Type G for Gmail

Set your browser's default search as Google and experience a whole new world of Goomains. Type Keywords like "Craigs PHX" directly on the Address bar to land on the desired page instead of taking the out-dated Ctrl-Enter route. (Note: This has been witnessed only in IE. I haven't tested it in Firefox. May be Vic will.)  

 

The Title Bar web search pretty much seems to have a toggle between Search (to return results) and "I'm feeling Lucky" (To re-direct to the top result) The over used internet buzz words like "yahoo" or even "buzz yahoo" directly take the scout to the landing page. The up-coming sites which still don't have enough Google respect like tidyupvictor.com (sniff sniff) only get listed as results.

 

Here is a list of GooMains that I found

 

G – http://www.gmail.com

Y – http://www.yahoomail.com/

Amex US - http://www.americanexpress.com/

B – https://www.bankofamerica.com/

Bofa - https://www.bankofamerica.com/

E – http://www.eonline.com/

T – http://www.att.com/

Adsense - https://www.google.com/adsense/

Analytics - http://www.google.com/analytics/

Maps - http://maps.google.com/

Docs - http://docs.google.com/

IMDB - http://imdb.com/

GOOG-411 tips

Have you tried Goog-411? It's Free, let's you reach that Pizza place and free. Did I mention it is free? (That's the biggest selling point for me. Yeah I am cheap)

There are a few pointers that you could use while trying Goog-411
 
• Tired of listening through the names and locations of Pizza Places' franchises that way across town? Drop in the name of the street too in the Business Name. The helpful operator (?!?!?) would fetch the location you wanted and only that. "Papajohns Thunderbird" does it for me every time.

• Add 1-800-GOOG-411 to your contacts. You will not regret it.

• With a GPS handy, you can use GOOG-411 for some on the fly change of plans. You can get the address of that IMAX in Grand Canyon, program your GPS, get your partner to start driving and then get connected to the nice lady at the theater so you could check the show timings.

Leave a voicemail to yourself to jog your memory

So let me paint a picture for you. There you are at 5 PM on a work day. You just finished one hectic day. You are pulling out of the Office Car Park wondering that it must have been one cold architect in New York who figured that, "Hey there is so much land in Phoenix, They don't need covered parking." And then due to some irrational connection that you made to New York, the Architect or his nose, you remember - You didn't send out that document as mentioned in the mental note that you had made during yesterday's game time. Surely you are not going to go back to the Office now? I mean - c'mon, It's never been done before. So instead are you going to red tag that note? We all know how that worked for you in the past. Be assured, you will remember it tomorrow - same time, same place.

So what do you do? I am glad you asked. Call yourself. No don't call yourself names. It happens to the best of us right? Now call your office number. Listen to yourself tell you that you will get back to yourself at the earliest. While you are at it, please notice that nasal twang. And yeah, by all means, make that mental note to change your message. Now did you hear the beep? That's your que to leave a voice mail. Tell yourself that you have been a very bad boy/girl... bad bad bad (Now may be that's a little far fetched) Just tell yourself that you ought to send out that document to whatshisname first thing. Hang up. Now where were we? Yeah - that cold architect. Would it have killed him to put a few shades out there?

Ofcourse check out that blinking light the next day at work. Send out that document. Do check your message. And go ahead. Make that mental note to greet yourself / tell a joke the next time you use this service.

And this works in a lot of ways. Leave a voicemail at home for Personal call reminders. When you have parked your car at the Venetian, call yourself and leave a message as to where you have parked it. That way you don't have to drag yourself around the entire parking garage looking for your Porsche Roadster. (No I don't own a Porsche but made you think that didn't I?)

So go ahead. Talk to yourself. It's cool. Just don't pick up a fight.

Window Logo Keyboard shortcuts to improve Productivity

When Johnny first saw a computer, the only mouse that was around used to wear a red coat and went by the first name of Mickey and every thing that he wanted the computer to do had to be typed in. 

Then the mouse was born. Soon Mankind began clicking their way to glory and when the click wheel was introduced, they began scrolling their way - well, at least to the end of the document.

Johnny did too, until he started noticing the distinctive differences between both of his arms. Something was wrong with his mouse arm (the right one). See Johnny can lift pretty much anything - but only with his left arm. With his right, he tended to drag and and more often than not, he dropped them if he did manage to lift something. (Poor Jane almost lost her toe the other day) 

So he saw this doctor who adviced him to lose the Mouse. "But I can't!", cried Johnny. Its the only way I can get my work done. How else can I browse to- er, a document? 

"Johhny, US-Americans are unable to locate the  Windows logo key because some of us don't have keyboards,but that's not the case with you. You can learn to do the same tasks - faster. Here is list of the most useful ones."

Windows Key + E - Opens Explorer.

Windows Key + F - Open search box.

Windows Key + D - Minimises all open windows to show the desktop and also reverses the effect the next
time.

Windows Key + L - Locks Windows. If you do not have a password associated with your user account, this will not prevent others users from accessing your account information.

Windows Key + M - Minimises all windows but does not reverse the effect when pressed again like Windows Key + D. Instead try Windows Key + Shift + M to do it.

Windows Key + R - Opens the Run Command Box. (once you use your keyboard more you'll need to use this run box more often)

Windows Key + F1 - Windows Help.

Windows Key + Tab - Toggle through task bar buttons.

Windows Key + Pause Break - Shows System properties.

Note: For a conclusive list, check the maker's site.

To subscribe to even more Keyboardism, Check out Launchy.

Get your Financial Snapshot with Bank of America My Portfolio

If you have an Bank of America online account, you can maintain your portfolio online at Bank of America. You can add all of your other accounts like American Express Credit Cards, Chase Savings accounts also.

It can be your one stop shop to manage your finances. You would be surprised. The actual net worth and your guesstimate could be way apart.

Now you don't have to break your head to figure out your worth.

Giveawayoftheday.com

"There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch". And Yes! Nothing called as a free dinner either except of course, if your date picked up the tab. And there is definitely a thing called as Free Soda, but it would need you to prowl Conference rooms after the important folks have had their important lunch meetings. Not cool.

But there is free stuff everywhere on the net. I bet you have downloaded (ahem) your share. As a matter of fact I downloaded some few free stuff in only fishnet stockings but can it copy those songs from that game you play and love? No but the All media Grabber can. Too bad you were looking for something else on September 30th. And if you did wanted to record your skype calls, you could have with the Skype recorder (How creepy is that? But I didn't say that dear. Yes you DID say that. Hear this..) if you were around on September 27th.

And you could have got it for free when your neighbor (assuming he also needed it, isn't as cheap as you to forever want things not have it) bought it with real money he earned by weaseling through work.

What am I talking about you ask? Well, Giveawayoftheday.com gives one licensed software every day totally free. No strings attached and some strings detached. No you don't have to cancel within 30 days for it to be free. What's the detached string you ask? That's the only version you will be getting. No upgrades. But I guess its alright. I am still trying to figure out the difference between Windows 3.1 and Windows of the now. Nah I am kidding, the Minesweeper buttons are totally 3D now aren't they?

There is also this Game giveaway where they give away a full game, one every day. While I haven't seen a NFS (and don't expect to) they are pretty neat. Check' Em out.

Software - Launchy

You know I used to create icons for all the Applications and documents I use. Sure it started looking like a Chinese Checker Board but as long it works right? Wrong. I then tried to organize my Start menu but have you ever tried sitting through the amount of time it takes to Popup and display all the Shortcuts? Once I actually went up to get a cup of Coffee, found the Pot to be empty, read the note about being courteous to the next guy and making a fresh pot, Made a Fresh Pot, decided between Splenda, Equal or Sugar (Sugar Of course) and came back only to find that the grey block is yet to get its pictures and description. (Not really... but you get the idea)

And then Launchy happened. Um.. Let's see... I am currently considering renting out all the space I have in my Desktop. I only have the recycle bin in my desktop. (Coming to think about it, If my Desktop was supposed to be Analogous to my real Desktop, why would I have a waste basket on my desk ?!?!?!)

Anyways... I can now open my apps in a jiffy. That nifty To do spreadsheet that I visit once a month - it only takes a moment. All that is needed is a few keystrokes. And it does a lot more than that. it can be your calculator, open bookmarks, search sites (like google, yahoo, wikipaedia, netflix), open music/photos, the list goes on. Your should take a plunge to fully appreciate what it can do for you. What's more it's free (I bet you now want two of those) and is open source (so you could assume yourself to be one of the many who are sticking it to Micrsoft even when you are only going to be launching winword and excel).

Launchy

Make your Browsing Goog faster

Let's try this simple task. You want to download Irfanview for your "Personal Desktop" (Didn't you get the memo about downloading stuff in your official laptop?) So what do you do?

1) Go to Irfanview.com
2) Read that its being downloaded about 3 millions times a month (Impressive, I didn't know that)
3) Hit the Download link.
4) Choose between the many mirrors available.
5) Download

or you could do this.

1) Search for CNET Irfanview. (You can hit I feel lucky, but you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?)
2) Hit on the big Download button from the trusty old Download.com
Going to the homepage and ruining your eyes over the zillion links is for when you want to kill time.

Now lets try this. You want to know how much an Cadillac ESV costs so that, well, you can know exactly how much you are yearning for.

1) Go to Edmunds.com
2) Click on New Cars.
3) Decide if you wanted to go by Category or Make.
4) Click on SUV. And No, you won't just have that link. You would also have that added aid of pictures and even examples when you move your mouse over them yaey.
5) Get confused over Price range option to narrow down the SUVS you are tracking (for that was the one thing you came here looking for) and go back to choose by make.
6) Check out the hot Escalade ESV thumbnail and its starting price - $59,875.

or again you could do just this.

1) Search for Edmunds Cadillac ESV
2) See the description about the powerful and unapologetically American ESV and click with your heart racing
3) Check out the Postcard picture of the ESV and see the Edmunds True Market Value price - $57,795 (There you go. You just saved yourself about 2K.)

And you could go on. Search craigs nj to get to the New Jersey Craigslist. Surely you don't want to finalise on that beautiful black Mustang only to realise you are about 5000 miles away from SFO bay area. (sniff sniff) or craigslist phx free to get that random crap that you always wanted.
And yes, you could use google's useful feature - the site: restricting your search to only a particular website, but then again, for our specific purpose here, it is not really required.You can be sure that nobody else is going to harp about Edmunds more than Edmunds and the google pagerank for an edmunds website will be definelty be high when the search keyword is Edmunds.

That reminds me - We at Tidy-Up Victor are all for increasing your Productivity (Tidy Up Victor = Productivity, Get it??) so you could use(?!?!?) that time for better things - like say dreaming about how you will score big when people see you in your new black Escalade.