SpaceMonger Version 1.4.0 is a free program that helps you visualize the files on your drives by displaying files and folders as boxes. The size of each box is represents the percentage of space it takes up. You can quickly keep track of the free space on your computer by being actually seeing the size of those huge files you downloaded months ago and completely forgot about.
SpaceMonger is a tool for keeping track of the free space on your computer. Each file or folder on a given drive is displayed in a box in the main window whose size is a relative comparison to all the other files in your system. So, for example, if the “Windows” box takes up 90% of the screen, the “C:\Windows” folder and all its sub-folders and files are taking up 90% of your “C:” drive.
Whenever I download a new font, its a pain to go through the process of opening the Control Panel, Fonts, and then going through the “Install New Font” process.
With Windows XP and up, Microsoft have enabled ‘Drag and Drop’ font installation. This means you can drag a font file into the Fonts folder and it will install automatically.
To make that easy process even easier, put a shortcut to the Fonts folder (Default: C:\WINDOWS\Fonts) in your account’s SendTo folder.
I want to take a moment and welcome our newest Techblog sponsor, Tubatomic Studio.
Tubatomic Studio is a multi-disciplined creative firm that focuses on enhancing interactive environments on the internet.
Based in Chattanooga, TN, Tubatomic have created successful interactive websites for national and world-wide clients like Ruby Tuesday and VeryFunnyAds.com.
You can find out more about Tubatomic at their website. Tubatomic.com
Most weather sites display lots of excess information like radars, traffic reports and tips for planning your next ski trip, which is great, if you’re actually planning your next ski trip. But for those of us who just want to check the weather, most sites are overkill with long page load times. New weather site SimpleWeather.com cuts out all that clutter and just simply does its job. Input your zip code once (stored in a cookie) and SimpleWeather will do its thing.
You have a DVD program. Right? And a program to watch videos. Right? And if that video happens to be a different type of format, you have to open it in a different program. Right?
Wrong. VLC Media Player is an open source, cross-platform media player that has almost every codec you will ever need built in to the program. So you can kiss all those codec packs goodbye. So far, it has played every kind of video I’ve thrown at it. It plays all my DVDs, VCDs, AVIs, MPGs, WMVs, FLVs, MOVs, XVIDs, and DIVXs. It even plays 3GP and 3G2 videos I’ve taken with my mobile phone. It handles streaming media, audio files (though I don’t use it as a music player) and runs faster than Windows Media Player any day of the week. It has a sleek design and isn’t bloated with scores of never-used features.
VLC is a must-have free download for anyone who watches a lot of video on their computer.
Here’s a real handy way to help your lost USB drive find its way home.
Daily Cup of Tech gives us some simple files to put on your USB drives to encourage people to return it.
Download this ZIP file and unzip it to the root of your USB drive. Edit readme.txt with a nice note encouraging the finder to return the drive to you. Unplug the drive and plug it back in.
You (and everyone else) will get this Auto Play menu.
Clicking OK or double clicking the drive in My Computer will result in the Help.exe program displaying your text from readme.txt, thanks to the autorun.inf file.(Note: If your drive already has an AutoRun.inf file, compare the two and add what is needed.)
What other steps can someone take to ensure the safe return of their portable drives? Let us know in the comments.
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This week’s Time Waster proves that great games don’t need great graphics.
Desktop Tower Defense is an amazingly addictive game in which you have to stop your enemies, or ‘creeps’, from travelling all the way across the screen by setting up defense towers along the way.
A lot of the fun comes from the “Sim City” style gameplay of setting everything up and then just watching it all play out.
Twitter has become one of the fastest growing web services of the year. And with so many uses, its easy to see why. Twitter focuses on a single question, “What are you doing?” You update your profile via the Web Interface, Text Message or Instant Message and it gets sent to your friends and, if you choose so, anyone who wants to follow you.
With Twitter, you can set up an account for everyone in your family and instantly share what you’re doing throughout the day (“Meeting’s over, anyone for lunch? – Dad”), organize the evening’s dinner (“I say mac & cheese – Alex” , “We’ll need milk – Mom” , “I’ll get some on my way home – Sam”), or for flat-out EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW cases (“It’s a boy! – Dad”). There are several real world uses for a service like this. Twitter is the fastest growing at the moment but there are a few others starting to take off (Jaiku for instance).
Twitter’s open API has given rise to a number of add-on type services like Twittervision, Twittersearch, and the Twitter Weather Forecast (Add Forecast as a friend and send ‘d forecast (zip or city, state abbrev)’ — such as ‘d forecast 14202′ or ‘d forecast buffalo, ny’). And more are sure to follow.
If you have any other great uses for Twitter or know of other add-on services, let us know in the comments.
