Clerks BLAH!

Figure 1

Launchy is a really cool program that not only saves you valuable time, effort, and screen real estate, it also looks really cool.  it’s design is simply to launch a specified program simply by typing the name of it.

With Launchy, to launch an app, you press the desired keystroke (default -> ALT-SPACE) to launch the main Launchy menu (Figure 1) and simply start typing what you are looking for. as you can see from the image, by just typing the letters “ama” the suggestion to run the Amarok application has come up. Then when you press the enter key the selected application loads and the Launchy app goes back into idle mode.  When it is in idle mode it just hangs out in the background waiting to be launched again.  Out of sight, and saving all that valuable screen real estate that the Windows Start menu takes up!

So now you can hide that Windows bar, with confidence that you don’t have to rely on it so heavily!

Launchy is available from: http://www.launchy.net/

xPUD is classified as an “Instant On OS”, which means that it boots very fast, and is designed for when you are on the go, and you don’t want to have to wait for Windows to boot up all the way. You just want to be able to turn on your computer and either do something online or work with a document, or both.

xPUD is downloaded as a Windows .exe file, ant installs just like any other program.

Once installed, you simply have to reboot, and select it from the Windows startup boot screen. Once selected the entire operating system will be displayed in anywhere from 7 seconds to 15 seconds (hardware dependent).

The initial boot will probably take longer because the system has to figure out what all of your hardware is, but don’t fret, just reboot again – This time with your stopwatch ready – and then you will be able to enjoy the ultra fast boot.

The best thing about this program is that it is FREE.  There are many others out there with similar programs, that make you pay $20 or more.  Plus they have a live CD (or USB flash drive) that you can download to try it before you install it.  Also remember, that since it is installed like a regular Windows program, it is also uninstalled the same way.  You don’t have to deal with repartitioning your hard drive, or have to worry about data loss.

What’s the biggest difference between using Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird verses using a web based email like Gmail? The fact that you can work offline with a standalone application where with a web based email you can only use your email when you have an active internet connection.

Well Gmail has solved this with their Offline Gmail option that is available in Gmail Labs. It works with Google Gears and allows your email to be synchronized into an offline mode.

What happens is when you access mail.google.com with no internet connection the page will load, but without the ability to actually receive or send. It simply waits until you get an active internet connection and processes everything at once.

To install it (from within gmail):
1. Click Settings and click the Labs tab.
2. Select Enable next to Offline Gmail.
3. Click Save Changes.
4. After your browser reloads, you’ll see a new “Offline 0.1″ link in the upper righthand corner of your account, next to your username. Click this link to start the offline set up process and download Gears if you don’t already have it.