New Windows "Feature"

1. Create a file called 'notepad.bat' on your desktop
2. Right-click -> Edit and enter the word 'mspaint' (no quotes)
3. Save and close
4. Open Internet explorer and browse to your favorite site
5. Right-click -> View Source

Do you see what I see?

Introducing IE, the Firefox extension...?

Want a way to never ever have to leave your Firefox browser and launch IE (yes, even for Windows and office updates and all those IE-only websites)? There is a way thanks to IE Tab. This lightweight Firefox extension will load any IE site by switching engines, and using IE as an embedded browser.

But what really makes the icing on the cake is that it works with Firefox 1.5 RC3 (which I happen to be using right now).

What are you waiting for? Get Firefox!

Interesting links

I stumbled upon these links via Digg (great site by the way):

1. Quake 2 Evolved - Via the website - "Quake II Evolved is a high end graphical update to id Softwares Quake 2. Using advanced effects such as Per Pixel Lighting and Shadowing, Fragment And Vertex Programs, High Resolution textures and models, and an advanced version of the Doom 3 Shader System, Quake II Evolved's goal is a simple one; To take Quake 2, and pump up the detail to tomorrows standards. Quake II Evolved began back in 2002 when two guys, Nicolas Martin Flekenstein, and Gavin Stevens, thought of the idea to add a few nice effects and skins to Quake 2. What began as a small hobby quickly turned into a mammoth project in no time. The process has been a slow but sure one, adding smaller effects like advanced particles and UI's, moving onto larger advances such as a complete per pixel renderer."

2. FlightGear - Via the website - " FlightGear is an open-source project. This means as long as you abide by the terms of the GPL license you may freely download and copy FlightGear. Anyway can have easy and open access to the latest development source code. Being an open-source project, we have made our file formats open and easily accessible. We support standard 3d model formats and much of the simulator configuration is controlled through xml based ascii files. Writing 3rd party extensions for FlightGear (or even directly modifying the FlightGear source code) is straightforward and doesn't require a large amount of reverse engineering. This makes FlightGear an attractive option for use in private, commercial, research, or hobby projects.

FlightGear is known to run on Windows, Linux, Mac OS-X, FreeBSD, Solaris, and IRIX platforms allowing the user run on their platform of preference."

Mozilla Firefox 1.5 RC3

So I decided to bite the bullet and try Mozilla 1.5 RC3, and the good news is I'm not disappointed.

Pros:
- Surfing is noticeably faster in some cases.
- To the perception, pages load faster.
- Broken/incompatible extensions are handled gracefully.
- Imported all settings, bookmarks and currently used theme from my previous Firefox browser (Stipe build 1.0.7 s8v1)
- Its Firefox for cryin' out loud!

Cons:
- Still searching for one ;)

Daemon Tools v 4.0

If you're in the market for a CD/DVD emulator, I just discovered this absolutely free and amazing piece of software called Daemon Tools.

More information and download link available at http://ww.daemon-tools.cc.

News via http://www.iexbeta.com

Javascript - Handling browser window close

http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/familjones/archive/2004/04/06/10884.aspx

How to keep your laptop battery caliberated...

I came across this interesting post at http://www.digg.com (think of it as Slashdot minus the crap)

This blogger recounts how he extended the life of his battery by regularly discharging it to 0% and letting it re-charge:
http://warning9.com/mylife/?p=46

Be sure to read the comments section on that page for some more insights.

New Office 12 screenshots

Activewin has posted screenshots from the latest build of Microsoft Office 12, for your viewing pleasure.

Google Reader (mini review)

Yet another release from the labs at Google, comes Google Reader, a web-based RSS feed syndicator.

Here are some of the initial issues I noted:

• UI feels slow and choppy (especially transition effects - YMMV)
• Subscribe button does not always work (I'm still trying to figure out when it does work)
• Attempts to subscribe to RSS feeds from sites like theregister.com or theinquirer.net failed. I have already subscribed to 4 feeds (maybe there is a limitation right now)

Here's the good part:

• User experience (look and feel) similar to GMail
• Same keyboard shortcuts as GMail (what they don't mention is that pressing 'o' opens a feed or feed item to reveal its snippet text)
• Conveniently unsubscribe to a feed
• Conveniently "Blog This!" (to your Blogger account) or GMail this (self-explanatory)
• Label your RSS subscriptions (similar to labeling your mail in GMail)
• Export/Import Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML) files
• All the usual sorting capabilities

The Germans must be crazy...

...but wait, everyone already knows that!

One is at a loss for words when one sees works of art (for lack of a better term) like this. A serious drool warning for Sukhoi fanatics is in order.