This Princeton Tec Tool was in my stocking Thursday, probably so I could wear it out to the barn to feed the horses at night. I was surprised that such a small device could produce such brilliant light: in fact, I ended up using the dimmest of the non-strobe settings. It is very handy to be able to carry buckets in one hand, and open latches with the other, without having to worry about a flash-light. I’ll be interested to see how long it goes on three AAA batteries, and will have to get some more rechargeables in that size. Updated: To point to correct item.
Category: Web/Tech
Mindless
This little Flash program called Grid2 provides some mindless diversion when you start realizing how close we are to Christmas. (Move your mouse cursor over the grid to see how it works.)
Koobface
One of my coworkers was just hit with the trojan horse mentioned in this article: Facebook Virus Turns Your Computer into a Zombie. As always, the best advice is don’t open attachments that you aren’t expecting.
Copy and Go
To solve the frustration of hyperlinks that aren’t clickable, Copy and Go is a small Firefox extension that allows you to mark a text hyperlink, right click it, select Copy and Go, and the link will open in the new tab.
Back at the Teahouse
Fans of the little fox of the Teahouse Igoogle Theme can now see its backyard. One of the new themes for Gmail has a whole new set of scenes with the little critter.
GMail Tip
For quick messages, it can be nice to just put the message on the subject line of the email. Now, according to the Official Gmail Blog: Tip: Sending empty messages
you can add “EOM” or “(EOM)” at the end of the subject line (short for End Of Message), and Gmail will silently send the message without the unnecessary prompt.
Map Generator
Thirty years ago, when I was a D&D playing college student, I would have loved this Roleplaying City Map Generator.
Simbad Astronomical Database
Use Google Maps to explore the SIMBAD Astronomical Database.
Unique
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Touchpad
For years I’ve been occasionally borrowing laptops and disliking them, mainly due to the touchpad, which has always seemed awkward and erratic. However, last week I finally decided that I wanted to get a Lenovo Ideapad Y510, and it was delivered to me at work on Wednesday from Newegg. In the process of playing with it, I discovered that not only can the touchpad be used for moving the pointer, but tapping on it works the same as a mouse click or double click. In addition, I found out how to use the touchpad to scroll the screen. It makes using the Touchpad much more convenient, and I now understand why I used to find it so unpredictable.
I felt a little embarrassed to discover that I had been doing it wrong. However, when I was discussing it with Jack, I found out that he didn’t know about tapping for mouse clicks either.
It is always interesting to find out you don’t know everything about something so basic.