Do Know Evil - Tyler Mulligan’s Tips and Tricks

While I love Adobe Photoshop and the amount of power it has behind it’s actions, sometimes I like to use a lightweight alternative.

IrfanView is a program I’ve mentioned before, it’s great for flipping through series of images but it’s also great at doing many other things (some of which I’ll mention in future posts), like batch converting. In the following example, I’ll do a quick run through on a real life example, creating image thumbnails.

So, lets start off by opening a folder with pictures you’d like to thumbnail:

Open a picture with IrfanView and select ‘Batch Conversion/Rename’ from the file menu (B is the shortcut key)

Click the ‘Add All’ button (or optionally pick and choose the images you’d like to convert). And set your basic options. I made my output folder /thumbs, selected ‘Batch conversion - Rename result files’, made the output format GIF and set my rename mask to $N.t (which means [old image name].t).

Check the ‘Use advanced options’ box and click the ‘Set advanced options’ button.

I set my thumbnail size to 50% height and width but you can choose whatever you please. I also checked ‘preserve aspect ratio’ and ‘use resample function’ but those are optional.

Click ‘OK’ and you’ll be taken back to the previous window, click ’start’ and bam, you’re done.

You can now navigate to your newly create thumbs folder

And marvel in the glory

This was a pretty simple example but I’m sure when you went to the advanced options window, the gears in your head starting turning. This program is a great tool, you should really play around with it and try to get the most out of it. I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t use it.

Those top 10 lists about the best Firefox for Web developers, the average person or your mother always piss me off because they list the same extensions every time. All those extensions are well known… it’s not like you have to tell a web developer about firebug or the web dev toolbar.

I use a lot of extensions. I have a minimum of 8 installed, even on my portable version. I tend to use some extensions that a lot of people never heard of and I find it surprising because they are really helpful! So without further ado, I give to you a list of some lesser known but useful Firefox extensions.

ErrorZilla

The default error page for Firefox is a bit minimal… there isn’t a lot of usefulness there… and if you’re a big digger or slashdotter, you know what a pain it can be to find a website crippled before you had a chance to few it. This handy little extension gives you some useful links, including ones to corel cache and google cache.
Find it here

URL Fixer

Lets talk about common annoyances for a second, shall we? Who here hates it when you type too fast for your own good… or just very poorly? There’s no excuse for poor typing but this extension has got your back for those silly slip ups you make in the address bar and scramble to fix before you reach an error page. With this extension, www.google.cmo will automatically change to www.google.com

This extension is a bit limited in the sense that the filters are hard coded into the javascript but it’s the best solution out there right now.
Find it here

Long Titles

Another common annoyance is the … on long tooltips. This extension saves you the frustration of guessing.
Find it here

Answers

This is just damn useful. If you’re ever reading something and come across a word or phrase you don’t know, simply hold alt and click it and it will open a handy little bubble inside the webpage you’re browsing.
Find it here

Aging Tabs

I never like to have too many tabs open in my browser but at times it becomes inevitable… and unfortunately confusing. With this extension though, I can easily pick out which tabs I’ve been using most frequently as the color gets darker with lack of use. Definitely worth a look.
Find it here

Back when I first became a part of these internets, I’d get a lol or two via a link to a picture or a website. With the exception of a few of these pictures (thanks digg) most of these pictures have become distant memories of my past. After a while it occurred to me, why aren’t I saving these pictures?

However obsessive, I made it my job, nay, my duty to summon the strength to save and sort ever picture that strikes the slightest bit of interest. This, as you could imagine was a tedious task. Right click, navigate to proper folder, rename image (if needed) and save. My commitment was strong but apparently no match for this mundane method. Slowly, I would stop navigating to sub-folders and just drop them all in a folder I like to call “Internet Garbage”. Currently in the root of this folder, there resides over 3,000 unsorted images.

DON’T WAIT TO SORT YOUR FILES! This is the best advice I can give to anyone. Sure it’s easy to save everything to your desktop but chances are, you’ll mix it up, lose it, delete or whatever. If you put in the extra 20 seconds navigating/creating a relevant folder, you’ll save yourself a boatload of suffering.

Getting back on track though… I came across a Firefox extension a while back called Save Image in Folder. This extension saves you so much time and trouble, that you’d actually be wasting resources by saving files the old fashion way.

Go Install that extension and come back for a tutorial if you too, would like to start saving some ‘Internet Garbage’.

After Installing the extension, right click an image (it can be any image, we’re just using this to set things up quickly). You can use this image if you’d like:

Select “Save Image in Folder… >> Edit folders…”

Select “New”, click the folder button next to the “Path” textbox and create a new folder called “Internet Garbage”. Create all your sub folders inside of that folder.

For this example, I used:

- Art
- Funny
- Gross
- Macro
- Nerdy
- Sexy
- Wallpaper

You can add more whenever you please.

Note: You can prefix or suffice the filenames however you’d like. It’s not a bad idea to prefix the files with a short date… but it’s all up to you.

Once you have all your folders created, it’s a good idea to sort them alphabetically by using the up and down arrows located on the side of the Options dialog.

Now it’s as simple as right clicking an image and picking a folder it’s most relevant to save to.

As I was running through some of my tasks yesterday, I realized I had forgotten to mention a few programs I tend to use quite often. So here they are in no particular order…

Unlocker

Ever try to delete a file on windows only to have it give you an error? You try and try to delete the file, closing all programs that may be associated with it? Well this bad boy right here will cure your frustration by allowing you to delete said files.

Desktop List View

Why this feature isn’t built into windows… I’ll never know. This little application will allow you to view the files on your desktop as you would if you had listed them in explorer, allowing you to take back some precious screen real estate.

DS Clock

Yeah, it’s ugly, so what, it tells time, it works flawlessly with dual monitors and I haven’t found a better alternative yet.

Notepad++

This is my text editor of choice. The tabbed files are what brought me to it, the regex find/replace is what kept me. The project is actively developed and I’ve seen it come a long way since version 3.1.

UXTheme Multi-Patcher

I’m not sure if this counts.. but it’s one of the first things I run after windows update on a fresh install. This patcher allows you to use your own windows themes. Many great ones can be found here but the best one is found here. RoyalFour is a slick modification of the default XP skin.

Check it out:

I’ve been quite busy the past few days as I was switching from computer to computer. I just built a new computer to condense/protect my data a little better but I had to sell my old one to have enough funds for the new one. In the middle of the switch, I was on my laptop… which died because the AC input seems to be peeling off the motherboard and I have yet to have someone aide me in soldering it.

Here’s a little list of what I’ve slapped together for those interested:

- Lian-Li PC-61 Case
- OCZ GameXStream 600W Power Supply
- EVGA 122-CK-NF67-T1 Motherboard
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz
- Crucial Ballistix 1GBx2 DDR2 PC2 6400 RAM
- XFX GeForce 7900GS Extreme
- WD 36gb Raptor HDD
- 4 Samsung Spintpoint T Series 500gb SATA 3Gb/s HDDs
- Samsung 18x DVD+-R DVD Burner with LightScribe
- Koutech Media Card Reader

After some debate I placed a second order for a separate RAID card and decided to go with the HighPoint RocketRAID 2300. So far, so good.

Anyhow, I love reformatting. There is something so refreshing about a clean install. I usually make myself a 10-15gb partition for windows so that I’ll be forced to put my personal files on another drive. This method worked for a while… but as applications increased in size, do did my partition. I decided to use all ~30 gigs of the Raptor for this install but I digress.

The real point of this post is about all the little applications I install upon a fresh format. Some programs go without mention because they are quite obvious, such as Firefox.

The List

allSnap

When I made the switch from Windows to Linux, there was one thing that I loved about gnome. The windows would snap to the edges of the monitor and other windows. When I made the switch back (hehe), I wanted to keep this feature with me and through my search, I came upon this little program which hasn’t failed me yet.

DM2

This little program has so many features, I don’t know where to begin. You can bind hotkeys or mouse clicks to perform special window operations, such as minimize to tray. There is also a right click dialog that’s added to every window which allows you to set the opacity, priority and always on top options.

Check out the website for details.

MW Snap

Awesome for taking quick screenshots. Very useful if you just want to save a picture of an application. Hotkeys too!

WinKey

I guess I just really like hotkeys. This little program allows you to bind any program to the windows key. I usually bind Firefox, Filezilla and PuTTy.

Irfan View

Picture/file browser with batch convert options. This is a really nice tool with plenty of available plugins to allow you to browse through not only pictures but text files, music, video, flash and more. I only really use it for pictures, it’s especially handy when you want to quickly view a large PSD but don’t feel like opening Photoshop.

I this thing doesn’t pack enough punch for you, check out XnView.

ColorPic

If you’re a web designer and you don’t have ColorPic, you need to get it now! It’s a very handy tool for creating and store palates or just figuring out what color a webpage/application is using.

K-Lite Codec Pack

The quick and dirty for all your codecs. A simple way to make sure all your files will play properly. DefilerPak is a lightweight alternative.

That about does it for my “must have” freeware :).