I have used a lot of desktop enhancements, program launchers, docks and I can tell you that Launchy is one of the least intrusive and one of the most useful application launcher. Launchy is a keyboard friendly program(or whatever’s on your PC) launcher. Type in the first few letters of whatever you want to start and Launchy would provide you with a list of matches for those keys. The best thing is, you’ve got an integrated calculator (type and you get the result) as well as integrated search. Plus you can type in all those URLs directly to load them on your default browser (It would’ve been better if Launchy allowed you to set your browser preferences, but then that’s not too much of a problem) If you’ve got Chrome as your default browser then it works super fast. But if you’re like me and prefer to use Firefox, look for the solution below.

Firefox

Firefox. Now I guess I don’t need to even explain this. Most of my stuff is online, just like everyone’s and my browser is my window to the internet. Now if I don’t have the best browser around, then I’m probably missing something. Add extensions and you’ve got one customized superpowered supercharged superbrowser!

Chrome

Now that doesn’t mean I don’t like Chrome. I find Chrome to be perfect in many aspects, especially when it comes to loading time, minimalist interface and the way in which it really merges into the internet. It makes you feel as if there is no browser, its just the internet. Plus, the background updates (I’m going to update to the latest version anyway, so its better if the application does that for me) Chrome is also an awesome companion to Launchy especially when you create applications for web services. You can use launcy to load your Chrome gmail app by just typing in “gm”

Update: I’ve recently shifted to Chrome and I find that it’s more suited to my web browsing tasks than firefox.

Destroy twitter

I’m on twitter and you can follow me here. Everyone has their own favorite when it comes to twitter client and it just happens that I take a fancy to using Destroy twitter. I tend to use the twitterfox extension for Firefox as well, but then DT has to be my favourite AIR app.

Tray it

Tray it is a tiny piece of software which lets you minimize applications to the tray. They run in the background, as simple as that. I like doing that with many of my applications and you can find Firefox, DT and my mail client on my system tray. Having firefox on my tray lets me set up Firefox as my default browser and use Launchy to run searches/URLs real quick (since Firefox is always running in the background). Plus, if you’re a Firefox fan, there’s no way you would want to close the application anyway. Just minimize and send it to the tray.

Rocketdock

A dock is something which I have installed just because it looks good. The best part about a Mac is now available for a windows PC as well. Of the many dock applications, my favourite has been the Rocket dock suite. Easy to use and as light as it comes.

Google Reader has a user friendly interface which even makes desktop aggregators feel pale in comparison. But on a netbook, things are different, space is a premium, and the default interface has a lot of space left unused. The Sublime reader extension for chrome changes all that.  I’ve tried out a lot of minimal reader extensions and fe?w of them have been more impressive than Sublime. But I love the dark minimalistic interface. There are still a few rough edges. You still cannot read all items, your starred or shared items. But it makes up for all that with that stunning interface. Check it out below in action

Download Sublime Reader for Chrome.

The browser boots up, and gives me a list of all those addons which need updates. Of course I’d like to have the latest version. Isn’t it why I had it installed there in the first place? If its my unlucky day, even Firefox would need an update. And there is nothing I can do except wait until all those messy updates are done. Wait, there’s more..After the updates comes the installation. Its very frustrating I need to use a browser quickly for 2 minutes and I need to wait for 5 minutes until Firefox is done dressing up itself. And I almost forgot, update the browser and be assured that atleast 3 out of 5 extensions wouldn’t be compatible. Very, very frustrating.
Chrome updates in the background. I don’t care what you download as long as its from a trusted vendor. 5 seconds and its ready to browse the web, anytime of the day. Installing extensions or themes is just instantaneous with chrome, no restart required.
Because at the end of the day, all I want is to have is to browse the internet. Not just keep looking at progress screens of addons getting updated. Now that Chrome has all extensions I use on Firefox, its been days since I’ve clicked on the Firefox browser. I’ve still not decided to uninstall Firefox, but then I’m getting there.

P.S. When I opened WordPress to write down this post, I was informed that WordPress needed to update to 2.9.1. Here I go again…

I tried out wordpress on both the opera mini and the mobile and both of them wouldn’t let me type a single word.

Frustrated, I looked for help on Google and after a few stray results I got a wordpress plugin for the Iphone named the mobile admin, which unfortunately was unsupported with WP 2.5 and above.More searching around got me the Wphone plugin which allowed me to type the content until this point.

But it wouldn’t support images or links. And my search continued. Searching on google got me to this blog post on mobile applications I tried out a few java apps until I came across Wavelog from telewaving. Now wavelog had a really confusing interface and it wasn’t freeware. I downloaded the 30 day trial and got it to work with a little help from their help files.

The app works well on my symbian v5 device and supports v3 as well. I decided to go ahead and spend the $8.25 on the full version. Now thats the longest post I’ve made from my mobile phone. Now all I need are a few screenshots and this post is done. I think the search for a good mobile blogging solution is far from being complete. But then I don’t have an Iphone. Because we chose to be different.

Still haven’t tried Dropbox for Ubuntu, which reminds me..I’ll need make a post on the Ubuntu installation as well.

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One of the main reasons everything looks better on a Mac is because, Mac uses better font-smoothing technology as compared to a Windows. But, font smoothing is subjective and its more a matter of personal preference. (Scroll down to see the difference)
Mac uses a stronger form of font-smoothing which makes letters look more darker, clearer and less fuzzy. It’s the same technology which the Apple safari browser uses to render clear text. It might take sometime for you to get adjusted to an OSX’s font smoothing, but once you get used to it, its one of the most comfortable ways to read loads and loads of text (no wonder, the Mac is popular with designers, it makes everything seem good..) 
     Font hinting is the method preferred by Microsoft. Unhinted font is used on OS X and Linux. and you cannot disable font hinting in windows. GD++ is a tiny application which seeks to do this by changing the windows font smoothing during runtime. Simply download the GDI++ zip file, extract and run GDItray.exe.

The font smoothing might take sometime to get used to. But, like they say..once you’re used to a Mac..You’d never go back. I love reading Ebooks with strong font smoothing so the file is in my startup folder, just so that, it runs at every windows startup.

see the difference between the windows font smoothing and font smoothing with GDI++ enabled.

Windows font smoothing

GDI++ enabled

Read how to make your Windows look like OSX here.

via Estevão Mascarenhas

But, the interface looks really minimalistic and I loved it so much that I went around searching for a download. And here it is, in all its glory. Download the file, extract, click and drag the *.jar file to your Mozilla addons window.

Thanks to “BoneyardBrew“  and “SoapyHamHocks” @ DeviantART for the awesome theme. Do check out more of his work at his DeviantART gallery!
You would also need to install the Firefox Personal menu extension to complete the look.
Have a cool theme to recommend? Leave a comment!

Being used to a biometric fingerprint scanner on both my work and home laptops, I was disappointed when I started using my ASUS netbook. I had to think of an alternate way to login without typing in passwords. Searching online gave me results on only one application, Banana screen from Banana Security. But even lifehacker’s links weren’t alive since Banana security’s website had nothing on it, let alone a download link. After a bit more googling, I found a link to a Banana screen download at Softpedia.

Banana screen requires that you enter the windows password before the first time you use it. After installation, you create a profile of yourself called a model. The Model is a webcam capture of your face which allows you to login. I would have liked BS to completely replace the windows login screen, but BS only creates an alternate windows lock screen (Alt + L). Every time it fails to recognize (the first few times, since it needs to adapt the model to different lighting environments) you’d have to enter your password to login. And it updates the model. It learns!!

One tip would be to set the camera timeout to a low value on the settings. That way the camera doesn’t stay on for long. To login, press shift to activate the camera, and lo, access granted!! If you enjoyed the application, leave a comment..

Both these applications would not be able to replace Photoshop for power users. But when it comes to basic image editing, they get the job done quite well!

Even though they’re called netbooks , its not exactly possible to ensure that they’re always connected to the internet. What if the friendly neighborhood cafe did not have free wifi? And Netbooks without the power of the net are well, just books. Or so we have been lead to believe. Until the making this list that is. My list of perfect software had to make sure it fulfilled two primary needs. Firstly, to be able to run on a machine with limited processing abilities. Secondly, the capability to be used even when you did not have internet access.

Browser: Chrome

Chrome had to be the browser of choice. Light, fast and easy to load. I still am a fan of firefox on my laptop but for my netbook I chose the ultra light chrome with the power of Google Gears. That makes sure I can read my feeds offline, my mail offline, my blog and loads of other Gears compatible stuff offline.

Edited on July 17, 2009: Firefox takes over my netbook. Its impossible not to use firefox especially considering that the internet is the center of your netbook. Plus the font rendering on firefox is much more adaptable to netbooks, which means its much more comfortable to browse the web.

Mail: Thunderbird

I couldn’t find a better mail client than this so I had to surrender to the power of Mozilla. Handles multiple inboxes, junk/spam protection, easy to use. Just like all other good Mozilla products you get the power to use extensions just make sure that you are making an application heavier on a netbook. I just have the minimize to tray extension installed.

Chat: Pidgin

This open source chat agent had to take the cake when it came to chat. Lets me run multiple IM services, light and powerful. Though originally designed to run on linux, Pidgin is now available for windows as well. Pidgin is functional, has an interface that’s the least distracting and comes with a multitude of options to customize it. I use gtalk considering that its the lightest around, considering I do not need multiple IM support.

Office applications: Microsoft Works

I still am using the Microsoft works, but this section might update once I install the Open office. Still considering this section, so do leave your choices in the comments section.

Blogging: Blogdesk

For the first time, I’ve considered the use of an offline blogging tool and after trying quite a few of them, I’ve decided that Blogdesk, albeit its limitations is the winner. Blogdesk has support for most common blogging platforms. I would have recommended the use of Scribefire extension if I were using firefox, but since this is a list, Blogdesk is a blogging tool with a functional interface, but lets you write blogs offline, save them and post them later.

Antivirus: AVG

This is really easy. You would want to keep the resource usage to a minimum and still ensure protection. Stick to AVG . Does a good job and is light on the processor as well.

Desktop enhancements: Launchy

Well, just because its a netbook doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dress up your desktop. How about a OSX styled dock? Rocketdock is only of the fastest and lightest docks out there. I would recommend using Launchy , the keyboard based program launcher especially since it works wonders when the super fast chrome is your default browser.