As you may already have noticed, I’ve started making link posts which are aggregated daily from my Del.icio.us account. This is because there’s a lot of great stuff that’s worth highlighting, but I don’t feel like trying to manufacture a post about it when someone else has already said all there is to say. Plus, [...]

As you may already have noticed, I’ve started making link posts which are aggregated daily from my Del.icio.us account. This is because there’s a lot of great stuff that’s worth highlighting, but I don’t feel like trying to manufacture a post about it when someone else has already said all there is to say. Plus, it ensures I can post regularly, even when (as has been the case the past few months) I’m so snowed under I barely know what month it is.

At first I thought this might detract from the value of the blog. Then I considered the fact that I’m not an expert, and on my best days around here, I’m usually just pointing toward experts who have helped me out. The link posts add to that agenda, and so I hope they add value to the site for you.

…and so I’m bookmarking this post on teaching yourself programming, just like Mark suggested.
Seriously, though. I know to make serious revenue, I need to learn how to create php tools or… something. Right now, my offline life is beyond overwhelming and I’m looking at the possibility of a very big hosting move. But [...]

…and so I’m bookmarking this post on teaching yourself programming, just like Mark suggested.

Seriously, though. I know to make serious revenue, I need to learn how to create php tools or… something. Right now, my offline life is beyond overwhelming and I’m looking at the possibility of a very big hosting move. But one of these days.

ETA: his next bookmark post on programming.

I’ve been playing with Microsoft power toys lately, like ClearType. There’s some great stuff available.
I love Alt-Tab, but when you have several Word or Firefox windows open, it’s hopeless trying to guess which one is the one you’re after. Fortunately, Microsoft offers a solution with the Alt-Tab power toy (download link here).
Tweak lets you change [...]

I’ve been playing with Microsoft power toys lately, like ClearType. There’s some great stuff available.

I love Alt-Tab, but when you have several Word or Firefox windows open, it’s hopeless trying to guess which one is the one you’re after. Fortunately, Microsoft offers a solution with the Alt-Tab power toy (download link here).

Tweak lets you change systems settings you didn’t know you could. Remember when it was your choice whether or not to let applications jump up overtop of the ones you’re working in whenever they deemed appropriate? It can be your choice again.

And Magnifier adds the ability to use a little slice of your task bar as a magnification pane. Hover your mouse over whatever you want to magnify, and look at the pane to see it. (To activate after installation, right click the taskbar, select Toolbars, and select Taskbar Magnifier. For me, it didn’t show up as an option the first few times I tried. You may need to reboot.)

[Found via LifeHacker.]

WebWorkerDaily recommends a little freeware app called FireTune. It’s not an extension - you run it on your computer while Firefox is closed, and it automatically tweaks it for speed, according to whether you have a fast machine and connection, a slow machine and connection, or one of the combinations in between.
I’ve now been using [...]

WebWorkerDaily recommends a little freeware app called FireTune. It’s not an extension - you run it on your computer while Firefox is closed, and it automatically tweaks it for speed, according to whether you have a fast machine and connection, a slow machine and connection, or one of the combinations in between.

I’ve now been using it for three days, and I do notice a measurable improvement, especially at launch. Everything seems to load a bit more quickly. I think this one is definitely worth downloading and trying out.

You know those really annoying three ancient posts on your blog that the spammers hit over and over for whatever reason? This plugin lets you set all posts over a certain age (as defined by the last time any approved comments were posted) to have their comments moderated - or shut down. You can decide [...]

You know those really annoying three ancient posts on your blog that the spammers hit over and over for whatever reason? This plugin lets you set all posts over a certain age (as defined by the last time any approved comments were posted) to have their comments moderated - or shut down. You can decide how many days old a post thread should be before this happens, configure it differently for “popular” posts, defined by how many comments they’ve had approved (again, you set this number).

I’ve set this up on two sites that keep getting hit.

I was having a great time using the Zoho office plugin so I could open Zoho Writer and Sheet files in Word or Excel, work on them in Office, then save them to the Zoho server. The Zoho server can be slow, and Office apps run much faster on my computer. Plus, Excel has that [...]

I was having a great time using the Zoho office plugin so I could open Zoho Writer and Sheet files in Word or Excel, work on them in Office, then save them to the Zoho server. The Zoho server can be slow, and Office apps run much faster on my computer. Plus, Excel has that auto-finish feature that makes it complete what you’re typing if it seems to match something you’ve typed before.

Then it stopped working in Excel. Just plain stopped. When I tried to reinstall it, I couldn’t uninstall the plugin because it has some sort of problem changing the register DLL files. I’ve searched online and found no solutions. Other people have the same problem, and even reinstalling Excel didn’t help. I think the register files need editing, only I don’t know how.

So now I’m using the Zoho Desktop Widget, which puts their version of Writer and Sheet on your desktop. Sign in, and you can grab your stuff from the Zoho server. It also saves to the Zoho server, and it does run a bit faster than Notebook runs in Firefox for me.