QTTabBar

Tabs are a part of virtually every web browser made within the last year or two. So why has it taken so long for other software to adopt tabs? Many pieces of software have, but there is one notable exception on the windows platform, explorer. Windows explorer requires multiple windows to be open to perform lots of file manipulation easily, which causes lots of clutter on the desktop. This can all be avoided with QTTabBar.

QTTabBar is a program which resides right next to the set of menus beginning at File and ending with Help at the top of an explorer window(Note:This is hidden by default in windows vista, pressing alt will bring it up, but it must be manually configured in vista for QTTabBar to be visible).

Just dragging a folder to the bar adds it as a tab. Dragging folders and files on top of a tab will move them into that folder. QTTabBar replaces the standard nav bar in windows xp. There are several additional buttons that QTTabBar can add to your explorer window:

The buttons provide addition functionality such as:

Clone window

Filter Current Directory

New Window

Clone Window

Close Window

And a whole set of tools for closing specific tabs

QTTabBar doesn't seem to greatly increase the memory or cpu usage of explorer, and is available for download here.

Pocket Killbox

Users of vista know this situation all too well, you need to delete a file, be it a system file or just a random file from the internet, and vista tells you that you need permission to delete it, even after allowing it in the UAC prompt. Even if you make yourself the owner of the file, the issue may not go away. This is where Pocket Killbox comes in.

Just select the file to delete, select the method, and then select other options, ad hit the Red button with an X on it. The window can even extend to show running processes, allowing processes to be killed before deletion.

The Standard File Kill should work in most cases, but in extreme cases the Delete and Replace on Reboot may be necessary. It is only 90.5K, and is available here.

A Close Look at Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2

Internet explorer, the current most popular web browser, has for some time had some serious flaws. It does not support addons in the way that firefox and opera do. It does not support more than two simultaneous downloads. It only recently added tab support, and even that could do with a bit of fixing from a UI point of view. It also is, by many benchmarks, the fourth fastest browser, trailing behind firefox, opera, and safari. The beta of Internet Explorer 8 does fix some of these issues.

Looking much like its predecessor, there are no obvious visual problems with the new version. It introduces web slices, which are mini-sites stored up in the top bar.

While this is potentially very useful, the limited number of slices really limits its uses right now. There is still no addon equivalent, but there are contextual tools called accelerators.

These can be added by clicking "Install Accelerator", and add features to the right-click context menu.

When text is selected, the Accelerator button appears:

Clicking on it brings up the accelerator menu:

Mousing over an accelerator provides a preview of it:

Under More accelerators, there is an option to "Manage Accelerators". Clicking it brings up this menu:

This allows the default accelerator to be set for a particular job. It also allows management of the search providers, as well as any toolbars or extensions that you have installed.

Browsing feels much faster and more responsive in this version, even compared to firefox (although that may just be all the addons I have installed on firefox). Certain things, such as loading gmail, are noticeably faster in this beta than in firefox or opera (although safari has them all beat when it comes to loading gmail). Downloads are definitely a lot faster in IE now than in other browsers, with IE starting off with an 80% improvement in download speed, and finishing with an average speed about 70% faster than firefox.

(This is on a 10Mbit down connection with comcast)

This version does not pass the Acid3 test(fails at the LINKTEST)

but it does pass the Acid2 test.

There is now a session manager, something both Opera and Firefox users will appreciate.

The new search bar gives suggestions from any search engine supporting them. It defaults to windows live search, but MS provides plugins for other search engines.

One of the less important features on Internet Explorer 8 is the ability to privately browse the web. When in this mode(labeled "InPrivate"), Internet Explorer will remember nothing about your browsing session.

Finally, a feature which is immensely useful, and which firefox users will appreciate, is the new and improved address bar:

Also known as the "Smart Bar" in firefox, this new address bar looks for autocomplete, history, and makes a .com suggestion. This speeds up some of the more repetative tasks performed online, and is a good new feature to see in internet explorer.

Overall, the Internet Explorer 8 Beta represents a fairly large step forward, and if these features are properly expanded on and developed, it could take back the market share that firefox has been acquiring over the past few years. Some of these features make me want to switch away from firefox, and if it weren't for Ubiquity, Better Gmail(For Gmail Skinning), and Scribefire(The only thing close to this in IE8 is the "Blog with Live Writer" accelerator), I would.

Ubiquity

Web Browsers have for some time now included a search bar, allowing the user to quickly and easily search with just one or two clicks. The next logical step is to make that search identify what you are looking for based on where you are, and this is where Ubiquity for firefox comes in.

Ubiquity allows the user to bring up a search bar that does just that, with no clicks, just a keyboard hotkey.

The Ubiquity search box searches its commands as you type, and often tries to include whatever you have selected in its search. For instance, you want to email a page to your friend, you just type email this to *Friends name in contact list*(Note:Only works on Gmail so far). You want to search for an address you've highlighted on google maps, you just hit the hotkey(Ctrl+Space) and type map, and it will look as follows:

Ubiquity has many built in commands, and others can be added by subscribing to command lists, which will eventually include a trust network similar to the current firefox addon one. The official demo video from Mozilla Labs is available below.

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Ubiquity is available at the bottom of the Mozilla Labs Ubiquity page.

Why must I reboot after updates?

It seems astonishing that in this day and age, reboots are required to update software. For instance, Windows Vista will run windows updates, download them, say its finished, but only install them once the system has been rebooted, delaying the next boot. This also introduces the issue of dependencies. Certain updates must be installed before others. This means that if you start with a fresh install of vista RTM, you may have to reboot ten times to get it fully updated. I understand that updates cannot be applied to running systems, as that would require reloading the OS, but they could be installed. It could work as follows:
1.Upon installing OS, OS creates a duplicate of itself compressed so that the second copy references the first plus a differences file. This way, there appear to be two copies when in fact there is only the one, plus a file containing the differences between the two systems.
2.When updates are installed, they install to the second copy (rather, the differences file), as the system may need access to its files. In this way, there are effectively two copies of the system, taking up the space of one plus the differences between the two. Further updates can then be applied to the second copy, just updating the differences file. In this way, all updates can be installed in the order that dependencies require, without requiring a reboot except at the very end.
3.When the system reboots, the differences file can be copied over to the first copy of the system files, and a copy of the differences file can be backed up.The system files are now updated, and the system can continue to boot. The backup of the differences file contains the differences between the first copy and the second copy before the update was applied, allowing harmful updates to be easily rolled back.
This system would take some time implementing, but could save system administrators a lot of time. This only applies to windows, osx, and certain linux systems. Other systems, such as ones using the apt application manager, can update fully without a reboot already.

System Control(Vista Sidebar Gadget)

System control is a very simple, yet very useful, windows vista sidebar gadget. The basic premise is this, many system functions are difficult(or at least tedious) to get to. This gadget fixes that.

Each icon corresponds to a specific program or function. Clicking the lock toggles the color. When the icons have color, they can be accessed. The functions starting at the top left and going through the bottom right are:

Shutdown, Restart, Lock

Switch User, Task Manager, Sleep

Run, Log-Off, C-Prompt

At the bottom, the time is displayed. This is the enlarged view. The small view looks as follows:

This is for those who need lots of gadgets, and have limited space. There are plenty of themes, as well as the ability to move the icons around. This gadget should be very useful to anyone who either makes extensive use of the C-Prompt, or uses the task manager even a few times a day, thanks to Vista's Ctrl+Alt+Del menu. You can get this gadget at BuildAGadget

Videora iPod Touch Converter

All of the videora video conversion products can convert many video formats to formats and resolutions compatible with any iPod, and the iPod Touch version is no different. The converter is about as fast as can be hoped, and conversion is easy.

Fortunately, there is a mode for normal users and a mode for power users, and each one is easy to use. During transcoding, there is an option to show advanced details, the bolded items are regular details, and the advanced details are in regular font.

The program even includes an option to import converted videos right into iTunes. If you've got the cpu time to spare, you can queue up conversions, and the best part is that this software is completely free.

There is one negative of this software, however. The home screen, which is what you see when the program opens up, is full of ads.

These go away when switching to the other screens(such as convert, settings, and help), but are still a nuisance. It is understandable that the dev's want to make some money while giving away this program, but the ads are really a bit excessive.

Overall, this is a great piece of software, essential to anyone with a large non-h.264 or mpeg4 video collection also in possession of an ipod with video(any latest gen ipod except for the shuffle) or an iphone.

Videora

Quick Launch Hotkeys

A little used but often noticed feature of windows is the Quick Launch bar. This bar contains is somewhat useless because by the time your mouse is at the quick launch bar, you can just click on the start button and access all of your programs, not just a small subset of them.

In order to access the programs in the quick launch bar without using the mouse, there is a hotkey combination, Windows Key+ Number of icon.

This allows easy mouse-less access to a subset of programs on a computer without using a separate program such as launchy or Executor.

The point of things

The point of this blog is no longer exclusively as a freeware blog. It will be used to post any interesting things that come to mind. I hope to post more frequently than I have in the past(this being my second post since the blog was created, quite a while ago).