My Insightful Blog

I just spent two and a half hours in Jahshaka and iMovie perfecting my new Youtube intro. All of the video was created on a 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo Mac Mini with 2 GB of DDR2 SDRAM (Samsung).

What if you could have a free 2.75 GB external hardrive? Well, what about an unlimited amount of 2.75 GB external hardrives all hooked up to your computer at once? Well, that is possible, and it is 100% free. However, I am sorry to say this, it is only possible on Windows computers (I think Xp and Vista only). So what's the key? Gmail.

As we all know, gmail, Google's mail service, is essentially a large storage bank. But whop really is ever going to use up all of that memory in text emails, maybe a few picture emails? The answer is no one. If it was possible the number of emails would be in the thousands, maybe even millions. Yeah, never going to happen. So why not make use of that extra space and turn it into an external hard drive that's located in My Computer

To do this, go here and download the file to create the drive from one of the mirrors. Next in your gmail account create a new filter with the subject containing "GMAILFS" and "has attachments" checked. This way it won't bug you, since technically by using this drive you are emailing yourself every time you throw a file into it. Now you can log on to the driver by going to My Computer and clicking on the drive icon.

Now, here's the interesting part. What if you want more memory? Well, you could wait until google adds more, or you could do this: create a new gmail account and add it to the logon list for your gmail drive. You may have noticed that there was indeed a drop down menu when you first logged onto the drive, therefore you can add more. You can do this by right clicking the drive icon and selecting "logout" then clicking on it again and typing in a new address and password. So, with this method you could have several gmail drives for different things such as work files, family pictures, videos, etc. And best of all, you don't need to carry around a pesky usb flash drive or anything! To get to the files from another computer, all you need to do is log on to your gmail account and you'll find them under your filters as attachment files.

Though before you start massively filling these up, be warned. Happen Google decide to change the gmail settings, this drive may not work and you won't be able to easily access your files. Now, since they're considered to be email you can still download them....one by one. So consider making your files like pictures into zip files. Also note that google attachment limits are still applied.

Enjoy!

Productivity is something that everyone, regardless of if he or she wishes to deny it, wants. No one wants their Windows PC to be complicated, and yet it is. This is partly why so many Windows users have Mac-envy, because Mac OS X is so simple to navigate and use that is laughs in the face of Windows. So, what has Microsoft tried to do to fix this?

Well, there's quick links. Yeah, that's right, those 16x16 icons that you can get to appear on your taskbar. However these also have a fatal flaw when it comes to productivity; they easily clog up room on your taskbar. You may make things easier to navigate, but in a trade you also give up the amount of opened windows that'll be shown on the taskbar. Another fatal flaw is that sometimes you cannot tell which is which shortcut, they may have pictures but those pictures can easily be several folders, so now you have to guess. And being able to change their icons is somewhat difficult as is.

What does Mac OS X, then, have that's better? Well, quite simply it's the dock bar. The dock bar lets you easily change the size of the shortcuts on the bar, easily change their pictures, lets you hide them and can eaven magnify them if you need them to. Great! But, there is also one flaw in this, though many may not consider this a flaw. When you minimize windows in Mac OS X, they also are minimized to the dock bar. So now the dock bar is like an improved quick links (though the dock did come first mind you). It acts as a place to store shortcuts and a place for windows to be sent to when minimized. Well, what I want is both, and in my home PC which has Windows XP installed.

Now, many know this, but I'll mention it anyhow. There are roughly four or five different Mac OS X dock bar copies for the Windows system. There is ObjectDock, Rocket Dock, RK Launcher, Y'z Dock and Moby Dock. However, only two of these are really good. Moby Dock is pretty bad and messes up at times, ObjectDock wastes too much RAM (I clocked around 30 MB on average), and Y'z Dock is now illegal because Apple got a court order to cease and desist. So this leaved RK Launcher and Rocket Dock. I personally use Rocket Dock because it's all that I need.

So now turn off those quick links! Just start chucking in shortcuts and folders into your new dock bar and you're done! But don't forget to search through those preferences to see all of what your dock can do, you may like them.

Oh wait, I almost forgot. What if your dock becomes huge and thus complicated to use again? Well, you can always organize it. There's a docklet - a docklet is a program designed to run in dock bar - called KKMenu. It's a bit complicated to use however, but you can create a folder with all of your shortcuts in it (you should make folders to further organize them), then turn on KKMenu and find and select that folder with your shortcuts on your computer, then when you click it a menu will popup with them in it.

All and all, the dock was one of Apple's best designs and now it has just begun its transition into Windows to make Windows easier to use.


Here's my pros and cons:

Pros:
- Easily access shortcuts
- Save taskbar space
- Unclog your decktop
- Be more productive

Cons:
- Takes up a small amount of room on your screen
- Takes up a bit of RAM