NeutralAxis

There’s a glitch in RocketDock that only shows itself in Windows 7 where stack docklets lose their settings when the computer is restarted.  The problem is related to Win7 security and is easily fixed.  Here’s how. (continue reading…)

I took the plunge and updated to Thunderbird 3  now that the Lightning Calendar (1.0b1) has been updated to work with it.  There are a few differences, both positive and negative, in the change. (continue reading…)

If you don’t want to depend on an external short URL service like bit.ly or tinyurl.com and you have access to your MySQL database, you can install and run your own with YOURLS.  I managed to get it up and running in about an hour in Linux.  The instructions at yourls.org mentions that an installation alongside Wordpress is a bit different than the one described for a standard site.  I found that to be true, and have described what I found worked after the break. (continue reading…)

LogMeIn Express is a simpler version of LogMeIn’s popular remote desktop software for Windows, which requires no prior installation to work.  If you’re the one in your family who provides tech support to the rest, keep this one in mind.  LogMeIn’s standard product requires the person who wants to share their computer to install a program that runs at startup and sits in the system tray near the time.  This new tool doesn’t require that installation and is started from the LogMeIn Express website.  Being the time of year when families are getting together for the holidays, this is a good tool to bring to their attention. (continue reading…)

Lifehacker has posted their 61 Free Apps We’re Most Thankful For. (continue reading…)

Dropbox, previously written about here, has a limitation that you can only have one account at a time.  But a workaround has been developed that lets you have as many open accounts as you want.

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XBMC, the media center program originally designed to run on the original Xbox video game system, has been running on an old Xbox of mine for the last year or so.  I find myself not using it as much as I’d like though because the machine’s a bit noisy and big to hide around the TV.  Other drawbacks are that it doesn’t allow for HD video, and downloading updates for it practically require a meeting in a dark alley and knowing the secret handshake.

A new article at Lifehacker.com has detailed how to install XBMC on a tiny, silent, Acer AspireRevo with HDMI output.  And given that its for a computer rather than a proprietary video game system, updates are readily available.  I gave it a try on my existing desktop computer with XBMC Live.

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Have you ever wanted to experiment with a different OS but were afraid to make the commitment?  Virtualization software is your answer.  Its easy, and free.  With it, you can install any OS (except MacOS) inside a working copy of any other OS.  (continue reading…)

A lagging Firefox plug-in that hadn’t been updated for Firefox 3.5 yet has been keeping me from going ahead with the upgrade, but today the plugin was ready so I let the upgrade proceed.  It wasn’t painless though.  Ordinarily Firefox updates are dead simple, but this one took a little effort to get working again. (continue reading…)

Its never too late to learn something new.  I’ve used AutoCAD professionally since the early 1990s and just today learned how to take advantage of a bug, or perhaps it would be more accurate to simply call it a limitation, that has helped to save me from some tedious work. (continue reading…)