Archive for August, 2008

Multiple instances of Google talk and Firefox

Firefox and Google talk are two apps which I cannot really manage without…but then what do you do if you share your PC with someone else? Maybe someone else at home. Each of us have our own collection of bookmarks, addons and of course logins.

So you would need to get Firefox and Gtalk to run multiple instances. The secret to running them is to use Firefox’s in built profile manager. We need to invoke the profile manager by changing the shortcut path on your desktop. Ideally, the target looks like this “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe”

Change it to

“C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe” -profilemanager.

Run the shortcut and you will come across the profile manager.

Firefox profile manager

Click on create new to start the new profile wizard.

add new profile firefox wizard

add new profile firefox wizard

But, even now, there firefox would not let you run two profiles at the same time. Which means if you open another firefox instance when one is running, it will still belong to the same profile. Now to work around that, we need to change the path to

“C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe”  -no-remote -profilemanager

Run the shortcut and you will come across the profile manager even if you have one firefox instance running already. Great now you can login two people can login to two gmail accounts at the same time…

Now, Gtalk is not as customizable as Firefox is, but still they manage to give us two workarounds to run multiple instances.

1. Download Google talk. Run it as instance no.1. Download Gtalk labs edition, run it as instance no. 2

2. I do not recommend gtalk labs edition as it is still in limited beta and has quite a few shortcomings compared to the regular gtalk app. So we lets get to playing around with the shortcut target for google talk as well, considering you had a default install of gtalk, the shortcut target should be “C:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe”. And yes, its a bit different if you run Vista.  Lets change the shortcut to

“C:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe” /nomutex

Gtalks! galore, run as many as you want….

Multiple Google talk instances

Multiple Google talk instances

Make your windows look like an Apple Mac

Its been a long time since I made desktop customization except for the regular change of the wallpaper that I do…So, I decided it was time to spice up my desktop and decided to go for the MacOS look…I already had the best windows look, since I had Vista. So now how do I go about making my desktop looking like MacOS? First a little basics on the Mac world for all those MS Windows lovers out there…

Macs run the OS X which succeed the Mac OS operating system, and you might be interested to know that all of Mac OSX versions have been named after the big cats family like the OSX puma, panther, Jaguar, leopard and so on…The latest in the line of the cats is the snow leopard..and here we have a screenshot which should make things a bit more clear

Now that we know how the interface looks lets work on changing the interface..The first important part of the OSX interface is the “dock” which you will find at the bottom of the screen..
So, we download that one. I found two free alternatives to the “dock” for windows, one is Objectdock from Stardock and the other is Rocketdock from Punklabs. There are other alternatives too, but these are the two I decided to try out…Stardock has been a company synonymous with the best windows skinning programs like Windowblinds, DesktopX etc..and after trying out both of the products, I decided, much to my surprise that Rocketdock worked better for me, it was simple and easier to use..but I would say that making the choice is merely a matter of random selection.

Now we have Rocketdock installed, lets load it. Add icons, right click the dock to add new icons, separators and docklets (like clocks, weather icons etc..)
I write this post primarily for windows users and so I would know how much have come to love the convenience of minimizing to the taskbar. So, right click on the dock -> dock settings -> General tab and enable the “Minimize windows to the dock” checkbox.
The second app we need to download is, Objectbar. This is for the top bar and also to ensure that you continue to have access to your tray icons and to make the transformation complete.

lets get the last bit of the interface quick now, the wallpaper. You can get the original set here.
The dock icons are usually .png icons and you can download them as per your requirement from deviantART.

And this is how my desktop looks now…

The disclaimer part
I love windows and I love the mac as well. I do not have a Mac. All copyrights, trademarks, brandnames are all properties of their corresponding owners. This is not a post for Mac purists. It is for an ordinary windows user who wants to add some spice to his desktop. It wont change your windows to make it look and feel as good as Mac. you should get a Mac if you want the experience…

Update Aug.07, 2009: Get OSX font smoothing for windows as well!

Rejaw – the new microblogging site

Rejaw. At last a microblogging site which feels good…Well, now lets not start comparing with twitter..Considering that twitter has been around for long…but its always great to have comparison in the arena.

Microblogging has several contenders but none have even managed to shake twitter even a bit, except for maybe, plurk. Microblogging is the post of small messages, limited by character count which can be seen by the public(or maybe restricted to a group). Few of the contenders in the market other than the leader being twitter are Plurk, Identi.ca, Kwippy, Beemood etc.

Anyone who has used Twitter will find themselves familiar with the interface at Rejaw. The site is friendly, very minimalistic. No nonsense and has a smooth interface which I love. It is not that I am switching from twitter..but its good to have an alternative…Identi.ca was slow, sluggish and boring…Kwippy was good, nothing spectacular and I am already a fan of Plurk…

Join me on Rejaw!

The most futuristic site I’ve ever seen

The digg labs

Each of the links on the website synthesizes news in a ultra cool visualization…

If you don’t like that one. I don’t know what looks good. The future is here. It is DUGG!! and if you haven’t seen it before. Thank me. I showed you the future….atleast the way to go…And the best part is the real time screensaver which makes your PC look equally futuristic. Keep up with the times…

Maruti A-star: the new alto

Can’t help feeling that the A-star is a replica of the Hyundai i10, especially the front grille is unmistakably i10ish. Anyway..its about time, India’s most popular car, the Maruti Alto got a facelift. Read more about it here and here.

Meanwhile, I also came across pictures of a test version of the new car here. So, I guess the final product would look as good as the pic above.

The original link to the article lies here (thanks to Mridul for that)

More about the test drive of the new A-star here. Very impressive I guess…and that should answer the pricing queries as well :)

Check out the first view pictures of the Tata Nano

Plurk from your desktop

I have been using twitter fox for a long time now..for the uninitiated, twitterfox is a firefox extension for twitter. But, firefox was acting all weirdly in the morning and I had to close it down for sometime. I downloaded twhirl, the desktop client for twitter meanwhile. Adobe AIR based Twhirl has one of the best interfaces out there and really makes me want to use it just for that…This got me thinking, why plurk which was more closer to chat did not have a desktop client and there I was searching for a client for plurk and I found 3.

Both the applications require Adobe AIR which can be found here.

Plurkair

An Adobe AIR based application which is a desktop application for plurk. I used it, liked it and recommend it. Though I would like a few more features, I need to consider that this application has been developed even in the absence of an API from plurk. Plurkair uses the plurk mobile version of the page and is quite decent for a desktop app. Download it here.

Plurkit

Same as Plurk air, except for a few minor negligible differences.

Plurk Firefox Sidebar

This is to plurk, what twitterfox is twitter. You need the firefox browser, which you can get here. But I am sure you already use it.

Future Computer of 2020

A Preview of what a computer could look like by the time your kid uses it …..
(and yeah, ignore the fact that it still runs windows xp….)