b.tech.review

I think you can tell a lot about a person by how clean or organized they keep their workspace. I won’t say what you can tell, because mine fluctuates from really clean to really messy. When it comes to my computer I like to keep my desktop (Windows/Linux desktop that is…) as free from clutter as possible. I’ve never been a big fan of having 600 icons on the desktop just for the sake of having everything easily accessible. There is a better way people. For a long time I was a fan of the quick launch bar. It resides next to the start button and houses all of your program shortcuts in one place. This is still a really great way to keep organized but I have moved on to another program in my quest for desktop tidiness. Enter RocketDock.

It’s like the quick launch bar on steroids. It allows you to do all of the stuff you could do with the quick launch bar and much more. Check out this demo video. The system resource hit is relatively minimal and on newer systems it shouldn’t be a problem at all. Download here.

|> brandon

For some reason I have always been fascinated with fonts. I’m not sure what the draw is. On the surface they seem pretty boring. Just text on the page. But for me, they are more than that. By using a unique font it is possible to more clearly convey feelings, or expressions, that go beyond the written text. One thing that inevitably comes up in my search for the perfect font is the need to browse through the list of fonts that I have installed on my system. I normally like to look at how each one conveys the text that I am writing. Whether is be a logo (look at the btr logo) or a heading of a report, choosing the right font is important. I recently came across this great little app (112KB) that will allow you to “browse” each font installed on your system using text that is defined by you. I would highly recommend that if you work with fonts at all you check out fonticate. It is well worth the download.

Also, as a side note, the developer of fonticate also has some other great apps. I’ll be writing about some of them in future posts…

|> brandon

Welcome to my new site. I’ve been thinking about doing something like this for a while now. You might be saying, “what something”, or maybe not, either way here’s the explanation. Just about everyday I run across something technology related that I think is really neat. Over the years I have gathered quite a collection of little programs and other tidbits that I find really helpful. The problem is that eventually I end up losing track of some of them, either by way of a Windows crash/burn/reload, or just plain forgetfulness. That’s where this site comes in handy. I plan on writing them down as I find them. So the next time I forget/lose/(you fill in the blank) that latest and greatest program or valuable piece of computing knowledge I will have place to come and refresh my memory. And instead of just making a plain jane, boring list; I thought I would make it slightly more interesting, hopefully, by putting down my thoughts and opinions about each piece of tech and maybe helping you discover that next great whatever that you just won’t be able to live without (until we both forget about it again and then have to come back here to remind ourselves….its a vicious cycle ).

|> brandon