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Filed under: Google, Search

How to try out Google's new homepage prototype

There's been a lot of blog hype about Google testing out a new, minimal homepage. It's true, some users have been seeing a Google.com main page with just the logo, the search box, and two buttons. If you're not one of them, but you want to try it out, here's how you can make it happen:

Go to Google.com and put this little bit of Javascript into your address bar:
javascript:void(document.cookie="PREF=ID=abac7a90f5a3784b:LD=en:NR=10:TM=1254990196:LM=1254990236:S=uB6F4jDnMP_DuxtT;path=/; domain=.google.com");

Then hit enter, and then reload the page. The top bar, language tools link, and all other extraneous text should be gone, but it'll fade back in if you run your mouse over the top part of the browser window. This really isn't that big a deal, now that practically every browser has a search box built in, but it's a neat little trick if you're someone who still uses Google.com often.

[via Google Blogoscoped]

Filed under: E-mail, Google

Want to see GMail subjects instead of tons of labels? Hide 'em in labs


Thanks to GMail on my iPod Touch I've gotten used to a label-free view of my inbox. The actual subjects of the message I receive are much more important to me than seeing how my filters auto-sort things. Let's face it, by now most of you probably know whose messages get labeled as what.

Don't need the multitude of multicoloralism cluttering your inbox? Head over to the labs page and turn on remove labels from subjects.

If you work on a cramped screen at all (hello, netbook users!) you'll likely welcome the change. Instead of subjects getting shoved rudely aside by multiple labels, you'll actually be able to glimpse what new messages are about before opening them.

Labels are great for sorting things, but I'm glad I can now enable a more minimal look for my inbox.

[via Official GMail blog]

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, Productivity

Add a minimal desktop calendar to your Mac with Dateline

Dateline is a slick little Mac app that adds a clean little one-line calendar to your desktop. You can adjust the width of the calendar, and change the window level so it's floating on top of your windows or flush with the desktop. Double-clicking on a date will open that date in iCal, so Dateline's minimal featureset isn't a liability at all.

A couple of tricks you should know about using Dateline: first, you can hide the dock icon using a checkbox in preferences. Second, without that dock icon, the fastest way to open Dateline preferences if you need to change something is by control-clicking the calendar strip. If you're having trouble doing this, switch the display level of Dateline to "desktop icons" instead of "desktop." Dateline is nothing revolutionary, but I often find myself opening Google Calendar in my browser just to see what day of the week some upcoming appointment falls on, and Dateline saves me the trouble.

[via Daring Fireball]

Filed under: OS Updates, Linux

NimbleX : Portable Linux That's Ready to Rock

Nimblex rocks, especially for minimalist Linux
We play with a lot of Linux distributions, and plenty of them leave us wanting more. NimbleX, on the other hand, leaves us screaming for less.

How much awesome can you cram into a 200MB live CD? A whole lot. NimbleX comes with 550 packages preinstalled, and you'll find the usual Linux apps here: Firefox, K3B, XMMS, MPlayer, Gimp, Kopete, Transmission, Klam AV, and K Office, to name a few. Boot times are wicked fast, even from CD, and installation to a hard drive or USB flash drive is dead simple.

Desktop performance is equally impressive, even on our shabbily-equipped VirtualBox setup (256MB memory, 8MB video, 8GB hard drive). On that note, it's worth mentioning that NimbleX also comes with VirtualBox installed just in case you decide you want to get Windows XP running in it.

Read more →

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity, Mozilla

How to make a minimal Firefox

Consolidate Firefox's chrome

In her never-ending quest for interface perfection, Lifehacker Gina Trapani has written a great Geek to Live tutorial called Consolidate Firefox's chrome. In it she teaches you how to pare down Firefox's menus, toolbar, address back, and bookmarks toolbar until all that's left is what you absolutely need. To be specific, you'll learn how to eliminate entire menus from the menubar, how to keep toolbar buttons hidden when they're not available, get rid of the Go and Search buttons, and how to organize your bookmarks for maximum accessibility and minimum clutter. The tutorial does require you to edit Firefox's userChrome.css, so if that makes you squeamish, well... now's as good a time as any to get over it.

Filed under: Blogging, Freeware

The best minimalist WordPress themes

Best Minimalist WordPress Themes
Is your WordPress blog too cluttered? Too dark? Too boxy? Take a look at plaintxt.org's list of the Best Minimalist WordPress Themes. Minimalism isn't quite so in vogue as it was last year, but it's definitely still going strong, so if you're looking for something clean, airy, and uncluttered, these 10 themes, with names like Barecity, Way Too Clean, Zen Minimalist are for you. I'm particularly a fan of Simpla and The Simple Life, both of which have a bit more color than the others.

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

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