I'm So Stylish ....

I just found the coolest Firefox extension. It allows you to control the style of any website that is loaded into your Firefox browser. The extension has a community website that users submit their own styles so that others can share. For example, I really love using Gmail but I think their look-and-feel could have been done by a 10 year old. I grabbed a really nice looking user submitted file and voila .... I have a very nice looking email interface.

The style control can be used for all sorts of things:
-Remove annoying ads
-Change color scheme
-Adjust usability of website

One nice option is if you know CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), you can modify the style yourself. I have downloaded the user styles that I liked the best and then tweaked the style to be more what I like. It is amazing what you can do with this extension and CSS. I modified the Google search results page to keep the search box and button at the top of the page as I scroll. Now I can have Google return 50 search items and still be able to easily adjust my search criteria without scrolling anywhere.

I've been using it for a week and I am in love. Check out the Stylish extension website at: http://www.userstyles.org/

Encryption Question

I'm working on an encryption solution at work. We currently need to symmetrically encrypt a user's password and store it in a database field. I need to somehow securely store the symmetric encryption key so that no one can access it except this application. I can't store it in the code because tools like Reflector and can find it. Has anybody found a great way of doing this?

Task Switcher for XP

I am an 'Alt+Tab' addict. I have had a keyboard with a broken tab key and I was crippled on that keyboard. I'll use 'Alt+Tab' to quickly switch between to applications that I've been using recently. I also use it to get to an already open application. My problem is that I tend to have quite a few applications open at a time and it can take some time to 'Alt+Tab' to the correct application.

So last week I found a nifty little tool that replaces the default XP 'Alt+Tab' functionality. This tool gives you a preview of the applications that are currently running and also lets me use the mouse to select the application that I want to activate (not possible with the default 'Alt+Tab'). The tool has a lot of other tweaks that you can do. I've been using it for a week now and really like it. Give it a try. The tool is called TaskSwitchXP.

http://www.ntwind.com/software/taskswitchxp.html

I have no complaints so far with TaskSwitchXP.

Kid Deterrent

A guy at work showed me a sound that is supposed to scare away kids and teenagers, similar to those devices that makes sounds that scare away mosquitoes. I guess the UK is using it to help encourage teenagers to no longer loiter near gas stations. Supposedly, in your early twenties we start having certain hairs in our ears die off which prevent adults from hearing the sound. So I tried listening to the sound and holy cow that sound hurts. It would definitely drive me away. My coworkers (most of them are in their 40's and 50') could not hear it. There was only one lady in her 40's that could hear it. It was kind of interesting to play with. The problem with the UK using it as a kid deterrent is that adults up to 35 could probably hear it and a few older than that could hear it to.

See if you can hear it:

http://graphics.nytimes.com/packages/audio/nyregion/20060610_RINGTONE.mp3

or try this site

http://www.freemosquitoringtones.org/

Just be warned: if you can hear this, it will probably not feel good if you have the volume up too loud.

Launchy Video

I just found a video that CNET did that explains Launchy and how to use it.

http://www.cnettv.com/9742-1_53-32210.html

As a note: I've been using this tool for almost two months now and I cannot live without it now.

Destroy The Web

I found a cool website that allows you to destroy any website that you want. No, you don't really bring the website down but the site allows you to have dinosaurs, tornadoes, wasps and many more things to destroy your favorite or most hated websites. Check it out: http://www.netdisaster.com/

Dates in Batch Files

I was using a batch file to kick off a process that grabs a file off a server. One of the arguments of the command to get the file tells the command where to store the file, including the file's name. We wanted the file's name to based of the date the file was stored on our servers. So I needed away to get the current date and passed it in as a command line argument. Here's what I found:

@For /F "tokens=2,3,4 delims=/ " %%A in ('Date /t') do @(
Set Month=%%A
Set Day=%%B
Set Year=%%C
)

MyCommand.exe FileName="MyFile%Year%%Month%%Day%.txt"

This command works very well.

Source: http://weblogs.asp.net/whaggard/archive/2005/08/18/423029.aspx

The One Thing I Like About Vista

I've recently bought a new computer with Vista on it. I was very excited to get this new machine with way better specs than my previous machine. I was also excited to see Vista. So I turned on the machine and was quickly disappointed to note that my new "faster" machine ran a littler slower than my old machine. I also noticed some other things that didn't quite run right. So I wiped my drives and put Ubuntu on it. My wife wants windows back so I'm going to put XP back on the new machine and hopefully see the speed that I was expecting.

The one thing that I really liked about Vista was the Start Menu Search Box. This search box allowed me to type in a portion of the name of the program that I wanted to run and it would start it for me. For example, typing "fire" would start up my FireFox browser. It was really convenient.

I was thinking about this and thought, "Why not find a thirdy party app that can do this for me in XP?!" So I did and I found Launchy. It is a free tool that indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes. It makes it very easy for me to quickly find all of my applications. You can set which folders are indexed which keeps too many bad results from showing up.

I found some other similar apps and I liked that this one did not mess with the current Start menu. I like the XP Start menu and don't want it to be replaced.

Check it out: http://www.launchy.net/

Decent Looking File Upload Boxes

I found this interesting article about creating decent looking file upload input boxes. Check it out: http://www.shauninman.com/archive/2007/09/10/styling_file_inputs_with_css_and_the_dom

Ring Ring

See Update Below

So I have a new phone number. It's supposed to be the last one I'll ever have according to Grand Central. Grand Central is a new service that I'm playing with. Here's their own schpeel about their service:

What is GrandCentral?

Get all the same calls, but in a whole new way.

GrandCentral doesn't replace your phones; we just link them together and help them do more. How do we do that? We give people One Number...for Life^TM - a number that's not tied to a phone or a location - but tied to you.

With GrandCentral, you can be reached with a single number, answer a call at any phone you want, seamlessly switch phones in the middle of a call, and even know whether a call is important before you take it.

What else can I do with GrandCentral?

We're not your typical phone company. And these aren't your typical features.

• Check your messages by phone, email, or online
• Keep all your messages online for eternity
• Record and store your phone calls (just like voicemail)
• Quickly (and secretly) block an annoying caller
• Click-to-dial from your address book
• Surprise your callers with a custom voicemail greeting
• Forward, download, and add notes to your messages

I've been using them for over a month now and I've really enjoyed the service. I like people being able to be reach me without trying to play phone tag. I also like having a single voicemail box. They offer a lot more features than the ones listed above. For example, they have custom rings that you're callers will hear while Grand Central (GC) tries to call your phone numbers, some of them are quite funny.

They also have a phone switch feature that allows you to transfer your current call to another one of Grand Central phones. For example, if someone calls me on my GC number and I pick up on my work phone. Let's say that it's my wife and she talks more than I expected (happens all the time) and I need to head for home. I can hit the '*' on the phone and GC will have all my other phone numbers tied to GC ring. So I pick up my ringing cell phone, hang up the work phone and continue talking to my wife without her ever knowing that she's been transferred.

It's been a great service. I think they are still in private beta so not everyone can sign up for the service right now. I still have a few invitations left, so let me know if you want to try out the service.

Update: GrandCentral is not doing invitation right now.
Update 2: GrandCentral is now Google Voice. The service is essentially the same just run by Google.