If you’ve tried Linux before, chances are you found this frustrating. The NumLock key on your keyboard is by default OFF when Linux boots. There’s a way to enable NumLock key stay in the ON state when Linux starts up.

Here’s how to do it if you’re in Ubuntu:

Using the shell, install NumLockX by typing this command

$ sudo apt-get install numlockx

Otherwise you can download the tarball from here, compile and install it by executing the following set of commands from the directory where the tarball was extracted:

./configure
make
make install
make xsetup
make xinitrc

Reboot, you should see that the NumLock key is on by default.

Did you just switch to Linux and realise that pressing Win Key + D shortcut doesn’t take you to the desktop? Yes, by default this keyboard shortcut for ‘Show Desktop’ doesn’t work in Linux.

You have probably heard of a dozen or so BitTorrent clients to download files. There are also plenty of places to find torrent files as well.

BitLet.org aims to fill a niche where you might be in a situation while travelling or when you are ay someone else’s place without your BitTorrent client. BitLet.org lets you specify the URL of a torrent metafile and download the file of your choice right from the browser without a client.

Quick BitLet Facts

• BitLet is a web bittorrent client that lets you download files
• You just give it the URL of the torrent meta file and select the directory you want to download it to
• BitLet works via a Java applet and it shows you the download progress in a popup window
• BitLet offers a code generator for publishers wishing to provide a link to download a file with BitLet
• It lets you generate and upload your own torrent meta file
• It directly uploads to mininova but is configurable to upload to other servers.
• They also offer a bookmarklet to make a ‘download by Bitlet’ appear by a .torrent file link in many torrent sites.
• As a new feature, Bitlet lets you listen to music you are streaming using BitTorrent.
• The player opens in a applet similar to the download window and currently supports MP3 & OGG file formats with support for more types coming soon.

Overall, BitLet is a great alternative for situations where one might not have access to a full blown BitTorrent client or where the use of such software is restricted. It is also a great way for a publisher to give file download access to a casual downloader who might not have knowledge of such software.

<!–noadsense–>

Hi All,

This is a request from me to all my friends and readers to donate towards a blogger who is in need.

One of my co-authors and blogging friend Silki’s Brother aged 25 years has been diagnosed as a case of CRF (Chronic Renal Failure) and requires a Kidney Transplant operation to be done. The cost of the operation in India is around 5-8 lakh Rupees which amounts to something between $13000-20000 and is a huge sum which cannot be easily collected by my Silki.

With this post I want to urge my readers and blogger friends to donate generously towards the expenses for the operation. Your donation can help someone in distress.

Rest assured this is not a hoax and the money you donate will be used for a genuine cause. I also urge my fellow bloggers to urge their readers to donate to the cause. All the money you donate will be directly received by Silki.

You can also contribute by sporting the chipin widget on your blog. Any help would be considered helpful.

If you want to sport the widget on your blog please use this code or else you can email me at dsouza [dot] keith [at] gmail [dot] com if you want a customized widget.

<embed src="http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/f5eaf47259700f56" flashVars="event_desc=Help%20A%20Blogger%20to%20Raise%20Funds%20for%20brother%27s%20Kidney%20Transplant&color_scheme=blue" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" wmode="transparent" width="250" height="250"></embed>

Looking forward to your generosity towards saving a young man.

Thanks

Keith

If you read the title and sighed because you’re sick of hearing about word processors, do try to read this one because even though you could use MS Word, WordPad, or Notepad for your word processing needs, there’s another cool and free utility that is better than all of those for most people!

Word processors started out as replacement for typewriters and provided a great benefit in those times. However, as the software progressed, Word processors turned into giant bloated applications designed with hordes of features that only corporate users would ever need. Unfortunately, there is no Microsoft Word Lite edition without all of the useless features that make it run slow or crash your computer!

I reviewed Enso Launcher last week here. After a week of using it, I am totally impressed by its simplicity yet how easy it is to get used to.

If you haven’t read my last post, Enso Launcher is for Windows what QuickSilver is to Mac but different in its construction and in the way you can teach it to learn your own bookmarks, shortcuts and applications. (you can see the Enso Launcher command cheatsheet here)

Humanized is the company that brings Enso line of products and another one worth mentioning is Enso Words. As the name implies, Enso Words is a Universal Spellchecker and brings English dictionary to your fingertips.

Enso Spell Checker

Enso Words is free to use and works the same way as Enso Launcher. You hold the Caps Lock (or the key you define in preferences) and type ’spe(llcheck)’, after selecting the text you want to do spell checking for, and then release the key. Enso Words brings up a overlay screen where it highlights words that are misspelt or those that aren’t in Enso’s dictionary.

You can correct the highlighted words and Enso would auto-complete just after typing a few letters. Very helpful if you are not sure of the correct spelling. Or you can just press the mouse button on the misspelt word and Enso shows you alternate spelling. If the spelt word is like a name you use often and you know is right, there is an option ‘Learn this word’ so next time around Enso would know it. When you are finished with your corrections, you can type ‘done’ to finish. Very nifty.

Enso Dictionary

Enso Dictionary puts the English language at your fingertips. With the ‘define’ command, you can select any word or type any word to get its meaning in an overlay screen. You could also browse through previous meanings you looked up in this screen. Enso also offers ‘thesaurus’ command to look up similar words.

For me, when I tried the define command it takes me to Answers.com for a meaning and I couldn’t get the overlay as shown in their demo. If you find out how to get that, please let me know in the comments below.

Count Words & Characters

I use ScribeFire as my brain dump to just quickly create notes for blog topics and write the things on my mind as a draft. I love this because it’s always there in my browser thoughout the day and I don’t have run a separate application. With Enso Words, I can do some cool things like ‘character count’ and ‘word count’. I have typed 412 words so far and I never had this kind of information at my fingertips before.Download Enso Words

Download Enso Launcher

My 2 Cents

I usually try to see the positive in everything and talk more the pros than cons. But, Enso has become an important tool in my productivity arsenal and I think that reflects the way I talk about it in this post. Don’t be put off by the thought of typing all these commands. Enso autocompletes every one of them after you type a few letters and it gets completely natural.

One thing that would make Enso 200% perfect for me is if it highlighted commonly misspelt words like ‘hear - here’, ‘there -their’ and such. It’s not that I don’t know the difference to use in a context but it is so easy to type the wrong one when you are concentrating on the writing something useful bit. May be I have to work on my proof reading.

Thanks for tuning in and see you next week! Have a great weekend everyone.

Ever copied a link and wanted to quickly post it into your address bar in Internet Explorer? or just want to browse your Internet History without right from the address bar?

If you are looking to get this things done without using the mouse here are couple of shortcut keys that will help you achieve it when you are using Internet Explorer.