from the MacOSXhints website:

Hyperlinks in emails come in two flavours - a) short, informative and to the point, or b) ugly. Here’s an easy way to get around Mail.app’s apparently-limited functionality for inserting hyperlinks in your mail.

1. Choose Add Hyperlink from Mail’s Edit menu and type or paste a typical ugly URL:

http://www.link-to/long/and/ugly/item/to-link-to.html

It appears in the email exactly as above, then turns into an underlined hyperlink when you press Space at the end. Ugly.
2. Place the cursor after the first letter in the hyperlink and type what you’d like the link to say in the email, for example:

hClick Herettp://www.link-to/long/and/ugly/item/to-link-to.html
3. Now delete the surrounding original verbose text, and you’re left with an elegant Click Here link that, when clicked, takes your web browser to the now-hidden URL.

A small amount of work for a better presentation!

This App dramatically speeds up Mail.
I have just installed it and the mailboxes load SOOOOO much faster. Thanks to FreeMacware.com blog.

for anyone into music with a Mac check THIS out

I must be a geek to let out a ‘coooolll’ when I spotted this!!

Make your computer react when you leave and arrive

Wouldn’t it be nice if your screensaver automatically unlocked when you sat down at your computer, and locked up again once you got up and left? Applescripter Jesse David Hollington put together some nifty scripts that do just that, based on whether or not his Bluetooth phone is in range.

He uses a Bluetooth device detection application, called Proximity, to kick off the scripts when the phone goes in and out of range. Hollington’s scripts automatically enable the passworded screensaver when he leaves his computer, and turns it off and syncs his address book when he’s nearby. If you’ve got Applescript chops, you could do lots of other things, like pause your iTunes library or change your IM status, too. Proximity is a free download for Mac. What would you like your computer automatically do when you walk away? Let us know in the comments. ??? Gina Trapani
Bluetooth Proximity Detection on OS X [The Technocrat via Make Blog]

SOURCE

update - I have just installed Salling Clicker on my phone and it is very cool. I can run my desktop from my Palm Treo 650, run a power point using my phone as a remote, control my iTunes from my phone (I use my laptop as a music jukebox connected to our stereo at home …. when did I last play a CD?), the list goes on ….. geek heaven!! lol

I have been looking for this for ages!!!

fn+ctrl+ page up = move right through open tabs in Firefox
fn+ctrl+ page down = move left through open tabs in Firefox

do you know
apple+tilde (the wee squiggle key above the tab key) moves between open windows int he same application - like multiple word docs for example)

both very handy and much faster than using the mouse!!
source

this is a cool tip:

Here is a nifty tip for selecting text in Word that many people don???t know about. Normally when you select text in Word, you do so horizontally, from right to left or left to right. However, what do you do if the text you need to select is vertical; for example, what if you want to bold the first word on each line? You can select and bold each word individually or you can make a vertical selection.

To make a vertical selection, hold down the ALT key as you drag the mouse pointer to select the text. If you want to select the first word on each line, hold down the ALT key and drag the mouse pointer up or down to highlight each word.

When you???re using this tip, remember that you can make a vertical selection anywhere in your document.

source

Einstein had a science teacher
Shakespeare an English teacher
Mozart a music teacher

Are there any geniuses in your room? How do you know?
Reminds me again of Ken Robinson’s TED talks video …
mmmmm …. food for thought!

This is the brainchild of Lynda our New Entrant teacher at school and is such a cool idea!

One child has the ‘microphone’ (ping-pong ball and plastic pipe covered in coloured electricians tape) and they are the one who shares their news/ideas …. the other person has a laminated question mark with “who”, “what”, “where”, “why”, “when”, etc written around it. The person listening is only allowed to ask questions and the speaker has to answer them as best they can.
I use these when I was teaching in Y4/5 the other day to get the kids conferencing for the ‘plot holes’ that often are a part of young peoples writing. They shared their writing with their buddy and the buddy asked the questions. The speaker then took notes of the things they had to add/had lefgt out. It worked really well.
It would be a small leap to get the pair to actually use a real microphone and podcast their news. Cool!

Thanks Lynda! …. though this was too good to keep a secret

I have had some sureal things happen this week….

I finally connected with Graham Wegner in Adelaide (Australia) for a Skype chat the other evening.  Good to finally ‘meet’.  We have had lots of debates and discussions on our respective blogs over the past 12 months.  Graham is doing and promoting some interesting things with IWB’s.  I must admit that I have seen almost nothing that I would describe as innovative practice with IWB’s so Graham and I have had some good discussions about possibilities and potentials.

Then later in the week Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach  pops up (on the screen while I am teaching - lol) requesting I add her to my contact list.  After school here I am skype calling her walking around with headphones on talking loudly into my laptop, trying to keep good coverage …. You should have seen the looks on the kids faces who were in the foyer "look - the new principal has lost it already".  You could read their minds

And Jedd is in Malaysia and suggesting we hook up some kids.

Connected world or what! 

 I have also been doing quite a bit of teaching this week.  Lots of fun but my desk has disappeared under paper.  I have also had a frustrating time with payroll who have now decided a 3 line e-mail is no longer acceptable - we have to send a 2 page word document that even literally needs the date of birth of the employee to be entered on it.  I can’t believe a cluttered form requiring lots of erroneous information is contributing to my efficiency, or payrolls … INSANE!! …. anyway ….. rant over.

It is good to be working with kids again … We have been making wikis for and with classes and topics being covered and a couple of kids have already set up their own!  Only just beginning a topic on ‘minibeasts’ and working towards the kids finding out about minibeasts that are eaten around the world.  Check it out and if you add anything please leave your name and where you are from.  It has only been running two days and is very much a work in progress!

from Jane Nicholls blog.