Friedbeef’s Tech

How do you turn a boring file management program into a sleek and powerful tool?  Read on to find out!

#1: Add Folder Size to Windows Explorer

For me, this is a feature which should have been implemented in Windows explorer from the very beginning.  It’s said that in many cases, 20% of the folders take up 80% of the space on a hard drive.

Having folder sizes displayed up front makes it so much easier to manage your hard disk and clear it out more efficiently. 

Folder Size (free) for Windows adds a new column to the Details view in Windows Explorer.  It keeps track of which folders you view, and scans them in the background so you can see complete size of all files within the folder.

#2: Scan and Remove Empty Directories Quickly

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had so many instances where I created a directory - gone off and did something else, and forgot all about it.  Empty folders create can clutter, confusion, and I find them just plain annoying.  RED (Remove Empty Directories) (free) is an excellent program that can help with this. 

By searching your hard disk it points out where are all the empty directories are and give you the option to delete what you don’t need.  Very customizable, and it can be integrated into Windows Explorer as well.

#3: Mouse Gestures - for Windows Explorer!

We’ve talked about Mouse Gestures for Firefox before, and how it really makes for an intuitive user interface for web browsing.

Well, By simply rocking your fingers across your left and right mouse buttons, Rocker (free) lets you perform common tasks with mouse gestures also. 

Here’s the difference though - while most mouse gesturing tools only work for web browsers - this one works for Windows explorer and iTunes as well!

#4: Integrate an Anti-Spyware Program Directly into Windows Explorer

Keeping the system clean by flushing out malicious and invasive programs on your PC, Ad-Aware (free) has to be one of the select few ’must have’ programs on my PC. 

If you’re not one for regular complete scans of your PC because it takes a good amount of time to complete… you can integrate Ad-Aware directly into Windows Explorer so you can prioritize and selectively directories in a much quicker manner.

If you have Ad-Aware installed you can follow the steps below:

Open Ad-Aware 2007 –> Click Settings –> Click the UI tab –> Inside the Miscellaneous section, select Integrate into Windows Explorer so that the red X changes to a green checkmark –> Click the Save button.

Ad-Aware will now be available in the Windows Explorer context menu when you right-click a file or folder so you can be very selective about your scans.

#5: Edit / customize the “Send To” right-click option

One of my favourite sites, MakeUseOf.com recently revealed some interesting Windows tweaks… among them - this Windows explorer gem…

When you right-click on a file in Windows Explorer, you have a “send to” option which can launch a program or send that file to another folder.

You can delete or add new destinations by going to the following Explorer destination

C:\Documents andSettings\username\SendTo (replace “username” with your Windows account username).

Then open a new instance of Windows Explorer, go to the program folder that you want to have included in the “send to” folder. Right click on the program file (normally the .exe file), choose the shortcut option and then drag the shortcut into the “send to” folder. Now when you right-click on a file, your new shortcut will show up in the “send to” folder.

You can also navigate to ‘C:\Documents andSettings\username\SendTo‘ to delete “send to” shortcuts you don’t need.

Bonus Tip #1: Why does Windows Explorer take so long to display sometimes?

Bonus Tip #2: Don’t like Windows Explorer?  Try these alternatives

Did I miss anything? What interesting Windows Explorer tricks do you use?  Tell us in the comments!

[tags] windows, explorer, Microsoft, windows explorer [/tags]

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Ever since Pandora was forced to shut it’s doors on international listeners (Damn you DMCA), many of us have been forced to look elsewhere for our music fix.  Fortunately for all the rest of us - the existing alternatives aren’t that bad at all.

After looking around, I’ve settled on last.fm to be my Internet radio service of choice.  Much like Pandora, it analyses my music tastes, and plays me songs that I think it will like based on the preferences of other people who have similar tastes.  Think of it like StumbleUpon - but for music.

From Internet Radio to your Hard Drive

I think any of us who grew up in the cassette era of music would recall hearing your favourite song on the radio and rushing to hit the record button so you could have a copy of it…

Well now you can do the same using thelastripper - a small free download that will rip your last.fm streams into individual mp3 tracks!

These guys have really taken it all the way with the features which now include:

• Organizes your music in directories: Artist/Album/Track/
• Downloads album cover art
• Generates playlist in M3U, SMIL, PLS 
• Appends ID3v2 tags 
• Supports International characters 
• Support for http proxies

You can tune in to any last.fm music stations you create or tag, and if you don’t want to record the song that’s currently playing, you can also skip it until you find something you like. 

Simply sensational. 

Note: If you use this to rip music from the net, we of course assume you own the original music ;)

Do you like to listen to Internet Radio?  Tell us why in the comments!

[tags] internet radio, pandora, mp3, last.fm [/tags]

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“…Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”  - Steve Jobs

How do you make the world a better place without ever leaving your computer?  Here are 7 things you can try:

1. Plant a Tree in Africa

Tree-Nation is an ecological project with a focused objective: To plant 8 million trees in the Sahara to fight desertification! Large-scale plantation of trees will increase the land’s productivity and re-generate the soil.

It is basically an online community in which you can buy your own tree and become it’s guardian.  To top it off, it even comes with photo and blogging facilities, and a GPS tracker (!!!).  Even if you don’t make use of all the fancy bells and whistles, helping plant a tree in a vital area of Africa will leave you with a fuzzy feeling in your heart.

2. Simplify Carpooling

Want to get a carpool or want more buddies for a road trip?  Use GoLoco to share rides for free, or share trip costs quickly and easily online before the trip without the awkward money discussion or exchange in the car.  Here’s how it works:

1. Post a trip — want to go to the beach? shopping? daily commute? out of town? — for your friends, colleagues, or classmates to see (Integrates with Facebook)
2. View profiles of people whose trips match your own. Decide if you’d like to travel with them.
3. Accept a trip as is, or negotiate changes online.
4. Meet up at a specific location and time.

Use GoLoco to make carpooling a whole lot easier, and do your part to reduce CO2 emissions and lessen traffic congestion.

3. Get Answers to Environmental Questions

Yahoo! Answers is an online community where you can ask questions on a range of topics, from the serious to the purely fun, and get answers from real people - Or you might help others by answering their burning questions instead.

One thing I like about it is that it offers is a dedicated section to the environment.  Here you can discuss anything from alternative fuel vehicles to green living to conservation. 

4. Spread a Good Cause Easily on Your Blog

There’s nothing many bloggers love more than a cool looking badge on their site.  Most do fun little things like tell the time, display where site visitors come from, etc.

Carebadges is a site where you can get badges to put on your blog that help a specific cause.  Pick any cause you’d like to help - from Unicef, to the red cross, to global warming… or even start your own cause if you want to.

5. Save the World One Click at a Time

It’s simple. When you click on a give button you will be shown some advertisements. Ripple passes the revenue from these advertisements onto your chosen charity.  It ranges from 1c to 20c. It doesn’t sound like much but it adds up quickly!  To give you an idea of the difference you can make, one SINGLE click:

• Gives 6 days access to clean water
• Gives 2 days access to education
• Finances a USD$100 loan for a day

6. Watch Grassroots Videos on Environmental Conservation

It’s like YouTube, but for tree huggers.  Environmental Countdown is a free online video streaming service that allows users to view, share and upload videos about the environment and public health.  Although limited in number of videos right now, it is a good resource to learn about what others are doing in their own communities to help out the environment.

7. Recycle Your Electronic Waste

“Electronic waste represents 2 percent of America’s trash in landfills, but it equals 70 percent of overall toxic waste” - Wikipedia

Throw out an obsolete computer, CD or old phone in your dumpster, and you add to the statistics.  Many recycling centers are not equipped to handle electronics wastage - so what do you do then?  Try out GreenDisk, a service dedicated to helping the recycling and proper disposal of techno-trash.

There you have it - 7 things you can try out today, and make that difference right away. 

Why?  Because good planets are hard to find.

Do you actively participate in environmentalism?  Tell us in the comments!

Note: This is part 4 of an ongoing series of posts based on technology and the environment.  If you liked this post, you would enjoy the following posts as well: Part 1, Part 2, Part3

[tags] environment, green, trees, charity [/tags]

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