Recover Data From Damaged CD’s and DVD’s For Free
Because a CD is scratched it doesn’t mean its contents is lost. CD Recovery Toolbox is free utility the is designed to get data from almost any damaged or corrupt DVD or CD. This program is tenacious it will work hard even if Windows won’t read the contents of the disk - It’s just a matter of time but there’s a good chance CD Recovery Toolbox will find and recover some of the missing files.
Everything you always wanted to know about GMail...(but were afraid to ask)
So here you go, over 80 Gmail tools and tips, including Firefox extensions, Greasemonkey scripts, Desktop programs, Web applications and all-purpose ‘HowTo’ guides.
Firefox EXTENSIONS
Gmail Manager - manage multiple Gmail accounts, receive new mail notifications, view unread messages right from your browser statusbar. “…The Gmail Manager Firefox add-on obviates the need to keep your Gmail open in a tab all the time by displaying your email info in a statusbar pop-up…” [via LifeHacker]
GmailThis - excellent browser bookmarklet that lets you quickly forward highlighted text on any webpage via Gmail.
Better Gmail - integrates features of 10 Greasemonkey scripts into one firefox addon. These include: Google Reader integration, Mac-like skin, GCal integration, Fixed font and more.
GmailSkinz - powerful firefox addon with lots of cool features: change Inbox color , Add Google IG modules, insert images from Picasa albums, insert smileys, make navigation menu horizontal, hide unnecessary page elements, and more. (Note: some users reported having problems with this addon).
CustomizeGoogle - removes ads, switches you from http to https, hides the spam counter, quick contacts box, invite box and forces fixed font
Gspace - multi-platform firefox addon that turns your Gmail account into powerful online storage tool.
Gmail Search - search your Gmail account directly from the firefox search bar.
GcalQuickTab - toggle between Gmail and Google Calendar with keyboard shortcuts.
GTDInbox - turns your account into flexible and feature-loaded ToDo-management service (GTD = Getting Things Done)
DragDropUpload - this handy extension lets you quickly attach one or more files to your emails by dragging them over the “Attach a file” link.
Google Toolbar - official Google toolbar featuring one-click Gmail messages search.
FireGPG - integrates contextual menu with some useful functions: encrypt, decrypt, sign, etc. Read more on how to use it here.
GreaseMonkey SCRIPTS
Gmail Super Clean - clean and distraction-free Gmail. Looks great, check it out here
Gmail Spam-count Hide - hides spam count link.
Google Reader Folders - adds a little box that lists the folders on Google Reader along with the number of unread items in each one.
Google Reader Integration - complete integration of GReader into Gmail. Excellent! (view). Jump to Google Reader Tools and Tips.
Google Calendar Integration - integrates GCal agenda into Gmail (view). Jump to Google Calendar Tools and Tips.
Conversation Preview - lets you quickly preview message contents right from the main inbox window (view).
Saved Searches - create ’saved searches’ (aka smart folders) and display them in the separate box in the navigation menu. Clicking on a search executes the saved query (view).
Folders4Gmail - allows you to create nested labels (i.e. labels and sub-labels) [via LifeHacker].
Gmail Date Search - adds a ‘Search by Date’ button to Gmail’s search form.
Label Colors - color menu labels to make them stand out better (view).
GMail Attachment Icons - adds attachment icons to emails, letting you see what kind of attachment an email has (HTML ,JPG, PDF….). Note: ‘Attachment icons’ isn’t a standard Greasemonkey script, it’s an addon for a similar Firefox extension known as Stylish. However it should work with Geasemonkey as well.
GmailTo - forces all ‘mailto’ links to open in GMail.
Fixed Font Toggle - adds a font toggle button so that messages can be viewed in a fixed-width font. Read more …
Gmail Macros - adds extra keyboard shortcuts to Gmail (i.e. “t” for move to trash, “r” for mark as read, “p” for mark as read and add to archive…etc). Read more…
Gmail Encrypt - encrypts your messages to prevent unwanted people from reading it. Just in case someone intercepts it while it’s on the way.
SSLGoogle - forces Gmail, Google Docs and GCale pages and their intra-links to open via secure connection (HTTPS).
Signature Float - moves your email signature to the top of the message rather than the bottom.
Attachment reminder - reminds you to attach a file to your Gmail, based on whether you have the word attach (ed, ment, etc) in the body.
Desktop Programs and Web Apps
GmailDrive (Win) - adds a new virtual drive (’Gmail Drive’) to ‘My Computer‘ folder. Drag’n drop files on top it to store them in your Gmail account.
gDisk (Mac) - Mac alternative for the above mentioned GmailDrive.
Gmail ToDo - handy desktop application that allows you to quickly add and save todo’s in a ‘ToDo’ label in your Gmail account.
FlipMail - free service for forwarding some/all of your emails to your mobile (US Only).
Gmail Loader - cross-platform (Win, Mac, Linux) tool to help you load all your old message archives from other email accounts into Gmail. [via LifeHacker].
Icon Generator - minimize spam exposure by getting an image for your email address and safely publish it wherever needed.
Blogsigs - lets you auto-include the title of your latest blog post in your email signature. Works with Gmail.
GMail Mobile - access Gmail from your mobile.
Google Talk - Google’s IM service which is fully integrable with GMail.
You’ve Got Gmail - Gmail plugin for Trillian (IM client)
Unbl0ck - web-based proxy for accessing Gmail from places where it’s blocked (work, school,…)
iPhoto2Gmail (Mac) - allows you to instantly email images from within iPhoto. Send either original or optimized (resized) image versions.
MailPlane - “…A full fledged mail client for Google Mail and Mac OS X “. Mail client combining best of Gmail with Mac’s simplicity anduser interface. It’s still in beta though, but you can request invite from here.
GmailFS - mountable Linux filesystem which uses Gmail as its storage medium
GMail Notifiers
- for Windows: GMail Notifier (official), GTray, Notifier2
- for Mac: GMail Notifier (official), GCount, Gmail+Growl 2.0
- for Linux: KCheckGmail
- for Firefox: E-Mail Notifier Toolbar, Gmail Notifier
GMail HowTo’s (over 20 all purpose HowTo guides)
HowTo: Build advanced Gmail filters and persistent searches.
HowTo: Import your archived emails into Gmail.
HowTo: Access Gmail account of someone who dies.
HowTo: Force Gmail notifier to use SSL (instead of HTTP).
HowTo: Import contacts from Hotmail to Gmail.
HowTo: Redownload Gmail messages into outlook.
HowTo: Backup your Gmail messages using Google Groups.
HowTo: Create Google Calendar events from Gmai.
HowTo: Set Gmail as default mail client in Ubuntu (without any additional software).
HowTo: Sync. Google Calendar and Gmail contacts to your desktop.
HowTo: Use rich HTML email signatures straight from Gmail (req. Better Gmail extension).
HowTo: Manage all your email account with Gmail. (Excellent guide for folks with several emails.)
HowTo: Back up Gmail with Fetchmail (Windows).
HowTo: Configure and access Gmail on Mozilla Thunderbird.
HowTo: Use Gmail over IMAP and tag your mail, too.
HowTo: Sync. Micr. Outlook, GCal, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone.
HowTo: Encrypt and sign Gmail messages using FireGPG extension (see above).
HowTo: Work with Gmail Attachments like a PRO.
HowTo: Attach and send blocked file types, i.e. ‘*.exe’.
HowTo: Find that ’someone’ who gives away your email address to spammers.
HowTo: Gmail on Home Linux Box using Postfix and Fetchmail.
Gmail Shortcuts
- Secret keyboard shortcut for deleting messages [Amit's Amazing : labnol.blogspot.com]
- Shortcuts for Special Gmail Labels [googlesystem.blogspot.com] - for ultra quick navigation
- Gmail Shortcut List: handy, printable list of keyboard shortcuts for the Gmail [comp.nus.edu.sg]
Tips
- Three solid Gmail productivity tips [mattcutts.com]
- What to do if your Gmail is nearly full [bnura.blogspot.com]
- Jim’sTips: huge collection of basic gmail tips [g04.com]
Find and Delete duplicate files
System utility Easy Duplicate Finder scans drives and folders for identical files and lets you delete or move them off your PC. Easy Duplicate Finder can scan more than one folder or your entire hard drive at once for duplicates. Simply add the folders or drives to the scan list and go. Scanning a large drive like your C: drive may take some time, but subfolder scans are very fast.
Why Bloggers Will Change the World, and How You Can Help
This coming October 15th GEEK_O_PEDIA will proudly be posting in participation of Blog Action Day, a blogger initiative to raise awareness and money around an issue. This year's issue is the environment, so let us know what you want to hear about when it comes to green life hacks. Got a blog? Add your voice to the chorus and register to get involved, too by :
- Post on your blog relating to the environment on Blog Action Day
- Donate your day’s earnings to an environmental charity
- Promote Blog Action Day around the web
Save YouTube videos for any device with vConvert
Web site vConvert.net grabs videos from YouTube and converts them to compatible formats for your iPod/iPhone, mobile phone, PSP, and more. What's more, if you only want the audio from a video, vConvert can convert just the audio to an MP3. 
Lifehacker has posted some cool desktop apps that promise the same conversions (and one other web site), but if you don't want to install an application to handle this simple transcode, vConvert is a very good and simple alternative. Just give it a YouTube URL, select what you want to convert it for, then click Convert and Download. After a minute or two of processing, you should see a download link for the video.
Got API ?
gotAPI - API references all in one place for Javascript, CSS, HTML, Perl, Oracle, Java, and so on…
Online programming and science videos
Lots of good videos to watch here, including videos on Java, Javascript, Ruby, science lectures, etc.
Some of them link to other sites, like webcast.berkeley.edu, that have many more videos of college lectures.
Another video site: bestechvideos.com
Firefox Rendering Tweaks
Lifehacker has an interesting article if you love delving into Firefox's about:config menu to manually tweak the internals of the fox. Such as this one...
Creating an nglayout.initialpaint.delay integer preference lets you control how long Firefox waits before starting to render a page. If this value isn't set, Firefox defaults to 250 milliseconds, or 0.25 of a second. Some people report that setting it to 0 -- i.e., forcing Firefox to begin rendering immediately -- causes almost all pages to show up faster.
Besides highlighting several great tweaks, Computer World also references the about:config wiki hosted by Mozilla to explain and store about:config tweaks. The about:config wiki hosts thousands of about:config tweaks so you can customize to your heart's content.
Hacking Firefox: The secrets of about:config [Computer World]
About:config entries [mozillaZine]
Some smart Ads.
Technospot.com has compiled a list of what they call “15 Smart Ads You Just Can’t Miss.”
