IMG SRC: http://bit.ly/bCzrHx

Reason for that is Spaces! Before anyone gets their panties in a knot, I know that there are alternatives for this in Linux and in Windows. It’s just that I think Apple has done it best. The integration right into the OS along with the ease of use is hard to beat.

The image here depicts a 4 desktop scenario but I actually use a 12 desktop system – 4 accross and 3 tall. This allows me to assign certain programs to certain desktops and organize my computer so that it is accessible fast. I assign the bottom right corner of the screen in Expose to point to Spaces so ever time I want to switch screens, simply hit the bottom right corner with my mouse and I have a 12 screen preview. This is the fastest and most organized way I have found to work with multiple apps to date. The only other option is 2 50″ screens that do the a 23040 x 3240 resolution total. I can dream can’t I?

Windows 7 is admittedly better with application switching using the hover feature of the task-bar, but in my personal opinion it is still far behind Spaces.

I found a video outlining some hints and tricks around using Spaces and it gives you a good idea of the flow:

Geek on!

Well now I have upgraded to Aperture and I needed a new plug-in. Step up Ubermind. They have created an Aperture to Gallery plugin and I am happy to announce that it works really well. Very similar to what I expected given that I have been doing something similar for a while.

The process seems quite a lot slower that I am used to. But when I thought about it, I am using a much higher quality camera, shooting 12 mega pixels instead of 3.2 and am also shooting in RAW.

The interface could not be more simple. First you need to select which images you want to export while in the library browser in Aperture. Then click File, Export then Gallery. The following window appears and you’re off!

To add your Gallery into the plugin simply click on the large + icon and fill in the URL information. Then you can created a folder to place the images in from the Albums section, choose your personal export options and hit Export.

The first thing that happened was the window disappeared on me – I thought I did something wrong. But like Aperture does when you are editing pictures, it puts a small spinning wheel at the bottom that says Exporting. You can click that for a status box.

Have fun with your photos. I hope to either start posting some up here or possibly start a photo blog – I am not sure.

In any case – GEEK ON!

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So what does that do to our performance? To be honest it kills it. Reinstalling new versions of software will leave traces of the old versions behind in a variety of places. In Windows you can find files left behind and information left behind in the registry. All these things add up and affect the performance of your computer.

The only real way to clean things up after a long period of usage is to re-install your OS. This means doing the nasty deed of backup/restore as well as the re-installation of all your software. Don’t get caught without the installation CD’s for your software or the driver discs for your hardware. When you re-install your OS you should be making a point of erasing your hard drive and installing from scratch. If you don’t do that then you are missing out on about 75% of the benefit of the whole exercise, leaving traces of programs still on the hard drive.

If you have never done this, expect to run into some trouble. A friend who knows what they are doing would be handy in case you end up in trouble. It is nice to know that you can do it on your own however so if I were you, I would give it a shot!

Here are some guides to installing OSs:
Windows XP Installation Guide
Windows Vista Installation Guide
Windows 7 Installation Guide
OS X Installation Guides

I know there are many more options so if I didn’t list what you are running, do a quick Google search! Thing is – if you aren’t running Windows or OS X, I know you can do this on your own already :)

Now get cracking. I am actually in the process of doing this very thing at work right now. I have a lot of machines that I do testing on but my main computer still requires regular maintenance. It’s a beast and I need it to run at optimal speeds.

Have fun with it and -

Geek on!

Well Wikipedia would tell you that it’s a “a colloquialism used for the error screen displayed by some operating systems, most notably Microsoft Windows, after encountering a critical system error that can cause the system to shut down to prevent irreversible damage to the system’s integrity.” I think most of us know that, like I said before – we all know it is bad!

Well a BSOD is a blue screen of death. This is an error that we started seeing in Windows NT a long time ago and it has followed the kernel since then. When Windows hits an unrecoverable error, it pops up this screen with error codes.

The question is “What can be done” about the error? Well a lot of time it isn’t the fault of Windows, it’s the fault of some defective piece of hardware in your computer. I have seen many different components cause a BSOD but most commonly they are RAM (memory), hard disk and motherboard respectively.

When I am presented with an error like this, the first thing I do is check those components. Do a memory check, do a hard drive scan and some sort of motherboard test. You can find utils on the web to do this sort of thing and 9/10 you will find the problem and thus the fix.

If after those 3 things you don’t see anything wrong then you are looking at a Windows re-installation. Most likely something has gone wrong due to a driver problem and the benefit to reinstalling Windows out-weighs the time it takes to backup and restore your data.

If you ever need guidance with this sort of thing, let me know.

Geek on!

Today the Gmail team introduced Google Buzz, a new feature that lets individuals share links, photos, and other updates with their network of contacts – or with the whole world – right within Gmail. Google Buzz helps people kick off conversations around information that people find mutually interesting.

Within a few months, we also plan to make Google Buzz available to businesses and schools using Google Apps, with added features for sharing within your organization. Stay tuned, and for more information about using Google Buzz with your personal Gmail account, head over to the Gmail blog or visit buzz.google.com.

The service itself looks really cool. They have done something far more simple than Facebook and their typical simpler approach to things quite often works well in the real world. Time will tell.

I like this video they put together to show how it works -

Geek on!

The now have moved notifications to the top bar and cleaned them up. Notifications, messages and requests are now 3 spearate icons as seen here.

A revision to the left menu didn’t actually catch my eye at first. They have centralized more there now for easier access.

The left menu has been organized to make it easier for you to communicate with and discover content from your friends. You can now access your messages and other core features all in one place, to the left of your News Feed.

And the last major change is how you interact with games and applications. Now a dashboard with everything centralized. This may be important to some, but the games don’t really catch me at all. If you do play games or connect to a lot of apps, a dashboard idea like this is great.

Have fun with the new changes!

Geek on!

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The following was done by Niel Curtis (www.neilcurtis.com/).