Cool Mac and Windows utilities. There are a number of really cool utilities that I really can't live without, and I thought I'd gather them here to generate a bit of discussion. In the Windows corner: Dave's Quick Search Deskbar. This is by far the coolest utility that I have ever used. I haven't used anywhere near all of its features, but here's a list of the ones that I use often: Typing in arbitrary text will search for that text using Google amaz search terms /books will search for the search terms in the books section of Amazon fedex tracking number will check the status of a fedex shipment radix number will display that number in octal, hex, and binary 0xhex= will convert a hex number to decimal num1 op num2= will act as an inline calculator There's tons of other features that I haven't used yet. Best of all, it's free! Popup Stopper. I can't surf without this free utility that effectively blocks popup ads from appearing. However, there are times when it blocks legitimate applications, so you need to remember to turn it on and off as well. Windows command completion. This lets you complete directory paths / filenames by pressing the tab key in a command shell. For example you can type "c:\Pro" and then hit the tab key to get "c:\Program Files" in the command prompt. This feature is enabled by default in fresh installs of Windows XP. For those of you who don't have this feature turned on, use regedit to set HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftCommand ProcessorCompletionChar=0x9. In the Mac corner: LaunchBar: This utility lets you use the keyboard to launch applications and open Finder windows. For example, you can type "CMD-Space itu ENTER" to launch iTunes or "CMD-Space /L ENTER" to navigate to open a Finder window for the /Library directory. This saves me a lot of time every day. MenuMeters: This utility places icons in your Menu bar that shows network activity, disk I/O, memory usage and cpu usage. It's great to be able to see what your computer is up to at all times in a nice and compact UI. Since I'm new to the Mac world, I'd love to hear about more utilities that you can't live without in the Mac world. [IUnknown.com: John Lam's Weblog on Software Development]

© Copyright 2003 Eric Hartwell. Last update: 5/7/2003; 7:14:07 AM. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.

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"Data! data! data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay."
— Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson in "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" by Arthur Conan Doyle. 

"I like deadlines," cartoonist Scott Adams once said. "I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

"There is nothing like that feeling of spending days and days banging your head against a wall trying to solve a programming problem then suddenly finding that one tiny obscure and seemingly unrelated piece of the puzzle that unlocks the solution. Oh yeah!"

- Chris Maunder, CodeProject Newsletter 28 Jan 2002

"Management at eSnipe, which is me, is also feeling the pain of the 2002 bear market. So rather than pout about it, I bought some stuff on eBay that I really didn’t need, but made me feel better."

- Tom Campbell, president of eSnipe