Erik Persson Photography

Posts Tagged ‘Software’

Mac Tip: Add The Date To The OSX Menu Bar Without Installing Additional Software

I was surfing around and finally found out how to add the date to the OSX menu bar without installing additional software!

The tip says you need to use the medium category, but only the Long category for Times worked for me. This may be due to a difference between 10.5 and 10.4.

The following tip

Want to see the date in the menubar? Start by opening the International Preferences panel, and clicking the Formats tab.

In the Dates section, click Customize. Click the Show pop-up and select your choice of Short, Medium, etc. Now place the elements you want in the small “work area,” by dragging and dropping them from the Date Elements section. Once placed, you can click on some elements to see other options (Wednesday or Wed, for instance). Once you’ve built the date string you want, click once in the work area, and hit Command-A then Command-C to select the string and copy it. Now click Cancel to close the window without making any changes.

In the Times section, click Customize, and set the Show pop-up to Medium. In the small work area below the pop-up, place the curser where you want the date elements to start, and click to position the cursor. Now hit Command-V to paste the elements you just copied. You can further add characters and spaces to customize the look. If you want to remove an element (i.e. the year), click on it and use the Delete key. Click OK, and you’ll see the results in the menubar.

MacOSXHints

Since a picture is worth a thousand words here is how I have Time Long set

Hidden Functions in Microsoft Notepad!

You know Notepad? The basic text editor that has been part of Windows since 1.0
Turns out it has some hidden functionality!

Journal Functionality

Open Notepade

Type “.LOG” without the quotes then hit enter.

Now save the document.

Close the document.

Reopen the document.

Pretty cool, no? Now everytime you open the document it will put a timestamp at the end.
You can also put down a new time stamp by pressing F5.

Dell’s New Features Part Deux

Buckling under pressure Dell has partially given in to complaints by users. They are now offering their XPS line of computers with no bloatware and spyware installed. However Dell’s other line’s of consumer products appear to still be compromised.
Via HardOCP

Exciting New Features From Dell (Non-Snarky Edition)

If you’d like to read a satirical and much more amusing account of this post click here otherwise read on
Recently I discovered that Dell Computer ships all new computers with a spyware package known as “My Way”.

“My Way” logs all your search queries, records where you go on the internet, and redirects merchant sites like amazon to a “My Way” sponsored site like bobswharehouse.

“My Way” is also difficult to uninstall/remove. The program does not unistall automatially, but requires delving into the innards of your Operating System in a time consuming process.

I cannot recommend purchasing a Dell for your computer needs.

Sources

The Accusation
Dell’s Response
Wikipedia article on the Spyware “My Way”

Exciting New Features From Dell Computer!

Do you sometimes look at your computer and think, ” I wish I had a program that would would monitor where I go and report back to a third party! And when I mean to type in a site it would redirect me to their search engine. But I just don’t have the time to go download it on some shady part of the internet!”
Well Great News! Dell Computer does this for you absolutely free! Not only do they sell you subpar hardware, they hoe you out to anyone who’s willing to pay them!
What’s that? Thats not what you want on your new computer? Well if you slip them fifty bucks they can remove it for you.

The Accusation
Dell’s Response
Wikipedia article on the Spyware “My Way”

Obviously you can just reinstall the operating system yourself, but that defeats the point of buying a prebuilt computer in the first place. It’s also outside the technical scope of most home users.

Get Mono!

Mono

Great little video game. Plays like asteroids and making a tye dye shirt while listening to techno. You need to play it to understand.

How to Text-Message a cellphone via Email

Verizon: 10digitphonenumber@vtext.com
Former AT&T customers: 10digitphonenumber@mmode.com
Sprint: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@tmomail.net
Nextel: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.nextel.com
Cingular: 10digitphonenumber@cingularme.com
Virgin Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@vmobl.com
Alltel: 10digitphonenumber@alltelmessage.com OR
10digitphonenumber@message.alltel.com
CellularOne: 10digitphonenumber@mobile.celloneusa.com
Omnipoint: 10digitphonenumber@omnipointpcs.com
Qwest: 10digitphonenumber@qwestmp.com

Useful, no? You can also send a text message via google

Last.FM

Last.Fm

Pretty cool service. Watches what you play then recommends new stuff to listen to. Has a web radio service that plays songs for you. All free at the moment. Recommended new stuff that I liked.