I’ve known about Launchy for a while, but just recently started using it regularly. What a helpful piece of software.

If you’re like me and have about 50 programs running at the same time, hardly ever see your desktop wallpaper and your toolbars take up too much space on your desktop, Launchy is what the doctor ordered.

I would imagine that if you’re a notebook user and the touchpad isn’t fast enough for you, this will help save you some time.

Even better: it’s open source.

Here’s the official blurb, if you haven’t clicked the link already:

Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.

Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!

Here’s some nice Lifehacker.com reviews and tweaks.

So I finally got around to wasting an hour and a half (sans commercials) watching the new  Knight Rider — or should I say Ford Rider.

Sorry, but, um, it’s cheesy and lame.    Stiff acting, gratuitous skin, weak plot, plus all of those other standard bad review descriptors.

I think an Ask-A-Ninja review is in order.

1. Google Image Search - Are they ever going to improve it? I’m hardly using it anymore. Why? Because it’s crap. I want to search for images by size. AltaVista’s image search is much better. Sorry, but the Image Labeler isn’t going to make it better.
2. Google Notebook – I use this quite a bit with the Firefox Add-on. How about some way to move or delete notes in batch. The one-at-a-time thing is killing me.
3. Picasa Web Albums – I’m sorry but Flickr has them beat. All of my photos were migrated from Yahoo Photos to Flickr two weeks ago. It’s really my first in-depth use of Flickr. It’s been great. I’ve uploaded several hundred pictures to Picasa web albums. Ho hum. As for the Windows version of Picasa, I do a fairly good job of organizing my photos and I’m a big Irfanview fan, so the basic image touch-up things are really of no use to me. Now if it could sort images by dominant color (or something cool like that) then I might reconsider.
4. Gmail – I generally like the new contact manager. However, if I have one contact with a work e-mail address and a personal e-mail address and I want to add them to a group, it will only allow me to use their primary e-mail address. The whole multiple contact records for one person thing just doesn’t make any sense to me. And why again can’t I search my contacts from the main search box? Does it bother you that you that there’s not an easy way to backup your Gmail data? Have you ever had to migrate e-mail to Gmail? Ugh.
5. PR for Larry Page and Sergey Brin – One major personal-life slip from either of these guys and it could be huge. The more I read about their social lives, it makes me more, well– unsettled, maybe–that these two young guys have so much power and influence. I watched the feature demo of Android — the gPhone development platform–and I’m like, dude, comb your hair and put on a nice shirt. (Oh and Steve Horowitz, taking a swig of water before a presentation will help with that dry mouth thing.) It’s almost like they’re too laid back to be taken seriously. I kinda feel the same way about Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg.

Wenger Giant Swiss Army Knife

Sorry…call me a purist, but if it doesn’t say Victorinox on it, it’s not a real Swiss Army Knife.   Good ole Wikipedia… Apparently Wenger and Victorinox were competitors until Victorinox acquired Wenger in 2005. Guess that’s the end of my rant, huh? Good thing I check, check and re-check my facts.

I’m a little nostalgic about Swiss Army Knives. I got a really nice one when I was a kid. My grandpa engraved my name on it. Still have it.

Watched Happy Feet last night.

I’m sorry, but it was a load of environmentalist, secular crap.

(Let me just say this before you get too worked up: I’m not anti-environment. I’m big on good stewardship of the environment. I’m an Eagle Scout and anyone that knows me knows one of my biggest pet peeves is littering — just ask my kids. However, environmentalism is not my god and the movement is not my religion.)

I digress.

This movie reminded me of the overt, tree-hugging drivel in Ferngully.

Not only that, but nearly every song had some sort of sexual innuendo in it. How about Salt n’ Pepa’s “Let’s talk about Sex” and Boyz II Men’s “I’ll make Love to You.” Oh, yeah — in a kid’s movie.

I also thought it was:

• derogatory to Latinos
• anti-religious/anti-God/anti-religious establishment (e.g. the Elders of the High Council)
• pro-gay (Mumble was just “born that way”)

Add this one to the should-have-never-let-the-kids-watch-it list.

If you want more details about what I’m talking about, check out this Screen It review or this Christian Spotlight review.

Ugh.

With McDonald’s throwing it’s hat in the “coffee ring,” I think things are going to get better for us coffee drinkers.

The competition is a good thing. I expect Starbucks and the other highfalutin coffee joints to get more affordable for us cheapskates.

McDonald’s has reeled me in on two occasions now. One with a free coffee coupon and the other with an iced coffee billboard. The free cup of coffee didn’t seem that spectacular to me. It was a dark roast, which I like, but the cool, insulated cup leaked on the bottom. Yes, the bottom. The iced hazelnut coffee wasn’t that bad. It could’ve been a little sweeter. Seemed like a pretty good value — a larger than expected cup for $2.00.

My beloved QuikTrip is the “team to beat” in this competition, IMO. I can make it how I want and can mix it up whenever I feel like it — and it’s the cheapest and fastest.

Anyone like to weigh in? What’s so special about Dunkin’ Donuts coffee anyway? Anyone tried Caribou Coffee?