There used to be a decent calendar that sat in your Windows taskbar and showed the current date, as well as providing an easily accessible calendar if needed. The problem is, it was associated with a company known for distributing adware, which is just annoying, but I found out how to disable the adware component and I installed it everytime I had to reinstall Windows on my system.
For whatever reason, I lost the installer for that little app and had to hunt a bit. This time I came up with DateInTray, which was happily free of adware and provided pretty much the exact same function. This has worked for me for a couple of years now.
Today, though, via LifeHacker, I discovered QuickMonth Calendar, which may just replace DateInTray as my standard. It's quite handly because it automatically pops up whenever you hover over the time on your Windows taskbar. It's also a bit prettier (no clunky border) than DateInTray, while providing a very similar calendar view. The one downside I see is that it doesn't actively show the current date in the system tray.
In any case, given one or the other a try - it's a far cry better than double clicking on the clock to bring up the set date option to see a calendar.
Showing posts with label software. Show all posts
Showing posts with label software. Show all posts
Friday, August 10, 2007
Friday, November 25, 2005
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Cory's Spot: Software: Google Earth
Last night I was reading through some news stories from various geek web sites and I came across yet another mention of Google Earth and decided to give it a try.
This is one nifty piece of software. For certain areas, it's possible to zoom in to the point that you can see individual people, and for pretty much everywhere it's possible to recognize what you're looking at if you know the layout.
Particularly creepy was the ability to zoom in on my brother-in-law's house in VA to the point that you can see their sandbox (which supposedly came down yesterday). Like MapQuest, it's possible to look up a particular address and to get driving directions, but with an extra degree or two of realism.
Check it out - it's worth at least an hour or two of zooming around the world! Oh, and for those of you with a GPS on your laptop (cough...Dan...cough, cough), there's a Plus version that allows you to see your progress in realtime, overlayed on the aerial photos.
This is one nifty piece of software. For certain areas, it's possible to zoom in to the point that you can see individual people, and for pretty much everywhere it's possible to recognize what you're looking at if you know the layout.
Particularly creepy was the ability to zoom in on my brother-in-law's house in VA to the point that you can see their sandbox (which supposedly came down yesterday). Like MapQuest, it's possible to look up a particular address and to get driving directions, but with an extra degree or two of realism.
Check it out - it's worth at least an hour or two of zooming around the world! Oh, and for those of you with a GPS on your laptop (cough...Dan...cough, cough), there's a Plus version that allows you to see your progress in realtime, overlayed on the aerial photos.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)