Saturday, August 18, 2007

Weekend Links Grab-Bag

I've been VERY busy these past few weeks and haven't had the time when I get home from work to do the quality blogging I expect (or pretend to).

Mostly my energy is consumed with my daily duties and a Mondo-Big technology deployment project I am leading right now.

So I have just been building a pile of links that caught my attention, and biding the time to post them.

Here you go.

In Firefox 3.0 News

I've enjoyed seeing the growth in development builds for the next Firefox release version 3.0 (a.k.a. Gran Paradiso).

The daily updated versions are known as "Minefield" and can be obtained from the Nightly Build link. But this is kinda dangerous and experimenters might want to stick with the Firefox 3 Alpha 7 version if you really want to play with it. (download link)

Anyway, the Minefield nightly versions are sporting some new features of note:

And the Firefox Extension Guru has a great tip on how to clean up your Firefox auto-spellcheck dictionary if you add a wrong word by mistake: Tip: Removing Added Words From Fx Dictionary.

I would be using Minefield almost exclusively now, except that my favorite RSS feed reader SAGE isn't compatible with it.  I suspect it has something to do with Places and the bookmarking structure.

Windows Desktop Icon Management

At work I use a laptop connected via a dock-station to a 2nd monitor.  With this arrangement I can run a dual-monitor setup that would only be better if I could convince my boss to spring for a third flatscreen that supports DVI input I might be set.

Anyway...my problem is then when I am away from the dock and in the field, even though I log in with my same Windows user profile, the lack of the dock brings my desktop icons up scattered all over the place and I have to rearrange them all.

So it was with excitement that I found this timely posts this past week:

Desktop Icon Position Save & Restore - CyberNet News 

Ryan recommended using a registry hack method that allows you to have the ability to add "save desktop icon layout" and "restore desktop icon layout" items into your right-click context menu.  Might be helpful for laptop/dock users. 

Get the files here: Save and Restore Desktop Icon Layout in Windows Vista :: the How-To Geek

Ryan also recommended profile/desktop manager software called Shock Desktop (freeware) - XP/2000/Vista.  It allows you to create several profiles for icon deployment under different screen resolution configurations.  It can also bring desktop icons to the forefront over maximized windows for quick access via a key-combo toggle.

Cleaning up the Breadcrumbs in Vista

One feature that Vista offers is "breadcrumbs."  This is a expanded file navigation interface that Microsoft hopes users will find easier to use to browser folder structures.

It is pretty cool.

I liked it so much I first added it to my XP systems with the freeware utility minimalist's Explorer Breadcrumbs.

Then I found a slightly more refined version called QT Address Bar and am now using it instead.

However, if you are using Vista and don't like that feature, Andreas Verhoeven created a free tool to remove Breadcrumbs from Vista: Disable Explorer Breadcrumbs in Windows Vista explained and hosted over on the How-To Geek website.

How Not to Build a PC

The riotous website DataDocktori'n illustrates how (not) to perform various desktop services including:

I'm thinking of including these techniques in a PowerPoint presentation at my next BJT session.

 --Claus

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