Archive for August, 2008
Can you help me see through one window to a document below?
Aug 22nd
I can’t give you X-Ray vision. I can’t even explain this picture on the left (Freaky Ain’t It??).
But I do have an answer to seeing through one window to another.
No we are not talking about real life glass windows (that would be stupid wouldn’t it?) – We ARE talking about a Microsoft Window’s, Window.
(Ok now I am confusing myself!)
If you are like us then you are constantly checking documents and switching between windows.
You need to see your data and write your articles in separate windows, Now wouldn’t it be peachy keen if you could see through your browser’s window – even just a little? That way I could have an Word document or an Excel sheet open behind an editor window and just keep on type, type, typing away.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if it was free and worked on most Windows machines? Well it is and it does! Glass2k is free and works on Windows 2000, XP and Vista!
Check it out: Glass2k from Chime Software. The project is dead but the software works and does just what I need it to.It allows me to set transparency for any window and the task bar. Run it and right click on your windows Title bar and choose your transparency in increments of 10%.
From their website:
Q) How to use Glass2k ?
A) Once the program is running and the icon is shown in the system-tray (near the clock), you can press the following key comibations:
- Control + Shift + 9 : Least transparency
- Control + Shift + 8 : A little more transparency
- Control + Shift + . : …
- Control + Shift + . : …
- Control + Shift + 2 : Very high transparency
- Control + Shift + 1 : Maximum transparency
- Control + Shift + 0 : No transparency / Solid
You can also right-click on any window and select the transparency values from the Glass2k Transparency-popup menu.
Q) When will the final version be ready ?
A) We are doing our best to release it by the end of December 2001. :)
Cool app and at a price we like – Free. Any one else have another way to make stuff transparent in Windows? [Chime Software]
_TheXrayingAdmiN_
How to let Google do your Googling!
Aug 21st
So you have the same repetitive searches you run every day? How about you let Google run the searches for you and hit you with any new sites that have popped up since your last search? This is great for almost anything! All the PR companies we deal with use this habitually.
Just go to http://www.Google.com/Alerts and sign up for an “Alert”. this is what will be searched and returned to you via email:
As you can see by the above screen shot – we have daily updates hitting us on the hip whenever someone posts something about AskTheAdmin. Works great for watching people talk shit and such :)
This is just one of Google’s many untapped resources. Check out this great article from Lifehacker on the top 10 Google Products you probably forgot about!
Can you open a command prompt during a Windows install?
Aug 20th
I don’t know how useful this actually is but I thought I would share it with you guys anyway.
You seem to like useless information… Right??
This trick threw me for a loop. I was watching a junior admin install Windows Vista from a CD and he turned to me smirked and said
Want to see something cool?
I shrugged my shoulders and he hit a key combination and brought up a command prompt over the gui that was installing Vista….
I said “Whaaaaat??”
We went back and forth like that for a little bit until I asked him what he uses it for. He shrugged his shoulders this time and he didn’t know but he likes that it makes him look cool. You can open a game of Pinball or Solitaire during an install.
Sound appealing to anyone?
What XKCD really stands for!
Aug 20th
We have professed our love to comic strip XKCD for all it’s geeky humor. Now Nathan Friemel of ShortMinds.com show us what XKCD really stands for…
If you are still scratching your head then hopefully this Wikipedia article will clear it up for you. Check it out. We’ll wait!
OHHHH! By adding up the numeric position of each of the four letter we get 42. XKCD=42 and 42 is the Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything!
Admin’s Arsenal: Notepad++
Aug 19th
Ok, so anyone that knows me (or has dealt with me for anything technical that involves a text file of any kind) knows that I loathe Windows Notepad. If you are just going to write a quick couple lines of notes it’s ok, but anything beyond that, it’s just the wrong tool for the job. That’s where Notepad++ comes in.
Notepad++ is an open source text editor extraordinaire, making short work of even the most convoluted of text files with the greatest of ease. Here is just a partial list of the features of Notepad++:
- Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding
- WYSIWYG editor (if you have color source code, print it in color)
- Auto Completion
- Multi-Document (tabbed view)
- Multi-View (view multiple documents at the same time)
- Regular Expression Search/Replace supported
- Full Drag & Drop support
- Zoom in and Zoom out
- Bookmark
- Line numbering
- Macro recording and playback
- FTP support
And that’s not even all of the features!
However for me the best features are the syntax highlighting and the line numbering. Do you have any idea how easy it is to explain a (printed out) script to someone when you can just tell them, “and starting on line 324…”? It’s GREAT!!!
Admin’s Arsenal: Explorer++
Aug 18th
Explorer++(no relation to Notepad++, but you can easily see that the developer of Explorer++ was heavily influenced by notepad++) is an attempt to do with Windows Explorer what Notepad++ has already done with Windows Notepad; replace it completely.
WARNING: Explorer++ is in its’ second Alpha release (meaning it is not even a BETA release yet so it will likely have bugs aplenty). Use this software at your own risk.
Now that said, I have not had any issues with it. Normally I do not recommend products that are in Beta, let alone those in ALPHA (like Explorer++), however I’ve only been using Explorer++ for a couple weeks now, but I am already starting to feel that Windows Explorer just seems weak when compared to Explorer++.
Unlike some other Windows Explorer replacements I’ve tried, this one isn’t trying to be everything to everyone (I’m looking directly at you Directory Opus), it is simply trying to give you a better file management tool.
Like Notepad++, Explorer++ also supports tabbed views (really handy when you are trying to work with files in multiple directories), and does it very well.
Explorer++ is also portable by default, you can just drop it on a USB drive and run it from there (this also scores major points with me).
The developer of this software is off to a fantastic start, and I will be keeping an eye on this product as it matures. If this product matures half as well as Notepad++ it will be absolutely indispensable as part of my toolkit.
Explorer++ can be downloaded here.
