Quick Windows Tip - 1

Have you often wondered why you couldn't select a bunch of files / folders and then send them to a different destination with just a click or two? I have, and have never failed to find a registry trick that can do it, whatever version of Windows I was on. On Windows 95 through 2000, there was PowerToys, and on Windows XP and Vista, there is an equivalent technique which is, alas, not as user-friendly. Nevertheless, here it is (you may also click on the Related Article link at the bottom of this post, or on the title above).

It is tweaks like these that make Windows sometimes indispensable for the average user. Of course, Unix / Linux geeks have always enjoyed the ability to do much, much more with a few lines of well-written shell scripts - that is more a testimony to the maturity of those Operating Systems, in my humble opinion, than to any inadequacy of Windows.

Anyway, have fun with the registry tweak!

Free Software

And I mean "free as in freedom, not price". Yes, I'm talking about Richard M Stallman's (abbreviated to RMS) Free Software Foundation and its philosophy. The guy's ideology is far-reaching and inspiring. The following are excerpts from an interview.

JA: What if your job requires you to use non-free software?

Richard Stallman: I would quit that job. Would you participate in something anti-social just because somebody pays you to? What if the job involves hitting people on the head in the street and taking their wallets? What if it involves spreading the word that Democrats should vote on Wednesday instead of Tuesday? Some people seriously claim that you can't criticize what someone does if it is part of their job. From my point of view, the fact that somebody is being paid to do something wrong is not an excuse.

JA: Do you consider it proper for people who are trying to only use free software to utilize...

Richard Stallman: To connect to a server that's running non-free software?

I don't feel I need to refuse to connect to a server that is running non-free software. For that matter, I won't refuse to type on a computer that's running non-free software. If I were visiting your house for a little and you had a Windows machine, I would use it if it were important for me to use it. I wouldn't be willing to have Windows on my computer, and you shouldn't have it on yours, but I can't change that by refusing to touch the machine.

If you connect to a server that runs non-free software, you're not the one whose freedom is harmed. It's the server operator who has lost freedom to the restrictions on the software he runs. This is unfortunate, and I hope that he switches to free software; we're working to bring that about. But I don't feel you have to boycott his site until he switches. He isn't making you use the non-free software.

Cogent and brilliant arguments. You can read the complete article in the link below.