Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on April 26, 2007 by CyberNet.

The newest version of Launchy that was just released a few days ago includes a nifty plugin called Runny. This plugin will let you add your own custom commands to Launchy so that you get the most out of the free program. I do have to admit that this is a really great feature…and below I’ll demonstrate how to use it.

Let me go ahead and give you a quick run down on what Launchy is for those of you who aren’t familiar with it. Launchy is a free application that allows you to quickly run your programs and launch websites. After you install Launchy you run it by pressing ALT+SPACE which will bring up a small window that you can begin typing in. As you begin typing you’ll instantly see the results getting filtered away until you finally end up with the program or file that you’re looking for.

Launchy 1.25 adds the new option so that you can customize your own commands in Launchy which is a feature many people have been requesting. Here’s how you configure the custom commands:

1. Run Launchy and right-click on the interface. Select the Plugins option from the menu.
2. Click on the Runny option in the list of plugins, and then choose the  Plugin Options button on the right side.
3. Configure the commands that you want to launch. You do this by providing a command name, which is what you’ll use to execute your command, as well as what you want to execute when that command is typed. For example, if you wanted to create an easy way to compose a new message in Gmail just use the following:
    
   Command Name: gmail or email (the name is up to you)
   Execute: https://mail.google.com/mail?view=cm&tf=0&to=$1
   
4. Then you can compose a new email message to an individual by typing this in Launchy:
    
   gmail <TAB KEY> tech@cybernetnews.com <PRESS ENTER>
   

In step 3 you might have noticed the “$1” at the end of the URL. That tells Launchy where to insert the first parameter, which in our case is the email address. Each parameter is always separated by the TAB key, and even if you don’t have any parameters you’ll still need to press the TAB key when completing a command. For example, if I created a command called cybernet that would just take me to http://cybernetnews.com I would have to execute it by doing the following:

cybernet <TAB KEY> <PRESS ENTER>

I wouldn’t be able to do this:

cybernet <PRESS ENTER>

This took me a minute or two to figure out, and I’m not quite sure if I like the way that works. If there are no parameters then I think I should be able to leave out having to press the TAB key.

Another example of how the Runny plugin works can be demonstrated with a Google Search:

Command Name: google
Execute: http://www.google.com/?s=$1
Launch Example: google <TAB KEY> cybernetnews <PRESS ENTER>

The example above would actually do a Google search for the term “cybernetnews”. As you can see you can do a lot with the new Launchy, but there is more that is new in version 1.25:

• New control panel plugin (indexes control panel apps) 
• Runny plugin (customizable commands) 
• Notification of new Launchy Releases (can be turned off) 
• Command line argument support (hit tab and type the arguments) 
• Can use ‘.*’ as a filetype for directories 
• Plugins can be enabled/disabled (right click on launchy, go to plugins) 
• Plugins can now have configurable options
• Always on top is now configurable

Make sure you head on over to the Launchy site and try out the latest version!

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on April 18, 2007 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

Tabs are probably one of the things that have almost become a requirement for Web browsers. Without tabs I know for sure that my productivity would dramatically decrease because they help me multitask in a way that keeps all of my Web browsing separated from my other applications. Heck, I probably average around 20 tabs open at a given time, and I can’t imagine having a separate window for each one of those cluttering up my Taskbar.

Now that I’m am addicted to tabs I find myself looking for ways to keep them better organized and separated. Sometimes this consists of opening a few different windows and separating out the tabs between them, or there are even some Firefox extensions that can help you get a little more organized.

—Firefox Extensions—

Seeing that Firefox is one of the most customizable browsers available I’m sure it won’t come as a surprise to you that there are a few extensions that can help reduce your tab clutter. The first extension is called Faviconize and you can set it up to collapse a tab down to only its icon. If you keep a large number of tabs open at any given time then this will save you a lot of room:

Then there is the Tab Groups extension which is essentially folders for your tabs. This is useful for me because I always have articles that I want to read when I get more time later on. I know that if I bookmark them I’ll forget to go back and read them, but with this extension I can keep the tabs open without cluttering up my tab bar:

The Separe extension is a little like the Tab Groups extension in the sense that you group your tabs, but it doesn’t use a folder-like structure for them. Instead it basically creates a blank tab that is orange in color, and you can place it anywhere on the tab bar to serve as a divider. It also includes a group management window that allows you to move tabs from one side of a divider to another:

—Drag and Drop—

Being able to drag and drop tabs between browser windows is something that both Firefox and Opera support. The concept is simple: open up multiple windows for your browser and drag tabs between them.

Opera and Firefox each do drag and drop differently. Firefox actually makes a duplicate tab in the new window and doesn’t close the original, whereas Opera closes the original tab after it has been moved to the new window. I actually prefer the way Opera handles it because the reason I am moving a tab from one window to another is to reduce clutter, and by it automatically closing the tab in the original window it saves me an extra click.

—Overview—

I love seeing how tabs have evolved over the years and how they have become an important part of a user’s daily lives. I’m not sure what new additions will be added to tabbed interfaces, but if I had to guess I would would say being able to select multiple tabs simultaneously would be the next big thing (maybe hold down the Ctrl key and select multiple tabs?). You could then drag multiple tabs from one window to another, or close only the selected tabs. That may not seem like a ground-breaking feature, but it is something I have wanted for quite some time.

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on November 19, 2009 by CyberNet.

Having bought my first Mac about a year and a half ago one app that I quickly started to love was Growl. It brought a universal notification system to the operating system that any application could make use of, and the cross-program uniformity made the OS experience that much better.

Then came along Growl for Windows, which was something I took a quick liking to once the Prowl iPhone app was released. I wasn’t sure what kind of future Growl had on Windows since we had already seen other apps like Snarl start to fade out despite being updated regularly. It just didn’t catch on for me.

Growl, however, has become something I’ve installed on all my Windows machines. The notifications are clean and prominent, which can be a combination that is tough to come by. Not to mention the fact that there are also a variety of themes available. My favorite is definitely the Smokestack theme pictured above.

The new version 2.0 that was just released supports images in the notifications, can tell an app when a notification is clicked, can forward of notifications to an email address, and much more. And, of course, we can’t forget about the rapidly growing list of supported apps:

• Autotest – Get informed when your tests pass or fail.
• Emacs – Send and receive Growl notifications from within emacs.
• Firefox – Alerts you when Firefox has started, finished, or failed downloading a file.
• Feed Monitor – Alerts you when RSS and Atom feeds are updated.
• Foobar2000 – Get notified when playing starts, stops, or is paused.
• Gmail – Gmail Growl keeps you updated on new mails in your Gmail Inbox in a fancy way.
• Google Reader – Get notified of new feed items in Google Reader.
• Google Voice – Alerts you to new voicemails, text messages, call recordings, and more.
• Google Wave – Get notified of new Waves.
• Growlbook for Facebook – Get notifications for friend requests, messages, pokes, invites, and more.
• iTunes – Alerts you to the currently playing track in iTunes.
• Irssi – Alerts you when your name is highlighted, you receive a private message, and when someone joins/leaves a conversation.
• jWeatherWatch – Get the current weather and forecasts for multiple locations.
• Last.fm – Alerts you to the currently playing track on the Last.fm website.
• MediaMonkey – Alerts you to the currently playing track in MediaMonkey.
• Outlook – Get notified of appointment reminders and when new mail arrives.
• OWATray (Outlook Web Access) – Get notified of new Exchange mail without having to keep an OWA browser constantly open.
• Pandora AIR – Alerts you to the currently playing track in the Pandora AIR application.
• Pandora Website – Alerts you to the currently playing track on the Pandora website.
• Pidgin – Get Growl notifications for all kinds of Pidgin notifications.
• Postbox – Alerts you when Postbox receives new mail or RSS updates.
• Powershell – Send Growl notifications from your Powershell scripts.
• SageAlert for SageTV – Get notified for all kinds of SageTV events.
• SkypeToGrowl – Get notified of incoming Skype calls.
• Songbird – Pops up a notification when the currently playing track changes.
• System Monitor – Get notified of system-type events like low disk space, battery life, USB devices inserted & removed and more.
• Thunderbird – Alerts you when Thunderbird receives new mail or RSS updates.
• TV Browser – Get reminded when your favorite TV shows are starting.
• Trowl (Twitter) – Get notified of Twitter mentions, DM’s, and friends’ tweets.
• Twitulater – Get notified of new tweets and much more.
• uGrowl (uTorrent) – Get notified when torrents are added, start, or finish.
• Visual Studio – Get notified of success or failure when builds complete.
• Vuze (Azureus) – Notifies you of completed downloads.
• Witty (Twitter) – Get of new tweets, @replies, and direct messages. Sends summary notifications if you get too many updates at once.
• Yawcam (Motion Detection) – Get notified when your webcam detects motion, and then view streaming video of the activity.
• Yip – Transform any Fluid or Prism notifications into Growl notifications.

It’s tough to say how this app will pan out in the end, but I think it has a really bright future. Let us know in the comments whether you’ve given it a whirl, and how you feel about it.

Growl for Windows Homepage (Freeware)

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on August 08, 2008 by CyberNet.

The OpenOffice.org team makes a great productivity suite, but the developers behind the famed open source project have also tucked away a few enjoyable Easter Eggs. Several of them are your typical run-of-the-mill Easter Eggs that show the credits, but one in particular is a lot of fun.

First you’ll want to fire up OpenOffice.org Calc, and enter the following code into one of the cells:

=GAME("StarWars")

After entering that in press Enter to start playing Space Invaders! Make sure you capitalize the “S” and “W” in StarWars otherwise it won’t work.

I got a little addicted to the game once I started playing it, and managed to get to level 16 as seen in the screenshot below. Once you get to level 14 it gets a little more difficult since there are “ghost” bombers that are only visible when they’re dropping a bomb on you. So they can be rather difficult to attack.

Let us know in the comments how far you manage to get, and if you close the window you’ll need to restart OpenOffice.org Calc before being able to play again. Otherwise you’ll get a “oh no, not again” message in the cell.

More OpenOffice.org Easter Eggs [via LoCo About Ubuntu]

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on September 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

Walt Mossberg is a very well respected technology journalist for the Wall Street Journal, and he was recently known for being the one to head up the Steve Jobs & Bill Gates interview. His articles typically revolve around either Windows or Macs, but his readers had been asking him to jump into the Linux side of things.

Mossberg was able to get his hands on a Dell 1420N laptop preloaded with Ubuntu. Right there you know he should have a great out-of-box experience since there shouldn’t be any hardware complications (such as getting the wireless card to work). That was partly true, and here’s a quick overview I put together of the good and bad things he discovered while using Ubuntu:

The Good:

• It’s free and open source
• Looks a lot like Windows or Mac OS X so it is easy to get used to
• Runs on the least-expensive popular hardware configurations
• Essentially free of viruses and spyware
• Built and constantly improved by a world-wide network of developers

The Bad:

• No control panel for adjusting the way the touch pad works
• Every time the computer awoke from sleep, the volume control software crashed and had to be reloaded
• Codecs had to be downloaded to play audio and video files, and the  user is warned that some of the codecs might be "bad" or "ugly"
• Several computer reboots were needed to recognize a Kodak camera and Apple iPod, and the iPod had problems synchronizing
• No built-in software for playing DVD’s
• Nobody is ultimately responsible for the quality of the product, and open-source developers often have an imperfect feel for how average people use software

Are all of these things the fault of Ubuntu? Not at all. In fact many of the problems could be reconciled if the hardware developers would create proper drivers for the Linux operating system. Instead Linux distributions are often left on their own to make sure the different hardware configurations are supported.

Mossberg isn’t saying that all of these things are show stoppers, instead he’s just trying to get the point across that Linux isn’t quite ready for the mass market. He even quoted Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu’s founder, as saying "it would be reasonable to say that this is not ready for the mass market."

Here’s a 5-minute video that Mossberg put together to explain the details:

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com