Mike-Ward.Net

Friday Links #58

Programming Computers

John Robbins’ Blog : Paraffin3.1: New and Improved! - Produce Windows Installer XML (WiX) fragments of files in your installations. The big feature of Paraffin is that is automates the management of your files because it keeps consistent the component ids and GUIDs as well as file and directory ids as you add files to your installer.

MonoTouch – Mono - Allows developers to create C# and .NET based applications that run on the iPhone and can take advantage of the iPhone APIs.

CodeRush Xpress for C# and Visual Basic inside Visual Studio 2008 - Mark Miller – A (very good) detailed summary of all CodeRush functions.

jLinq 2.2.0 Released! - LINQ style query language for Javascript. Feels like jQuery for data.

Using your Personal Computer

HashTab for Windows 3.0.0 - HashTab is a Windows shell extension which adds a tab called “File Hashes” to the Windows Explorer file properties. The tab contains the MD5, SHA1 and CRC-32 file hashes. I love this little guy!

Lifehacker - Firefox 3.5 Officially Available for Download - Firefox 3.5 – In case you were living in a bottle (or on vacation like I am), the latest and greatest from Mozilla is released.

Science and the Environment

Technology Review: Waterproof Lithium-Air Batteries - lightweight, high-energy batteries that can use the surrounding air as a cathode.

First Electronic Quantum Processor Created - Yale University researchers has created the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor, taking another step toward the ultimate dream of building a quantum computer.

Blackest Black Ever: Ultra-thin Material Absorbs All Light - It appears to be a paradox: ultra-thin material that absorbs all the incident light. Nonetheless, it does exist.

Can A New Implant Coating Technique Create A New Six Million Dollar Man? – I wonder if it makes the cool sound effect from the series as well?

On the Web

Lifehacker - Gmail Attachment Size Upped to 25MB – I missed that it went up from 10MB to 20MB.

Never Miss Twitter Updates of your Less Active Friends – An alternative to the “River of News” format of standard Twitter clients. Cool idea.

Taking Full Screenshots of Web Pages Was Never This Easy! - Open the web page that you want to capture, go to the address bar of the browser and type “aviary.com/” just before the http:// part of the URL.

Twitter Blog: Following and Followers Page Improvements – Additional actions have been added to the following and followers pages.

Stuff I just Dig

Zero-power wasted, green phone charger - A greenbox works like a fridge light: it powers the charger only when you open it. Close the box, and its hidden switch disconnects the charger from the mains.

Universal Chargers are a Good Start: 5 More Things That Need Conformity - Starting next year, Apple, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, and RIM will begin making handsets with a standard phone charger based on the micro-USB connector.

Ten-Foot Aston Martin Cygnet Gets 50 MPG - The ultra-luxury car will be two feet shorter than a Mini Cooper, and come as an accessory to your regular Aston Martin. I might even be able to afford it.

Two-Wheeled Robotic Table Balances Drinks, Segway-Style - The Table Robot wheels itself around on two wimpy but miraculously balanced wheels.

Pick of the Week

Ultramon - Does lots of things but I use it for only one purpose. It adds a taskbar to the second (or third) monitor. Why Windows does not support this feature natively is anyone’s guess.