Filed under: Internet, Search, web 2.0

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Filed under: Internet, Web services, Yahoo!, Social Software, web 2.0

Image sharing site Flickr has allowed users to view attractive slideshows of search results or image sets for a while now. But for some reason, up until now you had to rely on a third party service if you wanted to embed that slideshow on your own web page. Or you could create an iFrame and figure out how to create the code yourself. But who wants to go through the trouble?

This week, Flickr finally added the ability to share a slideshow with other users. Just click the Share link when viewing any slideshow on Flickr. You get two options: a URL that links to the slideshow you're viewing or HTML code that will let you embed a smaller version on your web page.

The slideshow embedded at the top of this post shows search results for the word "compiz."

[via ReadWriteWeb]

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Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

There's no shortage of Windows Explorer replacements. While many offer features missing from Windows Explorer like dual pane viewing or tabs, UltraExplorer goes a few steps further. Here are just a few of the features packed into this light weight file manager for Windows:

• Built in command line window that syncs with the open folder
• Viewer window for previewing the contents of selected files
• Dual pane viewing
• Shortcuts for changing views (thumbnails, list, details, etc)

Probably the coolest feature is a "Drop Stack" window which is like a super-charged copy and paste clipboard. Just drag a file or group of folders to the Drop Stack, change folders, and drag them fromt the stack to your new window.

You can also install UltraExplorer on a portable USB flash drive by copying the contents of the installation directory to your flash drive.

[via Lifehacker]

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Filed under: Internet, Office, Social Software, Search

Zoho officially has more online office applications than most people could ever possibly need. But the latest addition makes a lot of sense. Zoho Share lets users upload documents (PDF, DOC, XLS, etc) and share them with other users either via the Zoho web site or by embedding docs on another page. In other words, Zoho Share doesn't do much of anythin gthat Scribd and DocStoc don't already do. But Zoho will also let you import documents from Zoho Sheet, Zoho Writer and other online office docs, which means you can easily create and share your files using the same service.

Zoho Share is available as a public preview, and is still pretty rough around the edges. For example, I was unable to upload any documents, and thanks to the lack of a FAQ, it took me a while to figure out how to import docuements from other Zoho services. Eventually I figured out that by marking a Zoho Writer/Sheet or other document as public, it would show up in a Zoho Share search.

If you're looking for PowerPoint style presentations with pictures of cute kitens, or sample resumes, you can find them at Zoho Share. But like any YouTube-for-documents style service, Zoho Share will only really be useful if the company can build a strong enough user base to ensure that you'll always find what you're looking for -- or if Zoho decides not to emphasize the search and find functionality of the site as much as the fact that you can use Zoho Share to embed documents you upload yourself on your own web site. You know, if the company ever fixes the upload feature.

[via CNET]

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Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Time-Wasters

Ok, I filed this under "fun," but once you give it a shot you might disagree with me.

I Wanna Be The Guy may be the most frustrating, hair-pulling game you ever play. As the developer states on one of his Zazzle shirts, it's "The game where everything kills you. Even the moon."

Within the first couple of minutes, I'd died more times than I cared to count, and that's the point. My poor keyboard nearly got smashed across the edge of my workbench. The game is so difficult (and addictive in a masochistic way) that you want to beat it just to say you did.

Levels have an old-school feel to them and borrow certain elements from some of your favorite classic games, like Bullet Bill and Zangief.

What makes it so hard? Anything can pop out from anywhere and kill you. Keep your eye on that wall, it'll start chasing you and then impale your unsuspecting butt.

IWBTG is kind enough to let you turn down the amount of splatter from your death, as well as music and sound effects - which can get a little irritating during an extended session.

This little baby is freeware, Windows only. If you're not ready for the full dose of insanity, grab the demo download and try the first few levels before taking the plunge.

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Filed under: Office, Productivity

This gives you a running list of what you have accomplished, it provides charts of daily accomplishment, what you have done the most work on according to your tags and a graph of overall performance.

You can also use the feedback button to email your manager your recent progress and get comments from him or her. It's very simple to use and free to sign up. I think it will be a great place to keep track of my blog posts and time spent on other writing projects I am doing.

And, the most useful part if you are working in a team, you can add feeds to your teammates ididwork accounts. For example, if Brad, Lee and I are working on a joint feature post and I need to wait for Brad to be finished with his portion before I can complete mine, if we link up, I can tell as soon as he is done. Then Lee can see when we are both finished and work on his portion.

You can also use the feature as a manager or supervisor and keep track of what your team has completed.

The best part? Since it's on the web you can use it from any computer you are at and if IT decides to "fix" your computer overnight, you won't lose all your data.

[Via The Golden Pencil]

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Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Microsoft, How-Tos

There are lots of nice launcher apps out there (Launchy, SpeedLaunch, Executor, etc.), but why bother with them when you can do the same thing with functions already built in to Windows? Explorer's running anyways, so you may as well get something out of it.

First, create a new folder that will contain your shortcuts. If you've got a data drive or partition, put it there so it'll stick around after a reformat. Next, right click my computer, and open system properties.

Click the advanced tab, then click the environment variables button. In the bottom box, find path and click the edit button. Now scroll all the way to the right, add a semicolon to the end, and input the path to your new folder.
Windows is smart enough to launch a .lnk (shortcut) file from the run box without the extension. Modifying the path variable to include your new folder means it'll launch without the path as well.

Now for your shortcuts. Set yourself up a lazy man's dual-pane explorer: close all other windows, right click the start button and choose explore all users, and then open a second explorer window in your shortcut folder. Right click the taskbar and choose tile windows vertically.

Click and drag your shortcuts into the new folder and do some renaming. For example, I've created a link to FileZilla and then renamed it FZ. Now to launch it, I can just Windows+R to open the run box, type FZ[enter], and there it is. While you're doing this, you may as well set up some hotkeys, too.

If you've never done that in Windows, right click an icon, choose properties, and click in the shortcut key box. Press your desired key combo, and click ok to confirm. Windows, unlike most hotkey apps, will only allow Ctrl + Alt + [key] combinations, but it'll do the job.

The bonus is you can also create a launchbar for yourself by right clicking the taskbar, selecting toolbars and new toolbar, and then browsing to your shortcut folder. I've dragged mine to the top of my screen and set it to autohide and always on top, no titles, no text.

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Filed under: Business, OS Updates, News, Microsoft

You probably knew that a lot of dissatisfied WIndows Vista users had downgraded -- some might say "upgraded" -- to Windows XP. It was never clear exactly how many people took that step, but it was enough that Microsoft extended the shelf life for XP for a while. Now we have a number, thanks to a survey by Devil Mountain Software: nearly 35% of new Vista machines are being downgraded.

The survey used data from PCs that have been shipped in the last 6 months, and included machines that were downgraded by vendors before delivery or by users after the fact. The Register seems to think that Microsoft is shifting focus away from Vista, and instead increasing the marketing effort for its next major OS release, Windows 7. I hardly think these numbers spell doom for Microsoft, but they hopefully provide some incentive to look at why customers are ditching Vista and address their concerns.

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