2006 May

After you’ve finished watching Darth Vader Calling the Emperor, you should probably find something a bit more constructive to do. Spurred on by Sean’s linking to a couple of WordPress cheat sheets (API, Theme), I went looking for some of my favorite cheat sheet authors to see if any had been updated – or new ones added. I found a wealth of great desktop-based cheat sheets. The Cheat Sheets from ‘ILoveJackDaniels’ are simply amazing, and their design is definitely the one to beat. The Quick Reference Cards page has links to a few good ones, largely for the geekier development types. The Google Cheat Sheet PDF is a must-have, even if you already think you know your way around Google. Cheat Sheets are great when you need a one- or two-page reference (and digging through a manual or help file is just too arduous a task).

Read more on Free Cheat Sheets…

You know what really grinds my gears? Nobody’s come up with a new priest and a rabbi joke in like thirty years. Ya know? That, and when I can’t get something done because I’m waiting on someone else to do what they need to do first. I get antsy. Such was the case in trying to get everything I put into my BlogWare account out of it.

Read more on Bye-Bye BlogWare…

The Web address for this online tool will be astoundingly impossible to remember, but its functionality really whips the llama’s ass. It’ll create a PDF from any Web-based HTML document (read: Web page). Why wouldn’t you print to a PDF locally? (1) This HTML 2 PDF service is infinitely faster; (2) No clunky software to install; (3) It automatically strips any kind of print headers and footers; (4) It works better than the Firefox or Internet Explorer print feature! If you need to carry a document with you offline, forget about printing it locally – print it to PDF. Assuming, of course, this service lasts for free forever. If only I could convince the guy (or girl) to get and use a much better domain name. html2pdf is pretty darn nifty.

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Am I the only one who didn’t know this existed? It’s like a HomeSite clone, but I wonder if it works any better than the classic HTML editor from yesteryear (which hasn’t improved a bit since it left Nick’s hands).

Read more on Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express…

I don’t know how it happened, but I somehow lost ToolTip functionality in Windows the other day. I’d hover over an icon and NOTHING would show up. Needless to say, I was more than a little perturbed. I did a quick look around the ‘Net and discovered The Elder Geek had an answer that might work. It involves a bit of Registry diving, which is no problem from a seasoned power user like myself. To Enable or Disable Tool Tip Displays, fire up your Registry editor and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced. Look for “ShowInfoTip” and make sure its value is set to 1. That’s it. Shouldn’t even need a reboot in XP to see ‘er work again.

Read more on Windows Explorer ToolTips…

Confirmed Gnomedex Discussion Leader: Phil Torrone. Last year, “pt” was a smash hit. With his inter-presentation hacks, he quickly became the most popular geek at Gnomedex 5. More people went home talking about the hardware mods he demonstrated than we would have anticipated. With Gnomedex 6.0 being “a higher resolution,” we’re resolved to giving him a bit more time to explore his geekier side. If a physical product can be hacked, pt can hack it. If a physical product can’t be hacked, pt will find a way – and then share his knowledge with the rest of the world.

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Confirmed Gnomedex Discussion Leader: Halley Suitt. Her first name rhymes with “rally,” her last name sounds like “suit” – it’s Halley Suitt! The original Alpha Female Blogger is honoring us with her presence on stage. Her mind works a million miles a minute, which is why she’s perfect for the Gnomedex crowd. This will be Halley’s first Gnomedex, and we hope not her last. She blogs, but she’s also driving Top Ten Sources forward into the future. I can’t think of a single person who doesn’t know who Halley is – except for my dad, but he doesn’t count. Halley is really sweet, but she’s really Suitt.

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News of the upcoming NetSquared conference:

Hey Chris and Ponzi, I’m emailing the folks I’ve interviewed for Net Squared who aren’t coming to the Net Squared conference next week with some info about the online component in case you are interested in joining us there and/or helping spread the word about this part of things. On May 30 and 31st, we’re fitting 350 people into one of Cisco’s conference centers and hunkering down for a series of discussions that get straight to the point. The agenda’s here and here are the folks who will be there. We can’t fit more people into the conference — but we can fit them into an online version. We’ve scheduled speakers to appear in online chat session to answer questions on the topics about which they are passionate. You can see the lineup here: MeetUp, Bloglines, CreativeCommons, Libraries, health care. Those are some of the many topics to be covered in the live online part of the conference. I’m writing today to ask you to share the word about this remote conference. People can chime in, from their desktops and w/o having spend any $$$ on a plane ticket or a hotel.

Which reminds me: I’ve gotta start putting the agenda for Gnomedex together. We have most of the players in line… it’s figuring out who’s on stage before the other. I hate scheduling (coordinating it, that is).

Read more on Square on NetSquared…

I just couldn’t leave well enough alone. Even after my problems with Outlook 2007, and my original feedback on Windows Vista, I went deeper into Windows Vista’s second beta. This time, I didn’t concentrate so much on the font issues (so that I couldn’t be accused of being such a nitpicker). Don’t get me wrong; there are still thousands of UI oversights still sitting within Windows. I intend to prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt. I don’t just want to hear about how some of my problems were addressed – I won’t rest until all of them are. I keep being told that a lot of it will be happening soon, but… I’ll believe it when I see it. This isn’t just about fonts and icons, my friends – it’s about something I intend on using as my primary operating system for the next… seven (?) years.
Read more on 65 More Windows Vista Mistakes…

I’m not the first (and I certainly won’t be the last) person to claim that DRM sucks. But DRM doesn’t stand for “Digital Rights Management.” No, it’s really an acronym for “Dramatic Resource Mangler.” Here’s the problem I’m now running into: I’ve currently got a subscription to Napster, a trial account with Rhapsody, and another trial account with MTV’s URGE. That’s three separate subscriptions I’ve got floating across all my systems. Now, I’ve already downloaded Pearl Jam’s new album through Napster. I can’t listen to it in either Rhapsody or URGE. I’ve paid for it already! So, let’s say I turn off Napster and switch to URGE. I’d have to download the album again. What’s more, Windows Media Player / Windows Explorer doesn’t tell me where the album came from – I have to guess. I have to play (by trial and error) to see which albums are supported by which service. THIS IS MADNESS! Why can’t the individual file detect which service I’m paying for and then adjust itself accordingly? Why must I maintain three DRM’ed versions of the same song?

Read more on Why DRM Sucks…

In traipsing around Microsoft.com, I stumbled across what I believed was the Calculator PowerToy – a nice upgrade to the calculator that ships with Windows. Turns out, Microsoft Calculator Plus is an entirely new calculator (which sadly looks better in “Classic View” than in the default skin). Give Calculator Plus a try and you’ll wonder why they’re not shipping this version with Vista. At least, Calculator Plus not in Windows Vista Beta 2. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Microsoft (itself) already has an infinitely better version of a calculator available for free download on their site, yet they’re not including it (yet?) in Windows Vista. Why!? Are they afraid the DOJ is going to come after them for cornering the desktop calculator market? “Calculator Plus offers conversions between different measurement units for area, temperature, volume and more. It also includes all the mathematical functions offered in Microsoft Calculator.” Finally!

Read more on Microsoft Calculator Plus…

When I was troubleshooting my ReadyBoost issues with the PNY Attache 4GB USB 2.0 thumb drive, I got silly and purchased two 2GB SanDisk high-speed USB (2.0) memory sticks. For those of you keeping track, that’s two 2 twos I snagged. The Cruzer Micro was the only thing the store had on hand that was both high-speed and high-capacity. However, these SanDisk Cruzer Micro “thumb drives” also came with the dreaded U3 software – which I don’t want (and I don’t need). You can’t just go and reformat the entire USB key, mind you – you have to find the uninstaller first. Geeky Jock to the rescue! I downloaded the U3 remover utility from his site and now my Cruzer Micro USB flash memory sticks are 100% without annoyances. I laud SanDisk and U3 for doing something interesting, but you should at least give the user the *EASY* option to remove this so-called feature from a product they paid good money for. U3 isn’t necessarily bad – it’s just terribly annoying. Oh, and I wound up getting Vista to recognize the PNY Attache 4GB USB 2.0 memory key (after connecting and removing it a few times, per a Gnomie’s suggestion).

Read more on U3 Uninstaller…

Got a note from Kevin Freeman the other day. Don’t know if I can help him directly, I think I can help him indirectly:

Chris: As we climb the search engine ladder for the key words “seattle restaurants” I always see your name so I thought I would introduce myself. My name is Kevin Freeman and I have Chron’s disease and have created this new concept to help others like myself dine out with special dietary needs. Here is a recent article done by the Vancouver Sun. We are entering into a new market in Seattle and need assistance. Mainly in the way of word of mouth or a blog entry also we do require photos of restaurants. If you do know of anyone that would want to be paid to go and cold call restaurants in Seattle, take photos and fill out information on our free sign up page that would be great. We are a start up company and cannot pay a lot but for part time work it pays ok. Thanks and hope to hear from you soon

Read more on Food Seattle…

Ponzi’s going to be a Garbage Pail Kid!!! Yes, you all know my fascination with Garbage Pail Kids (even though I’m still mising Bonus Card B5, COLE Gate). A few weeks ago, I emailed Luis Diaz with a small request: that he create a GPK incorporating Ponzi’s two names (well, “Ponzi” is just her nickname – with Latthanapon being her birth name). You see, as I was going through ANS5, she lamented that they never have any GPKs with her name on them. I thought: “Let me see if I can commission an artist to surprise her.” Sure enough, Luis will create a GPK just for you (different options at different prices). He whipped up this sketch:

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Many new systems today are coming with integrated digital media readers instead of floppy drives. I say that’s a good thing. However, these manufacturers have a penchant for slapping in crappy icons for those drives – if they even bother to include icons at all. There’s no way of telling which drive letter belongs to which type of removable media – CompactFlash, Memory Stick, SD, MMC, or SmartMedia. I lived with this problem until today. Ponzi’s new machine installed a craptacular array of icons for her removable media drives. I set out to figure out where they were coming from, and ran into some amount of difficulties at first. I didn’t know where the icons were sitting; they were likely buried in a DLL. Then, I noticed that the CompactFlash drive was labeled “CompactFlashI/II.” Awesome! Now I had something to search for in the system Registry.

Read more on Removable Media Drive Icons in Windows XP…