Archive for June 1st, 2007
Supercharge Google Calendar
Google Calendar is definitely one of the coolest online calendars and task-management applications. It has everything an average user may wish for: speed, non-cluttered design and lots of useful and never failing features, i.e. calendar sharing, quick event entry, follow-up reminders (SMS/email), RSS feeds, etc. In addition to it?s standard feature set, there are hundreds of a user-created browser addons (mainly firefox) and problem-specific tips making it even better and more flexible productivity tool. Below, I have listed some of the better ones, if you?re Google Calendar user (or thinking of becoming one) than check them out.
FIREFOX (Addons and Greasemonkey Scripts)
(1) Better GCal – extremely handy extension that integrates bunch of must-have features into your Google Calendar. These are: (1) ?To-Do? box, (2) current time, (3) option to quickly hide Header/Sidebar menus, and (4) auto-connect via ?secure connection? (see screenshot below nr.2)
(2) Extra Tabs (Greasemonkey) – replaces ?standard? date range tabs with any number of customized tabs. Leaving it on default setting keeps existing tabs untouched and adds ?Next 3 Days?, ?Next 2 Weeks?, and ?Next 3 Weeks? view tabs. (see screenshot below)
(3) Google Calendar Integration (Greasemonkey) – integrates Google Calendar agenda into Gmail. See demo [More Gmail Tools]
(4) Forecast (Greasemonkey) – adds a small, draggable and expandable ?Forecast? box to your browser that shows next seven events from your Google calendar. (To get it running, you?ll need to provide it with your calendar?s XML feed, which can be accessed via ?Settings->Calendars->select desired calendar->Private Address: XML?)
(5) GCalQuickTab – switch between Gmail and Google Calendar using keyboard shortcuts: ?g? for Gmail and ?i? for Calendar.
(6) Some more?
- Notifier – notifies you of upcoming events for ?today? and ?tomorrow?. [Screenshots]
- Colorize Sat/Sun (Greasemonkey/Opera) – colorizes ?Saturday? and ?Sunday? columns [Screenshots]
- Quick Add – add events to your calendar without going to Google Calendar page. (only Firefox: 1.5.0.*)
- Facebook to GCal (Greasemonkey) – add Facebook events to your Google Calendar.
- Quick Import (Greasemonkey) – provides quick access to otherwise deeply buried import to ICS/iCal page.
- Compact Header (Greasemonkey/Opera) – compacts GCal?s header by removing unnecessary stuff. [Screenshots]
- Optimized (Greasemonkey/Opera) – removes logo, makes font-sizes smaller and adjusts paddings and margins.
GOOGLE CALENDAR HowTo?s
- How To subscribe to a Google Calendar using iCal
- How To sync Google Calendar with Treo using Mac
- How To sync Thunderbird With Google Calendar
- How To add Google calendars to Google Maps
- How To integrate Google Calendar to your website using AJAX
- How To sync Google Calendar with Outlook
- How To set Google Calendar as your Desktop?s wallpaper
- How To do Enterprise Monitoring With Google Calendar
- How To ?Get Things Done? with Google Calendar
- Google Calendar SMS Tricks
Technorati tags: Google Calendar, GTD
Massive List of ‘HowTo’ Sites + ‘HowTo’ Search Engine
?HowTo?s are excellent problems solvers: they provide quick, easy-to-follow and non-overwhelming solutions to one or another problem that pop-up during daily routines. People love them, especially when they?re free, regardless whether it?s a step-by-step guide or a couple of minutes long video.
VideoJug – Lets you downloaded videos directly to your iPod.
NewBaby [Parenting / Newborn ?. and everything related to babies]
TeacherTube [guides for education courses for Math, Literature and etc.]
Helpero [Computers / Networking / Mobile / Games / Internet]
Work [everything related to Entrepreneurs and Small-Business owners]
ShowMeDo [Computing / Internet / Python / java /Linux/ Ruby /Blender / Graphics / Screencasting]
Video-Tabs [Guitar] – over 200 video HowTo?s
Google Coop – ?HowTo & DIY? Search: This custom Google-powered search engine will search on all of the above mentioned ?HowTo? sites, simultaneously. Works great…
Get Smart, Play Lumosity
Lumosity is a brain fitness program from Lumos Labs which is designed to improve cognitive function through a series of web-based games and exercises. In developing Lumosity, Lumos Labs worked closely with leading neuroscientists from Stanford and UCSF to design and experimentally test the program. In a randomized, controlled study, the exercises were shown to have statistically significant effects in improving memory and attention. Details of the research and methodology behind Lumosity can be viewed here.
Speed up file copying with TeraCopy
Free file-copying utility TeraCopy speeds up file transfers and can pause, resume and test file copy operations. With TeraCopy you can:
Copy files faster. TeraCopy uses dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times. Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives.
Pause and resume file transfers. Pause copy process at any time to free up system resources and continue with a single click.
Error recovery. In case of copy error, TeraCopy will try several times and in the worse case just skips the file, not terminating the entire transfer.
You can also use TeraCopy to diff the contents of two directories by running a “Test” copy, which shows you which files exist in the destination directory as compared to the source. If you’ve ever had Windows fail at the very last minute of a multi-gigabyte file copy, TeraCopy’s for you. TeraCopy is a free download for home use for Windows.
Photo2Text: Convert an image to text
Photo2Text.com Convert an image and process to a text file of the original image. There is also a Firefox extension available.
Upload Picasa pics to Flickr with Picasa2Flickr
Windows only: The Picasa2Flickr plugin adds a button to Picasa that lets you directly upload selected pictures to your Flickr account from the comfort of Picasa.
If you’re a Flickr die-hard who’s love for Picasa has turned your eyes to the Picasa Web Albums more than once, this little plugin adds the same simple one-click upload capability for Flickr. It’s currently not the prettiest implementation the world has ever seen, but it works like a charm. Picasa2Flickr is free, Windows only, requires Picasa and Java.
Picasa2Flickr [SourceForge]
Remove QuickTime from System Tray – Forever.
I dont know why Apple did this to us, but everytime you install something from Apple, Quicktime Player sneaks in and settles in the System Tray. Its mostly a harmless piece of software that does nothing…yes nothing at all but slows down Windows Startup process and annoys you by staring at you from the System Tray. How to remove it forever ?
- Start the Windows Task Manager, select the process that says qttask.exe and hit delete. This should kill the process.
- Next, open the Registry editor and search for the following entry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run - Delete this entry : QuickTime Task – “C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe” -atboottime
- Next, open the QuickTime installation folder inside Windows Explorer (C:\Program Files\QuickTime\), select the qttask.exe file and delete or rename it.
