Disable Dashboard on Start Up in Spring Tool Suite

If you are a new user to the Eclipse based IDE Spring Tool Suite (STS). If like me, you are getting annoyed when the Dashboard opens up every time the application is started, this is how you can disable it.

After some research and some searching through the preferences, I finally found out how to get it done on the latest version of STS (3.4.0 the one I am using now). Apparently they moved this around from previous versions.

In the STS application, navigate to "Window -> Preferences", and start typing "Dash" inside the text box located at the top left. Click on the "Dashboard" item and uncheck the "Show DashBoard On Startup" item on the right. Click "Apply" and "OK".

You can look at the above image to see how the preference screen for this will look like. Once done, the DashBoard should be gone for ever, unless you want it back in which case you can bring it back by checking the same option in the Preference.

Android apps usage tips

After using the gingerbread flavor of the android is on my phone for the past few months, I am embarrassed to admit that I as able to figure out a few things only recently.
firstly most applications have a facility to respond to the "search" hard button on the phone. for example the built-in "messaging " application. I thought it would be a cool idea to search among your message inbox for finding something . and Viola, it is already there. many other applications have also implemented the search functionality from the search key.
secondly the "menu " button for the built-in apps was also overlooked. it took me 4 months to figure out I could enable "delivery reports " for the messages that I send. lot of customizations were tucked away in the menu.
so my tip - check out the search and menu buttons on your android device for each apparently.

Update: Composed on Blogger App for Android.