Tip #8: Make Firefox Better
What I want from a browser
- To show the pages correctly
- To show as much as possible from a page (to remove the need of scrolling)
- To provide me with an easy way of accessing pages.
What I don’t like at Firefox
- The search bar is superfluous. I really like what Chrome is doing (and the latest version of Opera?): use the address bar as search bar.
- There is no ad blocker
- There is a lot of wasted space: bookmarks toolbar, menu bar (just think how often you use the top menu), big icons
After a few tweaks I got a browser looking like the one in the picture below that satisfies almost all my needs.
Tweaks applied and how/why to use them
Tip #7: VMWare Unity View
I just found a really cool feature in VMWare Workstation 6.5.3. It is called “Unity View” and basically allows windows from a virtual machine to appear as windows in the host machine.
In the example pictures you can see that I have a host running Windows 7, a unity windows from a Windows Xp guest and two windows from a Fedora guest (Picture 1). The best part is that you can actually see those windows in your taskbar and manipulate them as regular windows – you can use the Aero switch to switch between applications (Picture 2 & 3). However I found a minor bug, the Aero Peek feature in Windows 7 is not working with the unity windows.
Least but not last you get access to the start menu of the guests (Picture 4).
Tip #6: The importance of the default case
It is said that “is good to catch an exception as soon as possible”. This is the motto of the post.
You never wrote perfect code! Neither do I and probably no mortal will do this. You must accept it and try to make your code as best as possible. There are many ways to do this but today will focus the attention on the ‘default’ case.
How many times you wrote?
select variable
case 1: ...
case 2: ...
...
case n:
end |
I did this a lot of times. Why do we do it? Because we assume we are bullet proof and out code is perfect. One might say that the previous snippet is not wrong but take a closer look. What if variable is not 1 and not 2 and … and not n? What happens?
Tip #5: Get 25GB Online Free Storage
Do you want 25 GB of free storage that can be accessed from anywhere you have Internet connection?
Microsoft is offering 25 GB free online storage through SkyDrive. The drawback of this service is that you can only access files through a browser and if you want drag/drop facilities you must use Internet Explorer.
Gladinet is developing a tool for mapping online drives as network drives. Using it you can map SkyDrive (and other services like GoogleDocs, Amazon S3, etc) in Windows Explorer. It is not the fastest or easy most solution but there is no other to map SkyDrive.
After you install Gladinet Cloud Desktop and configure it (it has an easy to use wizard) you get one more drive in My Computer that will contain subfolders for each online service you use. You can move files there just like they were local. Must mention that the sync is not instant. There is a tasks queue so each file is put in this queue and uploaded only after the previous has finished. Each operation works like this so you might no see online changes immediately.
Gladinet Cloud Desktop is available in two versions: free and pro. The free version has a file limit of 1000 files/batch which, I think, should be enough for most users.
Register for SkyDrive and download Gladinet Cloud Desktop.
Tip #4: Recursion
To understand what is recursion click this link.
Tip #3: Shared OneNote notebooks with Live Mesh
OneNote allows users to create shared notebooks by using a shared folder or a SharePoint repository. When two persons who want to share a notebook are in different countries then a shared folder is not a too feasible solution. A SharePoint repository can be created for free on Office Small Business but you have only 50 MB for storage and you need at least basic SharePoint knowledge.
As you might already know, Live Mesh allows one to sync files across multiple computers. A big advantage is the Live Desktop - a 5000 MB online storage location that can be used for storage. When computers involved in the sync are not simultaneously online, the files are synced with the Live Desktop and, when the computers are back online, the files will be synced.
The sharing with Live Mesh works like this: add notebooks’ files on Mesh and they can sync across computers. When a notebook is updated, if you are online the change will be sent/received to/from the Live Desktop.
Tip 2: #if
This is a C# tip
When the C# compiler encounters an #if directive, followed eventually by an #endif directive, it will compile the code between the directives only if the specified symbol is defined. Unlike C and C++, you cannot assign a numeric value to a symbol; the #if statement in C# is Boolean and only tests whether the symbol has been defined or not.
A predefined (by default) symbol on the “Debug” build configuration is DEBUG. Using this symbol you can define code that will be compiled only in Debug; for example, a debug window will be shown only when needed.
using System; using System.Text; namespace ConsoleApplication1 { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Debugging information"); #endif Console.WriteLine("Code that always executes"); } } } |
The code above will print “Debugging information” and “Code that always executes” when build on Debug and will display only “Code that always executes” when build on another configuration.
You can suppress the definition of the DEBUG symbol from the project properties or by removing the DEBUG from the build argument “/define:DEBUG”. Also, you can define your own symbols in order to accommodate your needs.
Define as many build configurations and symbols you need but don’t abuse this feature!
Tip #1: Backup Outlook 2007 Accounts’ Information
This is a series of different tips and tricks for computer users. It will include: software usage tip, hacks, development tips, hardware tips, etc.
I will try to post tips every day but I don’t know if my schedule will allow me.
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When you need to reinstall Windows and/or Outlook you might backup the .pst files (Outlook data files). Unfortunately these files do not contain account information. After reinstall and restore of backup files you need to reenter all information about each account which is a boring process – at least for me because I have 5 e-mail accounts.
If you want to backup accounts information you have to export the “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook” key from Registry.
Export accounts’ information:
Start the Registry Editor (Start -> Run -> “regedit”) – in Windows Vista/7 you need administrative rights to start it.- Navigate to the previously mentioned branch (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ … ).
- Right click the “Outlook” tree node.
- Choose export.
- Name the file accordingly.
- Click “Save”
After reinstalling Outlook, you have to import the accounts. Follow the steps below for this:
Import accounts’ information:
- Double click the exported file.
- Choose “Yes” when asked if you really want to import.