5 BrightKite invites available

By Ross McKillop on April 28th, 2008

Update: All gone. And again, as soon as I get more, I’ll update here.

Once again, I have 5 BrightKite invites for anyone interested (more info on BrightKite here). As always, leave a comment below, and in the E-mail (will not be published) (required) field use the email address you want me to send the invite to. First 5 to comment/request will get the invites.

How to add a Recently Used Applications Stack to your Dock

By Ross McKillop on April 28th, 2008
Mac

To add a Stack to your OS X Dock that contains the most recently used Applications, open a Terminal and enter the following line of text:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }'

And then type:

killall Dock

os x terminal with the line to add a recently used apps stack to your dock

Your dock will now have a new Stack. Give it a click.

recently used applications dock stack
click to enlarge

How to install the OS X Leopard skin on your Windows Mobile Smartphones

By Ross McKillop on April 28th, 2008
Windows Mobile

As long as there has been a Windows and a Mac OS, people have come up with themes to make one look like the other. This brief guide will show you how to install and set up the OS X Leopard skin for Windows Mobile Smartphones.

OS X Leopard skin for Windows Mobile Smartphones
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How to add thumbnail previews of websites when you use Google search in Firefox

By Ross McKillop on April 27th, 2008
Firefox

Using the Firefox Add-on GooglePreview, you can have thumbnails displayed next to each search result for both Google and Yahoo.

GooglePreview firefox plugin in action
click to enlarge

GooglePreview installs the same way most other Firefox add-ons do, and you’ll have to restart Firefox for it to take effect.

How to speed up Vista using a spare USB thumb drive

By Ross McKillop on April 26th, 2008
Windows

This brief tutorial will take you through the steps to enable ReadyBoost, a feature of Vista that allows you to improve your PC’s performance by utilizing the faster speeds of flash memory vs. your hard drive. It’s similar to adding more RAM to your PC, without having to actually add more RAM. Read the rest of this article »

How to blurminal your OS X Terminal

By Ross McKillop on April 24th, 2008
Mac

This tutorial will guide you through the steps to install and configure Blurminal, a SIMBL hack that allows you to ‘blur’ the background of Leopard’s Terminal.

terminal before blurminal is applied
before

terminal after blurminal is applied
after

Read the rest of this article »

150 Great Themes for your iPhone or iPod Touch (SummerBoard)

By Ross McKillop on April 24th, 2008
iPod/iPhone

Below you’ll find 150 of the best SummerBoard themes for the iPhone and/or iPod Touch. Read the rest of this article »

3 BrightKite Invites

By Ross McKillop on April 22nd, 2008

Update: sorry all 3 invites have been sent - as soon as I get more, I’ll offer them up here as usual.

I have 3 BrightKite invites for anyone interested (more info on BrightKite here). As usual leave a comment below, and in the E-mail (will not be published) (required) field use the email address you want me to send the invite to. First 3 to comment/request will get the invites. thanks liv for the invite

How to customize your iPhone or iPod Touch with SummerBoard

By Ross McKillop on April 22nd, 2008
iPod/iPhone

SummerBoard is an extension to the iPhone and/or iPod Touch SpringBoard user experience. SummerBoard adds a variety of useful and fun features to your iPhone/iPod Touch, including scrolling icons, wallpaper and themes. Read the rest of this article »

How to split .avi files in Windows, OS X or Linux

By Ross McKillop on April 17th, 2008
Linux Mac Windows

Using BananaSplitter you can split .avi files (divx or xvid) in Windows (95/98/NT/2000/XP/Vista), Linux/BSD/UNIX or OS X. BananaSplitter works across all these platforms because it’s written in Java, so you will need to have Java installed. Read the rest of this article »

Alexa Ranking Changes

By Ross McKillop on April 16th, 2008
Blogging

If you noticed a change in your Alexa rank today, here’s why. Simple Help went from 77k (+/-) to 49.5k. If you have a site and pay attention to your Alexa rank, did your rankings change?

The Ultimate Firefox for OS X

By Ross McKillop on April 16th, 2008
Firefox Mac

If you’re a Firefox fan, but get frustrated with the number of times it crashes on your Mac, or would like to squeeze some extra performance out of it, you should give Firefox Mac Community Builds a look. They have G3, G4 and Intel specific builds of Firefox - from v1.5 right though to the nightly builds of Firefox 3.

furbism firefox for mac custom build logo

20 ways to use Twitter from your mobile phone

By Ross McKillop on April 16th, 2008
Windows Mobile iPod/iPhone

Alright I admit it, I’ve drank the Twitter kool-aid. For a while I was in the “I don’t care what you’re doing right now” camp, but have since discovered that it really is a great way to keep up on current events, find interesting people and keep in touch. And like a number of geeks, I carry several mobile Internet devices at all times. So I gave as many mobile Twitter clients/services a try, and here’s what I’ve found.
 

Name Platform
ceTwit Windows Mobile 6, Windows Mobile Smartphones
Hahlo designed for iPhone/iPod Touch, probably works in any browser, web based
Jargong see this page for supported phones
Jitter Java. Any mobile phone with CLDC 1.0 / MIDP 1.0, which should be pretty much any phone supporting MIDlets. In other words, if you can run downloaded games on your phone, you can also run Jitter.
MobileTwitter jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch
PocketTweets web based for the iPhone or iPod Touch
psychzzz web based, should work on pretty much any browser
SQIJ Windows Smartphone 2003SE, Windows PocketPC 2003SE, Windows Mobile 5/6 Smartphone, Windows Mobile 5/6 PocketPC
ThinCloud designed for iPhone/iPod Touch, probably works in any browser, web based
Twitter2Go web based, WAP or xHTML-MP interface
Twitter Email any mobile phone that can send email
Twitteresce Java J2ME enabled phone
Twitter Flashlite FlashLite 2.x enabled device
Twitter IM any mobile phone that supports Jabber, Gtalk and LiveJournal chat
Twitter Mobile Home web
Twitter SMS Any phone that supports sending SMS text messages
Twitter Webdebolsillo web
TwitToday Windows Mobile 5/6 touchscreen PDAs
Twapper web
Twobile Windows Mobile 5 or above Touch-screen device (no touch-screen=no work)

Read the rest of this article »

How to disable the balloon tips in Windows XP

By Ross McKillop on April 15th, 2008
Windows

This brief tutorial will show you how to disable the annoying “balloon tips” in Windows XP.

windows xp balloon tips
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How to use your mouse to switch between Spaces in OS X

By Ross McKillop on April 14th, 2008
Mac

This tutorial will guide you through installing and setting up Warp, a preference pane that allows you to use the mouse to switch between Spaces rather than using the keyboard. Warp is freeware, but provides a feature I appreciate so much that I donated, and consider it money well spent. Read the rest of this article »