Another interesting new Silverlight application is entering beta! For those unfamiliar with Microsoft Popfly, it allows users to easily create web applications without programming in APIs and without having intimate knowledge of Javascript. From the Popfly informational site:

Popfly is the fun and easy way to build and share mashups, gadgets, and Web pages. It’s made up of online visual tools for building Web pages and mashups and a social network where you can host, share, rate, comment and even remix creations from other Popfly users.

This will be great for people who want to add a little jazz to their website, Facebook page, etc, but don't have a programming background. With more of a drag and drop style, people can quickly create applications by pulling "blocks" from other sites and linking those blocks together.

You can read a review and perspective on this interesting new app at Ed Dunhill's Blog.

Check out Sketchcast.com - play around for a little while - it's simple, but cool!!  It records your Ink as Flash and gives you an embed code to put on your blog or anywhere else.  Could make out to be an interesting new type of Ink Blog???

VIA Makeyougohmm

Folks are always finding better ways to personalize their notetaking experience in OneNote - from notebook and section organization, to scanning, to using templates, etc.

David Rasmussen, of Microsoft's OneNote team, has passed along a good tip for creating a page template from a picture, and then making that page template a default for a given section.

One of the fun and productive things I've done to speed up my tablet pc notetaking in OneNote, was to create a template based in ink on how I prefer to take notes for given meeting types. To do this, I started with a blank template, inked all the basics: title, regarding, attending, and created some ink based vertical separation lines for general notes and important things I needed to follow up on. Once I was happy with the layout, I saved it as a template by going to the New Page drop down, More Template Choices, and chose to save current page as a template. From there, it is now available to me to set as a default template for sections, or apply as a template on-the-fly.

Using David's tip and my tip from above, the flexibility exists within OneNote to create custom templates for the kind of notetaking you are doing at the moment or for a given template: set one style for taking notes in college, set another for taking notes in church, and another for general meeting notes.

I'm prepping for my Amtek T770 InkShow, so this new rotation utility from todoUMPC member hal9000 should come in very handy - definitely on my install list.

Via CTitanic

Josh Einstein, of Tablet Enhancements for Outlook fame, recently became a 2710p Tablet PC owner. Frustrated by the fact that the screen only rotates in "Primary Landcsape" and "Primary Portrait" modes, he set out to fix it - and fix it he did. In addition, he was able to hack the Q Menu to apply the Secondary Portrait and Secondary Landscape rotation choices to the Q Menu. I tested it out last night and it works wonderfully. The only thing that doesn't work quite right is the pen button rotation - it still only does the primary rotations. Josh is currently working on that one, so it shouldn't be too long. In addition, the camera doesn't recognize the secondary rotations.

To apply Secondary Portrait and Landscape rotations to your 2710p, follow these two posts:

1) Instructions on downloading and installing the latest Intel 965 GMA drivers

2) Copy and paste the reg code from this post into a .reg file. Save it,, Run it, and it will modify your registry ( back up your registry first, of course ! ).

Good work, Josh! Can you hack the 2710p to add a Scroll button ?

This how-to hits close to home. Do you own a UMPC such an my OQO Model-02 that does not have a disk activity LED? If you are like me, occasionally I find myself asking why couldn't manufacturers find a location for and install a 20 cent LED? We all have times when for a variety of reasons we would like that visual queue. It's reassuring sometimes isn't it?  I was recently installing a piece of software for demo on my OQO when I could not tell if the program had locked up, or if I was just impatient. Turned out that several CTL+ALT+Deletes later, I was just being impatient. Today's How-To will walk you through setup of a neat utility (an oldie but it still works in Vista (yea!) , XP, and even W2K). Check this out...

DisplayFusion looks like a nifty little utility for Tablet PC users who like to hook up to a larger monitor and have both screens in operation. It allows you to choose a wallpaper image and stretch the image across both monitors or set different wallpapers for both images. I have not tried this out yet, so if you do, report back on how well it works.

Via Lifehacker

I’ve been on a search to find a simple solution for the missing Windows Image Resizer Powertoy that was so hand in XP. The simple functionality of that powertoy allows you to simply right-click on an image and change the size of the image. I’ve found a couple of options, and huzzah, yet another simple solution has presented itself.

Over on Cumo Grano Salis, Shahar has posted a simple right-click solution that not only gives you right-click resizing functionality but allows you to right click and copy an image to the clipboard and choose the size you want the copy to be. Nice! The resizing tool is called the Prish Resizer, and it works like a charm. This is a handy little Cool Tool to have. Check it out here.

Thanks to Matt Faulkner for the tip.

This is cool. One of my favorite tools has just added some new functionality that allows it to collaborate with another of my favorite tools. TechSmith (our generous InkShow Sponsor) has released a new Output accessory to SnagIt that allows you to send your snagged items to OneNote 2007. This will come in very, very handy.

Basically you snag the screen (or whatever you need) and from the SnagIt preview screen you hit the OneNote 2007 button and voila. You can also change the locations of where the snags get sent, or have SnagIt create a new page for your output.

I picked this up from good friend and OneNote MVP Kathy Jacobs (she broadcast it on Twitter and has this post on her blog.)

Very cool. Here’s a quick and dirty little video of the new output in action. (Sorry, no audio.)

You can get the new tool here.

UPDATE: If you drop Kathy a comment and tell her how you use the new tool, you can be eligible to win license keys for SnagIt and Camtasia Studio. Check it out here.

Thanks to GBM Reader Kenneth Auchenberg for this. After my post earlier this morning looking for a way to restore right-click image resizing functionality to Vista the way that the ImageResizer Powertoy offers for XP, Kenneth points us all to VSO Image Resizer. This little utility can run stand alone and it adds an option to the right click menu! Huzzah! It also lets you choose which folder to store the resized images in along with some other features. Guess what else? It is free.

Check out VSO Image Resizer here.

Do you use OneNote 2007’s SideNote Feature to keep quick notes on your screen? Do you ever have to make a choice between closing it or keeping it open to gain precious screen real estate? Well, maybe this is the Cool Tool for you. GBM Forum member BladeMonkey has coded up a nifty little app that will let you collapse (or roll up) the window into the title bar (very Windows Blinds-like.) A press of the F2 key does the trick up and down.

Here’s a quick video of this in action.

Check out more in this GBM Forum thread or on BladeMonkey’s site where you can download Roll Up App.

Today's how-to is one more registry edit that I have used a few times now to change the registered name and registered company name that is stored in Vista. The first time I did this was because I had a typo in my own name. Yea, my own name. Chalk it up to fat fingers and not having my glasses on I suppose. Sure I could have just done a re-install, but that takes time and effort. I like quick and easy. Any way, this will work equally well for other situations where you wish to alter the original registrant info of your install quickly such as when transferring your system to another party, name change, etc. It's a registry edit so you will need to be comfortable using the regedit.exe utility. The last registry how-to for a while. I promise. Really.

GBM How-To Series # 18 : Changing the registered Name and Organization in Vista

Step 1: Start the registry Editor

Start the registry editor by entering regedit.exe into the "start search" bar of the Vista start menu. Sure there are other ways to get to it, but let's keep it simple for now.

Step 2 : Find the correct registry entry

Once in the registry editor, navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion key. Highlight the CurrentVersion key and look for the RegisteredOwner and RegisteredOrganization strings in the right window.

Step 3 : Edit the key

Right-Click and select modify on each or either of them to edit (or clear) the registered owner/organization information. Then OK when finished.

Step 4 : All Done

Once you are finished editing them, close the registry editor. No restart of your system is required for this fix.

Tips and Notes:

• If you have any doubts about editing the registry, BACK IT UP WITH THE EXPORT COMMAND!
• The Registry Editor will take you right back to the last place you were editing when you left.

Very cool. Daniel Escapa is pointing to a cool new OneNote 2007 Powertoy developed by Dave Tse. The OneNote Web Explorer allows you to convert a notebook into an interactive website. Not only is the Powertoy available for you to download and try out, but Dave Tse has also made the source code available (along with reams of documentation) on CodePlex so that others can learn and modify the code if they wish. This sounds like a great way to share a notebook if you are working with others who aren’t using OneNote 2007. Note that IE is recommended to use this Powertoy.

If you’re into tweaking your operating system and love to wring the optimium out of your machine, but are a little skeptical about editing the registry, this might be the Cool Tool for you. Vispa offers a graphical UI approach to tweaking your Vista settings. (Remember TweakUI?) I have not tried this out yet and, as always, use caution when you go tweaking your registry settings and backup the registry first.

You can get Vispa via Download Squad. Hat tip to jkOnTheRun.

This looks like an interesting little utility if you’re annonyed with Vista’s User Account Control bugging you incessantly with those popups to allow things to happen or not. Marc Orchant links to TweakUAC a utility that lets you quickly turn UAC off or operate it in quiet mode. It contains the following options:

• Turn UAC off

This option turns UAC off completely. If this is what you want, select this option, press OK, restart the computer, and you won’t see the elevation prompts anymore. Windows Vista will operate pretty much like Windows XP does when you login to its administrator’s account. 

• Switch UAC to the quiet mode

This option does not turn off UAC; instead, it only makes UAC to operate in the quiet mode. In the quiet mode, UAC does not display the elevation prompts for the administrators. That is, when you attempt to do an administrative task, you will be allowed to proceed automatically, without prompting you to confirm the operation. All other features of UAC would still be enabled: the programs will run with the standard user permissions by default, and the standard users will still see the elevation prompts (the quiet mode applies to the administrator accounts only).

• Leave UAC on

If you have previously turned UAC off or switched it to operate in the quiet mode, you can use this option to restore the original behavior of UAC.

I haven’t tried this out yet.  But it quiet mode looks like it might be a nice option to have. Check it out here.

This was a big announcement last night (more will come today) and the impact is just starting to be acknowledged in the mobile tech world. Google announced a Beta (of course) of Google Gears which is an open source browser plug-in that allows developers to take their applications offline. Where’s the impact? Take Google Reader (Google’s feed reader) for example. Now with the click of an icon, users can download up to 2000 of their feeds (minus pics and graphics) and have the same reading experience offline as they do online. I gave this example a try last night and it is a real winner that I can see saving me a bit of time by allowing me to perform the simple task of reading feeds when I’m not connected. Some are calling it a paradigm shift or game changer. I’m not sure about the degree, but it is going to have an impact depending on how the development community responds.

If you’re looking for more on this Marc Orchant has some good info, and TechMeme is filled with a series of links.

In my last How-To, I illustrated how to train Vista to recognize your own style of handwriting. In the ensuing discussion, it became apparent that with all the time and effort spent training Vista, there was not a really good way to back up all that hard work.

 Think about it, you spend hours training the handwriting engine, what are you gonna do when you have an inevitable mishap of some sort. Use more than one system that you want the same recognition capabilities on? What about just good old piece of mind for if you "over train" your system. Face it, as good as is may be, this is a very large problem for anyone who rely's on the handwriting recognition features of Vista. So, how do we solve this huge problem? Never fear, the GBM community stepped up and illustrated a very good solution. GBM'er Bruce Miller (bmhome1) offers this easy tip for using the Windows Easy Transfer system to create a backup of your precious handwriting files. Way to go Bruce!

GBM How-To Series #9 : Backing Up Vista Handwriting Recognition

Getting Started:

Open Windows Easy Transfer by clicking the Start button , click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Windows Easy Transfer. Or you can do it the easy way and click Start , and enter Easy Transfer in the search box then Enter to kick it off.

From Bruce...

Backing Up your Handwriting:

1. Follow next two prompts. Remember that ALL applications must be stop before creating system file backup.
2. Select Start new transfer to iniciate the backup process.
3. Select Old Computer to CREATE archives.
4. Select Other removable media as we want to make sure that our backup is on another device.
5. Select External hard disk
6. Choose where to save profile backup. As the file should only be a few meg in size, the choice is yours. Bruce advises NOT password protecting the file.
7. Select Advanced options
8. Expand System check box.  Deselect every box leaving ONLY the "Tablet PC Settings" checked within Windows Settings. Uncheck both Applications and Shared boxes above.
9. Next uncheck All user's boxes except 2nd Tablet PC Settings inside Windows Settings for User. Uncheck Files in other locations.
10. Those two remaining checked boxes will create the handwriting profile backup. Bruce reported that his showed a estimated 55Mb Transfer size.
11. Click Next and backup will be made in seconds. Close Easy Transfer.
12. For our use of Easy Transfer, backups are made this way each time. Unfortunately, the check box deselect process are repeated each time.

Restoring Your Handwriting Files:

1. A restore of handwriting profile is simply clicking on .MIG file chosen and pressing Transfer. Takes only seconds and offers detailed report.
2. I've chosen to include all Tablet PC Settings in backups. Could turn down to single Recognition, but haven't experimented further happy with tested results.
3. The. .MIG archive files can be freely renamed tagging dates, etc. They can be stored anywhere and being so small in actual size just 3MB, I restored just copying to desktop.

Once again, my hat is off to GBM forum member Bruce Miller (bmhome1) for providing this tip on backing up the Vista handwriting engine!

Tips and Notes:

• Click HERE for more information on the Windows Easy Transfer system from Microsoft.
• Click HERE for more helpful Vista Help and How-To's from Microsoft.

Kevin Tofel mentioned this the other day on jkOnTheRun and I’ve just had a chance to check it out on the Asus R2h Ultra-Mobile PC. Opera’s latest release (9.2) now contains a new feature callled Speed Dial. Basically, Speed Dial creates a thumb nail of 9 of your favorite websites that you can access with a click, or in the case of a UMPC, a touch of the finger. Quite handy. If you bring up a blank tab in Opera it gives you your speed dial page and you can insert your favorites or navigate from there.

The UMPC Scroller Powertoy is a big hit for Ultra-Mobile PC users, but apparently there are some who are having difficulty getting it working. Vikram Madan posts that an update is now available and can be downloaded here. He also brings good news that there is now an XP version availalble. He’s hoping this update solves the problem, but remember this is an unsupported Powertoy.

As a side note, he’s got a great cartoon on how a Powertoy comes to be. Very fun. Check it out here.

In a blog post talking about screen resolution and how the human eye works Vikram Madan is hailing a new “pseudo-power-toy” for Ultra-Mobile PCs. The UMPC Scroller utility will correct one of the bizarrest problems that UMPC owners are more than familar with. In the native low-res screen resolutions many dialogue boxes pop-up with the contorls, (OK, Cancel, etc..) off the screen so that you can’t access them without moving to a higher resolution.

The UMPCScrollbar Utility runs in the background and pops up an on-screen scrollbar whenever it detects a non-reisizable dialog taller than the available working screen estate. The scrollbar then allows you to nudge the dailog buttons that would otherwise be inaccessible.

This is Vista only. I haven’t tried it out yet, but if it works as advertised, this will come in quite handy.

UPDATE: Got an opportunity to load this up and try it out. It works as advertised. Quite a find.

Check it out here.