Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Organise
Money Manager Ex Helps You Track Your Cash
11:30PM Lifehacker US Edition | Windows and Linux only: Money Manager Ex is a an open source, cross platform alternative to commercial software like Microsoft Money or Quicken. While it isn’t as flashy as some of the commercial software on the market, it is robust and feature-packed for being small and portable. Money Manager Ex has the basics covered like managing multiple checking, savings, credit card, and loan accounts. You can generate a variety of reports to see how your expenses stack up against your income, the gain versus loss in your investments, and upcoming bills and expenses. Money Manager Ex includes a budget manager which, while sorely lacking the ability to make new entries in the budget, has dozens of existing entries which should cover most situations. Money Manager Ex is a free download for Windows and Linux only. Thanks, VaraHuman>! Money Manager Ex [CodeLathe] More »
Work
CrossOver Mac And Linux Products Free Today Only
11:06PM Kevin Purdy | CrossOver, a commercially-modified version of the free WINE platform that lets Linux and Mac users run Windows apps semi-natively, is giving away free licenses for all their products today. That’s pretty great news for anyone who’s tried to run Microsoft Office, higher-end games, or any other Windows app through WINE and found out through later Google-ing that a CrossOver product like Office or Games was required. The licence is good for one free app, normally $US40 or so, and while CrossOver products can’t run every Windows product, they might help those trying to make the Linux (or Mac) switch. The deal is good for today (US time) only, and CodeWeavers’ site appears slammed right now, so keep checking back—unless you think another one of the CodeWeavers CEO’s Lame Duck goals will be hit, like it did with gas prices in Minneapolis-St. Paul recently. Update: CodeWeavers has a temporary download page posted while their servers are down. CrossOver Free Licenses [CodeWeavers via Download Squad] More »
Fix
Start Google Chrome In Incognito Mode
10:30PM Kevin Purdy | Programmer Michael T. Bee offers up a small, desktop-friendly JavaScript file that starts Google’s Chrome browser in Incognito Mode for those privacy-please browsing sessions. Actually, the script, which you can paste into Notepad or another editor and save as a .js file, starts Chrome, opens a no-cookie, no-tracks-left Incognito window, then kills the first window. If your system can’t launch Chrome by running chrome.exe in Windows’ “Run” dialog, you might have to tweak the sixth line of the script a bit. Otherwise, it’s a handy trick for, as the Hacks Blog puts it, “birthday shopping.” Chrome_Incognito.js [Michael T. Bee's ESI via Hacks Blog] More »
Fix
Gmail Labs Adds Google Calendar, Other Gadgets To Sidebar
10:05PM Kevin Purdy | Gmail has added support for sidebar gadgets to its experimental Labs section, allowing users to add an agenda view of Google Calendar, a short list of recent Google Docs files, and any web-based gadgets using Apache’s Shindig standard to the left-hand sidebar. As the developers themselves note, adding outside gadgets isn’t exactly user-friendly, but then again, adding too many gadgets could lead to some page-loading slowdown. You can enable the GCal, Docs, and external gadget support in the beaker-icon Labs menu of Gmail. While you’re in there, here’s a few ways to make Gmail gadgets more convenient. More »
Work
SysMetrix Puts System Data In A Configurable Clock
9:00PM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: SysMetrix gives you a desktop widget you can skin, configure, and tweak to show you the time, your system info, email updates, and other information in a seemingly endless number of configurations. The system monitor comes with a variety of built-in themes, ranging from analogue clocks with built-in mini-gauges to screen-length toolbar strips, that you can add your own sliders, histograms, read-outs, and other tools to. The tool supports POP-based email checking, and can work with the Motherboard Monitor tool if you’re looking for temperatures, fan speeds, and the like. SysMetrix is a free download for Windows systems only. Read on for a look at what you can tweak on a SysMetrix clock. More »
Organise
4:30PM Angus Kidman | I’m writing this post from Nice Airport, where I’m having an unexpected stopover because my scheduled flight got delayed so the windscreen could be replaced. Because my laptop had already chewed through its battery earlier in the trip, my absolute first priority was locating a power outlet so I could get the rest of the work I need for today done. I raced through the airport and nabbed what seems to be the only free outlet, made use of some expensive but very handy 3G broadband and got back down to it. However, I’m only one of 180-odd people stuck in the airport, so when a French femme asked me if I’d be willing to give up the outlet, I said to give me 15 minutes and I’d be done. I figure that’s a sensible move, since I’m likely to be in the same position some time soon. Of course, I’ve suggested previously that people should travel with a power board, but my Australian outlets won’t be much use to most everyone else on this flight. Do you willingly snare when you’ve snagged the last point at an airport (or conference), or do you cling on like grim death? Confess all in the comments.
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Be Ruthless But Share When It Comes To Airport Power
4:30PM Angus Kidman | I’m writing this post from Nice Airport, where I’m having an unexpected stopover because my scheduled flight got delayed so the windscreen could be replaced. Because my laptop had already chewed through its battery earlier in the trip, my absolute first priority was locating a power outlet so I could get the rest of the work I need for today done. I raced through the airport and nabbed what seems to be the only free outlet, made use of some expensive but very handy 3G broadband and got back down to it. However, I’m only one of 180-odd people stuck in the airport, so when a French femme asked me if I’d be willing to give up the outlet, I said to give me 15 minutes and I’d be done. I figure that’s a sensible move, since I’m likely to be in the same position some time soon. Of course, I’ve suggested previously that people should travel with a power board, but my Australian outlets won’t be much use to most everyone else on this flight. Do you willingly snare when you’ve snagged the last point at an airport (or conference), or do you cling on like grim death? Confess all in the comments.
More »
Work
3:00PM Angus Kidman | Microsoft’s Excel blog walks through a common but tricky scenario for Excel: pulling out all the rows from a large spreadsheet that match particular criteria. It’s detailed stuff, but much more useful than Microsoft’s built-in help on the same topic.
Creating a Master-Detail View in Excel
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Build A Master Detail View In Excel
3:00PM Angus Kidman | Microsoft’s Excel blog walks through a common but tricky scenario for Excel: pulling out all the rows from a large spreadsheet that match particular criteria. It’s detailed stuff, but much more useful than Microsoft’s built-in help on the same topic.
Creating a Master-Detail View in Excel
More »
Organise
1:30PM Angus Kidman | Entering accented characters is always a bit fiddly if you’re running an English-language OS and have a standard keyboard, but the BlackBerry has a pretty neat way of handling it: hold down the letter key and move the scroll wheel until the accented version you require comes up. Instant accent heaven, though I guess it would be a tad fiddlier on the Pearl. (And yes, I wouldn’t have needed to discover this if my current trip hadn’t meant accented text was suddenly the order of the day.)
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Type Accented Characters On A BlackBerry
1:30PM Angus Kidman | Entering accented characters is always a bit fiddly if you’re running an English-language OS and have a standard keyboard, but the BlackBerry has a pretty neat way of handling it: hold down the letter key and move the scroll wheel until the accented version you require comes up. Instant accent heaven, though I guess it would be a tad fiddlier on the Pearl. (And yes, I wouldn’t have needed to discover this if my current trip hadn’t meant accented text was suddenly the order of the day.)
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Organise
12:00PM Angus Kidman | Google Operating System points out a neat new feature on YouTube: the ability to search for other videos via a search box on clips embedded in other sites. As the blog points out, it’s less flexible than a full-scale YouTube search, but it’s still a handy way of finding new content.
Search from YouTube’s Player [Google Operating System]
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Search YouTube From Its Embedded Player
12:00PM Angus Kidman | Google Operating System points out a neat new feature on YouTube: the ability to search for other videos via a search box on clips embedded in other sites. As the blog points out, it’s less flexible than a full-scale YouTube search, but it’s still a handy way of finding new content.
Search from YouTube’s Player [Google Operating System]
More »
Fix
