Bookmarks, as I have said before, are evil, cluttersome things that beg you to click them and waste your time. But we need them, for no other reason than that we DO have pages to go to, often and quickly. For this reason personalized home pages, start pages and the awesome bar have been brought into existence.

Start pages still suck. And Delicious thinks are bookmarks are the same. What's the easiest and best way to tap into those 15 or so bookmarks you use all the time?

Opera's Speed Dial is a way hold a key, hit a number key and get a predetermined webpage. Done, done, onto the next one. Speed Dial has come to Firefox in the form of Fast Dial.

It hijacks the "about:blank" screen which means it comes up in every new tab.So if you have the Add Tab button on your navigation bar you don't need to add another button unless you just need a button to make sure it it doesn't open another tab.

You can add a custom background and change the grid number of grid coordinates to add up to 100 places for bookmarks.

By default, it loads a thumbnail of the current screen of the web page it linked to, but you can (and should) find an image from somewhere on the web and have it come up in its place.

On ANY web page, you can hold alt, control or shift and a number and it will load the web page that corresponds to it. You can also (as in the picture above in slot nine) add another page of links so that you can just hit Alt+9 then alt+1 through 9 to quick load from a second page of links.

The extension automatically adds an annoying little "add to fast dial" button to the context menu, but that's not very useful since you can't easily move from one page of links to another. That, and the fact that none of these links are stored online in case this program goes down are the only two problems I can think of with this add-on. It is very nearly perfect. Just gotta make a physical list of sites I guess for backup, I guess.

Also, if you're anything like me you have add-on functionality of my of the websites that you visit plugged right into your browser. So unless you feel you need to get to that web page in a hurry, less of a reason to have any extra pages cluttering your desktop.

This is another popular church song that has been around for a while. Here is how one can play it simply with 3 fingers: 1 on the left hand, and 2 on the right hand. And you need only to play 2 different “chords” on the right hand. Please see the video…

This song is originally in the key of F#, and it goes up to G# then A# when it approaches the end. Anyway, for simplicity’s sake, my demo here is done in the key of G.

Again, the way I used my fingers is purely for the sake of making the notes that I press easier to see on the video. You don’t have to follow that.
I won’t go into the explanation of the chord progressions. However, if anyone is keen to know the progressions, please do let me know.

Here’s the video…

Courtesy of the Directory Services Team.

If you're like me, you just want shortcuts for *everything*! Well I was just messing around with adding the ACT test date to my calendar when I found out a semi-useful tip.

The way to switch months is with the arrows near the top, but doing so is so...cumbersome. I don't like having to resort to menus for navigation.

So, to switch months just click on a day belonging to the next month. I always use the top left and bottom right dates of any month because those will always belong to a previous/subsequent month.

(will put up pics once I get on my computer - because I blog from my iPhone)

Namun adakalanya, jika komputer digunakan secara bersama-sama atau bergantian, maka apa saja aplikasi yang anda jalankan dan apa saja dokumen yang anda buka, akan diketahui oleh orang lain yang akan menggunakan komputer sesudah anda, tentu saja hal ini terkadang sangat menggangu anda dalam hal privasi. Jika hal itu yang terjadi, ada baiknya anda menghapus kedua jejak itu, agar privasi anda lebih terjaga. Caranya adalah klik kanan pada [Start] menu, kemudian pilih Properties pada menu yang muncul. Maka jendela [Taskbar and Start Menu Properties] akan ditampilkan, pada tab [Start Menu] tekan tombol [Customize…], lalu akan tampil jendela [Customize Start Menu], pada tab [General] di bagian Programs tekan tombol [Clear List] untuk membersihkan List Shortcuts Programs, dan pada tab [Advanced] di bagian Recent documents tekan pula tombol [Clear List] untuk membersihkan My Recent Documents. Selamat mencoba. (wp)

Open an image.
(Win:CTRL Mac:CMD)

Zoom IN: Press hold CTRL+SPACE. A magnifying glass with a + will appear. Click mouse button to zoom in. Clicking again will zoom in closer and so on.

K, now what if it zoomed you in the center of the image when you want it to zoom in the upper left?

Zoom OUT: Press hold ALT + SPACE. A magnifying glass with a - will appear. Click mouse button again as many times necessary to zoom out.

So we want to zoom in on the upper left. Press CTRL+SPACE and click/drag the mouse to an area where you want to zoom.

Scrolling can be combined with zooms. Sometimes you want to scroll up or down. Of course you can zoom out and then zoom back in to wherever you want to go next. But then that’s like 2 extra steps just to to go a few pixels down the current area youre working on.

If you just press the SPACEBAR a little hand will appear and you can drag up or down to scroll.

Let’s say we’re done. You wanna see the whole document now. Press CTRL and 0 (zero).

You can also zoom in and out using CTRL in combination with + (zoom in) or - (zoom out).

By learning these keyboard shortcuts early on means more time for the actual chopping and less time clicking on the toolbar and menus.

The video should be quite clear to follow. I have played the song using the first 3 fingers of my right hand so that it’s clear to the viewer. You don’t have to do that.

I am aware that the timing (tempo) for the three parts is not consistent. That’s because I actually recorded the 3 parts separately, and I wasn’t using the metronome. I hope that’s not too big a problem. :)

Guess what? Its the "Keyboard Shortcuts".

I will be giving you my recommended links regarding keyboard shortcuts for both Windows Vista and Office 2007.

For Windows Vista: http://s3.amazonaws.com/marcliron/vista-keyboard-shortcuts.pdf

For Office 2007: http://www.uwec.edu/help/office07/shortcut.htm#file

Reminder: You may also use some of the keyboard shortcuts of both Windows Vista & Office 2007 to its previous versions.

Feel free to email me anything with regards to computer problems and the support you may be needing. My email addresses are marlonmacam@gmail.com & marlonmacam@aol.com

A bit of background, about 4 weeks ago I had to reinstall an OS X Leopard build on my MacBook Pro (to 'not' the latest software update).  Actually I had to roll back my version (to 10.5.2) because I purchased a portable Apogee AD converter (the Duet) for road recordings and podcasting which currently doesn't have drivers for the latest Leopard (10.5.4).  So I backed up all my data, and installed a "fresh" build.  It's true I could have migrated my profile after installing Leopard, but I wanted to start fresh and streamline my computer to fit my current workflow as a community manager.

For this blog entry I will leave out all the pro-audio apps I use, as well as my Windows XP Bootcamp build (that I haven't started yet), and stick to community manager use. There are many applications these days accessed through websites, I will also exclude these and save them for another blog post. Maybe some of you will find something useful in these explanations.

Ian's Essential Apps (in no specific order):
- Quicksilver
If you're a "hotkey" and "shortcut" junkie (like me) Quicksilver is the best out there. Quicksilver was an earlier OS X application that has now become open source to continue development through its enthusiast community. It's quite tweakable for all kinds of commands and calls at your fingertips like: getting your external IP, launching apps, app extensions (like a specific web site during a browser launch). It's pretty geeky, there's some good youtube starter tutorials if you want to get into it.

- Evernote
This is my new favorite project folder companion. Evernote lets you organize and store: notes, pics, voice notes (audio recordings) and websites into "notebook" folders. For all my projects this is the perfect single productivity app to pool all my ideas, text based tasks, and written documents into one place. I often use the camera on my iPhone to take quick snap shots of white boards, written notes, etc. which works well since Evernote has an iPhone app. Now I don't have to transcribe my written notes by re-typing them, I can take a quick photo and move on! It's really quite amazing. Some further amazing highlights include the ability for Evernote to OCR (Optical Character Recognition) text that's "inside" your photos. It an also recognize clearly written text, and it's all searchable!!! Awesome huh? I KNOW! It's not 100%, especially with reading handwriting, and occasionally the desktop (Mac version) client even crashes, but that should improve with time. For Virtual backup or web storage for mobile or remote devices that take pictures sent through 3G or WiFi, Evernote can store your data on your account (Free accounts allow 40MB per month of free space) and sync to your client or simply to be used on the web interface.

There are numerous tools Evernote has:
- a website that offers full functionality after login
- a desktop client that can store locally and/or sync your notes to your web account
- an iPhone client (not sure what other mobile devices are supported) for uploading notes, pics and voicenotes to your web account.
- a browser plugin (for Firefox) that lets you clip websites
- a toolbar icon for clipping screenshots, searching, preferences and pasting notes

With this arsenal of utility I hope to be able to file, search and work various projects in my life from this one tool and never forget or loose anything ever again. Of course because Evernote is a U.S. company, one would be cautious about putting anything personal, confidential or private on it because the government will probably read it, or at the very least have access to it. The essential version of Evernote is free (40MB), upgrade is 500MB, more security and faster character recognition. If this works out, I will definitely consider going premium.

- AdiumX (and Xtras)
Adium is an instant messaging app that front ends my Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo and .mac IM (instant messaging, chat) accounts. It's nice to just tread IM friends as one list and to have tabs to separate conversations in one window. You can customize nearly every interface and sound elements through a huge library of user made Themes. This app is free.

- Twhirl
For twitter users, recently I switched from Twitterific to Twhirl to help me manage three of my (current) six microblog feeds. I use Twhirl for Twitter, identi.ca and FriendFeed (it's sweet to have this resizable window wider). Twhirl is free, there are other similar apps and web sites that offer similar functionality, so far this one's my favorite. I still installed Twitterific anyway because I liked it a lot and I want to compare some more.

- Growl
A sweet notification tool that gives you announcements that appear then fade off on your screen. The compatible apps I use are: Adium, Firefox, Transmission and I used to use Twitterific. (*note on Twhirl, they have a notifier built in) There's also many more apps it works with. Growl is free.

- Google Notifier (for Mac)
I use Google Notifier for my Gmail (that's also set up as IMAP in my Apple Mail) for email and calendar notifications. I like the notifications and the drop down information. My Apple Mail set up with Gmail syncs with Google so my inboxes are always up to date, a sweet feature of Gmail (IMAP). I use Google Calendar and sync it to my iCal (both ways) anyway, so both my email (count) and calendar match on the tool bar, Mail and iCal.

- iStat Menus
I use my laptop for recording 192kHz audio, I need to monitor my system when the track layers and effects gets stacked up. iStat is a killer system monitor utility for vitals, traffic and resources. It's customizable with mouse over verbose transparent overlays from the toolbar. iStat Menus is free.

- iWork
Apple productivity suite with: word processor (Pages), spreadsheet (Numbers) and presentation (Keynote) software. Although iWork can open most MS Office files, it can only save files in Apple's iWork formats. I find these applications more minimal with all the functionality I need. If you don't need to collaborate on documents iWork makes sense for Mac users. iWork is not free but it's much less expensive than MS Office.

Browsers
- Firefox (free)
- Flock (free)

I use two mozilla browsers. One for all of my company's social media and web accounts (flock), and for stuff that's under my own identity. Having two browsers also makes remembering passwords for duplicate sites much more manageable. Flock's claim to fame is that it's a community browser, admittedly it does have some nice features for managing social sites, not all are there, but there's quite a few they have. Flock is built on the Firefox 2 engine.

Firefox Add Ons And Tweaks
- Tab Mix Plus (dev build for leopard) - Tab tweaker add-on (3 rows on FF, fixes remembering last tabs on Flock)
- Tynt Classic Plug In version - web mark up, micro messaging tool. I'm lucky enough to work for Tynt, it's amazing. Beta accounts are limited, but if you want to try it email me and I'll try to hook you up. (I do after all distribute the accounts, mauh ha ha ha!)
- Post to Twitter lets you tweet a URL with the click of a tiny dot at the right side of the URL bar.
- meebo is a mashup of your IM accounts through a website. they have a plug in for Firefox that sends notifications to your desktop and flashes your tab when you get a message. I use in my flock browser to manage all of my company IM accounts. Rather than have both (which I can) personal and company IM accounts in Adium, I chose to give them separate worlds. I also have my personal IM accounts set up on meebo in case I'm on a foreign computer and for iPhone use.

Firefox Shortcuts
- Status bar buttons - StumbleUpon bar
I use StumbleUpon for finding interesting sites and to share links of non-work related things to friends. I find the status bar located on the bottom of my FF3 browser the best place to have those blue thumbs.

- Firefox Toolbar buttons - my del.icio.us, post to del.icio.us, Twurl this!
I use del.icio.us to bookmark Social Media related sites that may come in handy for other peers in my field as well as to archive sites that I like when on another computer or when I'm rebuilding my laptop for instance?

- Twhurl this! is a handy link to post to your microblog feeds with one click.

Apple Mail 3.0 Config
- Company Email
- Google Mail
- some RSS Feeds (I mainly use Google Reader for most of my RSS subscriptions)

Other misc free staple apps for Mac that I frequent
- Transmission: A bittorrent client for peer file downloading. I've used others, this one's by far my favorite.
- VLC:VLC is a media player and streamer that supports most kinds of video codecs.
- MPlayer:Another good media player. Depending on the video (codec) sometimes this performs better than VLC and vice versa.
- Senuti: Lets you transfer songs from your iPod/iPhone back to your computer.
- Hand Brake: a converter for video formats, I use it to rip videos for my iPhone.

RSS Readers:
- Apple Mail
- Google Reader (accessed with my custom iGoogle page and mobile safari)

Retired apps:
- Calgoo Connect
I recently retired Calgoo that synchronizes iCal with Google Calendar. Now google supports iCal sync you can get directions here: to sync iCal with Google calendar.

- OmniOutliner
I used to use this outlining tool for just about everything, but it's been retired and is installed only to access my old outliner data. I relied on this program for folder projects that let me put in website links, photo links (of pics on my laptop) for planning, design, research, and note taking. This app wasn't designed exactly for all the ways I use, and now I've decided to give Evernote a shot, since it does more and has support for photos. The full blown OmniOutliner and Pro versions are not free, but there's a crippled version that is.

---

So these are my essentials, there's easily another 15-20 apps I use that I won't mention today. I will also add that I compliment my laptop with my iPhone (another epic post...). With those two pieces I am almost always plugged in (unless I don't want to be). It's a bit freakish, but it's also kind of fantastic.

I'm also very curious what bread and butter apps you rely on. So please feel free to comment about some of your favorite programs and how you find it useful. See you 'round!

• CTRL + F12: puts all windows on the background and displays a ghost window with your widgets.  It is the "Plasma Panel"
• CTRL + F10 (also accessible moving the mouse pointer to the upper left corner): shows all windows opened and make them clickable so that you can change to that application.  If there is something dynamic happening -- like a video being played -- then you can see it being updated in real time.
• CTRL + F9: zooms out so that you can see all applications from that particular desktop, side by side, and click on them to choose which one you want to be active.
• CTRL + F8: zooms out and shows you the current view for all existing virtual desktops.

The ESC key exits from all of those views.

Using them makes it better to see what is happening on multiple environments.

Here are 26 Illustrator shortcuts that can help you to speed up productivity. I use most of them (in fact, I can’t work without them). Most of shortcuts listed in this article aren’t documented in the software, so keep reading and you’re sure to find at least one new trick to put up your sleeve. Enjoy!

Note: this article is written in Mac Illustrator CS3 format. If you are using PC, Cmd key = Ctrl key and Opt = Alt.

1. Change the Unit Setting
   You can quickly change the Artboard unit measurement setting by right-clicking on the ruler.

   

2. Activate Tool Options
   With the tool selected, (e.g. Blend Tool), press the Enter key to open up the Blend Options window. Another way to open up the tool option panel is to double-click on the tool icon.

   

3. Duplicate a Series of Objects
   Select the object, hold down Option key and drag. You now have a copy of the object. Each time you press Cmd + D (Transform Again) you distribute more copies.

   

4. Draw Shape with Options
   Select any shape tool, (e.g. Star Tool), click anywhere on the Artboard, it will let you draw a shape with options.

   

5. Zoom With Mouse Wheel
   Hold down Option key & scroll the mouse wheel up or down to zoom in/out

   

6. Gradient Stop Color
   To quickly change a gradient stop color to any color swatch in the library: select a gradient stop, hold down Option key and click on a swatch.

   

7. Switch Color Profile
   Hold down Shift key and click on the color bar will let you toggle through the color profiles: Grayscale, RGB, HSB, CMYK, Web Safe RGB.

   

8. Layer Visibility
   Cmd + Click Visibility Icon = toggle view mode (Outline/Preview)
   Opt + Click Visibility Icon = hide other layers (Opt + click again will show all)
   Click Visibility Icon & Drag = toggle multi layers

   

9. New Layer
   Cmd + L = New layer
   Cmd + Opt + L = New layer with options

   

10. Select All Objects on Layer
    To select all objects on a particular layer, hold down Option key and click on the layer name.

    

11. Navigate Live Paint Bucket Color
    With the Live Paint Bucket tool selected, click on any swatch in the Color palette, now use the arrow keys (Up, Down, Left, Right) to navigate through the swatches.

    

12. Fill and Stroke Color
    D = Default color (white fill & black stroke)
    X = Toggle between fill and stroke
    Shift + X = Swap fill and stroke color
    / = None (transparent)
    < = Color fill
    > = Gradient fill

    

13. Saturate or Desaturate Color
    Holding down Cmd key and dragging the color slider will saturate or desaturate a mixed color.

    

14. Increase/Decrease Input Field Value
    Place the cursor in any input field, press arrow Up or Down to increase/decrease.

    

15. Close Pencil or Brush Path
    By default, Illustrator will use close a Pencil and Brush path. To close a Pencil path manually, hold down Option key when you are about to finish drawing the path.

    

16. Add or Subtract Sides
    With the Star Tool, drag on the Artboard (do not release the mouse yet), press Up or Down arrow to add/subtract sides. Notes: this shortcut can also works for the Arc, Spiral, Rectangle Grid, Polar Grid, Polygon, and Flare Tool.

    

17. Inner Radius
    With the Star Tool, drag on the Artboard (do not release the mouse yet), holding down the Cmd key while dragging will let you control the inner radius. This shortcut also works for the Spiral Tool.

    

18. Continuous Duplicates Based on Mouse Movement
    With any shape tool, holding down the Tilde (~) key while dragging will make continuous duplicates based on your mouse movement. This is a very useful shortcut to create fun and complex artwork.

    

The 1st one goes like this…
I --> V/M --> VIm --> VIm/5 --> IV --> V --> I

See “The M Bass” for the “M” notation above.

The original key is Ab. To make it easier to play, I have used the key of G for illustration. In G, the above progression is translated into:
G --> D/F# --> Em --> Em/D --> C --> D --> G

With some tweaking, we get…
G --> D4/F# --> G/E --> G/D --> C2 --> C2/D --> G

The 3 chords: G, C2 (see “Suspension (part 2)”) and D4 (see “Suspension (part 1)”) have these 2 notes in common: D note and G note. That’s why in the video you can see me playing these 2 notes only throughout this 1st progression.

The 2nd progression goes like this…
I --> V/M --> VIm --> VIm/5 --> I/M --> -I/2 --> -I --> V

See “The Minus-One Chord” post for the “-I” notation above.

In the G key, the progression is translated into:
G --> D/F# --> Em --> Em/D --> G/B --> F/A --> F --> D

With some tweaking, we get…
G --> D4/F# --> G/E --> G/D --> G/B --> F/A --> F --> C2/D

Here’s the video…

Section 1 and the introduction are the same, alternating between the Chord I and Chord IV. The song originally is in B. I have used the key of C for an easier and clearer illustration. So the chords (I & IV) here are C chord and F chord (see the video).

Section 2 is a progression with the bass walking down the scale from “fa” (4), all the way to the lower “ti” (7) note, i.e., 4 --> 3 --> 2 --> 1 --> 7, then end with a “so” (5) note. The chord progression is this…
IV --> I/M --> IIm7 --> IIm7/1 --> V/M --> V7

Please see “The M Bass” post for the “M” notation above. In the key of C, this is translated to:
F --> C/E --> Dm7 --> Dm7/C --> G/B --> G7

By substituting the minor-7 with the basic chords (see “The 3 Minor Chords” post), we get…
F --> C/E --> F/D --> F/C --> G/B --> G7

The chord progression for Section 3 is quite interesting…
IV --> V --> I --> III --> III7

In the key of C, that is….
F --> G --> C --> E --> E7

Then the song simply ends with IV --> V --> I, i.e., in the key of C…. F --> G --> C.

Here is the video…

Im WYSIWYG-Editor funktionieren die meisten Kürzel nicht mehr. Es funktionieren B (Bold/Fett) und I (Italic/Kursiv). U erzeugt keine unsortierte Liste mehr, sondern eine unterstrichene Passage und H ist gleichbedeutend mit dem Drücken der Backspace-Taste (zumindest auf einem Mac).

Die Hilfe, die man im grafischen WYSIWYG-Modus aufrufen kann enthält zwar eine Liste der Kürzel, aber wirklich zutreffend ist die nicht, vor allem habe ich keinen Hinweis auf den Unterschied der Kürzel bei den verschieden Modi gefunden. Auch die Tooltips über den Icons stimmen nicht immer.

Ich werde diese Liste weiter pflegen und das Ganze weiter testen und ausprobieren. Wer Hinweise hat (Opera?), Fehler oder Anmerkungen hat, kann gerne hier per Kommentar mithelfen!

1. Select the desired file(s).
2. Right mouse click and select Copy/Cut or Press Ctrl+C/X.
3. Browse to destination drive/folder.
4. Right mouse click and select Paste or Press Ctrl+V.

You consider yourself a Power User? Think again.

Two of the handiest file management tools in Windows are the Copy To Folder and Move To Folder commands, which allow you to copy and move files or folders anywhere you want simply by selecting an item, a file, or a folder and then choosing the desired location from the resulting dialog box.

Unfortunately, these handy commands are hidden away on the Edit menu in Windows Explorer and My Computer. Further masking their existence is the fact that the Menu bar is hidden by default in both Windows Explorer and My Computer.

Fortunately, you can add the Copy To Folder and Move To Folder commands to the context menu with a couple of registry edits. Here is how you do it:

Editing the registry
To launch the Registry Editor, click the Start button, type Regedit in the Start Search box, and press [Enter]. When the Registry Editor appears, navigate to the following folder:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTAllFilesystemObjectsshellexContextMenuHandlers

When you get there, click on the ContextMenuHandlers folder to give it the focus. Then, pull down the Edit menu and select the New | Key command, as shown in Figure A:

When the new value appears, paste the following code including the brackets:

{C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

After you do so, just press [Enter] and the Copy To Folder command will be added to the context menu.

Now, pull down the Edit menu and select the New | Key command again. This time when the new value appears, paste the following code including the brackets:

{C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

After you do so, just press [Enter] and the Move To Folder command will be added to the context menu. When you’re done, your ContextMenuHandlers folder will look like the one shown in Figure B. To complete the operation, close the Registry Editor.

Using the commands
Using the Copy To Folder and Move To Folder commands is easy, and they work the same regardless of whether you’re copying/moving files or folders. All you have to do is right-click on the file or files you want to copy or move and then select one of the commands from the context menu, as shown in Figure C.

Now you know how to add the Copy To Folder and Move To Folder commands to the context menu. Come back soon to know how you can further enhance your menu delays. ;)

The 1st part of the verse goes like this…

I --> V/M --> VIm7 --> VIm7/5 --> IV --> IV/5

The 2nd part is the same except that it has an additional IIM7 chord towards the end…

I --> V/M --> VIm7 --> VIm7/5 --> IV --> IIm7 --> IV/5

See “The M Bass” post for the “M” notation above.

In the key of D, this is translated into….

D --> A/C# --> Bm7 --> Bm7/A --> G --> Em7 --> G/A
By applying chord substitution to improvise the minor-7 chords with major chords (see “The 3 Minor Chords”), we get…

D --> A/C# --> D/B --> D/A --> G --> G/E --> G/A

See the video for illustration…

The chorus goes like this…

I --> V/M --> IV/M… (repeat)… IIm7 --> IV/5 --> I

In the key of D, this is…

D --> A/C# --> G/B… (repeat)… Em7 --> G/A --> D

Or in the “Piano Cheat” way…

D --> A/C# --> G/B… (repeat)… G/E --> G/A --> D

Here are the Acrobat Reader 6 (or higher) shortcuts:

Ctrl+Shift+B = to hear the whole document

Ctrl+Shift+V = to hear the current page

That's when cheat sheets come in handy {

My Portuguese friend João posted this very handy link on his blog, and I thought it worthy of sharing

}