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- Cool Websites and Tools [July 17]
- Make The Perfect Screencast With These 6 Great Tips
- 5 Ways To Do A Site-Specific Search Using Search Engines
- Ophcrack – A Password Hack Tool to Crack Almost Any Windows Password
- How to Use Twitter With Multiple Accounts With Seesmic Desktop
- Create a Watermark with WaterMarkLib To Prevent Photos From Being Stolen [Windows]
| Cool Websites and Tools [July 17] Posted: 17 Jul 2009 04:00 PM PDT
(1) CuteAsHell – Social networking site for pet lovers where members can create profiles for their pets (dogs, cats, fish, birds and even reptiles) with photos, ask pet-related questions, find pet services (e.g. breeders, veterinarians, pet groomers) and get quality product recommendations from fellow pet owners. Read more: CuteAsHell: Social Networking For Your Pets (2) ImageMerger – Online application that allow users to add one image on top of another. This can come in very handy if you want to quickly add image watermarks to one of your photos. Read more: ImageMerger: Merge Images Online (3) MyBoneYard - If you care about the environment but are too lazy to look for the nearest recycling center, now you can recycle old electronics in a responsible and eco-friendly way without leaving your couch at MyBoneYard.com, either for free or for a reward. Read more: MyBoneYard: Recycle Your Old Electronics & Get Rewards (4) ScreenJelly - Neat web utility that provides you with a quick and hassle free way to capture your screen activity on video and then share it with others via Twitter or email. There is no installation or sign up required, just go to the site and click "Record" button to start recording. When done recording, just choose how you want to share the video and spread it online. Read more: ScreenJelly: Capture Your Screen On Video & Share (5) TodaysFrontPages - Cool resource for news junkies that displays nearly 800 daily newspaper front pages published in 77 different countries. All pages are presented in their original, unedited form. Read more: TodaysFrontPages: See Front Pages Of Newspapers Around The World
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed. Related posts
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| Make The Perfect Screencast With These 6 Great Tips Posted: 17 Jul 2009 02:00 PM PDT
If you browse through sites such as YouTube, Vimeo and Blip.tv, you will see that there are lots of video tutorials but with very few of them clear to view and understand. There are many things that are needed to create a great video tutorial and in this article, I will try my best to teach you some techniques I have learned along the way. The Right AppsTo start creating a screencast, the you will need to first of all download an application that will allow you to record your screen. For Mac OS X, there are a few applications such as iShowU, ScreenFlow and Screenium. You can try out these apps by downloading them from their website. However, to be able to use the full functionality, you will have to purchase a license. If you are a Windows user then I recommend using Camtasia Studio because it has a lot of great features. Camtasia Studio for Windows is very similar to ScreenFlow for Mac OS X. A free alternative for both Windows and Mac OS X is Jing. Jing is a screen capture tool from the creators of Camtasia Studio but has been created specifically for screencasts. Although the application can be used without any real limits, the only downside is that the limit on a single recording is five minutes. For Linux users, there is an open source project on Sourceforge called Xvidcap. Set The Right ResolutionThe first thing to do when creating a screencast for the online audience is to set your screen resolution to the lowest possible setting.
The reason why we do this is so that we can record as much of the screen without losing too much quality when we compress the screencast after we have finished recording. Also, when viewers on video sharing websites view it at full screen mode then the screencast dimensions will most likely be smaller than their resolution. This means that they will be able to see everything clearly including the text. The Right GearWhen creating a screencast, it is very important that viewers can understand what you are saying so that they can easily follow what you are trying to teach or show. For this reason, it is not recommended that you use the microphone that is built into your laptop because there is a chance that they will hear the fan and you may sound distant and unclear. If you are going to create a screencast then invest in a standalone microphone or a headset. The headset that I use is the Logitech ClearChat Pro headset and it works great.
The Right WordsIf you are doing a screencast for a video tutorial on how to create a script in PHP, for example; it is a good idea to perform a test run, create the script and think about what you would say at certain steps and making notes so that you can best describe what you are trying to get across. If you are creating a long screencast,it is better to pause the recording a take a break for a few minutes because if you make a mistake that you can’t resolve when recording the screencast, you can start again from the recording before you paused. If you are showing off a new tool to perform a certain task, then take some time to introduce the tool and the link to download it so that you do not cause confusion. Most probably, your viewers are those who are new to computers and don’t really know the means to search for the tool you are showcasing. When you feel that there is no more that you can explain to the user, end the recording by letting them know the ways that they can contact you if they need help. List your Twitter username or email address. The Right FormatBecause the screen resolution was a very low setting, when it comes to exporting our screencast, keep the dimensions to 100%. The image below shows the settings I use for exporting my screencasts. For a short screencast I did recently, the size of the exported MOV file was 32MB and the duration of the screencast was 7 minutes 30 seconds. That works out to 4.3MB per minute which is relatively low to other compression techniques I have used in the past.
Compressing a file can take some time, depending on how long the screencast is and its dimensions. So go and grab a cup of coffee while you wait for it to finish. The Finishing TouchesWhen the file has been successfully encoded and compressed, I will then open it with QuickTime Player and add a logo at the beginning of the screencast as well as a link to my website so people who stumble upon my videos on video sharing websites know where they can find more of my stuff. Now that you have finished all the recording, editing and exporting, it is now time to upload your screencast to as many video sharing websites as you know. I upload to many video sharing websites because different people use different services so the more video sharing websites you upload your content to, the wider the audience you will reach. If you have a website, then you should also embed it there. When displaying screencasts on my website, the service that I use is Blip.tv because the compression of your screencast when it has been uploaded is very good and hardly any quality is lost. They also have ads within the videos so you can make a little bit of money. It is time to promote your newly created screencast on your website, so tweet about it and ask people to retweet. Add it to StumbleUpon and del.icio.us, use Facebook to promote it and here are 5 more tips on promotion, hope they come in helpful. Don’t forget to add it to tutorial websites if it is relevant to them also. If there is anything else that you would like to know about creating a screencast then please feel free to post a comment below and I shall reply the best I can. Related posts
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| 5 Ways To Do A Site-Specific Search Using Search Engines Posted: 17 Jul 2009 12:00 PM PDT
But in our quest for the right data, how many times have we come across a website which lacks a search engine of its own? There have been sites which I could have loved more but alas for a search box of its own. Then there are sites which do have a search box but you aren't quite getting what you want. So it's worth a second try with some deep digging of your own. So for such crunch times, here are some workarounds to do an internal search on a specific website or blog.
The ol' favorite reminds us the value of memorizing advanced Google search operators. Google indexes most sites on the web and so the 'site:' search query helps to limit your search within a website. For instance, the query antivirus site:makeuseof.com will return results for the keyword antivirus but only from MakeUseof.com. (Their shouldn't be a space between the colon and the domain name).
The site: operator can also be used to restrict searches within one top domain. For instance, keyword site:net or keyword site:edu. This works on Yahoo and Bing too. According to a little poll we had some while back, it is the third most liked Google operator. Most search engines have this feature as an option but you just have to go into the advanced search page. Here's where you get it in these two popular (one upcoming) search engines. For Google
For Yahoo
For Bing
Search Site is an experimental Firefox add-on which makes site-specific searches very easy. The local search can be done either by selecting a word on a webpage and using the right-click context menu (Search site for selection).
Or by clicking the Search Site green icon on the search bar. You can use the search engine of your choice to do the site-specific search.
Also check out the use of Firefox smart keywords mentioned by Ann in her post on 8 Tips to Make Firefox Search Friendly. Though the interface is plain, the Newtechusa.com search interface does the job intended using the Google search engine. Specify the domain URL in the first field and then use the second step to query the specific domain.
Rollyo lets you roll on with your search by providing an easy non-geeky way to create a customized search engines for sites you want – rather than the whole worldwide web. Pick the sites you want to search, and Rollyo creates a custom search engine for it. You can create a search engine for one specific site or a max of 25 sites. You can also browse, use, modify and share Searchrolls (the created search engines) created by the community of users on Rollyo. Any Rollyo Searchroll can be added to Firefox for one click access. For a quick single site setup, you can use the Rollyo Bookmarklet which not only lets you do a local search but also you can add sites to your Searchrolls on the fly.
Kaly's post on creating your own search engines with Rollyo looks into in with more detail. Sometimes we miss the trees because of the forest. A single site in itself instead of the whole wide web could be the source of all our information needs. So, it helps to dig deep into its coffers with specific searches. What do you do if you come across a site which lacks a search box? Do you browse merrily away or you fall back on a utility like Google for advanced searching? Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section! New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too. Related posts
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| Ophcrack – A Password Hack Tool to Crack Almost Any Windows Password Posted: 17 Jul 2009 10:00 AM PDT
In the past, MakeUseOf has published other password-cracking related articles. Those who are interest should check out T.J. Miniday’s 3 Ways to Reset Forgotten Windows Administrator Password. However, there might be circumstances in which you’d need unnoticed access – being able to use the terminal without literally changing the password. OphcrackThat’s where Ophcrack comes in. Ophcrack is one of the more effective password hack tools that runs via Windows, Mac and Linux installations or on a Live CD, and it can be used to crack almost any Windows password.
Rainbow Tables in a NutshellOperation systems don’t store the user passwords in plain text — that’d be highly insecure, and even right out stupid. Instead, they calculate the hashes of the passwords by putting the passwords through a one-way hash function and store those. When one would obtain these hashes, they would still be rather useless; the password needs to be entered, after which the hash needs to be calculated and compared to the stored password hash.
A rainbow table is basically an enormous list of passwords — basically every password a brute force attack would try — with their respective hashes included. Although this table takes a lot of time to generate, it can reduce the cracking of passwords to minutes, or even seconds. Downloadable TablesOphcrack supplies a few of these rainbow tables, free, for your use. They’re included in the Live CD, can automatically be retrieved from the Windows executable, or downloaded from the Ophcrack website. We’ll quickly look over the available tables, and their possibilities. For Windows XP, Ophcrack supplies two alphanumeric tables. With these, you can crack 99.99% of all passwords under 14 characters, consisting of a combination between letters and numbers — abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789. Because the LM hash used by Windows XP is insensitive to capitalization, these hash tables contain 80 billion different hashes, corresponding with 12 septillion possible passwords.
You can choose between the XP free small and the XP free fast tables. These can both be used to crack the same passwords, but because the XP free fast table is twice as large, you can crack them in half the time. The downside of both tables is their unability to crack passwords with special characters — these can only be cracked using the premium XP special tables. For Windows Vista, which abandoned the weak LM hash, and moved on to the stronger NT hash, there are less possibilities. Currently, Ophcrack only gives away a table with dictionary-words and variations (hybrids) for free. If you’re willing to cough up a lot of money (about 99$), they also provide alphanumerical tables – including special characters.
Because the NT hash is subjective to capitalization, and allows a much greater password length (whereas the LM hash simply splits large sequences up in multitudes of smaller strings), these premium rainbow tables can range in size from 8GB to over 130GB. And that’s the essence of it. There’s some more technical information (a real how-to) in the Ophcrack help files (included in the downloads). If you’re shivering in your boots after reading this article and thinking,”Gosh, everyone’s going to know how to hack my password. What shall I do?” Then it may be a good time to create a stronger password. Stefan wrote about 5 free password generators that will help you make nearly unhackable passwords, no matter what password hack tools a hacker tries to use. It’s a good start. So, what do you think? Is Ophcrack really the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, or hardly worth one’s attention? — Let us know your experiences, opinions and questions in the comments section below. Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section! New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too. Related posts
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| How to Use Twitter With Multiple Accounts With Seesmic Desktop Posted: 17 Jul 2009 08:00 AM PDT
The Twitter website is rapidly improving, but there are other applications, both Web-based and desktop-based, that come with more features, more usability, and more fun. TweetDeck is definitely the most popular of these apps, and it’s the one that I’ve bee using for a long time. But not anymore – I’ve officially, once and for all, switched over to Seesmic Desktop. It’s a new product from Seesmic (a company that used to be known for its social video network) that is taking the Twitter world by storm. Seesmic Desktop is a small application that runs on Adobe AIR, the ever-popular runtime environment for apps that could, and often are, Web apps converted to run more conveniently and powerfully on your desktop. It can manage multiple Twitter accounts, plus your Facebook account, all seamlessly within the same window.
Seesmic Desktop, at first glance, looks a lot like TweetDeck (or any of a number of other apps) – it’s got a bunch of columns with all your tweets in them. On the left side of the window is your navigation – one click opens up your Direct Messages, or your Replies, or even the tweets you’ve sent recently. Having these separated makes it easier to find everything directed at you, instead of weeding through the masses of tweets.
That way, instead of having to go through my whole timeline to find the people I’m interested in, I can sort them into their own space. The number of groups you can have is limited only by your imagination (and attention span). Setting up these lists takes a little time, as you have to do it manually, but they all get saved, and can be accessed or edited at any time. There’s also a section for saving searches, if you want to track a particular phrase or topic. Every time someone tweets and matches your search, it shows up whether you’re following them or not. Searches can be overwhelming, but they’re a great way to track what’s happening on Twitter. Seesmic Desktop, feature-wise, is a lot like TweetDeck. TweetDeck without the crashes, the massive resource hog, and with better multi-account management and tons of customization, gets pretty close to Seesmic. But recently, Seesmic Desktop stopped being just Seesmic Desktop, with a Web-based version released. Now, you can get all the great columns and interface points of Seesmic, but on the Web, wherever you have an Internet connection. Even if you don’t have the desktop version, simply logging in to Seesmic through your Twitter account lets you immediately take advantage of the better application.
There’s also an iPhone app coming soon from Seesmic, which will do even more to make your Twitter information and contacts ubiquitously available, all through one application. There’s also the promise of a way to take pictures and videos straight from your webcam, and immediately upload them to the Twitter-sharing service of your choice. Seesmic Desktop is already the best Twitter app I’ve ever used, and it seems to get better and better every week. If you’re following a lot of people, being followed a lot, and want to make the most of life as a Twitter power-user, make the switch to Seesmic. You’ll be glad you did. What’s your Twitter app of choice? Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section! New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/ Related posts
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| Create a Watermark with WaterMarkLib To Prevent Photos From Being Stolen [Windows] Posted: 17 Jul 2009 06:00 AM PDT
Watermarking is the process of adding an identifying tag to your image – it can either be text or an image.WaterMarkLib makes this process easy for you. WaterMarkLib is a small download weighing in at 2.7MB. We have shown you online watermarkers before and Jim has even gone out of his way to show you 4 ways to watermark your images online. This one however, resides on YOUR machine. When you launch the application you will get a screen that looks similar to this. For some reason, it seems to only open in full screen but that aside, this is a great utility and very easy to use. Start by clicking File – Open and open an image. It seems to recognize all the formats I threw at it including: JPG, GIF and PNG.
Let’s start watermarking. You can either hit the Tool menu or there is also an icon on the tool bar that will allow you to add a text or image watermark. We will start by walking you through creating a text watermark.
After you hit the Text Watermark button or icon, you will get a screen that looks like the one below. You get to choose your font, size, opacity, color, drop shadow and even rotation. Opacity simply means the level of transparency i.e. how much of it can been seen through. So by putting the opacity around 20 or 30%, you can still see through your watermark onto your image. Go ahead and add some text and options. Then hit OK.
Then you will see your image with the watermark in the center. You can just grab the text with your mouse and place it where you would like to. I like to put my watermarks in the bottom right hand corner of the image like so:
Next, if you want to save your image, you should setup the output directory – this is so you do not overwrite your original image. After selecting a directory, you can simply hit the Save button and your watermarked image will be saved to your output directory and won’t affect the original image.
Next up, let's take a look at adding an image as a watermark. It is almost the same as adding text – but with image options as you can see in the shot below:
Once your image is on the screen, you can move it with your mouse just like the text.
I could not figure out how to use the batch feature to apply a watermark onto several images at once. The tutorial on their website returned a 404 so if you do figure it out let us know! Do you have another method to create a watermark for your images? Do you or don't you watermark? We would love to hear from you in the comments! Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section! New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too. Related posts
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Over the years 
Life's primary vocation is search… for happiness, for love or for that vital piece of information on the web. Search and search engines are the glue that binds the WWW together. 
There are a lot of different reasons why one would want to use any number of password hack tools to hack a Windows password. Of course, there are the good-hearted reasons, like helping your grandpa because he forgot his password and is locked out of his own computer. Then, there are the more dubious reasons, like spying on your accountant.
I’m a big Twitter fan. In the past, I’ve even figured out 
I have had images stolen from not only my website but from posts I do on various other websites as well. There is one way to make sure that if someone DOES steal your images, you can still get some credit for your hard work. I am talking about software that will create a 
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