TechThisOut!
Tech news, reviews, and how-tos!
Dodgeit
Feb 3rd
DodgeIt allows you to check disposable email addresses on the fly (without having to create one) to avoid possible spam that comes with signing up for new services.
When you sign up for something, somewhere, DodgeIt allows you to enter any name @dodgeit.com as your email address. Afterwards, visit DodgeIt.com to check that disposable email address, even though you didn’t go through the process of creating it. DodgeIt also provides you with an RSS feed for each email address to keep an eye on your throwaway email address.
Because you don’t have to create accounts, keep in mind that anyone can check that More >
Google Toolbar – v4 Beta
Feb 2nd
Google recently released Google Toolbar v4 Beta to the public. This is a big change over v3, both due to functionality, and apperance.
Custom Buttons are one of the latest features packed into the new toolbar. You can add buttons to your Toolbar that will let you visit and search your favorite websites and keep up with interesting feeds. The Google Button Gallery offers a selection of ready-made buttons for popular sites, and you can make your own buttons in seconds by right-clicking within the search box on any site and selecting “Generate Custom Search…” Start making your own buttons.
The new Enhanced Search Box is another More >
Internet Explorer 7 Beta released to the public.
Jan 31st
Before I start I should re-enforce the fact that this is still a Beta, and may contain bugs/do bad things to your PC etc, and although this is VERY rare, please bear it in mind!
Also please note that this is for Windows XP Service Pack 2 ONLY so will not work on any other version of Windows so trying is futile!
The main new features of IE7 as opposed to previous versions are:
Tabbed browsing, which is something it has been missing for a long time and this may even put it back in the league with the likes of Firefox, and Opera, More >
Writely
Jan 30th
Writely is an online word processor, allowing you to create, save, delete, and generally manage documents — online.
The best part is that you will have your writely documents wherever you go. From the site:
- Nothing to download — your browser is all you need.
- Collaborate just by entering people’s e-mail addresses.
- Publish on the web or post to your blog with a click.
- Pick exactly who can access your documents.
- Upload from Word/OpenOffice & save to your desktop.
- Edit your documents anytime, from anywhere.
You can use it for:
- Meeting notes, Reports, technical specs
- Sign-up sheets, proposals and much more…
Here’s how Writely explains More >
Firefox 2
Jan 29th
It looks like it is going to be an exciting year for one of the most popular browsers out there, Firefox.
According to the Mozilla Blog, the main changes in Firefox 2 will be:
New Bookmarks and History - Improve the browser’s Bookmarks and History systems to improve their effectiveness as renavigation aids while at the same time improving the back end for speed and extensibility.
Tabbed Browsing Enhancements – Make tabs behave more like windows in the operating system environment, making them behave more as users would expect.
Improved Basic Content Type Handling – For things like RSS/Atom feeds, mail links etc. Improve discovery and More >
AllToTray
Jan 26th
Ever been surfing the web, checking your emails, talking on MSN and trying to use Photoshop at the same time? Well, I’m sure you know how annoying it is having such a cluttered taskbar, and now theres an answer to your problems!
AllToTray allows you to minimise pretty much anything to your systemtray only, so it’s out of the way till you need it. This also helps if you have a program like Adobe Photoshop (which takes forever to load!) open, and know you’ll want to use it again, but don’t want to close it. You can just minimise it to the More >
Recolorize Black & White Photos
Jan 25th
Check out Recolored, it’s a great program that will colorize black and white photos according to the monochrome shading.
You can colorize the whole image, or just certain parts. All you do is mark the area you want colorized, and then Recolorize will colorize the selected area for you. Check it out!
Jesse
Mozilla Firefox, without the mouse.
Jan 23rd
Learning to use Firefox keyboard shortcuts to reduce your trips to the mouse can lead to a much more fulfilling web browsing experience, especially at those times that your mouse just isn’t doing the trick.
Okay, you got me. I have, on occasion (read: often), neglected to charge my wireless mouse for long enough that, when it’s time to get posting, I find myself totally mouse-less.
Now you’re thinking, “What, just because this wire-hating jerk can’t remember to put their mouse on the charger every now and then, I’m supposed to get all excited about the idea of using Firefox without a More >
Web Hosts.
Jan 22nd
I’m in the process of changing webhosts, from Surpass Hosting to A Small Orange. Because of this merger, the site may be down for a few hours to a few days. I don’t know. Just a warning.
-Jesse
Comic Sans MS
Jan 22nd
Funny article about the font Comic Sans and how it was never supposed to be put to use… enjoy!
Comic Sans was designed because when I was working at Microsoft I received a beta version of Microsoft Bob. It was a comic software package that had a dog called Rover at the beginning and he had a balloon with messages using Times New Roman.
Click here for the full explanation with pictures.
-Jesse