improvements

Identify mystery start-up apps in XP and Vista

I get impatient waiting for my Vista PC to boot up. I could just leave the machine in sleep mode, but going long stretches without rebooting can cause problems of its own.

Instead of relying on sleep mode to get my workday started faster, I make it a habit to open Windows' list of start-up apps on a regular basis to determine whether any rogue programs have slipped in, slowing my start-ups unnecessarily. It seems that every time I check the list, some entry catches me by surprise.

To view your start-up apps in XP, click Start > Run, type … Read more

10 things we'd like to see in Chrome

So far we're pretty smitten with Google's Chrome. It's certainly not without its faults, but for version 1.0 of a browser it's pretty sharp. We've compiled a list of 10 things we'd really like to see added or tweaked. Some come from other browsers, and some are just improvements on some of the existing features. Google, we hope you're listening.

1. Profile roaming between multiple browsers. This may be a pipe dream, but if Foxmarks for Firefox has proved anything, syncing up your bookmarks between multiple machines is awesome. Doing the same … Read more

Looking for a home for your wine? Look down

Most of us do not factor a wine cellar into the purchasing decision of a new home. But what happens when the time comes--and it will come--that you have a growing collection of wine and nowhere to put it?

Spiral Cellars wants to help. The Spiral Cellar system was first developed by a Frenchman (of course) in 1978. More than 22,000 installs later, the company is coming to America. With designs on becoming the other company from Redmond, Wash., Spiral Cellars seems well positioned to become the go-to solution for wine storage needs.

Wine has finally become an affordable … Read more

R.E.M. PR firm rips off Improv Everywhere, then apologizes

Update (3:52 pm): This story got the name of the R.E.M. video wrong. It's fixed in the text below. Additionally, there's new comments from Improv Everywhere founder Charlie Todd below.

After reading Tuesday night on Laughing Squid that a new R.E.M. video had been posted by the band's publicity firm on YouTube that seemed to blatantly rip off Improv Everywhere's now-famous "freezes," I wrote to the culture jamming collective's founder to get his take.

"I did not know they were making this video and was not involved … Read more

Culture jamming for the masses

On January 31, 2008, a video depicting hundreds of people standing perfectly still in New York's Grand Central Station was posted on YouTube. The video quickly became a phenomenon, and to date, nearly 9.5 million people have watched it.

Why, you ask? The standing still was actually part of an elaborate prank, pulled off by "agents" of a group called Improv Everywhere. The idea was that the hundreds of people would simultaneously "freeze" in the middle of Grand Central, with no warning nor explanation to those nearby, and stay that way, no matter what, … Read more

Prevent system slowdowns by tweaking Vista's indexing options

After I compared three popular desktop-search programs a couple of weeks ago, the folks at Google contacted me about a couple of inaccuracies in that post. I had thought that because local files are listed above Web sites when you use Google to search in your browser, the ads that appear on the results page are related to the content of the local files. In fact, Google keeps an index of your local files on its servers only when you enable the Search Across Computers feature, which is off by default. And even then, the index disappears once the search … Read more

More Windows speed tweaks

On Monday I described some simple ways to improve the performance of Windows XP and Vista. Since there's no such thing as a too-fast Windows PC, I'm returning to the subject with a handful of additional Windows speedup tips.

Disable remote services: If you never need to access the system over a network, nor have anyone else do so (for help troubleshooting a problem, for example), you can free up some Windows resources by turning these features off. In Windows XP Pro, click Start > Control Panel > System and Maintenance (in Category view) > System > Remote, … Read more

InPowr: Self-help 2.0

Unveiled at the Web 2.0 Expo on Monday: InPowr, a service to help you achieve your life goals.

Don't laugh. I already did that for you, live from the event. I Twittered: "InPowr intro: WTF? 'It's fun, it's light,' Sure, just answer the 36 QUESTIONS. Argh."

At the moment the site is feels like an online Cosmo quiz. The first thing you do is answer 36 question about your state of mind. Then you get a little diagram showing you where you are, and are not, feeling content. After that, you get a grid … Read more

Adobe Kuler: a tool for some, fun for me

Kuler is a free tool from Adobe Labs that lets users design and share color schemes for use in Web sites or other projects. If you've ever designed a Web site or PowerPoint presentation before, you know that choosing a color scheme is often trial and error. Kuler lets you tune up to five different colors at once and makes the process surprisingly easy, allowing users to simply adjust selectors over a large color wheel. Users can then go deeper, adjusting the finer details of a color, and Kuler makes small adjustments to make sure the other colors will … Read more