geeky tutorials, tips, guides and reviews
Who knew we’d get two great Mario-like games in such a short amount of time? Still having fun with Super Mario Crossover? I know I was, but now it is time to play Super Mario Bros X. This game does a great job at building upon the great world, graphics and more of Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros 3 to well, it is enough to make a grown man want to cry because of its greatness.
Looking for a way to have what is copied to your clipboard read back to you? Speak Clipboard is the free software solution you have been looking for. This voice reader for Windows will read out load the content of your clipboard in plain English.
This really comes in handy when checking spelling or grammar errors, listening to your e-mails or having an article read to you. Once downloaded and installed, the application is very easy to use. It will first check to see if you have any text-based content in your clipboard, and if you do it will start speaking and highlight on the screen every pronounced word.
Want to give it a shot? Point your browser towards SpeakTools.com to pick up Speak Clipboard and see how many more uses you can find for it.
Want a more productive menu bar in Windows?
For the past few months now, I’ve gone with the extra thick menu bar at the bottom of my computer. Since my screen size is so big now (1920×1200), I figured I could spare the extra space. Here is how I created mine, just in case you might want to try the same.
Clicky Gone is a great program to use if you need to hide your selected windows from public view. The idea here is to no longer close applications that are taking up too much space in the Windows task bar. Instead, let Clicky Gone hide them for you.
Since I have to stare at my desktop for several hours of the day, I like to make sure everything is nice, neat and organized. Taskix is the free and lightweight program I use to sort my Windows taskbar tabs, so that they are exactly in the order I want them in.
Once installed, all you have to do is start the program up, click the check mark box for “Always Start with Windows” and “Drag Tabs” then click the button labeled active. Now you can drag and drop to arrange your Windows taskbar the way you see fit. This program is a blessing for anybody who has multiple windows open throughout the day.
It also comes with several other options such as:
The program is free to use, although the creator would like it if you could register and possibly give a little cash in appreciation. Taskix is simply the best lightweight Windows taskbar tab reordering tool.
Short of taking a chainsaw to your monitor, all Evil Dead like, there aren’t a lot of good ways to split it up into multiple regions to make working an organized experience. Thanks to Ryan over at Cybernetnews.com I can put my chainsaw away, and get to using MaxTo. MaxTo will help you split your current monitor into virtual regions, that can serve as a constraint when maximizing windows.
Once you install it, the setup is pretty easy to understand. You just setup how you want you desktop to be split, hit the OK button and it is done. If you find yourself overwhelmed by having too many programs or windows floating around your desktop – give MaxTo a shot. Previously I had been doing this same type of desktop reorganization on my own, but MaxTo does it for me – and in turn saves me a lot of tweaking time.
Since switching to Windows Vista, there haven’t been too many other visual styles I have fallen in love with – especially in comparison with the number of them that are out there for Windows XP. I have found one port though that is well worth your time if you want a simpler (yet, not ugly) Vista theme.
The eno Vista Port visual style for Windows Vista keeps things simple, but doesn’t look awful when doing so. The only thing I miss in comparison with Vista’s default theme is the search box is missing in the start menu.
As a word of warning, switching your Vista visual styles is a ‘bit more tedious of a task than it was in XP. If you are looking for a good guide to hold your hand durring the process, check out: How to Patch Windows Vista to Enable Custom Themes (Visual Styles)
Want to keep Windows Live Writer in the system tray toolbar?
Searching around for various plugins and scripts to add onto the already pretty great Windows Live Writer I stumbled upon a tiny program that will let you do that. Windows Live Writer System Tray is a small application that lives in your system tray giving you quick access to these Windows Live Writer features:
This is the system icon that will be placed in your system tray when the app is started. You can grab the free download on the Windows Live Writer System Tray web site. If you enjoy Windows Live Writer as much as I do, I know you’ll appreciate being able to keep it handy in the system tray at all times.
Dear Apple, please stop it with the useless updates…
Is it just me, or is Apple starting to remind you more of the Real Player more and more? Or perhaps, maybe Adobe and the 10,000 unrelated updates it asks for?
I got an e-mail the other day from somebody wanting to know if I knew of any programs for Windows that would allow a user to get popup notifications when Google Reader was updated.
Want to keep up to date whenever your Google Reader has fresh new content to read through? There are several browser plugins that will do this, but not many for the operating system itself. I have three solutions though to cover all of the operating system bases:
Now you should have no problems at all keeping up with my RSS feed. Feel free to subscribe and pass it around to others.
Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter to receive updates.
Mitch Keeler is nothing more than your average Joe trying to leave his mark on the world though both his professional work and his online projects, articles, podcasts and more.
