Gadgets Apps Hacks

When blogging, I often want to take a screen capture, crop it down and include it in a post. Pressing CTRL + [ ]]] (the "Switch to your next window" key) will save a screenshot into a Screenshots folder under File Shelf. However, this would then need to be uploaded somewhere for editing. Google also offers a Screen Capture extension , but this doesn't offer the ability to crop either. The extension that I have been using is called  Webpage Screenshot . This lets you capture a screenshot and edit it in the browser, including cropping. Once edited you can then share the image. This presents convenient links for emailing, sharing on facebook or twitter among others. It also the simplest way I have found to save the image on a Chromebook for subsequent uploading to Blogger.

I've been using Centered Systems Second Copy 2000 to manage the backups on my home network, and to an offsite server, for years. For the offsite backups I use the "autodial" feature in Second Copy, that configures a profile to "dial" a connection, such as a VPN connection. I recently upgraded to Windows 7 from Windows XP, and when I ran my profiles, Second Copy crashed with the message "SecCopy has stopped working". After some experimentation I narrowed this down to the profile that was using the autodial feature. If I disabled the autodial, and connected to the network manually from outside of Second Copy, then the profile would run fine. I sent a message to Centered Systems support, but didn't get (or missed) the reply. I bought a license to Second Copy 7.1 hoping that this addressed any Windows 7 compatibility issues. But I got exactly the same problem there. I am now successfully using the following workaround. Instead of using the autodial fea...

I use Microsoft Outlook at work and at home for managing contacts, tasks and memos. I've tried various approaches to keeping these in sync. When I regularly carried a Palm, I would sync to the Palm from home and work. But this was inconvenient and I would often forget. I also tried Yahoo Intellisync for a time, but found it to be buggy, reporting errors that I couldn't trace down and fix. After reading Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen, I began relying upon Outlook Tasks even more. So I needed to find a reliable approach to keeping these uptodate and in sync. I have been using Plaxo for a while to keep my address book uptodate, and discovered that their Outlook Toolbar allowed you to sync Outlook calendar, contacts, tasks and memos with the Plaxo server. So by simply installing this both at work and at home, I am now able to keep in sync. So far I have found it to be 100% reliable, and have had none of the strange errors or duplicates that plagued me with both the Palm a...

I know several people with home networks hosting gigs of movies, photos and mp3s, only a few of whom have any kind of backup strategy, and only one of whom (that I can think of) has an offsite backup strategy. I've been familiar with the concept of offsite backups since I started working in the software industry. I suppose companies developing open source software don't have the same problem, but companies writing commercial software have to keep their source code secure from prying eyes, but at the same time safe in the event of a disaster such as fire or flood. But despite this familiarity, a personal experience losing data, and a growing number of important files on my home network, until 1998 I still had no backup strategy at home. I thought about it from time to time, but I knew that if I just got a tape drive and tapes, and relied upon myself to do it manually on a regular schedule, I would start forgetting, and eventually give up altogether (I'm the same way about ex...