I'd rather be cited for the appropriateness and value of the marketing programs we execute for clients than for their creativity.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Use The Same Gmail Account for Multiple Online Accounts [Email]
We've mentioned before that you can use the "+" sign in your Gmail address to generate an unlimited number of email address variations for your same account, but some online services won't accept the "+" symbol, or ignore it entirely. Instead, you can use the period "." character anywhere within your email address and Gmail will ignore it, but most online services will consider it a separate address.
This way you can sign up for more than one account with the same online provider, but get your email in a single inbox. It's a brilliantly simple solution, just the way we like them.
Use One Email Address with Multiple Twitter Accounts [Digital Inspiration]
GReactions Pulls Net Discussion into Google Reader Items [Downloads]
It's a fairly simple extension with no options, and only adds a single button to the bottom toolbar on Google Reader's feed items. Hit "Show comments," and you'll see at a glance what folks are posting and discussing in relation to the main link from the RSS item. It doesn't show these comments by default, which is a pretty great thing, and while it would be great to have a sorting option or two other than reverse chronological, gReactions delivers what it promises.
gReactions is a free download, works wherever Firefox does. While you're adding to your own Reader's abilities, check out our collection of custom Send To links.
gReactions [via Download.com]
Google Tasks Updates with Gmail Sharing Integration [To-do Lists]
When you want to share any list, go to the Actions menu and click Email task list (simple enough). Gmail will compose a new email containing your list title and the items in your list, including crossed off items if they're there. It truly is a small feature, but if you sandbox all your todos inside Tasks and then need to send them off to someone for, you know, doing, it's a really nice option to have.
Email a task list [Official Gmail Blog]
Photoshop.com Hosts Videos up to 2GB in Size [Video]
Unfortunately Adobe hasn't done much to make its video sharing tool stand out. For one, you can't currently edit videos at all, which seems to us like the only reason you might consider uploading your videos to Photoshop.com in the first place. You also can't embed videos, unless I'm missing something. The 2GB file size seems decent, but you're actually limited to 2GB of space on your entire Photoshop.com free account, so one big video upload and you're done. (Note: You can only upload videos up to 200MB in size via the web interface. For larger videos, you'll need to download their Adobe Air Uploader—which I couldn't even find, even after digging around the site and checking their support. Update: Here's the answer.)
In short, then: It's cool to see Photoshop join the video sharing world, and editing would be a great feature if it were there, but they're going to have to step it up if they want to attract anyone to use it. Feel differently? Tell us why in the comments.
Set Up Space-Saving, Permanent Gmail and Reader Tabs in Firefox [Customization]
So here's the deal. I like having my Gmail always open. (Who doesn't, right?) It's literally the first thing I go to in Firefox. But I don't want it to be my homepage, and frankly, I don't like the fact I have to always leave a full sized tab open just to keep an eye on my inbox. I am a fan of minimal, yet functional and attractive interfaces.
So I went searching for the perfect setup, and I'm happy to say, I found it! Using Gina Trapani's Better Gmail 2 add-on (specifically the Unread Count Favicon feature) and two other extensions, I found an extremely easy and attractive way to keep an eye on Gmail and have it open all the time without taking up a lot of space.
Here's what I did. (I'm doing all of this on the nightly build of Firefox 3.7 with Nightly Tester Tool installed, and it works just fine, so I'm positive this works for ALL versions of Firefox 3.0+.)
First, I downloaded and installed Better Gmail 2, and after enabling the Favicon option, ended up with this:
Looks fantastic, of course, but still, since I am currently using a netbook, I want to save as much space as possible. So I sea! rched an d searched until I found the FaviconizeTab extension, also previously mentioned on Lifehacker. Essentially, it adds an entry to the context menu when you right-click a tab that allows you to shrink it down to ONLY the Favicon. Here's how it works.
Looks awesome, right? Well, I thought so too! Until I closed Firefox, and when I opened it again, I realized my faviconized Gmail tab did not stay faviconized. I also wanted a solution in which Gmail and Google Reader always appear when I opened Firefox. I knew how to set up multiple homepages in Firefox, but it's not quite right for what I want. For one, if i do that, every time I press the "Home" button, all those sites load up at once in multiple tabs.
So I went off hunting again for a permanent tab solution. But wait! Lifehacker, many moons ago, highlighted an extension called PermaTabs, an extension that preserves selected tabs through sessions and prevents accidental closing.
Sadly, the developer of that extension has long since forgotten it. I was annoyed, but after a bit more searching, I found another extension called PermaTabs Mod. It's the same as the original extension, however it's updat! ed and m odified to work with Firefox 3.5. Essentially, this add-on allows you to make a tab permanent—that is to say, it cannot be closed by accident, actions such as "Close other tabs" in the Tab context menu do no affect it, and better yet, the tabs stay where they are in the order they are even if you close/shutdown Firefox! Here's how it works:
We right-click the tab we want to make permanent, then select PermaTabs -> Permanent Tab:
Now, you'll notice that the tab we just PermaTabbed is now a slightly different shade, and when you try to right click, you'll notice the option to close it is now grayed out!
So here I am, jumping with joy, excited to see if my experiment will work. And lo and behold! It does! When I open up Firefox, here's what I see!
As you can see, this also works with Gina Trapani's Better GReader and its Favicon Unread Count feature, and is equally useful.
Here's the skinny on what's absolutely awesome about this setup:
- Permatabs are not affected by closing Firefox, cannot be closed automatically, and can be "un-permafied" at any time when you want to get rid of them.
- When you first start up Firefox, the Permatabs DO NOT AUTOMATICALLY LOAD THEIR PAGE. They only load them when you click on them, which is insanely handy for me for when I'm on a terrible connection and I don't want all my Permatabs to load up instantly when I start up Firefox. (This is why I do not like having multiple homepages—I cannot control when they load.)
- With this setup, you don'! t have t o make Gmail or GReader your home page. Your home page is separate; in my above example, I have about:blank set as my homepage, but this won't affect your setup at all.
- Permatabs are not set in stone as far as location goes. You can reorder Permatabs by dragging them around. (Be warned, you can also pop-out Permatabs, but once you do, you must pop them back in or add them again manually.)
- Using this setup, I don't need to use toaster popups from extensions like Gmail Notifier or any third party app. All I have to do is glance to the top right to see if there's any new messages.
Quick Note: If you use any sort of script/extension that forces Firefox to show the Close button on all tabs all the time, this setup WILL visually break that feature. Try it to see what it looks like, if you're unsure.
So, now a bit of eye-candy. Since the above screenshots are shown with little to no visual customizations at all, here's a look at what my current setup looks like, optimized for my netbook:
(Click the image above for a closer look.)
A few notes about my my web setup:
- I'm using a 1024x600 resolution(Asus Eee PC), so minimal interface design is key for me.
- By default, I hide my Menu Bar and my Status bar. My Menu Bar is easily brought up by pressing Alt, and I use Fission (original post) to display both on-hover links and progress bars in my address bar. It works very well and adds a nice Safari-like touch as well as save space
- My theme is Heaven.Cube with small icons.
- I'm using Stylish for the custom about:blank page and the removal of the Go button and the Search button in the main toolbar.
Nice work, Harsha, and thanks for the guide!
Get Healthier with a (Surprisingly Tasty) Squash Pasta Substitute [Food Hacks]
Darya from foodie blog Summer Tomato shows us some dos (rotate the squash while peeling) and some don'ts (don't peel the squash directly over the bowl or overcook the noodles) when it comes to making squash noodles:
There's a recipe for "Summer Squash Pasta & Simple Tomato Sauce" at Summer Tomato, along with more detailed instructions, but before you run off to the kitchen: tell us about your favorite diet-friendly food substitutes (and about just how tasty they are or aren't).
KissTunes Turns Your Keyboard into a (Musical) Keyboard [Fun]
KissTunes turns the home row and a few secondary keys above the home row, into a keyboard-like tool for composing simple tunes. You can edit your work, share it, and even back up the tunes you create to your computer. Check out the video below, which covers just about everything you can do with KissTunes:
Craving a more advanced virtual-jam session? Check out previously reviewed JamStudio for a multi-instrument virtual music maker.
Kiss [via KillerStartups]
Five Best Video-Sharing Sites [Hive Five]
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/k1xSB1Q1b6E/five-best-video+sharing-sites
Photo by Jakob Montrasio.
Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite video sharing web site and tell us what made it your favorite. We've read over your comments, tallied the votes, and now we're back to share the most popular video sharing sites.
blip.tv (Basic: Free, Pro: $96/year)
YouTube (Free)
YouTube has reached a level of ubiquity in the video-sharing market that for millions of internet users, YouTube is not only how they were introduced to video sharing—it's also the only video sharing site they're even aware of. Videos uploaded to YouTube have to be smaller than 2GB, and they must be 10 minutes or shorter in length if you're using a basic account. YouTube places no restriction on the number of videos you can upload as long as they follow the 2GB/10min rule. You can't edit your videos once you've uploaded them to YouTube, but you can annotate them with additional information and links. YouTube lets you embed and customize the player, again, for free.
Vimeo (Basic: Free, Plus:$60/year)
Vimeo is a video sharing service with a heavy emphasis on community and creativity. You can't host commercial content on Vimeo; instead, all uploaded content must be original and non-commercial. Vimeo accounts come in two flavors. The basic account is free and includes 500MB per week of uploaded video, including one HD video per week. You get three albums, one group, and one channel with basic accounts. Basic accounts also let you embed and share your work as well as set basic privacy restrictions. Upgrading to the Plus account kicks your upload cap to 5GB, removes the restriction on HD movies, lets you embed HD movies, and gives yo! u unlimi ted album, group, and channel creation. A Plus account also expands your privacy control and allows you to customize the embedded player.
Viddler (Free)
Dailymotion (Free)
The technical information on the various video-sharing sites is usually buried in help files and not particularly clear in most instances. If you're basing your selection on a very specific aspect of the service like whether or no! t you ca n upload .mov files without converting them or whether or not the site supports 256kb audio, we'd highly recommend checking out this extensive set of charts on Wikipedia to see if the site meets your needs.
Now that you've had a chance to look over the top five contenders for the crown of Best Video-Sharing Site, it's time to cast your vote in the poll below:
Which Video-Sharing Service is Best?(polls)
Can't believe your favorite site didn't make the top five—or maybe we missed mentioning the feature you like best? Sound off in the comments with your video-sharing tips and tricks.
HousingMaps Scours Craiglist For Home and Apartment Deals [Housing]
HousingMaps searches apartments, condos, houses, and rooms for rent, as well as homes and condos for sale and subletting offers. You can narrow your search to most of the markets served by Craiglist and by price range. Additional filters allow you to search by keyword, number of rooms, pet policy, and whether or not the listing has pictures.
Search results are displayed on a map of the city and listed to the right of the map. The columns in the listing chart can be ordered ascending or descending by the various categories like price, number of rooms, and so on. It's a pretty great service when it works, and was mentioned in passing in our roundup of the top 10 real estate search tools. In passing because, like anything hooked into Craigslist's data, occasional push-back from the classifieds site can leave sites like HousingMaps high and dry, at least for a time.
HousingMaps is a free service and requires no signup.
HousingMaps [via GeekSugar]
Intel Buys RapidMind, a Company That Makes Multicore Parallel Programming Easier [Intel]
Intel just picked up RapidMind, a company that specializes in making it easy for developers to optimize and program their applications for multicore processors. Their technology sounds a little bit like Apple's GrandCentral technology built into Snow Leopard, actually. It's an interesting move, since Intel already hires more software engineers than hardware dudes because of the difficulty of parallelism. [PC World]
Northern Michigan University teams with Motorola for campus-wide WiMAX
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/22/northern-michigan-university-teams-with-motorola-for-campus-wide/
[Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons]
Filed under: Wireless
Northern Michigan University teams with Motorola for campus-wide WiMAX originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Aug 2009 09:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsEnhanced Gmail Plug-in for BlackBerrys arrives, but only syncs one way
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/22/enhanced-gmail-plug-in-for-blackberrys-arrives-but-only-syncs-o/
[Via Boy Genius Report]
Read - Enhanced Gmail Plug-in now available
Read - Google Apps Connector for BES now available
Filed under: Cellphones
Enhanced Gmail Plug-in for BlackBerrys arrives, but only syncs one way originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsPCI Express 3.0 specification formally delayed, products pushed to 2011
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/23/pci-express-3-0-specifications-formally-delayed-products-pushed/
[Via Reg Hardware]
Filed under: Peripherals
PCI Express 3.0 specification formally delayed, products pushed to 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsAOC's 2436Vw does 24-inches of power sipping LCD on the cheap
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/23/aocs-2436vw-does-24-inches-of-power-sipping-lcd-on-the-cheap/
[Via Electronista]
Filed under: Displays
AOC's 2436Vw does 24-inches of power sipping LCD on the cheap originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Aug 2009 07:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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