I read a bunch of other blogs via Bloglines [bloglinesplummer, bloglines, bloglinesfeedfixed]. Bloglines has a built-in blogging system, so I've started clipping interesting things I've read to a blog I created there. It is strictly a "link blog" - I'll keep my usual blog posts here at mikeyp.com.
I've added an automatic feed of my link blog to the right column of mikeyp.com. If you want to read the feed directly, just click here.
Last year, I highly recommended Copernic Desktop Search [copernicdesktopsearch, copernic2] over all the other desktop search apps that I tested. I was using CDS version 1.7. CDS was faster, easier to use, and had a lower system impact than the rest.
Unfortunately, Copernic has upgraded CDS to "Version 2," and it's a poor step backwards. It's still free, and I hate to complain about free software, but…
CDS 2 is slower than 1.7, adds unneeded features, and above all, has some horrible user interface quirks. Specifically, the worst feature is their new "Search web" link on the desktop search box. If you mouse over this link, which you must do in order to choose a search category, the link becomes permanently active, causing all desktop searches to become web searches instead. You can't deselect this link! Or even disable it! This, of course, makes CDS 2.0 effectively useless for desktop search. Sure, you could theoretically press Win-C to open the CDS desktop app and enter your search there, but unlike CDS 1.7, Win-C no longer give the app input focus. This means that you need to use the mouse to click to enter your search term. Ridiculous!
Last year, Copernic searched the net for published recommendations, found mine, and posted an excerpt on their web site. I would like to now publicly recommend that users avoid CDS 2.0, and request Copernic to remove my recommendation.
That said, I still use and recommend CDS version 1.7. If you scour the net, you'll find CDS 1.7 on oldversion.com. Just don't upgrade when prompted. 
If you use the Opera [operaubuntufonts, opera, opera9, operastaticbin, opera-idstring, operamini41, linkstashbuttonsforoperawin764bit, badoperasites, operaminiusage, operamini4] web browser (er, you are using Opera, right?), check out this integrated spell checker script called OSpell. It uses Opera's integrated JavaScript to enable in-place spell checking in web text boxes. Very nice!
But alas, like the official Opera spell checker, it does not have an "Ignore All" feature, at least so far as I can tell.
Almost every time I read the webcomic xkcd, I find myself laughing hysterically… then suddenly and sheepishly scanning the room to see if anyone saw me laughing at something so incredibly geeky.
I shouldn't say "improving", as font settings are very subjective. However, compared to Windows and OS X, the default font settings in most recent Debian-based Linux distros (such as Ubuntu) just look wrong to me. I've found two main reasons for this:
On the dpi front, Windows defaults to 96 dpi instead of 100 dpi, which seems to be where many fonts look their best. To change the dpi on Debian-based Xorg configs, edit the file /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc and change the exec line to read:
exec /usr/bin/X11/X -dpi 96 -nolisten tcp
As for Freetype hinting, there are two font hinting options available: "native" and "autohinter." I'm pretty confused as to why there are two options, but it appears to be patent-related (see http://www.freetype.org/). In any case, I think that the "autohinter" setting looks much nicer. To change it in a Debian-based distro, run:
dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config
Follow the prompts to choose "autohinter", "automatic" subpixel rendering, and "no" to default bitmapped fonts.
After making the above changes, restart X (ctrl-alt-backspace).
Here is a before and after screen cap of the Xfce menu, with subpixel rendering off. Notice the lowercase "m" in the examples. And believe me, the "after" results look superb on a good LCD screen with subpixel rendering.
Note 1: Gnome and KDE both override the dpi setting in Xorg. Despite setting Gnome to use 96 dpi, the fonts still look wrong (using my lowercase "m" test).
Note 2: Be sure to play with the hinting level. You can usually adjust this in your window manager. I set the hinting level to "full".
