HOW TO eject USB device with a keyboard shortcut

Source: Flickr/ekosystemMost people will agree with the sentiment that "life is too short to remove USB safely"But did you know,  you can configure a keyboard shortcut to invoke the Safely Remove Hardware Dialog?The above trick requires you to create a Desktop shortcut. I assigned Ctrl+F12 to this shortcut as it is easy on the fingers.You can also assign an memorable icon as detailed in the comments to the article specified in the link.If...

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UX anti-patterns & other avoidable annoyances

The Screenshots of Despair blog collects samples of discouraging messages/goofs in applications. This is interesting because it lets web developers & UX folks learn from other's mistakes/oversight.Here are a couple of such messages I ran into in recent times:I thought Opt Out meant "Don't show any ads at all". The Google Personalized Ads Preferences setting screen above warns you that you will see more less-personalized ads if you opt out.Message...

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Free Pluralsight videos

I'm a fan of Pluralsight & video-tutorial based learning. Pluralsight is doing a great job of getting experts to deliver sessions on Microsoft technologies. My favorite presenters are Scott Allen & Robert Cain.My annual Pluralsight subscription got over recently & considering that they keep adding new videos regularly I plan to get a subscription again in the near future.I recently recommended it to a colleague. I asked him to check out these videos from their collection which are available for free, before purchasing a subscription...

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Visual Studio and Crystal Reports

Crystal Reports has probably the most complex branding history among software products. Originally created by Crystal Services Inc., it was acquired by Seagate Technology followed by Business Objects and is currently owned by SAP.Microsoft bundled it with Visual Studio versions 2003 through 2008. Although it is not integrated with Visual Studio 2010, it is available as a free download. It is called "SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio 2010".One of the benefits of "SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio 2010" listed on the download...

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Web Apps Watch - 1

As a web developer, I like to track interesting features, UI patterns used on popular Web Apps & also related trivia.Here are a few things I noticed this week -* Hotmail can help you organize emails from senders of bulk mail:* I previewed some content from an ASP.NET book on Google Books and noticed their localization for India & acknowledgement of  popularity of Indian online stores - links to Indian online stores from where...

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Hidden features of ASP.NET

On the StackOverflow forum, you'll find questions like "Hidden features of" technology X to be popular with a lot of up-votes. Such questions are sometimes closed as they are too subjective & do not fit into the expected Q&A format of the site. They however contain insightful answers.Here is a list of "hidden" gems in ASP.NET that I've discovered (work in progress) and wanted to highlight them as the don't easily show up in the top results while googling -Tag property for server controls - Just like the rel HTML attribute can be added...

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Online, SMS-based services to get distance, approximate autorickshaw fare

It's common knowledge that most auto-rickshaw drivers in Indian cities fleece their customers at every chance they get.Here is a list of online and SMS-based services to get distance, approximate autorickshaw fare and other location-related info (currently for South-Indian cities - Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai):+ LatLong.in - Helps you locate places, get directions & find places near you. This service is accessible directly from their site, over SMS & their mobile site.To know where a particular place is,send <place name> to 90088...

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"Had to scramble to get dressed when someone wanted video on a call."

Inspired by Chris Shipton who illustrates tweets, I drew this when I found this funny thought -When someone says Skype call, you dont know whether it is audio/video. Had to scramble to get dressed when someone wanted video on a call.— Sriram Krishnan (@sriramk) March 1, 2012Related:Doodling for Doll...

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What is SPDY?

SPDY, pronounced “SPeeDY”,  is an experimental application-layer protocol from Google developed as part of its "Let's make the web faster" initiative to help reduce the latency of web pages.  This new protocol transports the existing HTTP protocol more efficiently (up to 50% faster). It is NOT a replacement for HTTP. It replaces some parts of HTTP, but mostly augments it. At the highest level of the application layer, the request-response protocol remains the same. SPDY still uses HTTP methods, headers, and other semantics. But SPDY...

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HOW TO quickly capture screenshots/frames from a parallely running video in MS Word

This tip applies to MS Word 2010MS Word lets you add an image from any application running on your PC. If you are watching a instructional video and would like to jot down notes, this feature comes handy.The Screenshot option is in the Illustrations section of the Insert tab. After selecting that option you can also choose the Screen Clipping feature to grab only a part of a frame of a video running in a different window.If you use this feature a...

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The trouble with Kindle is...

Also see:The trouble with going early to work is...

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Brace matching for JavaScript/jQuery in Visual Studio 2010

With jQuery you will need to write lesser code than you would with JavaScript but it will probably use more braces, brackets & parentheses. While programming with jQuery, it's easy to miss an ending brace, bracket or parenthesis.Although Automatic Delimiter Highlighting is available with  C# code, it's sorely missed while you're working with JavaScript or jQuery. Thankfully there is a time-saving open-source VS Extension in the Visual Studio Gallery that bridges this gap - JScript Editor Extension. Besides other features,...

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