A Pipe and a Keyboard

I came across an interesting item yesterday.

It is a graphic of the icons of the world’s top 300,000 websites.  Considering that at the end of 2009 it was estimated that there were 234 million websites, then to be in the top 300,000 is quite something.

The graphic is a large one.  I’m not going to post it here, as the copy I have is nearly 508Mb in size.  You’ll have to make do with a reduced one -

What amazed me is that Head Rambles is in there.  It took a bit of searching, but the Old Goat is in there, up in the top left hand corner.

There he is.  Bang in the middle.

Not quite as big an icon as Google or YouTube.

But it’s a start.

Filed under: Tech stuff on August 25th, 2010 | 14 Comments »

As I mentioned about three weeks ago, I got myself a new laptop.

At my age, switching to a new version of an operating system can be a little daunting.  Learning is not the problem.  I have no problem with the learning.  What I do have problems with is habit.  I get into the habit of doing things a particular way, and if I am forced off that way, I tend to get annoyed.

I mentioned before that I liked my “Classic Menu”.  I found a nice little programme (Classic Shell) that does exactly what I wanted.  What’s more, it gives be a configurable dual option – left click (for example) on the Start button gives the new Windows 7 Menu, whereas right click gives the “Classic”.  What I find interesting is that more and more I am using the Windows 7 version, and soon there will be no need for that programme at all.

For the last couple of days, I have been playing around with Firefox 4. 

At first glance there is little difference from Firefox 3, apart from little tweaks such as the tabs now extending to the full width of the screen, whereas in the old version, they were moved to the right by the Bookmarks/History panel.

One area where there is a significant difference is in the way the tabbed preview works.

In the case above, the curser is over the Firefox tab on the menu bar, which gives a preview of the tab currently open.

In Firefox 4 however, moving the curser over the menu gives a preview of every tab open in Firefox.  Moving the curser over the previews immediately shows that tab in the main screen, allowing for very easy and quick selection.

I don’t know if it is my imagination, but the screen seems a lot crisper in 4, as well.

Normally I only run Beta versions for test purposes, and will rever to the production version for normal use.  I find with Firefos 4 though that I use it all the time, and would be loath to revert.

Nice one, Firefox!

Filed under: Tech stuff on August 12th, 2010 | 2 Comments »

I wrote yesterday that I missed the Classic Menu in Windows 7.

Why the option was omitted is anyone’s guess, but the fact is that it’s gone.  I did a search on the Internet and found a few solutions that were all going to cost me.  Now, I’m not averse to paying for good software, but this didn’t warrant  any expenditure.

I searched a bit further, and found an extremely simple solution that not only is free, but doesn’t require any additional software at all.

First of all, through Control Panel, –> Folder Options make sure that “Show hidden files, folders and drives” is selected.

Now, right-click on the toolbar and select Toolbars –> New toolbar…   This will open up a folder selection window.  Select ‘C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\windows\StartMenu\Programs\

That’s it.

The new item appears on the right-hand end of the Toolbar:

Click on the double arrow ‘>>’ and away you go.

Filed under: General on July 26th, 2010 | No Comments »