February 13th, 2009
azlon
A few weeks ago I finally received my Dell Mini 9. After using it every day since then I found that it is perfect solution for what I need. Small, portable and powerful enough to run almost any application, it is the ideal solution for travel. When I bring it home however, I found my desk cluttered with multiple input devices (a keyboard/mouse for my primary computer and a keyboard/mouse for the Mini 9).
Looking around for a solution I came across many KVM switches which is what I am used to using at work. After looking for hours I was about to settle on the KVM swtich from SmartHome.com. Being the cheap bastard that I am, I kept digging for other solutions. Finally I came across several solutions similar to VPN.
With a few solutions at my disposal I finally decided to give Synergy a shot. After downloading a small 4 meg file and a quick 5 minute setup, I was able to use my primary computer’s keyboard and mouse on both the primary computer and my Mini 9 through my home network. Their website explains it better than I can…
Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It’s intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).
Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all. Learn more about how it works.
Basically I can set my Mini 9 next to my other computer (allows you to connect up to 4 different devices), connect to my wireless network and simulate another monitor on my primary computer. Best part? Its totally free! Give it a shot, let me know how you put it to use.
One thing I have found annoying about Windows XP is the fact that they don’t put Run as in the context menu for MSI files. I have an admin user/pass for some computers and like to install a few small applications to make life easier. To do this on restricted computers you simply right click on the file, select Run as and enter the user/pass. An MSI file is similar to an EXE file because they install software to the computer.
If you need to enter a username and password to install files, there is a way to do it via command line, but what fun is that? Here is how you can add Run as to the context menu of MSI files on Windows XP.
- Run regedit.exe under an account with administrative privileges
- Create the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Msi.Package\shell\runas\
- Set the default value to Run &as…
- Create the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Msi.Package\shell\runas\command\
- Set the default value to msiexec /i “%1″
Now when you right click on your MSI file, you have the Run as command!
September 15th, 2008
azlon
Google Calendar is a great tool for staying organized. I personally have my local weather, tasks, bills, holidays (U.S., Korean, Kuwaiti), and now the TV shows I download. CAT (Calendar for TV) allows you to select the shows you are interested in and generates a dynamic iCal link which you can plug into your Google Calendar. It displays the time of airing, season/episode, and show title (if available). Pretty useful little tidbit that lets you know what to expect for the next few days.
September 12th, 2008
azlon
One of my favorite plugins for Firefox is the RememberTheMilk sidebar for GMail. It helps me stay organized and get things accomplished on time. Unfortunately I can only use IE7 here at work due to “security risks” and they block www.rememberthemilk.com for some stupid reason.
Today I decided to figure out a way to get my functionality back. While playing around I found that only www.rememberthemilk.com is blocked, while I could still access the mobile version of the site (http://m.rememberthemilk.com). Now I just had to get it loaded into the sidebar.
In IE6 there was a bug which allowed you to load any page in the search bar using “_search” in the target attribute of the anchor tag. This was removed fixed in IE7 (again, because of “security reasons”), but you have to enable it by going to Tools > Internet Options, then click the Advanced tab, scroll down to Security and check “Allow active contect to run in files on My Computer“. Once enabled you must restart.
I created an html document on my desktop and deleted the IE shortcut. In the html document I put the following:
<script>
document.location.href('http://mail.google.com/');
window.open('http://m.rememberthemilk.com/','_search');
</script>
This will open GMail (which was my homepage anyway) and open the mobile version of RTM in the sidebar. If you want to open additional tabs, add more window.open commands (but remove the target element).
Update: I was just over at Mark Goodwin’s blog and saw a post on putting RTM on your desktop with a Vista gadget. He recommended using the iGoogle gadget page instead of the mobile version of RTM. Great idea!
