I just stumbled on this quite accidentally. I have Firefox setup to open links in a new tab when I middle-click on a link. Turns out you can also middle-click on a tab to close it. I wondered why there wasn’t an easier way to close tabs (besides mouse gestures).
Found this on the Google Code Page. I haven’t seen it posted anywhere else yet and it was posted on Google on August 8 (maybe I missed it when it made the rounds already). From the Google API page:
“I traded some email with the Maps team and I saw something in a link they sent me that I wasn’t familiar with. To best explain this, first load this map from Berkeley to Google in a separate browser window. Note in the “End Address” section, the Google. Now load this map of Sydney and note the label inside the callout.
If you look at the urls, you’ll see a (text) argument appended to the url. This is a lightweight way of linking to Google maps without touching on the maps API. As you can see, you can arbitrary labels to your links like this chocolate shop or this restaurant. Have fun! ”
Cool – an easy way to add quick comments to a map. Here is my first quick attempt. My Alma Mater.
Today I realized I had mentioned my favorite MP3-playing software Foobar 2000 a few times but never really said much about it. Foobar is a highly underappreciated MP3 player, IMHO. It’s not fancy like WinAmp, iTunes, and QCD – it doesn’t have a bunch of cool visualizations and skins and stuff. It plays music – MP3s, ogg, and all the others without the bloat.
Some key features (for me):
Yes, Foobar looks rather plain and bland when compared to even a basic WinAmp install, but it really kicks the…uh…Alpaca’s ass. If you want a player that plays music and has no bloat, try Foobar 2000. If you want visualizations, tons of plugins, and lots of skins, try one of the other players mentioned above. I’m sticking with Foobar though.
Speaking of small MP3 players, I tried one I stumbled on today called Billy…. it claims it is fast and lightweight. The download was quite small (456kb) but it took up about 2.5MB of RAM when running (about the same as Foobar)….and no Audioscrobbler plugin and no global keyboard shortcuts. I uninstalled it shortly after installing it.
If you have an application that you are offering for download on the net, do not name it setup.exe. Do you know how many things I have in my downloads folder? I don’t always get to them right when I download them. Do me a favor and name it something like yourappname-setup.exe. Please.
Speaking of sci-fi, I have been listening to the Escape Pod podcast “The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine” lately – there are 15 episodes out so far and I have listened to the first six. It’s a great idea – every episode is a new sci-fi short story. Some are really good, some are just ok, and they are perfect to listen to on the way to/from work each day. The times range from 20 minutes to an hour though all the ones I have listened to are about 30 minutes long. If you like sci-fi, check it out!