Search for a word that is at the tip of your tongue

How often have you realized that there is a word that is at the tip of your tongue, but just isn't coming out? While similar to writers block, this can be just as deleterious. But fear not, there is an online web app that can now help you find the word that you are searching for.

Instead of having searching the word database like you would in a conventional dictionary, you can now search on on other factors like "Sounds like", "word meaning" and the letters the word contains. The app is called Tip of My Tongue, and I guarantee you that if you are a blogger or a writer, you'll be using this online web program more than once.

Of course, it's not perfect yet, but it's just a matter of time before it becomes more robust, or a web engine like Google picks up the idea. Typing in say 'eek' and using the sounds like box to refine the search actually yields several results, even those that are distant from the pronunciation of the word 'gawk', and to narrow it down, you'll have to give the app more input.

The app uses several online dictionaries, mostly wordnet apparently, and a host of other websites. However, in my brief inspection of the site, I've noticed that some words, especially those associated with idioms and containing other meanings are not present when you use the 'Word Meaning' feature, and the results from the letters features can be quite overwhelming. Nevertheless, while the app is no substitute for a proper dictionary or a thesaurus, it will sure help you find the word that you already know and is on the tip of your tongue.

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Use Problem Recorder to Write Tutorials For Windows 7

Windows 7 has a great new feature called ‘Problem Steps Recorder’. It’s main purpose was, of course, to record the steps taken by the user to reproduce the problem so that someone else could see what the user is doing and help them out, especially through the get help from a friend feature.

However, another use for the feature is that one can use the ‘Record Steps to Reproduce a problem’ feature to record steps to make a tutorial! This is because what windows essentially does is makes note of everything the user clicks on as well as takes a screenshot of the desktop and places it in the HTML file as shown below. So it is somewhat better than a plain text tutorial and almost as good as a screencast.

So, all you need to do is replace the words ‘Problem’ in the file with a blank (a simple Find and Replace in the HTML should take care of that) and get rid of the timestamp and additional information that the problem recorder tool adds. Plus, if you have multiple desktops, you’re probably going to want to turn off the extended desktop, or else Windows will take a screenshot of that too like it did on my desktop.

To start using problem recorder simply search in the start menu for ‘Record steps to’ and you should see an entry to open problem recorder. Alternatively, you can also search for Problem Recorder/Problem Steps Recorder and click on the ‘Record steps to reproduce a problem’ when it opens.

Finally, just click Start Recording to start recording all the steps and the screenshots.

I can’t wait to use this new feature to record the steps to extremely cool (or at least I”m hoping I can do something extremely cool in Windows 7) things in Windows 7!

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Windows 7: Get Help From a Friend Feature

If there is one feature in Windows 7 that makes me scared, the ‘Get Help From a Friend’ feature would probably be it. In fact, this feature, so prominently displayed in the Control Panel should scare every techie and semi-techie (if there is such a thing). Imagine the frantic calls you’ll get from someone who doesn’t have a clue about what they are doing… who expect you to use this feature to save their computer. I can only say that the future does not look so bright if Windows 7 starts throwing a tantrum.

Worst case scenarios aside, I actually see a tool that might just help all those who don’t understand what is happening to their computers. I can already see several demographics, especially the baby boomers using this tool to call their grandchildren (and dare I say great grand children) for help.

How to use Get Help from a Friend Feature

To access this tool, however, you’ll first have to go to Start (a.k.a. Orb) > Control Panel > Troubleshooting > Additional Information. At least, this takes out the possibility of those who don’t know how to use the control panel to contact you for help. However, if they do, or just call you for help, you can be sure to direct them to this feature. Just tell them to Open Control Panel and search for Get Help from a Friend. Then click on ‘Invite someone to help you’ and choose from one of the three options that most techies prefer – e-mail, e-mail or ‘Easy Connect’.

Then, through the wonders of Remote Desktop and the Interwebs, you can easily fix their computer, provided you know what you are doing.

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Readable - A web app that makes it easier for you to read webpages

Let's face it... Although we've come a long way from the first webpage on the internet the most used method of communication on the web is text. Yes, we have videos, images and other interesting content (ex: ytmnd) out there on the interwebs, but just like I'm communication with you right now, text is essential.

So, what do you do when you can' t read the text clearly because there is a picture of a jumping rhino on the background that doesn't provide contrast or the web designer though it was cool to have a really small 7px font size?

Or to be more true to life, let's say you stumble onto a website like CNN that's littered with ads all over the place, and it makes it really hard for you to find your content. What do you do then? Until now, you'd either have to download it to tweak the html or use a text only browser to view only the text and get rid of everything else.

However, now there is a cooler web app in town called Readable that is going to be your best friend. It uses javascript to extract the text out of a page, and display it in an overlay that you can customize to your liking. For example, all you can make the size of the text bigger, have a grey background with black text, and get rid of annoying ads on web pages. Take a look at how a post in beyond teck displays:

Plus, all you have to do is click a bookmarklet in your bookmarks toolbar, and Readable will do the rest. If it has problems finding the text on the webpage, it'll ask you to click on the text, and then take care of the rest.

Here's a little demo from the creator of the app:

So if you tend to use the internet a lot, especially to read news and other blogs, Readable might soon become your best friend.

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Make opening new windows and tabs in Safari faster

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the fact that opening new tabs and windows in Safari takes way longer that it used to? Especially when you are running a lot of other applications on your mac, or are using battery power? I for one think that Safari is not the fastest browser, to open or to use anymore, and sometimes FireFox even seems faster than it. I remember using the older version of Safari (version 3) and remarking how fast it opened on a Mac compared to Firefox. However, the newer version just seems a whole lot slower.

I think I have stumbled upon the main culprit – Top Sites. It seems as though Apple has tried to imitate the look and feel of Google Chrome and/or Opera. In fact, the beta versions of Safari 4 reminded me of Google Chrome, given the tabs at the top and the top sites feature that popped up when you opened a new window. Unfortunately, in imitating the most visited websites (or as Opera calls it... Speed dial) Apple has slowed down the speed of Safari. Of course, copying ideas is always good, because that means more competition. However, Apple has sacrificed speed for aesthetics, and turned the browser into a resource hog with its almost useless zooming effects and reflections. What I do find cool is the coverflow history pane. Now that is something beautiful and efficient.

However, luckily, there is a way to get rid of the beach ball of death that comes up whenever you open a new window or tab... disable Top Sites. I for one have found that Safari's speed has improved tenfold, and opening a million new tabs doesn't slow it down anymore. Of course, if you don't feel like disabling Top Sites has caused an improvement in speed, you can always switch it back. What I plan to do, as soon as I get some more time is to create a HTML page which you can use as the 'top sites' features. However, you'll have to pick and choose your 15 - 20 sites before hand and hard code it into the html. Nevertheless, that way you can have the top sites feature, and make sure that you wont be getting the spinning rainbow coloured ball as your cursor.

How to disable Top Sites in Safari for new windows and new tabs

Thankfully, disabling this feature is really simple.

1. Open Safari and Click on Safari in the menubar
2. Then click on Preferences...
3. Under the General tab, change 'New windows open with:' to Empty Pages using the drop down menu and do the same for 'New tabs open with:'
4. Close the Preferences window
   

That's all there is to it. Plus, if you still want to use top sites,you can! All you need to do is click on the top sites button in the bookmark toolbar (shown below in the red box with the arrow pointing to it), and top sites will open up in the current tab.

Now Safari should run faster and you'll still be able to use top sites!

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Useful key combinations to use Gmail on the Web

Turns out, merely muting a conversation in Gmail isn't the only thing you can by pressing keyboard keys in Gmail. There's a whole list of other things that you can do. If you're like me and use a bazillion operating systems, you'll find using a e-mail client a bit cumbersome. Although I still use it because I don't have to check my bazillion accounts every minute or so. Nevertheless, the preferred way for me, still, is using a simple web interface to write my e-mails.

So without further ado here are some shortcuts you can use to navigate through g-mail. I've also created a printable list so you can print it out, and stick it next to your computer, or you can write it on a sticky and keep it around as a reference.

First though, make sure you have Keyboard Shortcuts enabled in Gmail. To do this, go to Settings > Under General tab you can set keyboard shortcuts to be turned on. Beware however, if you accidently press a key, you might trigger the function of the shortcut and accidentally mute an important conversation.

List of basic Gmail Shortcuts and their functions (or rather symptoms, if you accidentally pressed the shortcut)

(Source: Stolen from Google's Documentation and improved to suit my needs, visit documentation for full list).
To save this shortcut list (it's a png file) onto your computer simply right click and save as. Also, feel free to hotlink to it. I think the simpler version is going to encourage me to use the keys more...

Gmail Shortcut Cheatsheet

To download the shortcut cheat sheet, head on over to Evan William's Website, and download the cheat sheet. Here a hotlink to the cheat-sheet, on which you can right click and click Save As.. or Save Link As.. etc.

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Muting and unmuting emails (conversations) in Gmail

I was browsing through my gmail archives and I came across an e-mail that had "muted" written beside it to the left of the subject line. Unbeknownst to me I had accidentally muted the e-mails chain (called a conversation by Google, since it involved sending e-mails back and forth, kinda like instant messaging with e-mail) so every subsequent message that was sent to me directly went to my archive without even showing up in my e-mail inbox on Evolution

Yes, I know, I'm using Evolution on Ubuntu for now. However I'll most likely be switching to something more robust like Thunderbird soon, but evolution seems to fit the bill quite nicely for now. But I digress. Luckily, the conversation was unimportant, and it was kinda good that it actually went unnoticed, since it would have just been an extra boring e-mail for me to read anyway.

Turns, out, that you can mute a conversation just by pressing a key combination and then to unmute it you have to click a button. Weird. Anyway, if someone else is wondering why an e-mail they were supposed to receive is not in their e-mail client's inbox... check if you accidentally muted the conversation from Gmail's web interface.

How to check for muted e-mail in Gmail

Luckily, checking for muted e-mail is easy. Just search for is:muted using gmail's search box and gmail will show all the conversations that are muted.

How to unmute muted conversations in Gmail

To unmute conversations, you must open up the muted gmail conversation first, and then move the conversation back to your inbox. Doing so, for now, seems to be the only way to unmute a gmail conversation.

How to mute a gmail conversation

This is the part I dont like (sorta) because it makes it really easy for anyone to accidentally press the combination that is going to mute the conversation. How do you mute it? Press the M key, and the conversation will be automatically muted. Although Gmail will give you a message that the conversation was muted in its classic yellow "information" bar above the message area, I'm sure most people wont understand what just happened (including me!). I fear this might become a problem like the Firefox cursor blinking continuously, except the symptoms will be far less noticeable.

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