tbody></table> <h2> </h2> <h2>I am a grown up and I may want to send more than 5 pic</h2> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-UGAesuZEv5w/T4mD3k5U2gI/AAAAAAAACMk/IzT6ooraBRY/s1600-h/multi-select%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 12px 12px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="multi-select" border="0" alt="multi-select" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfnoU6fjalVzfcsoSr8oPs4Elz15PL5-HBTMg2r-nzxV10s63mOcjC2mJYDiTsTbYkAP09MZkxL261HjlGZnPjilLfdDs5wXL0SgADxlE0jNWhMtdBfpUlKFaiTtctZA5EzfhN_g/?imgmax=800" width="228" height="244"></a>Ever tried sending more than 5 pics in a mail? (I do know how to send more than 5 but I am not telling you). There are 2 ways of sending pics in mail. One, click a pic (or select from photos), click the send button, choose an email id. Two, go to photo app, click send button in camera roll/album mode, start selecting pic (btw, red colour of the tick is against the colour theory – red means no, yes means go). If you select more than 5 pics it disable the copy and share button doesn’t show email option. So, I am sitting on superfast WiFi (or 3G) but somebody in Cupertino decided that I cant send more than 5 pics at a time? </p> <h2>Conclusions</h2> <p>Hey, You don’t have to agree with me but don’t expect me to agree with you either <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-_55ySZTlkug/T4mD5odFa6I/AAAAAAAACM0/M3H16lbs__8/wlEmoticon-smile%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800"></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-22122709224540214432012-04-09T19:55:00.001+05:302012-04-10T08:03:47.473+05:30Open letter to mobile manufacturers<p> </p> <h3><font color="#4bacc6">Birth of a geek</font></h3> <p>I have been a gadget freak since as long as I remember. I was <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-k2YLA8E0mS0/T4LwWSbKNxI/AAAAAAAACFY/cY-pt9T07vs/s1600-h/pager%25255B13%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="pager" border="0" alt="pager" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-TTFrxsQDMFA/T4LwYbeM-tI/AAAAAAAACFg/fRxBnWUPJzE/pager_thumb%25255B11%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" height="178"></a>probably the first to buy Motorola Pagers when they launched in India and switched to Cell phones with Hutchison Max (Orange, Hutch, MaxTouch, Vodafone..) and have ever since stayed with their network. My first phone was Nokia 1011 (hammer) and incoming/outgoing was Rs. 32/min. Since then I have gone thru a lot of handsets. In late 90s I also got a Windows PDA (PPC) Philips Nino which was a B&W PDA with stylus and limited memory. Many iterations later I was on Pocket PC + Nokia 8210 which I used to pair using IrDA to access internet on my PDA (Awkwardly holding Nokia 8210 upside down over the PDA to align the IrDA ports). </p> <p> </p> <h3><font color="#4bacc6">Birth of Smartphone</font></h3> <p>When Smartphones arrived I was the happiest, as I could let go of one device and yet be connected to the net. </p> <h4>Windows Mobile</h4> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-psGbLSFSlg4/T4LwagJYdFI/AAAAAAAACFo/pVlmMW9tdrg/s1600-h/wizard%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="wizard" border="0" alt="wizard" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-0G-3THnMdag/T4Lwcu1241I/AAAAAAAACFw/X0PBxXUEoYg/wizard_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" height="180"></a>Compaq iPaq was my handset of choice initially and it served me well over GPRS. Later I had an HTC Wizard with Slide-out keyboard and I was in connected-heaven. I was enjoying my Windows Mobile 4.x on it and was ready with wish list for future versions (which I did send to Microsoft Mobile team, that’s another thing that they didn't even acknowledge or respond). I stayed with WM till as long as I could (WM 6.x) and saw that there were hardly any improvements from 4.x to 6.x version. </p> <p> </p> <h4>Blackberry</h4> <p>The next wave I caught was Blackberry.. Got myself a Curve and<a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-AjFz6fFyT5g/T4LweHBZOuI/AAAAAAAACF4/82CtmEkM7gM/s1600-h/curve%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="curve" border="0" alt="curve" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-38T8pmivsJs/T4LwgWLG2CI/AAAAAAAACGA/6fEKAfN-qtQ/curve_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" height="227"></a> quickly discovered 2 things – One, There is something like Push Notification. Two, Blackberry Internet Service costs and arm and a leg. I was paying 10 times of what others were paying for their GPRS service . When I subscribed to just mail/messages pack, to my horror I realized that I cant even use some of the app over Wi-Fi UNLESS I subscribe to their exorbitant service and THEN use Wi-Fi. I was quickly off the platform.</p> <p> </p> <h4>iPhone</h4> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-tO_pi7itkR8/T4LwhxAvaHI/AAAAAAAACGI/9a4s106uTxk/s1600-h/iphone4%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="iphone4" border="0" alt="iphone4" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-QpJpWF9Zmy0/T4Lwjksb4rI/AAAAAAAACGQ/NEfx1FFb5Ls/iphone4_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" height="180"></a>Then the expected happened – Apple launched iPhone. No, I didn't rush out to buy an iPhone (in fact, the first iPhone I bought was 4S and not 2, 3G or 3GS). In fact, I skipped the iPhone bandwagon initially as I wasn’t convinced with screenful of icons as my primary display.</p> <p> </p> <h4>Android</h4> <p>The Android revolution – I was hooked. I got myself an HTC Desire<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-jJkyHl3gwZE/T4LwlXjDJFI/AAAAAAAACGY/Wcbt2Hm_qH0/s1600-h/desire%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="desire" border="0" alt="desire" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-UjDrV6VcuiM/T4Lwm3HEnLI/AAAAAAAACGg/_3idnXYnWXU/desire_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" height="180"></a> running Froyo. First of all it had the operating system which I grew up learning computers on – UNIX (Well, Linux but its kinda same thing). And it didn’t have just a bunch of icons (sometimes with a red count badge). I could place widgets and information on the screen the way I wanted it (somewhat like Windows Mobile’s “Today Screen”). It was geeky but good. </p> <h4>Windows Phone</h4> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdFHgI_hPsVK8ci49Qt7OminSWcJmQlyFOqQHD463LvWOH6YkQ6wnyNf_yAWdnKiNJDafqvPcF4QRA1atq7nOZFEyisQ1-Hc6E4YYpbQbezyFAAgBsmaL2P0aUttQMYcFpmY43Jg/s1600-h/lumia%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="lumia" border="0" alt="lumia" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9x8bTn_qulb2CG19BQ_gmLMu2PRJw-YVuSF_qBHFch8ZrEZ4dbwCrfQEVEzTT9jkwruF0qPzAdc4ZrVe43c-i8ORq67jh19AtG842bpeiq5Lu1H5CQ5tqyvQLaCM7LVkKarK60g/?imgmax=800" width="174" height="240"></a>I loved my Windows Mobile and was using it for almost a decade so when Microsoft launched Windows Phone, naturally I was excited. However, I already had an Android as well as an iPhone4 so didn't want to rush out to get a third phone. Also, I tend to wait for at least 2-3 versions of a software till it stabilizes. This year when I was asked to speak at TechED, I was asked what topic I would like to speak on and I chose Mobile UX. Naturally, the platform would be Windows Phone (although what I spoke about applies to any mobile platform), I went out an got myself a Lumia 800.</p> <p>Having used almost all Smartphones in the market, I began to realize the good features of each of them and started dreaming of mixing the features into a single phone – my dream phone. Like that is going to happen <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-sadsmile" alt="Sad smile" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-LxClOHHw8yE/T4LwsqT8HfI/AAAAAAAACG4/drli5WDdNlE/wlEmoticon-sadsmile%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800"> So, I am doing the next best thing – Listing out what should go into my dream Smartphone here and hoping that some of the mobile companies might read this post and evaluate if my suggestions (and DEMANDS) are valid and they may incorporate it in their next version.</p> <p>So here goes….</p> <h3><font color="#4bacc6">Dream Phone</font></h3> <p><font color="#000000"><strong>Don’t force me to use two hands on a mobile phone</strong></font></p> <p><font color="#000000">I believe that phones should be a one-handed device which I can glance at and operate while I am having tea or reading a book or even typing with one hand on my laptop. If I have to use both hands I will use a laptop, thank you.</font></p> <p><font color="#000000"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-blH2VZAY4OM/T4LwuSoxXaI/AAAAAAAACHA/zwkVz8IOOr0/s1600-h/onehand%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="onehand" border="0" alt="onehand" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-mz3_fRsioYk/T4LwyKtTfaI/AAAAAAAACHI/CoJmP_RfmqQ/onehand_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="236" height="240"></a>Another thing is that I don't have long fingers (thumb) to reach top edges of the screen. Some phones (like iPhone) usually have all the buttons on top and I find myself stretching my thumb to reach them (at times I had dropped the phone trying to do this). Android on the other hand seems to understand this better. It has a menu button at the bottom which pops up a menu near the bottom edge of the screen. Most apps too provide navigation and buttons at the bottom (unless they have been ported from iPhone – e.g. Whatsapp, Viber etc.).</font></p> <p><font color="#000000"><strong>Don't make me switch on just to see if there are notifications </strong></font></p> <p><font color="#000000">Why oh why so many phone manufactures don't put a notification LED anymore? (That includes iPhone, Samsung series, Nokia Lumia). Is it not fashionable anymore? Guys, I hate it when I have <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-CsizMt2fWlQ/T4Lwz27WqbI/AAAAAAAACHQ/vcnE2TeV-vk/s1600-h/notification%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="notification" border="0" alt="notification" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-JOWGmCJFbys/T4Lw1lLcDII/AAAAAAAACHY/IhuBWCASs7Y/notification_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" height="135"></a>to switch on my phone, unlock it, slide down the notification bar or check the apps to see if there are notifications. ARRRGH! I am NOT going to look at ANY phone in the future which doesn't have notification LED and doesn't allow me to display different colours for different types of notifications. </font></p> <p><font color="#000000"><strong>Don't make me hunt all over the place for notifications</strong></font></p> <p><font color="#000000"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-72_jIODgGAM/T4Lw3DeMchI/AAAAAAAACHg/khku1ZrlrNg/s1600-h/androidnotifications%25255B3%25255D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="androidnotifications" border="0" alt="androidnotifications" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-UFEJCIRkDd4/T4Lw5BtylcI/AAAAAAAACHo/xf_igVfp59o/androidnotifications_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="207" height="235"></a>Life was simple with simple phones.. Either you get a call or you get an SMS. Well, I want my phone to be smart, which includes showing me ALL types of notifications in a central place instead of scurrying all over the place to collect my notifications. Android had this feature from day one and Apple got smart too. Windows Phone however hasn't implemented a notification centre yet (I hope they do). What’s worse is that if you miss a notification in WP, it doesn't even show as a count badge in AppList (unless you have placed the app in a tile. c’mon, I cant add ALL my apps as tiles just to see missed notifications).</font></p> <p><font color="#000000"><strong>Don't make me run apps just to see quick information</strong></font></p> <p><font color="#000000"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBAHZKtKN13a8MsM5yga-w5H-ZJbae_FTye-0LiWfpcCI3D_zwW7OtHQ39FBNMZTg71NjIAgHKRymqxLDoJlWdQ5exaRvFKhktqggD-XymlJ7Q1T3Ln-2m8N8FU18ZtveJkW0tkg/s1600-h/twc%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="twc" border="0" alt="twc" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKWqbndwmW_Rr5iYe7bnXO7hbaSJGp8_WiK0KDiH6_HEwGSHHdUBKucpNX774BtGbbQHp7dHEbYP5lTidyvnX8OtGY_Zzy5UMtrvC1BB5Ka__BCPM2Pp1GYUu03snFMOLAUQohMg/?imgmax=800" width="164" height="244"></a></font></p> <p><font color="#000000">That's soo un-smartphone, to show just a list of apps (Nokia did this with its DumbPhones oops.. feature phones too). When I switch on my phone, I don't want to see a list of my apps.. I want to see information (and not just how many unread SMS). I want to be able to quickly glance and see whose SMS are pending, who has mailed me (at least the subject line?), what's the weather like and how posted recently on FB. All this without having to open apps or slip and slide all over the place. Windows Mobile had this as “Today Screen” and Android took it to the next level by allowing “Widgets” to be places anywhere on the screen. </font></p> <p><font color="#000000"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-LYZ7u2SaAyw/T4Lw-hbqoII/AAAAAAAACIA/lK_VAhN_sR0/s1600-h/Android-Pro-Widgets%25255B7%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="Android-Pro-Widgets" border="0" alt="Android-Pro-Widgets" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-mbljCfw_zsg/T4LxAzG1ZfI/AAAAAAAACII/QXIL1kxWqUg/Android-Pro-Widgets_thumb%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="446" height="275"></a></font></p> <p><font color="#000000">Thanks to this, most of the time I am not even running apps but just glancing over the info and deciding if I need to take an action. iPhone has continued with the old-fashioned idiom of showing screenful of apps. Windows Phone did go in the right direction with tiles but unfortunately due to limited size of the tile, its difficult to show meaningful information (most tiles still show count badge – 2 unread mails or 3 unread SMS, instead of showing me names of people who have mailed/messaged me and subject line/preview of message).</font></p> <p><font color="#000000"><strong>Don't make me do tuk tuk on a tiny keyboard with fingernails</strong></font></p> <p><font color="#000000">Mobile typing has always been a pain since the original cell phone. Earlier it used to be alpha-numeric keypad with multiple press of a button to get the 2nd or 3rd character. A mail would take forever to type on it. Windows Mobile came up with an onscreen keyboard which, while it was an improvement, it still was cumbersome to type with a stylus. iPhone supposedly “revolutionized” mobile typing. Well, it did not. All it did was make the screen a big bigger, keyboard a bit more spaced out and lost the stylus so that we could type with our tiny(?) little fingers. I don't know about you guys but I have fat fingers which press 3-4 keys at a time. I find myself resorting to using tip of my fingers carefully to press one key at a time. Sometime sharpening my fingernails to click that tinnnny URL on a webpage.</font></p> <p><font color="#000000"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-adKU_ro_KWE/T4LxCppDpoI/AAAAAAAACIQ/Qv_RaDqiSz4/s1600-h/swype%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="swype" border="0" alt="swype" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-IC--50Enaxs/T4LxERvFx8I/AAAAAAAACIY/mQqRGr9wbqc/swype_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="420" height="281"></a></font></p> <p><font color="#000000">The real revolution happened in mobile keyboard was with Swype. I just love it! I don't have to be accurate, I don't have to go tuk-tuk on a tiny keyboard… I soo wish that iPhone and WP include a Swype like keyboard in their next version (as they don't allow 3rd party to integrate keyboards). This is one thing I just cant live without on my mobile and which is probably why Android is my primary device (You can download Swype for any Android phone and many phones come built it in with Swype (Samsung) or Swype-like keyboard (Sony Xperia).</font></p> <p><font color="#000000"><strong>Don't miss the 1+ billion market</strong></font></p> <p><font color="#000000"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-_N3qvi9fbO4/T4LxGd5rxsI/AAAAAAAACIg/_0UZJfUtW1o/s1600-h/hindi%25255B3%25255D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="hindi" border="0" alt="hindi" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTXGxwmy7e9y4T5BwgZLNoFp5Q-ltunmEqGaVtKMYI04mv14C3NH5_YA_AZLsBEMfG3BcZx65FKVWsiT5X2hbBFbqtmJ4PJMVzYzmhYvD115oX8f7PyK1mbZWrlD2GCm6MW4-3ag/?imgmax=800" width="240" height="160"></a>I have to hand it to Apple. I have always been amazed at their support for international languages and fonts. On my Mac, it not only allows Hindi and other Indian languages, it actually transliterates things typed in Hindi. So typing your name as “संजय” will automatically prompt your username as “Sanjay”. They have carried this to iOS too where it not only supports display of Hindi but with iPhone 4 also has a Hindi keyboard. One of the grouse I always had with WM was no support for Indic and this continues into WP. Microsoft should wake up and realize that the next billion devices sold will be in India and other Asian countries. Android has flaky support for Indic as I believe it doesn't have that in the core OS but manufacturers like Samsung and Sony had Indic fonts for display (although no built in keyboard).</font></p> <p><font color="#000000"></font> </p> <p><font color="#000000"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-jl2E3cZ4JDg/T4LxKMShOwI/AAAAAAAACIw/iajZBUVpSaw/s1600-h/hinglish%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="hinglish" border="0" alt="hinglish" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Ynp86jbBQf4/T4LxLihdonI/AAAAAAAACI4/nAdwYzkhLAA/hinglish_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="148" height="244"></a>I recently came across a feature in Android phone (Sony Xperia S) which literally blew me away. It has HINGLISH support!! I can actually switch the keyboard language to HINGLISH and swype “kya kar raha hai” and it not only recognizes Hindi words in English fonts but also suggests word correction. Wow! Just wow! Most people in India type SMS and other messages in Hindi, and this feature will really go a long way in selling to Indian crowd. They should add Tamlish (Tamil English), Kannadish (Kannada English)… get my point?</font></p> <p><font color="#000000"></font> </p> <p><font color="#000000"><strong>Electronics and water are arch enemies</strong></font></p> <p><font color="#000000">There are at least 3 phones I ruined by either dropping into water or due to sweat seeping into the phones. I mean, its a known fact that electronics don't “gel” with water. How difficult is it to make the phone waterproof? Swiss and Japanese did this with watches long ago, so I am sure they can learn from watch makers. Its not that it hasn't been done. I remember a Nokia feature phone which is totally water proof and more recently Sony too, so why cant all Smartphones do this? </font></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-tdOSHlwUoI8/T4LxNAmzehI/AAAAAAAACJA/hrLnSPc5NIk/s1600-h/waterprrof%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="waterprrof" border="0" alt="waterprrof" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-l7K0qm_6fgk/T4LxOs2qglI/AAAAAAAACJI/SnEovisS2wE/waterprrof_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="183"></a></p> <p><font color="#000000"><strong>Smartphone have dumb batteries</strong></font></p> <p><font color="#000000"></font> </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-F0S_3-aVIc0/T4LxQR6U5fI/AAAAAAAACJQ/q_GCmKNI6oQ/s1600-h/androidextendedbattery%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="androidextendedbattery" border="0" alt="androidextendedbattery" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-XYggCWgz7WU/T4LxSm8hFBI/AAAAAAAACJY/bs7eMMib2e0/androidextendedbattery_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="156"></a></p> <p><font color="#000000">I agree, as the capabilities of smartphone increase, the need for higher capacity battery will also go up. I am not asking for battery to last for months or even a week, but c'mon.. you cant provide a battery which can last even for 24 hours if I am using Wi-Fi, GPRS or watching videos? </font></p> <p><font color="#000000"><strong>I am out in the sun, can I charge it please?</strong></font></p> <p><font color="#000000">That brings me to the next point.. Ok, so you cannot provide enough battery power to last me 24 hours but why cant you provide me with a built in solar panel (maybe the back cover?) or a reasonably priced external solar charger to charge my phone in </font><font color="#000000">emergency situations.</font></p> <p><font color="#000000"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-vYXD-b1Uzjo/T4LxUAmMVaI/AAAAAAAACJg/4vtLkL8CSpo/s1600-h/solarpanel%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="solarpanel" border="0" alt="solarpanel" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-qA-PoFeBGQo/T4LxV0XxI8I/AAAAAAAACJo/Ff84u-43PHk/solarpanel_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="194"></a></font></p> <p><font color="#000000">If I discharged my battery watching videos without realizing, at least give me someway to charge it a bit and make that emergency call?</font></p> <p><font color="#000000"><strong>Stop concealing things and making them pricey</strong></font></p> <p><font color="#000000">I loved those times when everything was open and replaceable I could get an SD card of my choice and insert it or maybe get extra batteries which I would charge and keep as backups before taking off on a long journey. Apple came in a ruined everything. Now batteries are concealed and the manufacture provides different “capacity” phones with exorbitant differential pricing?? Guys, we know the difference between 16GB and 32GB SD card is not that much. Stop trying to fleece us.</font></p> <p><font color="#000000"><strong>What? I cant stop jerks from calling me?</strong></font></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-kMa_Nrc3Zs8/T4LxX3WpZtI/AAAAAAAACJw/5I_fdhEy40Y/s1600-h/callblock%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="callblock" border="0" alt="callblock" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9OkyieMmNRU1gg-Y0CRsEYIxrYfGaam7aGLZv9CsMYFnTm735B2X09wuT5M0qnTACotnYEQnLMf-N-BwsJUPaSRmFlwP7DEl8kRY7TQmbLGDs1UdnTKMKtWZwETJZwVygAqRsUw/?imgmax=800" width="240" height="240"></a>I hate this.. really! Its a connected world but that also means that many unwanted people connect to you (telemarketers, stalkers..) Why cant we have a simple call/sms blocker built into the phone app? Is it that difficult? On top of that some phones don't even allow 3rd party apps to do this unless you jailbreak them. </p> <p> </p> <h1><font color="#4bacc6">Conclusion</font></h1> <p>All in all while Smartphones have made rapid strides in many areas, they still lack a lot of basic things. I hope people making these phones read this post and decide to do something about them.</p> <p>What do you think of your Smartphone's features? Are there any features you just LOVE or just HATE? Post your thoughts in the comments.</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-19764203111094032322011-02-04T01:51:00.001+05:302011-02-04T01:52:41.553+05:30Blogger arrives on Android<div><br/><img src='http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TUsOWxuFwdI/AAAAAAAABz8/MfxEb_aRwyA/1296764468576.png' /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-25027127742555030092011-01-14T15:11:00.001+05:302011-01-14T15:11:34.053+05:30Mobile blogging<a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TTAaSXE6gII/AAAAAAAABzc/cqB45s9tAn8/Mobile%20blogging_img_1.jpg"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TTAaSXE6gII/AAAAAAAABzc/cqB45s9tAn8/Mobile%20blogging_img_1.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left cursor: pointer;" height="191px" width="320px" /></a><br><br>Trying out blogaway from android. <br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-66319594943496596742010-08-27T20:30:00.001+05:302010-08-27T21:39:27.095+05:30Taskbar Magic<p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfStvOZkbI/AAAAAAAABuI/Md7JkfSmGho/s1600-h/images3.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="images" border="0" alt="images" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfSumI1opI/AAAAAAAABuM/tHHHF1vmtEk/images_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800" width="145" height="142"></a></p> <p>Windows 7 introduced “Superbar” which is like a Taskbar on steroids. What strikes you immediately is that Taskbar buttons are the right size for touch operations, which of course is built into Windows 7. However, there are many cool features like Jumplists, Aero Peek, Combining of Taskbar buttons and desktop peek. I am sure if you are using Windows 7, you must have discovered this by now so I am not going to talk about it. I am going to talk about certain apps which are taking advantage of the new Taskbar capabilities. In TechED 2010 I presented a session on WindowsAPICodePack and how to program the Taskbar button using C++/COM or .NET code but don't worry, I am not going to show programming code here <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfSvZKXDII/AAAAAAAABuQ/UuJ2YSkRVBA/wlEmoticonsmile2.png?imgmax=800">. We are beginning to see new apps using the Taskbar very innovatively. Lets look at some of these applications.</p> <p><strong>Taskbar Meters</strong></p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc9pZb31My-P_-kpwkDrWLyrHAU0XJgmKnl4YfycbaNAlojiA5vRmfJBm1rAGk9GVc7DUq6rosmZ1Vtpa2sXpl3TueIxgT9i2AOVHSOW_QOoR25dQsCs-rdFEfqu0RfKQHwp1rPQ/s1600-h/image6.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfSxHLCdZI/AAAAAAAABuY/YDsw47WzhqY/image_thumb2.png?imgmax=800" width="163" height="45"></a></p> <p>Traditionally we have had applications which show us system information in system tray (Task Manager) and Desktop (Sidebar) but this cool little utility called <a href="http://taskbarmeters.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">Taskbar Meters</a> put it right on the Taskbar. It actually uses a feature meant for showing progress bar on the Taskbar button. You must have seen this in Windows 7 when you run Setup, the progress is indicated on the Taskbar itself so that you can minimize the window and yet keep getting visual feedback of the progress. Well, this utility sets the progress value to current CPU, RAM and Disk utilization. Real Neat.</p> <p>Here is a screenshot of all 3 meters</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfSywOW4BI/AAAAAAAABuc/Lvbez2sqMa0/s1600-h/image10.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfS0tlf5mI/AAAAAAAABug/5xa7TKBUtGo/image_thumb4.png?imgmax=800" width="509" height="97"></a></p> <p>If it takes too much space on your Taskbar, use Combine option to make them more like thumbnails or run only the one you want to keep an eye on (e.g. CPU).</p> <p><strong>Gmail Notifier Plus</strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfS1rCeBkI/AAAAAAAABuk/AYeF5FPIpBw/s1600-h/image%5B2%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBdKWfhjnqvF6n925ZplhP01zn9MBX1a1Suc7s74Ufn7wiE2j4jzHYEK3kxjSyfSD3v4Oc8Dg11VKSwjpXihtYv-LpcFZ5s_NWwWSbZPNj7fmoD3Dz7-lQUB79N5Pp3q1ZXqHRLA/?imgmax=800" width="178" height="244"></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Gmail-Notifier-Plus-Download-129851.html" target="_blank">Gmail Notifier Plus</a> is another cool application which act as a notifier from the Taskbar itself. As shown in the image, the Taskbar button shows the Gmail icon with unread count and right click bring up the “JumpList”. It makes very innovative use of JumpList by providing a set of user actions like “Compose mail”, “Go to your inbox”, “Check for new mail” and “Change settings”. But along with it, it also provides a list of unread mail in the Jumplist itself. The pin feature doesn't work so you cannot Pin a mail to the list and I don't know if it will make sense to pin a mail to jumplist.</p> <p>When you install this app, it starts off with a configuration window which allows you to add multiple Gmail IDs (including Google App domains id). It uses a pull mechanism instead of push, so you have to specify the frequency for checking for new mails. The interface is simple and clean.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfS37o4VPI/AAAAAAAABus/WEtx_kgW9tY/s1600-h/SNAGHTML394d7ab%5B4%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="SNAGHTML394d7ab" border="0" alt="SNAGHTML394d7ab" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfS40yJq1I/AAAAAAAABuw/RhGZ6jCBAAY/SNAGHTML394d7ab_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="314" height="391"></a></p> <p>But what takes the cake is the Aero Peek feature of this app. The preview window displays first few lines of your mail with an icon to open the mail in your default browser to read. and also provide back and next button to view your unread mail. </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfS6GtAFxI/AAAAAAAABu0/TuI3HEjasSE/s1600-h/Gmail%5B3%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Gmail" border="0" alt="Gmail" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfS7nLfyZI/AAAAAAAABu4/5G7f7854k9k/Gmail_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="361" height="263"></a></p> <p>All in all its a cool utility if you use Gmail.</p> <p><strong>Taskbar Stacks</strong></p> <p>Mac OSX introduced a concept of stack on its dock which is like a “spring up” list of apps, recently opened doc etc. Windows developers were not far behind in implementing this feature on Windows 7. There are 2 stacks which provide similar functionality – <a href="http://alastria.com/software/7stacks/" target="_blank">7Stacks</a> and <a href="http://www.chrisnsoft.com/standalonestack/" target="_blank">Standalone Stack</a>.</p> <p>While both are equally good, I found the UI of 7stacks a bit more pleasing.</p> <p><strong>7Stacks</strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfS9R5iguI/AAAAAAAABu8/0MNzUMELPfk/s1600-h/image%5B7%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfS-5EIFAI/AAAAAAAABvA/C4VWMJxxk3U/image_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="178" height="322"></a></p> <p>Windows 7 allows you to pin programs on your Taskbar thereby merging erstwhile Quicklaunch features into Taskbar. However, if you use a lot of applications, your Taskbar can fill up very quickly with these pinned programs. I regularly use different browsers to test web sites and therefore have at least 6 browsers in my list. If I pin all of them (apart from MS office apps), my Taskbar will be half full (or half empty). 7Stacks allows me to take any folder and convert it into a popup stack (as shown in the image), there by occupying only one button space on the Taskbar but allowing me to quickly access a group of applications with 2-clicks. Once launched, these apps behave normally and appear on the Taskbar.</p> <p>When you install 7stacks, it creates a desktop shortcut for creating a stack. All you need is a folder which will be made into a pop up stack and icon to represent the stack on the Taskbar. </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfTAdnP-tI/AAAAAAAABvE/VkZ6uC90AVA/s1600-h/image%5B14%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfTB-dXJzI/AAAAAAAABvI/CDYVUF4G5FM/image_thumb%5B6%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="491" height="371"></a></p> <p>As you can see in the image above, you can select virtually any folder and convert it into a stack. It gives you a quick access button SF for Standard Folders like My Documents, My Videos but also like Control Panel, Start Menu, Program Files etc. Once you choose a folder, specify an icon to represent it, choose the stack style (Vertical, Grid or Menu).</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfTDKeAEDI/AAAAAAAABvM/119paPkDPfM/s1600-h/image%5B17%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjstZ7ZTGKkXWUG9ZLNjuxpi6Shd8rcU4xFJVxwko3kbU5n31hpVTpedRhLNiNuqbE292r3WS_WTcsC_k9zjw2TjdbkIW53VpuJcyCitwf8NkgVbETO2QsyKLmg_q-AKwbu2narWQ/?imgmax=800" width="189" height="216"></a></p> <p> Once you click on “Create Shortcut on Desktop”, it will generate you stack shortcut, simply drag and drop it on the Taskbar and you are done.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfTHIiLS-I/AAAAAAAABvU/q-8xaxfv3OQ/s1600-h/image%5B26%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfTIzJTXZI/AAAAAAAABvc/ePdwxIqhK5Q/image_thumb%5B12%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="343" height="381"></a></p> <p>The above image shows a stack in Grid layout with an option to explore the folder in regular Windows Explorer.</p> <p>Check out Standalone Stack and decide which of these two (or both) you want to use.</p> <p><strong>Conclusions</strong></p> <p>Taskbar has some great features and while applications like these are making innovative use of those features, we are likely to see many more developers take advantage of Taskbar in future.</p> <p>Have you come across such utilities which make innovative use of Taskbar? I would love to know about it, so drop me a comment.</p> <p>Happy Tasking <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THfSvZKXDII/AAAAAAAABuQ/UuJ2YSkRVBA/wlEmoticonsmile2.png?imgmax=800"></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-47250098320103566122010-08-26T19:55:00.001+05:302010-08-26T23:29:34.886+05:30Why haven’t I used IE in months?<p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THZ5ISq80LI/AAAAAAAABs0/v9A3tAPjgJo/s1600-h/icon_ie7%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="icon_ie7" border="0" alt="icon_ie7" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THZ5I3sGc2I/AAAAAAAABs4/rEjLU3euo9c/icon_ie7_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="171" height="171"></a></p> <p>I think I was conducting a training on “Windows programming using C” in a company called VeriFone Bangalore when I first saw Internet Explorer. Like Netscape, it had a logo on top right which would rotate as the page was loading. I was fascinated with the UI and thrilled that I could look up information so easily and quickly. On the other hand there was Netscape, a powerful browser which was the de-facto standard. I think Netscape was $50 while Microsoft started giving away its browser free with the operating system which led to a massive law suit and Browser wars. The browser war was good in a way because it made both companies bring host of innovation and rapid changes eventually helping the customers. Its another thing that Netscape lost the war and IE became the de-facto standard on the web. I was siding with IE thru the war as I found it to be a better browser than Netscape.</p> <p><strong>Phoenix rises from the ashes of Netscape</strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THZ5JmVUKdI/AAAAAAAABs8/pLFTKWu52-M/s1600-h/120px-Mozilla_Phoenix_Logo%5B4%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="120px-Mozilla_Phoenix_Logo" border="0" alt="120px-Mozilla_Phoenix_Logo" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THZ5Kf3gnzI/AAAAAAAABtA/QA7bnz5FxIo/120px-Mozilla_Phoenix_Logo_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="165" height="102"></a></p> <p>As Netscape lost the battle and made the source code open, the code base gave rise to another project called Phoenix (rising from the ashes of Netscape). Phoenix was however already a registered name so the team tried to rename it to Firebird, which too turned out to be registered so they finally called it Firefox. I have been using Firefox since Phoenix days but did not pay too much attention as it could not match the capabilities and features of IE. But I did keep an eye on the browser as it matured. Then one day it happened… I discovered add-ons and extension which allowed me to customize, configure and personalize the browser the way I wanted. Also, the new JS engine made its way into Firefox, speeding it way beyond IE performance. </p> <p><strong>Missing IE?</strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THZ5LKStDHI/AAAAAAAABtE/0u0pOBQVrx0/s1600-h/ffx_ie7%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="ffx_ie7" border="0" alt="ffx_ie7" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THZ5MUWa1wI/AAAAAAAABtI/9VhBacb3eaI/ffx_ie7_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" height="240"></a>When people don’t like or use a software, they tend to remove or uninstall it. However, IE is one software which remains on every Windows installation that it there. Why? Because you never know when you will need it. There are hundreds of site which work with IE but not Firefox. This may not be intentional but due to the fact that IE did not enforce strict adherence to HTML and web standard while Firefox always did. So a missing closing tag would still render in IE whereas it would refuse to show up in Firefox. Imagine you test your web site in IE and a day before you go live, out of curiosity you open in it Firefox and you are horrified as the page is a mess. Can’t imagine? Ask Chandrasekhar “Netscape” Vyas who earned this moniker precisely for this reason <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THZ5M-LgieI/AAAAAAAABtM/w3FUJss_CyI/wlEmoticon-smile%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"></p> <p><strong>Stop switching between FF and IE</strong></p> <p>If you use Firefox regularly but have to switch to IE because of certain sites, now you can get <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10909/" target="_blank">IE Tab Plus</a>. What this Firefox add-on does is it loads IE in one of the tabs in Firefox. I am not talking about emulating IE, I am talking about loading the IE engine in the tab so that you can open all those IE specific sites in Firefox without having to even launch IE. Go ahead and download <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10909/" target="_blank">IE Tab Plus</a> from Firefox Add-ons site and lets roll.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THZ5OuD8KvI/AAAAAAAABtQ/iMwisIHHc0w/s1600-h/image%5B3%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THZ5QWNVxkI/AAAAAAAABtU/etI4zHzHYG8/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="511" height="426"></a></p> <p>Once you install IE Tab Plus, you will see and icon in the system tray. This icon toggles between FF and IE.</p> <p><strong>Lets get to work</strong></p> <p>The number of sites which work only with IE is reducing fast but there are still some sites which either refuse to work with anything other than IE or don't work well with non IE browser. Lets take a look at such sample site.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDEYSuqbYojN5jutLM15cxE1PsfukHgFk91zyGwmSi70c72Ulx6UHdCr4b4vXGaKgBtuqkN3uFh8wZadOWWsV-ZOh-wWxFDHdA9QzsGAacKdjVYX9v3I9hAoRu7xRl55cODhhA7A/s1600-h/SNAGHTML70c4df5%5B4%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="SNAGHTML70c4df5" border="0" alt="SNAGHTML70c4df5" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THareYFhO7I/AAAAAAAABt8/BkjRvXmng6c/SNAGHTML70c4df5_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="501" height="356"></a></p> <p>This site flatly refuses to work with Firefox. It clearly says “Sorry, this site requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or later.” Now lets switch the site to IE by clicking the FF icon in status bar.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THZ5TCW1l2I/AAAAAAAABtg/7Nkzf7M-Pz4/s1600-h/image%5B6%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THZ5T2KcVuI/AAAAAAAABtk/iblpwgaaNSE/image_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="177"></a> There are variety of ways in which you can switch the engine from Firefox to IE. The easiest way is to click in icon. Another way is to right click the page which brings up Firefox context menu which allows you to switch rendering engine. If you right click on the icon, it brings up a menu (as shown in the image). You can take a call if you want to switch the engine in the same tab or launch the page in IE.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THarf6WYPJI/AAAAAAAABuA/4NFGYGGL9VY/s1600-h/image%5B7%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THarhVuePsI/AAAAAAAABuE/24PeXQRbFk4/image_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="500" height="372"></a></p> <p>Here is a screenshot of the same site, still running in Firefox but being rendered using IE engine. As this is not simulated (browser-agent switching), you get real experience of IE. As you can see in the screenshot, if you right click on the page, you get IE context menu and not FF. To switch back, simply click on the icon back. If you require full IE interface, you are welcome to use “View Link in Internet Explorer” which will launch IE and not use FF tab.</p> <p><strong>Configuration</strong></p> <p>You can configure IE Tab Plus to share cookies with FF or even allow AdBlock Plus. You can also decide in-tab switching or opening a new tab. It also allows a site filter where you can specify sites which will always open in IE (at one point of time windowsupdate was the most gruelling IE-only site).</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THZ5XcqkW7I/AAAAAAAABtw/BShoBYDhQsg/s1600-h/SNAGHTML6452136%5B4%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="SNAGHTML6452136" border="0" alt="SNAGHTML6452136" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THZ5Ya8ooFI/AAAAAAAABt0/8tiXegE9EJs/SNAGHTML6452136_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="499" height="309"></a></p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p> <p>So now you know why I haven't used IE in months <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THZ5M-LgieI/AAAAAAAABtM/w3FUJss_CyI/wlEmoticon-smile%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"></p> <p>Happy switching <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THZ5M-LgieI/AAAAAAAABtM/w3FUJss_CyI/wlEmoticon-smile%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-3627569195192641892010-08-25T18:28:00.001+05:302010-08-25T19:10:59.294+05:30Growl for Windows<p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THUTRF0YYwI/AAAAAAAABrQ/p0cecxZ5N6M/s1600-h/images%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="images" border="0" alt="images" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THUTRgpEEaI/AAAAAAAABrU/bOZUS4GvpP8/images_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="115" height="115"></a></p> <p>Every OSX user eventually comes across <a href="http://growl.info/" target="_blank">Growl</a> as either it gets downloaded along with some app or stumbles upon documentation which talks about Growl. In fact, some OSX users tend to believe that it ships with OSX itself. I have been using Growl since my MacMini days and when I got my 17” MacBook Pro, it was one of the first apps that I downloaded on my OSX partition. </p> <p><strong>What is Growl?</strong></p> <p>In very simple terms, Growl is centralized notification system which receives notifications from apps and displays them in a consistent, configurable manner so that every app does not have to build its own notification mechanism. You can use Growl to decide which notifications to show, how to show them and what action to take if the user interact with these notifications.</p> <p><strong>Growl for Windows</strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THUTSRCyKdI/AAAAAAAABrY/R8vneJNV9ZM/s1600-h/logo%5B4%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="logo" border="0" alt="logo" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THUTTUznnlI/AAAAAAAABrc/RdxdnFWd1u0/logo_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="112" height="112"></a>I was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon <a href="http://www.growlforwindows.com/gfw/" target="_blank">Growl for Windows</a> which neatly mimics the functionality and features of Growl for Mac. While OS X version has support of many applications, Windows apps do not come with built-in support for Growl yet. </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THUTT2GRl4I/AAAAAAAABrg/454SRhmdYck/s1600-h/General%5B6%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="General" border="0" alt="General" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THUTU65ntOI/AAAAAAAABrk/GTt61sP9e6g/General_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="514" height="310"></a></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Apps and Displays</strong></p> <p>Most applications build their own notification systems from scratch. Think of Live Messenger popup toaster, Outlook’s new mail alert, System alert for low battery and so on. Then there are web based apps like Gmail, Facebook etc. which have their own notifications which are either delivered when you go online on the site or via email. Some may even have custom built alert apps just to notify you. Growl can unify all these and provide a consistent user experience.</p> <p><strong><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THUTVhKDx5I/AAAAAAAABro/A9K4oCWCHn0/s1600-h/Gmail%20Growl%5B4%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Gmail Growl" border="0" alt="Gmail Growl" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THUTWaHGW5I/AAAAAAAABrs/vOphQygCWp8/Gmail%20Growl_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="150" height="150"></a>Apps</strong> can be applications which have built in support for Growl or a helper app in from of a plugin, extension or add-on which detects changes and relays the notification to Growl. The list of such apps is increasing steadily and cover a range from web based apps like Gmail, Twitter, Facebook to desktop apps like Outlook, Skype, Visual Studio to even hardware automation like ECS & ZWave automation systems.</p> <p><strong><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THUTXKVDnNI/AAAAAAAABrw/Qex0470t8DQ/s1600-h/System%20Monitor%20Notification%5B3%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="System Monitor Notification" border="0" alt="System Monitor Notification" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THUTX44JYqI/AAAAAAAABr0/qJAc5D-BQIM/System%20Monitor%20Notification_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="240" height="146"></a>Displays</strong> are notification UI and notification styles which can be configured and customized. Display is a misnomer because apart from the typical notification toaster window and sound, you can even configure it to send SMS, email, post to twitter account or run an application.</p> <p><strong>Forwarding and Subscriptions</strong></p> <p>Imagine that you are an administrator managing a dozen of systems in an office. Instead of checking and verifying every system periodically for regular maintenance issue, you install Growl on each one of them and forward their notifications to your administrative system. So if someone has low disk issue, you can remotely run disk cleaner. </p> <p>In addition to forwarding, you can subscribe to notification from other system including web site to be informed of events occurring on those systems.</p> <p><strong>Phones, SMS and Email</strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THUTYl8jsZI/AAAAAAAABr4/0HhzZVPVuD0/s1600-h/toprowl_confirm%5B3%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="toprowl_confirm" border="0" alt="toprowl_confirm" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THUTZmOniAI/AAAAAAAABr8/mYqKAVNr7Sc/toprowl_confirm_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="101" height="150"></a>Growl supports forwarding notifications to iPhone thru plugins in Prowl, Howl and you can also forward notifications to an email which makes it ideal for being able to keep track of events while on the move. If you can also send notifications to your system thru email and other means, coupled with triggers, you can launch commands and control your system remotely.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p> <p>Growl is a nice move in the direction of unifying notifications on Windows on the lines of Growl of Mac and we should soon see a lot more native support built into applications in future. Meanwhile try and get a helper application for the popular applications and website and enjoy!</p> <p>Happy Growling <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THUTaAfzB5I/AAAAAAAABsA/KYtJCloAfW8/wlEmoticon-smile%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-88162440792390346512010-08-23T20:53:00.001+05:302010-08-23T21:21:04.446+05:30UI Candy or Visual Feedback?<p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THKSPSOvuYI/AAAAAAAABqs/t1Z4GnuyTAw/s1600-h/fission%5B3%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="fission" border="0" alt="fission" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THKSQAiyJQI/AAAAAAAABqw/aMrM8LS8ZLI/fission_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="128" height="128"></a>I am a software junkie and try out lots and lots of software and utilities to see what works for me. It gives me a chance to discover new software which help make my life easy. I alternate between multiple browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Safari. My main browser currently is Firefox while I use IE and Chrome for testing my blog and ASP.NET apps I tinker with. One feature that I really liked about Safari is that its progress bar which is displayed as part of the address bar itself. </p> <p><strong>Visual Feedback</strong></p> <p>Wait, its not a UI candy thing but a very sensible feature. When we type a URL, our eyes are looking at the AddressBar and after hitting ENTER they do not automatically shift to the status bar to see the progress bar. In fact, they continue to gaze at the AddressBar and waiting for the page to load. So what Safari has done is put the feedback about the progress right in front of our eyes. </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THKSRH67cyI/AAAAAAAABq0/u4ZVUhvLhBE/s1600-h/image%5B3%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THKSSSYOhbI/AAAAAAAABq4/Z3H3elhAvRU/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="501" height="188"></a></p> <p>Here is a screenshot of Safari loading a page with visual indication of the progress.</p> <p><strong>Fission</strong></p> <p>Meet <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1951/" target="_blank">Fission</a>, a Firefox add-on which not only mimics Safari in displaying progress bar inside AddressBar but goes one step further showing “Connection Status” of Waiting, Connecting, Transferring too. </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THKSTceS3CI/AAAAAAAABq8/c3T1OJclv7s/s1600-h/image%5B11%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmEsi6ggypiV_Z-OKw4kUZZ5meJlerIJfX00pOufvbEPGw6KuSIMpONNVp8pPO3TJH_3ovj9id5GFgMHKIXfUjr_4_iKb8SuXjpj8Hr6Fl2g4jHZvHLoNpc3UyfDpuUsRJIGl6uA/?imgmax=800" width="509" height="134"></a></p> <p>Check out the image above (click on it to enlarge if you like) and you can see that a yellow bar is indicating overall progress while on the right side of the AddressBar shows the current stage of “Connected”. </p> <p>Needless to say, you can configure the colour of the progress bar and decide if you want to see connection status on the right side of the AddressBar or not.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THKSVCdlHhI/AAAAAAAABrE/YUvogJtORo0/s1600-h/SNAGHTML1d6df02%5B4%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="SNAGHTML1d6df02" border="0" alt="SNAGHTML1d6df02" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THKSWeBfsRI/AAAAAAAABrI/GbDcdGksiYg/SNAGHTML1d6df02_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="502" height="321"></a></p> <p>The last option is interesting one too… When you move the mouse over links in a page, it does not obstruct your view by popping up the link url as a tooltip, rather, quietly changes the URL in the AddressBar temporarily.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p> <p>Sometimes, User Experience is not about nice images and smooth fonts but about understand how users interact and providing visual feedback in the most natural way like Fission does.</p> <p>Happy Browsing <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THKSW0QQ8OI/AAAAAAAABrM/fQS6L2XbnyE/wlEmoticon-smile%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-55033411093647789822010-08-22T19:30:00.001+05:302010-08-23T13:35:26.101+05:30Don’t read it now, ReadItLater<p><br><strong>Information Overload</strong><br><br><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THEtQrkhZhI/AAAAAAAABps/rKlcj7EulMg/s1600-h/images%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="images" border="0" alt="images" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THEtReQy-0I/AAAAAAAABpw/0pfRX88A9h0/images_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="196" height="196"></a>Have you noticed that the pace of life is increasing and we are always short of time? Our commutes are getting longer and information overload doesn't help either. Look at the sources of information we have in todays time – Newspaper, Television, Telephones, Car-radio, Messenger, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email, RSS Feeds, Stumble Upon and the list goes on. Wait, add my neighbour who is like BBC broadcast about the going-ons in my building.</p> <p><strong>Unutilized time</strong><br><br><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THEtSKI7glI/AAAAAAAABp0/nzW2dY_Dacc/s1600-h/images%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="images" border="0" alt="images" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THEtStE7s8I/AAAAAAAABp4/D2-qXKmy06k/images_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="170"></a>Imagine this scenario, you are getting ready to leave for work in the morning and checking your mail while sipping tea and you notice a great article someone sent you in mail. You want to read it but don’t have the time, so you keep the mail in the inbox and rush out to catch your bus and train. You are going to spend next 30-90 mins commuting but you aren't reading what you wanted to.</p> <p><strong>Better utilize you time</strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THEtTfA6wCI/AAAAAAAABp8/kjtiMMFELCE/s1600-h/images%5B8%5D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="images" border="0" alt="images" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THEtT9Q1yLI/AAAAAAAABqA/lULIjXWknuI/images_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="175"></a>Now re-imagine the same scenario differently.. you open the mail, notice the link which is of interest. When it opens in your web browser, you simply click “Read it later” and it syncs the article to your iPhone, Blackberry, Android, PalmPre, WinMo etc. Once you are in your bus, you take out your phone and start reading the article you saved. You don't even have to be online on GPRS if the Wi-Fi sync at home transferred the entire article on your phone. After reading, the article is automatically marked “Read”. When you reach office, you start your browser and the browser shows you a list of articles still not read. </p> <p><strong>ReadItLater</strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THEtUf1t7dI/AAAAAAAABqE/ah63RQOQWdA/s1600-h/api%5B4%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="api" border="0" alt="api" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THEtVQ_i6HI/AAAAAAAABqI/8ZsnmRpPWSY/api_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="480" height="408"></a></p> <p><a href="http://readitlaterlist.com/" target="_blank">ReadItLater</a> is an add-on available for Firefox and other browsers (IE, Chrome, Safari) and also supported on SmartPhones (iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre, Nokia N60). Once you install ReadItLater and create a free account, login from your browser. It adds an icon to your Toolbar and AddressBar. If you come across an article that you would like to read but don't have time at that moment, just click the icon in the AddressBar and it will sync the entire page into your reading list. This list can then be synchronized to your phone and even other browsers. If you turn of offline viewing, it can download web view or text view and keep it locally so that you can use it while using laptop in flight or on phone while travelling on a bus/train.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THEtXeQoOJI/AAAAAAAABqM/BYTxSROxhm8/s1600-h/image%5B3%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THEtYUSJ0YI/AAAAAAAABqQ/jwizhFnKFAY/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="508" height="281"></a></p> <p><strong>Reading It Later</strong></p> <p>Having marked all your articles, you can click on the ReadItLater button anytime to pop up a list of articles, choose one and it opens it in a tab (even if you are offline). Once you are thru reading, it can either automatically mark it as read or you can configure it to wait for you to manually mark it as read. You can configure multiple locations and multiple browsers so sync your links across.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THEtZWSKdZI/AAAAAAAABqU/t8lQYTWcr-w/s1600-h/image%5B7%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THEtaiWmdcI/AAAAAAAABqY/5P6FgS-A25Y/image_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="455" height="442"></a></p> <p>Imagine this.. You are at home and logged into Firefox and mark a set of sites in ReadItLater. Now when you reach office, you login to ReadItLater using IE or Chrome and you will see the same list available to you there. Mark them as read and when you come back home, the reading list is automatically synchronized. </p> <p><strong>Google Reader Integration</strong></p> <p>There are many website we stumble upon while surfing but a lot of them could come from RSS Feeds. I use GoogleReader to keep track of things of my interest and ReadItLater integrates beautifully with GoogleReader too. </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THEtbsEwkUI/AAAAAAAABqc/8d9Wi83WxxE/s1600-h/image%5B14%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THEtdK2l3JI/AAAAAAAABqk/jPCqKZVPbwk/image_thumb%5B6%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="500" height="339"></a></p> <p>You can see from the image above that ReadItLater puts its faint yellow caret sign at the beginning of feed title which you can click to transfer that particular item into the reading list rather than the entire page.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p> <p>Use ReadItLater to schedule and utilize your time better so that you have more time available for important thing. If you can configure you home pc browser, smart phone and office pc browser, you will not miss out on important article and keep track of things.</p> <p>Happy Reading <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THEtdsfxvEI/AAAAAAAABqo/SVhUiWyJ6n0/wlEmoticon-smile%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-35938791802528516692010-08-22T12:32:00.001+05:302010-08-22T12:43:59.071+05:30Cool Switcher<p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THDLOiIqdNI/AAAAAAAABpA/b6XdcW3vXdw/s1600-h/normal%5B4%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="normal" border="0" alt="normal" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THDLPU0-6tI/AAAAAAAABpE/2qYCGzYZ9fk/normal_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="113" height="113"></a>The easiest way to switch between running apps on Windows is ALT-TAB. Windows XP and earlier has a small popup window which display just the icons of running application. It displayed the title of the running app only when you “cycle” thru them to figure out which one you wanted to switch to.</p> <p><strong>Windows Switcher</strong> </p> <p>Vista and Windows 7 made it easier with switch window which shows a thumbnail preview (which looks a lot like OSX switch except that OSX has cool feature of bring it up with 4 fingers swipe sideways <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THDLP67GHWI/AAAAAAAABpI/nbT8oNub2UU/wlEmoticonsmile2.png?imgmax=800"> ). </p> <p> <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THDLRVPjNnI/AAAAAAAABpM/XREscE6H2aY/s1600-h/image3.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THDLSwWvDgI/AAAAAAAABpQ/zfLXDyiIM_A/image_thumb1.png?imgmax=800" width="459" height="186"></a></p> <p>As shown in the screen shot, ALT-TAB does show thumbnail previews but the are too small and if there are multiple instances of an application running, it still doesn't help you in differentiating them until you alt-tab to them and read the description.</p> <p>I have been using large resolution displays like 1900x1200, which tends to make the icons smaller unless you change the DPI. I understand that switcher window is not a regular app but why does the window have to be so small?</p> <p><strong>VistaSwitcher</strong></p> <p>Welcome to VistaSwitcher. Don’t go by the name, it works on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. It replaces the ALT-TAB key so you can continue to use your finger memory to switch apps. </p> <p>The advantage of VistaSwitcher are:</p> <ol> <li>Large Window – Clear visibility <li>Full window preview – You can actually read the contents <li>App titles – You can see without cycling thru <li>Numbered List – quick selection by number</li></ol> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THDLWNrEMfI/AAAAAAAABpU/3ILA_Gh5PDk/s1600-h/image7.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THDLXpZcMeI/AAAAAAAABpY/SEakb-Nyoj8/image_thumb2.png?imgmax=800" width="507" height="228"></a></p> <p>It also adds another cool feature with ATL-` which allows you to switch between multiple instance of the currently selected app. Example, if you have multiple instance of IE or Word open and you want to switch to another, no need to use ALT-TAB and wade thru other apps, just press ALT-` (This one also come from OSX Cmd-` feature).</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THDLaffPPNI/AAAAAAAABpc/PiCbEpSXL8A/s1600-h/image11.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THDLcKmCnuI/AAAAAAAABpg/5Ks3er9zHUQ/image_thumb4.png?imgmax=800" width="506" height="238"></a></p> <p>The above screen shot shows ONLY instance of IE and not the other running apps to quickly switch to another IE window.</p> <p><strong>Wait.. there is more</strong></p> <p>You can use mouse instead of keyboard to bring up the switcher.. but you need to enable it from preferences.. Right Click + Wheel Scroll.</p> <p>Mouse can also be used to select apps from the switch window and it even allows right click to take actions on the running apps For example, you could select a set of apps and tile, cascade and even end task them.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THDLeo5d9WI/AAAAAAAABpk/fVAhe5pMz_Q/s1600-h/image%5B4%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THDLgQQY8NI/AAAAAAAABpo/7cstYMXh26U/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="500" height="229"></a></p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p> <p>VistaSwitcher is a free app which adds a lot of features to ALT-TAB switching and provides large, crisp and readable preview to make switching between tasks easier.</p> <p>Happy Switching <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/THDLP67GHWI/AAAAAAAABpI/nbT8oNub2UU/wlEmoticonsmile2.png?imgmax=800"></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-77379807514037447742010-08-20T14:53:00.001+05:302010-08-20T19:14:16.101+05:30Who NOT to follow<p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG5JiC7M5eI/AAAAAAAABok/z_CfUXnSu8k/s1600-h/image%5B2%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG5Ji_OVZSI/AAAAAAAABoo/9hKp3zxlkbw/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="195" height="244"></a>Right after I posted a blog on GreaseMonkey, I read Janakiramm vent his frustration on Facebook about how Twitter is mimicking Facebook. Twitter has recently started “Who to follow” section on its site where is suggests people you should be following. Its not only irritating but badly implemented too as the same names keep appearing repeatedly. Its ok for sites to implement new features but they should allow the user to disable it. The least they could do is let user specify “I do not know anyone from here”. For people like Janakinamm and me who probably prefer a clean interface (I think I have Interface OCD), GreaseMonkey can be of help. Install <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748/" target="_blank">GreaseMonkey</a> (if you don’t have it already) on <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html" target="_blank">Firefox</a> (Download it if you aren’t using it) and lets fix the Twitter problem.</p> <p><strong>Who NOT to follow</strong></p> <p>If you are ready and armed with Firefox and GreaseMonkey, just head over to this link <a href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/82819" target="_blank">Remove Who to follow (Twitter)</a> and click on the Install button (If you also have <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8352/" target="_blank">GreaseFire</a> add-on then you can simply right click on GreaseMonkey icon and Click on “xx scripts available”and search in the GreaseFire window. Check my previous post on how to do that).</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG5JkaxjwJI/AAAAAAAABos/P9iInqD7nzw/s1600-h/image%5B7%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG5JlqvHKqI/AAAAAAAABow/JHo_3NwgyFI/image_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="493" height="289"></a></p> <p>Once installed, simply refresh your twitter and Voila! Who to Follow is gone.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG5JmbE4G4I/AAAAAAAABo0/NAvmx2bKQ_w/s1600-h/image%5B11%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG5JnWYc7YI/AAAAAAAABo4/MCwLoyGGovo/image_thumb%5B5%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="344" height="438"></a></p> <p>Seriously, if you haven’t got Firefox and GreaseMonkey yet, go get it now. It will reduce clutter and irritation you might be having with your favourite sites.</p> <p>Happy Tweeting <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG5JoL9mWsI/AAAAAAAABo8/5PpX5H63V_4/wlEmoticon-smile%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-87786390112119432252010-08-19T22:12:00.001+05:302010-08-20T01:11:57.502+05:30Quit monkeying around and take control of the web<p>Web based applications are cool as you don't need to download software, maintain and upgrade them. However, web applications tend to target lowest common denominator of web standards as browsers have varying capabilities limiting the richness in User Interface. </p> <p>As a user, one of the first things I do when I install any desktop software is rush to the Tools > Options menu to figure out what customization possibilities does it provide. It kind of gives you an inkling about the capabilities of the product and also richness of its UI. Most web apps lack extensive customization and hence GreaseMonkey.</p> <p><strong>What is GreaseMonkey?</strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1eiMaZhvI/AAAAAAAABmg/l2lBw5ogwqw/s1600-h/iconmedium13.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="icon-medium1" border="0" alt="icon-medium1" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1ei_k2gLI/AAAAAAAABmk/6zsOvNtZdfs/iconmedium1_thumb1.png?imgmax=800" width="64" height="64"></a>GreaseMonkey is an add-on for Firefox browser which extends the capabilities of web sites in imaginatively endless ways. It basically works on the content Firefox receives from a web site and can rearrange, remove, add elements from the contents using small bits of JavaScript. There are thousands of readymade free scripts available which you can use as they are or even go an tinker with them to customize them to suit your needs.</p> <p><strong>Installing GreaseMonkey</strong></p> <p>GreaseMonkey is a add-on for Firefox browser, so head over to https://addons.mozilla.org and search for GreaseMonkey.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1ekYe5iFI/AAAAAAAABmo/G7-sQPByCR4/s1600-h/image3.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1elvWA6HI/AAAAAAAABms/KhxCC9zbnV4/image_thumb1.png?imgmax=800" width="486" height="472"></a></p> <p>Click on Add to Firefox button and once installed, restart Firefox. Nothing spectacular happens as of now, just a small icon appears in the status bar.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1em4wkvHI/AAAAAAAABmw/pKakW7spJmo/s1600-h/image10.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1en4tKihI/AAAAAAAABm0/0d3xI-brLbM/image_thumb4.png?imgmax=800" width="492" height="276"></a></p> <p><strong>What does it do?</strong></p> <p>Well, basically by itself.. nothing. Its an engine and host for fantastic user scripts which can completely transform websites without any help from the website itself. This can range from eliminating parts of the web page (like irritating ad sections) to rearrange elements (move Gmail chat from left to right) to completely skin the page (Better Gmail). The possibilities are endless. So let’s get some scripts. All these scripts are not written by the creator of GreaseMonkey but countless developers and even end users. Thankfully, rather than searching all over the web for these scripts, there is a central site called UserScripts.org which hosts these scripts and even allows you to install them in one click. Lets see what we can do with these scripts. We will take a list of popular websites and apply some GreaseMonkey Scripts.</p> <p>Lets take a look at some sample sites and scripts.</p> <p><strong>Google FX</strong></p> <p>Let try a sample GreaseMonkey script on one of the most used sites – Google. GoogleFx is a GMScript which totally transforms Google home page and search page to add a set of useful functionality. The script is located at <a title="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/31950" href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/31950">http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/31950</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1epF1XtLI/AAAAAAAABm4/bVvK0Hz4DLw/s1600-h/image18.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1ert9eNUI/AAAAAAAABm8/ff_SDifeRYo/image_thumb8.png?imgmax=800" width="490" height="472"></a></p> <p>Click on Install and it will pop up a dialog box giving you details of the script. This includes a short summary, sites the script runs on and even the option to view the Script source. All GMScripts are available in source form which is comforting as you can view the source to see if everything is above board and also becomes a source to learn JavaScript in case you want to write your own scripts.</p> <p>Once you have installed the script, it will show up in the GreaseMonkey configuration. You can disable/enable/uninstall the script whenever you want. While the author of the script specifies which web sites it runs on, you can add more sites (e.g. Google.co.jp) or put certain sites in exclusion list (Google.co.in). </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1esWa9W0I/AAAAAAAABnA/psEKZnuca64/s1600-h/image21.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1etFFkg2I/AAAAAAAABnE/YgZK7uENg_E/image_thumb9.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="197"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1euP8rkkI/AAAAAAAABnI/rq5OdWy_THU/s1600-h/SNAGHTML18cfecf54.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="SNAGHTML18cfecf[5]" border="0" alt="SNAGHTML18cfecf[5]" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1evvgFnrI/AAAAAAAABnM/nCURjb30ETo/SNAGHTML18cfecf5_thumb2.png?imgmax=800" width="485" height="423"></a></p> <p>Having installed the script, now lets head to Google and see what this script does. Remember, these changes are not coming from the server but happening locally AFTER the page contents are received by Firefox.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1exGunx4I/AAAAAAAABnQ/FHc4p7JNqUY/s1600-h/SNAGHTML18fde74%5B1%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="SNAGHTML18fde74" border="0" alt="SNAGHTML18fde74" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1exyErPJI/AAAAAAAABnU/tLas5apOQic/SNAGHTML18fde74_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="472" height="318"></a></p> <p>As you can see that the script has changed the look and feel of the main Google page. (Click on the image above to see a bigger preview). The links on the top are now tabs with icons, there is a colour theme chooser at extreme right. FX has also added its own preference Icon “Fx” so that you can customize what you like.</p> <p>The search page has also been modified. Don’t be taken aback with the amount of information. Most of it is actually quite useful and if you don't like something, you can always customize it to remove the options you don’t like. Some of the things this script does</p> <ul> <li>You can switch between tabs (Web, Images, Video etc.) <li>The scrolling is auto paging.. just keep scrolling down <li>Select time ranges (last hour, day, week month) <li>Switch search engine (Bing, Ask, AllTheWeb..) <li>Displays related searched on top right prominently <li>Displays Wikipedia articles if any <li>Display Twitter, YouTube, Maps, Books etc. </li></ul> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1e0aveoqI/AAAAAAAABnY/3O9MIXIDm_A/s1600-h/SNAGHTML1a05661%5B4%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="SNAGHTML1a05661" border="0" alt="SNAGHTML1a05661" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1e1gAg1DI/AAAAAAAABnc/s8PwKWpsaDE/SNAGHTML1a05661_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="481" height="405"></a></p> <p>Don't like it? No worries.. Just right click GreaseMonkey in status bar,uncheck GoogleFx from the popup menu and refresh your page and everything will be back to normal. No need to uninstall or restart the browser.</p> <p>Here are some more popular sites “Before” and “After” photographs <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1e2CDeuXI/AAAAAAAABng/nKtYtxeg9lQ/wlEmoticon-smile%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"></p> <p><strong>GoogleReader</strong></p> <p>Google Reader is online RSS aggregator and reader which has the standard look and feel of Google</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaaBgt_7tsp_7pkiYruYR4r8XO0uAeF2ttPw2VQXM-awUv7Vu8x95oGRXCl2MLVlUrUPxS6GJIQlFJhlnb6IeRHijMAHgBXiS-e1EQxihOeVSGDMiQ7Vg5IiVAwjARO82jco2DsA/s1600-h/image%5B10%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1e4l5_9AI/AAAAAAAABno/-oWRDfydKN4/image_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="499" height="394"></a></p> <p>When applied with Mac OSX SnowLeopard skin available on <a href="http://userstyles.org/styles/16900">http://userstyles.org/styles/16900</a> transforms the site to mimic OSX look and feel.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1e7leyD-I/AAAAAAAABns/yPts2GQhb4g/s1600-h/image%5B15%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1e8-JnmrI/AAAAAAAABnw/APJfh0pXP-s/image_thumb%5B6%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="505" height="323"></a></p> <p>GreaseMonkey scripts are on userscripts.org but userstyles.org is the home for another Firefox add-on called Stylish. Stylish scripts are compatible with GreaseMonkey and hence can be loaded by GreaseMonkey without requiring Stylish add-on.</p> <p><strong>BetterFaceBook</strong></p> <p>This one is my favourite as I got sick and tired of all the StupidVilles (FarmVille, PetVille, FishVille) and Notifications like “So and so has become a friend of so and so or joined this or that group, which used to fill my news feed. BetterFaceBook script allows you to control virtually any aspect of Facebook. Just follow this link to install GreaseMonkey script for Facebook <a href="http://betterfacebook.net">http://betterfacebook.net</a></p> <p><img src="http://betterfacebook.net/v3_tabs.png"></p> <p><strong>Who is going to spend so much time searching scripts?</strong></p> <p>I agree.. While the scripts can do amazing things, who has the time to wade thru thousands of scripts on userscripts.org and userstyles.org? How about this scenario – You visit a website and somehow GreaseMonkey could tell you how many scripts are available for that site, their popularity, rank by downloads AND allow you to install the script right there in Firefox? Sounds great? Well, then what we need is another Firefox extension called GreaseFire. It adds a menu item to GreaseMonkey menu indicating the number of scripts available for the site.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1e-LbWR4I/AAAAAAAABn0/LhXcneyXYm8/s1600-h/image%5B22%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1e-4TZIuI/AAAAAAAABn4/XWK_Oi2sywY/image_thumb%5B9%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="209" height="187"></a></p> <p>The image shows that there are 32 scripts available the current site and clicking it brings up a dialog box which lets use browse, preview and install the script with a single click.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1fAWmQSbI/AAAAAAAABn8/jlzdfwMCSc0/s1600-h/image%5B29%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1fB49OQhI/AAAAAAAABoA/GL1UrPci400/image_thumb%5B12%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="503" height="405"></a></p> <p><strong>But what about other browsers?</strong></p> <p>GreaseMonkey was developed Primarily for Firefox given its extensible architecture and pluggable add-ons. The testimony for GreaseMonkey is that many sites actually implemented the features GreaseMonkey script tired to add on client side (e.g. Right click preview in GMail). </p> <p><strong>Google Chrome</strong></p> <p>GreaseMonkey creator Aaron Boodman now works at Google and has added GreaseMonkey capabilities to Chrome natively. This means that most of the 40,000+ scripts can be added directly to Chrome without having to first install any add-on. Chrome directly converts GreaseMonkey script into Chrome Extension (.crx). </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1fC9ae8GI/AAAAAAAABoE/yOjwM7AcdMk/s1600-h/image%5B19%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1fEGZ_QQI/AAAAAAAABoI/hD3vsIBKOwk/image_thumb%5B8%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="502" height="332"></a></p> <p><strong>IE, Safari and Opera</strong></p> <p>While GreaseMonkey was created for Firefox and now the creator has added native support for Chrome, there are other ways it is possible to run GreaseMonkey script with varying degree of success in browsers like IE, Safari and Opera. Check them out <a href="http://techie-buzz.com/tips-and-tricks/greasemonkey-alternatives-for-ie-opera-and-safari.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p> <p>GreaseMonkey is one of the most popular Firefox add-on and has amazing abilities to transform web sites in their look & feel as well as functionality. I am sure you will explore, browse and try out GreaseMonkey scripts, if you like any drop me a mail or a comment on this post.</p> <p>Happy Monkeying <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TG1e2CDeuXI/AAAAAAAABng/nKtYtxeg9lQ/wlEmoticon-smile%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-48846842155392263132010-08-16T19:14:00.001+05:302010-08-16T19:21:28.482+05:30GMail tricks<p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGlAkwdW1qI/AAAAAAAABkg/_pgqIMVzcR4/s1600-h/Gmail%5B4%5D.gif"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="Gmail" border="0" alt="Gmail" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGlAlaU44GI/AAAAAAAABkk/y3DA5lmyERI/Gmail_thumb%5B2%5D.gif?imgmax=800" width="143" height="59"></a><br><br><br>I am sure many users are aware of this:<br><strong>GMail ignores . (dot) in the userid part of the email id</strong> <br>so first.last@gmail.com can be written as<br>- firstlast@gmail.com<br>- f.i.r.s.t.l.a.s.t.@gmail.com<br>- .......first......last.....@gmail.com</p> <p><br><strong>GMail allows extra characters to be added to the userid part of the email id<br></strong>so first.last@gmail.com can be written as <br>- first.last+funny@gmail.com<br>- first.last+imp@gmail.com<br></p> <p>This allows us some interesting possibilities.<br></p> <p>A. Control SPAM<br><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt0mVGheWbBsxbLvqjvCWchYT7hO_1xsRB12TfqZkeE78xM0xroBgxWnrSJH3AZZ0_7E3O7vfUp0F3eefvBMv8fFUtj7lFIosRJHF0uKwvKWtbCJGluUaW9_fUclUTSC0mx145Ng/s1600-h/imgres%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="imgres" border="0" alt="imgres" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGlAmTBCY3I/AAAAAAAABks/IqufZtBKcrs/imgres_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="78" height="71"></a>When registering on sites which is one off, try using first.last+once@gmail.com. The confirmation mail will get delivered once and thereafter you can direct all emails on this ID to the spam folder<br></p> <p> </p> <p>B. Discover who sells your email id to spammers<br><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGlAnIKEhzI/AAAAAAAABkw/ehCzLUoT6d0/s1600-h/imgres%5B9%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="imgres" border="0" alt="imgres" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGlAn5JFKPI/AAAAAAAABk0/7wTFYb_oX8o/imgres_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="75" height="86"></a>When registering on sites where you expect notifications or useful responses, try putting the sites name in the userid part, e.g. first.last+facebook@gmail.com. Now you should be getting notifications from Facebook only. If you start getting mails from site offering to enhance you-know-what, you will know who shared your email id with spammers.<br></p> <p>C. Create GMail Filters with Labels<br><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGlAob5IWcI/AAAAAAAABk4/QAN803CCqPY/s1600-h/imgres%5B14%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="imgres" border="0" alt="imgres" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGlApBXg5BI/AAAAAAAABk8/cXhPHs6o0fo/imgres_thumb%5B8%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="75" height="75"></a>GMail allows 7GB of email space but does not have concept of folders. It has something better.. Labels. A Label is a tag which can be applied to any mail and multiple labels can be applied. You can apply labels manually or automatically using filters. <br></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGlApt_rs7I/AAAAAAAABlA/iUdIz-D5MTs/s1600-h/imgres%5B19%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="imgres" border="0" alt="imgres" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGlAqZKa_1I/AAAAAAAABlE/9h0WP2L4riE/imgres_thumb%5B11%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="90" height="75"></a>1. For example, you need to remind yourself of something important, send yourself a mail first.last+IMP@gmail.com. Now in GMail > Setting > Filters > Create Filter > To: first.last+IMP@gmail.com > Next > Apply Label > IMP. You can also specify colour to the Label.. like Bright Red. Now whenever you send yourself a mail on first.last+IMP@gmail.com, it will appear in your inbox with a Label called IMP in bright red. <br></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGlAq9KKHNI/AAAAAAAABlI/mnl1xHAbqZo/s1600-h/todo%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="todo" border="0" alt="todo" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGlArz7jETI/AAAAAAAABlM/ZsVWVdBDUUk/todo_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="98" height="87"></a>2. Another trick is to create a filter from: first.last@gmail.com to: first.last@gmail.com and apply label TODO. This way you would have a list of pending tasks showing up in your inbox. From the labels list you can click TODO and it will show a list of all pending task. Once you have completed the task, open the mail and remove the label by clicking on the X sign on the top of the mail.<br></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGlAsUaWwDI/AAAAAAAABlQ/HZk6KpBZfaU/s1600-h/imgres%5B24%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="imgres" border="0" alt="imgres" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGlAtnmOr-I/AAAAAAAABlU/ei3lq92aqoc/imgres_thumb%5B14%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="80" height="74"></a>3. Many a times we search for attachment of specific type and have to wade thru thousands of email. At best we can try and recollect some words which were there in the mail containing that presentation and search for it. A better way would be to create a filter to apply specific label based on the attachment. e.g. You can create a filter PPT and specify in the filter that the attached file extension should be .ppt or .pptx. This way you can categorize PPT, MUSIC, PIC etc. </p> <p>Another advantage is that you can limit your search to a specific category. You can click label PPT which shows only those mails which are labelled as PPT and then search for Budgets.<br>Filters are very powerful but unfortunately underutilized feature of GMail. It even allows you to export and import filters, so that you can exchange your filter with other users or re-use them in your alternate Gmail ids. <br></p> <p>Do you have any interesting filters which you think are interesting and useful? Drop me a line</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-69492869016635948192010-08-12T19:23:00.001+05:302010-08-13T02:41:24.469+05:30Aero Effect in browsers<p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8NRvbjpI/AAAAAAAABiQ/FfhR0rsqauE/s1600-h/image%5B3%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8O4ZrVVI/AAAAAAAABiY/NdMOMl-EFRg/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="480" height="313"></font></a></p> <p><font face="Verdana">People have been asking me how I am able to get Aero effect on browser like Chrome after they saw the screenshots in the previous post). I kind of like the transparency effects in Windows 7, especially the change from Vista where maximizing the window no longer makes it title bar opaque. While transparency is built in and automatic for some applications, you need to tweak or even install add-ons and utilities to bring transparency in some applications.</font></p> <p><strong><font size="4" face="Verdana">Enabling Transparency</font></strong></p> <p><font face="Verdana">First of all you need to enable Aero in your Vista or Windows 7 by going to Desktop > Right Click > Personalize menu and choosing “Enable Transparency”. I tend to choose the lightest colour (Frost) for Windows borders, start menu, and taskbar. It gives almost clear glass like transparency effect. You can also adjust the colour intensity which will adjust the opaqueness of your title bar. Least intensity will make it look like clear glass whereas max intensity will make it look like frosted glass. Once you are done with adjusting aero, we can start looking at applying aero capabilities to various applications.</font></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8P0nYcuI/AAAAAAAABic/vFoAaZYKD-4/s1600-h/image%5B7%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8Q8XE6SI/AAAAAAAABig/c-wYS37KHQM/image_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="467" height="210"></font></a></p> <p><font face="Verdana"><strong>Transparency in browsers</strong></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana">I use 4 browsers for testing – Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Opera. Each of these browser requires a different method to make their toolbars transparent.</font></p> <ul> <li><font face="Verdana">Internet Explorer – Built in transparency with Windows 7</font> <li><font face="Verdana">Opera – Transparent skins available for download</font> <li><font face="Verdana">Firefox – Add-on available for making the toolbar transparent</font> <li><font face="Verdana">Chrome – Hacking the theme to convert the toolbar transparent</font></li></ul> <p><font face="Verdana">Lets take a look at each of these one by one.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"><strong>Opera 10.x</strong></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana">Opera, like many other applications, has the concept of skin (theme). All you need to do is browse online themes from Opera menu and apply a glass or transparent theme. Opera comes with 2 built in themes – “Opera Standard” and “Windows Native”. While Windows Native provides standard windows colour to the toolbar.</font></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8R4HGf9I/AAAAAAAABik/58DuaaqTqz8/s1600-h/image%5B81%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8TGnzRZI/AAAAAAAABio/rHwV85xa1nc/image_thumb%5B45%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="465" height="224"></a></p> <p>Opera Standard applies glass effect to the tab area as well.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8T57Z7jI/AAAAAAAABis/RDUn4BBlWTY/s1600-h/image%5B82%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8VIfau-I/AAAAAAAABiw/b6moMtOHpB8/image_thumb%5B46%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="468" height="239"></a></p> <p>Applying Opera Standard Theme by itself give you transparency effect on Opera toolbar but if you want to extend it, there are a number of transparent theme available which can make the tabs and even empty page totally transparent. To browse and install these themes, go to Opera Menu > Appearances > Skins. Click on “Find more skins” radio button and browse for skins online.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGQCCdt9mtI/AAAAAAAABkM/VX3hidcOhuw/s1600-h/image%5B86%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGQCDS-6IUI/AAAAAAAABkQ/RH4fpKzqAyc/image_thumb%5B48%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="373" height="362"></a> </p> <p>Applying this skin makes the ENTIRE opera transparent, but don't worry, its only for the blank page and not when you open web sites <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8zkfvt_I/AAAAAAAABkI/UtaEoDwn5gI/wlEmoticon-smile%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGQCGwtt5XI/AAAAAAAABkU/P7hOPeN8fOg/s1600-h/image%5B90%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQBY7Te0div1n8KvKOZDM_H2jdW2lNX9rMV6OdZUQ5DlA00gpFfZAEt6a5owwOKItHr9737wim0LvCTaMO_G3_VXc-xSnd9xAg_lc8TTCJHy2G_vTcMb1RCWuhW64UlQN6wxReQ/?imgmax=800" width="394" height="340"></a></p> <p><strong>Firefox 3.x</strong></p> <p>Firefox is the most customizable browser out there and you don’t have to rely only on Mozilla to provide you with the feature you are looking for, you can browse thousands of add-ons available on the site and you are most likely to come across an add-on which satisfies your requirement. In this case, and add-on called “All Glass” which can be applied to Firefox to make its toolbar glassy like Internet Explorer or Opera. To install, go to Tools > Add Ons > Get Add Ons > Search for All Glass.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8YevaP9I/AAAAAAAABi0/Us-FzKU7CvY/s1600-h/image%5B76%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8ZbrVZlI/AAAAAAAABi4/DOPC32nfQO0/image_thumb%5B42%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="470" height="402"></a></p> <p>When you find it, click on the Add on name and select “Add to Firefox”. You will be instructed to Restart Firefox for the add-on to have the effect.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8alVEThI/AAAAAAAABi8/4qLgMR4nkVA/s1600-h/image%5B80%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8cOSyc1I/AAAAAAAABjA/k6s1dTbAeT8/image_thumb%5B44%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="492" height="266"></a></p> <p>Restart and Voila! Your Firefox is all glass now.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Chrome 5.x</strong></p> <p>Chrome is the trickiest of the lot to glassify. Though if you were to search for Transparent themes, you will find them on Google site and these themes even show the white/gray square indicating transparent background (as depicted in PhotoShop/Gimp and other editing product). If you excitedly apply the theme hoping that the gray/white areas will be transparent, well.. they will be gray and white. </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8dcryAJI/AAAAAAAABjE/nVmADqBFmDU/s1600-h/image%5B26%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8eWK2qzI/AAAAAAAABjI/1FovD0itur8/image_thumb%5B16%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="406" height="237"></a></p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8txIm7tqsv3ovRLX7sH1G_PIIbLxJZeNXrlM_pbLDgmFsXjrPMFLqrMVlYn4jsw0GUvqN2haxjvP_xVEFZZYGXah5bdcep__OwzLJnEity4bSwT27gEZU3ILASomQcqZdZSWWiQ/s1600-h/image%5B35%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8gRpu0VI/AAAAAAAABjQ/_0uJ81ZVzAI/image_thumb%5B21%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="408" height="193"></a></p> <p>Chrome installs extension and themes and stores them under User profile. The theme contains a JSON file which specifies the theme attributes. It takes a simple micro surgery to remove the frame attributes altogether forcing Chrome not to apply ANY colour to its frame, leading to transparency. </p> <p>First apply a theme you would want before making rest of the toolbar transparent. Having done that, lets find out where Chrome stores its theme attributes. To do this on Windows 7 you need to go to \Users\<YourLoginName>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\UserData\Default\Extensions as shown in the image below.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8iADnURI/AAAAAAAABjU/sq38wfGAUZc/s1600-h/image%5B39%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8oWaAgaI/AAAAAAAABjc/Sur3g24Ae2k/image_thumb%5B23%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="476" height="279"></a></p> <p>These are all the extensions that have been installed in Chrome. Unfortunately, Chrome does not use the extension name for the directory name making it difficult to figure out which extensions these are and more importantly, which of these directories is the theme directory. You need to search the directory which contains a folder called “i” and that’s the one in which we are going to modify the attributes. For me, its located in this folder</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8pFha8_I/AAAAAAAABjg/lWIaXn8aVoc/s1600-h/image%5B43%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8qW5dh4I/AAAAAAAABjk/WlNv5PH1uGk/image_thumb%5B25%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="452" height="247"></a></p> <p>Now, edit the JSON file using any text editor and knock off the lines referring to the frame. For example, my current theme specifies:</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8rZkX8JI/AAAAAAAABjo/OgTpg7J7pEg/s1600-h/image%5B47%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8ssdTPbI/AAAAAAAABjs/0z73Y2KoJ5A/image_thumb%5B27%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="442" height="301"></a></p> <p>We are going to take this modified extension and create a new theme (extension) out of it. So save the file and copy the version number folder (1.0_0) to another location, say on desktop. Next, in Google Chrome, go to Menu > Tools > Extensions. Make sure the developer mode is on and click on pack extension to create an extension file (.crx). </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8to4BLYI/AAAAAAAABjw/nAHsVM2dkRw/s1600-h/image%5B70%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8uq5OX0I/AAAAAAAABj0/syMxpN34j_U/image_thumb%5B38%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="517" height="235"></a></p> <p>This will generate a file on the desktop 1.crx. Now just drag and drop the file anywhere on Chrome. Chrome will give a warning at bottom of its window that installing extension can be harmful.. blah.. blah. Just go ahead and click on continue. </p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8vj3rW4I/AAAAAAAABj4/V5ctUVru2Y8/s1600-h/image%5B62%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8w2rOTVI/AAAAAAAABj8/UfSkYrrZEdM/image_thumb%5B34%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="393" height="231"></a></p> <p> </p> <p>And Voila! </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8xwnzHUI/AAAAAAAABkA/4bzcoddwQ7c/s1600-h/image%5B72%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1eEjan0jo1RNUAJRotk6dgY-HcXgj6BkFr5xFhEW53TSntvYP2eoV75z22UqUXW9kgB-7bIm2KX2NacHfxamlqgeHY9MQXu6NE08ppkVeBuy9kOK9vECPgBpxdQTY8FNZYMO7iw/?imgmax=800" width="548" height="199"></a></p> <p><strong><font size="4">Conclusion</font></strong></p> <p>Most applications either support transparency naturally or have tweaks and extensions to achieve it. There are 3rd party apps which are capable of applying transparency to any application, but the don't do it selectively, rather to the entire window.. which is not what you may be looking for.</p> <p>Happy Glassing <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGP8zkfvt_I/AAAAAAAABkI/UtaEoDwn5gI/wlEmoticon-smile%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-44229849893493498032010-08-11T20:58:00.001+05:302010-08-11T21:02:19.195+05:30Breadcrumb your Firefox address bar<p><font face="Verdana"> </font></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGLBPtxLDLI/AAAAAAAABhA/f73lRpxxbMo/s1600-h/image%5B32%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGLBRNYIKRI/AAAAAAAABhE/WNoq8TF3m7c/image_thumb%5B18%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="492" height="114"></font></a></p> <p><font face="Verdana">For most people a URL is merely an encoded string to access a page on the web, but for techie its like a treasure trove. You can glean out a lot of information by looking at the URL itself like whether is a TLD (Top level domain) or ccTLD (country specific domain). Which web platform it may be using (.asp, .aspx, .jsp) and the various other components like parameters. Sometimes the URL is hierarchical like site.com/archives/2009/09/01.aspx indicating classification. You may have landed up on the site thru some link but one look at the URL and you know that you can probably get more info from the site by merely changing relevant parts of the URL.</font></p> <p><font size="4" face="Verdana"><strong>Editing the URL to get to other pages</strong></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana">However, editing such URL is a pain as you have to select the end part of the URL and backspace till you get to the part you want to change. E.g you may have landed up on a URL like this one </font><a title="http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/08/10/mad-at-google-the-question-is-are-you-mad-enough-to-stop-using-it-can-you-even-stop-using-it/" href="http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/08/10/mad-at-google-the-question-is-are-you-mad-enough-to-stop-using-it-can-you-even-stop-using-it/"><font face="Verdana">http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/08/10/mad-at-google-the-question-is-are-you-mad-enough-to-stop-using-it-can-you-even-stop-using-it/</font></a><font face="Verdana"> and you can probably spot that this site classifies it by year/month/date/article. Now you suspect that you can find more posts if you could delete the last part of the URL. But as shown in the image, it can be tedious to backspace on the URL to clear a whole bunch of stuff to reach the previous segment of the URL.</font></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGLBSR3Z6LI/AAAAAAAABiA/GKzp8srn-nM/s1600-h/image%5B8%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGLBSR3Z6LI/AAAAAAAABiI/3GsOObGcG7U/s1600-h/image%5B34%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWhjS6SUEMnaVZBNALwDJUPbk_DA4LuMuieD9ocbmUCY2kDhHKe4gQdAtbobhlLC2i7icxjqTpFtB_lXDkRcIHppaXVDhtWvilL7yLTAk3U9lgC4V3lxEYMQTGW8e1W9nGPcPRkQ/?imgmax=800" width="501" height="217"></a></font></a></p> <p><font size="4" face="Verdana"><strong>Breadcrumbs in Firefox</strong></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana">Firefox has an add-on called the <strong>LocationBar<sup>2</sup></strong> which converts the URL inside the addressbar into breadcrumbs (much like Windows explorer paths in Windows 7). It helps immensely in accessing other parts of the URL and navigating up the URL path. Download and install the add-on from Mozilla site and lets configure it to provide us URL crumbs. Adding an add-on to Firefox if easy.. go to Tools > Add-ons and click on Get Add-ons tabs. Type the name of the add-on you are looking for.. when it comes up, click on it and select “Add to Firefox”. Once installed, it will prompt you to restart (I like the fact that Chrome doesn't ask you to restart browser when an extension is added, but then Chrome extensions don’t integrate as deeply as some of the FF add-ons do). The alternative is to visit </font><a title="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/" href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/"><font face="Verdana">https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/</font></a><font face="Verdana"> and search or browse for the add-ons you want.</font></p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxc6tI-skH8j7vZya_XVkwH4uFf4nHmzGuZSCBAGUzO6vs2mG7OTYV252viFoQloTaMva5wVxOtkIBk0CUtop7heL_EbqklbH6W2CAhUFkpjwsZBy6adx_4rRhdf70om2fJyVSvw/s1600-h/image%5B33%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGLBZKLTO3I/AAAAAAAABhc/o8mg6hQF_Cc/image_thumb%5B19%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="492" height="197"></font></a></p> <p><font face="Verdana">Notice the green arrows in the URL bar after installing LocatioBar<sup>2</sup>, they create clickable segments. You are currently looking at the original URL, but you can click the segment of URL which is “10” and probably signifies the archive date. Similarly you can click “08” for the monthly archive or “2010” to see the yearly archive. This of course would only work with those sites which use such hierarchy. </font></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGLBa6HBAQI/AAAAAAAABhg/pwC-sCj3flg/s1600-h/image%5B22%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGLBcfOP8gI/AAAAAAAABhk/8phv1IQVYMU/image_thumb%5B12%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="345" height="225"></font></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGLBdyXgRUI/AAAAAAAABho/HKZSn-2FaBI/s1600-h/image%5B27%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGLBf8V7IdI/AAAAAAAABhs/k35bpLSItKA/image_thumb%5B15%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="345" height="241"></font></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGLBhb78ylI/AAAAAAAABhw/Ig99y5nf40s/s1600-h/image%5B31%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGLBi69L2HI/AAAAAAAABh0/HF8pmkHrJMQ/image_thumb%5B17%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="347" height="258"></font></a></p> <p><font face="Verdana"> </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"> </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"> </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"> </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"> </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"> </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"> </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"></font> </p> <p><font face="Verdana">As you can see from the images, you can click different segments of the URL and move up to different parts of the website.</font></p> <p><strong><font face="Verdana">LocationBar<sup>2</sup></font></strong></p> <p><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 15px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGLBk_P3P7I/AAAAAAAABh4/3gz1tpJ8nj0/image_thumb9.png?imgmax=800" width="331" height="419">LocationBar<sup>2 </sup>has simple configuration. First of all, it allows you to hide protocols which are common and obvious, like http and https. You can add more like ftp if you like. It also has ability to show or hide to GO button inside the addressbar but most people I know simply press ENTER or CTRL-ENTER after typing the URL.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana">The gray subdomain option allows the domain name to be in regular colour while the subdomain in gray thereby highlighting the domain in the URL. I tend to even choose a different colour and make it bold (strong) so that with one look you can make out clearly which domain you are on.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana">Now comes the important part. As LocationBar<sup>2 </sup>can provide Linkification, it allows allows an option to select the original URL with click or double click. However, as it breadcrumbs the URL into segments, click will select segments and not the entire URL. What if you want to copy the entire URL to paste elsewhere? In the Linkification tab it has options for “On top” and “On Bottom”. If you select “On Bottom”, the moment the mouse crosses over the lower border of the addressbar, the URL will become segmented, so to get URL in normal format, uncheck “On Top”. Now if you move you mouse over the top edge of addressbar and bring it back inside, the URL will become regular link and you can click or double click to select it.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana">Finally, the breadcrumbs can be for the entire host (domain and the rest) or for each segment. Apart from being able to navigate up and down on the URL, I also use it go quickly go “home” on any site. For example, I click the domain segment on facebook.com to quickly go back to the main page or click on mail.google.com in my gmail to reload gmail instead of just going back to inbox. I think LocationBar<sup>2</sup> add a very useful feature to Firefox and makes URL navigation a breeze. Go ahead and give it a try. </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana">Happy Breadcrumbing <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0jYoFG__hlIW-WODkRTEQTlzTHCG-gIWvPZdy3N0Ow0AZewceKDVTlQNdJVfa4NX466THMza9_HNiiW3zCD8uAFKkprYdSQvyWkz1g5PP8vNAolfDRam7QYthK87-yPCGmEdTNA/?imgmax=800"></font></p><font face="Verdana"></font><br> <p><font face="Verdana"></font> </p><br> <p><font face="Verdana"></font></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-49447085292858147352010-08-10T21:43:00.001+05:302010-08-10T21:56:26.941+05:30Customize Firefox to get more web viewing area<p><font size="4" face="Verdana"><strong>Ban those toolbars.. NOW!!!</strong></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana">Does your browser look like this? And then you wonder why your internet is slow? First of all, do not install any toolbars which sneak in with these “free” utilities that you download. They not only take up viewing space, many contact their websites to refresh their buttons and contents causing the page load to be delayed. You may not notice this on a broadband connection but if you are on a slow network, you can see the toolbar refreshing itself before the page load begins.</font></p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD15tgkhYeUL1VT2SlQEGWGTYTOOqxOpaUVpIROQmz86PfUjYTClm0R_du0_8XIMmb7OHRHD5gRpaw7NMBlUh5RNNhqNqFLe7G6KtIUx_MsSjhZv_86bNmce4bEBYChvcFdefA6g/s1600-h/too-many-toolbars%5B5%5D.gif"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="too-many-toolbars" border="0" alt="too-many-toolbars" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6cMQYRJI/AAAAAAAABfg/h3qXzYS_Rbo/too-many-toolbars_thumb%5B3%5D.gif?imgmax=800" width="543" height="366"></font></a></p> <p> </p> <p><font face="Verdana"><strong>Lets see what Firefox gives us by default</strong></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6Z8mY9dI/AAAAAAAABfU/hQ9yiUkLpvk/s1600-h/image%5B2%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6asPRdTI/AAAAAAAABfY/1zIvfKSuWoY/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="161"></font></a>When you install Firefox for the first time and run it, you are greeted with a standard layout consisting of Titlebar, MenuBar, Navigation Bar, Bookmark Bar (Personal Bar) and Tabs. While on a standard size monitor there is enough space remaining for viewing area but on laptops and netbooks it greatly reduces the viewing area and causes a lot of scrolling. With a little tinkering and tweaking, you can increase the vertical size of the viewing area. The newer browsers like Chrome and Opera are focussing on larger viewing sizes too. Upcoming Firefox 4 (due Sep 2010) also has made UI layout changes by giving options to move the tab bar to the top. We can achieve the same thing in Firefox 3.6.x by tweaking the menu bar and other toolbars. </font></p> <p><strong><font size="4" face="Verdana">Default viewing area across browsers</font></strong></p><br> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6cwicUEI/AAAAAAAABfk/4hOOQA3jaVY/s1600-h/image%5B6%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6dyED8vI/AAAAAAAABfo/S5FtLmtEcBI/image_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="530" height="252"></font></a></p> <p><font face="Verdana">The image compares four popular browsers on Windows with their default toolbar area height. From left to right – Chrome 5.x, Opera 10.6, Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.6.x. To begin with, Firefox looks a bit kludgy and takes up the maximum height. That's because the other browsers do not show a menu bar any more. Most of them have put the menu bar either on the title bar (Opera) or tucked them away on the toolbar (Chrome and IE). In addition, Firefox has a separate Bookmark bar below the navigation bar taking up an extra row. While Firefox 4.0 will move the menu to a single drop down like Opera 4, it is still possible in Firefox 3.x to hide the menu to gain extra room. </font></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6epXJhzI/AAAAAAAABfs/ibaC9AIH8lw/s1600-h/image%5B13%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6fp1mk_I/AAAAAAAABfw/QRVD18h8GvU/image_thumb%5B5%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="426" height="245"></font></a><br></p> <p><font size="4" face="Verdana"><strong>Lets reduce the height of Firefox toolbars</strong></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"></font> </p> <p><font face="Verdana"><strong>1. Uncheck the menu bar and bookmark toolbar:</strong> First thing you can do is to uncheck the Menu Bar and Bookmarks Toolbar. This will immediately give you a lot of vertical space. Later we will be able to add the menu as a dropdown on the Navigation Toolbar itself. </font></p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxXVQeLM6CJbynFAszUC0yw8crKBGbe4rcRwqFxy7phyphenhyphen0lBaYq3NAeEltGPYXePHUX9ONKoF4MbQzi7yWvs5CqzHZgrKRkSL667QVnlFU6pFXeefasGrqwgduAnt8C0obtFWYB4Q/s1600-h/image%5B17%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6hTlPeDI/AAAAAAAABf4/5NTtDmqtWw8/image_thumb%5B7%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="441" height="141"></font></a></p> <p><font face="Verdana"></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana">As you can see the browser height is now increased, going past IE and becoming the same as Opera.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"><strong>2. Use small icons on the navigation bar:</strong> Now we can further reduce the height of the toolbar by specifying “Use Small Icons” from Toolbar Customize Menu.</font></p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6iP8SPqI/AAAAAAAABf8/UOkjyM8Mw6k/s1600-h/image%5B25%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6i1akxfI/AAAAAAAABgA/VCFXOZCvu1c/image_thumb%5B11%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="490" height="215"></font></a> <p><font face="Verdana">Now the vertical height approaches the height of Chrome. Its difficult to reduce it any further (without hacks) because Chrome puts it tabs on top. In fact the previous image is when both browsers are not maximized because when they are, Chrome actually put the tab on the title bar (non client area) and suddenly the difference is widened.</font></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6jpRrxGI/AAAAAAAABgE/Wff2DdW0wg0/s1600-h/image%5B29%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6kk8aguI/AAAAAAAABgI/YFwwnHkdh84/image_thumb%5B13%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="427" height="175"></font></a></p> <p><font face="Verdana">But Firefox is known for its Add-on which can dive deep into browser’s internal structures and come up with amazing things. One such trick is to remove the Tabs from top altogether. You can see that apart from the tabs (top in Chrome and bottom in FF), navigation height is roughly the same</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"><strong>3. Remove tabs from the top:</strong><br>How do you do that? Well, its a bit of cheating and might defeat the overall purpose of getting more viewing area. But there are 2 add-ons – Tab Sidebar and Showcase Sidebar. Download them and configure them to hide the tabs bar when they are active. This way you get more vertical height but lose some horizontal width. If you want to recover the horizontal width too, you can install another add-on which retracts the sidebar when not in use. (Later on that add-on). So here goes…</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6lYbIzkI/AAAAAAAABgM/lxGCUEeakrw/image_thumb%5B15%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="490" height="115">Now the height of both the toolbars in Chrome and FF are exactly the same giving you more vertical viewing space. Chrome briefly flirted with vertical tab bars too when it had introduced –enable-vertical-tabs option in its command line switch, but as of Chrome 5.x I cant get it to work. Maybe the option will get polished further and make a comeback in Chrome later.</font></p> <p><strong><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6mPU1d9I/AAAAAAAABgQ/zGnuzwdYogk/s1600-h/image%5B42%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6mz5V-bI/AAAAAAAABgU/n8XGwbPZf1w/image_thumb%5B20%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="269" height="255"></font></a><font face="Verdana">4. Put the menu/bookmark on toolbar: </font></strong><font face="Verdana">We have hidden the menu to gain more vertical height but we would need to use the menu occasionally. This can be done pressing the ALT key once and releasing it which brings up the menu (not a behaviour of FF but of windows). For those who might find this confusing or want to use mouse to use the menu can install Compact Menu 2 add-on. It puts the entire menu as a button on the navigation toolbar. The other add-on is called Bookmark Menu which similarly put the entire bookmark bar in a dropdown form on the toolbar. You can customize the location of these Compact Menu/Bookmark Menu using the Toolbar Customize option.</font><br></p> <p><font face="Verdana"></font></p><font face="Verdana"><strong>5. Add a touch of gloss: </strong>Nothing to do with gaining height but this add-on called “All glass” makes the toolbar semi transparent using the Windows Alpha Blend and will work only on Vista and Windows 7.</font> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6nt_pYsI/AAAAAAAABgY/GAYsf_ngUdk/s1600-h/image%5B46%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6o89dSbI/AAAAAAAABgc/FDKkWzAYicc/image_thumb%5B22%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="511" height="198"></font></a></p> <p><br><font size="4" face="Verdana"><strong>Conclusion</strong></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"></font></p> <p>So with tweaking and using add-ons, we have not only been able to increase the viewing height of Firefox to that of Chrome but it even surpasses Chrome in non maximized state. This should be a bit of a help when browsing on small screens of netbooks, tablets and laptops. Here is a screen shot (Left to Right) of Firefox 3.6, Chrome 5, Opera 10 and IE 8.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6pkibcoI/AAAAAAAABgs/agCpWhIALUo/s1600-h/image%5B54%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6q59tFUI/AAAAAAAABgw/lzgHxw0kv-I/image_thumb%5B26%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="501" height="161"></a></p> <p><font face="Verdana">Happy Browsing <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGF6rUlOz4I/AAAAAAAABgo/ubIedEbMO1c/wlEmoticon-smile%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"></font></p> <p><br> </p> <p><font face="Verdana"></font></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-12913223043160662122010-08-10T00:37:00.002+05:302010-08-10T22:33:51.806+05:30I should be using Chrome but I use Firefox<p><span style="font-family: verdana"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRjkAtP-Ugons0byKG4LUNT7mPpS3HMV70asZQT8mZX8oRhFqrv1-ctURvt2NL2IvQgreDj6ld8e6azSVHqQopoUiVoIymrFD7PmZE4LKUG8FORfQ_97uRRlybrpQpmDfAwx5nQ/s1600-h/all%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="all" border="0" alt="all" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRghOPWDI/AAAAAAAABds/azSdzg0xn-Q/all_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" height="222"></a>Well, some people can say that about Internet Explorer or Opera too. I have been in software industry much before internet came in, heck, for that matter even before GUI came in. I was there when Mosaic made a debut, I used the first version of Internet Explorer, I started using Firefox when it was not even called Firefox but was called Phoenix Browser and didn't even have a setup.. you simply had to copy the files in a directory of your choice and start using it. Yes, I watched the browser wars and saw IE beat Netscape.. I sided with IE then for the same reason I side with Firefox today. Let the better technology be used. I guess I am a technology junkie who wants to try out every piece of technology out there and figure out what works for me. </span><br></p> <p><br><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium"><strong>Do we really need multiple browsers?</strong></span><br><font face="Verdana">HTML is supposed to be a standard and thus every browser should give us the same experience.. but reality does not follow standards and the fact it that each browser has different support for standard and different features</font></p> <p><br><span style="font-family: verdana"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRhm7pY9I/AAAAAAAABdw/uNI3xSR1e3A/s1600-h/icon_ie7%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="icon_ie7" border="0" alt="icon_ie7" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRiTxAZqI/AAAAAAAABd0/LJ40tcyMR3Q/icon_ie7_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="64" height="64"></a><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRjqkc85I/AAAAAAAABd4/zPsQ2ypIDTw/s1600-h/420279_100511073515_Gloves%5B10%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="420279_100511073515_Gloves" border="0" alt="420279_100511073515_Gloves" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRkefWSqI/AAAAAAAABd8/Vv2rn5MK0e8/420279_100511073515_Gloves_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="42" height="40"></a><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRlZ83iYI/AAAAAAAABeA/WtRyiCMxz30/s1600-h/images%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="images" border="0" alt="images" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRmCnRztI/AAAAAAAABeE/7FDS194iz2Y/images_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="67" height="64"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAt8MryNVtbiVKqfUzdSBKai6eoSwST6zpegEVNxQ2G-x53d-5moAZ0sNeypTY7CDsMezsuudxS_zfdX3rgcpsX6KQfw9tH7hZg-3nFeAsWK0rv_naEcOSuXA8Pw1AfkJGPuTd3A/s1600-h/420279_100511073515_Gloves%5B6%5D%5B14%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="420279_100511073515_Gloves[6]" border="0" alt="420279_100511073515_Gloves[6]" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRoPFW2xI/AAAAAAAABeM/RK18ye93SSo/420279_100511073515_Gloves%5B6%5D_thumb%5B11%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="42" height="40"></a><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRqFJOq8I/AAAAAAAABeQ/NhNoJ4xLSuk/s1600-h/SafariLogo%5B5%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="SafariLogo" border="0" alt="SafariLogo" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRrp_f9-I/AAAAAAAABeU/yXqPVAvyXIM/SafariLogo_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="70" height="66"></a><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRs2JwHnI/AAAAAAAABeY/fUaZMmtO-jw/s1600-h/420279_100511073515_Gloves%5B6%5D%5B16%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="420279_100511073515_Gloves[6]" border="0" alt="420279_100511073515_Gloves[6]" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRtkevbdI/AAAAAAAABec/vcZ5_oUQ5dY/420279_100511073515_Gloves%5B6%5D_thumb%5B13%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="42" height="40"></a><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRu77kniI/AAAAAAAABeg/4Dy7dEjkLrQ/s1600-h/Opera_512x512%5B4%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="Opera_512x512" border="0" alt="Opera_512x512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqGjs4VO3P-u06gUof7Di4dIY3S1DM00Ff0rBOS5QXe-pm0gwFs3B4SMGmYjuWDrGT24FxQatItxoRHXJh_I0DDzioBqsODJUv_TTy4SkV6SAWLoRWd_7bRbKyJHVX56Ai6V3N7w/?imgmax=800" width="64" height="64"></a><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRwwsJVeI/AAAAAAAABeo/fLc7QN6IFFU/s1600-h/420279_100511073515_Gloves%5B6%5D%5B21%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="420279_100511073515_Gloves[6]" border="0" alt="420279_100511073515_Gloves[6]" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRxzPGtBI/AAAAAAAABes/CLqIWxg007g/420279_100511073515_Gloves%5B6%5D_thumb%5B17%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="42" height="40"></a><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBRzYGEwsI/AAAAAAAABew/c5M-93IXnTY/s1600-h/chrome-logo%5B5%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="chrome-logo" border="0" alt="chrome-logo" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBR0kntxoI/AAAAAAAABe0/Q4WuSIqNPwA/chrome-logo_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="66" height="64"></a></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana"></span><br><span style="font-family: verdana">Today we have five major browser which are competing out there – Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome. There are many more lesser known or even unheard of (SRWare Iron, Flock, Stainless, Camino.. here is a complete list </span><a title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><font face="Verdana">Mega list of Browsers</font></a><span style="font-family: verdana"></span><span style="font-family: verdana">). </span><span style="font-family: verdana">So, while theoretically all browsers should be born equal, all of them have different capabilities and feature and therefore users have their favourites and preferences.</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium"><strong></strong></span> <p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium"><strong>So which is the best browser</strong></span><br><span style="font-family: verdana">Reading this far you may have started expecting that I would show you benchmarks and list out individual capabilities of each browser and maybe announce a winner… NO. I am here to say why I switched from Internet Explorer to Firefox and why I might switch to Chrome in future. </span><br><br><strong><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium">Why Firefox</span></strong><br><span style="font-family: verdana"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBR20SHDKI/AAAAAAAABe4/zjn_ZDz1D7A/s1600-h/firefox-logo-full%5B3%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="firefox-logo-full" border="0" alt="firefox-logo-full" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBR4PTztAI/AAAAAAAABe8/5zLa0yFsJ4Y/firefox-logo-full_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="240" height="230"></a>I am not a fanatic type of techie, so I don't get taken in (at least very easily) by war cries like “Open Source”, “Multi Platform”, “anti M$”. For me, the technology should impress me, suit my purpose and generally make my life more comfortable. Personally I find Windows 7 a better platform over Mac (while Mac has a smoother UX, it doesn’t quite have the apps eco-system that Windows has), Firefox a better browser than IE, .NET a better development platform than Java, MS Office a better suite than OpenOffice and Thunderbird a better email client than Outlook. In fact, I wonder if having a better eco-system lures more users to a product. Look at it – Windows, Firefox, iPhone, Thunderbird and now Android. Most of these have a huge eco-system built around them.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana"></span><br><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBR5EMxFzI/AAAAAAAABfA/GzSDOTt8ucY/s1600-h/logo-collections-100x125%5B3%5D.png"><span style="font-family: verdana"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="logo-collections-100x125" border="0" alt="logo-collections-100x125" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBR6AbjDJI/AAAAAAAABfE/3rvO84ftmmk/logo-collections-100x125_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="100" height="125"></span></a><span style="font-family: verdana">The single reason why I use Firefox? <strong>Add-on</strong>. Yep, that’s right.. not speed, not open source, not HTML5 support but the ability to customize the experience for me. Chrome and Opera are busy making land speed records on browser but that does not make me lust for them. I believe, millions of other Firefox users are also with Firefox because it allows you to customize and control virtually every aspect of the browser. I am not just talking about visual themes and personas, but stuff like displaying all open tabs in thumbnail view in a sidebar, protecting yourself from rogue scripts on websites that you visit, synchronizing your password, bookmarks and even tabs across computers and devices. Firefox has created a vast eco system of extensions for its browser and while others browsers are waking up to it and realizing what a honeypot it is for the users, Firefox has raced way ahead in this area. </span></p><span style="font-family: verdana"></span> <p><br><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium"><strong>Firefox Add-ons</strong></span><br><span style="font-family: verdana"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYKIkwyy-xMvwuaLDDJWcMtpv5_i8JQ9SCKp5O7L2mLn1kS-Yew2yupCNfbbjoN3ZO1qDCqSG4CtzM8lfgv4gPGzeSS63HTqh2HF3CXOTwhpeqQiurB2n-O6rUOYeZ-iheE-CjKg/s1600-h/image%5B4%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 15px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TGBR-DGsN9I/AAAAAAAABfM/6yAQshp9LtU/image_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="359" height="307"></a>I am an avid surfer from the days when it was still called World Wide Wait and my lack of patience saw me opening multiple windows of IE (no tabbed browsing then) and switching impatiently between different windows to check which one has finished loading and rendering the page. With advent of tabbed browsing, all that changed was instead of windows, I was switching between tabs. Then one day I stumbled upon something called “extension” for Firefox called Tab Sidebar (check out the thumbnails in sidebar in the image). It allowed me to open multiple sites in different tabs but showed them in live thumbnail view on the side, letting me know when a particular tab has finished rendering or watching live preview in a tab while I am in a different tab. For many users this may not make much of a difference, but to an impatient user like me it brought a lot of calmness. It also introduced me to the world of browser extensions and how I could customize and personalize my browsing experience. </span><br><span style="font-family: verdana"></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana">I have replaced Tab Sidebar with a similar extension called Showcase and till date it remains the single biggest reason why I haven't switched to Opera, Chrome or back to IE even though they are setting land speed records of performance. I have discovered a lot many more useful extensions like Fission, LocationBar, NoScript, CookieMonster (which I might blog about later). I am hoping that Chrome expands its extension capabilities the scope it has of today and the day it gives me a Tab Sidebar, its speed would become the differentiator for me.</span><br><span style="font-family: verdana">So go ahead and give Firefox a try along with a few add-ons. If you don't like it, you can always go back to IE, Chrome, Opera or Safari.</span><br><span style="font-family: verdana"></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana">Happy Browsing <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7b-dknsarAttGuCKWsGR-Jruga5RbfGzjLTwDt10jRgGXB1ht5J-uiFNdJggtS4eDUVV1ACmuKaE67p2JlmMN0hZHZAVlLkjxRLi1TVZnhj9lqGcucMzssspJvqrLDo-S0eN7uQ/?imgmax=800"></span><br><br><span style="font-family: verdana"></span><br><br></p><span style="font-family: verdana"></span> <p><font face="Verdana"></font></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-46905670526663895352010-08-07T19:18:00.001+05:302010-08-07T22:57:36.034+05:30Windows’ built in magnifier tool<p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jcnh1FCI/AAAAAAAABSg/S_3xL1_wSSc/s1600-h/image%5B9%5D.png"><font face="Verdana"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jdR2iEZI/AAAAAAAABSk/2I7OucHMouw/image_thumb%5B5%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="220" height="193"></font></a><font face="Verdana">As I am growing old, the ability to read fonts on 1900x1200 resolution screen is becoming a bit difficult. I have a 17” MacBook Pro with OSX SnowLeopard and I had quickly discovered that CTRL-SCROLL zooms the screen and that too live, meaning that its not just a screen shot but magnified state where I can continue to click and type. It became a regular habit when filling forms on the browser or even editing. The transition is so smooth that you don't even feel any delay when going into zoomed mode. I have been using Firefox (largely due to showcase extension) rather than Safari and am also used to zoom for within the browser window using Command + and Command – in OSX (Command is the “Apple” key but mostly work like counterpart to CTRL key of Windows). When Windows 7 RC arrived, I excitedly installed it in my boot camp partition and was very happy with the improvements it had over Vista. I installed Firefox and started using it and in no time as part of habit, I hit the Command + key to zoom inside the browser. Wow! The browser didn't zoom but the entire desktop zoomed. Wow! Neat.</font></p> <p>Windows 7 not only matched what OSX provides but actually surpasses OSX in terms of screen magnification. Lets discover the magnification features in Windows 7 and how to use them efficiently in our day to day work and during presentations.</p> <p><strong><font size="4" face="Verdana">Activating the Zoom</font></strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF2XYZV5E4I/AAAAAAAABcM/ptF_NTFNvpQ/s1600-h/computer_key_Windows_T5.png"><font face="Verdana"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF2XYZV5E4I/AAAAAAAABcQ/XJie1kONTmM/s1600-h/computer_key_Windows_T1.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="computer_key_Windows_T" border="0" alt="computer_key_Windows_T" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jepgmlrI/AAAAAAAABXY/xkQRl8fFLrY/computer_key_Windows_T_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="83" height="66"></a></font></a><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jffGZF3I/AAAAAAAABcU/jWL6pY4OXRo/s1600-h/computer_key_num_row_Equals_T20.png"><font face="Verdana"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jffGZF3I/AAAAAAAABcY/a7m3grPDPPU/s1600-h/computer_key_num_row_Equals_T61.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="computer_key_num_row_Equals_T" border="0" alt="computer_key_num_row_Equals_T" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jgHUMTDI/AAAAAAAABXk/TS1_mCCcGjE/computer_key_num_row_Equals_T6_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="70" height="66"></a></font></a></p> <p><font face="Verdana"></font></p><font face="Verdana">Pressing Windows and + key brings up the magnifier panel and zooms the entire screen to the last zoomed state. The Panel contains zoom out and zoom in buttons but you can continue to use Win + and Win to continue your zoom in and out.<br></font> <p><font face="Verdana"><br></font></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jhetTU-I/AAAAAAAABck/rd62EjQT0aA/s1600-h/image14.png"><font face="Verdana"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2avnJNx8SDq0P1CkZz0SdXz4yHQ40sCFa2IM93KSEdBQ_ee-9Qk3X2Y_5J0ZXxYMlgnomrV-uP3oyqloBm2EV0TJGRkJTf7c1crDuoDPO1zLf6-P5GsmNUuxIl4rmvl4qXoutbg/s1600-h/image54.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jkQ7VAuI/AAAAAAAABVc/5fBVVJksa2U/image_thumb%5B32%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="426" height="343"></a></font></a></p> <p><font face="Verdana">Full screen zoom is a live zoom and not a snapshot, which means you can continue to work with windows, clicking things and type without having to switch the zoom off. This may be convenient in a situation when you are presenting to an audience in a large hall and want to focus on a particular part of the slide or screen. You can also use it while working when the fonts or images are two small and you want a clearer image. </font></p> <p><strong><font size="4" face="Verdana">Docking the old style</font></strong></p> <p><font face="Verdana">Before Windows 7 we did have zoom but it was always docked as a panel where you could see the zoomed image as you mouse moved on the screen. This option still exists and can be activated.</font></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jlAuUVeI/AAAAAAAABc0/PnZPl-h7TpI/s1600-h/computer_key_Ctrl_T4.png"><font face="Verdana"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jlAuUVeI/AAAAAAAABc4/Hqc5uu7poLQ/s1600-h/computer_key_Ctrl_T1.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="computer_key_Ctrl_T" border="0" alt="computer_key_Ctrl_T" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jlihIdjI/AAAAAAAABYA/R8qtO8i0DeI/computer_key_Ctrl_T_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="70" height="66"></a></font></a><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jmZ-l9CI/AAAAAAAABdA/_4wmmuDwYNU/s1600-h/computer_key_Alt_T3.png"><font face="Verdana"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jmZ-l9CI/AAAAAAAABdE/kw_9O9vrpnw/s1600-h/computer_key_Alt_T1.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="computer_key_Alt_T" border="0" alt="computer_key_Alt_T" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jnK_pHYI/AAAAAAAABYU/O8lqp5XlBv4/computer_key_Alt_T_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="70" height="66"></a></font></a><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jn3CXMBI/AAAAAAAABdQ/OeGEHjsTBHU/s1600-h/computer_key_D_T4.png"><font face="Verdana"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jn3CXMBI/AAAAAAAABdc/HfK0UJcQSCc/s1600-h/computer_key_D_T1.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="computer_key_D_T" border="0" alt="computer_key_D_T" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jopcdCzI/AAAAAAAABYg/vRUGYVKM-gQ/computer_key_D_T_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="70" height="66"></a></font></a></p> <p><font face="Verdana">As you can see, there is a docked magnifier at the top, above the Opera window and you can see Opera title bar, menu button and address bar in magnified state. The Dock follows your mouse pointer and you show you the area under selection magnified..<br></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"></font></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jquny_II/AAAAAAAABWk/W4CBA2qwO_g/s1600-h/image%5B57%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jshWW23I/AAAAAAAABWs/nW3hJgDeqf4/image_thumb%5B35%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="518" height="203"></a><br></p> <p><font face="Verdana"></font></p> <p><strong><font size="4" face="Verdana">How much dock to dock?</font></strong></p> <p><font face="Verdana">Magnifier dock starts off with a standard height but you are not limited to the standard size and you can resize the dock to a much larger size, covering almost the entire desktop (do this when you are going blind <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smilewithtongueout" alt="Smile with tongue out" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jtPDnkiI/AAAAAAAABTo/12onCBuK5VM/wlEmoticon-smilewithtongueout%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"> ). Take a look at the picture below.. the magnifier dock covers almost half the height of the desktop. Remember, you need to click at the bottom edge of the magnifier and drag it downwards. It has a small bug that it shows you a 4-headed “move” pointer and NOT the 2-headed “size” pointer which can be confusing as you can land up undocking it by “move”.</font></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jwWa4dfI/AAAAAAAABW0/JJ5uZgg-nfg/s1600-h/image%5B56%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1jzRSIByI/AAAAAAAABW8/SAdLsRUDxrY/image_thumb%5B34%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="491" height="298"></a></p> <p><font size="4" face="Verdana"><strong>Undock the dock</strong></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana">Some people may not like the entire top section of their screen to be blocked by a magnifier, so a better way would be to “undock” the magnifier into a smaller window and keep it afloat on the screen as you work.</font></p><font face="Verdana"> <p> </p> <p><strong></strong><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1j0nRwhyI/AAAAAAAABXA/By3RYv8BibU/s1600-h/image%5B55%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUcZJgcweyyDT79veYieJGx-3DJBQQEtHSvWlzimfdIHyt3nKGo3fLhEfb-eOgBafpZAFFtjYB2KvrfZc8M7zBNXQbxJ8VB46SXjxPp8_XbDuvoo342TjqNG8RiG-w7K2E2h7N2A/?imgmax=800" width="484" height="152"></a></p> <p><strong><font size="4">Wait.. there is more…</font></strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1j2cmyBuI/AAAAAAAABYk/6JkhgHxrqng/s1600-h/computer_key_Ctrl_T5%5B2%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="computer_key_Ctrl_T" border="0" alt="computer_key_Ctrl_T" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1j3JrXSrI/AAAAAAAABYo/zkjt-6IMPbw/computer_key_Ctrl_T5_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="70" height="66"></a><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1j3tzUcDI/AAAAAAAABYw/nZoD6a82L-0/s1600-h/computer_key_Alt_T7%5B1%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="computer_key_Alt_T" border="0" alt="computer_key_Alt_T" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1j4Spx2_I/AAAAAAAABY4/daU4yVz2Zec/computer_key_Alt_T7_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="70" height="66"></a><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1j5GjkMII/AAAAAAAABZE/J_UoFuh-5OM/s1600-h/computer_key_L_T%5B1%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="computer_key_L_T" border="0" alt="computer_key_L_T" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1j5gG7gVI/AAAAAAAABZI/0wpwFpUG_us/computer_key_L_T_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="70" height="66"></a></p> <p>Lens mode is excellent during presentations as it shows you a lens like view which follows your mouse pointer magnifying the area around it. I find it useful when delivering presentations as it not only magnifies the code I want to show but also forces the audience to focus on what I am showing rather than getting distracted by rest of the screen. The lens is configurable in terms of size and you specify the height and width of the lens using SHIFT-ALT .. LEFT/RIGHT to adjust width and UP/DOWN to adjust height. You can also move the lens using keyboard shortcuts of CTRL-ALT-Arrows. The image below shows a section of the slide being magnified, focussing the attention of the audience on that section.</p> <p></font><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1j7qmIJqI/AAAAAAAABWA/zi_TmTCkD2g/s1600-h/image%5B52%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxsLz_WJVdqAaBTMUmrVAEWz2lwwuxmGgKbVB9EatVHlqZ8xYW6RUC3jGvBHoYgBBkDxC2jwBQFm1ewYS7JsasnfEcbQI2Z7tRLDDNWgX3xvEbNHapyGGqC86_2LPIRT3fIim8ww/?imgmax=800" width="514" height="350"></a></p> <p><font face="Verdana"></font></p><br> <p><font face="Verdana"></font></p> <p><strong><font size="4">Getting back to Full screen zoom and getting perspective</font></strong></p> <p>Having experimented with Dock (CTRL-ALT-D) and Lens (CTRL-ALT-L), lets get back to full screen.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1j-WzlK-I/AAAAAAAABZM/IpvxP6sfUOw/s1600-h/computer_key_Ctrl_T9%5B2%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="computer_key_Ctrl_T" border="0" alt="computer_key_Ctrl_T" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1j_N9JFJI/AAAAAAAABZU/zqYr8GY0C_Q/computer_key_Ctrl_T9_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="70" height="66"></a><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1j__zIljI/AAAAAAAABZY/YsMhyz_0nn4/s1600-h/computer_key_Alt_T14%5B2%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="computer_key_Alt_T" border="0" alt="computer_key_Alt_T" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1kAhCjZLI/AAAAAAAABZg/F42wtSY4zAE/computer_key_Alt_T14_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="70" height="66"></a><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1kBC7nMVI/AAAAAAAABZo/5PwmGbc9oQY/s1600-h/computer_key_F_T%5B1%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="computer_key_F_T" border="0" alt="computer_key_F_T" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1kB_0quqI/AAAAAAAABZw/Yws0fJ82i8Y/computer_key_F_T_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="70" height="66"></a></p> <p>In this mode, as we started, the entire screen is in a “live” zoom state. While this maybe preferred by some, it can also get a little disorienting as to where we are on the screen. To get a perspective, press CTRL-ALT-SPACE and momentarily the screen will unzoom highlighting the area which is under zoom mode and then quickly return to zoom mode.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><font size="4">To end it all</font></strong></p> <p>Some people struggle to end the zoom as the key combination is not well documented or made obvious.It can be frustrating in middle of a presentation to have started Len mode zoom but struggling to return back to normal mode. If you are in full screen zoom mode, just keep pressing Win – until it restore to normal, unfortunately, that doesn't work in Lens or Dock mode. In fact Win+ and Win – control the level of zoom in all modes. To get the Dock or Lens mode completely off, just press the following..<br></p> <p><font face="Verdana"></font></p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1kCWGF7vI/AAAAAAAABZ0/XFVg4uzzQFI/s1600-h/computer_key_Windows_T6%5B2%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="computer_key_Windows_T" border="0" alt="computer_key_Windows_T" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1kDSlGdjI/AAAAAAAABZ8/VMmPOOk5InQ/computer_key_Windows_T6_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="81" height="65"></a><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1kD8TB7OI/AAAAAAAABaI/VwJ4zMqFQq4/s1600-h/computer_key_Esc_T%5B1%5D.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="computer_key_Esc_T" border="0" alt="computer_key_Esc_T" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1kEUfZEVI/AAAAAAAABaM/wET8QC2v0x4/computer_key_Esc_T_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="70" height="66"></a><br> <p><font face="Verdana"></font></p><br> <p><font face="Verdana"></font></p> <p>Happy Zooming <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TF1kFLjEHEI/AAAAAAAABVI/RNZRX249Hp0/wlEmoticon-smile%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-15686813837829606662010-08-04T02:05:00.001+05:302010-08-04T02:05:40.579+05:30How to delay Startup apps and influence performance<p><font face="Verdana"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFh9ZKXL_hI/AAAAAAAABRg/EqTlQMic328/s1600-h/images%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="images" border="0" alt="images" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFh9aJN4d-I/AAAAAAAABRk/GB5RcN5_nEc/images_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184"></a>Couple of years ago Raj Chaudhuri and I were talking about how it takes a long time for Windows XP to start up due to a lot of applications installing themselves into the Startup folder and Run registry. It seemed ALL applications back then wanted to run with windows Startup and live forever in your system tray. While most applications would politely ask if you wanted to install them in Startup, some sneaked in without asking and I am not talking about the virus variety here. Some others are even sneakier.. they install themselves not in Startup or Run registry but in Windows Task Schedule (e.g. Google Updater). </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana">Back then, I used to have a folder on my desktop containing shortcuts of applications which I wanted to Startup but not all together attempting that at boot time. So after a quick boot and when Windows was usable and responsive, I would go to the folder and start them up one by one in between my current work. This was obviously tedious and sometime I would get too engrossed in my work and forget completely about. The Solution?</font></p> <p><font size="4" face="Verdana"><strong>WinPatrol</strong></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFh9a0cEaDI/AAAAAAAABRo/ttzpb3hMBuE/s1600-h/scotty128%5B2%5D.gif"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="scotty128" border="0" alt="scotty128" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFh9brYvkEI/AAAAAAAABRs/UYqAYQn7T7U/scotty128_thumb.gif?imgmax=800" width="128" height="128"></a>WinPatrol is a small little utility which basically watches over your Startup folder, run registry, services and pops up a warning whenever any application tries to add itself to these. It even fights with those applications which on every run try to re-establish themselves into the registry by blocking every attempt. While this action can keep you safe from virus and unwanted program, you still land up adding quite a few application in your start up which delays your boot process.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"><strong>Delayed Startup</strong> </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFh9cdY2M5I/AAAAAAAABRw/4VGQCdyjHZs/s1600-h/images%5B6%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="images" border="0" alt="images" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFh9dBvHo_I/AAAAAAAABR0/IrqZDNkWbq8/images_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="239" height="180"></a>Winpatrol has an option of Delayed Startup, whereby WinPatrol adds itself into Startup registry and then allows you to mark other Startup program as “delayed”. You can simply select a Startup app in WinPatrol window and select “Move to delayed Startup program list”. This by itself may not solve the problem but merely postpone it as these apps would again try and Startup together causing slowdown while you are working. So in addition to delaying the program, Winpatrol also allows you to specify the delay period. which can range from seconds to hours (Who really wants Java Updater to run the very second I boot up? I have it starting after an hour). So you can stagger your Startups with a few minutes delay between them, prioritizing apps based on how soon you would start using them (Open Outlook after 5 minutes of boot, Vuze after 10 minutes..). In fact, if you think about it, you may now want to add more applications to your start up and pop them up after few minutes or even hours like a reminder (Windows Live Writer pops up after 2 hours as a reminder to blog <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFh9dtn-kTI/AAAAAAAABR4/R9XST5dA6xo/wlEmoticon-smile%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"> ). </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana">After installing WinPatrol, launch it from system tray and select the “Startup Programs”” tab. This lists all the program listed in the registry, Startup folders, etc.</font></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFh9eiodjdI/AAAAAAAABR8/rXPWGNQkDVs/s1600-h/image%5B3%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFh9f7kAnNI/AAAAAAAABSA/5MncPbntSoI/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="472" height="402"></a></p> <p>Now, right select an entry to bring up the context menu showing you a host of options. One of these options is “Move to Delayed Startup Program List”. </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFh9g2HaJ0I/AAAAAAAABSE/Di6K4AKec6M/s1600-h/image%5B10%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFh9iBivAMI/AAAAAAAABSI/XJtJoKGKPQY/image_thumb%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="386" height="472"></a><br>Once the program has been moved to delayed list, switch over the that tab and you will see a list of delayed apps with their deferred times.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYpc1oR7qhTk6tCEcAFmSK0SnT7ApQxLJYLH5P0dTWSG-_GOdoGMMlYjvl9Oai8KqUk4ePZoGjUwCBcUdvHbdevZUVTWCkjQr9vEVlT3bIQBV7PCSkJq1cKnGCk74ERSnoDHRmAg/s1600-h/image%5B18%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFh9kIsw5BI/AAAAAAAABSQ/jsKS4BPz_Ks/image_thumb%5B8%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="511" height="433"></a><br>Select an app and click on “Delay Option” button to specify the delay before launching this app. You can have a maximum of 60 minutes and 50 seconds of delay added.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFh9lRhDm3I/AAAAAAAABSU/orKO4FoySYI/s1600-h/image%5B22%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFh9msywAoI/AAAAAAAABSY/nAD49tetV7s/image_thumb%5B10%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="440" height="362"></a></p> <br> <p>Similarly, go ahead and defer each app with a different delay and your boot process with become snappy as all apps wont try to Startup at the same time.</p> <p>There are other solutions available in market like Soluto (Wow UX), Startup Delayer etc., but they are too focussed only only delaying Startup, whereas WinPatrol doubles up as a sentry against applications trying to install Startup registry entries, services and scheduled tasks.</p> <p>Happy Delaying! <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFh9dtn-kTI/AAAAAAAABR4/R9XST5dA6xo/wlEmoticon-smile%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800"></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-45267809566546625642010-08-02T21:17:00.001+05:302010-08-02T21:17:10.960+05:30PortableApps, SyncToy and Windows Task Scheduler<p>Three things that Windows users should be using but they aren’t. Seriously.</p> <p>First of all, like many other users, I am growing weary of applications that have to be “Installed” which make entries in Windows registry and spew files all over the file system. .NET framework gave a ray of hope as your application can be totally self contained in a single directory.. however, old habits die hard and we still have .NET apps which manipulate windows registry which makes it “unportable”. </p> <p>Imagine this, you installed a software on your C: drive and now are running out of space, so you decide to move it to D: where there is ample space. So you move C:\Program Files\Microsoft to D:\Microsoft Office… what do you think happens next? Yeah, total chaos.. All your registry entries are still pointing to old C: location and nothing would work. This is true not only of Microsoft Office but most application which are available for Windows.</p> <p><strong><font size="4">Portable Apps</font></strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFboLLspJEI/AAAAAAAABNw/40cZrH6HuCU/s1600-h/portableapps_usb%5B7%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="portableapps_usb" border="0" alt="portableapps_usb" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFboMeU8_QI/AAAAAAAABN0/Z1lXevim7s0/portableapps_usb_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="163" height="115"></a>PortableApps.com is a website which re-packages applications (mostly opensource) into applications which do not require windows registry or files outside its own folder. These applications can be simply copied into any location on your hard disk and executed from there. These applications don't even use User Profiles from their regular location like User\AppData\Local making it very convenient to move these application from one directory to another or one drive to another but also from one computer to another without any loss of information, history or preferences. In fact, these applications are meant to be installed on a USB drive which can then be used on any computer without having to transfer these application to that computers hard disk. However, if you are using PortableApps directly from the USB Drive, given the speed of USB, it can be slow to launch applications and writebacks to the USB can be even slower. But who says PortableApps are meant only for USB drives? I find them very useful even on my laptop, where I can copy them and run them without having to install and configure. </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFboOJedYSI/AAAAAAAABN4/fy7ZVhZtR_c/s1600-h/image%5B19%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFboPvE0MEI/AAAAAAAABOA/N9yHmOZn6iE/image_thumb%5B9%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="313" height="440"></a></p> <p>This brings us to another issue.. What if I want to use PortableApps on my laptop when connected but at the same time be able to carry them with me on a USB when I go out. I would want to carry all my applications, preferences settings on my USB drive and be able to bring them back to my laptop once I return. This lead me to go back to a less-used application from Microsoft.</p> <p><strong><font size="4">Sync Toy</font></strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFboQZ7Y_KI/AAAAAAAABOE/JOSlKdnX-Rc/s1600-h/64px-SyncToy%5B5%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="64px-SyncToy" border="0" alt="64px-SyncToy" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFboQzw7bGI/AAAAAAAABOI/1gxxeT-4DAE/64px-SyncToy_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="153" height="153"></a>Sync Toy was released by Microsoft long ago for Windows XP and has been updated for Vista and Windows 7. It a simple application albeit a very useful one, which synchronizes files between any two folders. It is essentially meant for backups where you can copy files from work folder into backup folder on a periodic basis. SyncToy is perfect for our scenario as it will help us keep the PortableApps on the laptop as well as on USB to remain in sync. This way, I can download my mails using ThunderBird onto my laptop folder, sync it onto USB, go over to another computer, plug in the USB and have access to all my mails on that computer without having to install even one byte of any software. If you download mails when on that computer, once I get back, I will be able to sync back the changes back to the folder on my laptop and will have the newly downloaded mails now on my laptop too. Life is so Simple <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjree9OiV2hP6_d8JZ1pqT9rnVKCaKRye5qZDt956tBUmSj4HYj-_WWnw1RVYoKb5Korjx-NeqzUCQCHjJTY2XrTTU5dvOdxYP5CSxO7hw_b2zZ5bLeDxC-SQ0muvQlRr6Tn8lKow/?imgmax=800"></p> <p>To enable synchronization, just run SyncToy and create a folder pair. SyncToy asks for “Left side” folder and “Right side” folder to give a visual sense of the operation. Select your on-computer PortableApps folder on the Left side and choose the USB drive as the right side folder and select Synchronize option. Make sure to do a “preview” before you land up copying massive files into the USB due to choosing wrong folder setting.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFboSU3_olI/AAAAAAAABOQ/mzXCrgXe0l0/s1600-h/image%5B3%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFboTa9AnCI/AAAAAAAABOU/WqMkFkYzTtM/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="431" height="356"></a></p> <p>Now you are set.. Use PortableApps on your laptop or desktop and when you are ready to leave just plug-in you USB, run SyncToy and copy all your applications, preferences, data files onto the USB drive and you are ready to go. When you return back, plug-in the USB again and SyncToy will Sync back the changes onto your hard disk. Don't worry about the direction as will figure out what has changed and on which side.</p> <p>You still have to remember to run SyncToy every time you plug-in the USB though and that brings us to the third great application.</p> <p><strong><font size="4">Windows Task Scheduler</font></strong></p> <p>It is possible the most underutilized feature of Windows while being capable of doing amazing thing. Task Scheduler is meant to schedule periodic tasks like drive backups, cleanups, daily mails etc. Most of these tasks are scheduled at a particular time but Task Scheduler is also capable of triggering on events like Hardware events, shutdown, start-up, user login etc. We need one such event to automate our SyncToy. </p> <p>Run Task Scheduler and Create a new Task. Give it a friendly name like “Run SyncToy on USB”</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFboUEM5UGI/AAAAAAAABOY/9SuzW80s29U/s1600-h/image%5B7%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFbobdPtJhI/AAAAAAAABOc/N7IrbO40TtU/image_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="480" height="363"></a></p> <p>Next step is to trigger it when the USB is inserted. This is a little tricky because we need to know which hardware event is triggered when the USB is inserted in the laptop. To find out, got Event Viewer and look at entries under Microsoft-Windows-DriverFrameworks-Usermode-operational. You will see the event ID for the USB you have inserted. In my case it is 2101. So, in the next step create a trigger for this event,</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFbocHKQWII/AAAAAAAABOg/RQqgvUSzPnc/s1600-h/image%5B11%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFbodP2ykPI/AAAAAAAABOk/a5byni5kPoc/image_thumb%5B5%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="474" height="409"></a></p> <p>You are almost done, the last step is to provide an action of running the SyncToy. You should not run SyncToy in a mode where is comes up and starts copying the files automatically as you don't want this to happen to any USB you insert. It would be a good idea to just bring up SyncToy as a reminder when you insert a USB and then you can decide either to run it or close SyncToy without Synchronization.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZwgTjBSlI0VQZG-zkyxlx1KiQ1s0mOdZCxg-Rl5BNwSCW9YGGrFQq6aqZk2roZObSGkdhWBqe8gHHCVpUjqmgBocMVME2KNpMSDmGXLpVXq5bj31vakK4SYt4q0HmVzF_D0n9ug/s1600-h/image%5B15%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFboffSHwKI/AAAAAAAABOs/SNeOgERbmhg/image_thumb%5B7%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="486" height="368"></a></p> <p> </p> <p>There… you are done. Now, every time you insert your USB drive, it will popup SyncToy as a reminder to sync your PortableApps with the ones on your USB. </p> <p>Happy Porting! </p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-68906404958524177852010-07-31T19:59:00.001+05:302010-08-02T23:31:36.683+05:30No, DropBox is not just for dropping files<p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFcH0U8wfJI/AAAAAAAABOw/3P55jiPkcqc/s1600-h/images%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="images" border="0" alt="images" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzFKZODTI/AAAAAAAABO0/M-ZE3HZaa2w/images_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="211" height="211"></a>There are very few applications that impress me and DropBox is one of them. DropBox allows you 2GB of storage on the web which is synchronized with a folder on your local drive. It works on Windows, Mac, Linux and host of Smartphones too. I have been using DropBox on my Mac earlier and hadn’t paid much attention to it earlier. I, like most people would, thought of it only as a place you drop your files IF you wanted to share it with Windows, Linux or share it with other people. Maybe the name of the product promotes that kind of thinking. When I switched back to Windows and started using DropBox again, it struck me that my thinking was wrong. Its not some kind of application to take online back up (which it is) on a virtual drive (which it is not). I have used other applications like this before.. like SkyDrive and GDrive (GMail account mapped as virtual drive) and was always weary of them as copying/moving files into them seems to put explorer into a slowdown as it handles the virtual drive. </p> <p><strong><font size="4">Not a Virtual Folder</font></strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzFtezCRI/AAAAAAAABO4/qN3tJl_u-QE/s1600-h/kdisknav_2847_48%5B1%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="kdisknav_2847_48" border="0" alt="kdisknav_2847_48" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzHSmWb4I/AAAAAAAABO8/bqWxAwoVz4U/kdisknav_2847_48_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="102" height="102"></a>DropBox creates a folder which is a real folder and not some virtual mapped drive. A service monitors file changes in the local folder as well as in your website account and silently synchronizes both ways. This means you can access files even when you are not connected to the internet and even add files into the folder and modify then, which will then by synced next time you are online. This is very different from other situation where you have to be online to access your files. Neat!</p> <p><strong><font size="4">Cross Platform</font></strong></p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQHO-KZm_zroqJBtKDa9xHUe6_LBt3fvCp6VwgEJOdV5TutefEO5iyqLe_y7hn0rO2SCHDiO6HtlHC4-tvJ1vnaUKdaUVk_7Efvgm6ZCSrWNfja1DXOnAmCMV87DZwAQN6NHDiRg/s1600-h/mac_1487_128%5B1%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="mac_1487_128" border="0" alt="mac_1487_128" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzIQ9KWtI/AAAAAAAABPI/5vwiRpmZow4/mac_1487_128_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="128" height="128"></a><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzJFxc72I/AAAAAAAABPU/sVnnCxmRx-c/s1600-h/vistawowwindowslivelogo_256x256%5B1%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="vista-wow-windows-live-logo_256x256" border="0" alt="vista-wow-windows-live-logo_256x256" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzJ9QRGTI/AAAAAAAABPc/1RIMhl4TWJM/vistawowwindowslivelogo_256x256_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="128" height="128"></a><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzKjqb66I/AAAAAAAABPk/8oujXz_V_bo/s1600-h/my_mac_2252_64%5B1%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="my_mac_2252_64" border="0" alt="my_mac_2252_64" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzLpzO3mI/AAAAAAAABPo/cqfZaAuG-Hc/my_mac_2252_64_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="129" height="129"></a><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzMNktwVI/AAAAAAAABPs/co4ET77RHq4/s1600-h/handheld_3124_48%5B1%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="handheld_3124_48" border="0" alt="handheld_3124_48" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCY7cHkc16H1Xw9o_KUbjtmIt-nM0vzU4VsPDs6JReS5NcQd-DSp4OrXs72ahh7OKQgOSAmZhmyShUekZhRZrW7yXlblNzBHSArbjervkS1Lt6QlS-p-Ght_btfnQA2D0LWmbXDA/?imgmax=800" width="48" height="48"></a><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzOLlLpHI/AAAAAAAABP4/cm1nFpiimn4/s1600-h/ileopardappleiphone_128x128%5B1%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="ileopard-apple-iphone_128x128" border="0" alt="ileopard-apple-iphone_128x128" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzPiajI4I/AAAAAAAABQE/8b0I-wjqZwg/ileopardappleiphone_128x128_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="49" height="49"></a></p> <p>While there are similar products in the market (e.g. Live Mesh, Live Sync, Box.net), none of them work on a wide variety of platforms and devices. DropBox works on Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, Android, iPad and Blackberry support coming soon. So when you decide to share your files with other users, you don't have to worry about which platform they are using. I use Dropbox to sync regularly across my Mac and Windows and for those times that I am not on one of my own computers, I simply access the site to download the file I need.</p> <p><strong><font size="4">Its meant to be your new My Documents</font></strong></p> <p><a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.geekpedia.com/Pictures/Icons/graphix-my-documents_283x283.png&imgrefurl=http://www.geekpedia.com/icons.php%3Fstart%3D1120&usg=__qHxFSW8AGuMsowADZlYjh8Wyk80=&h=283&w=283&sz=100&hl=en&start=6&sig2=C2e7CH-HG8Qr2oyMSwh37A&tbnid=wFzkb5MI2pZsrM:&tbnh=114&tbnw=114&ei=KCVUTK-GD8e3rAexoaTzAw&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMy%2Bdocument%2Bicon%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D688%26bih%3D981%26output%3Dimages_json%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1"><img style="display: inline" align="right" src="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRa0eBfxMMgUO5l4TPrycVMIGC1LlOwmZDMgUAVxrIY5730wQs&t=1&h=167&w=167&usg=__RuOPJEBM0iQGCOaFdE6qBRY9CBE=" width="148" height="148"></a>When I started using it as first, I used it like an online backup, storing critical files in in. But soon I realized that its not meant as a safe vault, in fact, I would get more out of it if I started using it as “My Documents” folder, storing every new files that I created into the DropBox. Why? Because, first of all its not a virtual mapped drive which will immediately put explorer into a tizzy. Second of all, I don’t know which file I might delete by mistake or commit changes to which I might want to rollback. Thirdly, I don't have to bother whether I am online or offline and don't have to go online just to store files in it.</p> <p><strong><font size="4">DropBox as Super Recycle Bin and Version Control</font></strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzQgl_49I/AAAAAAAABQI/H97NuJdEt9M/s1600-h/graphixtransparentfullrecyclebin_340%5B3%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 6px 6px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="graphix-transparent-full-recycle-bin_340x367" border="0" alt="graphix-transparent-full-recycle-bin_340x367" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzR-8wcYI/AAAAAAAABQQ/EIo95jfZWp0/graphixtransparentfullrecyclebin_340_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="130" height="141"></a>Yes, that’s right.. One of the biggest advantage of making DropBox as your My Document is that even if you delete a file (including shift-delete bypassing the recycle bin), the deleted file is retained on the site for 30 days and this does not count towards your storage limit. Of course, you can go to the site and permanently delete the “deleted” files whenever you want. Another cool thing is that it maintains a multiple versions of every file you store in the dropbox and that does not apply to products which support version control (like MS Office). In fact you can get previous versions of text files, executables and office documents from the site whenever you want.</p> <p><strong><font size="4">Not a waste of bandwidth</font></strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzTsVaXVI/AAAAAAAABQU/v3r7-CnLmeI/s1600-h/graphixmynetwork_284x245%5B1%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="graphix-my-network_284x245" border="0" alt="graphix-my-network_284x245" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzUWj5IUI/AAAAAAAABQY/8iSNT5Ffek4/graphixmynetwork_284x245_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="139" height="120"></a>It would appear that having an app like this all the time would consume a lot of bandwidth but the fact is the DropBox transmits only the changes and not the entire file. Which means if you have 1MB file and you modify 10 bytes, it would transmit just those 10 bytes and not the entire file. If you a still worried about frequent bandwidth utilization, you can make changes offline and then go online to sync everything in one go. Even then, you can set the upload/download limits for DropBox so that it does not hog the bandwidth.</p> <p><strong><font size="4">What about Privacy?</font></strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzVAMfL-I/AAAAAAAABQg/aabhQuoXT6k/s1600-h/leopardsecuritylocks_128x128%5B1%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 11px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" class="wlDisabledImage" title="leopard-security-locks_128x128" border="0" alt="leopard-security-locks_128x128" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFQzVym_yPI/AAAAAAAABQo/lWVyVq7M4TA/leopardsecuritylocks_128x128_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="128" height="128"></a>Most people are rightly worried about online privacy. DropBox uses secure connection to the site when synchronizing by utilizing SSL connection so that data cannot be viewed in transit. On the site the data is kept in secured environment where even DropBox staff does not have access to the data. Still, if you want to be doubly sure for certain files, I would recommend using a free utility called TrueCrypt which allows you to create a virtual drive anywhere (including directly inside DropBox). You can continue to work normally with files inside this virtual drive but to rest of the world it will appear to be merely a file and that too encrypted.</p> <p><strong><font size="4">My Document –> My DropBox</font></strong></p> <p>Go on! Make your DropBox as you new My Document folder and never miss a file or version ever again!</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-43891798882967900462010-07-30T18:17:00.004+05:302010-08-03T06:02:58.856+05:30Weird C or is it?<div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 4px 0px;">I guess I am one of the leftover dino from Mainframe and UNIX/C era. While I am enchanted by the progress programming in general has made with .NET, Java, frameworks and Web technologies, I cant help but feel that there is a need to understand the fundamentals very well. I am in no way say that “we” C programmers are better than Java and .NET, in fact, I am amazed at the spread of technology footprint that modern developers have to understand and remember. However, some of the developers look down upon C and C++ as outdated (which they may be soon), but miss the point… Fundamentals have to be strong and C/C++ kind of bring you closer to metal to make one realize that.</div>Check out the code fragment and explain why it works (I don't mean syntactically). It is based on some very sound principles of programming (at least in C/++), even though it looks completely useless (which it is) and syntactically incorrect (which is it not)<br />
<pre class="code"><span style="color: blue;">#include </span><span style="color: #a31515;"><stdio.h>
</span><span style="color: blue;">int </span>main()
{
1; 2; 3; 4; 5;
6, 7, 8, 9, 0;
<span style="color: blue;">return </span>0;
}
</pre><br />
<br />
<br />
Trust me, if you can explain the working behind this code snippet, you would understand a lot about statements and expressions in C/C++. Leave your explanation in comments. <br />
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<div class="wlWriterSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:0cd24ee6-ef5b-4bc1-9c1b-808d93cb2a1d" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-4570817554768612572010-07-30T01:58:00.002+05:302010-07-30T02:16:48.074+05:30Network bandwidth monitors <span style="font-size: small;">Though I have unlimited usage account on my home internet connection, its not really unlimited in sense that I get 1Mbps speed up to 25GB transfer and thereafter it drops to 256kbps for rest of the month. Sometimes this happens within days and sometimes lasts a month. That of course depends on what I have been downloading.. (e.g.. I downloaded a copy of MS Office 2010 from my MSDN account). I wanted to keep track on how much I was downloading and also which applications were downloading the most. I searched the net for applications and came across BitMeter. While BitMeter displayed a graph of current network activity, it didn't really provide the customization and history of downloads. So after using it for a couple of days, I started looking for other tool and came across two different and complementary tools. </span><br />
<h1><span style="font-size: large;">1. NetWorx</span></h1><br />
<a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFHkZsd2kNI/AAAAAAAAAvg/PILr9LcheR4/s1600-h/Graph%5B2%5D.jpg"><span style="font-size: small;"><img align="right" alt="Graph" border="0" class="wlDisabledImage" height="95" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFHkanaddvI/AAAAAAAAAvk/SKhDVMzWcwI/Graph_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Graph" width="244" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">NetWorx is a bandwidth monitoring tool which provides a host of features which help you to effectively control the amount of network transfer. As expected, it provide a system tray icon so that you can keep an eye on the downloads. If the system tray is too small to be able to judge the network transfer rate, you can pop up a small window on your desktop which updates a graph of data transfer. To make this pop up window unobtrusive, you can make it semi transparent and also make it click-thru so that you can continue working with the window below while you are able to keep an eye on the download graph.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span> <br />
<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFHkbrApdxI/AAAAAAAAAvo/0RONxLlnwfk/s1600-h/Usage%5B3%5D.jpg"><span style="font-size: small;"><img align="left" alt="Usage" border="0" class="wlDisabledImage" height="304" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFHkc7mjdBI/AAAAAAAAAvs/tPNO6f6zdp4/Usage_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;" title="Usage" width="392" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Apart from this basic feature which most network monitors provide, Networx provides a host of other features like quota control, usage reports for daily, weekly, monthly or for any given period of time. The reports show received, sent and total transfer for the given period and any dialup durations, if used. It can display these report for the current user or all users combined. The Usage reports can be exported to Excel for further processing or even backed up and restored in XML format. There are usual network tools like Ping, Trace, Netstat thrown in for good measure. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9w3kgQydF3KyzMmKC7DENxvWP4Ub4lkMQi-GZLcwote6ARmhIXCsLFvle5uTfzGkXA9K3Qv_sgONjA1qhKR-4z1IxAItHz-XZs6fKktSMgqrJKQbA8CaHXq4fRkkk5dikwwJWLg/s1600-h/quota%5B2%5D.jpg"><span style="font-size: small;"><img align="right" alt="quota" border="0" class="wlDisabledImage" height="143" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFHke1uFHXI/AAAAAAAAAv0/MIcnDedItUU/quota_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="quota" width="244" /></span></a><span style="font-size: small;">One way to control your data transfer is to use quota for daily, week and monthly usage and save you from spiralling bills. It would also be good for controlling internet usage of you kids as it can block usage once you exceed the quota. It has a password control mechanism which protects the quota system and also prevents the application from being exited. This should keep the newbie users from circumventing the quota lockdown and other restrictions. But in modern homes you have more than one computers connecting thru the same wifi or internet router. Rather than trying to configure the router and wifi AP, use Networx built in synchronization with other computers. This way you can see a consolidated usage from all systems.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">However, one feature that I was hoping to see in Networx was the ability to display which application was consuming how much bandwidth. While NetStat feature of NetWorx provides list of application and the sites they are accessing in real time, it does not provider a summary or usage data for each application. To control utilization effectively, we need to know which application is downloading how much data. This led my search to another tool.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2. NetBalancer</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
NetBalancer is a network monitor tool which works are much deeper level than Networx, in sense that it installs as a driver and can monitor network traffic from lower levels in the operating system. NetBalancer shows real-time statistics of which application is online and uploading/downloading from the net. It shows current upload/download as well as cumulative transfers. It display a traffic graph along with information about the selected application and its connections. </span><br />
<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TFHkgjG3IBI/AAAAAAAAAv4/8Jmf-AxXyGo/s1600-h/netbalancer%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="netbalancer" border="0" class="wlDisabledImage" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT2A0IDX7u2r_y51GIs-HbKXQMMvWujQdAC6Rc_ygIXtMqgvmghWO6bAYw_Hgb4ZvuWB75-3FkEWJo_69D7VR3ns2CshdDIco6rjUYf9qRys7Um8wHwqK19qaWtkZ90-NrQwEU6Q/?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="netbalancer" width="400" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">However, NetBalancer does not show daily, weekly, monthly graphs like NetWorx and does not have features to show quota and control usage. By combining these two application, you can get a handle on your internet usage, figure out which applications consume higher bandwidth and track your hourly usage. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
If you have come across good bandwidth monitor tools, drop me a line to update me.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423567.post-52180653217124215442010-07-26T17:46:00.003+05:302010-08-03T06:04:55.756+05:30Amazing 7Stack<a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TE18nimENzI/AAAAAAAAAvY/Aa_CSunpTXo/s1600-h/7Stacks%5B2%5D.jpg"><span style="font-size: small;"><img align="left" alt="7Stacks" border="0" class="wlDisabledImage" height="244" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-p5QufnADHY/TE18oAsXF8I/AAAAAAAAAvc/BYBxUcWp_7I/7Stacks_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px;" title="7Stacks" width="165" /></span></a><a href="http://www.alastria.com/index.php?p=software-7s"><span style="font-size: small;">7Stacks</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> is a nifty utility for Windows 7 taskbar. It installs like a regular application icon but behaves like a pop up stack (Also know as drawers). This is really cool because it allows you to group applications or files together. E.g. if you are a web developer and you test your site with multiple browsers, you can create a stack with all the browsers (as shown in the picture). This saves you from having to pin all the browsers n the task bar or having to search the browser from start menu and yet it takes only one icon on the taskbar. Of course, when you launch an application from 7Stack, it appears on the TaskBar like any regular program but is not pinned. You can create multiple stacks like Browser, Office, Media Players, Sysinternal Suite or even your favourite music.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The creation process is simple: Run the create stack utility and choose the folder you want to appear as a stack, choose the icon size (I prefer big icons, as shown in the picture), choose the text style and click on create shortcut. Once the shortcut is created, simply drag and drop it on the TaskBar and you are done. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">As you can see, it has a nice Aero effect which makes it blend with beautiful looking Windows 7 TaskBar. </span> <br />
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18053955945230297508noreply@blogger.com0