While Windows Vista felt like it was awfully busy looking pretty while doing common computer tasks, Windows 7 feels very snappy and efficient.  With my seat-of-the-pants usage, coupled with all the buzz about Windows 7’s improved memory managed and multitasking, I just couldn’t fathom that someone would find benchmarks showing the OS to be an utter pig.

As it turns out, those claims were totally fraudulent.  The CEO of Devil Mountain Software, Craig Barth, is totally phony!  Read the gritty details here and here.

• Start typing a name in the To: or Cc: field of a new email
• When the cached addresses come up, use your keyboard to arrow down to the bad address, then press the delete key.

Sah-weet, huh?  What’s cooler is that this trick also works in a lot of other applications’ text fields.  For instance, I’ve used it in Internet Explorer to remove typos in commonly-used Google searches, just to remove that extra step when Google tells me I’ve misspelled something.

The wurks.com email domain has been hosted with Google Apps Standard (that’s free Gmail among other apps presented as your own domain instead of name@gmail.com) for years* and I’ve been really happy, although I’ve been secretly longing to have a more corporate groupware type of experience.  I looked into Google Apps Premier, but have been hesitant to jump on the wagon and spend the cash quite yet as the Gmail client actually suits my needs right now, except for one pain point.  While the lack of Outlook connectivity hasn’t been a big deal, mobile phone connectivity is a big deal.  The Gmail app for Windows Mobile didn’t work with my Google Apps account last time I tried and using it through a browser on the phone is cumbersome…. Don’t get me wrong, Gmail is nicely optimized for mobile browsers, but it’s not handy, especially contrasted to the great smartphone experience that iPhone, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile users enjoy when coupled with an enterprise email system.

Thus, I was beyond excited to stumble across an article on Google’s site that outlines how to sync with a Windows Mobile device FOR FREE!  Basically, Google emulates Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync, a connection mechanism already available on many newer smartphones.  The administrator of your Google Apps hosting will need to enable Google Sync, then you simply add a new email server connection to your phone (instructions for iPhone and Windows Mobile).  I configured my Windows Mobile phone in just a few minutes and it works pretty much the same as it did when it was paired up with my old corporate Exchange system.  Did I mention Wurks didn’t pay a dime?  Ahem, not that we’re cheap around here.

UPDATE – I’ve been using this since I posted and it’s still working pretty well.  To be honest, I’m disappointed that it’s not as polished feeling as when I was tethered to my old Exchange server.  Although the calendar and contacts seem to synchronize properly, email sometimes doesn’t.  After poking around online, this may be due to Google system issues or perhaps them updating the code releases.  I do still feel that it’s useful for people with Google Apps though.

*Thanks for enlightening Wurks to a revolution in hosting, Bill… IMAP email was so 1999 and Squirrelmail was so, umm, older-feeling?

San Diego regional tech trade group CommNexus saw a need for an industry-agnostic tech incubator for the area and put a plan into motion last year to make one.  EvoNexus was born with the help of some heavy-hitters from local tech companies and investment groups, cash donors, and volunteers.  The organization has proceeded through two admittance processes since inception and both were very competitive, yielding only six companies out of what sounds like hundreds of applicants (which shows San Diego is still is a hotbed for new tech).  Companies are offered office space, basic IT services, and management mentoring.  Members are also exposed to leading entrepreneurs and investors, a key benefit for businesses that need funding to achieve their goals.

I have to give a shout-out to two companies started by long-time friends that are currently under EvoNexus’ wing:  ecoATM and Pixon Imaging.  ecoATM has developed a kiosk where consumers can recycle their mobile phones and devices and, get this, they pay you for it!  Think Coin Star for gadget recycling.  You get to get rid of your phone without tossing it into a landfill here or elsewhere and you get some cash to boot.  Pixon Imaging has some pretty sweet technology for serious image enhancement.  At yesterday’s event, there were some sample photos that compared raw images to the ones enhanced by Pixon Imaging’s process and the difference is astounding.

There are four other businesses that made the cut:  IOsemi, which is working on chip solutions for high data rate and multi-band wireless applications; Medipacs, whose new infusion pump is disposable and uses no mechanical parts (one word: wow);  MicroPower Appliance, which has a low power IP-based camera that can run for up to a year on its battery; and TetraVue, whose imaging technology creates multi-dimensional images from just one angle instead of multiple cameras.

With its excellent management, staff, and process, San Diego is sure to see many great new high-tech companies prosper thanks to the efforts of EvoNexus and its donors and sponsors.

Windows

Getting a screen capture is pretty straightforward in Windows.  Just tap that Print Screen button on your keyboard.  It’s the one you’ve seen on keyboards for years and probably never used, marked “PrtScr.”  This key will copy a picture of your entire screen to the clipboard. Then you can simply paste the picture into your document or email or whatever. A very handy feature is to capture only the active window. To do this, make sure you are currently using the window you’d like to capture, then press Alt + Print Screen. Paste as before, of course, but this time you’ll get just the window that you wanted.  Slick!

MacOS

Screenshots on the Mac are a bit more useful and there are more options than Windows for capturing what you want and getting that picture to your email or document. As much as I love OS X for its simplicity, this is one common task that is hard for me to remember in my everyday Mac computing.

First, you can capture either the whole screen, a selected rectangle of the screen, or an individual window. Second, screenshots can be transferred either through the clipboard or via an intermediary file. That sounds like a bad math problem, but it is nice to have options

There are two primary keystrokes to remember: Command + Shift +3 and Command + Shift + 4. Now would be a good time for me to mention that the little Apple key is actually called the Command key (yes, I know, MS copied Apple’s clever little key – and coincidentally if you’re using a Windows keyboard on your Mac, your Windows key is the Command key).

Cmd + Shft + 3 captures the whole screen and saves it to a new file on the desktop. Cmd + Shft + 4, turns your arrow to a little cross-hairs (get it, screen shot?). At this point you can either drag a rectangle anywhere on your screen or you can press the spacebar, which turns the cursor into a camera. As you move the camera around, each window turns green. Click the one you want to capture and it will be saved to the desktop.

Now, here’s the trick part for you Windows-nostalgic screen-shooters: You can modify the above two commands with the Control key to copy the captured screen (or bits of screen) into the clipboard instead of saving it to a file. Can you remember all that? If you’re like me, fear not, because there’s a good rundown on MacRumors’ guide.

Linux

Capturing the screen in Linux is slightly different depending on your desktop environment.  Users of Gnome will take a screenshot just like a Windows user.  Pressing the Print Screen key in Gnome captures the whole screen and then brings up a small window allowing you to choose a filename and a directory in which to store it.  Adding the Alt key to the Print Screen captures just the active window and prompts you to save it.

In KDE, just press the Print Screen key and a window will appear allowing you to save the screenshot to a file, copy it to the clipboard, or print it out. If you’re a serious screen-shooter, this window also gives you options for capturing the whole screen, just the active window, a selection of your choosing, or a single part of a window (like just the title bar or just the body of the window).  It even lets you set a delay, so you can have to time to setup for the perfect shot!

I have to admit that I installed KDE just so I could do this post (I moved to Gnome back when Sun ditched CDE in favor of it), but I really envy its screen capture.  It’s like the Holy Grail of screenshots… seriously.