Windows only I know a bunch of people who customize the appearance of their desktop, but many don't know that Windows 7 supports themes that rotate between desktop backgrounds and automatically adjusts the color of the Aero interface.
The idea of Map Envelope is simple, really. Locate a position on the map (preferably a location that might make the person on the receiving end green with envy), type a message, and wait for your custom Google Maps image to appear. Print, cut, fold on the dotted lines, glue/tape, and bam!, you’ve got your own custom made map envelope.
Windows only Microsoft added a lot of great features in Windows 7 that makes managing your windows a lot easier, such as Aero Snap and Aero Shake. For some users, however, these features may actually become even more useful if they are tweaked just a little bit. AquaSnap is a free program that adds a new twist to the way some of those things work:
Windows only I've seen a bunch of different apps that add buttons to the title bar of your windows, but I think Chameleon Window Manager may be the one that has all the right actions.
When Gmail first came out I was extremely impressed with the interface, but the lack of updating kinda left me wanting more. Then Google rolled out the Gmail Labs back in 2008, which drew me back to the web-based mail client because there were some pretty cool features and capabilities getting added that couldn't be found in a desktop app.
Web developers are probably familiar with tools such as Firebug that make troubleshooting CSS styles a lot easier since the changes show up in realtime.
One of the features in Windows 7/Vista that I use quite regularly is the ability to click on the time in the System Tray to reveal a month-to-month calendar. The only problem is that some of the systems I use on a regular basis are stilling running Windows XP, but in situations like that I fallback to a solution I've been using for years... a customized wallpaper for the desktop.
I use Windows Media Center as my primary source for watching live TV, and last weekend I decided to figure out how I could customize the placement of menu items. For example, I don't really listen to music or look at photos on my Media Center computer so having these options visible only makes it take longer to navigate to some of the other menu rows.
Adding good search functionality to your site can often be a pain, but Sikbox wants to help make it easier. They are offering a no-hassle method to adding a search box to your site using JavaScript. Results will appear for users as they type, and Yahoo! is the search engine that powers the results.
Sites like Digg and Reddit have been becoming increasing popular because the news and stories that are put in front of the users are those that receive the largest number of votes. Reddit has let users create their own "Reddits" for awhile now, but a site called Slinkset offers some extensive customization while maintaining the fundamental structure of Reddit.
I've always been a rather keyboard-oriented person myself, but mouse lovers can enjoy their own kind of shortcuts. X-Mouse Button Control is a free Windows app that lets you customize all the various buttons on your mouse so that they are a bit more useful, and the best part is that you can customize it on a per-app basis.
There are a lot of integration points in Windows that developers can take advantage of, and many of them do. For example, if you have a program like 7-Zip or WinZip installed you may see related entries when you right-click on a file or folder.
Welcome to the WrapUp by CyberNet. This is a collection of news stories, downloads, and tips that we have collected over the last few days, but never got around to writing about.
In 2008, Google said there's no such thing as complete privacy. You're being tracked all over the web by their AdSense ads, by sites that use Google Analytics and - probably the most important - their search engine. But Google Search isn't the only search engine that tracks your behavior.
A little while ago one of my co-workers convinced me to give the Miranda instant messenger a try, and at first I was reluctant because I had heard how much customization was typically needed to get it just the way you wanted it. Over the years I had downloaded it to play around, but it has a rather overwhelming number of options that you can mess with.
Welcome to the WrapUp by CyberNet. This is a collection of news stories, downloads, and tips that we have collected over the last few days, but never got around to writing about.
Last week Cody sent me in a tip for an experimental Firefox extension that I just had to try out. It's called TooManyTabs, and it essentially adds another tab bar to your Firefox window where you can temporarily store some of your existing tabs. To do this all you have to do is hover over a tab, and you'll see the tab's icon turn into an up arrow (as seen in the screenshot above).
According to Alexa Wikipedia is the 7th most visited site in the world only to follow behind companies like Google and Yahoo. Seeing that they receive millions of visitors each day it should come as no surprise that people would use the tools at hand to make their own customized layouts and designs for the site.
The new Firefox 3 address bar is one of those things that you either love or hate, and it's quite amazing how much buzz such a simple aspect of the browser can cause.
I'm one of those stat geeks that love to know everything I can about what my computer is doing. It's not that I use the information to do much, but a quick glance at the CPU or memory usage has, at times, helped me figure out why my computer is going so darn slow. For example, a spike in memory usage is typically the result of an app that likely needs to be restarted.
