Auto System Log Manager

We all know how our bosses keep on asking us to log our activities for the day. There are days when you are so occupied with activities that logging our activities itself becomes a huge over-head. Plus, we do feel at the back of our mind that our precious time is getting wasted in doing something which is undoubtedly good, but if only we had someone to log our activities!

Well, if not every activity of ours, atleast there should be a way to auto-log the activities which we do on system, right? Atleast some things which are very generic in nature. Fascinated I am to have found one such app on this website. This person is amazing, gets one (new) app a day and they are all simple ones. One of them is this Time Management app. One can download the app and also the Source Code!!! So that way one can customize it to their needs. What it does? From the website,

Time Management allows you to keep track of what you are doing on your PC. I plan on using it to help me fill out my timesheet at the office. The application resides in the systray, and writes to a CSV file each time you switch applications, or the title bar of the current app changes.

File format:
[date],[time],[process name],[window title],[duration used]

Find the total list of Apps Download page here.

I am sure, many of us would like it. Currently, using it on my system. I am damn impressed! :) Thanks Dana.

IEAK

We needed an option to customize IE on over 160 systems in our institution which has standard settings, to let our applications run. Everytime a system crashes, we re-install WinXP and we have to manually change settings to achieve its compatibility with our application. This becomes tedious as we grow by years, still doing the same stuff.

Thanks to Channa, IEAK - Internet Explorer Administration Kit made its appearance and now we dont struggle manually making custom settings changes in IE.

• Firstly, download the package from this site depending on whether you want to deploy on IE6 or IE7 or IE8. We downloaded for IE6 (soon we will for IE7 too!)
  
• Once downloaded, install it.
• Go to Internet Explorer Customization Wizard from All Program. It is here that all the settings are changed and profiles are created. Only place where one can get stuck in the process is at Automatic Version Synchronization (AVS) where it shows the current version of IE on system and asks for updating it through Internet. We will need Internet Connection only during this time of the configuration. It stores these downloaded files in \IEAK-Program-Folder\IEAK6\Downloads\EN\
• Once, all the components are up-to-date, then one can proceed step-by-step and customize the standard values which one wants on each system in the organization.
• In the end, it creates the profile build in the Build folder of the IEAK Program Folder. One has to click on the IE Setup file in the FLAT folder of this Build folder on the client system. On this, it will restart the client system and while startup, it customizes the IE settings.

Quite useful.

Google Contacts

This thought had been there for quite a while that there should be a Birthday field in GContacts. And when we enter it, it should automatically create an event in GCal [or give a choice whether we want to create or not] with Recurring type, Repeating Annually and stuff like that. Who doesnt have! Even a simple 14 field contacts manager in a Sony Ericsson mobile phone has it [including setting a custom ringtone for each user! :)] which at the end of adding a birthday prompts whether we want to add reminder to the calendar. This reminder in SE automatically reminds every year!

Well, GContacts has come out as a separate service from Google. It does contain the Birthday field, an Anniversary too, plus Other option [good news! :)]. Though integration with GCal is yet a feature to look at [bad news:(]. Now, one can maintain quite good amount of data here. It is better managed than Gmail Contacts. Though some fields here are duplicated from GProfile. The service is available even in GApps [after admin enables it. Steps given here].

Hoping a day comes when we will have to enter our information only once, and it will get reflected in all possible places.

HTML Signatures in Gmail

Now one can create HTML signatures in Gmail and insert them using a Greasemonkey script: User Script 


In Gmail, it creates a box (shown aside) where one can create a signature.





Firefox Add-on: Black Canvas Gmail Signatures

In their own words,
Automatically inserts HTML signatures into your Gmail messages based on which address you are sending from. Supports up to four signatures for each address you have set up. Works for Compose Message and Reply/Forward.

YM Emoticarolers & Power User

How much ever Google has captured the market in Search, Mail, OnlineDocs, they could never reach Yahoo Messenger in terms of the features, functionalities and grace of emoticons. GTalk could, to some extent, improve one's voice experience, but otherwise, enough are there who still prefer Yahoo Messenger when it comes to standalone client application. Integration of Chat into Gmail is a separate run-away success of Google.

Yahoo Messenger has got this concept of Power Users who, they say, will be identified depending on the end-users use of YM. More the use, sooner they will be crowned as 'Power User'. The link mentions other benefits like earlier use of new features, exclusive online indicators, enhanced customer care, custom avtaar accessories, etc. Once a Power User (or even otherwise), one can join the Messenger All-Stars group to be up-to-date with the latest in YM.

PingBox: We all know about adding GTalk badge to our websites, blogs. Now even YM gives that option. They call it Pingbox. Not bad.

Emoticarolers: Now this is interesting. With the classy yahoo emoticons (which go on improving with added age), one can send a jingle, carol to their friends!!! The look, feel is awesome. One can add their custom lyrics to the chosen tunes, currently only four. Worth a try and definitely a good way to wish :)

Gears in full winamped gears

Continuing with its trends, Google has integrated Gears into Gmail. A much expected step with Gmail being their crown service, gears had to come in soon. This thought of existence to ease our work did pass the mind while trying out Gears on GDocs and GReader.

Winamp 5.541:
Tried this new version of Winamp, and its a lot impressive. Its no more a cylinder holding our playlists, its grown massively to hold a lot under the sun. It includes, SHOUTcast, Radio FM, AOL radio, AOL music, impressive Winamp Remote, etc. etc. (complete list of features). One can upload their favourite playlists, songs online and listen to them through Winamp from anywhere in the world. It has got its own toolbar which can be installed in the browser. The personalized data is stored against a free login ID and a password. Worth a try (download from here).

Spreeder

Wanna learn to read fast and quick? Here is the site which can help one in this endeavor:

http://www.spreeder.com/

One can decide what is the speed at which the reader can be made to read words, like 300wpm, etc. Plus, how many words should appear at a time, one or two. There are a few more basic settings which might be handy.

UnChrome

All of us have heard about this and this is one of the reasons why Chrome is not popularly used by many - it does not guarantee anonymity. It is known that Chrome collects lot of information from the user system and stores it. But now with the use of a software called UnChrome, this can be avoided. Apparently, Google Chrome identifies its users by their IDs. This is a unique ID generated with every installation of Google Chrome.  UnChrome 'Nulls' this value, effectively removing this link. It has to be used only once. Steps are as below:

 

1. First, click here to download UnChrome (make sure Google Chrome is closed first).

2. Next, click Run (Internet Explorer) or click Save File and run the application by double clicking on it (Firefox).

3. This screen will then pop up:

4. Click Remove Unique ID Now and then click OK to confirm you’ve already closed out the Chrome browser.

5. Success! The screen will then change to look like this:

ID3 Tags

As my new system is getting ready for heavy burdening of the space it professes to bear, be it visuals or audio files, there was a need for classification of songs into their respective genres for easier retrieval. This lead to study on ID3 tags, finally.

What are ID3 tags?
ID3 stands for 'IDentify an MP3'. It is associated with MP3 format files to add 'textual / graphical' information. It contains metadata like name of the artist, track title, album, lyrics, year, track number and genre in the file, allowing that information to travel with the file. Here is the official Home page of ID3.

When it first came out, ID3v1, it had multiple limitations, few being, appearance of this data (tags) only at the end of the song, having 128-byte fixed size. Owing to these, there was an immediate need to come out with ID3v2 which became popular, and also was more useful.

Windows gives an option to edit these tags, but it is restricted. It allows certain fields sometimes, and many times not. So, there was a need for exclusive software to help in this front.

If any of you are thinking of adding up 'metadata' to your song's list, which goes into GBs then there are softwares that are available for simultaneous editing of multiple mp3 files. A few listed below:

STamp ID3-Tag Editor
ID3-TagIT

p.s: For all those who are interested in knowing some jargons in the field of audio editing, here is a short glossary.

GAndroid & 3d Desktop

Google Android

A detailed review on Google Android is given here, by an avid iPhone user. His comments sound very honest and unpartial. A very informative read.

3D Desktop

Now this is something which will get one on toes - 3D Desktop, with features to literally stick, hang the sticky notes on walls!!! Bump-top is the name. Its currently only on invitation basis, worth listing our name for a copy. An article here.

Reverse Phone Engineering

Ever wondered, if you could find details like name and address of mobile phone owners by just knowing their mobile number? This is called Reverse Phone number and there are sites which provide these details. This is prevalent and currently present only in the west. Though it is not specified anywhere, it is surely not available for Indian mobile phone users.

Sites:
White Pages
Reverse Phone Detective
Home Detective

Portable Apps

All Portable Apps at this site: http://portableapps.com/
List of Apps: http://portableapps.com/apps

The list goes something like this :)

Applications

Accessibility

• Firefox Accessibility Extension - Make Firefox more accessible
• On-Screen Keyboard Portable - Easily access an on-screen keyboard
• Virtual Magnifying Glass Portable - A full-featured screen magnifier

Development

• Notepad++ Portable - A full-featured text editor with syntax highlighting
• Nvu Portable & KompoZer Portable - The easy-to-use Nvu web editor
• XAMPP - Apache, mySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin, etc in one package

Education

• Stellarium Portable - portable planetarium

Games

• DOSBox Portable - classic DOS games to go
• Jooleem Portable - simple and addictive puzzle game with great music and visuals
• LBreakout2 Portable - breakout-style arcade game similar to Arkanoid
• Mines-Perfect Portable - a classic hunt-for-mines game with advanced features
• PokerTH Portable - classic Texas Hold Em style poker at its best
• Sudoku Portable - the wildly popular and addictive puzzle game

Graphics & Pictures

• GIMP Portable - Photo and Image Editor

Internet

• FileZilla Portable - the full-featured FTP client
• FireFTP Extension (for Firefox) - a lightweight extension
• Miranda IM Portable - chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in a customizable interface
• Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition - the award-winning web browser that's safe and secure
• Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition - the handy email client
• Nvu Portable & KompoZer Portable - the easy-to-use webpage editor
• Pidgin Portable - chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in an easy-to-use interface
• PuTTY Portable - lightweight telnet and SSH client
• Sage Extension (for Firefox) - A full-featured RSS extension
• WinSCP Portable - SFTP, FTP and SCP client

Music & Video

• Audacity Portable - A simple audio editor and recorder
• BonkEnc Portable - extract, convert, and encode audio
• CoolPlayer+ Portable - Lightweight, fast, easy-to-use audio player
• MPlayer Portable - Full-featured movie player with support for most video formats
• VirtualDub Portable - video processing and capture utility
• VLC Media Player Portable - An easy to use media player that plays most audio and video formats

Office

• AbiWord Portable - a lightweight word processor compatible with Microsoft Word files
• GnuCash Portable - accounting, expenses and financial management
• Lightning Extension (for Thunderbird) - A lightweight extension for your calendar and tasks
• Mozilla Sunbird, Portable Edition - Calendar and task management with a familiar interface
• Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition (Address Book) - Email client's built-in address book with import/export functions
• OpenOffice.org Portable - word processor, spreadsheet, presentations with Microsoft compatibility
• PDFTK Builder Portable - split, collate, watermark and password protect PDF documents
• PNotes Portable - stick notes to go
• Sumatra PDF Portable - a lightweight PDF viewer
• Task Coach Portable - to do list and task manager

Operating Systems

• Mac-on-Stick - Run Mac OS Classic 7 portably

Utilities

• 7-Zip Portable - File archiver and compressor
• ClamWin Portable - Antivirus on the go
• Command Prompt Portable - Simple link to a customizable command prompt
• Eraser Portable - securely delete files and data
• InfraRecorder Portable - full-featured CD and DVD burner
• JkDefrag Portable - Disk defragmentation and optimization
• KeePass Password Safe Portable - Secure, easy-to-use password manager
• PeaZip Portable - Easy to use file archiver and compressor
• PortableApps.com Backup - integrated backup utility bundled with the platform
• PortableApps.com Menu - integrated start menu bundled with the platform
• Toucan - backup, sync and encrypt for advanced users
• WinDirStat Portable - disk usage analyzer and cleanup tool
• winMd5Sum Portable - check md5 sums to verify files on the go
• WinMerge Portable - file comparison and merging