Cory's Spot: Software: Konfabulator

Another piece of software I tried out and stuck with in recent months is Konfabulator, now from Yahoo (download here). This is even more versatile than Google Desktop, but it also takes up more space, since its plugins, called Widgets, are designed to be pretty, instead of just functional. Because people are actually writing all kinds of really cool Widgets for Konfabulator, instead of just theoretically able to, like with Google Desktop, there are new Widgets showing up all the time, and if you wait long enough, there's likely to be one that will do just what you want it to. Or, you could actually write it yourself (personally, I haven't been ambitious enough to even try, but it's possible).

Like Google Desktop, I don't actually use all the Widgets that come with Konfabulator. I've also added a few I've discovered along the way. I use the basic calendar that comes with Konfabulator, as well as the default weather tool. Many others have come and gone over the past couple of months, but the four add-on Widgets I use are Can'tWait!, a countdown/countup timer I used to count down to and now up from Tyler's birthdate, Trash Bin Deluxe, which I use instead of the Windows default, since it shows how many items are in the recycle bin and how much space they're using, and Lazy Launcher, which allows you to easily find and run programs by name instead of by navigating the Windows Start Menu. For some reason, I can't find the resource meter I'm using anymore, but InfoLabel is also cool, since you could customize it to do the work of both Trash Bin Deluxe and my resource meter.

With two software posts in one day, I'm sure to come off as one heck of a geek, but so be it. Try these two apps out and let me know what you think.

Cory's Spot: Software: Google Desktop

It's once again been much longer than planned since I last posted, but I have some time off of school and work, so here goes.

Sitting on the right-hand side of my desktop is a nifty application from Google called, appropriately, Google Desktop (download here). This comes with several different plugins to provide various bits of information, including weather reports, stock updates, news articles, and RSS feeds, among others. It's also my understanding that 3rd party plugins can be devloped, so possibilities are endless. It also features Google Desktop Search, which scans your hard drives initially for documents, emails, web histories and such and then keeps an eye on things from that point forward. The advantage of this is that you can find information that's come across your desktop much more easily and more comprehensively than is possible with Windows' built-in search function. Google says your desktop results are kept completely private and are invisible to the people and Google, and I believe them.

For me, Google Desktop has proven to be most useful docked to the right-hand side of my screen, but set to auto-hide. Even though I have my desktop resolution set to 1280 x 960, I found that it took up too much space to leave visible at all times, and there's a nifty alert feature that lets you know when a new RSS or news item is available, even if the sidebar is hidden. At the top of the sidebar, I have my RSS feeds, which I pretty much use only for family members' and friends' blogs, so I can easily see when a new post goes up. This feature automatically adds any RSS feeds it finds, so I had to go through and weed out the feeds I didn't want and turn off the auto-find feature after a while. Next I have my news items. If you let it, Google Desktop will customize these based on what you read most. For example, I have a lot of tech articles that show up, along with some health, business, and general interest articles, and no sports articles. The third plugin I use is a nice little notepad. Simply type reminders or whatever here and they're automatically saved. Finally, I have What's Hot and Quick View minimized at the bottom of my sidebar. What's Hot shows what Google thinks are the most popular items on the web and Quick View is similar to Windows' own Recent Documents list, but can be customized to show popular and recently used items, instead of just the latter.

Well, that was much longer than I'd intended to geek on about this particular program, but that's okay, it's a useful program.

Ready for Snowboarding

I suppose most of you know by now that Angie got a great deal on some 3-6 month clothes on eBay. Most of them are pretty cute, and they're all in good shape. Today Angie dressed Tyler up on one of my favorites from the bunch - a thermal onesie and lightweight snow pants. Once again, you can see that the 3-6's are still a bit big, but this is warmer than most of his 0-3's.

Tyler also got his first immunizations today. Two shots in the side of each thigh - poor guy! He screamed himself purple when the nurse first stuck him and has been a little fussier than usual since, but is taking it pretty well overall.

Our Candy Cane

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Hobbs, Tyler has this outfit to enjoy. It's a one-piecer, but it's also a 3-6, so he still has plenty of growing room. We think it's a fun one for the holidays, what with the red and white stripes and all.

Oh, and this is Ty's new pacifier. He won't take the orthodontic binkies with the flat tip and we were afraid we'd lose the little orange one they gave us at the hospital, so we gave in and got these green monsters at WallyWorld, since they were the only ones we could find with the right tip.

Our Basketball Star

Thanks to his great aunt and uncle Byron and Kathy, Tyler has this long-sleeved outfit to hang out in. It's a 3-6 month outfit, which is still a bit big, but we think this and the other 3-6's are more comfortable for our growing little guy.

The day of sadness and mourning.....

I have some sad news. Travis, you're going to be as upset as we are, but Coke is discontinuing their line of Diet Vanilla Coke (original story here) by the end of the year. It's a very sad day in the Miles household.

We're going to start stocking up on it because it's one of our favorites. For those of you in town, Ridlely's has a 4/$10 sale on coke products.

A Big Smile

First off, sorry to those of you who want to see Tyler in his blessing outfit. Somehow, we managed to not get a single shot with our own camera. Luckily, there were lots of other cameras present - for Dan's pictures, look here and here.

What really got me posting, though, was this picture I just took - we finally caught one of Tyler's amazing smiles on camera. I tell you...he does this and my heart melts! Call me a softy, but I can't help it!

Halloween

For Halloween we dressed Tyler up in a cute little outfit that said 'My First BOO!' on it. It also has pumpkins on the bottom of his feet. Then, we had orange dinner which consisted of everything we had leftover in our fridge and pantry that was orange, which amazingly was quite a lot. Then, we took Tyler trick-or-treating to some of our relatives houses. We also had an M&M costume that he wore at the grandparents house. We forgot our camera for that, but it looked really cute.

This is the outfit Cory picked out before Tyler was born. It's actually a newborn size, so we were worried it wasn't going to fit. But, it did, luckily. What a cute pumpkin on his first Halloween.

ORANGE DINNER!!!!!!!!

Carrots, Cheetos, orange-mango applesauce, left-over cheesy potatoes and brats.

We even had orange milk. It took me a few minutes to drink it because it was weird, but then it tasted all right after the first few sips.