My Insights

I just discovered a ‘feature’ on my computer. When I press a button on my Microsoft Mouse which (Labeled ‘Instant Viewer’ in control panel), I get the following-

This is basically a window switching utility. Trouble is, I NEVER INSTALLED ANY SUCH UTILITY! I can’t complain - I actually like this. However, I would still like to figure out how I got to benefit this little feature. And just so we are clear, I don’t believe in a guardian angel.

Here is a list of software that I recently installed-

1. Safari
2. FolderShare
3. Digsby
4. Google Desktop

Please leave a comment with your guess!

I recently installed a windows theme on my XP machine. It is fairly simple - you simply have to replace uxthemes.dll with a patched version that allows you to use non-microsoft signed themes in xp. No Bloatware.

Instructions & Download

Now for the screenshots of my machine. Some details have been obfuscated.

Do you twitter? Do you use the twitter Facebook application to update your Facebook status? If so, then this is for you.

The original Twitter Facebook application puts an annoying "is twittering" at the beginning of the status message in Facebook. The developer of the Twitter app said that this would be removed once Facebook removes the "is" from their status messages. To make a long story short, Facebook removed the "is" but the twitter application still puts in "is twittering".

The solution is to use TwitterSync. Twitter Sync is another Facebook application that not only removes the "is twittering" from your status updates but goes a step further to let you use customized verbs. It also lets you create filters on your twitters.

TwitterSync is worth checking out. [Link]

This one is for the readers: How do you know that someone has transitioned from walking fast to running?

Leave your guesses in the comments.

This advice is coming from a strong proponent of Windows Media Player - Ditch it! (For Video Playback at least)

I started using VLC Media Player a few months ago (thanks to Sarthak). For those who don’t know, my computer is slow with low RAM and almost all media players have difficulty playing even low-resolution videos on my computer.

VLC stands out of the crowd by allowing me and my crappy computer to enjoy full screen HD quality videos! I don’t know how VLC does it and I don’t care to find out. It is an amazing feeling to use a media player with such a light footprint and such a strong feature-set.

VLC also does an excellent job of managing codecs - I have not found the need to download a single codec ever since I installed VLC.

Check out VLC here.

I recently called AT&T wireless and told them that I had to travel internationally and needed my phone unlocked so that I could use a local SIM card in the country that I was traveling to. The customer service rep went ahead and instructed me on how to retrieve my IMEI number and then gave me an unlock code. It was that simple!It turns out that if the customer service rep cannot find the unlock code in their database then a support ticket will be created for you and the ‘unlock department’ will contact you within 7 days with the unlock code.Also, they will NOT unlock dual band devices that don’t work internationally.

Last Week I finally received the ability to link my AOL Instant Messenger contacts in my Google chat application. I use "Google Apps for your domain" and have found that features are generally first introduced to regular Gmail users and then later rolled out to the Google Apps users. According to Google (03/21/08)-

"Gmail’s faster, more flexible new codebase is now becoming generally available to Google Apps users. This change brings a faster interface and several new features including group chat from the browser, a streamlined contact manager, colored message labels, improved keyboard shortcuts and bookmarkable messages and searches."

I can’t however see my AIM contacts in my Google Talk desktop application. Does anybody have any experience with this?