<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" media="screen" href="/~d/styles/rss2full.xsl"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~d/styles/itemcontent.css"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" version="2.0" xml:base="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/">
  <channel>
    <title>Nerd Business Blog</title>
    <link>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/</link>
    <description />
    <language>en</language>
          <atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/nerdbusiness" /><feedburner:info xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0" uri="nerdbusiness" /><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" /><item>
    <title>How to Get Ubuntu Virtual Desktops on Windows 7</title>
    <link>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/ubuntu-virtual-dekstops-windows</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;  &lt;p&gt;While Ubuntu runs on my laptop, my desktop system will remain a Windows machine for the foreseeable future.   &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;For a while I had both systems running Ubuntu. As a long time Windows user, this was a pretty big nerd step for me. Booting up everyday for work into Linux instead of Windows took some getting used too. Of course, I still had Windows 7 within quick reach via a virtual machine. That allowed me to jump in and out of Windows when needed - particularly for the use of Adobe Creative Suite. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Yet, as I found out,  given my time on the PC is spent mostly within Creative Suite there was not enough justification to deal  with the  performance hit when working through a VM. Though it was actually very snappy,  for graphics design work you need perfection. So before long I was booting into Windows again. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Anyway, that's when I really started to miss Ubuntu. You see, Ubuntu has this incredibly useful interface utility called Virtual Desktops. Which basically allows you to have a 'virtual multi-monitor array'. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;This feature is awesome,  not just because of how it  frees up brand new screen real estate. Or how it enables you to reserve screens for specific apps. Its the lightning fast, elegantly animated navigation system that makes it so cool. It's like the evolution of ALT-TAB, and infinitely better. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1110/ubuntu-advantages/img/ubuntu-virtual-desktops.png" alt="Ubuntu virtual desktops" class="img-border" /&gt; 
                            
                                                        &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: 6x6 virtual desktops as featured in the &lt;a href="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/ubuntu-advantages-over-windows-mac-osx"&gt;Top 6 advantages Ubuntu has over OS X &amp;amp; Windows&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Windows 7 has no such feature. Your stuck in a single desktop, for forever. Once your screen gets cluttered you can't just hotkey over to a different screen like in Ubuntu. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Or can you?                                                        &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;VirtuaWin for the win&lt;/h3&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;This handy little program called &lt;a href="http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net" target="_blank"&gt;VirtuaWin&lt;/a&gt; brings the virtual desktops concept to Windows. While it's not quite as impressive as the Ubuntu variety, it does the job. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1112/windows-7-virtual-desktops/img/virtuawin-icon.png" alt="Virtual desktops for Windows 7" width="587" height="150" class="img-border" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Upon installation, you won't really notice much other than a tray icon containing a number. This number is an indication of what screen you're currently on.  VirtuaWin supports up to 9 virtual screens. So as you navigate through them, this number will update correspondingly. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Personally, I keep the limit to just 3. My first screen is generally full of sticky notes (digital sticky notes, of course). The second screen is where I get most of my work done. And the third screen is like an overflow I can jump into for some more  real estate if things start to get cluttered on screen 2. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;As in Ubuntu, the big advantage of VirtuaWin is that both the desktop and your taskbar are isolated on each screen. Which means that if you have  say Photoshop  open on screen 1, when you goto  screen 2 its as if Photoshop is not even open. Its nowhere in sight... &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;The programs on your other screens are only a quick hotkey away. Which, by the way - is the same as on Ubuntu. CTRL-ALT plus the left or right on your keyboard  will swap through screens. And for you, this will quickly becomes second nature, just as ALT-TAB did back in the day.                                                        &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Of course, its compatible with physical multi-monitor setups too. Which means if you've got a dual monitor setup, each 'virtual desktop' will consist of 2 screens.&lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Yet, I suspect that the people who can benefit the most from this program are the ones using only a single monitor. Or on a laptop. Cause virtual desktops, whether on Ubuntu or Windows (or Mac, via Mission Control), is basically like having multiple monitors - with the exception you can only see one at a time.                              &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank"&gt;VirtuaWin &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;is a lightweight, free and open source program that can bring one of the best features of Ubuntu to your Windows setup. If you're a nerd using Windows, there's  no reason &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; to be using  this. &lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;div id="tweet_area"&gt;
                                &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="none" data-via="nerdbusiness" data-related="mrschwabe:Author of the post."&gt;Tweet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
                                    &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="javascript:window.location=%22http://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.location)+%22&amp;t=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.title)"&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/sites/all/themes/nb/images/yhack.jpg" alt="Y Hack" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Tags:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/sticky-notes"&gt;sticky notes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item odd"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/windows-7"&gt;Windows 7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/ubuntu"&gt;Ubuntu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item odd"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/virtual-desktops"&gt;virtual desktops&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-popular field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Popular:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Sat, 03 Dec 2011 21:04:08 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Schwabe</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">222 at http://nerdbusiness.com/blog</guid>
 <comments>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/ubuntu-virtual-dekstops-windows#comments</comments>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>How to Get Ubuntu Virtual Desktops on Windows 7</title>
    <link>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/ubuntu-virtual-dekstops-windows</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;  &lt;p&gt;While Ubuntu runs on my laptop, my desktop system will remain a Windows machine for the foreseeable future.   &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;For a while I had both systems running Ubuntu. As a long time Windows user, this was a pretty big nerd step for me. Booting up everyday for work into Linux instead of Windows took some getting used too. Of course, I still had Windows 7 within quick reach via a virtual machine. That allowed me to jump in and out of Windows when needed - particularly for the use of Adobe Creative Suite. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Yet, as I found out,  given my time on the PC is spent mostly within Creative Suite there was not enough justification to deal  with the  performance hit when working through a VM. Though it was actually very snappy,  for graphics design work you need perfection. So before long I was booting into Windows again. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Anyway, that's when I really started to miss Ubuntu. You see, Ubuntu has this incredibly useful interface utility called Virtual Desktops. Which basically allows you to have a 'virtual multi-monitor array'. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;This feature is awesome,  not just because of how it  frees up brand new screen real estate. Or how it enables you to reserve screens for specific apps. Its the lightning fast, elegantly animated navigation system that makes it so cool. It's like the evolution of ALT-TAB, and infinitely better. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1110/ubuntu-advantages/img/ubuntu-virtual-desktops.png" alt="Ubuntu virtual desktops" class="img-border" /&gt; 
                            
                                                        &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: 6x6 virtual desktops as featured in the &lt;a href="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/ubuntu-advantages-over-windows-mac-osx"&gt;Top 6 advantages Ubuntu has over OS X &amp;amp; Windows&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Windows 7 has no such feature. Your stuck in a single desktop, for forever. Once your screen gets cluttered you can't just hotkey over to a different screen like in Ubuntu. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Or can you?                                                        &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;VirtuaWin for the win&lt;/h3&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;This handy little program called &lt;a href="http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net" target="_blank"&gt;VirtuaWin&lt;/a&gt; brings the virtual desktops concept to Windows. While it's not quite as impressive as the Ubuntu variety, it does the job. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1112/windows-7-virtual-desktops/img/virtuawin-icon.png" alt="Virtual desktops for Windows 7" width="587" height="150" class="img-border" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Upon installation, you won't really notice much other than a tray icon containing a number. This number is an indication of what screen you're currently on.  VirtuaWin supports up to 9 virtual screens. So as you navigate through them, this number will update correspondingly. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Personally, I keep the limit to just 3. My first screen is generally full of sticky notes (digital sticky notes, of course). The second screen is where I get most of my work done. And the third screen is like an overflow I can jump into for some more  real estate if things start to get cluttered on screen 2. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;As in Ubuntu, the big advantage of VirtuaWin is that both the desktop and your taskbar are isolated on each screen. Which means that if you have  say Photoshop  open on screen 1, when you goto  screen 2 its as if Photoshop is not even open. Its nowhere in sight... &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;The programs on your other screens are only a quick hotkey away. Which, by the way - is the same as on Ubuntu. CTRL-ALT plus the left or right on your keyboard  will swap through screens. And for you, this will quickly becomes second nature, just as ALT-TAB did back in the day.                                                        &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Of course, its compatible with physical multi-monitor setups too. Which means if you've got a dual monitor setup, each 'virtual desktop' will consist of 2 screens.&lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Yet, I suspect that the people who can benefit the most from this program are the ones using only a single monitor. Or on a laptop. Cause virtual desktops, whether on Ubuntu or Windows (or Mac, via Mission Control), is basically like having multiple monitors - with the exception you can only see one at a time.                              &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank"&gt;VirtuaWin &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;is a lightweight, free and open source program that can bring one of the best features of Ubuntu to your Windows setup. If you're a nerd using Windows, there's  no reason &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; to be using  this. &lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;div id="tweet_area"&gt;
                                &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="none" data-via="nerdbusiness" data-related="mrschwabe:Author of the post."&gt;Tweet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
                                    &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="javascript:window.location=%22http://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.location)+%22&amp;t=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.title)"&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/sites/all/themes/nb/images/yhack.jpg" alt="Y Hack" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Tags:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/sticky-notes"&gt;sticky notes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item odd"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/windows-7"&gt;Windows 7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/ubuntu"&gt;Ubuntu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item odd"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/virtual-desktops"&gt;virtual desktops&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-popular field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Popular:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Sat, 03 Dec 2011 21:04:08 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Schwabe</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">222 at http://nerdbusiness.com/blog</guid>
 <comments>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/ubuntu-virtual-dekstops-windows#comments</comments>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>How to Get Ubuntu Virtual Desktops on Windows 7</title>
    <link>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/ubuntu-virtual-dekstops-windows</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;  &lt;p&gt;While Ubuntu runs on my laptop, my desktop system will remain a Windows machine for the foreseeable future.   &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;For a while I had both systems running Ubuntu. As a long time Windows user, this was a pretty big nerd step for me. Booting up everyday for work into Linux instead of Windows took some getting used too. Of course, I still had Windows 7 within quick reach via a virtual machine. That allowed me to jump in and out of Windows when needed - particularly for the use of Adobe Creative Suite. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Yet, as I found out,  given my time on the PC is spent mostly within Creative Suite there was not enough justification to deal  with the  performance hit when working through a VM. Though it was actually very snappy,  for graphics design work you need perfection. So before long I was booting into Windows again. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Anyway, that's when I really started to miss Ubuntu. You see, Ubuntu has this incredibly useful interface utility called Virtual Desktops. Which basically allows you to have a 'virtual multi-monitor array'. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;This feature is awesome,  not just because of how it  frees up brand new screen real estate. Or how it enables you to reserve screens for specific apps. Its the lightning fast, elegantly animated navigation system that makes it so cool. It's like the evolution of ALT-TAB, and infinitely better. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1110/ubuntu-advantages/img/ubuntu-virtual-desktops.png" alt="Ubuntu virtual desktops" class="img-border" /&gt; 
                            
                                                        &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: 6x6 virtual desktops as featured in the &lt;a href="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/ubuntu-advantages-over-windows-mac-osx"&gt;Top 6 advantages Ubuntu has over OS X &amp;amp; Windows&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Windows 7 has no such feature. Your stuck in a single desktop, for forever. Once your screen gets cluttered you can't just hotkey over to a different screen like in Ubuntu. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Or can you?                                                        &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;VirtuaWin for the win&lt;/h3&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;This handy little program called &lt;a href="http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net" target="_blank"&gt;VirtuaWin&lt;/a&gt; brings the virtual desktops concept to Windows. While it's not quite as impressive as the Ubuntu variety, it does the job. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1112/windows-7-virtual-desktops/img/virtuawin-icon.png" alt="Virtual desktops for Windows 7" width="587" height="150" class="img-border" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Upon installation, you won't really notice much other than a tray icon containing a number. This number is an indication of what screen you're currently on.  VirtuaWin supports up to 9 virtual screens. So as you navigate through them, this number will update correspondingly. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Personally, I keep the limit to just 3. My first screen is generally full of sticky notes (digital sticky notes, of course). The second screen is where I get most of my work done. And the third screen is like an overflow I can jump into for some more  real estate if things start to get cluttered on screen 2. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;As in Ubuntu, the big advantage of VirtuaWin is that both the desktop and your taskbar are isolated on each screen. Which means that if you have  say Photoshop  open on screen 1, when you goto  screen 2 its as if Photoshop is not even open. Its nowhere in sight... &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;The programs on your other screens are only a quick hotkey away. Which, by the way - is the same as on Ubuntu. CTRL-ALT plus the left or right on your keyboard  will swap through screens. And for you, this will quickly becomes second nature, just as ALT-TAB did back in the day.                                                        &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Of course, its compatible with physical multi-monitor setups too. Which means if you've got a dual monitor setup, each 'virtual desktop' will consist of 2 screens.&lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Yet, I suspect that the people who can benefit the most from this program are the ones using only a single monitor. Or on a laptop. Cause virtual desktops, whether on Ubuntu or Windows (or Mac, via Mission Control), is basically like having multiple monitors - with the exception you can only see one at a time.                              &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank"&gt;VirtuaWin &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;is a lightweight, free and open source program that can bring one of the best features of Ubuntu to your Windows setup. If you're a nerd using Windows, there's  no reason &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; to be using  this. &lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;div id="tweet_area"&gt;
                                &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="none" data-via="nerdbusiness" data-related="mrschwabe:Author of the post."&gt;Tweet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
                                    &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="javascript:window.location=%22http://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.location)+%22&amp;t=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.title)"&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/sites/all/themes/nb/images/yhack.jpg" alt="Y Hack" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Tags:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/sticky-notes"&gt;sticky notes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item odd"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/windows-7"&gt;Windows 7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/ubuntu"&gt;Ubuntu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item odd"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/virtual-desktops"&gt;virtual desktops&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-popular field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Popular:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Sat, 03 Dec 2011 21:04:08 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Schwabe</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">222 at http://nerdbusiness.com/blog</guid>
 <comments>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/ubuntu-virtual-dekstops-windows#comments</comments>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>How to Get Ubuntu Virtual Desktops on Windows 7</title>
    <link>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/ubuntu-virtual-dekstops-windows</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;  &lt;p&gt;While Ubuntu runs on my laptop, my desktop system will remain a Windows machine for the foreseeable future.   &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;For a while I had both systems running Ubuntu. As a long time Windows user, this was a pretty big nerd step for me. Booting up everyday for work into Linux instead of Windows took some getting used too. Of course, I still had Windows 7 within quick reach via a virtual machine. That allowed me to jump in and out of Windows when needed - particularly for the use of Adobe Creative Suite. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Yet, as I found out,  given my time on the PC is spent mostly within Creative Suite there was not enough justification to deal  with the  performance hit when working through a VM. Though it was actually very snappy,  for graphics design work you need perfection. So before long I was booting into Windows again. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Anyway, that's when I really started to miss Ubuntu. You see, Ubuntu has this incredibly useful interface utility called Virtual Desktops. Which basically allows you to have a 'virtual multi-monitor array'. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;This feature is awesome,  not just because of how it  frees up brand new screen real estate. Or how it enables you to reserve screens for specific apps. Its the lightning fast, elegantly animated navigation system that makes it so cool. It's like the evolution of ALT-TAB, and infinitely better. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1110/ubuntu-advantages/img/ubuntu-virtual-desktops.png" alt="Ubuntu virtual desktops" class="img-border" /&gt; 
                            
                                                        &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: 6x6 virtual desktops as featured in the &lt;a href="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/ubuntu-advantages-over-windows-mac-osx"&gt;Top 6 advantages Ubuntu has over OS X &amp;amp; Windows&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Windows 7 has no such feature. Your stuck in a single desktop, for forever. Once your screen gets cluttered you can't just hotkey over to a different screen like in Ubuntu. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Or can you?                                                        &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;VirtuaWin for the win&lt;/h3&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;This handy little program called &lt;a href="http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net" target="_blank"&gt;VirtuaWin&lt;/a&gt; brings the virtual desktops concept to Windows. While it's not quite as impressive as the Ubuntu variety, it does the job. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1112/windows-7-virtual-desktops/img/virtuawin-icon.png" alt="Virtual desktops for Windows 7" width="587" height="150" class="img-border" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Upon installation, you won't really notice much other than a tray icon containing a number. This number is an indication of what screen you're currently on.  VirtuaWin supports up to 9 virtual screens. So as you navigate through them, this number will update correspondingly. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Personally, I keep the limit to just 3. My first screen is generally full of sticky notes (digital sticky notes, of course). The second screen is where I get most of my work done. And the third screen is like an overflow I can jump into for some more  real estate if things start to get cluttered on screen 2. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;As in Ubuntu, the big advantage of VirtuaWin is that both the desktop and your taskbar are isolated on each screen. Which means that if you have  say Photoshop  open on screen 1, when you goto  screen 2 its as if Photoshop is not even open. Its nowhere in sight... &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;The programs on your other screens are only a quick hotkey away. Which, by the way - is the same as on Ubuntu. CTRL-ALT plus the left or right on your keyboard  will swap through screens. And for you, this will quickly becomes second nature, just as ALT-TAB did back in the day.                                                        &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Of course, its compatible with physical multi-monitor setups too. Which means if you've got a dual monitor setup, each 'virtual desktop' will consist of 2 screens.&lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt;Yet, I suspect that the people who can benefit the most from this program are the ones using only a single monitor. Or on a laptop. Cause virtual desktops, whether on Ubuntu or Windows (or Mac, via Mission Control), is basically like having multiple monitors - with the exception you can only see one at a time.                              &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;p&gt; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank"&gt;VirtuaWin &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;is a lightweight, free and open source program that can bring one of the best features of Ubuntu to your Windows setup. If you're a nerd using Windows, there's  no reason &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; to be using  this. &lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;div id="tweet_area"&gt;
                                &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="none" data-via="nerdbusiness" data-related="mrschwabe:Author of the post."&gt;Tweet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
                                    &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="javascript:window.location=%22http://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.location)+%22&amp;t=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.title)"&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/sites/all/themes/nb/images/yhack.jpg" alt="Y Hack" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Tags:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/sticky-notes"&gt;sticky notes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item odd"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/windows-7"&gt;Windows 7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/ubuntu"&gt;Ubuntu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item odd"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/virtual-desktops"&gt;virtual desktops&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-popular field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Popular:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Sat, 03 Dec 2011 21:04:08 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Schwabe</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">222 at http://nerdbusiness.com/blog</guid>
 <comments>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/ubuntu-virtual-dekstops-windows#comments</comments>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>Pomodoro technique is lame, but here’s a cool app</title>
    <link>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/pomodoro-focus-booster</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;                            &lt;!--start article--&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;A friend recently gave me the headsup on the &lt;a href="http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/" target="_blank" style="color: #2b5ed4; text-decoration: none" &gt;Pomodoro technique&lt;/a&gt;. It's a time management strategy. As you may know, I've been evolving a&lt;a href="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/focus-freedom-gtd-strategy" style="color: #2b5ed4; text-decoration: none"  target="_blank"&gt; time management strategy of my own&lt;/a&gt; for some time now. So by the time I learned of Pomodoro - I had already been practicing the main gist of it.  Which is that, our days should be broken down into small chunks to maximize focus. But other than that, my technique is quite different.&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Though one thing I did find really useful from Pomodoro was the use of a timer.   In fact, I'm now using the app below to help track time in my day - and it was designed specifically for Pomodoro technique. &lt;/p&gt;
                           &lt;img src="http://www.nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/pomodoro/img/focus-booster.jpg" alt="Focus Booster" width="590" height="194" class="img-border" style="margin-bottom:15px;" /&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.focusboosterapp.com" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Focus Booster v1.2&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt; (Mac, Windows, Linux via Adobe AIR)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;If you're going to use it the &lt;em&gt;right way&lt;/em&gt; (my way) here is what to do. Download the app. And set the timer to&lt;strong&gt; 90 minutes&lt;/strong&gt;. Not 25, as suggested by the Pomodoro technique. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;!--break--&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Now choose a target area of focus. This target area is anything in your life that is pressing (such as a project that is due) or something you are aspiring towards (like building your dream business). With a target area defined, start the timer. For this next 90 minutes, you will do nothing but focus on this one specific thing. And the things you do during this 90 minutes will be directly related to making forward progress towards achieving or manifesting whatever it is you need to create to achieve harmony on this particular 'thing' in your life. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Before you know it, 90 minutes will have passed. And you'll be surprised of the what you have accomplished. At the very least, I can guarantee you'll have some extent of measurable improvement. It's impossible not to at least make some kind of forward progress during a 90 minute session focused on just one thing. And that's powerful because - if you just do this every day on the same target area - aggregated progress will occur and the results will surprise you. Inevitably  you will achieve whatever it is you are trying to accomplish. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;Plan tomorrow&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;The next step is to plan tomorrow.  With my technique, you structure every day with &lt;strong&gt;6 items&lt;/strong&gt;. This is not a to-do list. In fact, these items are not &amp;quot;tasks&amp;quot; at all. They are, again, target areas of focus. During each 'focus session' you will exclusively think, do, and work at making forward progress in a specific area of your life.                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;The first session of your day is the 90 minute one. It is specifically for the most important thing in your life (project, responsibility, goal). You focus on this first thing in the morning, before anything else (but don't skip breakfast). &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;The other remaining 5 sessions will make use of the Focus Booster app's 90 minute timer as well, but for a slightly different purpose. Because that 90 minutes will now represent only  a maximum duration. It's only there to prevent yourself from working &lt;em&gt;too long&lt;/em&gt;. In fact, each of the remaining 5 sessions of your day need only consist of 15 minutes each. That's right, just 15 minutes. Of course, you can work longer if you have the energy for it - to a maximum of 90 minutes - but the bare minimum requirement is just 15 minutes. &lt;/p&gt;
                             &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;Tricking your brain&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt; The key is you only have to &lt;em&gt;convince yourself &lt;/em&gt;to stay focused for 15 minutes.  And that's sort of like playing a trick on your brain. It takes very little mental effort to say to yourself, &amp;quot;OK this project is huge and intimidating but all I have to do is just endure 15 minutes on it.&amp;quot; And the funny thing is, you'll probably go a lot longer, even if you didn't plan on it - and without even knowing (or caring) that you did. And that there is quite possibly the biggest advantage of my technique. It gets you productive, even if you're lazy.                       
                            &lt;p&gt;Once you've completed a 90 minute session to start the day, and 5 other 15 minute sessions throughout the remainder of the day - you can pat yourself on the back. There's some other pointers I should probably share, such as writing a list of your target areas of focus or planning days in advance just 3 items per day - but I'll save that for another post... cause today's Nerd Business session has almost used up 90 minutes  ;) &lt;img src="http://www.nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/pomodoro/img/kaizen.png" alt="Kaizen" width="120" height="228" class="img-right" /&gt;                            &lt;/p&gt;
                &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;Kaizen&lt;/h3&gt;
                           
                            &lt;p&gt;The Japanese have a word called Kaizen. It basically means 'continuous improvement'. Software developers have a word like that too. It's called iteration.  Whatever you want to call it, it's powerful. And you can apply the concept to time management.  While you may not hit the mark perfectly every session - the very act of returning to that same topic of focus again, be it the next day or the next week, is a form of iteration. And it seems key to the manifestation process.                            &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;div id="tweet_area"&gt;
                                &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="none" data-via="nerdbusiness" data-related="mrschwabe:Author of the post."&gt;Tweet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
                                    &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="javascript:window.location=%22http://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.location)+%22&amp;t=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.title)"&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/sites/all/themes/nb/images/yhack.jpg" alt="Y Hack" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Tags:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/time-management"&gt;time management&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item odd"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/pomodoro"&gt;Pomodoro&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-popular field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Popular:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:55:58 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Schwabe</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">221 at http://nerdbusiness.com/blog</guid>
 <comments>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/pomodoro-focus-booster#comments</comments>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>Pomodoro technique is lame, but here’s a cool app</title>
    <link>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/pomodoro-focus-booster</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;                            &lt;!--start article--&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;A friend recently gave me the headsup on the &lt;a href="http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/" target="_blank" style="color: #2b5ed4; text-decoration: none" &gt;Pomodoro technique&lt;/a&gt;. It's a time management strategy. As you may know, I've been evolving a&lt;a href="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/focus-freedom-gtd-strategy" style="color: #2b5ed4; text-decoration: none"  target="_blank"&gt; time management strategy of my own&lt;/a&gt; for some time now. So by the time I learned of Pomodoro - I had already been practicing the main gist of it.  Which is that, our days should be broken down into small chunks to maximize focus. But other than that, my technique is quite different.&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Though one thing I did find really useful from Pomodoro was the use of a timer.   In fact, I'm now using the app below to help track time in my day - and it was designed specifically for Pomodoro technique. &lt;/p&gt;
                           &lt;img src="http://www.nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/pomodoro/img/focus-booster.jpg" alt="Focus Booster" width="590" height="194" class="img-border" style="margin-bottom:15px;" /&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.focusboosterapp.com" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Focus Booster v1.2&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt; (Mac, Windows, Linux via Adobe AIR)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;If you're going to use it the &lt;em&gt;right way&lt;/em&gt; (my way) here is what to do. Download the app. And set the timer to&lt;strong&gt; 90 minutes&lt;/strong&gt;. Not 25, as suggested by the Pomodoro technique. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;!--break--&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Now choose a target area of focus. This target area is anything in your life that is pressing (such as a project that is due) or something you are aspiring towards (like building your dream business). With a target area defined, start the timer. For this next 90 minutes, you will do nothing but focus on this one specific thing. And the things you do during this 90 minutes will be directly related to making forward progress towards achieving or manifesting whatever it is you need to create to achieve harmony on this particular 'thing' in your life. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Before you know it, 90 minutes will have passed. And you'll be surprised of the what you have accomplished. At the very least, I can guarantee you'll have some extent of measurable improvement. It's impossible not to at least make some kind of forward progress during a 90 minute session focused on just one thing. And that's powerful because - if you just do this every day on the same target area - aggregated progress will occur and the results will surprise you. Inevitably  you will achieve whatever it is you are trying to accomplish. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;Plan tomorrow&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;The next step is to plan tomorrow.  With my technique, you structure every day with &lt;strong&gt;6 items&lt;/strong&gt;. This is not a to-do list. In fact, these items are not &amp;quot;tasks&amp;quot; at all. They are, again, target areas of focus. During each 'focus session' you will exclusively think, do, and work at making forward progress in a specific area of your life.                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;The first session of your day is the 90 minute one. It is specifically for the most important thing in your life (project, responsibility, goal). You focus on this first thing in the morning, before anything else (but don't skip breakfast). &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;The other remaining 5 sessions will make use of the Focus Booster app's 90 minute timer as well, but for a slightly different purpose. Because that 90 minutes will now represent only  a maximum duration. It's only there to prevent yourself from working &lt;em&gt;too long&lt;/em&gt;. In fact, each of the remaining 5 sessions of your day need only consist of 15 minutes each. That's right, just 15 minutes. Of course, you can work longer if you have the energy for it - to a maximum of 90 minutes - but the bare minimum requirement is just 15 minutes. &lt;/p&gt;
                             &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;Tricking your brain&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt; The key is you only have to &lt;em&gt;convince yourself &lt;/em&gt;to stay focused for 15 minutes.  And that's sort of like playing a trick on your brain. It takes very little mental effort to say to yourself, &amp;quot;OK this project is huge and intimidating but all I have to do is just endure 15 minutes on it.&amp;quot; And the funny thing is, you'll probably go a lot longer, even if you didn't plan on it - and without even knowing (or caring) that you did. And that there is quite possibly the biggest advantage of my technique. It gets you productive, even if you're lazy.                       
                            &lt;p&gt;Once you've completed a 90 minute session to start the day, and 5 other 15 minute sessions throughout the remainder of the day - you can pat yourself on the back. There's some other pointers I should probably share, such as writing a list of your target areas of focus or planning days in advance just 3 items per day - but I'll save that for another post... cause today's Nerd Business session has almost used up 90 minutes  ;) &lt;img src="http://www.nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/pomodoro/img/kaizen.png" alt="Kaizen" width="120" height="228" class="img-right" /&gt;                            &lt;/p&gt;
                &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;Kaizen&lt;/h3&gt;
                           
                            &lt;p&gt;The Japanese have a word called Kaizen. It basically means 'continuous improvement'. Software developers have a word like that too. It's called iteration.  Whatever you want to call it, it's powerful. And you can apply the concept to time management.  While you may not hit the mark perfectly every session - the very act of returning to that same topic of focus again, be it the next day or the next week, is a form of iteration. And it seems key to the manifestation process.                            &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;div id="tweet_area"&gt;
                                &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="none" data-via="nerdbusiness" data-related="mrschwabe:Author of the post."&gt;Tweet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
                                    &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="javascript:window.location=%22http://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.location)+%22&amp;t=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.title)"&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/sites/all/themes/nb/images/yhack.jpg" alt="Y Hack" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Tags:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/time-management"&gt;time management&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item odd"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/pomodoro"&gt;Pomodoro&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-popular field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Popular:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:55:58 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Schwabe</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">221 at http://nerdbusiness.com/blog</guid>
 <comments>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/pomodoro-focus-booster#comments</comments>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>Learn programming using wire, light bulbs, a battery, and telegraph relay</title>
    <link>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/programming-wire-light-bulbs-battery</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;  &lt;p&gt;I'm currently reading quite possibly the coolest programming book ever written.  The book is &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; teaching Python, nor C, and not even Assembly. Rather, the book is teaching  &lt;strong&gt;Morse code&lt;/strong&gt;. And &lt;strong&gt;electricity.&lt;/strong&gt; And how these two concepts can be brought together to make anything from telegraphs to modern day computers.                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;If you're like me and are trying to take your programming skill to the next level, this might be exactly the kind of foundational  knowledge you need. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;The book is called &lt;a href="http://www.charlespetzold.com/code/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;CODE&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. I first got wind about it last week, after reading &lt;a href="http://onlinehut.org/2011/10/the-book-that-every-programmer-should-read/" target="_blank"&gt;The Book That Every Programmer Should Read &lt;/a&gt;on Grigory' blog. Indeed, Grigory recommended every programmer read it - not because of  what kind of new techniques you can learn, but rather, because of the broader understanding you will gain from this  truly fundamental lesson on how computers work. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Of course, computers aren't programmed with Morse code. But, as author Charles Petzold will show you, it's the concepts that count. Morse code was like a first iteration of the modern day programming languages we see today. And telegraphs were like the first computers. Yet he doesn't just start there. He goes deeper... drilling down into the underlying concepts of both. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Without spilling the beans on everything included in the book (which by the way, I'm not even halfway through), in this post I'm going to share with you just a sliver of the concepts covered. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;How electricity works&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;The book will explain to you how electricity works. And how the flow of current can be controlled. Such as by merely touching two ends of a wire together (closed loop) or un-touching them (open loop). &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/CODE/img/open-circuit.png" width="284" height="291" alt="open loop" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt; Using a series of fun examples, Petzold will guide you along to the advent of the  telegraph  and how electricity - along with the two most basic electrical components: a switch and a relay - were used to  create it. Like many, I did not know how a telegraph worked. But it's surprisingly simple, and Petzold's teaching style makes for an engaging read. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;When circuits meet code&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Once you know electricity, you should know some Math. Petzold will show you how math can be used to represent any language, including Morse code. Interestingly, Morse code is actually more complex than binary code - the language of computers and foundation of all programming languages.&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;What makes binary code more useful is that it operates in the same way as the flow of electricity. It's either off or on. 0 or 1. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/CODE/img/switches.png" alt="electrical switches" width="605" height="250" /&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Eventually, you'll actually &amp;quot;see&amp;quot; binary code in a physical implementation of an electric circuit. And you'll understand how these circuits can be made even more complex - using nothing but binary (and some boolean logic). And with this, you'll  understand the very basics of how computers work. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/CODE/img/boolean-logic.png" width="497" height="337" alt="Boolean logic" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;For me, there were a number of clear  &amp;quot;ahah&amp;quot; moments I experienced while reading. And I think that's a pretty good indicator of a great book. Furthermore, Petzold's teaching style is quite fun - and a refreshing change of pace from the typical linear curve of increasing complexity most education literature has. Rest assured, things do get more complex as you read deeper into book - yet each chapter has a unique way of introducing a new concepts.                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/CODE/img/code.png" width="497" height="141" alt="CODE" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.charlespetzold.com/code/" target="_blank"&gt;CODE - The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;By the way, if after reading the book, you get the itch to  design your own electronics - I might recommend you check out &lt;a href="http://upverter.com/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Upverter&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. They're a YC  startup with a web based product made for that very purpose.                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;div id="tweet_area"&gt;
                                &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="none" data-via="nerdbusiness" data-related="mrschwabe:Author of the post."&gt;Tweet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
                                    &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="javascript:window.location=%22http://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.location)+%22&amp;t=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.title)"&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/sites/all/themes/nb/images/yhack.jpg" alt="Y Hack" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Tags:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/programming"&gt;programming&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item odd"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/books"&gt;books&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-popular field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Popular:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:15:42 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Schwabe</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">220 at http://nerdbusiness.com/blog</guid>
 <comments>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/programming-wire-light-bulbs-battery#comments</comments>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>Learn programming using wire, light bulbs, a battery, and telegraph relay</title>
    <link>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/programming-wire-light-bulbs-battery</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;  &lt;p&gt;I'm currently reading quite possibly the coolest programming book ever written.  The book is &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; teaching Python, nor C, and not even Assembly. Rather, the book is teaching  &lt;strong&gt;Morse code&lt;/strong&gt;. And &lt;strong&gt;electricity.&lt;/strong&gt; And how these two concepts can be brought together to make anything from telegraphs to modern day computers.                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;If you're like me and are trying to take your programming skill to the next level, this might be exactly the kind of foundational  knowledge you need. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;The book is called &lt;a href="http://www.charlespetzold.com/code/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;CODE&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. I first got wind about it last week, after reading &lt;a href="http://onlinehut.org/2011/10/the-book-that-every-programmer-should-read/" target="_blank"&gt;The Book That Every Programmer Should Read &lt;/a&gt;on Grigory' blog. Indeed, Grigory recommended every programmer read it - not because of  what kind of new techniques you can learn, but rather, because of the broader understanding you will gain from this  truly fundamental lesson on how computers work. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Of course, computers aren't programmed with Morse code. But, as author Charles Petzold will show you, it's the concepts that count. Morse code was like a first iteration of the modern day programming languages we see today. And telegraphs were like the first computers. Yet he doesn't just start there. He goes deeper... drilling down into the underlying concepts of both. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Without spilling the beans on everything included in the book (which by the way, I'm not even halfway through), in this post I'm going to share with you just a sliver of the concepts covered. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;How electricity works&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;The book will explain to you how electricity works. And how the flow of current can be controlled. Such as by merely touching two ends of a wire together (closed loop) or un-touching them (open loop). &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/CODE/img/open-circuit.png" width="284" height="291" alt="open loop" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt; Using a series of fun examples, Petzold will guide you along to the advent of the  telegraph  and how electricity - along with the two most basic electrical components: a switch and a relay - were used to  create it. Like many, I did not know how a telegraph worked. But it's surprisingly simple, and Petzold's teaching style makes for an engaging read. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;When circuits meet code&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Once you know electricity, you should know some Math. Petzold will show you how math can be used to represent any language, including Morse code. Interestingly, Morse code is actually more complex than binary code - the language of computers and foundation of all programming languages.&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;What makes binary code more useful is that it operates in the same way as the flow of electricity. It's either off or on. 0 or 1. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/CODE/img/switches.png" alt="electrical switches" width="605" height="250" /&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Eventually, you'll actually &amp;quot;see&amp;quot; binary code in a physical implementation of an electric circuit. And you'll understand how these circuits can be made even more complex - using nothing but binary (and some boolean logic). And with this, you'll  understand the very basics of how computers work. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/CODE/img/boolean-logic.png" width="497" height="337" alt="Boolean logic" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;For me, there were a number of clear  &amp;quot;ahah&amp;quot; moments I experienced while reading. And I think that's a pretty good indicator of a great book. Furthermore, Petzold's teaching style is quite fun - and a refreshing change of pace from the typical linear curve of increasing complexity most education literature has. Rest assured, things do get more complex as you read deeper into book - yet each chapter has a unique way of introducing a new concepts.                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/CODE/img/code.png" width="497" height="141" alt="CODE" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.charlespetzold.com/code/" target="_blank"&gt;CODE - The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;By the way, if after reading the book, you get the itch to  design your own electronics - I might recommend you check out &lt;a href="http://upverter.com/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Upverter&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. They're a YC  startup with a web based product made for that very purpose.                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;div id="tweet_area"&gt;
                                &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="none" data-via="nerdbusiness" data-related="mrschwabe:Author of the post."&gt;Tweet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
                                    &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="javascript:window.location=%22http://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.location)+%22&amp;t=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.title)"&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/sites/all/themes/nb/images/yhack.jpg" alt="Y Hack" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Tags:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/programming"&gt;programming&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item odd"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/books"&gt;books&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-popular field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Popular:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:15:42 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Schwabe</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">220 at http://nerdbusiness.com/blog</guid>
 <comments>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/programming-wire-light-bulbs-battery#comments</comments>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>Why Directory Opus 10 is the king of file browsers</title>
    <link>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/directory-opus-10-king-review</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;  &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/directory-opus-logo.png" alt="Directory Opus logo" width="212" height="220" class="img-right" /&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;It is Directory Opus. It is the KING of file browsers. And in this review, I will show you why. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Truth be told, I'm trying to be less Windows-centric on my blog. To be a better Linux advocate  (and occasionally share some love for  Mac). But this I cannot resist. Not even the best file browser on Linux, Nautilus Elementary, can come close to the sheer awesomeness of the premium Windows file browser known as  &lt;a href="http://www.gpsoft.com.au/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Directory Opus&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;But wait! It's not just for Windows. That's right, if you have an &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga" target="_blank"&gt;Amiga&lt;/a&gt; you are in luck! &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/opus-4-amiga.png" alt="Directory Opus 4 Amiga" width="594" height="293" class="img-border" /&gt;
                            &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: Old school Directory Opus 4 for Amiga  &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;The first iterations of Directory Opus were kick-started all the way back in the 1980s. Originally developed for the Amiga,  Australian programmer Jonathan Potter  would later rewrite his   unique dual pane file browser for Windows in the early 2000s. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;!--break--&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt; Meet Directory Opus 10 &lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Today, after 20 years of development, we have Directory Opus 10 - a masterpiece in software.&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;So why is 'DOpus'   so good? &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;In a nutshell:  Directory Opus is a &lt;strong&gt;dual column &lt;/strong&gt;file browser with &lt;strong&gt;tabs&lt;/strong&gt; (and so much more, as you're about to find out). &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Microsoft is obviously slow to catch on to the whole &amp;quot;tabs&amp;quot; UI innovation. This was blatantly evident  when Firefox took the web by storm back in the mid 2000's, largely in part due to its innovative  tabbed web browsing experience.  Eventually of course, M$ caught on and introduced their own version of tabs for IE (although it took them a while to adopt the shortcut &amp;quot;CTRL-T&amp;quot;). &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Okay great, we have tabs for web browsing. But what about &lt;em&gt;file&lt;/em&gt; browsing? &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Once again, Microsoft is slow to evolve -  and lacks a  tabbed solution for this purpose. Windows Explorer is a linear 'one folder at a time' kind of file manager. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;Directory Opus is the Firefox of file browsing&lt;/strong&gt;. And not only does DOpus introduce tabbed file browsing, but it features dual-columns. Which is analogous to having dual-monitors; enabling you to compare two active directories at the same time  in the same window.&lt;/p&gt;
                         &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/default-layout.png" alt="Directory Opus 10" width="594" height="422" class="img-border" /&gt;
                              &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: The default layout for Directory Opus 10&lt;/p&gt;

                            &lt;p&gt;A  seamless Windows integration, DOpus is a complete replacement for  Explorer. That means anytime Explorer would normally open,  Directory Opus takes over.&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;At first glance, it might not look all that different. Other than the dual panes browser, the default layout is designed to look and perform much like Explorer. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;But that is where the similarities end.                            &lt;/p&gt;
                         
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;The  Directory Opus 10 Review&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;I'm an advocate of tools that make you more efficient. Essentially, we use computers for this very purpose. So it makes sense to choose the software that is going to take things a step further and let you  do whatever it is you do more easily, more intuitively and faster. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;A file browser is the most fundamental 'productivity tool' for professional business nerds. For most of us, it is the most commonly used program on the computer. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;If you call yourself a nerd, and you're on Windows, and you're not already using Directory Opus - you'll need to read on. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Because in  the remaining section of this review, I'm going to blast through all of the main reasons why DOpus is awesome. And illustrate what professional, rock-solid software is all about.                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Access  FTP the same way you browse files&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;What difference does it make if a file is local or remote? Files are files. And  DOpus treats them that way.                            With support for all  the advanced features you  expect from a powerful FTP program. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/opus-ftp.png" alt="Opus FTP" width="212" height="153" class="img-leftBorder" /&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;  I copied over all my site entries from Filezilla to the DOpus Address Book and haven't looked back. Having remote sites available immediately and directly alongside local directories for basic copy/paste operations is a huge benefit. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;ZIP files are directories&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Extract files? Pfff, why? Like FTPs, archives (zip, rar, 7z, etc) are treated like regular directories;  you can 'go inside' them without having to run the extract. With DOpus, I typically just go into the archive direct, copy/paste the files I need, and that's it. No old school extraction necessary. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Opens fast with the Desktop Double-click-trick&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt; How do you open the most commonly used program on your computer? From the Start menu? A tray icon? A hotkey? Try this: double-click a blank spot on your desktop. If nothing happened, it means you don't have Directory Opus installed. Cause&lt;em&gt; if you did &lt;/em&gt;DOpus would have opened immediately. &lt;/p&gt;
                           &lt;img style="margin-bottom:15px;" src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/dopus-shortcut-taskbar.png" alt="Opus taksbar pin" width="594" height="84" class="img-border" /&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Personally I use a combination of this trick and a shortcut pinned to the taskbar, right next to the Start  button (and with  other apps pined to the right).                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            
                              &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Dual Panes show you more&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;You already know it's a dual pane file browser. But if that doesn't fancy you, there are other viewing modes. For example, you can go from &amp;quot;Dual Vertical&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;Dual Horizontal&amp;quot;. You can hide the directory tree altogether. And hide toolbars to make things super compact. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/dual-horizontal.png" alt="Opus Dual Horizontal" width="594" height="497" class="img-border" /&gt;
                              &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: Directory Opus 10 with a customized layout based on the &amp;quot;Dual Horizontal&amp;quot; mode&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1; margin-top:10px;"&gt;Browse files with tabs&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Its a file browser with tabs. That alone is justification to ditch Explorer. But factor in tabs with the dual panes and you actually  have two sets of independent tabs groups open simultaneously (as show in the screenshot above). That's powerful file browsing. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Launch Git console from any directory &lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;You'll notice in my custom Opus layout, to the right of the address bar I have a little button setup for &lt;a href="http://git-scm.com/" target="_blank"&gt;Git&lt;/a&gt;. This is a custom button I created to open  Git Bash; the Windows Git console. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;img style="margin-bottom:15px;" src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/git-button.png" alt="Git button" width="594" height="88" class="img-border" /&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;When I press it, the  directory that the Git console starts in is based on the active folder I have open in Directory Opus. Perfect for logging a quick commit; as there is no need to navigate through directories using  command prompt.                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Store movies  with File Collections&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;File Collections are a special type of folder included in DOpus. Particularly useful for organizing movies or photo collections. A File Collection looks like any other directory, but with the exception that it's  virtual. And the actual file locations are irrelevant. So this allows you to create a list of files and folders that can be viewed together, as if they were in one folder - even if their real locations are spread across different hard drives.&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Preview almost anything with the Viewer Pane&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;In addition to images DOpus will  preview PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, Text files, and any other type of common format.  By default, the Viewer pane is an additional column that  opens alongside your dual horizontal panes.  Toggable with the click of one button (or hotkey). &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/viewer-pane.jpg" alt="Directory Opus - Viewer Pane" width="594" height="361" class="img-border" /&gt;
                            &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: Directory Opus with the Viewer pane open (with an image selected).                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1; margin-top:30px;"&gt;Batch rename files with ease&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;The  Rename panel is intense! In this example, I have a  series of UX scenarios labeled &amp;quot;scenario1.png&amp;quot; all the way to &amp;quot;scenario10.png&amp;quot;.  Let's say I want to change the numbering each of the files look like &amp;quot;scenario_001.png&amp;quot; instead. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style="margin-bottom:15px;" src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/batch-rename-1.png" alt="Directory Opus - batch renaming" width="594" height="102" class="img-border" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;As with most things in DOpus, you have tremendous control and customization options - but if you just want to do something simple it's  self explanatory. Below I add a wildcard by using the * and enter in the new name format. A preview displays of what the new name looks like before I apply the operation. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img style="border:none;" src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/batch-rename-2.png" alt="Directory Opus - batch rename" width="594" height="535" class="img-border"/&gt;
&lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: Batch renaming is intuitive and shows you what the files look like before you run it. &lt;/p&gt;                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;No waiting for anything&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;After 20 years of programming, it has been  optimized a little bit. Coded in low level (C++ I believe) and fully multi-threaded - this is a program you don't even know is there.  Super lightweight memory footprint and instant open speeds. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Make huge file transfers with confidence&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;This program will never cease to impress you. Even the most basic concept of copying a file has configurability. But let's assume you're not just copying one file, but thousands. A huge transfer that will take at least a night to perform. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;If you did this with Windows Explorer it would be a huge pain in the ass. First, you would have to wait for any file conflicts to pop up (ie &amp;quot;Are you sure want to replace this file?&amp;quot;). Then, if you want to leave the transfer to go all night you have to click &amp;quot;Yes to All&amp;quot;. And  cross your fingers it goes OK. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Directory Opus file transfers are &lt;em&gt;designed&lt;/em&gt; for Unattended operation. In fact, there's a checkbox for 'Unattended Operation'. This opens an options menu that lets you specify what exactly to do when a file exists for an active transfer. &lt;/p&gt;
                           &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/unattended-file-transfer.png" alt="Unattended" width="594" height="399" class="img-border" /&gt;
                                                       &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: A DOpus file transfer after clicking the  'Unattended operation' button. &lt;/p&gt;

                            &lt;p&gt;Personally, I like the &amp;quot;Treat as Error&amp;quot; option as it will  simply skip, proceed, and let you examine  conflicted files  case by case -  the &lt;em&gt;next&lt;/em&gt; morning. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Sync two computers with built  in Synchronization&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;I've been waiting for an &lt;a href="http://www.aerofs.com/" target="_blank"&gt;AeroFS&lt;/a&gt; beta invite for sometime now  to no avail. Their product seems like it might be a good way to solve the  dilemma of keeping my work files synced across both the desktop PC and the laptop.  &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;But then I thought, hey - I wonder if DOpus has anything for that?  To my delight,  there is a powerful sync tool built right in. And with dual panes, it couldn't be any more intuitive. Set the source in the left column, the destination in the right, and you are good to go. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                 &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/sync.png" alt="Sync" width="594" height="234" class="img-border" /&gt;
                                                       &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: The Directory Opus Synchronize panel, which opens up below your dual panes                              &lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Bookmark your favorite file folders&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;DOpus didn't just borrow the tabs innovation from web browsers, it has it's own implementation of favorites too.                            In fact, it works nearly identical to how you expect internet favorites to work. With the added benefit of the 'SmartFavorites' system that can be enabled to automatically create favorites based on a custom threshold of activity. &lt;/p&gt;
                                      &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/bookmarks.png" alt="Directory Opus - favorites" width="594" height="190" class="img-border" /&gt;
                                                       &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above:  Directory Opus Favorites menu&lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Set Hotkeys for just about anything&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/custom-hotkey.jpg" alt="Directory Opus - hotkeys" width="231" height="137" class="img-rightBorder" /&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt; In DOpus you can set hotkeys to a variety of  common tasks or file operations. For example, I wanted a quick way to cycle between viewing files in list mode, as thumbnails, and as icons. So I opened up the Command Editor, typed in a name, set my hot key and choose from a list of about 100 built-in functions. Sure enough, there was a function to set the view mode to list, thumbnails or icons. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                           &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Customize folders with permanent look &amp;amp; layout&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Continuing from the last point. It's nice to be able to switch from viewing files as a list, as thumbnails, or as icons depending on the context.  As I showed, this is easily achieved with custom shortcuts. Yet for some folders you're always going to want to see them in one particular way. Even with a shortcut, changing the view to exactly how you want it will become tedious. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Directory Opus has a feature for that! You can set any folder to permanently display in a customized way. That includes things like sort order, filtering, column fields, and even the folder's background color. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/custom-background.jpg" alt="Directory Opus - Customize folders" width="594" height="388" class="img-border" /&gt;
                            &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: A folder set to thumbnail view and with a custom background color. These customizations are only visible when I am in this specific folder. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;Closing Comments&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt; The question is not what does DOpus do, the question is what does it &lt;em&gt;not do&lt;/em&gt;. The only thing I can honestly think of is bit torrents.  It's hard to fathom why you would ever need to replace something like uTorrent - but then again,  up until trying DOpus I didn't consider a need to   replace Filezilla either. DOpus is all about integrating all your common file management tasks. And that it does well: in fact, it's  perfect. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/directory-opus-10-review.png" width="605" height="469" alt="Directory Opus review" /&gt;
                              &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;a href="http://www.gpsoft.com.au/DScripts/download.asp" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img style="margin:0 0 20px 0" src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/dopus-download.png" width="420" height="120" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
                              &lt;p&gt; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.gpsoft.com.au/DScripts/download.asp" target="_blank"&gt;Directory Opus &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;is available from GPSoftware for approx $88 USD. They also offer a 60 day fully functional version you can try out. I highly recommend it. In fact, as your nerd friend, if I could physically wrestle you for control of your computer - &lt;em&gt;I would do it&lt;/em&gt; and then   install Directory Opus just to make sure you tried this amazing program. &lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;div id="tweet_area"&gt;
                                &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="none" data-via="nerdbusiness" data-related="mrschwabe:Author of the post."&gt;Tweet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
                                    &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="javascript:window.location=%22http://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.location)+%22&amp;t=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.title)"&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/sites/all/themes/nb/images/yhack.jpg" alt="Y Hack" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;


&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Tags:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/directory-opus"&gt;Directory Opus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item odd"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/software-review"&gt;software review&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/productivity"&gt;productivity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-popular field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Popular:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:38:49 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Schwabe</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">219 at http://nerdbusiness.com/blog</guid>
 <comments>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/directory-opus-10-king-review#comments</comments>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>Why Directory Opus 10 is the king of file browsers</title>
    <link>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/directory-opus-10-king-review</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;  &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/directory-opus-logo.png" alt="Directory Opus logo" width="212" height="220" class="img-right" /&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;It is Directory Opus. It is the KING of file browsers. And in this review, I will show you why. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Truth be told, I'm trying to be less Windows-centric on my blog. To be a better Linux advocate  (and occasionally share some love for  Mac). But this I cannot resist. Not even the best file browser on Linux, Nautilus Elementary, can come close to the sheer awesomeness of the premium Windows file browser known as  &lt;a href="http://www.gpsoft.com.au/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Directory Opus&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;But wait! It's not just for Windows. That's right, if you have an &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga" target="_blank"&gt;Amiga&lt;/a&gt; you are in luck! &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/opus-4-amiga.png" alt="Directory Opus 4 Amiga" width="594" height="293" class="img-border" /&gt;
                            &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: Old school Directory Opus 4 for Amiga  &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;The first iterations of Directory Opus were kick-started all the way back in the 1980s. Originally developed for the Amiga,  Australian programmer Jonathan Potter  would later rewrite his   unique dual pane file browser for Windows in the early 2000s. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;!--break--&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt; Meet Directory Opus 10 &lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Today, after 20 years of development, we have Directory Opus 10 - a masterpiece in software.&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;So why is 'DOpus'   so good? &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;In a nutshell:  Directory Opus is a &lt;strong&gt;dual column &lt;/strong&gt;file browser with &lt;strong&gt;tabs&lt;/strong&gt; (and so much more, as you're about to find out). &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Microsoft is obviously slow to catch on to the whole &amp;quot;tabs&amp;quot; UI innovation. This was blatantly evident  when Firefox took the web by storm back in the mid 2000's, largely in part due to its innovative  tabbed web browsing experience.  Eventually of course, M$ caught on and introduced their own version of tabs for IE (although it took them a while to adopt the shortcut &amp;quot;CTRL-T&amp;quot;). &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Okay great, we have tabs for web browsing. But what about &lt;em&gt;file&lt;/em&gt; browsing? &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Once again, Microsoft is slow to evolve -  and lacks a  tabbed solution for this purpose. Windows Explorer is a linear 'one folder at a time' kind of file manager. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;Directory Opus is the Firefox of file browsing&lt;/strong&gt;. And not only does DOpus introduce tabbed file browsing, but it features dual-columns. Which is analogous to having dual-monitors; enabling you to compare two active directories at the same time  in the same window.&lt;/p&gt;
                         &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/default-layout.png" alt="Directory Opus 10" width="594" height="422" class="img-border" /&gt;
                              &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: The default layout for Directory Opus 10&lt;/p&gt;

                            &lt;p&gt;A  seamless Windows integration, DOpus is a complete replacement for  Explorer. That means anytime Explorer would normally open,  Directory Opus takes over.&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;At first glance, it might not look all that different. Other than the dual panes browser, the default layout is designed to look and perform much like Explorer. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;But that is where the similarities end.                            &lt;/p&gt;
                         
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;The  Directory Opus 10 Review&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;I'm an advocate of tools that make you more efficient. Essentially, we use computers for this very purpose. So it makes sense to choose the software that is going to take things a step further and let you  do whatever it is you do more easily, more intuitively and faster. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;A file browser is the most fundamental 'productivity tool' for professional business nerds. For most of us, it is the most commonly used program on the computer. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;If you call yourself a nerd, and you're on Windows, and you're not already using Directory Opus - you'll need to read on. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Because in  the remaining section of this review, I'm going to blast through all of the main reasons why DOpus is awesome. And illustrate what professional, rock-solid software is all about.                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Access  FTP the same way you browse files&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;What difference does it make if a file is local or remote? Files are files. And  DOpus treats them that way.                            With support for all  the advanced features you  expect from a powerful FTP program. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/opus-ftp.png" alt="Opus FTP" width="212" height="153" class="img-leftBorder" /&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;  I copied over all my site entries from Filezilla to the DOpus Address Book and haven't looked back. Having remote sites available immediately and directly alongside local directories for basic copy/paste operations is a huge benefit. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;ZIP files are directories&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Extract files? Pfff, why? Like FTPs, archives (zip, rar, 7z, etc) are treated like regular directories;  you can 'go inside' them without having to run the extract. With DOpus, I typically just go into the archive direct, copy/paste the files I need, and that's it. No old school extraction necessary. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Opens fast with the Desktop Double-click-trick&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt; How do you open the most commonly used program on your computer? From the Start menu? A tray icon? A hotkey? Try this: double-click a blank spot on your desktop. If nothing happened, it means you don't have Directory Opus installed. Cause&lt;em&gt; if you did &lt;/em&gt;DOpus would have opened immediately. &lt;/p&gt;
                           &lt;img style="margin-bottom:15px;" src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/dopus-shortcut-taskbar.png" alt="Opus taksbar pin" width="594" height="84" class="img-border" /&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Personally I use a combination of this trick and a shortcut pinned to the taskbar, right next to the Start  button (and with  other apps pined to the right).                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            
                              &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Dual Panes show you more&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;You already know it's a dual pane file browser. But if that doesn't fancy you, there are other viewing modes. For example, you can go from &amp;quot;Dual Vertical&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;Dual Horizontal&amp;quot;. You can hide the directory tree altogether. And hide toolbars to make things super compact. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/dual-horizontal.png" alt="Opus Dual Horizontal" width="594" height="497" class="img-border" /&gt;
                              &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: Directory Opus 10 with a customized layout based on the &amp;quot;Dual Horizontal&amp;quot; mode&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1; margin-top:10px;"&gt;Browse files with tabs&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Its a file browser with tabs. That alone is justification to ditch Explorer. But factor in tabs with the dual panes and you actually  have two sets of independent tabs groups open simultaneously (as show in the screenshot above). That's powerful file browsing. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Launch Git console from any directory &lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;You'll notice in my custom Opus layout, to the right of the address bar I have a little button setup for &lt;a href="http://git-scm.com/" target="_blank"&gt;Git&lt;/a&gt;. This is a custom button I created to open  Git Bash; the Windows Git console. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;img style="margin-bottom:15px;" src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/git-button.png" alt="Git button" width="594" height="88" class="img-border" /&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;When I press it, the  directory that the Git console starts in is based on the active folder I have open in Directory Opus. Perfect for logging a quick commit; as there is no need to navigate through directories using  command prompt.                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Store movies  with File Collections&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;File Collections are a special type of folder included in DOpus. Particularly useful for organizing movies or photo collections. A File Collection looks like any other directory, but with the exception that it's  virtual. And the actual file locations are irrelevant. So this allows you to create a list of files and folders that can be viewed together, as if they were in one folder - even if their real locations are spread across different hard drives.&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Preview almost anything with the Viewer Pane&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;In addition to images DOpus will  preview PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, Text files, and any other type of common format.  By default, the Viewer pane is an additional column that  opens alongside your dual horizontal panes.  Toggable with the click of one button (or hotkey). &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/viewer-pane.jpg" alt="Directory Opus - Viewer Pane" width="594" height="361" class="img-border" /&gt;
                            &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: Directory Opus with the Viewer pane open (with an image selected).                            &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1; margin-top:30px;"&gt;Batch rename files with ease&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;The  Rename panel is intense! In this example, I have a  series of UX scenarios labeled &amp;quot;scenario1.png&amp;quot; all the way to &amp;quot;scenario10.png&amp;quot;.  Let's say I want to change the numbering each of the files look like &amp;quot;scenario_001.png&amp;quot; instead. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style="margin-bottom:15px;" src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/batch-rename-1.png" alt="Directory Opus - batch renaming" width="594" height="102" class="img-border" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;As with most things in DOpus, you have tremendous control and customization options - but if you just want to do something simple it's  self explanatory. Below I add a wildcard by using the * and enter in the new name format. A preview displays of what the new name looks like before I apply the operation. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img style="border:none;" src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/batch-rename-2.png" alt="Directory Opus - batch rename" width="594" height="535" class="img-border"/&gt;
&lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: Batch renaming is intuitive and shows you what the files look like before you run it. &lt;/p&gt;                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;No waiting for anything&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;After 20 years of programming, it has been  optimized a little bit. Coded in low level (C++ I believe) and fully multi-threaded - this is a program you don't even know is there.  Super lightweight memory footprint and instant open speeds. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Make huge file transfers with confidence&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;This program will never cease to impress you. Even the most basic concept of copying a file has configurability. But let's assume you're not just copying one file, but thousands. A huge transfer that will take at least a night to perform. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;If you did this with Windows Explorer it would be a huge pain in the ass. First, you would have to wait for any file conflicts to pop up (ie &amp;quot;Are you sure want to replace this file?&amp;quot;). Then, if you want to leave the transfer to go all night you have to click &amp;quot;Yes to All&amp;quot;. And  cross your fingers it goes OK. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Directory Opus file transfers are &lt;em&gt;designed&lt;/em&gt; for Unattended operation. In fact, there's a checkbox for 'Unattended Operation'. This opens an options menu that lets you specify what exactly to do when a file exists for an active transfer. &lt;/p&gt;
                           &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/unattended-file-transfer.png" alt="Unattended" width="594" height="399" class="img-border" /&gt;
                                                       &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: A DOpus file transfer after clicking the  'Unattended operation' button. &lt;/p&gt;

                            &lt;p&gt;Personally, I like the &amp;quot;Treat as Error&amp;quot; option as it will  simply skip, proceed, and let you examine  conflicted files  case by case -  the &lt;em&gt;next&lt;/em&gt; morning. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Sync two computers with built  in Synchronization&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;I've been waiting for an &lt;a href="http://www.aerofs.com/" target="_blank"&gt;AeroFS&lt;/a&gt; beta invite for sometime now  to no avail. Their product seems like it might be a good way to solve the  dilemma of keeping my work files synced across both the desktop PC and the laptop.  &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;But then I thought, hey - I wonder if DOpus has anything for that?  To my delight,  there is a powerful sync tool built right in. And with dual panes, it couldn't be any more intuitive. Set the source in the left column, the destination in the right, and you are good to go. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                 &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/sync.png" alt="Sync" width="594" height="234" class="img-border" /&gt;
                                                       &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: The Directory Opus Synchronize panel, which opens up below your dual panes                              &lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Bookmark your favorite file folders&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;DOpus didn't just borrow the tabs innovation from web browsers, it has it's own implementation of favorites too.                            In fact, it works nearly identical to how you expect internet favorites to work. With the added benefit of the 'SmartFavorites' system that can be enabled to automatically create favorites based on a custom threshold of activity. &lt;/p&gt;
                                      &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/bookmarks.png" alt="Directory Opus - favorites" width="594" height="190" class="img-border" /&gt;
                                                       &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above:  Directory Opus Favorites menu&lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Set Hotkeys for just about anything&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/custom-hotkey.jpg" alt="Directory Opus - hotkeys" width="231" height="137" class="img-rightBorder" /&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt; In DOpus you can set hotkeys to a variety of  common tasks or file operations. For example, I wanted a quick way to cycle between viewing files in list mode, as thumbnails, and as icons. So I opened up the Command Editor, typed in a name, set my hot key and choose from a list of about 100 built-in functions. Sure enough, there was a function to set the view mode to list, thumbnails or icons. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                           &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; color:#0033C1;"&gt;Customize folders with permanent look &amp;amp; layout&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Continuing from the last point. It's nice to be able to switch from viewing files as a list, as thumbnails, or as icons depending on the context.  As I showed, this is easily achieved with custom shortcuts. Yet for some folders you're always going to want to see them in one particular way. Even with a shortcut, changing the view to exactly how you want it will become tedious. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;Directory Opus has a feature for that! You can set any folder to permanently display in a customized way. That includes things like sort order, filtering, column fields, and even the folder's background color. &lt;/p&gt;
                                                        &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/custom-background.jpg" alt="Directory Opus - Customize folders" width="594" height="388" class="img-border" /&gt;
                            &lt;p class="caption"&gt;Above: A folder set to thumbnail view and with a custom background color. These customizations are only visible when I am in this specific folder. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            
                            &lt;h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin-top:20px;"&gt;Closing Comments&lt;/h3&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt; The question is not what does DOpus do, the question is what does it &lt;em&gt;not do&lt;/em&gt;. The only thing I can honestly think of is bit torrents.  It's hard to fathom why you would ever need to replace something like uTorrent - but then again,  up until trying DOpus I didn't consider a need to   replace Filezilla either. DOpus is all about integrating all your common file management tasks. And that it does well: in fact, it's  perfect. &lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/directory-opus-10-review.png" width="605" height="469" alt="Directory Opus review" /&gt;
                              &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
                            &lt;a href="http://www.gpsoft.com.au/DScripts/download.asp" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img style="margin:0 0 20px 0" src="http://nerdbusiness.com/articles/1111/directory-opus/img/dopus-download.png" width="420" height="120" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
                              &lt;p&gt; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.gpsoft.com.au/DScripts/download.asp" target="_blank"&gt;Directory Opus &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;is available from GPSoftware for approx $88 USD. They also offer a 60 day fully functional version you can try out. I highly recommend it. In fact, as your nerd friend, if I could physically wrestle you for control of your computer - &lt;em&gt;I would do it&lt;/em&gt; and then   install Directory Opus just to make sure you tried this amazing program. &lt;/p&gt;
                              &lt;div id="tweet_area"&gt;
                                &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="none" data-via="nerdbusiness" data-related="mrschwabe:Author of the post."&gt;Tweet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
                                    &lt;div class="tweet_cell"&gt;&lt;a href="javascript:window.location=%22http://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.location)+%22&amp;t=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.title)"&gt;&lt;img src="http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/sites/all/themes/nb/images/yhack.jpg" alt="Y Hack" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;


&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Tags:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/directory-opus"&gt;Directory Opus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item odd"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/software-review"&gt;software review&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;a href="/blog/tags/productivity"&gt;productivity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-field-popular field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Popular:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-items"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:38:49 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Schwabe</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">219 at http://nerdbusiness.com/blog</guid>
 <comments>http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/directory-opus-10-king-review#comments</comments>
  </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

