You know how when you have like thirty-eight windows open, and you need to click on something on your desktop, and the thought of having to take your hands off of the keyboard and start clicking that little 
box over and over again makes you gnash your teeth?
You can minimize every window with this keyboard shortcut: press the Windows key and the D key at the same time.
If you do it again, all of the windows will pop back up, unchanged.
Cool!
If you open another window after you "minimized all," then toggling Windows-D will just work on that new window. To restore all, you'll have to right click in the task bar and choose "Minimize All Windows", right-click again, and choose "Undo Minimize All". Or just open them back up as needed.
I've only verified this on my Windows98 machine, so YMMV. Let me know if it does or doesn't work on Me|2000|XP, what have you. It should, I would think, because I find it extremely unlikely that Microsoft would break something with a gratuitous and annoying change in an upgrade.
* because you occasionally need to create something in the de facto universal word processor, and besides, you haven't found a good version of Freecell for your Mac or Linux machine. (back)
22 comments:
Great link to the acronym dictionary. However, there is a different between a mere abbreviation and an "acronym." An acronym is an abbreviation that creates another word, such as "snafu."
My favorite abbreviation, courtesy of a shopoholic friend with a cheap mother in law is: "FGWP"
The debate over whether an an abbreviation has to be pronounceable to be considered an acronym has been going on for years in the geek world. It has almost become a holy war. I am on the side of acronym meaning a clump of letters, usually formed from the initial characters of the expansion. Pronounceability is a bonus, but not required. You'll note that the link led an "acronym" site.
I think of abbreviations as meaning shortened forms of (usually) individual words; e.g., Mr. Pres.
Besides, in this case it's moot. The correct pronounciation is "ymmv."
Posting from a Mac laptop. Torture. Typed "goggle.com" by mistake and got like 1 googol of pop-ups. Argh.
Why are you going so easy on her Brendan? You know damn well there is no debate; you don't have to be able to pronounce an acronym as if it were an independent word. That is absurd, absolutely ludicrous. The CIA would have you detained, the FBI would investigate you for even thinking that. The ASPCA might catch you and have you euthanized... (these are all acronyms, just in case you didn't notice Clare. Clare? You mean Claire? Ohh nevermind.)
I can't believe you believe that acronym pronuciability stuff might be true. OK I'm over it now. And yes I suspect pronunciability is not a word.
I tested the Windows Minimize shortcut on Windows 2000 Pro, and it doesn't work quite right. I was reading your blog, hit Windows + d, which minimized everything as expected. However, hitting Windows + d again made a different window leap to the front, so I was no longer reading your blog! Instead I quickly became entranced with a Yahoo Oddly Enough story I had opened earlier about an old man who had bet he would die and lost. How odd is this really? It's called Life Insurance.
Total moment of serendipity.
Here I was, reading Clare's comment, thanks to blogger's auto-notify thing, when I page down to find . . . joshuae!
Cool! Hi, joshuae! Long time.
Just between the two of us, though, J. I know this Clare. Don't try to put an "i" in her name, or she'll put one of yours out. Just sayin.
Thanks also for the WIN-D follow up. I've gotten a couple of comments on this. I'll try to clump them together and repost.
And when I write again about WIN-D, I promise to be breezy.
Your "lost bet" story is both funny and serious.
And, BTW, Clare, FGWP?
WTF?
joshuae, wut up!
dag, it's almost like old times in here. just need joshua not e and princess lena.
lunch?
No way! Really, is that you, Stefano?
Really?
FGWP = "Free Gift With Purchase." My shopoholic friend used to get those cheesey lipsticks from her mother in law, who'd received them as FBWPs when the m-i-l purchased purfume.
But on to the more important stuff: While foolish consistency may be the hobgoblin of little minds, I say that those who pick on immutable characteristics (such as baptismally-given names) in the middle of a debate have already lost. I mean really, JOSHUAE, name-calling when you're trying to win an argument? [And, BTW, what is that weird Caesar thing going on at the end of your name?]
The Source of All Wisdom (the OED) says: that an acronym is ?a word formed from the initial letters of other words (e.g. LASER, AIDS).? The etymology is: from Greek akron meaning ?end, tip? and onoma ?name.?
Source: askoxford.com/concise_oed/acronym?view=uk
So, look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls.
There is a difference between "abbreviation" and "acronym." Just because the incorrect form is heavily used doesn't mean it's right. (How many people use "differential" when they really mean "difference"?) There's too much tyranny by the morons in this country.
As far as I can know, from having heard the latest editor being interviewed, the OED prides itself on being descriptive, not prescriptive. In my experience, they put an entry in for anything as long as that usage once appeared in some obscure 17th c. journal, of which like five copies still exist.
Like that other Bible, the OED can be invoked to prove either side of vitually any argument. So you should own at least one copy of both if you want to play in this room.
Timmmmay, you know better...it is Mistress Lena. Now bow down and kiss my converse.
That Stefano comment was pretty funny. I could hear him saying that... "Lunch?" office by office, with his hands homosexually draped in his pockets. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Dickhead.
Now back to the whole "acronym" thing. Clare, Clare Clare. Did you or did you not just try to argue with me and then post my definition of acronym?
Here, Clare, now look up "pedantic."
How about Meriam Websters?
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=acronym
Note the inclusion of "FBI":
acronym
One entry found for acronym.
Main Entry: ac·ro·nym
Pronunciation: 'a-kr&-"nim
Function: noun
Etymology: acr- + -onym
: a word (as NATO, radar, or snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term; also : an abbreviation (as FBI) formed from initial letters
Thus, there appears to be some overlap of abbreviations and acronyms. Squares are rectangles.
Here's an even better definition:
http://josheisenberg.com/definition_acronym.html
http://josheisenberg.com/definition_acronym.html
definition_acronym.html
It won't finish my freaking link!
Re: finishing links . . .
I have found that the edit window used when posting comments does weird things sometimes, in that the line-wrapping might mess up a relatively wrong link. I haven't figured out the complete ruleset, but I have had to fight with it.
But anyone who can't figure out how to cut and paste a URL because it doesn't present as a clickable link probably doesn't deserve to visit JoshuE's web site, anyway.
And regarding that definition on your site, J., typing "f*ck" instead of "fuck" is, IMHO, for namby-pambies like the MSM. I mean, who doesn't know what "f*ck" stands for? Most people know of the seven deadly words before they learn how to read.
And to further indicate that there's no escaping a holy war once it gets going, I was looking for something completely unrelated yesterday, and came across a multi-page rant on the acronymonious debate. Seems this guy (sorry no link, I forgot to bookmark the page) not only has way strong feelings on abbr v. acro, but also goes on at considerable length about "initialisations."
Well, the spelling of that word indicates that he's a Brit, so I dare not argue with him.
your shortcut works in XP. thanks from a recent returnee to the land of PCs (though they'll pry my Mac from my cold dead hands) --
Thanks for letting me/us know, rmg.
May your time back in the PC world be not too unpleasant.
Post a Comment