I'm planning on doing a writeup of this on my Linux blog, since I'm doing this from a Linux user's perspective forced to use Windows 7 at work.

But I figured I'd share these with you guys as a preview, and to see if anyone has any others they use that I should consider adding to my writeup when I finally do it.

• UBitmenu: I know, this one's more for Office 2007, not Windows 7, but it's too good to not share.  It fixes the stupid Ribbon UI in Word and Excel by adding a "Menu" tab to it that has the classic style toolbar already built in it.  
  
  
• Dexpot: Adds the ability for users to create virtual desktops, something that's been the norm in Linux window managers and desktop environments for years.  
  
  
• 7 Taskbar Tweaker: Fixes the broken (or lack of) context menus on the Windows 7 taskbar.
  
  
• Ext2Explore: Lets you read Ext2 and Ext3 filesystems, something Windows should really be able to do out of the box in this day and age.
  
  
• Explorer++: A full-featured, flexible, tabbed file manager that's far better than the default file manager in Windows.  After using Explorer++ for the past month or so, I find myself wishing that there was a Linux version of it.

This topic has been moved to Sticky Stuff (no pun intended).

http://www.geekforum.org/index.php?topic=4102.0

I'm not much of a case-modder, but one thing I'd like to do some time is get ahold of an antique radio to use as the case for a computer I want to put in my living room to act as a music machine.

But I never even considered doing anything this elaborate.  This guy's stuff is amazing.

Click

Mine is Hackmaster 4th Edition.

Been using Swiftfox for a few days, and I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with its performance.  It's significantly faster than Firefox 3.6, and on-par with Opera and Google Chrome, but it uses less memory than any of them, especially vanilla Firefox.

I figured I'd share it with those of you who like experimenting with browsers.

For those of you who don't know me as well as some of the long-time regulars here, I live in central Minnesota.

I saw this article today, which says

Traffic deaths in Minnesota dropped in 2009 to its lowest total in 65 years.

In a report released Monday, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety says there were 403 traffic deaths last year. That's down eight percent from 2008, when 455 people were killed on Minnesota roads.

The number of traffic deaths in 2009 is the lowest since 1944 when 356 people died.

Authorities credit a number of factors for the decline in traffic deaths. One of them is the primary seatbelt law. State seat belt compliance is at a record-high 90 percent. Authorities also cited heightened enforcement and the economy, which has people driving slower and less often.

Really? Seatbelt laws and "heightened enforcement" and the economy?

I'll hazard a guess at the biggest factor, and while it's tied to the "economy" cited above, I think I'll get more specific.

It probably has more to do with the fact that in late 2009, MN had 120,300 fewer jobs as compared to 2008 numbers.

Just that many people NOT commuting on a daily basis alone could account for the reduced number of fatalities -- which isn't really that much reduced, in the grand scheme of things.  Going from 455 deaths in one year to 403 the next is only a 12% change.

Just as some background, I am an IT professional.  More specifically in support, but I can build, maintain, and support desktops, networks, and servers.  I can support, document, maintain, patch, and troubleshoot literally hundreds of applications, ranging from things as simple as PDF readers to things as complex as $150,000 electronic medical records systems for sprawling hospital campuses.

I started programming when I was 11 or 12.  While programming isn't something I do professionally anymore (though I used to), it gives me insight into things a lot of server/desktop/network IT guys don't have.

I have a broad range of experience and expertise in technology that spans many platforms, applications, and hardware.  There is very little that I have ever failed to understand, troubleshoot, break down and repair.

I'm also a leader.  My most recent "real job" had me managing a helpdesk at a company that hosted hundreds of Windows Terminal Servers for thousands of end users.  I liked that job, and I was very good at it.  I didn't, however, like the company.  They treated their employees like shit, and openly tolerated harassment.

I have been unemployed since November of last year.  I have been applying for lots of different jobs.  I have been applying for entry-level IT jobs, mid-range IT jobs, and senior level IT jobs -- any of which I am qualified to do.  I have been applying for janitorial jobs, production/manufacturing jobs, warehouse jobs, bank teller jobs, generic office jobs, and customer service jobs.

In the past ten months, out of the dozens and dozens and dozens of jobs for which I have applied, I have had exactly four interviews for IT jobs that were all really good fits for me, and all four interviews went swimmingly well.

And all four jobs went to someone else.  I just found out about the fourth about an hour ago.

And I'm utterly out of ideas.

If any of you far-flung geeks know of a job or a consulting gig for one of my talents to which I could telecommute, I would greatly appreciate being made aware of it.  I've tried everything else I can think of, I figure I might as well see what some of you fine folks can think of.

Those of you with any serious suggestions or leads let me know.

Or even if you know someone that might be interested in someone like me, pass them my Linked In profile and let me know about it and I can forward them my resume.

At long last, this landmark Linux distro is reviewed, by yours truly.

clack

This topic has been moved to Political Opinions.

http://www.geekforum.org/index.php?topic=6812.0

A buddy of mine just recently posted a link to Ronald Jenkees on youtube.  I've been listening to his stuff off and on all afternoon and it's really started to grow on me.

Why was I not informed of this earlier?

Vote.

I love Fox News.  All my other news feeds are covering something fairly
topical and hard-hitting this morning, and my foxnews feed leads with this:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,487885,00.html



AP: Obama sponsors pay cap bill
Reuters: Ponzi schemes
NYT: Nominee slip hurts health care drive
CNN World: Sri Lanka rebels near defeat
FoxNews: OMG BIG FUCKING SNAKE!

Hilarious.  Fox News and the Onion, the two funniest news parody sites out
there!

So, in honor of that, let's come up with some good taglines to replace Fox News' tired old (and largely inaccurate) "Fair and balanced" B.S.

I'll start.

Fox News --- Providing hard-hitting coverage to the all-caps typers out there.