Why CSS Float is Sometimes Unpredictable  

Submitted on July 12th, 2007 by admin
Filed under Browsers
No. of comments Comments Off

In tweaking things around here in TipMonkies land, I have been ironing out some odd css float issues.

One of the issues I never realized is that floating a div without a set width can have unpredictable results. Just setting a width will correct most of the float issues. Firefox, not surprisingly, renders css float more intutitively; however, setting the width will insure that your pages render correctly across all browser platforms.

Now many of you may call BS and say that you float things without widths all the time. This is because float without a set width will work correctly if you are floating an image–which is its most common usage. Browsers realize that an image has a width and renders as one expects. However, a div full of text (or js script output) can be rendered many different ways. Setting the width in this case will allow rendering to be uniform and predictable.

WP: KeyBoard Shortcuts  

Submitted on July 1st, 2007 by admin
Filed under Blogging
No. of comments (50)

These are shortcuts you can use in the wordpress post editor.

Bold: Alt+SHIFT+b
Italics: Alt+SHIFT+i
Link: Alt+SHIFT+a
Blockquote: Alt+SHIFT+q
Code: Alt+SHIFT+c
Read More: Alt+SHIFT+t

Unordered List (ul): Alt+SHIFT+u
Ordered List (ol): Alt+SHIFT+o
List Item (li): Alt+SHIFT+l

At least in some browsers, the shortcuts may not work exactly like the menu buttons above the edit box. For example, the menu buttons will correctly wrap tags around a highlighted text selection. The shortcuts frequently do not.

Does GMail Need Folders?  

Submitted on June 27th, 2007 by admin
Filed under Email
No. of comments Comments Off

Techcrunch today mentioned the fact that google docs now has folders and suggested that logically that gmail should integrate folders next. The comments after the article there do a pretty good job showing the strong feelings people have regarding folders.

Two things struck me odd about the debate however…

First, if google feels so strongly that labels and tags >> folders, then why add them to google docs. If google no longer feels strongly, then why not add them to gmail? At best, their current decision seems inconsistent.

Second, why would you not want google to add folders? If you don’t use folders, then don’t use them. I do not think anybody actually believes that gmail would abandon the label/tags love. Many folder-philes would convert over to gmail if their beloved crutch was available. Google obviously has pretty item-dragging-folder code available now. Why not introduce it into gmail too? Maybe they will…

Using labels in gmail is very similar to folders. Create a label, select what emails you want to have that label, and then archive those emails. If you want to see them, you can click that label; otherwise, they are hidden from sight (almost like a folder even!)

What you can’t do with labels is drag and drop a message to categorize it. Many people physically sort their email like they sort their snail mail. There is some satisfying about dropping an email in a folder. It gives a sense of completion for that little task. With labels, you are more tempted to do groups of emails at once.

I believe a hybrid would work very well. If you could drag and drop emails into a label and it was disappear like a folder, both problems solved! People could still tag/label the old way… and folder-philes would be introduced to the power of labels.

mynoteIT: Online notetaking for students  

Submitted on May 11th, 2007 by admin
Filed under Productivity and Software
No. of comments Comments Off

I just finished up my next to last semester in undergrad, and in my time at college I’ve tried a lot of different ways to keep notes including a few computer based. One was to use MS Word, which was pretty lacking, another was MS OneNote, which is great, and another was to type stuff in GDocs so I could access my notes from any computer. The problem with GDocs is how limited it is for formatting. I found a pretty good solution in mynoteIT. It keeps your notes online like GDocs, but has more features. You can share your notes so other students on the site can look at them and you can search for their notes to see if they help you. I still find myself shifting between this, grid paper, and MS OneNote, but it might be perfect for some people.

Dave has a Top Ten, and so does the Dalai Lama  

Submitted on May 10th, 2007 by admin
Filed under Productivity
No. of comments (1)

I ran into this about a month ago at lifehack.org and thought it was worth sharing. The top ten tips from the Dalai Lama, which I think are stong ideas that most people could agree with. Check out more information at The Ririan Project, but they are as follows:

10. “Be gentle with the earth.�
9. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.�
8. “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.�
7. “Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.�
6. “Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.�
5. “Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.�
4. “Spend some time alone every day.�
3. “When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.�
2. “When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.�
1. “Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.�

The Joys of Jott  

Submitted on May 10th, 2007 by admin
Filed under Email and Productivity
No. of comments (3)

A big part of “Getting Things Done” is the getting stuff out of your head and into a trusted system. Nowadays I don’t leave my bedroom in the morning to let the dogs out without paper and a pencil or pen. This works well most of the time, but there are times that I am walking or driving and writing isn’t easy. I’ve been looking for a good way to get around this for months now and finally found it a little while ago. It’s a new service called Jott. Jott allows me to dial a number and leave a voice message. That message is then transcribed and can be sent to me, or if needed as an email to a contact. To many people this may seem a bit silly and overly connected, but as a capture tool it has been great. The service is free (for now at least) and does a pretty good job of transcribing what you say. In addition to handling words you can also spell out something, which I thought could be useful with a little scripting to send commands to a unix computer.

Windows Mobile 6.0 Office for Windows Mobile 5  

Submitted on May 10th, 2007 by admin
Filed under Portables and Software and Windows and Hardware
No. of comments (2)

I recently picked up the “Cingular 2125″ Windows Phone. As a previous user of a Pocket PC, I thought it would have similar MS Office file capabilities built in. But I was wrong.

With the new version of Windows Mobile that is now available, they have finally added Office capabilities to the smartphone software, but this hasn’t done much good for those still stuck with Windows Mobile 5. Now someone has pulled the apps from a Windows Mobile 6 and ported them over for 5. I haven’t personally tried this yet, and it is certainly out of the range of what Microsoft would probably reccomend, but it seems like a potentially useful fix. I plan to try it soon, and if any readers have, comment on the success of it.

Web based “Writer” to help you focus  

Submitted on May 10th, 2007 by admin
Filed under Productivity and Browsers and Blogging and Software
No. of comments Comments Off

First off, I have to say its nice to post again after a long time away. I hope Martin and I can get this going again because I really enjoyed the site. In the time that we have been away I have become very interested in “lifehacking.” I’m into David Allen’s Getting Things Done, and other ways to live smarter. I hope to post quite a bit about that. In that vein is what I’m going to mention here. It is called “Writer” and it is a neat Web 2.0 app. Basically a while back there was a program that someone made for OSX called Darkroom, and this is a web based (and therefore cross-platform) clone.

The program gives you a very simple interface to write. In the default mode there is a black background with green text. It lets you save things and edit them later, but thats about it for features. The feature is the lack of distraction. When I was doing some stuff for school this past semester I found it very useful, because I have a terrible tendency to get involved in something else. Check it out: Writer

The new Hotmail is pretty impressive  

Submitted on May 8th, 2007 by admin
Filed under Reviews and Email and Services
No. of comments (2)

Read the full article »

Ubuntu expanding to the mobile world  

Submitted on May 8th, 2007 by admin
Filed under Portables and Software and Linux
No. of comments Comments Off

[Via TechWorld; more at the Ubuntu Mailing List]