Caps Lock Is Crap

...so do this instead: http://lifehacker.com/5277383/use-caps-lock-for-hand+friendly-text-navigation

He he he.

Cute

http://ffffound.com/image/5d2dcf9b291f28a682a9e716662106f97754d275

Literal Music Video

Just been sent a link for literal music videos on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-x9ygQEGA

Very funny.

My Word Of Today: sesquipedalian

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sesquipedalian

Twittering

Ok, some more twitter links - just not really sure what I'm getting up to now!

• http://tweetfeed.com/ - Produces feeds from twitter content
• http://twitterfeed.com/ - Integrates feeds into yours
• http://twitter.com/fakejowhiley - Chris Moyles pretending to be Jo Whiley!

Microsoft's Own Firefox Attack

A bit scary: http://www.geek.com/articles/news/microsoft-net-update-installs-firefox-add-on-without-permission-2009061/

In short, the February update to Windows installs the .NET Framework into Firefox (if you have it) which allows web pages to install software onto your machine with a single click - this means they could install security hacks onto your computer without you knowing, very easily. Either follow the instructions on the linked sites, or open your firefox Add-ons page (found under Tools on the menu bar) and disable the .NET Framework 1.0 addon.

LifeHacker's Best Of The Last Week

• http://lifehacker.com/5272048/google-wave-is-what-email-would-look-like-if-it-were-invented-today
• http://lifehacker.com/5273084/create-seamless-textures-in-photoshop?autoplay=true
• http://lifehacker.com/tag/download-roundup/
• http://lifehacker.com/5272902/use-yahoo-pipes-to-grab-tv-show-feeds
• http://lifehacker.com/5272867/tormato-stabilizes-and-feeds-your-tomato-plants
• http://lifehacker.com/5272858/flickchart-makes-movie-ranking-fun

Dilbert Links...

A huge collection of Dilbert animations...

• http://www.babelgum.com/html/clip.php?clipId=3014797&utm_campaign=cat_comedy&utm_medium=cpc_socialmedia&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=Dilbertocean&utm_term=

Remember These?

Google Wave - Developer Preview

At the latest Google IO conference Google announced their new Wave application, currently hosted on a sandboxed Google Apps for the (very) priveleged 4000 devs at IO. See the best Dev Conv video since the iPod launched here:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ&eurl=http://wave.google.com/&feature=player_embedded

And, a bunch more links - the places I've been reading/watching -up on Wave...

• http://lifehacker.com/5272048/google-wave-is-what-email-would-look-like-if-it-were-invented-today
• http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-drips-with-ambition-can-it-fulfill-googles-grand-web-vision/
• http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/exclusive-video-interview-with-the-google-wave-founders/

I'm completely blown away by the Developer's Preview video on Youtube already - not even half way in - and I can imagine people connecting, editing, reviewing and mashing up conversations in all forms - web, mobile, tv, everywhere! It's so easy to picture someone picking up the Wave service from a blog page, news article page or (what will used-to-have-been) SMS and just deciding that because they can leave text, photos, videos (live and recorded), maps, snippets of anything etc, that they just begin considering it "the way I communicate with anyone who isn't just in front of me right now." Even if they are, it's easier to share photos or any media with those around you, without needing anything more than a wireless connection (forget bluetooth or even peer-to-peer wifi, etc) simply because adding people to your Wave gives them all the content you've got - along with your messages to them (both open and private!)

BBC: 10 Things You Need To Know - Losing Weight

Really interesting program from the other night about losing weight and how some of the things we're led to believe are wrong, some are slightly off centre and, more to the point, how to do it right with a reasonable amount of will power:

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ksh7c/10_Things_You_Need_to_Know_About_Losing_Weight/

Dilbert, Users And The Search Results Halo Effect...

Dilbert on...

• http://www.90percentofeverything.com/2009/05/26/dilbert-on-user-experience/

User's prefer search results with the Gooogle Logo, whether Google results or not...

• http://www.90percentofeverything.com/2009/05/28/impressive-halo-effect-users-prefer-search-results-with-the-google-logo-even-if-theyre-not-google-results/

Latest Gizmodo Amazing And Fun...

Gizmodo:

• http://gizmodo.com/5271408/fullpowers-motion-sensing-concept-knows-what-youre-doing
• http://gizmodo.com/5271666/hand-in-hand-clock-would-need-plenty-of-wall-space
• http://gizmodo.com/5271098/every-mobile-browser-should-give-up-and-just-go-webkit
• http://gizmodo.com/5271418/blockquote-suing-your-customers-is-a-bad-idea
• http://gizmodo.com/5271749/immersions-new-haptic-touchscreen-tech-encourages-corny-iphone-romance

LifeHacker:

• http://lifehacker.com/5271608/open-stuck-jars-with-rubber-bands
• http://lifehacker.com/5271367/moviestinger-reveals-which-movies-have-scenes-after-the-credits
• http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://stadt-bremerhaven.de/2009/05/24/portable-google-chrome-2017230-beta/&ei=wnMdSuX_BoaaMtrdjMMF&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://stadt-bremerhaven.de/2009/05/24/portable-google-chrome-2017230-beta/%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1C1GGLS_enUS326US326%26tbo%3D1 (translated)
• http://lifehacker.com/5271185/showrss-automates-your-tv-show-downloads

Tweeted:

• http://www.windowtabs.com/ - Tab all your windows
• http://blogs.msdn.com/officeliveguy/archive/2009/05/06/multimap-add-in-for-outlook.aspx - Download here: http://explore.multimap.com/Toolbox/toolsSpecific_outlookaddin.aspx

Misc:

• http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2009/05/announcing-google-maps-api-v3.html
• http://tweetreach.com/

LifeHacker's Latest...

Mmmmm....

• http://lifehacker.com/5270199/all+glass-firefox-enables-slick-transparency-effects
• http://lifehacker.com/5268060/70-wallpapers-to-dress-up-your-dual-monitors
• http://lifehacker.com/5267508/this-weeks-top-downloads
• http://lifehacker.com/5262009/geek-chart-graphs-turns-web-activity-into-a-pie-chart
• http://lifehacker.com/5232556/get-public-data-graphs-from-google-searches
• http://lifehacker.com/5114997/best-places-to-find-multi+monitor-wallpaper

And some awesome wallpapers for wide screens...

• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/12/10/50-most-amazing-dual-screen-desktop-wallpapers/

Taking Ownership? What Is That Exactly?

When Would You Use GUIDs As Primary Keys?

Here's a question which I'm sure comes up in the odd interview or developer water cooler debate:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/897083/when-would-you-use-guids-as-primary-keys

There's many answers, but the quick win is: "When using a de-centralised database."

One Post To Bind Them All: Security, Antivirus And Firewalls

Thought I would create a single post for keeping a log of all security 'best-of' links, (hopefully) updating and bringing it to the top when necessary...

First, lists:

• Security: http://lifehacker.com/tag/security/ http://gizmodo.com/tag/security/
• Anti-virus: http://lifehacker.com/tag/antivirus/ http://gizmodo.com/tag/antivirus/
• Firewall: http://lifehacker.com/tag/firewall/ http://gizmodo.com/tag/firewall/
• Malware: http://lifehacker.com/tag/malware/ http://gizmodo.com/tag/malware/

Next, articles:

• Top 5 anti-virus: http://lifehacker.com/395046/five-best-antivirus-applications
• Top 5 anti-malware: http://lifehacker.com/5227896/five-best-malware-removal-tools
• Panda-virus always updated: http://lifehacker.com/5234347/panda-cloud-antivirus-is-a-lightweight-always+updated-virus-killer
• How to remove troublesome security software: http://lifehacker.com/5233268/appremover-removes-stubborn-security-applications

Blog entries and expert advice articles:

• Simon Edwards security expert and journalist: http://simonedwards.blogspot.com/

Finally, direct downloads:

• PeerGuardian dodgy IP blocker: http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/
• Spybot Search & Destory anti-spyware: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
• McAfee virus stinger for directed, hot-spot viruses: http://vil.nai.com/VIL/stinger/

Commercial anti-virus applications, most with free, online utilities:

• Sophos: http://www.sophos.com/
• Kaskersky: http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/ Online scanner: http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/virusscanner

If you have other links/advice, please leave comments...

LifeHacker, Stuff You Didn't Know And Links

The latest from LifeHacker - VLC changes you probably didn't know about and how to stay safe from Google:

• http://lifehacker.com/5261934/break-googles-monopoly-on-your-data-switch-to-yahoo-search
• http://lifehacker.com/5262604/kantaris-remixes-vlc-media-player-with-new-looks-and-features
• http://lifehacker.com/338074/gussy-up-vlc-with-winamp-classic-skins

And the updated front end for VLC:

• http://www.kantaris.org/?page_id=17

Some real thought provoking paranoia about Google up there.

And to round off, a note for email marketers, by an email marketer:

• http://minethatdata.blogspot.com/2009/05/open-letter-to-e-mail-marketers.html

Scared? RTFM! Be Informed And Don't Kill!

People should be more informed. That might be easy to say in an information age when there is too much information (or "info"; go figure) to cope with (see the existence of Twitter as proof of information curbing) sensibly. Reading articles is, believe it or not, the better way to stay informed simply because glib and media hungry headlines are the quick start for selling papers and page hits.

If you don't believe me, check out Cracked's latest: http://www.cracked.com/blog/dont-listen-to-jenny-mccarthy

I completely agree with the article. If the media were to treat their content with respect they would title appropriately - and don't tell me that a good title is hard to generate from any story. If CNN and FOX can broadcast the thinly veiled rubbish they headline as even news-worthy (see just about any Hate By Numbers on Cracked.com for evidence.

Explorer Improvements

• http://lifehacker.com/tag/file-explorer/
• http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/replace-windows-explorer-with-xplorer2-258730.php
• http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1CHMB_en-GBGB316GB316&q=explorer+replacement+enhancement+lifehacker&btnG=Search&meta=
• http://gizmodo.com/5177016/microsoft-basically-admits-that-ie8-is-for-porn?autoplay
• http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/replace-windows-explorer-with-xplorer2-258730.php
• http://lifehacker.com/400536/explorer%252B%252B-improves-on-windows-explorer