Damien Oh

Damien Oh is the owner and chief editor of Make Tech Easier

Recent Posts

Track Your Package Shipment With Twitter

By | June 13, 2008 |

While I have covered 16 interesting things that you can do with Twitter, it only covered the tip of the iceberg. Ever since Twitter released their API, there are really thousands of things that you can do with it – one of them is to track your FedEx, UPS, USPS and DHL shipment with Twitter.

TrackThis is a Webservice that monitors your package shipment for you. To get started, simply follow TrackThis at http://twitter.com/trackthis and wait for it to follow you back. Once that is done, you can send your shipment tracking code via a direct message to TrackThis.

The syntax to use is [tracking code] [nickname of package]. For example, if you ordered a PC and the tracking code from FedEx is 1234567, send:

d trackthis 1234567 PC

Trackthis will then reply you with a direct message each time your package changes location.

If you know of any other interesting applications with Twitter, do let just know.

[via CyberNet]

How to Grab Photos From Flickr And Set As Ubuntu Wallpaper (Automatically)

By | June 12, 2008 |

There are tons of interesting and nice photos on Flickr. While you can download them and set it as your desktop wallpaper manually, wouldn’t it be great if there is a software that can automate the downloading process and change your Ubuntu wallpaper every now and then?

Webilder does just that. It allows you to download images from Flickr and Webshots and set it as your wallpaper. You can customize it by setting the keywords (or tags) to watch for and/or check out the Webilder channel for tags and albums shared by others.

[Read more...]

Control Your Gmail With Simple Mouse Gestures

By | June 11, 2008 |

Some people prefers the keyboard shortcuts, while some prefer to do everything with the mouse. If you belong to the latter, you will find the new mouse gestures features in Gmail extremely useful.

Mouse gestures is one of the 13 new features in the newly launched Gmail Lab. It allows you to use your mouse to navigate through your mails.

To activate the mouse gestures feature, go to Settings->Labs. Scroll down to the mouse gestures section and check “Enabled“. Save the changes and you are set to go.

To navigate through the mails, simply right-click and do the following:

Mouse Gestures Action
Right-click and move the mouse right
  • In conversation view, go to the next mail.
  • In Inbox, load the next 100 mails.
Right-click and move the mouse left
  • In conversation view, go to the previous mail.
  • In Inbox, load the previous 100 mails.
Right-click and move the mouse up
  • Return to inbox, only applicable in conversation view

Useful Gmail Shortcut Keys to Improve Your Email Checking Experience

By | June 10, 2008 |

gmail-logoWhile most of us are used to moving mouse and clicking around the screen, sometime things can be done faster if you use the preset shortcut keys. Similarly, for those who spent a lot of time in your Gmail, the following shortcut keys will definitely be of great use to you.

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Accessing Remember the Milk from your Ubuntu Desktop

By | June 9, 2008 |

remember-the-milk-logoNeedless, Remember the Milk is one the best online task managers out there, offering you a simple and easy way to organize your life. If you are like me, crazy about getting your life sorted out, online and offline, here are some ways that you can access Remember the Milk from your Ubuntu desktop.
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What’s New In Screenlets?

By | June 7, 2008 |

When I first installed Screenlets half a year ago, I really didn’t like it. It took up a big chunk of memory and have only a limited quantity of widgets to choose from. In addition, the software looks rough and it didn’t look well on the desktop that I beautifully customized.

With the release of the new 0.1.2 version, I decided to give it another shot and see if there is any improvements over its previous version. After installing it in my Hardy, I can only say that I am more than impressed.

screenlets-manager

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GNOME Do: A Fast Launcher For Your Linux Desktop

By | June 5, 2008 |

gnome-do-logoOn the first look, GNOME Do is nothing more than a file indexer. It indexes your files and allows you to launch it from the search bar. After using it, you will find that it is actually more powerful than it seems. It is in fact a speed daemon that enables you to achieve many tasks easily and quickly.

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Yoono: The Social Media Plugin For Firefox

By | June 3, 2008 |

yoono-screenshotIf you are a frequent user of Facebook, Twitter, AIM, Flickr, FriendFeed, Youtube and wish there is a centralized place to control everything, now you have it – Yoono.

Yoono is a extension for the Firefox browser. For those who are familiar to Flock, you might find this to be too similar. However, Yoono is only 2MB in size and works right in your Firefox browser, so there is no need for you to install the new 15MB Flock browser.

Once you installed the extension, you will see a slick Yoono interface on the sidebar. On the corner lies all the widgets where you can add to your Yoono interface.

The widgets are categorized into Videos, Photos, Friends, Music, Web notes and Discovery. The Videos and Photos widgets allow you to view videos from Youtube, Metacafe and photos from Flickr. Music widget enables you to listen to online radio while Friends widget allows you to connect to the various social media sites and instant messaging networks (Facebook, Twitter, MSN, gadu-gadu, google talk, AIM etc).

People who love Stumbleupon will also find the Discovery widget useful as it analyzes the page you have visited and present the sites that are of your interest.

Generally, I have been pretty impressed by Yoono as it has successfully and creatively integrated all the various social media networks together. It is definitely not flawless, but it has really proved to be an addictive and useful extension for power social media users.

Yoono

Twittering From Open Office

By | June 2, 2008 |

Using clients like twhirl or twitterfox, you can post tweets to twitter from your desktop and Firefox browser. However, if you spend a lot of time on Open Office, you may want a quicker way to get your twitter updated, without having to leave Open Office.

OOoTwitter is a simple Open Office extension that allows you to post to Twitter. Once installed, it will load an input field where you can submit your message to Twitter. It is very easy to use and it is unobstructive and can be loaded from the menu Tools -> Add-ons -> Post to twitter.

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How to Set Up a VNC Server In Ubuntu Hardy Heron

By | May 30, 2008 |

VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing and is a desktop sharing application that allows you to remote control another computer. A VNC connection requires a VNC server to be set up on the remote system and a VNC viewer to access the server. In Ubuntu Hardy Heron, both the VNC server and viewer come pre-installed in the package.

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