Win7Tip: Hover don't Click

You must unlearn what you have learned. Yoda - The Empire Strikes back


Having worked with Windows 7 for a few weeks now, when working with the taskbar, hover don't click. What I mean by this is with XP, taskbar interactions require a lot of clicks. If you want to minimize an application, click its name on the task bar. If you want to give the application the focus you click it.

Well doing that in Windows 7, always seems to result in two clicks. One to select the application you want, and once to select the Window. But this is not what you want to do. Instead, try hovering over an application on the task bar. The open windows for that application will automatically pop up. If you hover over once of the mini preview windows as shown above, then Windows 7 hides the other open windows and highlights the window being hovered over. Once you know which window you want, then you click it.

Its a completely different mindset, but once you get used to it, hovering will become your friend.

GoogleTip: Set the Default Font Size in Google Sites Wiki

Google has a great free wiki at http://sites.google.com. Although it lacks some of the cool features of its predecessor (jot), it is still a really nice wiki.

The problem I have been running into is there seemed to be no easy way to set the default font size for a page. Using the built in formatting options, you can highlight all the text and then set the font. However, this does not actually set a global font, but instead wraps each piece of content with nasty <font> tags. Then when you add some new text, it does not get wrapped and you end up with a mess.

Google Sites does actually allow you to edit the HTML directly, with some limitations. (This is how I found out about the nasty <font> tags.) For example, you cannot use the style tag to add CSS to the page. However, you can use style="" attributes to tags. So, to set the default font do the following.

1. Edit the page and choose the HTML option to edit the page.
2. At the top of the content add the following: <div style="font-size: 11pt;">
   
3. At the end of the content add </div>

Now by just adjusting the font point size in the <div> statement, you can control the default font size for all the content between the
<div> tags.

Unix: Add a User Account in Solaris

Since it seems like I have to set up a new Solaris VM every year or two, adding a new user is a part of the process. So instead of having to look this up again, I thought I would write down the steps this time.

1. Log into Solaris as root
2. Type the following command to add a user:
   
   useradd -d /export/home/username -m -s /usr/bin/bash -c "User Full Name" username

The -d option specifies where to create the users directory. The -m option actually creates the directory if it does not exist. The -s option sets your default command line shell. -c sets the users full name. The new username is the last option on the command line. This sets up the account, but does not set the password.

3. To set the password type: passwd username
4. When prompted enter the new password twice.

That's it. You should have a new user account all set up. Log out as root and you can log into your new account.

Win7Tip: No Command Prompt Text Editor in Windows 7

One of the utilities I have used a lot since the days of MS-DOS is the edit command line editor. It is like vi for Unix, its the editor that is always there on any system.

Well with Windows 7 64 bit, its gone. After Googling around for it and such, I finally ran across a definitive statement on the subject. In Windows 7 64 bit, a number of DOS utilities have been discontinued and Microsoft has created a list here.

So this begs the question, is there something I can use as a command line editor? Well so far, the only thing I can find is a 64 bit version of VI Improved (VIM). I have not had a chance to try it out yet, but it looks promising. And of course, if you are not a Unix person, this editor is not for the faint of heart. :)  But it looks like the best option available at the current time.

Update: There is a Windows version of the Nano editor. It is quite a bit easier to use than VI. Get Nano for Windows here.

Win7Tip: Must have Free and Open Source for Windows 7

Since I am setting up a new Windows 7 machine. I though it might be a good idea to cover some of the standard applications I like to install. Most of them are free and open source.

Browsers
I like to run multiple browsers. Firefox as a development and default browser. Chrome or Safari for web surfing, and SeaMonkey for those multiple profile sort of situations.

Chrome  Firefox  Safari  SeaMonkey


Development
Cygwin - Want a Bash shell on Windows? Want some of your favorite Unix utilities?  Then Cygwin is for you.

Java - Must have the JDK.

Notepad++ - It is always a good idea to have a good native programming text editor around. For those times when you need a quick tweak or just want to view something. For Windows, Notepad++ is the best option out there.
NetBeans - A great Java open source IDE.
SQLite - File based SQL database.
Subversion - Windows 7 64 bit command line version.


Internet
Filezilla - A secure FTP client for Windows. When transferring files with a Unix system, FTP or SFTP is still your best choice.

Pidgin - Best open source chat client for Windows.

Putty - Windows SSH and Telnet client

Thunderbird - Mozilla's awesome e-mail client.


Office
Open Office - Open source office suite.
Paint.net - Open source graphics program
SVG Anti-Virus - Great free or paid anti-virus you can buy and install online.

Win7Tip: Create Unix ls and ls -l replacements

Q: Is there an equivalent the Unix directory commands ls and ls -l on Windows 7?
A: Yes there is, the dir command.
ls is equivalent to dir /w
ls -l is equivalent to dir

My brain is so hardwired for the bash shell now, that I make batch file equivalents for these programs. I create the following programs in the c:\Windows directory. To create files in this directory under Windows 7, you need to run as Administrator

ls.bat
@dir /w %1 %2 %3 %4 %5

The 5 numbers allow you to add parameters to the command for example ls c:\directory.

For a long list I use the common alias of ll.
ll.bat
@dir %1 %2 %3 %4 %5

Subversion for Windows 7

I was looking for a 64 bit Windows version of a command line client. Found this silksvn client and it seems to work fine.

Win7Tip: Turn Off Auto Logoff and Logon

Q: After 15 minutes of inactivity, my Windows 7 laptop logs me off the machine. My screen saver settings do not require a password. How and where do I turn this off?

A: This "feature" is not part of your screen saver settings. As you might guess, it is part of your energy settings.

1. Navigate to your screen saver settings.
1. Right click on the desktop.
2. Select Personalize from the popup menu.
3. Click on the Screen Saver Icon in the lower right corner of the screen.
2. Click on the Change Power Settings link.
3. This should bring a list of power plans for your machine.
4. Click on the Change Plan Settings option for the currently selected power plan.
5. The Edit Power Plan settings dialog is displayed. You can set all sort of power related options here. (But we must dig deeper. )
6. Click on the Change Advanced Power Setings option.
7. This brings up the Advanced Power Options dialog. At the top of the dialog, you should see a Require Password on Wakeup Option. This is the setting that is logging you off your machine. But the options are grayed.
8. To change the Wakup setting, click on the Change Settings That Are Currently  Unavailable link.
9. Clicking on the link enables you to change your wake up options.
10. Change the wakeup options from Yes to No.

That's it. Your machine should no longer automatically log you off your computer.

Windows 7 Tips

Because of some changes at work, I am gonna be using Windows a lot more. And in my case, I am upgrading from Windows XP straight to Windows 7. I have never really used Vista at all.

So I'm going to be posting tips in a FAQ format as I figure them out. It seems everything is there from before, but is always in a different place. :) After I get a few of these tips posted, I will create a summary page that I hope other people will find helpful.

Win7Tip: Configure the Screen Saver in Windows 7

Q: Where do I configure the Screen Saver in Windows 7?

Answer:

1. Right click the desktop.
2. Choose Personalize at the bottom of the menu.
3. Click on the Screen Saver Icon in the lower right hand corner of the dialog.

At this point the dialog is pretty much the same as it was before in XP.

Google Announces Buzz

Yesterday, Google announced its now Buzz service. Essentially, this new service will allow you to include your Twitter feeds, RSS Feeds, and Chat all in your GMail Inbox. CNet reviews the concept here.

Since the tool has not been rolled out to my account yet I haven't had a chance to try it. But my first impression is this seems like a bad idea. With e-mail I try to read and process all the messages I receive. Twitter and RSS feeds are completely different. Those I browse for just the stories that interest me. Sometimes I might miss a day or two of the feed. There is simply too much information to read it all. Having this avalanche of data pile up in my inbox does not seem like an improvement to my data browsing habits. But I will reserve further judgement until I have a chance to try it out.

MacTip: Taking Screenshots with Mac OS X

Mac OS X includes a number of key combinations which allow you to take screen shots. The available options are as follows:

Key Combination	Result
Command+Shift+3	Capture entire screen and save as a file on the desktop.
Command+Control+Shift+3	Capture entire screen and copy to the clipboard.
Command+Shift+4	Capture dragged area and save as a file on the desktop.
Command+Control+Shift+4	Capture dragged area and copy to the clipboard.
Command+Shift+4 then Space bar	Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and save as a file on the desktop.
Command+Control+Shift+4 then Space bar	Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and copy to the clipboard.

With OS X Leopard, the files are saved as PNG files. With the clipboard option, you can save the image to a graphics tool, or use Preview and select File -> New Image from Clipboard.

GoogleTip: Movie Showtimes with Google

Have you ever wanted to check movie showtimes really quick? Well then, a simple Google search is all you need. If you type in the word "movies" or "showtimes" along with a zip code in  Google search box, voila! You get a list of theaters, movies and times. For example. If I want the movie times for the 80021 zip code I could type:

movies 80021
or
showtimes 80021

And you get a link at the top of your search page like this:

Once you click on the link, you get a page like this:

Quick and convenient. Enjoy.

Win7Tip: Set the Path in Windows 7

Q: How do you set the path in Windows 7?

A: From the user interface, do the following

Click Start -> Computer -> System Properties -> Advanced System Properties -> Environment Variables -> Select Path under System Variables.

The computer option can be found on the right side of the Start menu. The System Properties option is on the main menu of the Computer dialog.

It seems to work pretty much like it did in XP. It is just a little harder to find.

Custom Blogger Feeds

The bloggerdesign blog has this article on how to get custom feeds from your blogger blog. Basically, you use your labels to get topic specific feeds. The result is just the posts for that label in an atom format.

The basic format is:
http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/labelname

Where blogname is your blogs name on blogger. The labelname is what
appears in the URL of your blog label page.

Here are a couple example URLs from the article.

Example URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/personalization
Example Feed: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/personalization


This approach does not appear to work with FeedBurner, but I think I really only want to annoy folks with ads in my main feed anyway. :)

Site Updates

Over the weekend I made some cosmetic updates to the site. You will notice a newer "blue sky-like" header. It adds some much needed color to the site. In addition, I updated the CSS and removed the boxes from the headings for posts. Just wasn't digging the boxes any more. So you will see some lines separating the posts.

Finally, I added a "Lastest Posts" section at the top of the right column. This should allow you to scan the latest posts on the site if you stumbled upon the site with a browser. I using a built in Blogger widget for this. I would really like to have more post headers there and style each line a little bit better. So I may be rolling my own widget to do that in the future.

Update: The widget just isn't working. So you won't see in the right column until I can write my own.

MacTip: Switch Between Windows within Applications or Between Applications

Q: On my Mac, using a keyboard how do I switch between windows within an application or between applications?

A: Use Expose. By default Mac OS X assigns three function keys to assist you in managing windows.

F11 - Hide all open windows.
F10 - Show all open windows of the application with focus.
F9 - Show all the open windows of all applications currently running.

Once the function key has been pressed, you can use the arrow keys to select the window of your choice.

If you have a multi-button mouse, you can also assign mouse buttons to perform the same function as the function keys.