10 CommentsIt has come to my attention that there are already built-in and 3rd party functions (see comments) available that dwarf those presented on this page. I leave this page here because the functions presented might still be useful due to their simplicity.
For this project I’m working on, I needed an extremely simple way of alpha-fading [...]
8 CommentsYou are at the threshold of your next trillion years. You will live it in shivering, agonizing darkness or you will live it triumphantly in the light. The choice is yours. If you wish to leave the room after seeing this film, walk out and never mention Scientology again, you are free to do so. [...]
9 CommentsAll over the news, and confirmed by several of the original cast members, it looks like one of the best animated shows ever is returning to TV. There’s been lots of rumours before, but this time it looks like the real deal.
5 Commentsgesture, n. the use of movements (especially of the hands) to communicate familiar or prearranged signals
A mouse gesture is a specific movement of the mouse which triggers a specific action. For example, holding the right mouse button and moving the mouse in a downwards right-to-left diagonal motion minimizes the window on which the gesture is performed. StrokeIt (no jokes please) adds such mouse gestures to all Windows applications.
Having used StrokeIt for quite a while now, the “About” box reveals that I have performed 23105 gestures since I installed it. This is time not spent trying to hit those tiny “Close”, “Minimize” and “Maximize” buttons, but instead (hopefully) on more productive things.
Note: while StrokeIt comes with countless built-in gestures, I find myself only using a few. Also, there are applications where gestures are best left disabled. As such, feel free to grab my StrokeIt settings and import them (make sure you delete existing gestures first).
3 Comments
CLCL context menu
Resulting from a recent voxpop, I am now an avid user of CLCL Clipboard Manager.
CLCL stores in memory the recent x items you copy, and lets you conveniently access them from a context menu at a later time (I chose ALT + V as my context menu shortcut). The idea has been around for as long as copy/paste has and has been implemented with varying degrees of success.
It’s the simplicity of CLCL that makes me pick this over, for instance, ClipMate. CLCL does only what I need, and it does it pretty well.
18 CommentsWith the Opera web-browser free since version 8.5 and now updated to version 9, it’s about time I took a second look at it. The last time I used Opera, the only alternative was Internet Explorer.
Opera has a lot of things going for it. It has pretty much the same features as competing browsers, it’s fast (faster than IE and Firefox), and the web rendering engine seems fair enough (meaning much better than that of IE).
On the downside, Opera suffers from feature creep and has done so since I can remember. Most of these extra features (notes, widgets, style-manager, mouse gestures) would have worked great as extensions - what Firefox is doing - but they’re bundled and enabled by default.
Another mistake is that the standard Opera installation uses a custom skin by default. Skinning applications is a huge usability mistake since users will have to learn a new interface. This move is especially saddening since the optional standard UI support is actually very good.
The bottom line is that Opera 9 appeals a lot to me, mostly due to the speed with which it launches and browses. It might not be enough for me to switch, but it is closer than ever. Unfortunately, Opera 9 will fail commercially until the developers realise that the default configuration should be unskinned, simple and easy.
16 CommentsColibri combines the raw power of the command line with the intuitive nature of a modern graphical user interface to define a revolutionary new way of managing your computer.
Colibri is a text-based application launchpad for Windows. Simply press the hotkey combination, type in “pho”, and Colibri might suggest “Photoshop”. Press Enter, and you’re there.
Right now it seems “Portable mode” works best, so choose that during installation. Also, I’d suggest using reassigning the hotkey combination from CTRL + SPACE since this is “Zoom” in most graphic apps. My suggestion: CTRL + ? (the key above tab and left of 1 on Danish keyboards).
Colibri will help me get a new productivity tag going, a tag I hope to fill up with many more productivity enhancing tools. Until then, find further inspiration with Brian (who tipped me about Colibri).
4 CommentsI was one of the, apparently few, who liked Hulk. (Really liked). Now it seems, instead of Hulk 2, we will see a re-make. From the mouth of Avi Arad:
It’s a “do-over”. I loved the HULK movie, it was just a different approach, and it wasn’t exactly the comic. We want to be much closer to the comic. It’s what we would rather do.
Too bad, I would really have liked to see what happened to our green giant.
7 CommentsGoogle Browser Sync for Firefox is an extension that continuously synchronizes your browser settings ? including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords ? across your computers. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions.
1 CommentCelebrating the soon-to-be-released new Sonic Youth album, “Rather Ripped”, here’s one of my favourite Sonic Youth tracks: “Becuz” from “Washing Machine”.
Sonic Youth - Becuz (mp3 @ 65kbps VBR)
Click the tiny blue play button to play the song right here, no fuss.
Don’t miss some samples of the new album on the Sonic Youth website.
Rather Ripped is available for preorder at Amazon.com. Washing Machine would make a perfect partner.
5 CommentsBecome Republican is a hilarious flash presentation arguing the benefits of switching from those damn dirty America-hating liberals to patriotic France-hating republicans.
3 CommentsThere are a lot of good things in the final installment of the X-Men trilogy, and there are a lot of bad things too. It’s certainly better than you might’ve heard, but it’s probably worse than you might’ve hoped.
In X3, scientists have discovered a way to suppress the gene that causes super-power mutations. This “cure” stirs the minds of both the good guys, the X-Men lead by Professor Xavier, and the bad guys, the Brotherhood of Mutants lead by Magneto. The result is a war between the two opposing forces: those who want to destroy the “cure”, and those who want to protect the freedom of choice.
X3 fails in capturing the subtle humour of being clad in yellow spandex that was present in the first two installments. On the other hand, it succeeds in great visuals, fun new mutant super-powers and Ian McKellen (Magneto).
Two hearts for the movie and one heart for the effects. That’s not half-bad, considering I’d give X-men 1 three hearts and X-men 2 four hearts.
Oh by the way, when you go see this movie, make sure you sit and watch through ALL the credits for a surprisingly important scene that’s tacked on to the very end. Just wait.
(73)
(295)
(7)
(11)
(59)
(425)
Comment
