Paul's Tech Talk

Fall Xbox 360 update touches on social networking

PaulNovember 27, 2007

With under a fortnight to go until Microsoft looses the Xbox 360 Fall Dashboard update on us, we’re still learning even more about what it will entail. The latest tidbit touches on the oh-so-zany social networking craze, as gamers will soon be able to browse the friends lists of their pals in order to connect with old buddies or get all up in the digital grill of complete strangers. Starting on December 4th, the default setting will enable your Xbox Live friends to browse your list at will, and if that just doesn’t set well with your conscience, you can hit the read link for instructions on how to ~~spoil some fun~~ prevent it.

[Image courtesy of Xbox]

Wow, this looks like they are going into the social network, I hope it can make it do some really cool things. I hope to find out later on!!

Create Global Folder Bookmarks with Dirkey

PaulNovember 23, 2007

Windows only: Create custom folder bookmarks accessible from your keyboard in any Explorer window or save or open file dialog with freeware system tray application Dirkey. You can set any folder as a bookmark on-the-fly by pressing Ctrl-Alt-0..9, then quickly jump to any of your bookmarks by pressing Ctrl-0..9 for the corresponding bookmark (e.g., if you set a folder as a bookmark with Ctrl-Alt-1, you can access that folder any time by pressing Ctrl-1). Dirkey does the work of previously mentioned applications like FindeXer, PlacesBar Editor, and FinderStyle but offers the quickest access to both creating new bookmarks and jumping to your most frequently used folders. Dirkey is freeware, Windows only.

Dirkey [via gHacks]

Access Any Web Site (Like Wikipedia) Offline with GearsMonkey

PaulNovember 23, 2007

Firefox with Greasemonkey and Google Gears: The Wikipedia Offline Greasemonkey script plugs Greasemonkey into Google Gears (the offline web access extension that works with Google Reader and other sites) to provide offline access and syncing with Wikipedia. Once you’ve installed the script, head to Wikipedia and enable Gears. Now, when browsing any page on Wikipedia, you’ll notice a small frame that contains links to cache the current page or access other pages you’ve already cached. Even better, the author of the script provides a howto guide for taking virtually any web site offline with Gears and Greasemonkey, so anyone with some javascript chops should be able to start building Gears access for their favorite sites (here’s hoping we see a lot more of these). The Wikipedia Offline script is free, requires Greasemonkey and Google Gears.

GearsMonkey: Google Gears + Greasemonkey to take Wikipedia offline [Google Code]

Recover Any Password in Firefox with the Asterisk Revealer

PaulNovember 21, 2007

The Firefox Asterisk Revealer bookmarklet reveals the contents of any password field (i.e., a field whose text is obscured by asterisks) in an alert box using a simple bit of javascript—particularly handy for those sites for which you’ve saved the password but long since forgotten what it is. The post itself just includes the javascript, but you can turn it into a bookmarklet by simply right-clicking your Bookmarks toolbar and selecting New Bookmark, and then pasting the javascript into the Location field.

Firefox Asterisk Revealer [AKSN1P3R]

Synchronize Your Computer’s Time with DS Clock

PaulNovember 21, 2007

Windows only: Synchronize your computer’s clock with numerous time servers around the world using freeware application DS Clock. On its first run, it will dock itself on the top right hand corner of your desktop, but you can customize its look and feel as well as its position quite easily. As an added bonus, DS Clock comes with a stopwatch so that you can track the time it takes to perform certain tasks online. Not bad. DS Clock is a freeware application for all flavors of Windows.

DS Clock