Technology and ….
Recently, a friend asked me what he should install on a new PC before he takes a backup snapshot. The PC is going to be used by the whole family as a media PC in addition to other functions. I put VLC Media Player on this list of must haves.
Few web browser extensions are as unobtrusive and as useful as the the invisible hand. Once installed, the invisible hand extension subtly tells you while shopping if the site you are on is offering the lowest price for the item you are looking at without you having to do anything. It just works.
Say you are looking for a camera and you go to Amazon and find the camera you want. While on the page a little yellow bar will appear and tell you if the same product is cheaper elsewhere or if this is the best price. Automatically.
Hands down this is the number one must have Chrome extension. Password Hasher Plus. Here is why:
Identity theft is a serious problem and it does not look like it is getting any better. People are starting to use strong passwords but they use the same one for all sites they visit. This is VERY risky. Suppose your twitter account information gets stolen. If you use the same username and password on all you sites the hacker now has access to ALL your sites (E-mail/Amazon/PayPal/Facebook …). This happened to a colleague of mine. His Facebook account was hacked and from there the hacker took control of several other accounts including his E-mail. In the age of on-line banking this also can mean unfettered access to your money.
I am sold on Chrome. Not the shiny automotive kind. The browser kind. I know Chrome is developed by Google. I know Google may be the next current “big bad“. Even so, Using Chrome is just a nice experience. It is a fast browser that has a really simple user interface and has great extension. Now for those of you who do not use/know what extensions are – Think of them as an app store for your browser. Your browser comes with basic functionality (like a new iPhone) and you add additional functionality to it with extensions (like apps). I will write about my favorite extensions in another post.
blog.billauer.com is now iPhone friendly. I added the WPtouch iPhone Theme to wordpress and walla! When you surf to the site from an iPhone/Android phone you get a slick iPhone app like interface.
I am now waiting for an invite to Google Wave. I have several potential invites in the works but none have panned out yet.
As soon as I get the invite I will write up a review. My buddy Hillel has already written up an article about his “Eight Google Wave Annoyances“, but I am not letting that influence my judgment. Now I just have to wait.
I hate waiting.
UPDATE: Ugh - I just found out it can take a week from the time I am invited until the invite shows up in my inbox.
Did I mention I hate waiting.
I hate renaming files in windows. After shooting 200 pictures on vacation with my family I end up with a folder that has 200 files names IMG_0103.jpg. What I want to do is a rename so something a little more meaningful – Something like Vacation_to_India_2008_Pic_0103.jpg. Doing this in Windows can be a pain. Renamer is a free tool that solves this issue. Renamer allows to change case, modify names, and remove or replace strings in file names.
Renamer
You purchase the 500 GB 1 Terabyte drive for your computer figuring you could never fill it up. That much space should last a long long time. Then after a few months you realize you only have 100 GB left. What happened to all that space??? So you start to check all you folders and try to find what is taking up all that space. It is a long and tedious process. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an easier way to find all those large files and directories? There is. SpaceMonger.
SpaceMonger
I get this question a lot:
“I got this .mkv (or insert other format here) video file and it won’t play on my machine. It says I don’t have the right codec. What do i do?”
First let me address what a codec is. A codec is an algorithm for compress and decompressing videos. If your computer does not have the algorithm it will not be able to decompress the video and you will not be able to watch the file.
So how do you get the codecs you need? The best option is to download a codec pack. A codec pack is a group of codecs .. you guessed it.. packed together. The one I like to use is the k-lite codec pack.
K-lite codec pack
