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- Cool Websites and Tools [July 19]
- Be An Internet DJ and Mix Your Own Music Online
- Folx – An Automatic Download Manager for Mac
- 3 Funny Flash Games That Make Fun Of The Gaming Industry
- How To Make A Customized Background On MySpace
- 5 HTML Tips to Create a Fast Loading Free Website
| Cool Websites and Tools [July 19] Posted: 19 Jul 2009 04:00 PM PDT
(1) TravelEtiquette - Online destination for travel etiquette tips where you can learn interesting things about different cultures and find out how to behave when visting different countries. It tells you what you need to know when visiting places where customs and traditions are vastly different from the ones you're used to back home. Read more: TravelEtiquette: Travel Etiquette Tips For Worldwide Travel (2) ffonts – Free fonts directory which provides you with an amazing collection of cool text fonts. It enables you to search and browse for a wide range of fonts based on categories and alphabetical listing. You can see details about each font like encoding, version and view the font in upper and lower cases. Read more: ffonts: Free Fonts Directory (3) gdgt – Community-driven, Wikipedia-like site for electronic gadgets. It includes information on more than 8,000 popular gadgets with hundreds of new products added every day. The products on the site are reviewed, rated and edited by only by its users. It is more convenient to get information on any gadget here, in one place, than surfing through different review websites online. Read more: gdgt: Wikipedia For Electronic Gadgets (4) Tripntale – New website which allows travelers to easily showcase and share travel photos, journals, videos and more. It's like a social network for travelers where you can see the places people have visited by going through their pictures, videos, maps and comments. The best part – it offers unlimited storage. Read more: Tripntale: Share Travel Photos, Videos & Journals (5) VirtualMirror - Website which lets you upload the photo of your face and then try different spectacle frames online. The concept is not 100% perfect, but still can help you decide what type of spectacle frames you should be looking for. Read more: VirtualMirror: Try Eyeglass Frames Online
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. 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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| Be An Internet DJ and Mix Your Own Music Online Posted: 19 Jul 2009 12:00 PM PDT
Unfortunately, mixing audio not only entails picking the tracks to mix, but also downloading beats, sound effects, and an audio mixing program. Sometimes, doing all that is worth it, but if you’re looking for something simpler, like an online audio editor already packaged with beats to mix, then give the following websites a shot. DubStep StudioPreviously known as Electro-House Blender, DubStep Studio’s interface is beautiful and extremely simple, and it includes a decently sized sound library for your mixing pleasure.
To add a track to a song, simply click the "Add Sounds" button, and a panel will pop up that splits the available sounds into further categories, such as "Keyboard" or "Sound Effect." The tracks are not named according to how they sound, and there is no search box, so you may need to preview all of the tracks before you find the right one. Adding the track to the song is as simple as clicking the plus sign next to its name, and then clicking the beats in which you want the it to be heard. From the workspace, you can delete tracks, change the volume of each track, and control whether the track is heard primarily from the left or right speaker.
You can try DubStep Studio to mix your own music without registering, but in order to save to or open files, you must register. Even so, users cannot upload their own music into the mixer, nor can they export the song so it can be accessed offline. Despite these shortcomings, DubStep Studio’s ease of use and polished presentation make it a worthwhile app to check out– at least, for someone who wants to try mixing music without any heavy duty commitment. Jam GlueThough Jam Glue is not the eye candy that DubStep Studio is, its wider range of features outshines DubStep Studio in every aspect. Not only does the search function exist, but it also gives the user the option of searching by the song’s approximate tempo.
Registered users are allowed to either upload a .mp3, .wav, or .wma file, or import audio from an URL, although there is a large statement warning the user not to upload copyrighted material.
The process of editing is virtually the same in both webapps – there is no option to scale the size of the track to inspect the waveform more closely, and Jam Glue’s "snap clips to beat" feature replicates the effect of clicking where youwant your track to go in DubStep Studio. However, Jam Glue has the added functionality of being able to scale the speed of any track and sync the tracks to a user specified beats-per-minute. Jam Glue also allows users to rearrange the order of their tracks, making editing overall a much smoother process than it would have been in DubStep Studio. After you have completed and saved the track ( assuming you are a registered user), Jam Glue gives you the option of downloading the track. However, this option is hidden in the bottom of the mix details page and is only accessible after the song has been "published" to Jam Glue’s database.
After you have tried these two webapps to mix your own music, perhaps you will decide that DJing is indeed your forte. In that case, I would highly recommend Audacity, the tried and true software for editing music, or the previously covered Mixxx. Or, if you’re just looking for a simple editor to make ringtones, check out Zedge or Make Own Ringtone. Both are browser based, although Zedge requires registration before use. Have you tried any of the aforementioned apps? Do you have your own secret weapons, to be deployed when you suddenly decide you really really want to mix music? Lets hear about it in the comments! 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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| Folx – An Automatic Download Manager for Mac Posted: 19 Jul 2009 10:00 AM PDT
I could hear the murmurs among the members of the DD – Downloadaholic D’Anonymous. My heart beats faster. Still I continued, “I tried to stop, believe me I did. And I almost succeeded. You see, I’m crazy about downloading, but I really hate everything I had to go through to download the files.” I paused again and glanced at the group leader. He nodded as a sign for me to continue. I cleared my throat and said, “What I really hate about this whole thing is that I had to manually manage all the downloaded files individually. And if there were hundreds of new files every week…” Several people nodded, understood. “Then why didn’t you stop?” asked the lady with a ponytail on my right. I looked at her and said, “I met Folx Beta.”
An Automatic Download ManagerEven though each and every new modern browser has its own download manager (or plugin), nothing can beat the flexibility of a stand alone application. There are plenty of options for Windows, but for Mac users, Folx might be the best answer to the need for a free stand-alone download manager.
The first thing to do after downloading and installing the app is to go to the adjust some preferences. Go to Preferences (Command + Comma). There are several tabs. We’ll start from General. Here, users can set things like the maximum active task, user agent, and connection type.
Then there’s the Folder tab where users can set the location of the downloaded files.
Unless you connect through proxy server(s), you can skip the Proxy tab and go directly to the next tab. The Scheduler tab would be very useful if you only connect at certain times or want your downloads to be active only at specific hours.
You can use the Speed tab to set different speed limits for individual browsers. To do that, you must set the Speed limit type to “Auto” because the options are greyed out when set at ‘Unlimited’.
From this Preferences window, we can see that there are two future download abilities that are still unavailable in this beta version: Torrent and ed2k.
Do the Download, dude!Now for the fun part: downloading the files. If you set Folx’s preferences to automatically catch the download from your browsers, it will do just that. Another way is to select then drag and drop the link to the dropbox. You can move the location of the dropbox easily by dragging it.
By default, a New Task window will pop out every time a new download about to start. Users can adjust individual settings for each download – including adding tags to the file – from this window.
Everybody knows that tags are an important factor in good file management. It also opens other possibilities in managing the downloaded files, such as assigning Automator Actions to automatically move series of files with the same tags to a certain folder. The New Task window is also the place to set how many segments (threads) of a file to be active at one moment. This option is important because some download servers only allow one active download segment. This window may be deactivated in the preferences For further information on the features, please read the Documentation. Personally, I think this app is a nice free download manager and has the potential to be better. Do you have alternatives to a free stand alone Mac download manager? Or do you prefer to use the built-in (or plugin) download manager in your browser? Share your thoughts below.
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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| 3 Funny Flash Games That Make Fun Of The Gaming Industry Posted: 19 Jul 2009 08:00 AM PDT
Until now, we’ve mostly read about these things on gaming blogs and in magazines, but a new medium is rising. Over the past year, a number of satirical flash games have traveled around the world, from browser to browser. These funny flash games ridicule and take on some of the critiques on the current-day gaming industry. We’ve listed the three best and most famous of these games for you, and the messages they are trying to tell. You Have To Burn The Rope (YHTBTR)This game has made its parade around the internet, and was instantly loved by nearly anyone who played it. The concept isn’t too complicated — you have to burn the rope. You play the role of a Kirby-like creature, equipped with an infinite number of axes. At the end of the first (and last) tunnel, there’s a boss to be fought – The Grinning Colossus. Your axes are futile against this mighty beast, you’ll have to burn the rope.
If you can’t figure it out, there’s a walkthrough on YouTube here. The MessageYou get told everything from the start of the game. In fact, the game is even titled to spoil the solution. Why? It’s a pretty obvious satire — games are getting too damn easy. There were days that not everyone finished every game. To reach the end would be a nearly unreachable goal in the old days, or a huge victory if you did. But although games have gotten infinitely cheaper these past decades (they have, really!), people neglect to buy something they can’t finish. They feel cheated. As a result – with a few exceptions of course – gameplay has gotten increasingly easier. Sure, a ‘veteran’ mode is often included, but most of the time that just means it’s rigged with bugs or has impossible settings. It’s like playing the same game of tic-tac-toe while someone keeps hitting you over the head with a baseball bat. Achievement UnlockedTry to unlock all achievements in Achievement Unlocked. Have you used the arrow keys yet? Try jumping up and down. Woah, you’re the best! Unlock all 100 achievements and show the world who’s the (wo)man!
The game’s concept? Story? — Why, you’re earning achievements, aren’t you? Have fun! The MessageThis funny flash game, released a few months after YHTBTR, continued the satirical approach of the gaming industry. By pushing it into excess, Achievement Unlocked ridicules the increasing focus on Achievements and Trophies in games these days. Although most aren’t as extreme as this game (you can unlock about fourty achievements in the first twenty seconds, by simply jumping up and down and exploring the room) achievements are taking on a bigger role in gaming every day. I’ll be the last to say they aren’t fun (I’ve quite fervently hunted for them in a few games), but only as peripherals. Achievements should never – and let that be cast in stone – shove aside, or even worse, replace the gameplay of a game. UPGRADE COMPLETE!Nephew of Achievement Unlocked, UPGRADE COMPLETE carries on the flag of cynicism attacks. The only problem — the game’s so enormously fun that you’d almost start doubting the point it tries to make. In this game, it’s all about upgrading. Be sure to upgrade your preloader and menu buttons if you want to play, perhaps you’ll want to upgrade your music as well. Fight off hordes of enemies in the arcade shooter, and upgrade your plane for the coming waves.
This game looks pretty ugly when you start playing. You might want to upgrade your graphics as well. The MessageIf this game weren’t so darn fun, it would make its point perfectly. All this upgrading is simply ridiculous. Like Achievement Unlocked, it wags its finger at a peripheral system that’s playing an increasingly bigger role in games. More noticeable than achievement problems, there are plenty of games out there with big free-roaming worlds and a great upgrading system. Only, in the process, they kind of forgot the concept, story and – quite simply – the rest of the gameplay. The game developer puts it quite simply, once you finish the game: “Maybe next time you're playing a game you'll rate it more on how much fun you're having and less on how complex the upgrade system is” Of course, if you disagree, you can upgrade to a different final screen, telling you quite cynically how awesome you are for obtaining all the upgrades. It’s a recent thing, these funny flash game critiques, but so far they’ve had a pretty big following. What do you think about the games — or about the points they’re making? Tell us why you agree or disagree in the comments section below. Alright, maybe after you’re done with making fun of present-day gaming, you’d like to play some “real” games: Related posts
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| How To Make A Customized Background On MySpace Posted: 19 Jul 2009 06:00 AM PDT
Have you ever asked yourself, “How do I make a background on MySpace?” Well, today I'll show you how to find, create, and use a custom background on your MySpace profile. Your source image could be from your personal photo collection or some wallpaper made available for free download from a site like Customize.org, one of my favorite sites, Digital Blasphemy, or Google's Image Search (we suggest using the Advanced Search to narrow it down to non-commercial-licensed content). When selecting your image, keep your audience in mind. Does the image provide a pleasing pattern or illustrate a great moment? Will it distract from your profile's content? Is it age-appropriate, considering your friends? These are all things to consider, as well as image size. If your image is larger than, say 1024 pixels in length, we suggest using a tool like Resizr or any image resizer to shrink the image down.
Your next step varies based on what type of MySpace profile you're using. There are two versions of your MySpace profile. If you're a long-time user and haven't switched, then you're using Profile 1.0. Here's how to determine what type of profile you're using. When you login, click the "Edit Profile" link next to your MySpace URL. Then, select "Customize Profile." On the next screen, your profile type will be displayed at the very top of the page. If you're using "Profile 1.0", follow these directions: Hit your "back" button to go back to the original profile editor. Use this background generator with your image's URL to create the HTML code, then copy that code into the profile editor's "About Me" box. Save your changes and check your profile. If you’ve upgraded your profile to "2.0", the process is easier. First, select your basic theme. If you have a dark image like mine, for example, it's important to pick a dark theme to start with. In your customize menu, click Advanced Edit, then Background, and then paste your image's URL into the URL field. Publish your changes and check your profile.
If everything worked, you'll have a custom background for your MySpace page to show off to your friends (my profile is here). Feel free to share in the comments about any profile-customization tips you may have. There's more MySpacey goodness on MUO here. 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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| 5 HTML Tips to Create a Fast Loading Free Website Posted: 19 Jul 2009 03:05 AM PDT
Finally, I gave up web design and development when quality of content started to get pushed to the side by quantity of content. Flash sites, lots of images, pop-ups, pop-unders, sliders, etc. Trust your quality content and you don’t need this fluff. Trust your content and you can make your website blazingly fast. With a website that is hosted on a free service, faster is definitely better. Why? Because ‘free’ tends to attract a lot of people and the server has to dish out your page plus thousands of other peoples’ pages that aren’t optimized. It’s like trying to pass a convoy of Kenworths pullin’ logs with your Jimmy haulin’ hogs. But if you have a small Porsche, that gets a lot easier to do. Here are some tips to trim the fat, in no particular order. 1. Use Tables SparinglyTables are a catch-22. In the beginning, they were used to lay out design as well as put content into table format. As the design layouts got more complex, the tables got bigger and nested deeper, and that always means a slow down on load time. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) came along and really helped the problem of using tables for layout. Unfortunately, the browser makers couldn’t seem to wrap their heads around the idea of standards – and still can’t. What looked great in CSS in Firefox looked like a dog’s breakfast in IE and possibly didn’t even render in Safari. Don’t get me started on IE5 on a Mac. I’m still in therapy over that. Please only use tables to layout content that must be in a tabular format – like a price list or hockey stats. That reduces the number of tables, and depth of nesting, which means speedier load times. Learning CSS will make a big difference, if you must have a fancy layout. 2. Use HTML to Create ColourYep, I’m Canadian, so it is colour with a ‘u’ to me. I know HTML is America-centric so the attribute is ‘color’. Learn your hexidecimal color codes and use them to to liven up content instead of images. Try adding the color attribute to your HTML elements to spice it up. This works especially well in tables, or the body tag, like such: <body bgcolor=”#FF00FF”> If you were a browser, would you be faster at loading a simple 7 characters of #FF00FF or a 10×10 pixel image of the colour fuschia a few thousand times? That’s a rhetorical question, you in the back row. Put your hand down. 3. Link To Scripts/Style SheetsIf you use a certain JavaScript (JS) or CSS repeatedly throughout your website, think about creating their own file and calling it, instead of putting it on every page. Since a browser tends to cache a file and call that file first before checking with the server, your browser will already have that script or CSS ready to use. That means less HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) calls which means a faster loading page. How to Call an External JavaScript: <!– Why did I put those comment tags around the call for the JavaScript? Because not every browser is set to read scripts. Adding the comment tags makes the browsers with scripting disabled just skip over it, instead of giving annoying error messages. How to Call an External Cascading Style Sheet: <link href=”my_style_sheet.css” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css”> It’s that simple. The attribute href is where you set the location of your style sheet. The rest of the attributes tell the browser what that file is, so it knows what to do with it. Some developers may use the @import method to call a stylesheet. In Internet Explorer, this is like having your <link> tag at the bottom of your file, causing it to load the whole page and THEN render the styles on it. Not good. 4. Combine Your Commonly Used Scripts in One FileMany web developers will use the same scripts over and over again. Perhaps there’s a clock script and a calendar script and maybe some sort of special effect script that they’ll use on every page. Instead of having 3 separate files, with 3 separate HTTP calls, put the scripts in one file and call it once. That cuts your HTTP calls by 66% and it gets cached as well. You speed demon, you! Before you raise your hand again, yes, you can do the same thing with CSS files. 5. Do Not Use HTML to Change the Size of Your ImagesIf you want to use an image that is 1000×1000 pixels on your web page, but you want it to be only 250×250 pixels, change it in an image editor. Some people will ’shrink’ the image using HTML like such: <img src=”BigPicture.jpg” height=”250″ width=”250″> If that 1000×1000 pixel image is 2 MB in file size, resizing it with HTML doesn’t make the file size any smaller! In fact it may take longer to load, because now the browser has to put 10 pounds of poop in a 2 pound bag, so to speak. Not an easy task. Hopefully these tips will help you. Give me a shoutback in the comments if you use them or have some other HTML optimizing ideas to share. <link href=”myCSS.css” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css”> 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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It happens to the best of us: you’re clicking on random 
“Hi, my name’s J and I’m a Downloadaholic.” I took a deep breath, tried to avoid those sympathetic eyes, and continued hesitantly, “I can’t let a single day pass by without clicking on those tempting download buttons. I could spend hours just staring at the download progress bars.”
The gaming industry constantly changes. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse.
We could sit around all day and debate about which of the popular 
My HyperText Markup Language (HTML) skills are rusty for certain, but perhaps that qualifies me for this article. Back in the day when Friends was still on TV and AOL was sending out free coasters and mini-frisbees daily, I was creating websites to load on dial-up modems. As time went on, I had the nerve to think that there are plenty of people still out there with non-broadband (dial-up) connections and continued to design web sites based on that.| You are subscribed to email updates from MakeUseOf.com To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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