Enso

Enso is another Quicksilveresque program, and it looks very nice. It's Windows-only at the moment, but a Mac version is planned. It's not free, but if you've tried Launchy and Keybreeze and haven't quite got what you want yet, it might be worth a try.

If this sort of thing leaves you cold, that's probably because you haven't really given it a chance yet. The computer you're sitting at right now is much quicker than you at doing a lot of the tedious, repetitive tasks you find yourself doing over and over again, so using a program like this can save you a lot of time and effort. The difference between, say three seconds and twenty seconds to complete a given action might not seem like a very impressive time saving, but it really adds up when you get in the habit of doing as much as possible this way rather than with your mouse or trackpad.

I urge you to try one of these programs, by which I mean for a week or so, not five minutes. There is a bit of a learning curve involved, but it really is worth it, I promise.


(via Google Operating System)

Browsers

I recommend Firefox to people a lot, but I've been using Opera lately and think it's pretty good. Why not give it a go?

I'm moving

I like Tumblr, the service that has been hosting my attempt at a blog, and I think its simple, stripped-down format is what eased me into getting round to posting every now and then.

But I've decided that it's a bit more stripped-down than I want, and so I'm moving to Blogger. I'll be moving the address (samlewis.co.uk) too, so if you read this by just visiting the page then all that will happen is that you see a slight change. If you subscribe via RSS (and hopefully you do), then you will need to update your subscription to carry on receiving updates.

Top 10 Mac OS X tweaks

A day in the life...

Solar power in Spain

Google search results in two columns...

...with this Greasemonkey script. You'll need to have installed Greasemonkey in Firefox to use this.

A nice time-lapse video...

...here.

iTunes licence agreement

You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of missiles, or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

This is part of the iTunes licence agreement. Really.

The 2007 Reith Lectures have just finished

You can listen to them all here.

The Encyclopedia of Life

This won't be anywhere near complete for a decade or two (if ever), but you can keep an eye on it at eol.org.

Richard Feynman on "the inconceivable nature of nature"

"Do the math(s)"

Google Maps Address Book Plugin

I just used this for the first time in a while and thought that some of you might be missing out.

Of course, some of you will be missing out in a bigger way by not actually having Address Book on your computers because they are not Apples. But there you are.

Spinal Tap...

...are back (in a small way).

Growl notifications for Firefox...

...here. You can get Growl here if you haven't already got it. (Growl is Mac-only.)

Track your deliveries...

...with this Dashboard widget.

Design for the other 90%

Don't forget to look at the pictures too.

www.matthewmahon.com

Slow-motion water video

ProVoc...

...looks like a very handy Mac application for learning languages (specifically vocabulary).

Keybreeze...

...is another Windows version of Quicksilver. You can get it here.

Launchy...

...is a Windows attempt at a Quicksilver clone. You can get it here.

Jarvis Cocker is running Meltdown this year

More here.

Anybody there?

In order to see if anyone's actually reading this, I have an offer for you.

Joost is a new TV thing (from the makers of Skype and Kazaa) that lets you, well, watch TV, but in a new kind of way, on your computer. You can learn a little bit more about it here (and see its moving logo, which reminds me of the old animated Channel 4 one).

Anyway, Joost is still in beta, so you can't just download it and have a look. I have three invitations to give out though, so if you want one just send me an email and I'll invite you. First come, first served, and all that

Quicksilver multiple action cleverness

Here

Petition to close Guantanamo prison

Here

The Corporation

Is worth watching if you haven't seen it yet. It's on YouTube here.

More free language learning materials

From the BBC this time.

Infinite Google search results scrolling...

...can be acheived with this Greasemonkey script. To use it, you'll need to install Greasemonkey first. Install it in Firefox, that is.

C'était un rendez vous

This is another good old one. It was recently nicked by Snow Patrol as a video for one of their songs.

Human computation

I saw this quite a while ago and just remembered it. It's quite long, but very interesting - it describes the idea behind the ESP game.

The new del.icio.us Firefox extension...

...is here. Looks pretty good. If you're not familiar with del.icio.us, you can find out more about it here. If you're not familiar with Firefox, don't bother reading too much, just download it and use it!

And please, don't use Internet Explorer!

(As an alternative, you might like to try Opera, but the del.icio.us extension won't work with it.)

Google Notifier

Is a good way to keep track of your Gmail and Google Calendar from your menu bar. Get it here (Mac only).

Google Reader Notifier does the same thing for Google Reader.

MagiCal

Allows you to have a 'fuzzy' menu bar clock, amongst other things. Get it here.

Darfur crisis Google Earth layer...

...can be downloaded here. If you don't have Google Earth, you can get it here.

Open University

Openlearn offers free learning from the Open University.

Free language learning courses

Here

Thou Shalt Always Kill

Linux vs. Windows MCE

This looks great...



...and this is part two:

Quicksilver

If you have an Apple but don't have Quicksilver, you are missing out. You can get it here.

Yum

Apple recipe management software

Send as IM

An Applescript for using Adium via Quicksilver

Drag de Go...

...is a very handy Firefox extension. You can get it here.

 (I found it via Lifehacker.)

Quicksilver videos

A few recent(ish) screencasts on how to use some of the features of Quicksilver:

On The Apple Blog:

• Email actions
• Arrowing
• Metadata (read this first, then this, then watch the video itself)
• Abracadabra mouse gestures
• iTunes tags and playlists
• 'In-n-out'
• Catalog(ue)s
• Running scripts
  

On The Merlin Show:

• Application Menus
• The Comma Trick