Sparse Random Thoughts

As I look up tips and information on things in Ubuntu I would notice some people using apt-get to install things and some using aptitude. I was also noticing that when apt-get was used that there were occasionally comments stating that they should have used aptitude instead. So, I became curious to what the difference was. A quick search and I found a great article that outlined the differences and convinced me that aptitude should be the tool used.

Aptitude vs Apt-Get

After much searching I found out that apparently you can delete emails in Gmail using ‘End’, but that it only works in Opera 9.1. I like Opera and would happily recommend it, but I’m attached to my Firefox. So, I am fortunate that I happened upon a comment at LifeHacker pointing out that you can use # (hash) to delete selected emails. While this isn’t exactly what I was wanting, it will make do.

Oh and I updated my Google shortcuts document to include this.

I know for one I’ve become very accustomed to using my mouse quite a bit, and it’s very handy. The question really becomes is it always the best tool for the job? I remember being cable enough to get around Windows 3.1 without need of a mouse, but I’m not sure I could say the same about XP. There are times knowing the keyboard shortcuts has been necessary and others it’s quicker & easier than grabbing the mouse. I’m going to try to re-acclimate to using the keyboard more especially since I’ve learned about some of the features in the software I use or learned of new software.

Shortcuts:
Google Calendar, Mail, and Reader
Firefox
Windows XP

Helpful Software:
Launchy
Texter

Other Great Info:
LH: Keyword Bookmarking
LH: Mouseless Firefox
LH: Supercharged GmailThis Bookmarklet

I’ve posted these as they either are tools I use or apply to them. If you have any helpful tips or links for things you use regularly please share them in the comments.

I often have trouble keeping track of ideas I have for posts.  I used to find a scrap of paper, write down the idea, lose the scrap of paper, then wonder what I was going to write about.  More recently I’ve been using Google Notebook to help me keep track of my ideas or just things I want to check out more when I have time.  I’d give you an overview here, but I don’t think I’d do justice to the one Google already has here.  It also seems it would be a handy tool if you were doing research for a paper or such, but haven’t used it in that manner yet.  I’m begining to think I might be a Google fanboy, though what can you expect when they have a good product.

Hmm… I think it's time to give you all some more links.

First off, let me mention the Folding@Home project by Stanford. This is a distributed computing project, this means they use the processing power you're not utilizing to do research. They do a much better job of explaining things so I'll let you check the page out. Though I will mention that you should fold for Team Firefox (Team ID: 39299), since you got Firefox after my last links post.

Next, lets take a look instant messaging. I use GAIM because it seems like everyone I know uses a different IM client. While GAIM doesn't have all the bells and whistles, it does connect to a slew of messaging services allowing you to run only one client. Now with my recent fiddling with Linux I've found it handy to use IRC chat rooms. The client I choose to use for this is X-Chat or when in Windows this version.

Now I'm going to clump together a handy tool for picking colors, a nice wysiwyg web authoring tool, and graphic viewer. For whatever reason you're trying to match a color on screen, the tool to use is Visual Color Picker; I love it when making sites, but am saddened by the fact that it's the only program mentioned in this post that is Windows only. Another tool I've recently found handy when working on this template is NVU, the aforementioned web authoring tool. And lastly XnView a great graphic browser that made me forget about ACDSee.