It’s interesting to see the volume of keyboard based “apps” being built for windows. Example, slickrun “gives you almost instant access to any program or website. SlickRun allows you to create command aliases (known as MagicWords), so C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe becomes MAIL.”

Great idea, however, these classes of “apps” are simply watered down versions of a shell. They offer you 1/1000th of what a shell will give you. Type this into a shell, or add to a config file:

alias mail=”C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe”

And mail becomes “C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe”.

These windows apps are gateway drugs and if you’re enjoying the freedom they offer, treat yourself and get the real thing. Similarly to the vi scenario, once you get used to the power you have in a shell it’s difficult to ever turn back. Most IDE’s are a pretty way to get limited access to vi. These apps are a pretty way to get limited access to the shell. Just go to the source.

This is one I’ve run into enough times that I need the notes somewhere. If you’re often passed MSSQL database backups to restore then you will, at some point, run into issues related to drive letter names etc. It’ll manifest itself as an error message about drive letters, clustering, or with move. I’ve added my notes to the wiki about my way to restore that’s a little more hands on.

If you’re interested, shiftMode the wiki is open for business.

What is it? Good question, not sure, I know it’s a wiki. I was hoping you could help out with that. Think of it as an online blackboard or notebook. A place for rough notes, things to remember and use again, thoughts, etc.

Take a peek, contribute if you like. There’s now a “shiftMode the wiki” link over on the right hand nav in the links section.

The recommendation I received to protect my wallet was “adaware then followed with spybot search and destroy“. I ran both and they both found some nasties on my system.

Thanks for NOT helping me out Computer Associates. Forcing me to find alternatives to your product saved me some cash. I think I’ll donate some to these two apps.

Based on Chris’s recommendation I’m giving wp tiger administration a try. It’s nice, certainly a lot cleaner and simpler to use than the base wordpress admin.

This is an interesting idea. TimeSnapper takes screen captures of your desktop at a configurable interval, allowing you to play back a period of time to remind yourself what you worked on. The idea being to help you fill out timesheets, project notes, etc.

To answer the questions that jump to my mind, they claim it doesn’t impact performance, uses 1 to 5 meg of memory and allows you limit the space the images take up, either in total capacity or days usage.

“With TimeSnapper you can play back your week just like a movie. You can play it at any speed you like, and jump in at any time you like.

When it’s time to fill out that dreaded timesheet, TimeSnapper is a savior. No need to tear your hair out trying to remember where all the time went.”

I’ve been contemplating purchasing an IMac or a Mac Mini for the main floor of our house. I figure the Mac Mini would do fine, however, the clean sleek look of the IMac with everything built into the monitor seems sweet. As seen on LifeHacker, there’s a hack out.

“The MiniHitch allows you to mount your Mac Mini^®, on the back of your monitor, by making use of the 100mm or 75mm spacing VESA pattern mounting holes found on the back of many LCD monitors.“

This doesn’t happen everyday, or every year for that matter, a new version of vim is out.

“Once you have installed Vim 7.0 you can find details about the changes since Vim 6.4 with ‘:help version7′”

If you happen to be looking for some vi tips, I keep some for myself here.

Since I made reference to Flock not being there yet, I feel I should mention I’m using Flock almost exclusively now. The deal breaker was discovering how their search bar actually worked. While they don’t seem to detail it here, the search bar also searches your bookmarks and history. It does this not upon hitting enter but while you’re typing your search. The result is a fast, usable means of searching all relevant locations using only the keyboard.

So using the example I used in my previous post, I can now type “CTRL K tsn” then the down arrow once and enter to get to tsn.

If you’re using two monitors, give this a try. They offer a full functionality demo version. I’m using the trial and will be purchasing when my trial ends.