Bent Corner

I had the Firefox add-on Foxmarks v2.6 installed on all of my computers. Its a piece of software that automatically syncs bookmarks on every computer you use. Its one of the few add-ons that I actually used with Firefox. I never had a problem with it until the other day. For some inexplicable reason, it ate all of my bookmarks.

I had my bookmarks filed and sorted into perfect order and now most of them are gone.

I’m now left with only one folder of bookmarks (Politics) and everything else is gone. I’ve lost hundreds of my bookmarks.

This is precisely the kind of thing that makes me want to wash my hands of all open source software. When something goes totally wrong with open source, you are forced to remember that you paid absolutely nothing for it. It has absolutely no warranty and it is provided totally “as-is”. In fact, if you read the term of service (TOS) included with Foxmarks, you will see that the makers disclaim any implied responsibility that the software even works the way its supposed to.

What’s the point of even making it?

The makers of Foxmarks are trying to create a new and supposed better search engine. It will be based entirely on the data mined from Foxmarks user’s bookmarks. Their goal is not to create a quality bookmark synchronizer for people to use. Their goal is to compile information provided by Foxmarks users so they can create a search engine to make a buck.

They wont be getting any more of my help.

Here’s another piece of freeware that should have been created by Microsoft, but of course wasn’t. Stalled Printer Repair deletes a print request clogging up the printer spooler queue that cannot for whatever reason be deleted. Once something is stalled in the spooler queue, you cannot print anything until the first job is cleared from the spooler queue.

Even if you don’t try to print anything else, a stuck print job in the spooler queue can severely slow down your machine.

This problem has plagued Microsoft machines for as long as I can remember. Maybe instead of filming those stupid Mojave Experiment commercials where they trick retarded people into believing that Microsoft Vista is really some new Microsoft operating system called Mojave, though ought to just fix the operating system(s) that already really have.

Download Stalled Printer Repair 1.1

If you’re not a fan of your computer’s operating system’s file manager, you really ought to check out muCommander. There’s a version for just about every operating system known to man. Remember that alien computer system in the movie Independence Day? The one that Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum uploaded a computer virus onto while docking with the alien mothership? Well, I think you can even download a version of muCommander for that operating system.

The list of available versions is that extensive.

The interface allows you to easily move files between directories through a two-panel view.  I think there’s other options as far as the display is concerned, but the default two-lanel system works great.  I try using two panels with Vista’s Explorer and it’s hard to keep the two displays up at the same time.

This software is free and it’s much better.

This nice little free program automatically monitors any folder you tell it to for new music files.  It then automatically adds any new music tracks to your iTunes library.

Download iTunes Folder Watch for Windows [1.0.33]

This from Softpedia.com:

iRotate is a free screen rotation utility, providing administrators, end-users and manufacturers of pivoting monitors with a standardized, simple mechanism to control screen orientation across multiple monitors, operating systems and graphics cards.

I have an LCD monitor that has the ability to pivot from the conventional landscape mode to not so conventional portrait mode. What I don’t have is a way of letting my computer know that I am switching from landscape mode to portrait mode - until now.

I tried using Pivot Pro when I first converted my monitor into having the ability to pivot, but I wasn’t keen on spending $50 for the non-trial version. CDisplay, The program I use the monitor in portrait mode for has pivot support built right in. It would be nice to surf the web with the monitor in portrait mode.

Do people still say “surfing the web“? At least I didn’t call it the Information Superhighway.

Download iRotate 1.32

I started listening to audio books on my iPod. Our local public library has a massive collection of full, unabridged books on CD just waiting to be checked out and imported to iTunes.

This past week, I listened to Brad Meltzer’s The Book of Fate. I enjoyed listening to it. The only problem I discovered was that unlike a podcast, my iPod would not remember where I left off. I would have to do a lot of hunting for the exact place I left off when coming back to listen to more. I eventually got to the point where I would write down on a yellow sticky the file and the time mark where I left off.

There had to be a better way.

I started poking around iTunes and I think I found out how to make it so my iPod remembers where I left off. While looking at each individual album (CD) in iTunes, group highlight the audio files. Hold Ctrl+A if you are a Windows user. Then right-click your mouse button while pointing to the highlighted files. A drop-down menu will appear. Select Get Info located at the very top.

A box will appear with all sorts of options to choose.

Located at the very bottom of the box is Remember Position. Check the box and change it to Yes. Now all the files you highlighted will be bookmarkable in iTunes and on your iPod.

I was looking for software that would allow me to hover my mouse pointer over an area of the screen and give me the hexadecimal code for that specific color. I used to have a small program that did this, but a computer crash a while back caused it to go the place where ones and zeros go when they die. I didn’t have it backed up and I couldn’t remember the name of it. It was just something I clicked on my desktop to find the color of something.

I looked on Google for something like it, but I never found anything that fit the bill. I was fairly picky in my requirements. I wanted it to be free, easy to use, and I wanted it to give me the hexadecimal code in a format that I could cut and paste. I finally found what I was looking for. It’s called Color Cop.

Normally I don’t want anything to do with anything with the word “cop” in it. For this software, I will make an exception.

Give it a try if you are looking for something like this.

Not all fonts are recognized or supported by all operating systems. The following fonts are good for Windows, Mac, and Linux/UNIX.

• Andale Mono
• Arial
• Arial Black
• Comic Sans MS
• Courier New
• Georgia
• Impact
• Times New Roman
• Trebuchet MS
• Verdana

If you incorporate any of these fonts into the CSS style sheet of your website, it will have the same look across all platforms. Windows, Mac OS, UNIX, and fake UNIX (Linux). At least it will look more similar then if you called for a font only used by one platform.