patndoris.com

I just tried Aviary.com and I must say I am quite impressed. They boast a full webpage screen capture, including scrollable areas that go offscreen. I had to give this a try for myself. I decided I’d try capturing my Life Lessons page since it’s long and has lots of graphics.

On first try in Chrome I had a bit of an issue. Aviary churned away for about 15 seconds then informed me there was an error and I should use the Firefox extension to avoid this. Dutifully, I opened Firefox and installed the add-on. In order to save the files, you apparently need to register on the site - but of course it’s free. The signup was painless and there are other tools on the site such as Image Editor, Effects Editor, Color Editor, Vector Editor and Image Markup, in addition to the Screen Capture. (Note: I have not tried any of the others, but I’ve seen a number of good reviews.)

The Firefox option performed beautifully, I must say! It saved quickly to my desktop as a .PNG file. It’s scrollable within the image. I’m really very impressed. When I first opened the file the image appeared to be about 1/8" wide but I could easily zoom in and the text quality was perfect.

This is definitely one I’m going to bookmark for future use!

I saw this a few months ago. I’ve been meaning to post it but - well - I just hadn’t gotten around to it.  So here it is!!

Video on a sphere is an interactive 3D Adobe Flash Player and ActionScript 3 video - creating a truly amazing video experience. Don’t just click play and sit back. Use your mouse to pan around. You’ve got full 360 degree action here!! Play it more than once. It’s truly an amazing short video if you consider the implications.

More information about Video on a Sphere.

For most of us, we won’t get a better view of the subject matter either. Post me a comment and let me know what you think!

Last night, my friend and I were sitting in the living room and I said to her, 
"I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug."

She got up, unplugged the Computer, and threw out my wine.

Nope - I didn’t write it but it is pretty darn funny!

I never bothered playing with portable apps. I didn’t (don’t) really have a big need for them. But, I saw a write up on LiberKey the other day, and I bookmarked it. Since then I’ve gone back and given it a little spin and I must say I’m rather impressed. It just may have sparked my latest love…or my latest computer fetish - call it what you will.

I had a few dollars on an Office Depot rewards card (recycling ink cartridges from work does pay off eventually, and it’s the right thing to do). So I headed up to the store to grab a couple spare flash drives. They had a nice little micro no-name (actually it has a name - Ativa) on sale - 4GB for $14.99, can’t beat that - so I grabbed a couple. (For the record - one is for a V.P. at work and the other for the portable apps most likely getting most of their use at work - so I don’t feel guilty at all playing with them this way. Besides - I’m the one that takes the time to actually go and drop off the dead and dying ink cartridges, so I think they can allow me the indulgence of a simple little flash drive that I will also use for work purposes don’t you?)

Being as I’ve never played with portable apps before, here’s what I’ve found.  Download the LiberKey installer package to your computer and then specify the USB drive for the actual install. Otherwise, it eats up precious space you may or may not have on your flash drive. You can skip the desktop icon (unless you plan on actually installing the apps on your computer - which you can do if you want, but why clutter it up when you can install them on a USB??) Now, you’re all set. There’s really nothing else to do. You can run the apps right from the flash drive - no hard drive install required. The Ultimate version took about 5 minutes to download and another 5 minutes or so to install on the flash drive. It didn’t need any interaction from me once the install started so it was really no big deal - just a little longer than we get used to these days is all. (And might I add, no annoying boxes to uncheck to avoid any extra software being put anywhere - kudos to the developers for being user friendly and free!!) However, the number of programs needing updates after initial install was significant and took a little longer, although it was really very painless. Just don’t expect to be downloaded and ready to go 5 minutes before you want to head out the door with it.

They have 3 simple installers - Basic, Standard and Ultimate (depending on the size of your flash drive). The Ultimate boasts a fairly comprehensive and well organized list of 202 applications. From my count there are another 50 or so not included in these packages, but still available on the site you can add any/all of them if you choose. (Of course my OCD dictates that I will be adding them all just to see how much space they really take up on my drive - hence (I just adore the word hence) the reason I went for the 4GB drive.) But you can use any old spare flash drive you have handy and customize what you want to put on it. The download items do not have to be run from the LiberKey application, there is an independent download option - it just makes it a little easier to work with them from within the app. If you have a small (ancient) 64mb drive you could easily install just one or 2 apps on it that someone might need.

These could make for great giveaway items if (unlike me) you happen to have lots of spare flash drives, or it occurs to me from a tightwad standpoint - these could make nice Christmas or birthday presents for cheap. At $14.99 for a 4GB drive (and the prices continue to drop) you could give someone a gift they’d probably use and appreciate. You can grab a 2GB flash for $6.99 at Office Depot which could do equally as well. How many times have you told a friend or family member about some piece of free software you use. This might be a great way to make it all available to them. Another nice feature, is from within the LiberKey menu there is a folder for "MyApps" where you can install your own portable apps you find elsewhere. I did put a few others onto my drive so we’ll see how that works out. There’s also a folder for "MyDocuments" making it a very versatile organizer as far as USB drives go.

Only time will tell how worth it this little foray into portable apps will pay off for me. If I never use them, I can always erase them. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I may find I absolutely love using some of these little guys - stranger things have happened. I mean, after all, just a few years ago I had an irrational fear of multiple browsers, and now I use 3 of them. It’s also a nice way to become familiar with applications you might not otherwise try out. (By the way, after installing & updating everything, and adding 7 additional apps I wanted - I used about 2.10GB of space, leaving around 1.62GB free for other stuff. And yes, I realize that only adds up to 3.72GB..where does that last .28GB go? Did the GB gremlins eat it??

App-Stick, Nedwolf, Pendriveapps and  USBSpace all have more to offer in the way of additional software for your USB flash drive. I found App-stick and Penndriveapps were the best two of the lot. It’s also worth mentioning that many software sites offer a portable version, or instructions on how to make an application portable. If there’s software you like - don’t hesitate to do a little searching on how to make it portable (if you have a need for it or want to be able to share it easily.)

A lovely little joke I received by email some time back.

There is a dangerous virus being passed around electronically, orally, and by hand.

This virus is called Weary-Overload-Recreational-Killer (WORK).

If you receive WORK from any of your colleagues, your boss, or anyone else via any means DO NOT TOUCH IT. This virus will wipe out your private life completely. If you should come into contact with WORK, put your jacket on and take two good friends to the nearest grocery store.

Purchase the antidote known as Work-Isolating-Neutralizer-Extract (WINE) or Bothersome-Employer-Elimination-Rebooter (BEER).
Take the antidote repeatedly until WORK has been completely eliminated from your system.

You should let all your friends know about this warning. If you do not have any friends, you have already been infected and WORK is controlling your life.

I ran into this myself last week when I updated to SP2 for Vista. Admittedly, SP2 has not been pushed out to users via automatic updates yet (but it is available publicly for download if you choose to install it now). So, this issue may become more widespread after SP2 rolls out to lots of Vista users in July. After a little searching, it appears there are a few users who have already experienced this same issue, and it affects both 32-bit and 64-bit Vista systems. Let me be 100% clear - this does not affect all Vista systems. I know people who have installed SP2 with no impact on WLM. I cannot tell you any way to know if you will experience this issue, but certainly it should not be a reason for you to not install SP2 for Vista. Service Packs include important security and operating system updates, and the WLM issue is easy enough to fix, at least it was for me.

Problem: After installing SP2 for Vista, there is the possibility WLM will not launch. Clicking on my WLM desktop icon produced no result. No error. No hourglass. No running process in Task Manager. Nothing. Not even an error that the shortcut pointed to a program that was no longer valid. Nothing. (And, for the geeks among you who will invariably question this, I did try running as Administrator, there are no other user accounts on the machine and I have UAC totally off.)

The natural thing to want to do is un-install and re-install, but for me, that’s a last resort. (After all, any good geek will tell you, it’s far more fun to struggle finding a workable solution.) And besides, from the posts I found, this may actually make things worse. After un-installing some people apparently had additional problems and errors, which seem to prevent the re-install from working. I decided not to attempt a repair of WLM either. (My logic being, if an un-install and re-install doesn’t necessarily work, there is a likelihood a repair won’t either.)

Solution: Instead, I headed over to Filehippo and grabbed the latest WLM version 14.0.8064 and just re-installed it right over top of the my existing installation. I did not get any warning that WLM was already installed on my system, and it installed flawlessly in just a couple of minutes.

I can’t say this will work for everyone, but if you run into this you may want to give it a try. There really is nothing to lose. Either it will work, or you’ll get a warning that you already have this version installed. If WLM won’t launch after installing Service Pack 2 for Vista, I can’t really see that there is the possibility of making anything worse by this course of action. I have yet to see any official acknowledgement of a problem with WLM and SP2, and it does not seem to be terribly widespread (yet), but I thought I’d toss my workaround out there for anyone who may find it useful.

So you have a secret penchant for desktop wallpapers? I enjoy looking at them, but rarely do I bother to change mine. (I’m a bit minimalistic in that sense. My current wallpaper is simply a centered image of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” album cover.) I tend to favor the geometric or space/fantasy images - but my stumbling block is sullying them with my desktop icons. Somehow I like the inherent unmarred beauty. Thus, I stick with what I have. But I know many users who change wallpapers like they change clothes. If you happen to be one of those, this may be of far more interest to you.

I admit, I enjoy looking at the options, imagining how they’d look on my 17″ laptop screen. It’s a nice little fantasy. If you enjoy doing the same, or perhaps actually enjoy changing yours up - take a look at these. “Fantastic Wallpapers that will Blow Your Desktop Away - from Smashing Magazine” I think my favorite is Influx, the depiction of the merge of two into one, where the resulting fluidity is somehow captivating.

If those aren’t enough for you, there are links to their other write-ups on dual screen monitor wallpapers, iPhone wallpapers, and other amazingly nice desktop wallpapers they’ve shown in the past. I’m pretty sure you must be able to find something you like here…

What Socrates Can Teach You About Social Media (by Jesse Newhart) is a lovely little work indeed - definitely well worth a read!! How timeless some of the great writings truly are. If only we could all slow down enough to draw the comparisons, perhaps we’d learn a little along the way. Enough said. Go read.