tools

[via Lifehacker]

You already saw Google Chrome's humorous about:internets Easter egg, but readernettleman points out that Chrome's got several special about: pages that reveal all sorts of interesting information about what's going behind the scenes. Here's the full list, with screenshots.

• about:memory
• about:stats
• about:network
• about:internets
• about:histograms
• about:dns
• about:cache
• about:plugins
• about:version

Update: Mawin adds that you can also go to two special pages on a per-site basis.view-cache:[URL] shows you some under-the-hood cache details, and view-cache:[URL] shows you the page's markup. (Though you can view source by just right-clicking on a page and choosing, um, "View page source.")

You Mac and Linux users, here are some about: page screenshots:

[Executor via Lifehacker]

Windows only: Free application Executor is an application launcher very similar in look and feel to Lifehacker reader's favorite application launcher, Launchy. In fact, after a bit of testing Executor might have just snagged Launchy's place as the app launcher of choice on my Windows machine. One of the major differences between the two is Executor's emphasis on keywords. Although it does text search for just about anything, Executor gives priority to user-assigned keywords for launching apps, documents, and folders. What's more, you can assign a keyboard shortcut to any keyword for quick launches without even invoking Executor. Keyword functionality aside, Executor is also very fast and lightweight, eating just over 10MB of RAM in Task Manager. But that's not all that makes it great.

You can browse your filesystem and even view your launching history and clipboard history. Like Launchy, Executor does web searches (e.g., wiki Lifehacker searches Wikipedia for Lifehacker), accepts quick calculations (e.g., #5+2), and supports many different skins. As an added bonus, it works seamlessly with the latest Windows Desktop Search in Vista and XP (just typefind search terms to use it). Executor is wildly customizable, sporting an enormous set of preferences that any power user will be dying to tweak.

[via Makeuseof]

What happens when BitTorrent meets Hamachimeets remote desktop meets networking?  Well you get something similar to Remobo. Remobo lets you create an IPN which is an Instant Private Network.

Lets see what you can do with an IPN, Remobo and how to set it all up.

Remobo allows you to:

• Control your own computer remotely from any other computer.
• Access your files securely from work or while traveling.
• Share files, photos and media with friends & family on your network.
• Secure all your messages and file transfers against hackers.
• Create a virtual private network (VPN) instantly and securely.
• Play LAN games over the internet as if you were all in the same place.
• Connect to any computer in your list securely to access files and data.
• Run virtually any 3rd party application on top of Remobo.

Quite a handful isn’t it? Lets set it all up!

Download and Install

Simply download and install. It will try to install a BitTorrent client (which will be required later as you will see) so if you already have your own, you can say no to this. While setting up the virtual network driver Windows will warn you.  Click ‘continue’ and you should be good to go.

[via Makeuseof]

The rise of blogs and easily publishable content created a need for the ability to track it, hence the creation of Really Simple Syndicate Feeds or RSS for short.

“RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts in a standardized format. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.”

These ’special programs’ and ‘filtered displays’ consist of either:

• Browser feeds
  using a web browser to keep track of website updates (all modern browsers contain this functionality such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari)
• A dedicated reader
  These include Google Reader, FeedDemon and a host of others where you can read blog feeds as you do email. Some readers are online, others are desktop based.
• An online aggregator
  Such as AllTop or TechMeme. This lets an algorithm find out the most popular stories for the day and saves you the trouble of scouring countless blogs.

Whether you’re already a feed addict or just interested in the whole thing, deciding upon who you’re going to use may take some thought.

Online Reader? Desktop reader?

[via Makeuseof]

I’m a big fan of ebooks and have a huge collection of ebooks on various topics. Although I don’t read them on my cellphone now but later in this year when I plan to travel extensively, I’d definitely like to have the access to my ebooks collection on my phone and read them on the go.

While I was searching for ebook reading softwares online, I came across Mobipocket which is a free ebook reader provided by the Mobipocket.com ebook store. It works only on Windows PC and also works on mobile phones like Smartphones, Blackberry and on devices like PDA.

I decided to download it and test it out and I should say that it’s certainly an impressive product. Once you download the 5.3 MB .msi file and install it on your PC, it searches for the available ebooks and creates your personal library. If you have your ebooks stored in a separate partition then you’ll have to manually import them.

When you go to the import option, you’ll find that it’s not just about ebooks but also about office documents, HTML and text documents. Hence this ebook reader aims to be a store of all your readable documents, which makes it more useful. While importing I’d suggest you to select the All Supported Files option and then import the required documents. It converts the document into the mobipocket format and stores it in a new folder named My ebooks created inside My Documents.

[via Lifehacker]

If the high price tag for Apple hardware has kept you from buying a Mac but you're willing to roll up your sleeves and get adventurous, you can build your own "Hackintosh"—a PC that runs a patched version of OS X Leopard. What?!, you say. Apple's move to Intel processors in 2006 meant that running OS X on non-Apple hardware is possible, and a community hacking project called OSx86 launched with that goal in mind. Since then, OSx86 has covered major ground, making it possible for civilians—like you and me!—to put together their own Hackintosh running Mac OS 10.5. Today, I'll show you how to build your own high end computer running Leopard from start to finish for under $800. UPDATE: Building your Hackintosh just got a lot easier. After you build your system using the hardware I've listed in this article, here's how to install OS X on your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required.

Right now the cheapest Mac on sale at the Apple store is a $600 Mac Mini sporting a 1.83GHz proc, 1GB of RAM and an 80GB hard drive. For $200 more, your Hackintosh can boast a 2.2GHz proc with 4GB of RAM, a 500GB drive, and a completely upgradeable case for expanding your setup in the future.

[via lifehacker]

So many video file formats, so many handheld video players, so many online video sites, and so little time. To have your favorite clips how you want them—whether that's on your DVR, iPod, PSP or desktop—you need the right utility to convert 'em into the format that works for you. Commercial video converter software's aplenty, but there are several solid free utilities that can convert your video files on every operating system, or if you've just got a web browser and a quick clip. Put DVDs on your iPod, YouTube videos on DVD, or convert any video file with today's top 10 free video rippers, encoders and converters.

[Partition Find and Mount via Lifeahacker]

Windows 2000/XP/2003 only: Free file recovery utility Partition Drive and Mount could be a real panic-reducer for anyone realizing too late that they really needed that file or folder from a just-removed partition. The app scans your hard drive and finds every hint of partitions it can, whether one disappeared during resizing or just stopped showing up. You can then mount the missing section as a drive letter and grab data from the partition, or save an image of the partition elsewhere for backup or recovery. The only restriction on this freeware is a data transfer limit of 512 Kb/s, which is pretty swift for regular home users. Partition Find and Mount is a free download for Windows XP/200x systems only.

[SteadyState via Makeuseof]

Microsoft is offering their users a piece of free magic software, called SteadyState.  We have all been there late at night and our virtual guard is down. Maybe you hopped on an unsecured network and decided to browse some hardcore porn sites bit torrent trackers um er let’s just say some not so reputable sites. Either way you have exposed your machine to a potentially bad neighborhood and if your protection on your machine isn’t up to snuff then who knows what could have happened already!

But now let’s say you downloaded Microsoft’s new 6.3MB SteadyState program for XP or Vista. You can go ahead and fire it up and configure how you want it to interact with your Operating System. Think of it like free virtualization with some security features thrown in.

The features that stand out are:

[Locate32 via Lifehacker]

Windows only: Free search utility Locate32 uses Unix-style databases and locate commands to find files by name, size, creation dates, or any other system criteria. While it can't search the insides of files likeGoogle Desktop, Vista's Search 4.0 Preview, or other full-featured tools, it runs fast, simple, and seriously light on system resources. You can set oft-searched presets, run the whole thing from a thumb drive, and perform any of your normal right-click context commands on the files Locate32 finds. No wonder it comeshighly recommended by commenters. Locate32 is a free download for Windows 98 and later systems. Thanks, Chris!