Windows only: GPU-Z is a lightweight (410k!) portable application that gives you a large amount of information about your video card. After loading up GPU-Z you’ll have access to everything from the basic GPU information to the memory type on your card to the bios and driver versions. GPU-Z supports multiple cards and detected both the add on card and embedded motherboard video in my system. In addition to fixed statistics GPU-Z accesses the available sensors in your graphics card to give you feedback on processor and memory utilization, GPU temperature and fan speed. For a more hands on approach to working with your graphics card, check out how to use RivaTuner to scale your graphics card for efficiency. GPU-Z is freeware, Windows only.
GPU-Z [TechPowerUp]Windows/Linux (Firefox): Microsoft, through its open-source hosting site (yes, that really exists), has released a plug-in and extension set for Windows and Linux versions of Firefox that can open Office 2007 files natively. While there are certainly many work-arounds for those encountering the newer, won’t-open-in-older-Office-suite .DOCX files, including using Google tools, converting by email, and others, Linux users in particular may find using Firefox a lot more handy. Both flavors require installing a plug-in and then adding the Firefox extension, and may also require tweaking Firefox’s application settings. The OpenXML Document Viewer is a free download, works for Firefox on Windows and Linux. OpenXML Document Viewer[Codeplex via Digital Inspiration]
If you’re ever online, the chances are good that you access Internet banking services (83% of Internet users in Australia do, according to Sensis). And because it’s your money that’s involved, you know that security is important. However, there are plenty of myths and misconceptions surrounding Internet banking security. Read on to learn where the risks are. More »
Thunderbird only: Thunderbird extension Google Contacts automatically syncs contacts between your Google and Thunderbird address books. The sync is bi-directional, and the extension is smart enough to detect Gmail accounts you’ve already set up in Thunderbird, so setup is a breeze. Beyond that, there’s not much to it—Google Contacts does exactly what it sets out to do. Now that you can easily sync any desktop calendar with Google Calendar and sync Google Contacts with extensions like this one, it’s easier than ever to keep your Google data synchronized. Thanks Pranesh! Google Contacts [Thunderbird Add-ons]
Telstra’s Whereis map service has added information on 300 Australian beaches from Surf Life Saving Australia, including whether the beach is patrolled and an overall safety rating. The data can be accessed via Whereis-based GPS systems, or on the Whereis site — though the navigation to find individual beaches from the master list is pretty awkward. Despite that minor glitch, it’s potentially useful information when you’re planning summer beach trips. Whereis
The official Word blog discusses how to fix a tricky formatting problem in Word — using a pre-defined heading style in a document but not have every instance show up in an automatically-generated table of contents. (By default, Word includes all instances that match existing heading styles in any contents table.) The solution on offer — copy the existing style and give it a new name while removing its status as a heading — is fairly neat, though it does have one disadvantage: if you modify the original heading style, those changes won’t show up automatically in the cloned style.
Taking Control of Your Table of Contents or Document Map [The Microsoft Office Word Team's Blog]If you’ve been hanging out to try some of the cool features of Google’s Android operating system for phones, you won’t have to wait much longer. Online retailer Kogan will release the Android-based ‘Agora’ on January 29 2009, and is already accepting pre-orders via its site. The basic model costs $299, while the Pro version (which includes Wi-Fi, a camera and GPS) is $399. The phones are being sold contract-free, which is great from a migration point of view, but means we might not see some of the network integration features found on other Android phones. Bundled apps will include the expected selection of Google apps (Gmail, Calendar, YouTube, Maps and talk). Me, I’m just happy it’s got a proper keyboard. Does this model tempt you, or do you want to wait for a touchscreen-only version? Share your thoughts in the comments. Kogan
Windows/Mac OS X: Backup service Backblaze aims to take the hassle out of online backup by backing up only the data you need and ignoring unnecessary files like operating system files, applications, and temporary files. That way you don’t have to get specific with Backblaze about everything you want to back up or exclude (though you can if you want)—it just backs up everything and excludes the data that’s not useful in backup form. The service does continuous backup, so files are always (hopefully) up to date, but you can switch to scheduled backups if you prefer. Like other popular backup tools, Backblaze does unlimited backup for a price: $US5/month (similar to MozyHome) or $US50/year (like Carbonite). A free trial of Backblaze is available if you’d like to try it out before committing. The app is available in Windows form to anyone; you’ll need to sign up for an invite if you want to try it on your Mac. Backblaze [via Download Squad]
Yesterday’s story on Google’s most popular search terms inspired a lot of comments, many of the “why do people need to search for a site like Facebook” variety. While that might seem like odd behaviour to those of us who tend to type Control-L and then enter web addresses for Firefox to finish, it turns out to be very common. “41 percent of users are using Google as a navigation tool,” Google Australia general manager Karim Temsamani explained at the company’s Christmas media event last night. That explains why some people type in ‘Youtube’, but the popularity of ‘Google’ itself as a search term is still a slight mystery. (I like the theory that people type ‘Google’ into the browser search box to get at the Google site, but wonder if anyone who knows about the search box would then deliberately ignore it the rest of the time.) More »
Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Firefox extension FoxReplace adds find-and-replace functionality to web pages. If you do a lot of writing in web forms—whether it’s for work, your personal blog, or just your Gmail account—the option to do automatic find and replace is a godsend. You can choose to match by case and replace all matching text, whole words only, or use regular expressions if you’re really savvy. The extension boasts way more features than you’re likely to use (including finding and replacing text on an HTML level), though to be honest I’d be happier with a similar extension that worked only with textareas and had a Find Next option before replacing (right now it replaces all instances). FoxReplace is a free download, works wherever Firefox does. FoxReplace [Firefox Add-ons via Mozilla Links]
