CHRISdotTODD

Based on a review I read, I thought I'd give Xobni a try. As described on the Xobni home page, "Xobni is the Outlook plug-in that helps you organize your flooded inbox." Xobni installs a new right-hand pane in Outlook and tracks your contacts communications. When you view an email, prior emails, files transfered and other cc'd contacts display in the Xobni window. Xobni provides you additional information as well, such as the contacts phone number, the numbers of sent and received emails to the contact and how the contact ranks in comparison to your other email contacts. You can also see a graph of when the contact communicates with you (by hour of the day). And finally, Xobni has a search feature to help you find emails. The Xobni website covers the features in more detail . The reason I'm uninstalling Xobni as I have not found the benefit in comparison to the pain. Every morning when I start Outlook, it now checks for errors because it did not close properly th

I just discovered this new web service, Cover It Live , that enables bloggers to post short commentary instantly onto a website. If you're familiar with Twitter , it is similar, but with a feed for a single event. As you can see on my right-nav column, I have added my own live Twitter feed; with Cover It Live, you can add a feed for a single event as a replacement or addition to a blog article. The first example I saw was from Rafe Needleman , on his WebWare site. Rafe was blogging live (streaming) using Cover It Live while at the Google Factor Tour for Search event on Monday. I missed the live posting, but I was able to follow the commentary that he posted. I was also able to see the questions posted by those who were following Rafe. I found another example being used by a Yahoo! blog, Ball Don't Lie , where four bloggers posted commentary during the NBA Draft Lottery, followed by Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals (Celtic and Pistons). I haven't posted myself, but

Do you have files that you do not want others to see? Perhaps you keep your tax returns archived on your hard drive. Or your employee's files at work. Using a very simple, free program you can protect those files from others accessing them using TrueCrypt . Version 5.1a was released March 17, 2008, so you know this isn't some beta software you're running. From the TrueCrypt website, here are its main features: Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk. Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive. Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication). Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent. Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password: 1) Hidden volume. 2) No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data). Encryption algorithms: AES-256, Serpent, and Twof

If you're like me, you have multiple sources of audio, and getting them all into one iTunes is a problem. Sure if you're ripping a new CD, iTunes makes it easy; but if you're merging existing digital collections, it can be very time consuming and error prone. No longer is this a problem with the iTunes Library Updater (iTLU). You can run iTLU through a GUI or from a console (which allows scripting). The following features are supported with iTLU: Adding new music or video clips to the iTunes library Removing entries from the iTunes library that point to non-existing files Synchronizing the iTunes library with one or multiple directories Updating iTunes track information with meta information out of the media files (for example ID3 tags in case of MP3 files) Updating your iPod (initiates a synchronization) iTLU appears to be only available for Windows, but is completely free and comes with a short manual in English and German. If you want to clean up your iTunes, this is a

Download Statusbar offers several ways to view the status of your downloads using Firefox without the annoyance of a separate dialog box. I've chosen to use the mode where it's just another icon on the status bar. You can opt to have an additional bar added above the status bar when downloading. After your file has downloaded, through a simple hover, you can see all the specifics about the downloaded file(s). For example, you can see the site you downloaded it from, the file size, and the time it took to download. Additional options include a notification when complete and even an auto-virus scan. I like it just because it reduces the clutter.

Most Windows users know that we can hit Alt-Tab to switch from one active Window to another (or Alt-Shift-Tab to go backward). Windows XP displays icons for each of your open applications and puts the title of the document or page underneath. This can be quite difficult to find the application you are looking for with just an icon and text. There are three replacement programs for Alt-Tab that I found, which give you a preview of the application as you use Alt-Tab. First, there's the PowerToy from Microsoft , Alt-Tab Replacement . If there was no other choice, this would be better than the default functionality in Windows XP. A better option would be Alt-Tab Thingy from Nymithium Technologies. Not my favorite replacement, but Alt-Tab Thingy is definitely better than Microsoft's Alt-Tab Replacement. Here's just a few of the features available in Alt-Tab Thingy: Allows minimizing of windows to the system tray Monitors windows for change of caption/z-order/deadtray icons etc.

My work laptop is a Dell Latitude D810, and it has always ran hot. More recently on a business trip it crashed three times, which I am convinced is due to the high temperature. I found a utility, SpeedFan , which allowed me to monitor various temperatures. SpeedFan indicated very hot (flames) for many of the components, but it wasn't capable of turning the fans on or up. Further, it didn't give me any indication of what temperature was dangerous to my laptop. In searching for threshold temperatures, I found another, more useful utility, 18kfanGUI . 18kfanGUI was developed by Christian Diefer of Germany specifically for Dell laptops (see his compatibility chart). Using 18kfanGUI, I am able to get my fans to turn on or up sooner, and therefore keep the temperature of my laptop lower. Christian also hosts a Forum , which appears to be very active, so you can support beyond his manual and FAQs. Now, my laptop is a bit noisier, but I am much more comfortable in knowing that my lapto

As most of us know, over time our PC just gets slower. This is due to temp files, old registry entries, a full hard drive, and a host of other "features" of a Microsoft OS. Fortunately, PC World just released an article on Cheap and Free Tools to Put Zip Back in Your PC . The PC World article covers four subject areas: Speed Freaks Optimize for Speed Internet Boosters Application Boosters For Speed Freaks, the one fully free tool is Cleanup Assistant . Cleanup Assistant will scour your hard drive and remove unnecessary files for you, e.g. duplicates and caches. In the Optimize for Speed category, there are four free tools mentioned. Three of them look to optimize your Registry: Eusing Free Registry Cleaner , CCleaner , and Auslogics Registry Defrag . In addition, CCleaner will also look at removing unnecessary files, similar to Cleanup Assistant. The final free tool in the Optimize for Speed category is Advanced Windows Care 2 Personal, which its primary utility is to clean u

I ran across a clever utility, HoeKey , which is used to configure keyboard shortcuts. HoeKey is a small program (only 12k) that with a little configuration, can make daily computing much easier. You can use it to launch programs, modify existing windows, eject a CD, and more. It may sound a bit hokey, but HoeKey can be a big productivity boost for those who prefer the keyboard over the mouse. While you're getting HoeKey, check out the other little utilities available.