Tool of the Week: WordPress

Posted on by mrsoltys
I'm comming up on two years of having a wordpress site, and so I think it's past due that I give a shoutout to wordpress for being an awesome blogging / website building tool.  I've had over 25,000 views to my site, and I've loved using wordpress!  Wordpress is my favorite blogging tool out of the there (I've also used livejournal and blogger in...Read More

Tool of the Week: Getting your phone to display decibles instead of bars

Posted on by mrsoltys
Here's a pretty cool trick that I tweeted last week: https://twitter.com/mrsoltys/status/286289533090291713 Basically, instead of bars telling you how strong your signal is, you get a number with higher resolution and real units, which is awesome if you're even remotely mathematically minded. So, Why would you want Decibles vs Bars? Well first, you're not sacrificing your bars. You can always click the display where the signal strength is...Read More

Tool of the Week: Blocking distracting websites using the hosts file

Posted on by mrsoltys
Every once in a while i decide that I need to block a distracting website from my computer in order to remain productive. An example might be me compulsively checking Facebook  or google reader throughout the work day instead of staying on task and focused.  The key here is I need a simple barrier between me and the distraction to remind me I...Read More

Smartphone Apps: 12 Must have Apps

Posted on by mrsoltys
I love having a smartphone, and although a lot of commentary could be said for being a generation that is addicted to our phones, they can be incredibly useful tools. I try to keep my phone free of games, and focus on making it a useful productivity tool.  This blog post is 12 apps to fill your home screen that...Read More

Tool of the Week: Boosting Performance in Mac OSX

Posted on by mrsoltys
Most of these performance improvements are super minor, but when my system is pegged out with a hefty image processing job or particle tracking model: every little bit helps.  These are especially useful if Matlab is running slow! Also, apparently saving 5% of CPU power can increase battery life by 20-30 mins.  Here are 10 ways to boost your system performance! [caption id="attachment_1068" align="alignleft" width="300"] In...Read More

Dropbox vs. Google Drive: Why I went back to Dropbox

Posted on by mrsoltys
Update: I now use Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon Glacier to back up my files, each for a different purpose.  I still love Dropbox as my favorite syncing/sharing service, but I use google drive with my work account for sharing files in our network, and Amazon Glacier as an emergency only  Fire-safe backup for photos and other stuff. When Google Drive...Read More

Tool of the Week: Daily Agenda from Google Calendar

Posted on by mrsoltys
[caption id="attachment_1041" align="alignright" width="300"] Screen Shot of my agenda for today[/caption] I think I've already posted about how much I love Google calendar, but if not it's an incredibly powerful tool. Recently I discovered that you can have google calendar email you your daily agenda every day at 5 AM.  Its awesome. Just click the dropdown by any calendar, click...Read More

Tool of the week: Klok

Posted on by mrsoltys
Many people struggle with the constant distractions that are on the internet, and all around us... but in Grad school it can be especially hard with a culture of tweeting, Facebook, and tublring, it can be really hard to stay on task. On top of all that, Even if you ARE being productive, when managing multiple tasks it can be easy...Read More

Determining Proper hose length for your Kegerator

Posted on by mrsoltys
You can imagine my glee when my good friend Andrew asked me a great fluids problem this weekend: He just built a new beer tap system converted from an old chest freezer.  He wants to have nice head on his beer, so he doesn't want it coming out of the tap to quickly.  He was also unsure about the pressure to keep...Read More

Tool of the Week: Airfoil

Posted on by mrsoltys
[caption id="attachment_976" align="alignright" width="200"] Listening to music from my macbook on my iphone[/caption] Here's the scenario: You're in the kitchen on your laptop.  Your speakers are in the livingroom.  You want to listen to something off your itunes library (or even pandora), but the speaker cable won't reach... And why should it? We're in a wireless world, right? Using Airfoil,...Read More