Using Remote Desktop Connection to access a remote computer whilst away has been around for a bit, but what if you want to connect to a Mac from a PC or vice versa – or want to access your Windows/Mac machine from Linux?

I came across a bit of software recently that seems to seamlessly allow either a Mac or PC (be it Linux or Windows) to access the remote computer.

LogMeIn comes in a bewildering number of flavours, but the one that interested me (naturally!) was the free version. Although lacking some features that the paid for version has (remote printing etc) the free version seems be an excellent choice for general all-round use. Simple to install, I will let you know if I come across any problems, but so far so good.

The Mac version is a bit tricky to find, but a ‘preview’ version is available here:

https://secure.logmein.com/products/mac

The developers say:

Can I use a Mac OSX computer to control a LogMeIn computer?

You can use a Mac to access a computer via LogMeIn, as long as the Mac is running OSX.

If you are running 10.4 or higher, we have a plug-in that will allow you to control a PC or a Mac. You will be prompted to install this plug-in automatically when you first connect to the PC. There are some known issues when using Firefox initially, so please use the Safari browser when installing the plug-in.

Currently, support for older versions of OSX (10.3 and older) is limited to using LogMeIn in Java mode. In order to do this, the OSX machine being used to control the LogMeIn machine will need the latest version of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). You will also need to
use the Mozilla Firefox browser.

More information available here:

https://secure.logmein.com/products/free/

Fortunately, the solution is very straightforward. First right click on the Orb and select properties.

Then simply choose ‘Start Menu’ from the tabs (it should have been autoselected) and click on
Customise.

The resulting screen allows you then to choose how several of your start menu items should appear – including the Control Panel. Here I have selected it to appear as a ‘Menu’.

Accept this change (and any others you care to make) and voila! Control Panel as a Menu…

Microsoft are now making Internet Explorer 7 available without having to go through the process of validation (WGA) for your Windows installation.

By visiting their site, you can now elect to have your os automatically detected and updated, or, download the installation files for you to do on multiple machines.

This development – or change of heart – was announced by Microsoft on October 4th. They described it as a firm step to ‘take [Microsoft's] commitment to help protect the entire Windows ecosystem seriously’, presumably by offering to Windows XP users some of the anti-phishing techonology
and other goodies inherent in IE7 to those who use Windows illegally. Others might cynically say that they simply want to keep market share as Firefox continues to grab users who have until now been stuck with IE6 and have taken the migration plunge.

Anyway, whatever the reason, if you are still using IE6 and want to upgrade to IE7 then now is your chance. No questions asked.

Check out the details at the cunningly titled www.mcdwireless.com

I decided to try a test and do the equivalent of ‘non-techie’ install and ignore all their warnings about deactivating plugins and what not before upgrading in an attempt to see if anything broke. [Now, I had taken a FULL backup first - this was a test, remember!]

As it happened, everything upgraded just fine with all my plugins behaving themselves. Version 2.3 has quite a few changes both on the surface and under the hood. The main highlights for users being the integrations of tag management and theme widgitising, the addition of a ‘pending review’ publishing option, some text editing tweaks and some tidying up around URL and blogroll management. Full details of the changes can be found on their website.

It’s still early days, but so far I am very pleased with 2.3. What are some of your experiences?

The little picture you see on your web browser or next to your list of favourites is, not surprisingly, called the ‘favicon’ and will be displayed whenever someone visits your page or bookmarks you.

By creating a 16×16 pixel favicon.ico file and placing it in your site you can, via a little bit of html, get it to appear quite easily. Wordpress has had instructions for this for some time, but now a little plugin from Digital Ramble helps those (like me!) for whom html is best left to others. This also has the benefit of not being theme dependent, so you don’t have to remember to keep editing your head.php file if you change themes regularly.

IE7 is now able to handle transparency on favicon and so you are not limited to having to completely fill a square block – you can let that creativity rumble. There is something cool and retro about having to design a 16×16 square of pixels to look good. Reminds me of when I had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum!

By the way, if you are ever stuck for ideas for your favicon, then visit favicon.co.uk where you can visit their gallery or even upload photos, pictures etc and let them have a go for you.

In XP, you could install a powertoy that allowed you to right mouse click the folder and then click on ‘Open Command Prompt Here’.

Since Vista, this has now been built into the shell, but doesn’t appear when you right mouse click a folder. In order to activate it, you have to hold down the Shift button whilst right mouse clicking the folder. This should then give you a slightly different context menu where one of the options will now be ‘Open Command Window Here”.

I find it works fine from shortcuts and from the right hand window of Explorer. Using the tree display on the left is a bit hit-and-miss, but that’s what we love about Microsoft right?

MySpace has traditionally been one of the hardest to crosspost to, but if you are a WordPress user, then enter some funky php courtesy of Roderick Russell.

Because of some of the limitations of MySpace, and particularly its formatting options, the 2 scripts he has written post an announcement on your MySpace blog that give the title and then direct the user to click through to your WordPress blog. This might sound a bit odd, but actually, those of us who maintain WordPress blogs tend to want users to land there first, rather than MySpace, so I leave that option alone. You can attempt a full post though, if you prefer.

Here is a sample of what the post looks like on MySpace:

Thanks are due, once again, to my good friend Donovan who found the original link.

Enter the ‘GSpace‘ firefox plugin to help you utilise that space as if it were a directory on your own pc.

As the guys who wrote it say:

This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system. The interface will make your Gmail account look like a FTP host.After the installation, you’ll get an option called “Gspace” in your “Tools” menu, which opens the GSpace window.

It’s great for storing/sharing files with your friends. Also very good
to backup photos and music files (as you can view/listen to them from
Gspace).

I must admit that the interface is slick and easy – give it a try and let us know how you get on.

If so, then this little app is definitely for you!

Easy to install and elegant to configure, Rob at tsaiberspace.net is to be commended.