Nerd Corner: Samurize

The first time I took up Samurize was documented in this previous post. Having successfully removed the clutter from my desktop workspace, the background developed a potential for functionality. At that time, I chose to turn it into an at-a-glance Heads Up Display of sorts for things like battery life, processes, CPU, hard drive and RAM usage. In the intervening years, the little widget on the bottom-left corner of my desktop evolved from being amateurish eye-candy to a more utilitarian box of bars and numbers.


It was adequate and useful, but generally a bit of an eyesore because it looked so out of place. So pitiful was the design that I even set a keyboard hotkey to hide the thing from view. For the most part, I prefer form and function to walk hand in hand and those previous attempts left something to be desired. However, I never bothered to change it because I never really had any particular urgency, or any particular inspiration, to gussy it up.

Last week, a blog post on Lifehacker popped up on my radar. They have been featuring the desktop customizations of an enterprising and generous individual. Naturally, seeing something awesome makes me want to be awesome too.

I won't burden you with having to see the 'before' desktop (it was boring) or with how it was created, per se, as Samurize has a bit of a learning curve that cannot be expained with words as well as it can be learned from trial and error.

Here is the new one:
Click the screenshot for notes. Click here for full size.

List of Programs (etc) that contributed to this desktop:
Overall Theme: FlyaKite w/ Leopard 3.0 Visual Style (Dark)
Wallpaper: Dawn in Madrid
Windows Explorer Address Bar: QT Address Bar
Windows Task Bar: Finderbar 3.1
System Tray: Dexpot and Notebook Hardware Control
Application Launcher: Launchy 2.0 with MinimaLaunchy skin
Dock: ObjectDock with Konfabulator Glass skin, Leopard GTD Icons
Desktop Monitor: Samurize, collapsible self-made config

System: Asus Z63a Pentium M 1.83 GHz running Windows XP SP3

Nerd Corner: Music Slideshows in Powerpoint

similar to music videos, music slideshows are a series of pictures set to a piece of music. two years ago, if someone asked me to set a slideshow to music, i would have shrugged and said that it couldn't be done, having once tried for hours to no avail. but that was back when i was impatient and not yet adept at Googling for help.

Music:
assuming you want to use a song for your presentation, go to Insert > Movies and Sounds > Sound from File... and find the MP3 (most other formats are not supported, but midi and wav are usable). now i'm tired of writing, so i'll just link you to better instructions. it has screenshots for Powerpoint 2003.

If the song doesn't work: MP3s cannot be embedded into the presentation (incorporated into the slideshow file) and are linked instead. Powerpoint calls up the audio file based on the filepath of the MP3 when it was inserted. Powerpoint will not be able to play the song for a number of reasons:

• Incorrect Filepath: was the song file moved? was the presentation sent to you without the song?
• Missing Codec: Powerpoint only has access to a limited number of audio codecs -- basically the default Windows Media Player ones. if it doesn't play in WMP, re-encode the song.
• Filepath is too long: Powerpoint cannot access any linked files that have a filepath longer than 128 characters. move the file somewhere closer to the root folder, or rename a few things.

if you're sending your Powerpoint presentation to someone else, and it includes music and esoteric fonts, do your buddy a solid and send the song and fonts as well. if everything is in the same folder, Powerpoint should be able to detect them.

Transition Timing:
you know what's tacky? music slideshows where the transitions do not match the rhythm of the music. this is usually the result of a lazy presenter highlighting all the slides and setting the timer for an arbitrary amount. to truly impress your audience, put a bit of time into making sure the slides change in places that make musical sense, with pictures that reflect the lyrics or mood of the music. this is art; each artistic choice must serve some purpose, or carry some message.

to set the timing for transitions, you can go to Custom Animations and mess with the timer. it takes forever; by the time you're finished, you'll have heard the song enough times to hate it. this is the slow and stupid way that i've been using forever.

here is the new way that i just found after spending a couple hours making a music slideshow for a wedding. now you'll save yourself countless hours in the future. you're welcome.

Nerd Corner: Command Scripts

a month ago, i decided to stop using Intel's Wireless Utility that was provided with my computer; it required a lot of processes and tended to be wonky when hopping onto different networks. the built-in Windows utility for managing wireless networks is adequate. as a result, i can no longer use any hardware controls for the wireless card (the Z63 has buttons on the side for things like bluetooth, wireless, touchpad, etc). i also cannot use the keyboard shortcut (Fn+F2) to toggle the wireless card on and off. normally, when i run on battery (taking notes in class), i like to have the wireless card turned off to save power and to prevent my attention from wandering to the internets.

without the hardware toggle or the keyboard toggle, the 'simple' way to turn off the card would be to right-click the wireless icon and disable the card. the round-about route would be to open up the Device Manager and disable the card from there. both options suck. once the card is disabled, the icon no longer shows up in the System Tray and you have to drill into Network Connections to enable it from there. i could have written an essay in that time.

what i wanted was a shortcut to the program that controlled the wireless service so that i could just use Launchy to enable/disable the wireless card. unfortunately, no such Windows program, .exe, .dll or .bat file exists.

time for research. so i googled up two sites that each did half of what i wanted.
the first directed me to a neat utility Microsoft has: DevCon, a command line version of the Device Manager. using DevCon, i am now able to execute enable/disable commands to any hardware device on this computer, provided that i know the hardware ID. the site provided details on how to determine the IDs and how to use them in the command line.

ex. typing in "devcon disable *DEV_4220*" into the command prompt will turn off my wireless card. replacing "disable" with "enable" will turn it back on. this is still a handful to type each time.

as it turns out, command-line commands can be written as a .cmd file, essentially a pice of programming script that runs as if you typed the commands into the prompt. so the second site gave an example of just such a script. i modified it for my computer.

;Disable Wireless.cmd
;
@echo off
echo Disabling wireless card...
devcon disable *DEV_4220*
echo Done.

echo " " is just asking the command-line interface for feedback, indicating where in the program it currently is. ; " " are comments and not read by the compiler.

i saved this file (and the enable version) as .cmd files, placed them somewhere safe and created shortcut in my shortcuts folder for Launchy to index.

after some time of gloating and feeling proud of myself, i wondered what else i could script to make life easier...

sometimes, the wireless connection is spotty due to the router being unable to establish an IP address or somesuch wireless networking mumbo-jumbo. i normally fix that by going into the command prompt and typing:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

this does exactly the same thing that clicking Repair on your wireless connection does. armed with new knowledge, i decided it was time i stopped typing it all out by hand like a sucker.

;Repair Wireless Connection.cmd
;
@echo off
echo Releasing IP Address...
ipconfig /release
echo Renewing IP Address...
ipconfig /renew
echo Done.

i saved this script, shortcutted it as well.

i feel like a winner.

Nerd Corner: RSS

a year or two ago, back when i was a newb just discovering Firefox, i began to notice something on the internets: this on the far right of my address bar. it would show up on certain sites, mostly blogs. and i thought to myself, abuh? i clicked it and up popped a dialogue that said, would you like to subscribe to the rss/atom/xml feed of [insert site name]? since i was but a wee newb, i reacted the same way i did to every new and foreign computer geekery that cropped up. click cancel. forget about it.

no big deal. i continued to use computers with no ill effect. i did not have to pay extra money, as subscriptions tend to convey a sense of fees. i continued to browse my usual sites, streamlining my browser with keyword bookmarks or icons on a toolbar for quick access during daily updates. i got into a pretty good groove.

one day, i thought, there has to be a more efficient way to get updates to news, blogs, etc, rather than going to each and every site and waiting for them to load. i scanned the memory banks (in my head) and some keywords kept cropping up: subscribe, rss, atom, xml, feeds, aggregator; especially on the gadget/geekery blogs. well, i thought, geeks do know all about efficiency... maybe there is something to this rss business. time for research.

the first stop on the research express is wikipedia. click the icon shown above to see the entry for RSS. it'll tell you everything you need to know in technical terms. here's the plain-speak summary. most blogs have an alternate page that is stripped down to only text and relevant images and links, like the little newsreel that scrolls by on news-centric tv channels. plug the URL of that alternate page into a Feed Reader or Aggregator, and you can see all the new (and old) posts from every website you subscribe to all in one place.

this would be where i normally write a massive how-to guide, but i'm pretty sure most of my readers are already utilizing feeds to cut down on internet reading time and maximize on internet playing time. if not, now you know about it and are free to muck about until you find something you like. i use Google Reader because it is simple, web-based (therefore anywhere), free, and i already have a Google Account. here are some other options.

up until this very morning, i had been checking this blog's comments using an email notification sent to hotmail because i don't want what is essentially non-essential mail clogging up the accounts i actually check and because when i'm on msn, it will notify me. as i got to thinking about writing this episode of Nerd Corner, i thought, dude, isn't there an RSS feed for blog comments? i know i saw something about it in the settings. so i checked the settings and yes, it exists, but it conveniently neglects to give the URL.

in order to proceed, i could a) research or b) take the existing URL for regular posts and tweak it for comments and see if it works because URLs, for the most part, are coded with actual information (e.g. server name, script type, etc). so i scanned my subscriptions for blogger accounts, and mentally reverse engineered the template for Blogger feeds:

http://[blogname].blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

so the address for this blog's feed would be http://pocketfish.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss. for no particular reason, i intuit that substituting the word 'posts' with the word 'comments' would probably net me the feed url for this blog's comments feed: http://pocketfish.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?alt=rss. now i have one less reason to use hotmail. bonus!

Nerd Corner: Opera Portable

it's software pimping time and i am pimping my favourite thing again.

a good number of people are heading back to school next month, myself included, and there will come a time when you need to use one of the school computers. if your school is anything like mine, the computers will be running Windows and the the internet browsers will be either Internet Explorer 6, Firefox or a combination of the two. and if you are anything like me, having to use either IE6 or Firefox will make you feel unclean. chances are you are using Firefox and you've tweaked the grease out of the monkey. what i'm trying to say is, using someone else's browser configuration is uncomfortable.

enter portable applications. these are your favourite pieces of software, stripped down to fit on a portable drive (e.g. USB flash drive), allowing you to use the programs you are comfortable with on any compatible computer.

i personally use Opera Portable (hereafter denoted as OP). Opera, the desktop browser, is already designed to have a small memory footprint. my current installation (Opera 9.23) is 4.88 MB; OP is 4.66 MB. while most portable versions of applications tend to be nearly neutered or slower than Tarzan on a Japanese IQ test, OP is essentially the same as the desktop (non-portable) version. it is merely repackaged and streamlined to save space.

to prevent caching and stuff from decreasing your flash drive's lifespan (flash memory has a finite number of writes), OP creates an invisible, temporary folder on the computer you are using (so you won't accidentally run out of space on your protable drive). after closing OP, the folder is overwritten and erased, eliminating all trace of your internet tracks from that computer.

the benefits of using OP, rather than the provided browser on a public computer, are rather obvious. with your portable application you carry with you all your bookmarks and customizations and tweaks and blah blah blah. sensitive information (online banking, juicy emails to your long-distance paramour, etc) are not blabbed to the computer's hard disk in the event that you forget to log off or whatever. personally, i can spare myself the frustration of trying to use mouse gestures or keyword searches on browsers that aren't configured to do so.

Nerd Corner: searching for answers

if you haven't done this already since you found out about keyword searches in Firefox and/or Opera, you might find it useful to set up such searches for particular translations of the Bible.

simply navigate to your preferred online Bible (Bible Gateway or Crosswalk) and select the desired translation in the drop-down menu. right-click the search field and Create search... or whatever Firefox calls it. repeat as desired.

Firefox dumps keyword searches into the bookmarks area, pretty much willy-nilly, unless you create a folder specifically for your keyword searches. Opera is cleaner; keyword searches are squirreled away in the Preferences... under Tools, where you can edit the name and keyword of any existing search.

Nerd Corner: Opera 9.20 revisited

Speed Dial
i've been using it for a few days now (4) and for all its redundancy, it has started to grow on me. every time i open a new, blank tab, my eyes are met with convenient links i can either click on or swiftly ignore. occasionally, it will remind me to update myself on something that i haven't read yet.

Fig. 1 - My current Speed Dial links
my current set up only has 6 links: Google Reader, Gmail, Hotmail, Blogger, Notebook Review Forums, and Metagame. Reader is my RSS aggregator of choice, so all my news bits and blog updates are funneled through that. Email is obvious. the other three are really just filler. NBR forums and Metagame do not come with RSS feeds so i dropped them into Speed Dial as a visual reminder to waste my time. i set it up as a triangle because a) i didn't have enough to fill all 9 spots; b) my eyes follow left to right, top to bottom, so the triangle tracks better. note how the interfaces of most applications have next to nothing going on along the bottom-right corner.

the Ctrl+# shortcut really is a time-saver (so i can waste time more efficiently) when i remember to use it. it will open up a new tab and load the page without my having to manually open one.

Tab Thumbnail Previews
i've only used Opera v9.x, so i can't speak for its previous versions, but Opera 9 (and i suspect 7+) have thumbnail previews for the tabs. i think this is available in Firefox through the Tab Mix extension. in 9.10, they looked like this:


Fig. 2 - Tab Previews in Opera 9.10
Opera 9.20 improved on this neat feature by removing the extraneous information and boiling the thumbnail preview down to its essentials.


Fig. 3 - Improved Tab Previews in Opera 9.20
as you can see, the preview is now url independent so the preview box is no longer stretched to wizzle-wazzle when you preview hotmail or something. Encoding, MIME Type and Security have been completely excised because no one really cares what that information when previewing a site you are already visiting. page title and url are moved to the top and bottom respectively to remove the extraneous whitespace. all these changes make the preview a whole lot more attractive than before.

Tab Cycle Preview
this is not a new feature in 9.20, but it's something i found recently and thought i'd share/proselytize. Ctrl+Tab will cycle through your browser's tabs the same way Alt+Tab (or Win+Tab in Vista) will cycle through windows in your taskbar.


Fig. 4 - Default Tab Cycling Interface
a slightly hidden preference allows you to preview the tabs as you cycle through them,


Fig. 5 - Tab Cycling with Thumbnail Previews
making it a whole lot easier to see which site you're scrolling to. with the text only interface, it is easy to select a similarly titled tab, especially if you are cycling through them quickly.

to enable this preview, go to the address bar (or Ctrl+L) and type opera:config to access hidden browser preferences (yes, this was inspired by Firefox's slick about:config, which makes the average user feel like a hacker. opera:config is categorized and slightly less imposing at first glance). in the search field, type 'tab' to quickly find the right toggle. under User Prefs > Use Thumbnails in Tab Tooltips, check the box and click Save.

on a slightly related note, you can cycle through tabs in Opera with a mouse gesture: Right-Click + Scroll Wheel.

Note from me:
moyee thinks this is shaping up to be an epic battle between me/Opera and carl/Firefox on account of our recent posts, but i don't think so. my last summer job asked me to write some instruction manuals for the employees on how to use new software (screenshots, step-by-steps, etc). it was quite fun, so i've continued this here (starting with keyword bookmarking in Firefox, which, by the way, exists in Opera too). i think i prefer teaching by writing, rather than speaking -- not that i am certain anyone is trying out Opera now on account of this. in any case, it's worth a shot if you have time or simply want to learn something new. there are lots of reasons why i (and some others) prefer Opera to other browsers, but i won't get into that tonight.

Nerd Corner: Launchy

being a laptop notebook user, one must reconcile with the occasion when a mouse is not available for use and the trackpad or nipple (in the case of Lenovo/IBM Thinkpads) must be utilized. one might grow adept with it given sufficient usage, but by most accounts, the trackpad is ungainly and slow in comparison to an actual mouse.

one of the greatest gifts given to humankind is the ability to adapt. in this case, a notebook user either learns to use the trackpad adroitly or learns to unleash the awesome potential of the keyboard. how often have we found ourselves typing away at a report and needing to double-check a reference on a web page or pdf? alt + tab allows you to scan through your open taskbar items (or windows key + tab for prettier Vista, or F9 for Expose on Macs) without ever having to lift your hands off the keyboard to reach for your mouse/trackpad. by golly, notebook users want to avoid their trackpad as much as possible.

but what if that file or application isn't open yet? alas, now one must lift fingers of the keys, mouse over the start menu and dig through the programs list, or minimize the open window(s) and click an icon on the desktop. or if one is clever, one could simply hit the windows key to launch the start menu and arrow key through the hierarchy to the approriate program or file. the two methods are about the same speed-wise, and they are both woefully slug slow.

if you recall from an earlier post, i talked about two application launchers: ObjectDock and Launchy. i make it a point to find applications that allow me to operate equally efficiently with either just the mouse or just the keyboard. ObjectDock, a Windows clone of OS X's Dock, places all my frequently used applications or folders in a neat row that appears over any open window, so if i am using my mouse, i can still reach those applications or folders without having to minimize windows to see the desktop, or dig into the start menu. this can be done with the Windows Taskbar Quicklaunch toolbar as well, which places small shortcut icons next to the start menu. Quicklaunch icons are too small and is not nearly as customizable or visually appealing. if i'm on the keyboard, i use Launchy.

Launchy is a small, unobstrusive application/file launcher similar to Google Desktop Search, OS X's Spotlight and the highly touted Quicksilver. it is the closest Windows equivalent to Quicksilver in terms of usefulness and customizability. Launchy is activated by a quick keyboard shortcut (which you can determine yourself); the default is alt + spacebar. this brings up a small dialogue box. by typing in letters or characters, Launchy will search through its index of your files and folders to find the application or shortcut you are looking for, or draw up a list of approximates. it is an adaptive program as well, so frequently programs are moved to the top of the list. for me, typing 'o' into Launchy automatically gives me 'Opera' as it is my web browser of choice and very frequently used (Fig.1). I am using one of the built-in skins called 'Clean'.

Fig.1 - Commonly launched programs show up first

unlike Spotlight or Windows search, the indexing is not system wide. you, the user, get to decide which folders and which filetypes will be indexed (Fig.2).

Fig.2 - Some folders require lots of different extensions

by default, all the start menu shortcuts are indexed. adding directories is a breeze. right-click on Launchy for the context menu and go to directories (Fig.3). hit "Add", find the folder, and add the filetypes you wish to index. for example, when indexing your Music folder you'll probably want .mp3, .wma, .ogg etc. i recommend not indexing your music folder though, as no one really just plays individual songs, but would rather use a media player with playlists and whatnot.

Fig.3 - Launchy's Context Menu for additional features

if you don't want to mess around with the directories and filetypes so much, simply create a new folder, call it shortcuts, and dump shortcuts to any file, application, folder or what-have-you into it and have Launchy index this folder for .lnk files. what is not immediately intuitive is that you can launch ANY shortcut by this method.

i had a brainwave a yesterday. i was pretty annoyed that shutting down or restarting or hibernating the computer rquired me to either press the power button, or go to the start menu and then select the appropriate selection. then i remembered that i created a shortcut for Locking my computer (Lock Workstation) a few months back before i discovered the windows key + l keyboard shortcut. all of the Windows functions, such as shut down and locking are little programs squirreled away in your WINDOWS/system32 folder. so, with some Google-power i dug up the filepaths (inside the brackets) for

• Shut Down - [%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -s -f -t 00]


• Restart - [%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -r -f -t 00]


• Hibernate - [%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Hibernate],

whipped up some shortcuts (right-click > new > shortcut) in the shortcut folder and voila! keyboard launching of either sequence. Shut Down and Restart run off the same program and they require either the '-s' or '-r' command handles to differentiate. '-f' executes the program ignoring any open applications (shuts them down immediately without warning, meaning that you will lose data if you forget to save beforehand). '-t 00' is the countdown handle, where the delay time can be given in place of the zeroes. thus, '-f -t 00' executes the command immediately. hibernate is useless for desktop users, but an invaluable power-off method for notebooks running on battery. all data is saved to the hard disks and the computer is completely shut down and can be revived (power on) much quicker than a full boot up (using less power). it must be enabled in Control Panel > Power Options > Hibernate tab to allot a certain portion of the hard drive space to data saving. standby is similar, saving data to RAM, but this draws on battery power; if that ever runs out while on standby, all that data is gone.

that was fun.

Nerd Corner: no longer trying out Opera

two weeks ago, i wanted to dig up a picture, so i hit up the trusty Google image search (via keyword search which Opera already had). lo and behold, something looked off. every image no longer showed any information below it (requiring a mouse hover instead). i was a bit annoyed, but it didn't bother me enough to search for a workaround. the next day i stumbled upon one anyway, courtesy of Google Operating System (via Lifehacker) and implemented it immediately.

what struck me was not the idiocy of Google Image interface designers, but the ease of correction in the web browser i am using (Opera). where Firefox users had to dig up their user profile in hidden folders and edit javascript files (granted that there are many firefox users very willing to muck around in their hidden folders and edit javascript files) and Internet Explorer users had to open a menu regarding Security (every time i see that word in a menu dialogue, i get antsy), Opera users merely had to right-click for site preferences and uncheck a box.

Opera wins.

here is a comparison from extremetech of Firefox 2.0, IE7 and Opera 9. the FF2 and IE7 tested at the time were still in beta. i have all three final versions and most of the obvious observations are still there in the final versions (particulary the Acid2 Test).

Nerd Corner: Keyword Bookmarking in Firefox

if you are a Firefox user, here's a helpful bit of nerdery i picked up off Lifehacker, an awesome blog for nerds and people obsessed with productivity. the title link leads to Lifehacker's most thorough post on this subject.

anyone who uses a web browser on a regular basis uses Bookmarks (Firefox, Netscape) or Favourites (Internet Explorer) to access those commonly visited sites. Keyword Bookmarking allows Firefox users to type in a short Keyword in the Address Bar to access a Bookmarked site, rather than navigating to the Bookmarks Menu and finding the correct button. this means you no longer need to leave the keyboard. simply press Ctrl + L to get to the Address Bar, type in your keyword, and go.

Adding a Keyword to Existing Bookmarks
Right-click the bookmark you want to add a keyword for and you will see a few fields to fill in. type in a short phrase, or even just a letter into the Keyword field.

it took me a bit of work to get used to it, but now i have all my useful bookmarks keyworded. this spares you the trouble of organizing your bookmarks because you'll probably never have to click that menu again anyway.

Add Keyword Field to the Add a Bookmark Dialogue Box

the default Add a Bookmark interface (Ctrl + D to add the current page as a bookmark) in Firefox is quite spartan. you can choose a name, edit the location and enter a description. the extension OpenBook will allow you to tweak the interface to your choosing, adding a variety of options (such as bookmark location) if you so choose. i used this for awhile until i found something better.

Firefox's main claim to usefulness is its potential for user customizations, predominantly through the aforementioned extensions, little programs created by Firefox developers and users to extend the functionality of the browser. beyond that is the userChrome.css. this is a style sheet that dictates the way Firefox looks and acts through bits of coding a nerdy user might insert into the core Firefox program. with short bits of code, one can remove useless menus and menu options from sight, change scrollbars, and even add backgrounds to the menus. click here to jump to Lifehacker's mini guide to Chrome customization.

the important customization to note is:

/* Add a keyword when adding a bookmark */
#keywordRow { display: -moz-grid-line !important; }

now every time you Add a Bookmark you'll see:


with the Keyword field available conveniently upon inception.

Keyword Searching

Firefox comes with a built-in Google toolbar (Ctrl + K), so searching is pretty much already at your fingertips. it also allows you to add searches, such as Wikipedia or IMDB within that toolbar. that's all fine and dandy, but Google, Wiki and IMDB are not the only websites that you want to search. unbeknownst to many, Firefox will allow you create keyword searches. simply right-click over a search bar, say Google Images, and select "Add a Keyword for this Search". it is basically Adding a Bookmark that you activate by keyword.


set up a Keyword the same way you would a Bookmark


so now whenever you need to dig up an image...


simply type in the keyword for that search and enter the search query after a space. any keyword search that you add is added as a bookmark, so it'd probably be a good idea to dump them into a folder specifically for searches.

that's all for now. i'm all nerded out.