Feedly; my new favorite Firefox plug-in
Let's face it. Internet Explorer is out, and Firfox / Chrome is in. Recently I've been on a Firefox kick due to it's ease of use and plentiful plug-ins available. My new favorite plug-in is Feedly. It creates a custom RSS start page for you. Basically, you feed it all of the news web-sites that you usually read and it will condense them down for you in an easy to read magazine like page. The best part for me was that I was able to log-in to my Google account, and it automatically pulled in blogs I had added to my Google reader. I also like how it adds an icon near the firefox URL browser bar for easy access (as shown below). So if you are interested in an awesome RSS reader head here to get it.
GigaTweaker for Windows 7
I was pleasantly surprised with GigaTweaker. It does a nice job of wrapping up system tweaks that are spread all around your system. Rather than look for them all manually, you can use this program which puts them into a few basic groups: Administration, Display, Customization, Communication, and Maintenance. There are too many tweaks available for me to list them all here. All I can really say about the program is that it works well and you should head to download if you are interested in trying it out. Remember, this only works for Windows 7.
One 'tweak' that sparked my interest is under Customization -> System. There you can set Windows to execute the Desktop, Taskbar, and folders to separate Windows processes. That way, if explorer ever freezes up on you performance recovery should be smoother. I've made that tweak, but can't say I've had a noticeable difference in performance. Everything ran smooth before the change and is running smooth after. If it works like advertised though... this may be a valuable tweak that more users should be aware of.
GigaTweaker
LAN Centers
There's nothing better than being able to reach to play a video game with someone and be able to reach over a few feet and punch them in the arm when they kill you at your spawn point five times in a row. Hold that thought, I just though of something better. Being able to punch the opponent in the arm while you are surrounding by other gamers, all the mainstream gaming consoles, neon green lighting, and techno music. Yep, punching the opponent in the arm just got better. That's why I love LAN centers! Over the weekend I paid a visit to my local game center, Crazy Penguins, and had a blast. Played everything from Call of Duty to Mario Party on the Wii. So, if your tired of gaming alone, look up your local LAN center and pay them a visit!
Video Games that echo an eternity
Last night I was a bit bored, so I hopped onto good old fashioned Counter-Strike 1.6. I played for a little over an hour. It was a lot of fun, what I don't understand is how can a game so old be better than many many games that have come out after it. I guess it's the same reason why I still have fun playing Starcraft or Warcraft 3. The games are just done right. The developers didn't get caught up in having the best graphics, like so many do, instead they worried about the game play.
Why do I still play the game Chess? The same reason I still play CS 1.6, because it's a good game! So, if you happen to be a game developer, worry about the game play! I'd be happy with cartoon graphics if the game is solid!
TeraCopy
Have you ever noticed that Windows isn't the best at copying large files or a large number of files at the same time? Windows Explorer, the default application that handles the copies, really just isn't the greatest. It bugs out on occasion, generally takes a long time, and can plague you with annoying error messages. TeraCopy is a great alternative to explorer that you can pick up for the low low price of free. Here's why I like it..
- If TeraCopy encounters an error while copying it will continue with the copy
- You can Pause/Resume copies
- It seems to copy faster than explorer
- If there is an error while copying, TeraCopy will automatically try again to fix it
- It works on Windows 7 64-bit!
If you are interested in getting your copy on, head over to TeraCopy's web-site.