If you are like me and can’t stand YouTube annotations because most people use them way too much you can turn them off by following the instructions in the image above. You can turn them back on using the menu on the YouTube player but this will allow you to watch YouTube videos with the annotations turned off by default.

This setting will only work while you are logged in. You will have to do this all over again the next time you log in. Annoying, yes? Send them a letter letting them know what a monumentally stupid decision it was to make users do this each time they log in.

YouTube, LLC
901 Cherry Ave.
San Bruno, CA 94066
USA
Phone: +1 650-253-0000
Fax: +1 650-253-0001

So, I came across another little app the other day and though I have talked about screen capture already on the Mac this one still needed it’s own mention. Although it doesn’t do anything that you can find in other screen capturing software, what it does do it does with style. I’m not crazy about the icon but since that is easily changed with OS X, not a real gripe. Besides there are other things I love about the program. Screen capture, either the whole screen or the just a part of it, as well as cam shots using the iSight or web cam attached to your Mac. Photos you have in iPhoto can also be used inside Skitch with ease and all of the image captures that you use Skitch for can be annotated and doodled using Skitch. Once you are done with your images you can upload them to your Skitch site that you get by registering, Flickr, or your own FTP or WebDAV site. I’ve had a lot of fun playing with it the last couple of days so if your a Mac user check it out. Did I mention that it’s free?

On one of my missions to help someone out with a setting in some program they were using I stumbled across this handy little app. If only I had this back in my tech support days it would have saved me countless hours of phone support with a client. Jing allows you to create screen shots or videos to use when trying to explain how to use a piece of software or some element of their computer’s operating system. When using the screen shot feature it gives you several options to annotate the image to get your point across. A very useful feature for tech writing. In the past I have used Photoshop to create my images for tech papers but as everyone does not have access to Photoshop this application will do quite nicely. In the image below you can see some examples of the annotations provided by Jing.

When a simple pic won’t suffice you can create a video showing step by step instructions complete with audio. This is easily the best feature of Jing as nothings gets a person through a jam like video with audio prompts showing them exactly what they need to do in order to accomplish their task. A friend new to Mac computing and Adium (a multi-client IM application for Mac OS) asked me how to set a custom away message over email, I launched Jing and created this video in a matter of minutes…

Creating a custom away message in Adium

Much faster than typing out the steps in an email and left little chance of them not understanding how to do what they wanted with their application.

Jing sits off to the side of your screen and when you need it all you have to do is hover your mouse over it and you’re moments away from creating a screen shot or video you can share via chat, a web forum or email. Jing places a link to the media you created on your clip board, so all you have to do it paste it into your conversation. It’s a cross platform application so there are versions available for both Mac and PC users and at the current time Jing is free. That’s right, free.

So, if you want to check it out head on over to their web site and give it a try. The only thing you have to spend is your time.

Well, I finally got tired of Internet Explorer. So I blocked it from viewing my site at all. That’s right, IE users will have to find some other site to visit and to be honest I won’t miss them at all. When someone using the IE browser attempts to visit RoamingGecko they get redirected to a page that lets them know that they will have to use another browser if they want to view content on RoamingGecko. I got tired of having to design my site so that it displayed correctly in IE when it displays just fine in everything else. And I mean everything else! It’s basically about numbers. The statistics tell me I am blocking 30% of web surfers from my site, well so be it. It’s downright ignorant to shackle yourself to designing a site because one browser refuses to adapt current web standards. I’d tell Billy where he could stick his web browser but I am trying to keep this site one that you don’t have to read after 9 o’clock at night.

]]> http://www.roaminggecko.com/2008/05/20/internet-explorer-no-more/feed/ 0 http://www.roaminggecko.com/2008/05/19/firefox-rc1-release/ http://www.roaminggecko.com/2008/05/19/firefox-rc1-release/#comments Tue, 20 May 2008 03:45:23 +0000 Gage Gecko http://www.roaminggecko.com/2008/05/20/firefox-rc1-release/ If you want to check out the up and coming version of Firefox 3, check out the link below. I personally don’t use anything other than Firefox for my browser and I am really looking forward to the performance and memory boost that Firefox 3 is supposed to bring us.

clipped from www.mozilla.com Firefox 3 Sneak Peek! Test drive the latest and greatest version.

]]> http://www.roaminggecko.com/2008/05/19/firefox-rc1-release/feed/ 0 http://www.roaminggecko.com/2008/05/09/google-browser-sync/ http://www.roaminggecko.com/2008/05/09/google-browser-sync/#comments Fri, 09 May 2008 21:22:22 +0000 Gage Gecko http://www.roaminggecko.com/?p=66 Google Browser Sync

Google Browser Sync for Firefox is an extension that continuously synchronizes your browser settings – including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across your computers. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions. For more info, please visit our FAQ.

I know this is almost two years old but I didn’t stumble across it until recently. I have used Foxmarks for years and have always been pleased with it. You can add a bookmark to your browser at work and when you return home that bookmark would be there on your home computer. Very handy at times.

With Google Browser sync, it goes one step further. I can leave work and not only will my bookmarks by synced up but the windows and tabs I had open at the time will also be waiting for me at home. So I can just leave in the middle of web browsing and pick up right where I left off. Even better.

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