Windows

Ever since I got my MacBook I’ve fallen in love with the Quicksilver feature of typing control and space then typing the first few letters of the application I want to launch to launch it. This keeps the desktop and the dock clean and is quicker than going to your applications directory and running the app from there. I got so used to this that when I was on my Windows machine I missed having a feature like this. That’s when I found Launchy. This is a free Windows program that does just that. I type alt space then the first few letters of the program I want to launch.

I’ve been wanting to get rid of Windows Sidebar for a while but kept it because of a quick launcher I have on there. I didn’t want to overload the standard Windows quick launcher with programs and I didn’t want to clutter my desktop with shortcuts. Also, I think we all know how painfully slow the Windows Start menu can be at times, so that was out of the question too. So I kept Windows Sidebar just for the Quicklauncher Gadget I had. Now I can finally get rid of it. Here are some screenshots of Launchy in action on my machine. (Click the screenshots for larger versions).

Here I am launching Photoshop. I type the first few letters and a drop down list pops up with suggestions. When I find the one I want I simply click it. Launchy is also fully skinnable so I can get one that matches my desktop.

Here I am adding a directory to the Launchy options. Not only will it look for programs, but files as long as you add the directory in which you want Launchy to search. Here I’m adding my Music folder.

Now I’m adding what extensions I want Launchy to index in that folder. Since I added my Music folder, I added .mp3. You may want to add other formats too, such as .m4p, .m4a, .acc, .ogg, etc.

Finally, we have my search for “Tupac” now that I’ve added my Music directory.

Launchy works quite well and was the perfect solution to what I was looking for. It doesn’t hog system resources and is extremely fast at bringing up results when you start typing. If you’re looking for a quick launch solution, make sure you give Launchy a try.

Not long ago I bought a 500 GB usb external hard drive. I wanted to keep backups of all my documents, music, and pictures on it. I partitioned it so I could also back up my MacBook using Time Machine. I’ve been searching for a program to sync any new documents and music and whatnot on my Vista machine onto the external drive when I’d add it to my primary hard drive. I couldn’t find any decent free program that would do this and copying all the files manually just wasn’t efficient. Windows Vista has a backup solution built in but it wasn’t what I was looking for. In the Vista backup utility you can select types of files but not specific folders and directories. I wanted something that would allow me to select which files to backup and where to backup to. I posed the question in #habari and h0bbel gave me a suggestion, SyncToy. It’s a free download from Microsoft and does exactly what I want. As you can see in this screen shot, I was able to tell what directories to sync on my machine and which directories I want to sync them with.

It has a great, easy to use interface that is quite intuitive. You add folder points on each drive then click sync. It worked perfectly when syncing up all my files. The only thing I wish it did have was a schedule so it would perform syncs daily, weekly, or monthly. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be a feature that’s added in 2.0. Maybe sometime in the future that feature will be added.

I knew I couldn’t stay away for long. It was only a matter of time before I came back to you. What am I talking about? Ubuntu on my laptop. After spending a couple weeks back on WIndows XP on my laptop I had to switch back. I put XP on the laptop for work reasons, but now I don’t care. I want an OS that I like and that runs well on this laptop. That would be Ubuntu. Not only am I running Ubuntu, but I’m running the beta of their October release Gutsy Gibbon. I had a few troubles with screen resolution, but I think I have that all figured out now. Enabling the wireless this time was easy. All I had to do was click the use restricted driver button for my wireless card and it downloaded the driver and firmware and I have wireless on my Broadcom card with no problem. The one downside to getting back on Linux is the one wireless access point at work is far enough away to give me a really low signal (2mbps most times on Windows XP), but that was good enough for when the computer needed to be used by a student. Linux refuses to connect to that access point and I’m guessing it’s because the signal is too weak. I have no trouble connecting to other wireless networks when I pick them up.